The Night Walker - EDITING

Her past

This, once again is the only first person narrative the reason i did this was because it is more like a memory that links to the next chapter, as if she is recalling an event. The image on the side is of Nina Dobrev (love VD!!) and she would be perfect for Annalisa Owen. 

Chapter Two

Her past

I can remember when I was three. My life was extraordinarily perfect in so many ways, but as everyone knows perfect beginnings can have a disastrous ending. My mother was outside tending to the horses on our land. Her family had owned this horse ranch for years and when I came of age and was married I would inherit it also.

  It was midafternoon, the summer heat was fading into a humid and tolerable temperature. Most of the customers we had had that afternoon were beginning to leave and barricade themselves into their houses while the men went out to hunt and kill those that threatened them years ago. The war between man and beast had been going on for years, so my grandmother had said. I never really understood it back then.

My father was part of the town council, which meant he had to take part in the hunt. He was a solitary man, as much money as he did earn, he never really considered living in a mansion or owning a land. The peace and quiet was what my family craved for, especially my brother.

  My brother. Thinking back now, if I could alter time I could prevent him from making a promise that he could not keep. But things like that just didn’t happen, and death didn’t like to be cheated, I knew that better than anyone.

  It was on this unforgettable day that I was riding my horse Radiance. She was a beautiful white horse, with big eyes; and was loyal to only me. My brother and father were getting ready for their hunt. I recall standing on my horse shouting to my brother. ‘Catch me Brother! Catch me!’

‘Get down Annalisa before you hurt yourself!’ My mother had screeched at me, but the feeling of my brother always being by my side made me wait for him to cross that short distance, climb over the fence and run to my side. My imagination always prevailed with him, he did just as I had pictured, and he ran towards me. His face was like an angel, his smile so sweet and innocent. It was his innocence that had gotten him killed.

‘Yes Anna,’ He spoke gently as he placed both hands under my arms and swung me in a circle before my feet were firmly planted on the ground. ‘You know if you keep doing dangerous things like this father will think you are the man of the house…’

‘Son!’ My father had yelled behind us, I remember my father too. So kind, and the love he had for my brother was so strong, that when the bond broke, he broke along with it. ‘It’s time to head out!’ I saw my father kiss my mother tenderly, and I had marveled at their strong relationship hoping that one day I too would have that sensation of love and longing.

‘Best be off Anna,’ My brother adjusted his gun on his back to a safer position as he knelt down to my height and kissed me on my cheek softly. He cupped my face in his hands and smiled at me. ‘You be good Anna while I am gone. I won’t be gone long I promise.’

‘I don’t want you to go.’ I had cried. It had not been the first hunt my brother had gone on and I never expected it to be his last, but for unknown reasons that I have not yet figured I had cried on this one separation. It had shocked my brother; he had held me in his arms and shushed me until I was still. I remember it taking me a while, but the sense of my father’s presence was close, to which I and my brother parted.

My father was stood with two reins in his hands; their horses were patiently waiting to be mounted.

‘Son, you ready?’

‘Yes,’ He turned to look at my father quickly before his attention turned back to me. His hand reached into his pocket and retrieved a pendant. The pendant was beautifully carved out of oak wood and had been painted with red to spell my name and his. No one can know how strong a siblings bond is, but knowing one of them was going to leave you was the most painful thing anyone could bare. Parting with my brother was like parting with half of my soul. ‘You keep this,’ He placed it around my neck and then reached into his shirt neckline and pulled out another, identical to mine. I looked up into his brown eyes and smiled. ‘That way, no matter where I am being dragged around, I will be right next door.’

‘Right next door to where?’ I had asked.

‘Right next door to your heart.’ He pointed a finger against my chest and smiled warmly. I wrapped my arms around him once more before he mounted his horse. My father had already mounted his but he lent down from her and kissed my forehead before he was led out of the field. My brother smiled at me, winked, and followed. For some reason my heart rate increased and I ran after him, shouting his name. He haltered his horse to look down at me.

‘You promise you’ll be back soon right?’ The one thing I wished I had never relied my hopes on.

‘I promise.’

They had ridden away towards the hunting party, little had I known at that moment that that was the last time I would see my brother’s precious face alive again.

My mother and I had just finished packing away the saddles and feeding hay to the horses when we heard a shout echoing from the woods; shorty after a gun was fired. I remember the voice cursing through me, causing adrenaline to move my body towards the danger.

  My mother had protested when I had ran towards the screaming but I did not listen. If I had I would not have pushed through the crowd of villagers, I would not have reached the front of the crowd. Most of all, I would not have witnessed my father crying helplessly on his knees cradling my brother’s lifeless body in his arms.  

  I guess that was when my life started to go off course, the fact that I had witnessed a death of a family member had been enough for me. I still see his eyes open with a flash of horror across his stilled face, his hand resting on his chest holding his pendant, our pendant. At that moment, when I had gained all the evidence I needed to know that the body laying still was my brother I screamed. Only then, did my father look around to notice his little girl staring at her brothers still form. He had placed my brother’s body down gently and had run to my side, devouring me in his arms and kissing my forehead frantically. I never knew until now that he had feared for me that day, he had feared I could be lost to him as well. 

  I cannot recall much after my brother’s death, but our family was never the same anymore, in fact the whole of Elm was not what it used to be. It became almost deserted. Of course there was reason for that. There had been a law in Elm for over twenty years that villagers were no longer allowed to be out after eleven; but another law had also been added after my brother’s death: No more hunting.

My grandmamma had told me when I was five that it was because of this law that the creatures of the night decided to take revenge on the humans for taking their meat from their home. The darkest of their kind had struck down on the people of Elm years ago, and in return their once brave protector was never seen again.  A myth to some who had not seen the creatures up close but to me it was reality.

  I was naïve after his death. I was eleven years old and on my way home I decided to take a short cut through the woods. I had heard tales outside of Elm about a girl who ventured in the forest in a red cloak. The story did not end to the best of endings, but I had not paid attention.  It was on that day that I came face to face with the creatures of Elm wood, the creatures that attacked my home village and the monsters that had killed my brother.

  I had heard a loud noise behind me, a twig or branch snapping. I remember spinning around to see where the noise had come from, taking precious steps backwards as I scanned the area. Little had I know that that was the plan of my attacker. I had fallen straight into a hole in the ground. During my fall, my ankle had twisted and I was no longer able to move, but I did scream. I screamed so loud for help but even I knew at that moment no one would hear me, I was alone in the woods. Alone with them.

 I heard a growling noise directly behind me. The last thing I remember before I blacked out was a face, a beautiful face of a man peering down at me, taking me in his arms and whispering in my ear. ‘You’re safe now Anna, I have you.’ And for that moment I pretended it was my brother.