Afterlife Saga: Afterlife Part 12

"I will make you see, ready for your master young mistress." I didn't understand and I shook my head under her grasp.

"Be still," she ordered as she grabbed my arm and held it out with my palm facing upwards. I was losing strength enough to struggle anymore and was giving up. The tears streamed down my face and on to the hand of my captor. She held the dragon finger out pointing it at my palm.

She said something that sounded like a command only it was in a different language.

"!"(Means "Bite" In Russian) Then my eyes saw something impossible. The dragon's head moved, opening its mouth wide releasing its teeth into a biting position. I mouthed the words "Don't!" and "No!" But the sound was m.u.f.fled by her hand. The dragon bit down hard on my palm making small puncture marks with its teeth. I cried out in pain wanting this nightmare to be over, wondering if I was ever going to see my family again. She whispered in my ear yet more words I couldn't understand.

" " (Means, "It will soon be over, be brave" In Greek) She pulled her hand away from my lips and I was in too much pain to say anything apart from cry. Then she repeated the same words once more to the dragon ring and placed it to her own palm letting it once again taste blood. At least this time it was hers. Unlike me she smiled at the pain as though welcoming it and pressed it tightly to my own bleeding hand.

"It has been a pleasure Electus!" (Means "Chosen" In Latin) These were the last words I heard until my mother's voice woke me up. I opened my eyes to the room my sister and I shared in my grandparent's guest house. I first thought it was all a dream as I looked down at my hand for a cut in my skin but it wasn't there. I later found out that my parents, along with a number of fairground staff had found me curled up asleep near the tool shed. There was no sight of a gypsy woman and nor had there been one working the fair that year. I tried to tell my parents but without proof they put it all down to a nightmare.

I, too, had been convinced until the day I saw her again.

It was on my seventh birthday, we had all gone out to an American themed diner where they served burger and chips (Or fries as it was on the menu), which was a favourite of mine. Afterwards we all walked along the sh.o.r.e to get some ice cream, spotting one made with traditional Cornish clotted cream. I pointed it out as though the colourful ice cream van was a beacon drawing me in.

I walked right up to the open window already knowing the flavour I wanted, when I noticed something familiar. The man that served me had the same deadly red tint in his eyes as the gypsy in my dream. I tried to shake it off but the red kept getting deeper and deeper until it soon looked as though his eyes would overflow with blood. I stepped back before giving him my order, when my father's voice came up behind me making me jump.

"Whoa, hey kiddo, what flavour are you getting?" I didn't answer as my dad walked past me giving the man three orders for himself, my sister and my mum.

"Honey what you having?...Come on make your mind up." My dad was getting impatient as he could see a line forming behind me. I still couldn't speak. Why couldn't he see what I was seeing? He turned to give me a look that translated to if I don't pick soon I wouldn't be getting one so I mouthed a silent "Chocolate" and he frowned at my strange behaviour. He pa.s.sed me mine with his hands full and walked towards my family who had sat down on a nearby bench. I was about to follow when the man from the van shouted "Hey Guv you forgot your change" in a thick Ess.e.x accent.

"Oh Honey could you grab that for me." I froze knowing I would have to explain myself if I refused. Maybe I was just seeing things. That had to be it, no one else in the line looked freaked. People moved out of my way to let me pa.s.s as I reached up my hand to receive the money but the man grabbed my hand forcefully and my eyes met the gypsy woman's face, the one that had haunted my dreams for weeks. Her eyes were bleeding and the blood dripped down onto people's ice creams that lay in the holders. Customers still took them and licked away at them as though nothing was there. n.o.body seemed to notice this mad looking woman as she was pulling me closer to the window. They were just going around me as though I was a traffic cone in the road.

"Now you will see...7....7....7...7" she kept repeating the number over and over as she let go of my hand. I fell back and an elderly couple helped me off the floor, picking up the change that the crazy gypsy had dropped around me. I looked back and the ice cream man's face smiled back at me, saying "Are you all right love?"

I couldn't understand what had just happened and my parents just thought my tears were from when I had fallen and lost my ice cream. But from that day on I would see things that made people's nightmares seem like happy cartoons. My nightmares started to come to life when I wasn't even asleep. I would be on a bus or in a car and one minute I would see just a normal person and then I would see them change into something utterly terrifying.

