Disturbed Angels

Chapter Un

I was drifting through ink.

Slowly, ever so slowly.

Until colours began to blend together faintly in the distance. Interfering with the void. Blurred yet enticing, their outlines were as of yet unintelligible.

Curiously as I reached out to touch them and they snapped into focus, racing up around me till my void had become a landscape of trees. Sharp, damp pine needles dug into my bare feet and I ducked as strange shadows flitted above my head.

Birds, I realised gradually, as their shrill calls broke through my haze of confusion. I straightened up, no longer puzzled by the shadows, and walked deeper into the strange forest till my feet began to sting from the cut left behind by the sharp point of the needles. It felt like I had walked for hours and the scenery hadn't changed dramatically, the differences subtle, the trees had become older, their bark disfigured and blackened by the years they had endured.

The air temperature dropped sharply and the sunlight, filtering through the canapé, dimmed as if a cloud had passed over the sun. A gentle hand rested on my shoulder and the feeling of familiarity melted away the last threads of my confusion. The familiar arms wrapped themselves around my waist and they leaned into me, pressing their body against mine. A deep voice sighed sadly and then slowly turned me around to face them. He was all shadows and dust, with eyes of silver grey. There was something sorrowful about his eyes that I couldn't place but a voice that sounded so much like my own whispered, regret.

"You have one last test to undertake," he sighed, "a task to prove your loyalty" he whispered, running a hand through my hair. "A task to prove your worth."

"What?" I replied, stepping away from the man "why is it that I have to prove my worth to you!?" I yelled, taking another step away. A sick realisation rose up inside of me and I could feel myself blush. "What is it about my loyalty that's in question?" I asked quietly, my eyes blazing defiantly.

His eyes turned into the slits of a bitter old man, "I think you know" He spat out the words as if they tasted like soap. I studied his face unsure as to what he meant, "so many attachments you've made" he said scathingly.

Suddenly I was no longer in control of my body, forced to observe an audience to a play I was no longer a player in.

Tears tumbled down my face and I watched as I shook my head sadly back and forth. "No!" I croaked, backing up slowly. "It was nothing! He was nothing! They all mean nothing to me! Please! Don't do this!" I was yelling loudly now with a desperation, that made me curious. Something caught my attention at the edge of the clearing and I watched as three tall figures walked into view and stood behind the man of shadows. Their faces were frustratingly familiar yet their features were blurred. "Ellice darling, honestly! Stop being so pathetic!" said one hidden behind the man of shadows. "The task is really quite simple!" I could not see her face but I knew that an expression of gleeful malice was present.

"Fine" My body said. I straightened up in an attempt to composed myself, and turned to face one of the tall figures leaning against a tree. "What is it?" My chin was raised indifferently, but I could feel that there was a sad, hollow emptiness in my words. A cruel laugh echoed horribly, resonating in the clearing, emulating from the figures of shadows, yet muffled by their flesh of smoke. I watched my body shiver with disgust.

One of the figures departed into the trees and returned shortly after with three withering bodies. Their heads covered in matching brown cloth bags. Rings of dark brown circled the edges and deep crimson stains flecked the sides.

The trio, slumped on the ground, lay motionless, but then was lifted by the shadowed man's lackeys lifted up again by the scuff of the neck and forced to kneel with a brutal kick. I watched with fascination as an inhuman groan escaped my trembling lips, the pain and sorrow was written clearly in its notes. "No" my body said breathlessly. "you can't possibly believe I would..." my hands were trembling as they ran across my lips and face "They've done nothing wrong, why...". But my speech was cut off as the bag was ripped off their heads, showing faces that were startlingly clear after the figures of shadows.

My body flinched at the sight but I drank in his face, trying to remember every detail I could. He had shaggy black hair that would have looked good had it not been stuck to his face with a layer of sweat. His face was a painting of red and blue, swollen in places as if it was bloated with water. 

The eyes were what stood out the most though, deep brown flecked with green they shone wet with pain. My body, acting on memories I didn't have, whispered the name that belonged to the face but I was too slow to capture it and it slipped away. The other two were some shockingly familiar faces, my wannabe boyfriend Alex and my best friend Melanie.

I caught the feelings my body associated with the mystery person before they disappeared, I was flooded with a feeling of deep admiration. It was a feeling I had never thought I would ever feel towards another, it caught me off guard. I was, if not more curious now as to who the boy was and why it was possible that I felt so strongly towards him.

The man of shadows stepped towards me and spoke with his head held high "Now, Ellice, all you have to do is drive this..." he said producing a long and elegantly detailed sword " ...through his, and hers and his fragile little hearts". He glared at me as if daring me to object. "...when all your ties have been severed through the shedding of blood you will have proven your loyalty to of us all." No I thought, I'm not going to do that. How could the man even suggest the murder of three people in cold blood? 

But my body seemed to have other ideas. I watched, helplessly, as I bowed gracefully to the man, a curved smile slipping smoothly into place. " Whatever will prove my loyalties." My body said with an anticipation that was over whelming. I took the sword from the man and walked over to the boy, he was trembling now.

I stared straight into his wide, pleading eyes without a hint of compassion, the tears that ran down his cheeks left bright streaks in his red and blue paint. "Please..." He whimpered, " Ellice this isn't you!" He was desperate now and his voice came out in a single breath of air. "I know you! Please! Fight this! You don't want to do this!" But I wasn't listening, I was just looking at him. I wanted to scream at myself to stop but my voice was gone, taken by my body." You don't know ANYTHING about me!" I snarled at him, a sad contentment twisting my features.

"But I guess you do now...". Smiling I drove the sword deep into his chest, his eyes widened in disbelief at what I had done. A heart piercing sorrow deep beneath them. The feeling of resistance under my sword was the last thing I felt before the scene began to turn to black, my helpless, unheard screams fading with it.