The Keeper's Curse

by Diana Harrison

  This led to another disagreement Emmy found impossible to follow, knowing nothing about either orbs. Sol got more and more agitated, but Gabe kept total composure. Breckin in this argument defended Ministrial, but she could see on his face how impressed he was with his best friend.

  Soon Alex and Jade became bored, and began whispering and giggling to each other.

  To avoid the rising nausea at this new development, Emmy ended up looking across the table at Breckin. Unfortunately for her, he was incredibly perceptive and she could only look at him for a few seconds before he felt her eyes on him and stared back at her. He would smile politely at her before she ducked her head. She became better at it, only doing it when he and Sol got into a more heated part of the discussion. Breckin kept his concentration on Sol, but Emmy could see his attention was only half there. Her eyes lingered to the space between Rozelyn and him, where their hands mingled. His fingers traced the lines on her hands, never seeming to get bored of the activity. For a reason Emmy wasn’t ready to admit to herself yet, this irked her.

  Finally the dinner came to a close with Vera’s homemade ice cream. The two guests thanked the Woodworkers, and as they got up to leave, Emmy kicked Jade under the table.

  “Oh yeah,” she said loudly. “Hey, Breckin? Can I talk to you for a second? Alone?”

  That’s odd.

  “Yeah, of course.”

  As he made his way over, the knot tightened in Emmy’s stomach until she was worried it would never come undone. What was wrong with her?

  “Hey, can you just ask him yourself?” Emmy whispered to Jade.

  “This was your idea,” Jade responded, grabbing Emmy by the arm with strapper strength and dragged her to and up the stairs, Breckin in tow. Questions were flitting through his head.

  They stopped in the hall, out of earshot from anyone downstairs. The two girls looked at each other, and suddenly all their preparation on how this conversation would go flew out the window.

  “So, um ...” Jade began. “Okay, here’s the thing – we’ve got this problem. The rookie here,” Jade threw an arm around Emmy, “needs some help. Nobody is willing to give her that help. Unfortunately for us, this help isn’t really available to the general public.”

  Breckin’s eyebrows flew up. “And there something I can do?”

  “Yes, as a matter of fact!” Jade said, too cheerfully. “You see, this help she needs, is in a restricted area.” This was the hard part. Jade took a deep breath. “We have a plan to get inside the building, but what we need is dignitary identification. You’re the future Eldoir. Do you understand?”

  Breckin looked between the two girls, waiting for the punch line that never came.

  Is she serious?

  “We would just need your citizenship crest for a couple of days,” Jade said.

  I can’t believe Ministrial isn’t helping her. Her life has just been turned upside down for crying out loud. I’m going to have to talk to Circlet. Again. She’s going to hate the sight of my face soon ...

  With only slight hesitation, Breckin reached into his blazer and pulled out his wallet. “You do know that you aren’t going to get very far with just this, right?”

  “We’ve got the rest worked out,” Jade assured him.

  I have a bad feeling about this.

  “They can trace who last entered a secured room by the crest. They’ll think it was me.”

  Jade let out a nervous laugh. “Come on, it’s you. They’ll assume someone stole it.”

  Shaking his head, he handed out the piece of black leather with a golden crest sewn into it.

  “Promise me you won’t get caught,” he said.

  “We’ll be fine, Crawford,” Jade said, accepting the crest. “Don’t you trust me?”

  Absolutely not.

  “Of course I do, how could you say that? Are you sure you don’t just want me to try and get you in?”

  “Unfortunately they won’t let her get on the list without a guardian or counsellor,” Jade said. “You don’t have control over the law, Crawford. Yet.”

  Should I be offering to help them? I don’t like the idea of her going off with just Jade ...

  Before Breckin could consider this thought any more, Emmy interrupted it. She was not going to involve anyone else in this. “Thank you, we really appreciate this. We’ll be careful.”

  He nodded, and Jade suggested they get back downstairs. As a thanks on the way down, Jade punched him in the arm, which he playfully returned.

