Mother knew? I shrugged and hugged myself. ‘What could you not do? Something your brother did? I don’t understand.’
She waved her fat hand. ‘It is simple. There is more than the call. There is the key we have to … turn. Patrick called it “the Unthinkable Act.” And it is, to an ordinary human. It’s about blood,’ she told me softly.
‘Blood?’ I asked with a voice that should have left her no doubts about the fact I thought she was mad as hell.
‘Blood. Blood is the key. Blood connects the people, the races, the gods and the worlds together over distances and time.’
‘You don’t mean to say we are some kind of bloodsuckers? Grandmother!’
She looked confused. ‘We are, in a way. The old stories are but echoes. All of them get their fiber from the legends. Echoes are curious things, Shannon, for an echo to be heard, someone must have shouted a long time ago. This is not a story of bloodsuckers, but our family’s story. I once saw this entire thing take place. I really did. I told you. It is no unproven theory, but a solid fact. I was there when it was opened.’
‘A gate?’ I half-smiled at her, my head throbbing. ‘It’s a wonderful story. But an unlikely one.’
‘Yes, a gate. My brother went through it. Patrick thought I would go as well for he was still young and thought he might make more children to take his burden and priesthood. But I could not. I stayed. He died a year later.’
‘You had a brother? Michael?’
‘Yes, Michael. He was a sweet boy, but he had it bad in here. He had so many problems it was hard to fathom, Shannon. Much more severe than yours. When things got bad, he nearly killed people, especially when he grew older. So, Grandpa did the deed, and Michael followed his instructions and … left.’
‘Where is he now?’ I asked, feeling uneasy. She seemed strange and perhaps dangerous and somehow she was not totally present.
‘He is gone, Shannon,’ she said, wiping a tear. ‘I was afraid, Shannon. What lies on the other side? I know not. But I saw and felt the wonder while he left, as I described. No matter what awaits there, dying slowly here might not … might not … ’ She hesitated and sobbed.
‘What?’ I said, grasping her hand. ‘Grandmother. I do not believe you.’
She pulled me to her. ‘What did you see in the mirror?’
‘Nothing,’ I whispered.
‘You saw a monster. A creature of alien lands, terrible and familiar at the same time, but certainly it is not from here, Shannon. It had small, beady eyes, a mouth to devour a baby whole. It is the thing that always answered the summoning, every second year. And you belong to her Dark Levy. It’s an old name; none know who named us thus. The night Michael went, I saw this thing in the very same mirror you did, for we had called them. They sense you, out there. They call back for you. We must beg for them to come. And I think you should be gone, Shannon. You will die of misery and pain if you are not released. Even if you are not as ruthless as she is.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘That you could possibly leave this place, Shannon. Something is grasping at you like it was for me. It is inhuman. Is it evil? I know not,’ she whispered. ‘But you have a choice. And you have a duty.’
‘How would I leave? If I believed you, that is. Blood?’
She took a deep breath. ‘You will see. One is enough, so Patrick said. There is no need for more than one. And she is certainly capable of doing the deed. I could not, not ever.’
‘More than one what?’
She smiled wistfully. ‘You two are old enough. I told her about this as well and did she ever surprise me. She will be as Michael was and your Great Grandfather. As ruthless. She will show you how. You will be surprised. Don’t be afraid. Don’t worry about your parents. Bridget knows about this, of course. She was spared the curse.’
‘Follow her?’ I asked her mystified. ‘Lonely?’
‘Dana,’ she whispered, her face wrinkled with worry, then sorrow. ‘I will miss you.’
‘Dana?’ I sputtered and nearly screamed. ‘What does she have to do with this?’
‘You love her,’ she stated.
‘Yes. Of course I do. But … ’
‘But eventually, you have to find your own way. You might, yet. But she will be there and you have to remember, Shannon, that she cannot protect you forever. She has her own fears, and she is reckless as she tries to find happiness. She will change, I think. She will think you weak. Find your own way. Love her, but not without a care for your own soul. She found her real self this night, perhaps you shall as well and both will be different and at peace, in the end.’
‘She doesn’t have this!’
