The Liar's Reign

6 Years Later...

       She didn't know how this day was going to go, in fact, she would've never been able to guess what did. It was a rather happy day, the sun was shining and the vegetation was bright with color. It was mid-summer and market day in the tiny village of Tilth. She wore shorts and a shirt that were tattered at the edges, her golden hair flowed down her back, bouncing as she ran out the door.
    Her mother called after her, "You be safe today! Say hello to Cass and Dar."
    "Will do, Mum."
    She didn't need to run far, but they had warned her that if she was late she would be left out again. They were always leaving her behind, her cousin and his best friend. She could see the point in it though, they were both a year older than her. Today was supposed to be the most exciting day ever. She ran into the little house just a small grassy area over from her family's house. Her home was smaller than the Alpine's house, her family only included her father and her mother.
    She ran fast, pushing the door open and stumbling in. She made a gasp of surprise as she nearly hit the floor. A hand grabbed her arm and gently lifted her to her feet. She looked up to see Mrs. Alpine looking at her with worried eyes, "Mor, are you okay?" The familiar sea blue eyes were softened with a kind of pride that she had always seen. They kind of adopted her family ever since she had met Cass at a young age.
    "Am I late? Did they leave yet?" she asked breathlessly.
    "Oh sweetie, Darren hasn't even arrived yet." She felt all the tension release it's hold on her at the thought of her cousin. He wasn't going to leave without her. "Cass is in his room with the other three. Go along. You'll be leaving soon."
    She nodded quickly, waiting only an extra second before finding her way through the house. It was not difficult, she'd been over here a million times, but this is perhaps the first time Darren had not been with her.
    The door was open and she took it as a sign she could just walk in. It was quiet. She stilled, and walked the rest of the way into the room. "Cass!" she called.
    Nothing.
    She sighed, spinning on her heel, but just then something slammed into her, trapping her underneath its weight. She wriggled, trying to turn over but the thing on top of her didn't budge. She yelled out loud as terror clouded her mind. The thing on top of her started to shake with stifled laughs. She stopped struggling, but still she yelled, "Cass, get off of me!"
    At first she didn't think he would get off her, then he slowly let her up. She jumped to her feet and shoved him with all of her weight behind her. He dropped onto the floor lazily, still laughing at her. His head was in his hands as he tried to force himself to stop laughing.
    Finally, he looked up, his beautiful green and blue eyes gently looking at her. His face was cute and his teeth barely grown all the way in. His black hair was overgrown just slightly and hung lazily in his face. He smiled, "Hey, Mor. Good to see you."
    "Don't patronize me, you buffoon."
    He laughed again, "Such a big word for a nine-year-old."
    She bent down in front of him with a scowl on her face, "Shush." she flicked his nose. He swatted at her, so she backed up. Eventually she gave in and held out a hand to him. He grinned at her sideways- that smile was pure though it almost always meant trouble- and took it.
    "Are you ready for the market today?" he asked her once he was on his feet again.
    She nodded enthusiastically looking around for his younger brothers. "Yes! Are you?"
    "Well, I always go." For a moment the smile faded from her face and she turned toward him, before frowning and looking away. "I'm sorry. I know that this is the first time Darren has allowed you to come."
    She nodded, walking to the small closet door. She opened it gently, revealing three more boys with missing teeth and charming smiles. "Hi Mor!" they all shouted.
    She waved at them and motioned for them to climb out. They followed her order, the one closest to her age hugged her, and the other two followed. She hugged them back, they were the closest thing she had to siblings. A genuine smile tugged her lips upward, but they left the room and it was just her and Cass in the room.
    "I know." she said, finally answering him.
    He looked at her with scrutinizing eyes until she looked up at him again. His face softened with kindness and brightened when he smiled at her, with a new emotion. She couldn't quite tell what it was. Something in between encouragement and affection. She stepped closer to him, forgetting what she was supposed to be mad about.
      She still doesn't know exactly what she was going to say to him that day, but she remembers every other moment. She remembers taking that single step, then falling to the floor.
      Her eyes rolled into the back of her head, she couldn't see, hear, or feel anything around her. Vision-like tragedies played in her mind, though she wasn't near it when it happened. She saw her cousin, Darren, running from a man with something in his hand. The fear was clear in his eyes and every inch as he ran. The scene changed, that same man was cornering him in an alley, a pitchfork, she realized, in hand. Then Darren screamed. A sound that she didn't know he could make. Then, she saw him put a hand out to her and Cass at the alley's entrance. After that, all she saw was red.
     Cass was hovering over her with Darren by his side and Mrs. Alpine when she woke up. They bombarded her with questions about what happened and if she was all right. She didn't know though. She didn't talk about what she saw or that terror seized her every muscle. So, they helped her up, even though she was silent, and made her drink something hot. It would help, apparently.
      She got out of her stunned state after an hour, but she didn't even think about what she saw because Cass, and Darren were still there. They hadn't left her!
      So, the three of them went to the market. A tall, gangly boy with dark overgrown hair, a young blonde-haired girl, and a similarly tall blonde boy. Cass, Mor, and Darren. All walking down the dirt road toward the bustling market in the middle of the square.