Sometimes I would see them with scales where skin should be or their hair would move as though they were floating underwater. Then there were the very scary ones, the ones that had black empty holes where their eyes should be. Sometimes these holes would glow red and the cracks in their skin would light up in reaction. Their skin would move under the cracks as though thousands of tiny little creatures were trying to claw and scratch their way out from under the rock like skin.

Others would flicker back and forth like the top of their heads kept screaming. As if the other side of them was trying to escape. These would let out a screeching sound so high pitched that I would have to put my hands over my ears and they would always ache afterwards, leaving me with a ringing in my fragile mind.

I now lived in fear of when I would next see one, becoming withdrawn and nervous. I tried to tell my parents about my fears but they put it down to everything and anything. They would tell me off sending me to my room, and then my mum would get so upset about what she was hearing. I would cry to Libby pleading with her to believe me but as the months went on she did less and less. I had no answers to any of her questions, so why would she?

"Why can no one else see them?" She would often ask but I just hung my head feeling helpless in a secret world no one else could see. Occasionally I would see a kind looking one but even these were disturbing. They would glow with eyes bright but their veins would move as though you could see the blood flowing through their bodies. But it was normally a bluish light that would follow through into their back to what looked like wings. These too would differ in shape and size sometimes and also material.

I remember one woman looked as though hers were made from clear plastic bags stretched out onto long thin twig like fingers that curled at the ends. But the images would flash in and out so quickly that sometimes they would change. It got that way, that I didn't know what was real any more.

One day at school it was getting too much for me when a new teacher had asked why I was crying and why wouldn't I go outside to play with the others? When I had replied, "Cause there's a boy in my cla.s.s that's a monster," She had rung my parents to come into the school. The meeting had lasted the rest of the day with different teachers and staff being involved. No one spoke to me but my father came out and barely looked at me. My mother just placed her hand on my back and said, "Come on, we're going home."

n.o.body said a word in the car.

Later that night I had heard my Mother and Father having an argument and I had tiptoed to the landing to hear. I found my sister there already with her face full of sorrow. Marks down her cheeks revealed she had been crying. The voices downstairs grew louder and I could make out that my mother too was crying.

"But she's not sick and I won't send her to that place!" My mother said between sobs.

"You know I don't want to send her there either but what else can we do?" Tears filled my eyes at all the trouble I had caused. I wished I could erase it all. I wished I could go back to the happy kid I once was and then none of this would be happening. My sister turned to me and wiped away my tears.

"I don't understand why this is happening to you but I know you're not faking it. However mum and dad will send you away if you don't do something." She looked at me with pleading eyes and her face blurred through my watery vision.

"Send me where?" I tried to control my sobs so as not to alert my parents that we were listening.

"The school thinks you should be sent to a special hospital so you can be monitored by doctors and therapists." She lowered her head in shame to be the one to tell me this.

"They think I'm crazy don't they?" She nodded and a single tear rolled down her pink cheek.

"What am I going to do, I don't want to go, I'm scared Libby." She held me close to her, hugging me tight not wanting me to be taken away. She leaned into my ear and said one word.

"LIE" My head popped up and looked at her. She was serious.

"What?"

"LIE. Tell them it was all a lie to get attention, tell them a girl at school put you up to it, tell them it's scary films you have been sneaking downstairs to watch, I don't know but tell them anything so they won't send you away!" She was almost as desperate as I was but she clearly had time to think about this.

I nodded saying, "Ok I will but Libby what do I do about keeping the monsters away?" She looked worried at my response and sadly said, "I don't know but let's deal with this problem first."

It felt comforting to hear my sister's semi belief, so it gave me the confidence I needed to do what I did next. After telling my parents one of the excuses Libby had come up with, everything went back to normal pretty quickly. Apart from my seeing things I could not explain, my life went back to the usual young girl's life I had originally had. Only now I had to fake a lot of things. Why, for example, I would jump at nothing and looked shocked at some random person walking past. But my parents were more than happy to believe that I was fine. If only for one day they saw the same things I did. I would sometime dream that this would happen but then felt guilty about it instantly. I would never wish this curse on anyone. Even at such a young age I still knew the consequences such a life altering event had on one human mind.

However it all changed again six months later when Libby came running into my room with an idea. She had recently seen a doc.u.mentary of a man that travelled around the world talking about different cultures. My dad was watching it as he did every week when my sister took notice of one part in particular. It was when he tried to take a picture of the Aborigines, they held up their hands in protest. The guide then explained why this was.

