Haunting words of Death

For another Hysteria competition. 1200 word limit. A mythology inspired story. Prompt was 'running away from the past'

Haunting words of Death

 

“Are you scared of him?”

 

Lighting tore through the sky, setting it ablaze. For a second, it lit up the small bedroom before allowing the shadows to swallow it once more. By the soft bedside table lamp that single-handily fought the darkness, the young girl stared at the scribbled words she had written twelve years ago in her diary. They weren’t the words she wanted to hear, but those meant to hurt her and plant the seeds of doubt in her mind. They had.

Tears trickled down her hot cheeks, escaping her stinging eyes. Her right hand rose to wipe them away before returning to her chest. Gentle finger’s stroked the diamond necklace hanging from her neck on an unbreakable gold chain. She remembered that day so perfectly as if it happened yesterday, not a decade ago.

 

“Are you scared of him?”

The words came out softly from the old lady’s thin, pale lips. If anyone had been listening in on the conversation outside the small little boutique, you would think the grandmother was comforting the young, wide-eyed child before her. That was not the case.

Shaking her head, chocolate curls bounced around the child’s heart-shaped face. “No.”

“You should be.”

Silence. Not even the usual chirp of birds could be heard. There was only the lonely rustle of branches and soft wind tossing dried leaves.

The old lady pressed her lips into a hard line. Something like triumph flashed in her eyes. “Did he give you that necklace?” A pause. “It’s a pretty necklace.” The girl remained silent. Her small hand however drifted up to the diamond locket; an unconscious effort to protect it. A smile twisted the lady’s lips. A predator’s smile “Are you scared of me?”

The child shook her head again however uncertainty now flared in her eyes. The flouriest Ms. Jaicobs was acting strange. Hostility tinted her breathy voice and her usually soft eyes were now sharp and blazing with untold power.

The girl started to back away. Onto the cracked road.

“You should be.”

Tires screeched, shattering the eerily silent afternoon.

 

Thump.

 

A dark river of blood oozed along the black road from the still body of the child. Slamming the door behind him, the driver flung himself out of the car. He stared at the girl in horror as his eyes scanned the street for a witness.

No one. He and the unconscious child were alone, or so he thought. The man however was wrong. While the evil creature who had imitated the old lady, Ms. Jaicobs, was gone. The child was never alone. Ever.

Stepping out from the shadows, a young man walked towards the young girl barely hanging onto the last threads of life. Despite passing right past the anguished driver screaming into his mobile, he remained unseen. He knelt down beside the girl and pushed back her blood matted curls from her forehead. Crimson remained tattooed to her already cold brow. Tainted. His face hardened. While this was what he wanted, for her to die. To be with him. It couldn’t be like this.

He needed her to choose him. She wasn’t ready.

 

 

You should be…

 

                                    Scared of him…

           

 

 

Throwing the diary across the room, the teenager fought back tears. The book clattered to the ground, its pages spraying open. A decade! A decade had passed since that day when he had saved her from death’s grasp again. Yet those words still haunted her. They littered the pages of her diary. Warning her. But they weren’t the words she wanted to remember… nor the ones that truly scared her. It was the ones before that. The ones he had whispered to her when he slipped the necklace over her head the first time they had meet. When he had held her shivering, trembling body, drenched from water. The day he had first saved her.

 

            “You will be mine.”

 

            It had been a promise. A promise that he would never let her go.

 

            Ever.

 

            But he had! And it was her fault. Rubbing her damp eyes, the young girl tried to breathe. A painful lump had lodged itself in her throat and her cheeks ached from crying. Her fault… She kept running away from him and had given into her pathetic, unsupported fear for what?! So she could stay in this world and live? Was being alive worth his sacrifice? Another sob wracked her body as her hands clenched into tight fists. A sharp stinging arose in her palms as her nails broke skin.

“Are you scared of him?”

            No! She had never been afraid of him. Ever. She loved him. But he asked for her to sacrifice life among the living. Sacrifice everything she knew and loved! Yet, in return, he was prepared to give her everything He had... To love her like no other. Protect her… She laughed bitterly. Not that she was in any danger any more.

            “As you wish.” His last words to her after her disgusting plea to stay living and apart from him. Then he had gone to Them. The very creatures hunting her, the Erinyes. The furies. The very creatures wanting to torture Him through her…She couldn’t think about that. The pain he must be suffering so she could live in peace, and alive. Without him. In the end, she had hurt him like no other, but still he sacrificed everything for her selfish wish…

She had let Them win.

Her sniffles stopped. This time when she rubbed her eyes, no fresh tears sprang to her sore eyes. She had made up her mind.  Standing, she walked over to her phone and called the only person she knew who could help.

“What do you want?” The harsh, abrupt question was nicer then she accepted; not the loud, abusive range of obscene words she had prepared for.

“I want to save him. I want to be his.” The words came out broken from her cracked, salty lips, but strong.

“You don’t deserve him,” the man spat and she flinched. After all, he was right. That’s what hurt the must.

“I know, but I’m the only one who can save him… with your help.”

Silence. “I’ll be over in ten�"beep beep…” He had hung straight up on her.

Taking a deep breath, the young girl squeezed the mobile in her hand. The air shuddered in her throat as she exhaled.  She had to do this.

 

No more running.