She shook her head with misery. ‘She is like you. She suffers as much as you do, keeping in control, every day and night, outwardly elegant and happy but not so inside. She too cries in the dark, just like you do Shannon, for she hears the willow voice of the power calling for her. She is very, very persistent and strong, disciplined and logical, I think more than most, but I think you will find your strength at some point, as well. She went up the hill this night, for she did what you did and saw what you saw in the mirror, and I spoke with her. And she is more, much more practical than you are. Yet, no matter what she does, always remember there is a spark of light in her as well. She did not wish you to know these secrets. She tried to stop me from telling you. But she could not. Now you have to go.’ Her eyes were haunted.
‘She left without me? It cannot be, she is …’
‘Not happy, she is miserable,’ she told me brusquely. ‘She warned you that she will go. She thinks you won’t have the strength to follow, and she is going without you for she cannot bear to stay. I think you can do it. Do it rather than die here. Your duty is to make sure you find a life for yourself. Your mother will understand. She is my daughter. Your father won’t. They will miss you.’
I shook my shoulders to relieve the ache. ‘But should not one of us stay, like it was with you and Michael? If we both go … Grandma. This is so mad.’
‘There is Rose,’ she said softly. ‘She has this.’
‘No!’
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘For her, go. Don’t go for Dana. Go for yourself and poor little Rose. Find happiness, Shannon, no matter how weird it might be. And your duty, love is to keep Rose safe. If it is a happy place, call her one day. If not, make sure she stays here. That is your duty.’ She got up and walked away. I sat there and watched her go, and she made no sound as she walked through the bushes. Then I got up and hiked to the road, one that would take me much farther than I ever hoped.
CHAPTER 4
The trip to the hill took much longer than I remembered, and my feet were hurting. My skirt was moist from sitting on the ground, and I shivered with cold and fatigue as I made my way forward, begging I would not run into any people who were returning home from a local pub. I felt nauseous. I was tired and hungry. I shook my head as I thought about Grandmother. She had seen what I had seen? A creature in the mirror? Her words of the strange power and the gods were haunting. They were hammering at me.
And Dana. She was going without me?
More, she claimed Dana was suffering from the same malady I was. For some reason, that made me happier. She had pains, she was depressed, and she was tormented? Like I was? It was never evident in her, not in the least, but she was always better than I was, in most anything. Perhaps also in hiding the pain and confusion? Perhaps, just perhaps she was as unhappy behind all the masks she put up for her friends and family. Grandmother claimed she was faking.
No.
She must be wrong. It was not possible. I shook my head. I would go up the hill to see what she had been talking about. It was a crazy damned idea, I decided and I cursed myself, stopping in my tracks.
I should go back.
Yes. Dana was asleep in the house. Surely she was. I would speak to Mother about Grandma in the morning, for Elder Shannon would need help. She was going crazy, surely. She could move in with us. I glanced up to the h
ill that was bathed in moonlight. Nothing. I could hear the sea hammering the faraway rocks and shuddered in indecision. I turned to go home. Then, I caught movement. Birds were flying around there on the hill, disturbed by something. My foot took a step forward. Then another. Towards the hill, not the house. It was not all fables, was it not, what she had said, what her family spoke around the fires? My family, I reminded myself.
I had seen a thing in the mirror.
I had.
It scared me to death. However, she had seen it as well. So she claimed. Moreover, I had made a call for the gods as well, had I not? Had Dana? Grandma said she had. And one day, poor Rose would suffer like we did. No, I had to go up to see if Dana was there, indeed. What if she was up there? And what was that about a deed Grandma could not perform, not before and not now, but Dana could? Blood? Blood was the key. I took a painful breath and ran on the slippery road, and soon my thighs were fatigued. If she were up there, I would get her, whip her shapely ass raw if she resisted, and I would get her home, no matter what happened. I doubt she would love me after, but she had no business walking around the silent, dark land alone, no matter if she was the golden girl of the family. Damn her. Anything could happen out there. There were soldiers in the village and most were thieves. And rapists.
I looked at the desolate hillsides and giggled. No. They were all passed out. She might slip in some deer shit, maybe.