  Rozelyn was waiting for him at the door. Vera kissed them both on the cheek, telling them to come again soon. As they headed out, Breckin slipped an arm around Rozelyn, pulling her close.

  The knot twisted unpleasantly, and a voice – which was her own for a change – said the craziest thing she had ever heard.

  I hope he’s not in love with her.

  Emmy backed away at her own thought.

  And despite the fact later that night she would be tossing and turning for hours before falling asleep, unable to get that ridiculous too-serious expression and that quirky mouth that made her muscles weaken out of her head, at that moment, her logical voice warned her:

  Don’t even think about it.

  ***

  The day had finally come. Emmy knew it would be impossible to concentrate on her classes that day. Her selfish side found comfort in that she had Jade and Persephone, who were also just as distracted as she was. It must have been visible on her face because at lunch several people asked the three girls what was wrong.

  Her practical classes helped her release of her anxiety, but it started up again right after they were finished. The evening was painful, and finally, she was told to go to bed.

  Since she didn’t have a digital clock, she laid in her bed in the dark, listening to the ticking of the analog clock instead. She rehearsed the plan for what felt like ages, and at long last, the clock struck midnight. A few seconds later she was shaken by Jade.

  Emmy grabbed the knapsack by her bed and tiptoed out of the room with Jade. The girls, with all the stealth they possessed, made their way through the hall, down the stairs to the kitchen, and down the next flight of stairs into the coffeehouse, which was strangely empty. On their way out they grabbed their outerwear, and only when they opened the door did they let out a breath. There, Persephone was waiting for them with a lantern.

  The snowstorm from the previous day had picked up again, as fierce as ever. They had decided not to take a family horse in case anyone saw them. The trek was a miserable one, even for Jade with her thick skin and abnormal body heat. By the time they reached Urquhart they were red, wet, and freezing.

  In one leap Jade jumped over the granite wall, Emmy and Persephone on her tail. Persephone led the way to the front entrance, keys in hand, Emmy behind her, and Jade was last, keeping a lookout for anyone watching them. The key slipped into the lock with a satisfying click, letting the girls inside.

  As strange as it was seeing The Noir Beanery vacant, it was equally eerie being in Urquhart in the dark, with the stuffed animals and war tapestries appearing twice as sinister.

  The girls didn’t say a word as they traveled through the parlour to the office. Emmy pulled out Breckin’s citizenship badge from her bag and slipped it into the circular hole beside the door. The hole contracted to fit the shape, approved it, and the door flung open.

  At the end of the white hall they saw a heavyset door with a plaque that read “Willow Starling” on it.

  Emmy, still with the crest in her hand, pushed it into the proper hole. It read the badge once again without issue, and the door opened for them.

  Emmy couldn’t believe it. They had done it. If they hadn’t been in a hurry, Emmy would have taken the time to break things in Willow’s office, just for payback against Willow’s abandoning her.

  The girls slipped into the room, shutting the door behind them. The room would have been pitch black if it hadn’t been for the labelled flasks which were placed in a wide array of color
s, all of them shining brightly in the dark.

  “They’re drafts and medicines,” Persephone said.

  But that wasn’t what Emmy was staring at. Her eyes had adjusted to the dark, and saw the curtain on the left wall. She strode over to it and pulled it back. The light from the dream downloader blinded her eyes.

  “Whoa,” was all Jade said.

  With all the adrenaline she had left, Emmy made her way over to the downloader, pulling out the paper Willow had written in the palewraith language with her dream on it.

  “I’ll guard the door,” Persephone said. “Hurry up.”

  Hands shaking, Emmy saw the small slot beneath the downloader that was just big enough for a piece of paper to slide through. She pushed it through gently, and it disintegrated in the liquid.

  Emmy took a step back as the palewraiths began to split apart and change shape and color. After a few minutes there was a scene in front of her, like something on a television screen.

