The Red Artefact

Prologue

7-year-old Noah ventured sneakily into the deserted playground next to his parent's manor. The silver bright light from full moon reflected off the silver metal bars of the playing equipment as he carefully walked along the paved footpath. His thongs flopping slightly. After checking that all the lights in the manor were off, he ran towards the middle of the park, taking a seat on one of the creaking swings and reached to take out a small toy car from his pocket. The windshield of the car was painted with a metallic type paint, which easily reflected light. The rest of the car was painted a pale yellow, silver outlining the doors. Using the light of the moon, Noah tilted the toy car; just like his father taught him earlier that day and pointed a weak beam of light towards one of the windows of the manor opposite his. The window with soft pink curtains. He waited, reflecting the light on and off the window; his father had explained that it made it more noticeable for other people to see. And he hoped his father was right. After about a minute, the window with the pink curtains brightened with light. He saw the curtain shift slightly to the side by a little hand, followed by a young childs face, which then quickly disappeared, the light disappearing as well. Noah put the small car into the pocket of his pajama pants and sat on the swing, swinging his legs, the swing swaying with the movement. The warm summer air kissed his face as he intently watched the door of the neighboring manor, his small hands wrapping around the metal chains of the swing which were tinged with rust. After a moment, the backdoor of the manor swung open and out came a small girl around the age of 5. Her dirty blond hair hung freely to her waist in soft curls and held a small torch in her hand, illuminating her white night gown. She quietly shut the door behind her and ran towards him; her nightgown dancing around her knees. She suspiciously held one hand behind her back. She reached the swing Noah was sitting on with a grin on her face, he couldn't help but grin back at her with an easy grin. He eyed the hand that was hidden behind her back inquisitively.

"What's that?" He asked, leaning back slightly causing the swing to sway even more. She grinned larger and slightly giggled; her eyes sparked in what he could only later describe as mischief. She dropped the torch onto the ground and swung her arm out from behind her back, clutching the bag of chips in both hands in front of her.

"Surprise!" She giggled.

"Yes!" He cheered, throwing his hands into the air. He went to grab the bag from her, but she pulled it away quickly  from his reach.

"Nope! I got it, so I get the first handful!" She exclaimed and skipped towards the swing next to him, sitting on the rubber band seat. He watched her for about a full minute trying to get the packet open, but before he could object, she stood up, put the packet on the floor and jumped on it, popping both sides of the packet. Resulting in about half of the chips to mix in the sand.

"I could have opened it," he said, reaching down to grab and observe a sand covered chip. She shook her head.

"No, it was way too strong," she said. Grabbing the packet carefully she sat down and placed it on her lap on the floor, grabbing a hand full of chips in one hand and placing them in her mouth with the other. He went and sat down on the floor opposite her, grabbing a handful of chips.

"I'm stronger than you," he says, putting a chip in his mouth.

"No, you're not!" she backfired.

"Yes, I am!" He retorted.

"OK," she said huffily, moving the packet to the side, she laid down on her stomach with her right arm out in an arm wrestle stance. The grains of sand sticking to her pale skin on her elbow and up her arm.

"Prove it," she challenged. Her eyes stared him down, indeed challenging him. But he noticed the incredible colour of her eyes, the bright intensity.

"Okay," he said laying down onto his stomach. ''But you have to say that I'm the most amazing person in the world if I win.''

Her face scrunched up, but then she agreed, smiling. "And if I win then you have to dress up as a princess with me for my birthday party."

He hesitated; he really did not want to dress up as a princess. But he knew he was stronger; he was two years older of course he was.

''Ok,'' he agreed, clasping his palm into hers.

"3, 2, 1—GO!" She yelled, pushing hard against his hand. He was slowly pinning her hand down, her hand nearly against the sand, had nearly won when bright blue sparks shot from her fingertips and into his hand, numbing it with an electrical shot which resulted in her in pinning his hand to the ground. She cheered, jumping to her feet.

"I win!" She shouted, putting her arms in the air. The pale light of the moon illuminating her blond hair.

"You cheated!" Noah claimed also standing up.

"No, I didn't!" She said grinning, brushing off the sand from her dress. "No one said anything about rules. You now have to dress up as a princess with me!"

Noah felt horrified at the idea. He knew he should have set rules. The amount of times she's done that to him already —

"What are you two doing out here!''

Both the children froze, terrified about being caught.

"Uh oh,'' they whispered in unison. From behind him he could hear thudding angry footsteps, and the crunching of leaves.

"It's my mum," she said quietly.

"Analia, get inside right now!" Her mother shouted angrily. Noah didn't turn around, not wanting to see the angry expression on her face.

Analia dropped her eyes towards the ground, not making eye contact with either Noah or her mother. But not making any action to move.

"Analia, now!" Her mother screamed.

"Ok!" Analia shouted back upset. "Bye Noah," she called sadly as she picked up the blown packet of chips and sand incrusted torch from the ground, then ran towards her mother.

"I didn't think I'll have to deal with you sneaking out to see a boy until you were at least a teenager!" He heard Analia's Mum exclaim to herself. She then looked at Noah with a hard stare, grabbing her daughters hand within her own. Noah grimaced from the anger poring through her eyes.

"Go home Noah," she said tiredly, leading Annalia towards the door of the manor. He saw Annalia look back at him sadly before she went through the door, like she always did when they had to leave, or when one of them got caught. But this time, though he didn't know it yet, as he turned back towards his own home, would be the last time he ever saw his best friend.