I sobered as I arrived at the track leading up the hill. I cursed bitterly and headed up there, happy I had slept with my clothes on. It was chilly, nonetheless without my jacket and scarf. The mud was worse with the moist dew of the night covering it. It was slippery, squishy, and soft under my shoes, and I groaned as some wet, freezing cold muck made its way to my socks. Then, I despaired once or twice, unsure of the direction. The road was a joke at best, but the sounds of crashing waves kept me going. After what seemed like ages, I went through a copse of light woods, past a somewhat familiar mossy boulder, and stopped, for I was there.
Dana was not in her bed. She was there.
And she was not alone. Ferdan was standing by her, indecisive, fidgeting.
Dana had indeed made the call as well, and none of it was fables. She was sobbing on the field of grass; by the ancient stone we had seen that afternoon. She was hugging her shaking knees fiercely. Her dark hair was swathed in shadows, and she was twisted on her side, her frame brutally raked with harsh sobs. She was going up and down, up and down, like something was kicking her. Suddenly, she was reaching forward, trying to grasp something I could not see. Her hands twitched as she pulled herself to a seated position, and I saw her face, and my heart stopped. It was horribly distorted. She was croaking, her jaw apparently dislocated, the mouth was huge and yawning, her eyes beady and small as she was trying to speak, gibberish really, like a wind blowing through a dark tunnel. Her eyes betrayed terror. She was hollering in pain, in stabbing pain. I felt pain growing in my lobes as I stared at her in horror.
Ferdan went kneeling next to her, cursing softly.
‘I thought you were smarter than your sister, lass. Much more like your sick grandmother, aye? Trying to avoid these things. I told you all the druids died, but it seems you learned different, eh? You should not have come here, no. I’m happy you sent for me. I came just in time, aye?’
‘Help me,’ the echoing, hollow voice whispered.
Ferdan kneeled before her, grasping at her. ‘You have to bear it. I will take you home, and you will bear the pain. Do not heed them. No. You cannot reach them unless you do ungodly deeds, anyway.’
‘Ungodly …’ she was whispering with a mad, thin voice, her huge mouth stretched wide.
‘You are not like that, no, you are not,’ he said brusquely. ‘Your grandmother is not like that either, and I think she wants you to go home, so she does. I will help you.’ He grasped her shoulders and tried to lift her. ‘I helped her once or twice with this thing. Calm, calm, lass. I …’
With that, I found out why Grandmother had thought Dana was ruthless. She had known Dana as she is, not the perfect young woman with a carefree giggle, but she had seen glimpses of her soul, seeing her own troubled brother in her.
They had killed a man on the hill the day Michael disappeared.
And so would Dana.
Blood was the key, she wanted to escape, and behind her happy smile there was a tortured girl screaming for a release. Dana’s hand was shaking as she looked up to Ferdan. She hesitated as she massaged her head, the pain in hers similar to what mine had been when I woke up, but she was indeed capable of a murder. Her impossibly open mouth breathed a sigh of despair, her eyes hardened from small points into fiery coals. Her hand flashed forward, a bloody kitchen knife sharp as the light of the sun pushing forward as Ferdan gasped and tried to pull away. He could not, being old and slow and so the blade was entwined in his belly, sticking out weirdly from his fat mass, and his face betrayed shock. He screamed like a child, and so did Dana, as she fell forward. She was sobbing in fear and rage, but her face was no longer her own, but twisted in a sinister grimace, feral and mad, and whatever creature was calling her, it was not a creature I was willing to meet. I could understand why Grandma had forgone the trip.
I shook with fear as I looked at the perfect sister I had known all my life. She did not seem familiar, no, squatting over the dying man, her face distorted and dangerous. Her skirt was bloody, her shawl ripped.
Ferdan cried as he tried to push away the squirming, slavering Dana, who managed to grasp the blade, and then she wrenched it sideward, opening up a terrible wound with a shaking hand. Ferdan howled and begged for mercy, Dana answered weakly, unintelligibly, shaking over him on her knees, her hands letting go of the blade’s handle. I shuddered as I went forward, grabbing a thick stick from the mud, not knowing where I found the strength to do so. ‘Dana?’ I said softly. Her face turned towards me over her shoulder, and she looked like a naughty child caught pinching a biscuit. The creature disappeared from her face. The evil mouth closed with a clacking sound of teeth banging together and revealed the scared face of a girl I knew.
