Sound Waves

A New Life

I never imagined how cold the streets could be at night, especially when your clothes are soaked in sweat, rain and blood. The bushes I am sitting in provide me with a little warmth but not enough to stop the goosebumps prickling up my legs and down my arms. It's been about five minutes since I rang the emergency number and I can start to hear sirens of the police and ambulance although I doubt they will be able to do much. As I see the faint glow of the siren lights I turn on my heels and run the other way, already seeing where I'm headed towards- the sewers.

There is a cement tank that reeks of sewerage with a hole in it that is only just big enough for me to slip inside. Within seconds, my nose is filled with unpleasant smells of all sorts of things, decaying rats, sewerage and a range of different algae's and mosses that smell strongly of urine. I take in my surroundings, as much as I can anyway, which consists of different pipes and green liquid and I notice that down one pipe there is a flickering glow, like a fire or a dying lantern, either way it means heat so I head straight to it. Only to get attacked by a petite, tanned, dark haired girl halfway there. She leaps on me and tackled me to the ground, seeming stronger than me despite her build, although I was in high heels and a dress and she was in shorts, shirt and running shoes. She pinned me to the ground and declared me to tell her who I was and what I was doing or else she would drown me in the sewerage liquid.

"Get off me and I'll tell you" I hissed at her, with more venom in the words then I intended, but it worked. She got off me and I got to my feet, brushing dust and moss from my clothes, breathing heavily.

"Alright, I did what you asked me to do. Now who are you and what do you want with me?" She declared once again, her voice sounds oddly euphonious for how she looks and the situation she is in. I look her in her emerald green eyes and I explain to her what had just happened.

"I just lost my whole family at my birthday party and what made it worse was that I screamed and everything exploded and all sorts of things happened! I don't know if I am going crazy or if this is just a massive, sadistic nightmare that I'm not waking up from." There are tears forming in my eyes even though I don't feel upset, I'm too confused about it all. But I look at the girl in front of me to find her eyes are wide open and her mouth has dropped in surprise.

"Did you say you screamed? I thought that was just a car braking." She looks at me and her face scrunches up, obviously trying to hold in a laugh.

"What? Do I have something on my face?" She shakes her head vigorously and then she takes a deep breath, relaxes her face and she says.

"You don't know what you are do you? You are a 'Fallen Angel', a 'Fairy Woman', a 'Wailing Woman', or, most commonly known as a 'Banshee'. Come with me. We'll talk to my Grandma about this because you obviously don't know what I'm talking about." She giggles, twists on her heels and starts jogging toward the light I was headed toward before she attacked me. I stand still, shocked from what I just heard until I realise she is waiting for me at the end of the tunnel, when I slowly start to walk, steadily picking up speed so I don't trip over.

I catch up to the girl and she tells me to wait a second and then walks into what I can now see is a small cavern, lit up with numerous torches and lanterns and a few mats on the ground as makeshift beds.

"Granny? Are you here? I have a special girl with me that would like to meet you," She crooned, her voice slightly echoing in the vastness of the empty sewer tunnels.

"Oh, I will be there in just a second, Raven, dear."  And within a few moments, I saw a lady, no older then forty years old, blonde who had quite similar featurs to the girl- who's name I assume, must be Raven- appear at the entrance to the cavern holding Raven's hand. The lady sees me and a look of surprise crosses her face briefly and as I see my reflection in the metalwork of the tunnel, I can understand why. My eye makeup has run down over my cheeks from crying, my once white dress is smudged in dirt and is covered in bloodstains in most places and I have grass stains on my knees and legs. I have bruises and cuts along my arms from the bushes. I look like a nightmare.

"You look horrible, dear, I am Raven's Grandmother, my name Janice. Take my hand and I'll get some tea for you. It will soothe your nerves," Janice says, her voice is gentle and it has the same melodic sound that Raven's has. So I take her hand but she gasps and quickly pulls her hand away, rubbing it like my hand had just froze it.

"I told you she was special, Grandma. She's a-" Raven starts to say but Janice finishes her sentence for her.

"Banshee." She practically hisses the word. 

"I'm sorry dear, last I heard the Light Givers had gotten ahold of all of the Banshee's and had killed them off. Please excuse my behaviour." She looked as if she was trying to be nice but didn't want to. I shook my head and told her that she was forgiven because I was feeling quite the same.

"Could I please have that cup of tea? And while we drink, could you tell me more about this Banshee business?" I ask, not really directing the question at any one person, but Raven is the first to answer. She nods her head and walks away to make the tea. But Janice grabs Raven by the arm and they whisper to each other and after they have their secret conversation, Janice turns to me and she shakes her head.

"We won't discuss this today. You look worn out and when I touched you, I saw what has happened to you in the past few days. Have some tea, have a sleep and then we will talk about it after you sleep." Janice says. I can tell she doesn't like me, even though her sincere voice tries to hide it.

"Ok, well in that case I will just go to sleep. The longer I have to wait the more impatient I will get. And you don't want to see me impatient." I can feel myself getting angry quickly, unsure why though. I walk past them and lay down on the cold, hard stone ground and before long. The world disappears and I'm in a flourishing paddock with flowers all around me.

A gentle, cool breeze waves over me and I hear my brother's voice from behind me.

"Celeste, come with us. You don't have to be alone anymore, just take my hand and we can be a happy family once more."  His voice whispers, he barely sounds human. I turn around slowly, unable to believe the voice I just heard.

"I can't, you guys are dead and I love you, but I won't give up my life for you. I found some people that can helped me. Now it's my turn, I can help people now." I struggle to get the words out, I feel bad for saying that to my family but I can't help it. I am right, they are dead, and I may love them with all my heart but I see no sense in giving my life away just to be with them when I can help people now.

"Celeste Jane Markson. We are your family, you have no right to talk to us like that!"  My 'Father' exclaims and as the words leave his mouth, my family's forms all shimmer and start to change into what I had last seen them as. My 'Dad' has gunshot wounds in his chest, blood pouring out, my 'Mother' has bullet wounds down her left leg and a hole in her head from the chair and Callum has blood running down from where his neck would be, with his head held in his right hand by his side. A shudder runs through me, the hairs on my arms stand up and tingle and I take a shaky step backwards and as I do, my dead family darts toward me with their arms outstretched and hands greedily opening and closing, trying to reach me. I start running backwards, unable to turn around and I trip over my feet and when I can focus on my dead family still flying towards me, I cover my eyes with my hands and I scream as loud as I can, but no sound comes out. Instead my head jerks upwards and my face is covered in sweat, I realise that it was just a nightmare and I am safe in Raven's Sewer-House.