Rachel Stanton and The Darkest Night

CHAPTER 17: AN EXPLOSION

17. AN EXPLOSION

The conversation between my dad and Jared ended after a while. My lips were stretched into a huge smile, because Jared had said it all. He would marry me. And he had agreed with my father that once he stepped out of the deal, my family would perfectly forget all about them. We would forget about his family. And this assured Jared that he wouldn’t break what he said.

Once he went home already, I got upstairs where I found Katie staring down on the street. She quickly jerked her head at the sight of me. Then I watched her walk fast into my direction. I asked her what was wrong. Then she said, “Tradefire has been freed from Polantern.”

This could only mean one thing, because Tradefire could send the darkest night in which sunlight would not enter the earth’s crust. The earth would stop from spinning. All source of light would not work. Lightnings would not be seen, but they would just create a rumbling sound. This event had happened once. 200 BC in the past, a lot of people were found dead. No one could see, but they could touch.

There was panic building up in my chest. What if it would happen while the people all over the world were not prepared? Not reminded? The Sprounds had to stop them immediately, but then the thought about them being defeated popped inside my head.

“What can we do?” I asked her.

“We’ll fight,” she uttered. And this made me grasp her arm.

“You can’t. You’ll die. Matilda’s one of the most powerful Spround. You can’t defeat her.”

“Unless all of us will help each other.” She managed to smile. “Well, Augustus has called the others and told them to prepare for battle.”

“Just don’t war in our world.”

“We won’t,” she barked quickly. “The universe is a wide place for that. Earth will be safe.”

There was a long pause. We both stared at each other, hearing the hard pounding of my heart on my chest. Then she broke the silence once more.

“We’ll leave before midnight,” she muttered under her breath. “You have to protect those left. We’ll take care of Matilda and Tradefire.” She stretched a smile on her lips then flung her arms around my neck. “I’ll miss you,” she whispered on my ear.

“You’re gonna be fine,” I whispered back.

“I’ll be back.”

I hugged her for a minute before we released each other. We stayed in my room without a word. Then I alerted my head in case a premonition would come in. But nothing came and dinner arrived.

Dinner was quiet. No one spoke until we were done. Then Katie insisted to wash the dishes after meal. It might be one of her last few things to do before she would leave. When we were alone inside my room, we talked about asking permission to my parents for her to leave. She couldn’t leave without letting them know. Katie told me that Peter the messenger would take them here, because Almirante was still not in condition after his defeat. Just then, she went to my parents and told them that she would be fetched at 10. Charles knew and he was a bit desolated when he heard about it.

It was three minutes to ten o’clock. All of her things were packed on her same bag when she came here. It was not bearable to watch her leave. A tear began to fall onto my cheeks.

Before she went on, I hugged her for the last time, whispering in her ear that she should take care of herself. The battle might not be so easy though, so she might be hurt or die. I hoped not.

Finally, when they were out in our sight, I went into my room. I looked out of my window and tried to find them if they were still walking there.

Just then, I saw two different smokes materialized in the air.