Shadow Realm

Chapter Three

Nadira quickly walked back to the shack, muttering curses under her breath. I looked outside, and saw why. The wooden walls blocking the alley were in flames, as was the buildings next to it. Nadira looked at me, her green eyes piercing mine. “We need to go, now. You haven’t done-no, of course not. Can you pick up that sword?” Her voice sounded scratchy, like she was getting over strep throat.

Hesitatingly, I walked over, closed me eyes, and touched the hilt. A jolt ran up my arm, but other than that, nothing happened. I walked over to Nadira, and tried to hand it to her. She hissed like a cat, “You think I would want it? I can’t touch it, you fool!” Fire sirens got closer, and she closed her eyes, rubbing her temples. “Go to the silver chest, next to the cabinet, put the sword inside it. The go to the cabinet, and pick out something that draws you to it. Now!” I did what she said, but when I looked in the cabinet, I was at a loss of words.

The whole inside was filled with different weapons, from different time periods, and from different cultures. I recognized a few, some from what I’ve read about, others from what I’ve seen on TV, but most were horribly unfamiliar. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a row of swords. They all looked deadly, but this one sword just looked-cool.

The blade itself was orange and red, shaped like flame, spewing from a brilliantly red dragon’s mouth, who’s body made up the grip, out stretched wings the cross guard, and it’s tail was coiled, like you were supposed to put it around your wrist. I went to reach for it, but Nadira’s quiet, and thankfully back to normal, voice stopped me. “I wouldn’t do that. That blade was forged at the beginning of my era, by the Red Dragon’s host. When you don that sword, you are accepting the Red Dragon, and he will live in your body for three lifetimes, and leave you in the thirteenth day of your fourth lifetime. You will be nothing more than a husk. You will survive naught but two days before the time he has stolen from you catches up. Your systems will collapse, and you body will turn to dust, to be carried away in the wind. Scattered over the Earth, not leaving a speck behind for those who loved you.” 

As she said this, tears gathered in her eyes, and I knew she lost someone to this terror. She closed the cabinet door, and gripped the brass handles, leaning her head into the wood. “I ask too much of you mortal, I have asked for you to leave behind your world, those you love, and those who love you. I am no better than the Red Dragon. Go now, Irror wont come after you if he knows I bested him. You can be safe.”

I let out a sharp bark of laughter. Safe, yea right. She doesn’t know why I ended up running in the city. When Nadira looked quizzically at me, I smiled, and said, “You have no idea how wrong you are. My life can never go back to normal, I am not safe, people don’t love me, and I definitely don’t love them.” Nadira still just looked at me, reminding me more and more of a cat, “Then enlighten me.”

“I guess it all started around two years ago, when my twin sister was murdered. We were always the same, we looked the same, talked the same, laughed the same, loved the same. But one day, we were home alone, and she thought she heard something at the front door of our house. I told her it was nothing, that she was just imagining things. Reluctantly, she agreed to watch a movie with me. Half way through, we heard a crash from the front of the house. She told me to call 911, and she ran to see what it was. I told the person, who answered the phone where the house is, and what we heard, and then my sister screamed. I ran, leaving the phone hanging, I remember hearing the person calling for me, but I ran. I saw a huge man, dressed in all black, holding my sister’s unconscious body by her wrist. Blood dripped from her temple. I remembered my dad keeping a Colt 1911 loaded in the top drawer of the hutch. I had seen my dad shoot it at a range once, but other than that, I had no idea what to do. I ran to the hutch, grabbed the gun, pulled the cylinder back, and fired six shots, emptying the gun.

“Then the cops pulled up. They walked in, seeing me just standing there, my hands shaking, clutching the gun, the man dead. The six shots all landed in the same place, the center of his forehead. I don’t really remember what happened after that, just a lot of voices, loud, and yelling. I remember a female police, with long red hair like mine and my sister's, checking the pulse on my sister, her hollow, hoarse voice shouting, ‘No pulse! Medics!’ Then another person yell ‘Grab the girl! She’s gonna faint.’ I collapsed into someone’s arms, blacking out.

“Ever since then, I was the dead girls sister, the girl who killed that man. People avoided me like the plague. The face I saw in the mirror looked too much like Becca, my sister, so I dyed my hair. Still, I looked at her. Going from red to brown did nothing. I dyed my hair again, but this time it was electric blue, got it styled differently, got contacts, changed how I did my make-up. Finally, I looked different, but I didn’t look how I felt. No one understood me; they treated me like I killed Becca. I started to cut. Feeling the physical pain made the pain on the inside so much more bearable.

“My mom started smoking, my dad started drinking. Then, they got divorced; they couldn’t look at themselves, they blamed each other for not being home. But moreover, they blamed me. For telling her that she imagined the noises, for letting her see what was at the front door, for not being by her side. I was just 13, so young to know that my sister was dead, that I caused her death, and that I killed a man. I killed a man! That might be normal for you, but it isn’t for us! I was just 13 damn it! Why did they all blame me?”

I was so mad, but I was also so upset, just remembering everything, I had tried to forget, but know that it came back, I could imagine the next year so clearly, and this year, all that had happened to me. I found myself telling Nadira, and I wasn’t even aware of speaking, or standing there, I was reliving my life, through my minds eye.