by Lee Harding
“Please don’t make me,” the girl pleaded.
“Choose,” said Arianne again.
Quivering in fear, the girl tapped Arianne’s right hand. She opened her fist to reveal it too was empty.
“You lose.”
“But that’s not fair,” the girl sobbed.
“Was it fair of you to call us names?” Arianne said. With a cruel wink she cried out:
“Death.”
The girl fell to thump against the mud. Arianne curtsied to the other children then walked away.
Out of the shadows slinked young Paulette. The boys and girls were about to scream but she hushed them with a finger to her lips. She drew close to the two still bodies and felt the chill on their stiffened brows.
“Life.”
With a bedraggled breath the boy and girl drew their spirits in again to came back from the dead. Paulette left them to chase after her older sister frightened of who else she would pour out her vengeance on. She soon caught sight of Arianne knocking on the door of the old crone’s home and hid to watch what would happen.
The old woman, bent and gnarled, snapped open the door. She held a twisted briar stick which she waved at Arianne once she recognized her.
“I told you to get off my property,” she said.
Arianne stepped back narrowly avoiding being hit.
“I have a riddle. Get it right and I promise to leave you alone.”
“What nonsense is this? Away with you, girl,” the crone said.
Arianne stood where she was.
“What brings joy to some but tears to all? Lasts for a moment but stretches to eternity? Feeds on the living but cannot eat?”
The old woman shook her head in confusion. “I despise riddles,” she said.
“Then you forfeit,” Arianne said. “Do you wish to know the answer?”
“Tell me and be gone.”
“Death.”
With a bump the old crone dropped along with her crooked stick. Arianne skipped away.
Paulette slipped out from her hiding place to rush to the woman’s side.
“Life.”
The crone blinked and inhaled. Paulette helped her to her feet and ensured she returned indoors before following her sister back to their home.
She found Arianne arguing with their mother in the scullery and stopped behind the window to listen.
“Arianne, you and Paulette have not done your chores. Get back to the stable at once.”
“No, Mother,” Arianne said. “You have no power over me anymore. Father left us and you didn’t stop him.”
Her mother hesitated then answered, “He never loved you and he never loved me. I’m glad he left.”
In a rage Arianne yelled, “He did love us but you never loved him.”
Paulette ran into the kitchen before Arianne could utter the evil spell. As she raced between her sister and mother Arianne screamed:
“Death!”
As one, Paulette and their mother fell dead.
Coming at last to her senses, Arianne ran to hold them.
“What have I done?” she cried but there was no reply. She tried to rid her heart of all the pent up bitterness, rage, and vengeance and whispered:
“Life.”
Nothing happened.
In a loud groan she repeated, “Life, Life LIFE!”
The spirits of her mother and sister did not return.
Arianne wept in inconsolable grief. She finally opened her eyes to stare into the puddle of tears. Her reflection confronted her family’s slayer and with one final vengeful act she said:
“Death.”
Arianne’s spirit was ripped from her body and travelled up. It stopped by the foot of her bed. There sat the Ebony Chest, the skull etched across the tumbler lock and then its lid snapped open. Her spirit drifted in and with a scream the lid closed and the lock sealed.
Arianne was now the new occupant of the chest. She awaited the day that another embittered soul would abuse the power of death to seek revenge on their enemies. Paulette’s spirit found a new source of life. Her choice to heal and forgive ensured she would never be trapped and so she lived happily ever after.
BBC Tech News 2014
ENERGY FIRM CYBER-DEFENCE ‘TOO WEAK’
Power companies are being refused insurance cover for cyber-attacks because their defences are perceived as weak, the BBC has learned. Underwriters at Lloyd’s of London say they have seen a “huge increase” in demand for cover from energy firms. But surveyor assessments of the cyber-defences in place concluded that protections were inadequate. Energy industry veterans said they were “not surprised” the companies were being refused cover.
‘CONTAGIOUS’ WI-FI THREAT CREATED
A computer virus that can spread via wi-fi like a “common cold” has been created by researchers in Liverpool. In densely populated areas with lots of wi-fi networks, the virus can go from network to network finding weaknesses. Once in control of a wi-fi access point, it leaves the computers on the network extremely vulnerable. The team’s lead researcher told the BBC it was working on software to prevent such attacks being possible.
HACKERS TAKE CONTROL OF HOME ROUTERS
A world-spanning network of hijacked home routers has been uncovered by security researchers. The network involves more than 300,000 routers in homes and small businesses that have been taken over through loopholes in their core software... It is not yet clear what the people behind the attack intend to do with the collection of compromised routers.
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To find the key you must chip away,
Then change and add what remains.
The answer I hope will brighten your day,
Until it will come again.
Author’s Note
Wreckoning was written in 2014 at a time when Cameron asked that fateful question regarding his own existence:
Who was Cameron Faith?
Was he a monster, a terrorist, a wanted man? Or was he really dead? A man robbed of his voice is condemned already; a man given the gift of love lives on. I believe a person can wear many masks but it is only when the face is revealed that the truth can be set free.
Do we have the courage to take off our masks or, more bravely, attempt to remove the masks of others for fear of what we might see?
Cameron has preached enough. The time of reckoning is near and the countdown already begun.
LH
Acknowledgements
Thank you to everyone who encouraged me while writing my first novel. Your support during dark days helped to lighten my world.
Wreckoning was an education in the craft of writing for me. Invaluable lessons were learned and for those who taught them I am indebted.
Dad, thank you for everything. Your life is a lesson in humility, grace, and kindness. But thanks especially for showing me what it means to be a loving parent. I have failed you before. I hope I have done you proud now.
To Alana and Paula, I hope you can open your heart to Cameron’s tale. Remember that he is only human.
...Alana and Michael will return in Halo State.
About the Author
How does one declare their soul
when their voice has been severed?
Lee Harding was born from the womb of suppression and lives to tell the tale. To thrill and enthral, that is the aim, but the dart is thrown to hit the mind’s eye; no bull. Read to reap the harvest of a heart sown in discord but be warned – you
may yield more than you can consume.
With a style sharper than a sickle or scythe, once entered the realm of the Reaper pray that you may return unscathed. All senses will be battered and bruised without mercy when Harding comes to call.