I trembled in fear; so did she.
‘Shannon,’ she said with her own voice, frightened, touching her jaw and face as if disbelieving she was back to normal. ‘Stay back,’ she continued, with a rasping, suffering voice.
‘You murdered him,’ I stated while staring at her in disbelief, my voice breaking. ‘Or is he still alive? He is, isn’t he?’
‘It is the only way, you see,’ Dana blurted, speaking quickly, with a quivering voice. Her eyes were deep, bottomless with fear. Then, she growled and her voice changed. She was trying to sound arrogant. She was belittling the crime. ‘I did it. For a purpose. All these years of acting, Shann. You needed me like a puppy needs a hug. I felt sorry for you, for I knew what you suffered. You were weaker and weaker each year, weaker than I was. I could force myself to excel, even with this … thing. I challenged you, Shann, every day. Tried to make you a fighter. I tried to help you. I wanted you to overcome this darkness, to fight with me and to follow my lead. To find strength somewhere.’ She gagged, nearly throwing up and fought to regain her composure. ‘Instead, you shriveled. You just gave up. Grandmother knew I would be able to do this. She told me how to do this. I did. I killed the dirty son of a bitch. For me. Do you hate me for it? Resent that I did the hard part?’ She shuddered as she stared at Ferdan’s body. ‘I am doomed, no matter what we find out there. But there was no choice. I was losing my fight as well. I hate this place.’
I slumped as I watched her and felt sorry for her. Never once had I suspected she might have needed my help. I took a step forward. ‘Let’s think about what to do. We could hide him. None would think …’
‘No!’ she screamed, and I stopped abruptly. She was breathing harshly, trying to collect herself, and she managed it. ‘I said I did the hard part. I’m proud of that, not afraid. I do not need you covering my tracks. It’s done. Don’t try to fix this. Please do not. I’ve fixed it,
and it is not something we can undo. Ferdan, he was our gift. Mine. I have unwrapped him. The Unthinkable Act, Shannon. I performed it. I won’t go back now.’
‘You are possessed,’ I told her with tears.
She laughed in agreement. ‘Possessed? So are you. We are cursed. From birth, Shann. Nothing happened to me. This was always coming, I was always waiting for this night and you? You were always suffering, withering. I didn’t want you here.’
‘Why?’ I asked while taking a step forward. ‘Because you think I’d fail?’
‘You were always so weak,’ she said without hesitation. ‘Useless? I love you, but …’
I swallowed the sudden rage. ‘Grandmother said this night and the future will change us. Perhaps I shall be strong as well? Stronger?’
‘I …’ she began and sighed. ‘I don’t want to look after you if it’s not so.’ I took another step forward. ‘Stop,’ she growled, and I did, not knowing who she was. She thanked me with a nod. ‘Shannon. Do you want to go? Really?’
‘I don’t know? I doubt it works,’ I said weakly. I was terrified, to be honest. I thought of Rose and losing Dana and nodded.
She looked resigned as she shook her head at me. ‘If we meet out there, you must be prepared, and it’s possible I won't help you out. It’s possible I cannot. Not every time you need it. Understood? I feel I shall have power, and I shall go after power. I’ll do it ruthlessly. I have already begun,’ she said and glanced at Ferdan with a hint of dismay playing on her face. She shook her head again and then, suddenly her face distorted, and she grimaced in stabbing pain. She howled like an enormous wolf, and I took a step back as she scrabbled around Ferdan, crablike. She panted and stopped, her eyes regarding me. ‘If you stay, forgive me,’ she said with a terrible, hollow voice, stopping, holding her hand out weirdly, stretched and strange. ‘If you fail at this task I’m about to perform, try to cope in this shithole. They will tell you are mad, and perhaps you are, but take care, love.’
The Dark Levy: Stories of the Nine Worlds (Ten Tears Chronicles - a dark fantasy action adventure Book 1) Page 5