  At long last, Emmy could see the whole dream. She was seeing the scene from a high vantage point, clearly not through her own eyes. Willow had been right – she was definitely in an old, stone room, in a castle, perhaps. There were two people below her; a woman with an open book, and a smaller body on the ground, in the middle of a blood-soaked circle. She was too far away to see their faces. Candles encircled the room. The closest thing Emmy could compare it to was some sort of Satanic ritual she had seen in movies. But there was something unpleasantly familiar about this.

  The woman began to chant. The sound that came out was a whispering, and it did not sound human. Emmy recognized it from somewhere. Where had she heard this?

  The whisperings began to get louder and the smaller body on the ground began to squirm.

  “Get closer,” Emmy whispered. “I want to see their faces.”

  Of course it wasn’t something she could control. She was helpless as she watched the woman spitting and snarling her strange words louder and louder, swaying to the rhythm of the words, as the body beside her began to writhe more and more. The child was in pain.

  And then she remembered. Of course, the pain. Her eleventh birthday, sitting in the gravel, hearing those whispers and thrashing.

  Just as she remembered it, the person on the floor began screaming, just like she had.

  “STOP IT,” the child cried. “STOP IT, MOM, STOP IT!”

  Emmy had dropped to the floor, remembering it all. What she was seeing wasn’t her, but the reaction was the same. She remembered this room, but how was that possible?

  The images began flashing through her own brain at the same time as the downloader showed it.

  She felt someone touch her, kneeling beside her, just like Jesse had that day.

  “Emmy? Emmy, are you alright?” Jade cried.

  And then the person’s pain peaked, just as hers had, and there was a flash of his face, the body on the floor, and her world imploded. The face was younger, rounder with baby fat, but she knew that face anywhere.

  The body on the floor was a twelve-year-old Breckin.

  Chapter 14

  Attack

  “Oh, hell,” Persephone said. While Jade cradled Emmy’s head, Persephone didn’t show any concern at all. Just horror. “No. No, it’s impossible, it can’t be you.”

  Emmy scarcely heard her. That thin, wide-eyed face. She had been dreaming about that face for years.

  “I don’t understand,” Emmy cried. “What did that mean?” The dream had ended and had begun playing itself again.

  Persephone continued to stare at her like she was a stranger. “I should’ve known. The voice you’ve been hearing. It’s Breckin Crawford’s, isn’t it?”

  She was too weak to argue. “Yes. But why?”

  Persephone opened her mouth, but was interrupted by a banging on the door. All three girls shot up. Bodies slammed against the door several more times, opening it just slightly. A crack of light shone through the opening, and weathered, sickly arms mottled with huge, peeling blisters slithered through the door. Emmy crawled farther away from the door at the sight of them.

  “I’ve got to get you out of here,” Persephone said, her eyes darting around the room for something she could use. Her eyes fell on the window.

  Without hesitation Persephone ran to the bottles on the walls, grabbing several orange ones labelled “Irritant”.

  “Jade, smash the window and go with Emmy,” Persephone said, far too calm for the situation. “I’ll stay back and try to stall them.”

  Jade shook her head. “I’m not leaving you here. What are those things?”

  “I don’t know, but they’re going to try to kill her,” she said, gesturing her shoulder in Emmy’s direction.

  While shaking from pain, confusion and fear, Emmy demanded, “How do you know –?”

  The door was thrown off its hinges. Behind the door stood people, but only barely. Their eyes were pure black, resembling the pupilless raven and lion. Their skin seemed to be burning from the inside out, peeling and red. Through the raw wounds, Emmy saw palewraiths oozing through the skin, but they were unlike any palewraiths she had ever seen; these ones weren’t inky black, but ashen, like fire smoke, and their light had gone watery.

  Dying palewraiths, she thought. If there was such a thing.

  The bottles in Persephone’s hands rattled. Despite this, Persephone jolted into action and began throwing as many of the glowing bottles as she could, even hitting a few of the sub-humans. Instead of listening to Persephone, Jade began to attack them by force.

