Eternal

Unya

I walked into the house that was shrouded in shadows, there wasn’t an ounce of light but I could walk around this place with my eyes closed and the darkness had always seemed more of a friend to me, instead of something to be feared. As long as there was darkness, there would be places for me to hide. Whenever my mum would wander down the hallway and found herself entering my room, I would hide under the covers and pretend that I was asleep.

I couldn’t recall the exact moment when my love for her had changed to fear, I knew that it must have been after the third of fourth lash with the belt but that had also been the time that a seed of defiance had begun to take root inside of me. I had grown used to the slaps and punches and even the occasional pinch when she felt like spicing things up a bit, but the belt had been the undoing of me.

I started to become numb to the pain, I mean sure I may have only been thirteen but I had grown used to it and if I didn’t show that it hurt me, she would soon lose interest. Instead she would send me to my room without food unless of course I had an event coming up.

I had been in a recital the day before and she had been sitting there in the front row, her eyes burning holes into the fabric of my very being. I had sung a hauntingly chilling song that had bought a tear to many eyes, but my finger had slipped when I was playing the violin and a hideous screech was released. I saw her grimace and wondered what punishment would fall on me this evening. Something snapped right there and then and the fear that had been festering gave way to unbridled anger as I smashed the instrument down into the floor, striking it repeatedly until it was nothing but splinted wood and snapped string.

My mum had sent me to my room and drowned her sorrows until she reached the bottom of the third bottle of wine.

I heard her steps as she clambered up the stairs, I knew that I was going to be in for it this time, after my little performance on stage, but I was done cowering in fear. I stood in the corner behind my door covered by the shadows, as the smell of permeated alcohol assailed my senses. I saw her enter my room and reach out for my bed, I made sure that I didn’t move a muscle as her face twisted in rage as she discovered that I wasn’t where she had expected me to be.

She spun around as her eyes searched the room and suddenly latched onto me, but I would not cower, she came at me and I raised my fist and connected it with her face, the moment she closed the distance between us.

She recoiled away from me, as she looked at me in horror, she retreated from my room as she kept muttering to herself, saying the same thing over and over again. All she was saying was “I failed.”

It was because of that, that I was able to find comfort in the darkness and welcome its caress like it was nothing more than an old friend. I scanned the living room but could tell that it was empty and with the kitchen light off I knew that she would not be in there either, “Happy fourteenth birthday” I said to myself. It could have been possible that she had gone out, but I knew that wasn’t the case, as the front door had been unlocked and her car was still sitting in the drive way. I didn’t really want to see her anyway, but I was curious as to why she never collected me from school that day, why would she suddenly release the shackles that she had placed on me.

I climbed the stairs until I reached the landing and noticed that water was seeping out of the bathroom, it was the only room I could see light pouring out from. It was coming from the crack at the bottom of the door.

I felt a shiver run down my spine as a sense of trepidation filled me, I edged closer to the door and slowly pushed down on the handle and opened it.

I saw my mum laying in the bath, with the taps running and the bathwater dyed crimson with her blood. Her wrists were pointed up to the ceiling with deep gashes running up towards her elbows and her eyes were nothing more than vacant orbs.

I slid down onto the toilet seat and felt my anger ebb away, I waited to feel something at the sight lying before me, but nothing happened.

My emotions remaining dormant, I decided that I should probably call for an ambulance when her head turned towards me with her mouth opened wide. Dark tendrils began to seep out of her as they coiled their way towards me, I tried to get away from them, but the door slammed shut as they continued to coil around my still frame and slithered inside my eyes, ears and mouth until I was nothing but darkness itself.

Chapter Sixteen

Lawson

I was still in the same position, and I wondered if she would ever wake up or if my demise had been set in stone, with the inevitable death that would befall her soon.

“I know this is selfish, but I need you to fight Unya. I have no idea what power lies within you, but I know that you possess a fierce strength and I need you to call on that now. I need you to be stubborn and to want to live, if you let go now, then I have failed in what I was sent here to do, and I will surely die. There was a time, not so long ago that I would have welcomed that fate because I knew that deep down, I deserved it. I deserved to die an excruciating death, but there’s something inside me that wants to survive, I guess it’s nothing more than human nature. I keep trying to extinguish that side of me but it’s a lot harder said than done. There’s a darkness that has been festering within me for a long time and it’s grown its roots and it now has a vice like hold on me. Sometimes I think I should just let go and let it take me over completely until I think of my dear father, Lilianna and Katherine. They all had their own battles to bare and not one of them ever gave in, but it now seems as though Kat is going too and I can’t leave her alone right now. I need to help her to find a reason to keep on fighting and as long as she does, I will too.”

I had said all of this, knowing or maybe more accurately hoping that Unya wouldn’t actually be able to hear me. I just needed to get it off of my chest and it seemed like the most opportune time to do just that. Part of me wanted to finally unload about Lilianna but just mentioning her name had made my throat want to constrict and my heart want to beat right out of my chest, as the darkness snaked through me, trying to condemn me further.

Z

Another two days passed before Unya’s face began to heal, I hadn’t even noticed the transformation until I heard the sound of bones crunching and looked up to see her nose was once again, whole. There was absolutely no sign of there ever being a break and the bruises where quickly fading as well. I let go off the sigh that I had no recollection of holding and realised that maybe she had more of Zeus’s blood in her, than any of us had realised.

I found myself wondering about her boyfriend, and whether or not he had taken a running jump off of some cliff but shook the thought away. Just because she was able to heal the extensive damage that she had, did not mean that she would be powerful enough to control a mind so fully as to make them not even able to break through when their life was on the line. Maybe her powers weren’t even born from Zeus and were in fact an extension of the gifts that the sorceress had possessed and she only had the healing from the ruler himself.

But of course, this was all speculation and I really had no idea as to why she seemed as though she could actually be more powerful than myself when I was a full demigod and not just some descendant with a watered -down blood line.

I removed myself from the bedside vigil that I had erected and fell down onto the sofa. I had worn myself out with my constant observation of Unya, but now that she appeared to be healing, I decided to grab a little shut eye.

I awoke about an hour later, feeling worse than I had before I closed my eyes. I knew it was my own fault, seeing as that was all the sleep I had allowed myself to have in the last forty eight hours. Nevertheless all I did was wipe the sleep from my eyes and stretched my tightened muscles.

I thought I heard a murmur but shook it off as wishful thinking until I actually heard my name, whispered from a dry and croaking mouth.

I flew to my feet and quickly got to her bedside as my eyes connected with the luminous green of her own. I realised that once she remembered what I had done to the guy who had been strangling her, she may fear me so I made sure that I wasn’t within her personal space.

“Water please,” She croaked, and I quickly saw to her request and waited patiently for her to freak out.

“I thought maybe I dreamed you coming to my rescue, but I guess not.”