     "Don't scare me like that ever again, Mor." Darren said, his hand finding hers as they ducked into the crowd.
      "I'm not even sure what happened." she said quietly, mostly to herself
      Darren heard it though, he said, "Well, start from the beginning."
      "I don't know. I was about to tell Cass something, then I took a step and passed out. I had a horrible dream. Then, you, Cass, and Mrs. Alpine were there."
      Her cousin was quiet for a long time before, "Do you want to talk about the dream?" She remained silent, looking at the ground, but he pushed a little more, "Come on, it's all right. You can tell me anything."
      "You don't mean that. You always leave me out."
Darren frowned, hurt passing over his features. "I'm sorry, I am, but some of the things I do with Cass isn't meant for a little girl--"
      "I'm only three years younger than you!"
     "-the point I'm trying to make is that you can tell me anything!" She stopped glaring at him now. "Mor, this is just the beginning of our adventures together. You'll always have me. It's okay to tell me. You can tell Cass too, he wouldn't mind."
      She sighed as the large amount of people clustered all around them. She waited for a moment, slipping around a large man holding larger, dead fish. She wrinkled her nose, clutched onto Dar's hand tighter, and took a deep breath, "You died." she said carefully. "In the dream."
      He glanced at her, "It'll be okay. I'm not going anywhere."
      Those words comforted her, but a feeling still lingered in her stomach. She pushed it away. Darren was right. He wouldn't leave. He wouldn't lie.
Cass had been on her other side, maneuvering through the crowd as one instead of two like her and Darren, but that familiar heat and build was gone. She looked around, tugging at Darren's hand.          "Where's Cass?"
      Darren looked around, stood on his tiptoes, spun in a circle, scanned the crowd but couldn't see him. "Crap. I don't know. He probably stopped at a booth.    We'll have to look for him."
      They spent a long time wandering around the marketplace, they looked in all the food booths, clothing booths, art booths, and still hadn't found him. Darren started to worry. He never said it, but she could see it in his eyes, in how he walked, how he clutched her hand, and how he looked around frantically.
      A scream tore through the crowd of people. It wasn't a woman's cry, it was Cass's. She heard Darren curse, but before she could react to it they were running again.
    They got closer, finally, Cass must've seen them because then he yelled, "Dar, Mor! Get away!"
    His black hair streamed above the people, and suddenly she was being pushed in the other direction. She felt her knee lock, and it cracked. She whimpered, but didn't do anything else even as she sprawled in the dirt. Tears were heavy on her cheeks, blurring her vision. She couldn't believe this.
She was being picked back up by hands and was pulled into a nook between two carts. Someone gently brushed her hair out of her eyes, lifted her chin, and whispered, "Hey, are you okay?"
    "Cass!" she threw her arms around his neck, pulling herself against his chest. "I'm okay. Where were you? Are you okay? What happened?"
    He returned her hug but didn't answer until she finally pulled back from him. His eyes were sad and worried as he pushed up on his feet to look at the crowd. "Listen, I was buying some food for us all when this man started yelling. He was mad at me for some reason, then he grabbed a pitchfork and ran after me."
    She felt the color drain from her face. Her mouth was suddenly dry and her stomach dropped to her feet.
    "I saw you guys and during the mix of it all that man decided to chase Darren." She was crying now, tears spilling over the brink of her eyes. "They went quite a ways down, but we have to help him. I needed to know that you were okay. Do you want to come?"
    She nodded though she wished every part of this day was different. She wished that she would've told Cass's mom what she saw, maybe this wouldn't be happening right now, but maybe it wasn't too late. Maybe they could stop this.
    She jumped to her feet, scanning the crowd. She couldn't remember which way they were going. "Where is he?"
    "Come on." he said, taking her hand and running through the crowd for what felt like the thousandth time today.
    They ran past all the colors, and the smells of spices, sweets, and burning candles. Way in front of them, movement blurred as a man with the pitchfork advanced into an alleyway. "There!" she screamed.
    Her legs started to burn as they tried to reach Darren. They flew over the road that was an odd mixture of dirt, gravel, cobblestone, and concrete. The mouth of the alley was within reach, they skidded to a stop in front of it. They stared as the scene unfurled in front of them. Darren was pressed up against a brick wall, the man holding the pitchfork advancing slowly.
    Darren's eyes were wild and frantic, just like she remembered from that awful dream. She stepped forward, Cass at her side. "Hey!" she screamed.
    Darren put out a hand, "No! Get out of here!"
    The man sneered coldly and without saying a single word, he plunged the pitchfork into Darren's chest. All she could see was blood. Red. It's all she remembered. She doesn't remember how she was moved away from the scene, how she got home, or how Cass had ended up telling everyone what happened.
    That awful man that killed Darren and ran away without a trace into the woods. Only his face was embedded in their memories.
She remembers the funeral the next day and how her and Cass were always a lot closer. She finally told him about the dream she had beforehand. He had called it a vision. Together they had asked if it were possible for someone to gain powers like that at such a young age. Their parents told them it was and so they worked together to do things as Darren would have. Even though the memory and what might have been still crushed them.