  Meanwhile Emmy tried to open the window, but there was no latch. Without a second thought she rushed over to the small coffee table, hoisted it into her arms, and threw it at the window, smashing it into uncountable pieces.

  Eventually a few of the pseudo-humans made their way into the room, all of them heading towards Emmy, who was unarmed. They completely ignored Persephone and Jade and their attempts to stop them. It was as if no one existed but her.

  Emmy fell into despair, seeing the monsters spill into the room like there was no end to them. They were alone, in the middle of the night. There was no one around, no one there to help them –

  She turned around to look at the dream downloader on the wall; the dream was playing, the twelve-year-old version of Breckin writhing in pain on the floor.

  Or was there someone to help her?

  Maybe it was only stark fear, but she had no other option. She had to try.

  Breckin, she shouted in her mind, Breckin please. Help me.

  She could say no more before one of the strange-moving people grabbed hold of her and thrust her to the ground. Her head hit the ground, stars forming in front of her eyes. With every bit of strength she had left she tried pushing him off her, but the adrenaline was starting to wear off.

  But then suddenly, she began feeling a burning sensation flood her veins like liquid fire, and the exhaustion she had been feeling moments ago didn’t matter anymore. She threw the sub-human off her effortlessly, hearing its body slam into the opposite wall.

  Emmy got up and began to fight her attackers like her body was disconnected from her. She was able to fend off every one of them, moving faster than her reflexes had ever moved before.

  Emmy couldn’t believe it; her aim was perfect. The sub-humans had become something of a target, and she always hit the bull’s eye. Persephone was as well. The only miscalculation she made was not seeing one of them behind her, which cost her. It clubbed her over the head, and Emmy dropped to the floor for a second time. She rolled over to face the ceiling, and ended up looking into her attacker’s hideous, translucent face. Emmy closed her eyes as it raised its fist, ready to hit her.

  She heard a smash from behind her, and the blow never came. Too curious, she opened her eyes to see what had happened, and there he was. Breckin stood over her, having just thrown the attacker into the parallel wall. He looked slightly dazed, but not all that surprised to see her.

  Before she could tell him what was going
on, he took her in his arms, like the first day they had met, and flung her over onto his back and began to run. They were out the window in no time.

  “Wait!” she croaked. “It’s not just me, Persephone and Jade are back there too.”

  Without replying, he circled around back towards the school, Emmy tightening her grip fastened around his neck. Persephone was still inside, now throwing violet bottles labelled “Sleeping Draft” at the sub-humans, but her throws were so haphazard she was only hitting them at random. Not seeing Breckin, she threw one right into his chest.

  “No!” Emmy said. “Persephone, it’s Breckin. We have to go.”

  Her eyes widened and she sidestepped over the sub-humans on her way to Emmy and Breckin. Before she could protest, Breckin threw her on his back as well, and began to run at a pace so fast Emmy couldn’t feel the bumps. Jade saw they were safe and made a run for it, right behind them. Or so Emmy thought.

  He didn’t stop running until they were at the foot of the living complex. His legs wobbled and he fell to the ground, taking the girls with him.

  Persephone got to her feet, shaking from head to toe. “Where’s Jade?”

  “I saw her beside Breckin, I hope just went home,” Emmy said worriedly. She couldn’t help being concerned about what would happen to them if they showed up in the lobby like this in the middle of the night. She got to her knees, noticing that Breckin wasn’t moving. “Are you okay?” she added, shaking his shoulder.

  He had rolled himself over onto his back, but had a far-off expression.

  “I feel really weird,” he slurred.

  “Persephone hit you with a sleeping draft,” she said, wrapping his arm around her neck to pull him up, which ended up in them both falling over. He was heavier than pure cement. “Come on, just a little bit farther. We have to get home.”

  He nodded, and with a sloth-like motion, he eventually got to his feet, swaying back and forth.

  “Will he make it?” Persephone said.