Dragonfly

Chapter Nine

I rushed to do all that I had wanted to do before I began to walk home. As I walk, I slipped my hand into my pocket only to find the card I had forgotten about. My body seemed to enter automatic as my hand typed the number into my phone and dialed, I continued walking as the phone rang and lit a cigarette. Finally, a familiar male voice spoke however, the phone continued to ring,

“You rang?” I span around and hung up to see Azazel stood there, his hair the colour of autumn leaves as were his eyes.

“How-” I began when Azazel interrupted,

“Do not waste my time asking questions that you already know the answers too,”

“I’m sorry,” I muttered.

“What must you know?”

“What’s happening to me? How is it happening?”

“Riley Jones, you have little time left,” Azazel replied.

“What do you mean by little time left?”

“If you do not reveal your own true nature soon, it will be too late and a path of destruction and chaos shall be all that lay in your wake,” Azazel replied as he glanced to the floor.

“How do I reveal my own true nature?” I asked as my body began to shake in fear. Something about the words he spoke, caused my body to tremble though I couldn’t quite understand as to why; just as I couldn’t quite understand how I knew that what he spoke was true.

“I will tell you but first there are a few things that you must know,” replied Azazel and I nodded, feeling far too desperate to care, “once you have revealed your own true nature to yourself, the change will be permanent. There will be no going back,”

“I understand,”

“And what you will bare witness to after you have revealed your true nature, shall be terrifying. Especially in the first few weeks as you will have no control though you will need to find it. You must be prepared to see what it is that you will bare witness to,” Azazel explained.

“I understand and I am ready,” I replied.

“Only as long as you’re sure,”

“I am,” I replied and in those two words, I heard a confidence in my own voice that I had never held before. Azazel motioned for me to follow him and I did exactly that. We walked through the town and to the outer woodland area that remained untouched by humans. I continued to follow Azazel until we came across the most beautiful place of nature that I had ever seen.

Two trees had bent to form a beautiful arch over a small island, surrounded by water. Without thinking, I leapt between the rocks that had created a sort of path to the island as I felt something drawing me to stand upon the island. As my foot lightly fell upon the moist soil and I landed with an unusual elegance and grace, I heard Azazel gasp as he stood upon the earth on the other side of the water, staring at me.

I turned to look at him just as he began to speak,

“Gaze into the water and tell me what you see,”

I looked into the water only to see my own reflection and the sky above me. Something about the sky seemed to call to me at that moment.

“I just see myself,” I called.

“Look further,”

“I see the sky,”

“Go on, keep looking. Search inside of yourself,” Azazel said as I crouched to my knees, not caring that I would get dirty at that moment. I stared into the water,

“I see the sky,” I repeated, “a sky filled with colour and beauty,” I continued as I began to list all that I could see in the water, “I can see the frost and ice. The pain and hate that lays hidden within the world, but even so, I can see hope,”

I realised the meanings as to the what I could see and as I did, I felt drawn in by the image in the water, calling for me to witness more.

“I see a battle upon grass-lands, the weapons they use are swords not guns and thousands are dying,”

“Good, what else?”

“I hear a mother and sister crying over their losses as the weapons grow more modern. I see the hate, greed and lies that has caused their losses. Now they use guns to fight against one another. To massacre each other,”

“You’re doing really well,” said Azazel, his voice filled with encouragement. My eyes burned with tears as they flowed down my cheeks, I didn’t wish to bare witness to anymore pain though it felt as though I didn’t have a choice.

Suddenly, the image of a human heart appeared in the water. Behind it, I could see nothing but darkness. The heart continued to beat as though it were still in the body of a human. and I could almost feel a warmth radiating from it.

“What else do you see?”

“I see a heart,” I muttered quietly, barely able to speak the words as I watched frost appear and coat it. The heart continued to beat despite the frost that had formed a blanket around it. I was no longer able to feel any sort of warmth as I stared at the image in the water,

“Anything else?”

“The heart has become coated in frost and continues to beat, regardless,” I replied before I felt something push me back, so that I was unable to look into the water anymore. I couldn’t help but feel thankful that I could no longer bare witness to the pain and hate that plagued the world I lived in.

“A warm heart coated in frost to keep the heat in and protect it from the cold,” I heard Azazel gasp.

“What is that supposed to mean?” I asked.

“It means that you are whom I believed you to be, Riley Jones. You are the dragonfly,” replied Azazel as he watched me with wide eyes.

“What does that mean, Azazel?” I asked just before he seemed to vanish in front of my eyes. “Hey! Come back and answer me!” I demanded angrily.

“I would be a fool to linger around and wait,” I heard a disembodied voice reply. Where my hands touched the moist dirt, a circle of ice and frost slowly formed. Swiftly, I glanced over my shoulder as the frost continued to travel up the trees, coating them in the same warm blanket that had coated the heart. The atmosphere grew so cold that it if I were able to feel it, I am certain it would have chilled me to the bone.

My breath became visible as snow fell from the sky, covering the world around me in a blanket of white. Ice crawled upon the water that surrounded the small island until it was completely frozen.

Hesitantly, I stood and stepped toward the water before carefully placing my foot on the ice. For a brief moment, an unusual light moved through the ice before I placed my weight on it and slowly, I walked across and to the other side. The more I walked, the more the ice that surrounded me and seemingly emanated from me, appeared to spread.

I paused as I reached the other side and looked back at the island as I remembered the dream I had.

“No longer… no longer shall I suffer in silence,” originally, I had questioned this but I had come to realise the truth.

“I have been suffering in silence. Struggling alone with an internal pain so great that I have barely been able to contain it. I haven’t been able to trust the man I am in love with truly because of the pain I have hidden so deep. I have been afraid of him because of it,” I whispered as a gentle breeze, carrying winters icy breath, brushed against my cheek and lifted my hair from my shoulders.

“No longer shall I suffer in silence,” I finished before I turned and continued to walk away. Now I knew that I was in control, I had to begin the struggle that I knew was ahead of me. For I had realised what I was,

“I am Fae,” I whispered.