Spiritualists would claim that the human image on the mirrored surface was akin to looking into one's soul. The spiritualists also believed that it would open their souls and let demons in. Aborigines believed that taking one's picture took part of one's soul away. It somehow kept it locked away.

Locked...that was the key.

This was how her idea was born. She thought that if taking a picture of someone let demons in then maybe taking the picture of a demon would somehow contain them. But it didn't quite make sense and I could hardly go around taking every one's picture just in case. So she came up with another way, she told me to try and draw them whenever I saw one. Maybe this would act as a sort of prison for them to be locked out of my mind. It was something I had never thought of, so I did as she asked and started sketching them every time I saw one.

I found that every time I did this it would lock the image from my head and I wouldn't see it any more. The effects didn't stop there, because after years of seeing these living nightmares they grew less and less until one day I realised I hadn't seen one in over a month.

However they didn't go completely, they were now only coming to me when I was asleep. I would play back part of the day and somewhere there would be one changing into something horrible but as long as it remained in my dream I could cope with it. I would then get up and draw what I had seen and keep it in a hidden folder, locking it out of my head forever. The next time I saw the same person, they would be just like everyone else and I wouldn't dream of them again. By the time I hit my teens the dreams had also stopped, only coming back to me a few times a year. I owed it all to Libby and she would never know the full extent of what she had done for me. She had saved me from my curse.

Now, of course, I was back to my own unusual therapy, drawing the visions that had come to me in last night's horror. Of course the difference now was that I had a knight in not so shiny jeans and t-shirt, but man what a knight he was! It was worth being so scared in the mists of h.e.l.l to see the heaven there waiting to pull me out. It was just a pity that he too was just a fragmented version of the truth.

Draven at the club and Draven my knight were miles apart. It was just a shame that the only one of those that was real hated me! I sat back staring at the pictures of faces made up of teeth and shuddered at the thought. But this time I didn't have a book I could add it to. This time I would have to start a new one, for new nightmares.

And I had a feeling this was only the beginning of my recurring past.

Chapter 15 - To VIP or not to VIP.

I went downstairs just before the morning light filled the kitchen. No one was up yet and I was thankful for it. I still felt strange from the night's events and Libby would no doubt pick up on it. I was trying to time it right so when she got up, I could jump in the shower. Hopefully I could get away with not seeing her until tonight after work.

The thought of work gave way to new worries. It would be even harder now knowing that everyone would soon find out I was about to turn down a once in a life time opportunity. For them maybe, but for me? More like a recipe for disaster!

I sat and wondered as I played around with the breakfast before me that I couldn't eat. I let my mind go over every detail of the dream. Had he woken me from a nightmare in a dream? How was that even possible? I searched my room before coming down here for any evidence of the possibility that it could have been real. But I was living in hopes for an impossible reality. What had me so fixated? He had completely seduced my mind.

Was there anyway of going back?

But did I want to even if I could? I knew the answer. There was no turning back now. He had ruined all chances for me feeling like this about anyone else. Jack had made it perfectly clear about his feelings last night but I had shied away from his attentions, yet before I would have loved it. I would have really gone for someone like Jack. He was funny, charming and above all a perfect gentleman. But Jack wasn't the problem...I was.

It was as if ever since the "Incident" I had become sick. It was like I was addicted to pain. Attracted to the one guy that didn't care and never would. What kind of twisted side effect was that? I was now attracted to things I could never have. Was this so I would never get hurt again. Like, if I knew it could never happen then he would never get to know the truth about me. After all wasn't it just my mind's way of protecting itself.

I carried on fighting with my own thoughts like this until I got out of the shower and I had finally to concentrate on something else, getting ready. I realised I was running late when I heard RJ's little car beep it's pathetic horn. It sounded more like Road Runner. I ran downstairs with half wet hair trying to put it up into its usual twist but it wasn't co-operating. The sides hung down wet and wavy. I got in the car after a quick goodbye to Libby and Frank and must have looked like I'd been dragged backwards through a car wash.

"Hey, you ok, just woken up by any chance?" She laughed and started the engine into semi life. She rubbed the dash saying, "Come on old girl, you're warm now." I laughed and the car shot into motion.

"Believe it or not I woke up at 4:30." She shot me a look in disbelief.

"Tell me you weren't getting ready this whole time?" She eyed me up and down already knowing that obviously I hadn't.

I sat fiddling with my seat belt waiting for her to start back up the interrogation.

"So, good night last night?" She smiled half biting her lip to contain herself. But now with that look on her face I wasn't sure what she meant. Was it about the VIP or Jack?

"It was ok. Look I'm sorry I got all weird last night but you know I just hated all the attention that's all." She nodded still smiling like I was missing the joke.

"But you must have liked the attention from someone... right?" Ah ha, she was talking about Jack. I was now wondering what he had said. I would have to be careful.

"I don't know what you mean?" Ok, she wasn't stupid and she shot me a look to prove it. G.o.d it was like having CSI Grisham on the case. I'm surprised she didn't have a lie detector strapped to my a.s.s.

"Oh come on, we all know Jack likes you and he drove you home and...."

"And....and what?" I decided the best way to play this out was good old faithful "Playing dumb."

"And what happened next?" Well at least this was confirmation that Jack hadn't said anything which meant that I could get away with also not giving away anything.

"Ok... so what did Jack say?" Another smirk, she had taken my asking the wrong way.

"He didn't say anything, that's my point. This is how I know something happened! He's only secretive when something's going on." Now I was starting to feel really bad. I was going to have to make it clear to Jack I didn't want to hurt his feelings.

"Nothing happened, Jeez you're like a pit bull with a lamb chop!" She laughed and seemed pleased with the a.n.a.logy. I carried on talking in a more serious tone.

"Honestly nothing happened, he's a good friend, we chatted and he was the perfect gentleman but that's it." I said making her sigh in defeat.

"That's a shame. I really think he likes you and it been so long since his last girlfriend." She went really sad but I couldn't understand why. I mean it's unusual for a sister to really care who her brother dates, unless she was a friend. Wasn't it?

"Why, what happened?" Now it was me being nosy, RJ must be rubbing off on me.

"I shouldn't have mentioned it, forget I said anything." WHAT! This coming from RJ gossip queen, now how could I forget it?

"Can I just ask is it anything to do with the Dravens?" She whipped her head round to stare at me in amazement but come on, it really wasn't that hard to put two and two together.

"Who told you!?" She looked upset as she raised her voice and gripped the steering wheel as though she was going round a circuit.

"Was it Lanie, that little..."

"NO, no, sorry but I just guessed and after what you said at the club last night about some stories not being just gossip and something that Jack said in the car on the way home, I just kinda put it all together." She relaxed her muscles a little and slowed her speed, not that the little car went much faster, if anything it just made more noise!

"I shouldn't have said that last night, I hope he's forgiven me." It was horrible seeing RJ sad, it looked wrong, in the same way as when Jack looked angry last night. It didn't suit either of them.

"I'm sorry I said anything, let's just forget it." I said trying to be more helpful than anything as I still really wanted to know.

"Ok, I would tell you but this really is the one thing that isn't my place but I'm sure he will tell you soon, he does really like you... you know that, right?" I did and I wished I could do something about it but I couldn't. I wasn't that girl any more. So I said the only thing I could think of, without giving away too much information.

"I like Jack, I really do but I just don't date any more, I'm what you would call... broken." She rolled her lips back into her mouth and nodded getting the idea.

"Boy, somebody must have done a real number on you." I just nodded holding back the tears.

She really had no idea.

The rest of the day flew by without any more talk from RJ about last night. I had spent lunch outside, as the sun was out for a change and most of the students were taking advantage of the freak weather. There was still a chill but nothing a hooded sweater couldn't handle. The rest of the gang met us as RJ had sent a ma.s.s text inviting everyone. There was the usual lot and four others I didn't know. They seemed like Jack's friends, as they kept nudging him as soon as they saw me. Jack came over to sit by me and asked sweetly if I was cold. I said I was fine and we continued to talk about our day's cla.s.ses.

I wished at this moment I felt that tingle that you get when you're sat next to someone you fancy. I mean what was wrong with me? He was gorgeous and today was no exception as he wore a faded Led Zeppelin T shirt with a leather jacket that looked warm, and his usual faded Jeans with rips at the knees. His hair was untamed and floppy but it could have been styled by Tony and Guy as he looked once more as if he had just come from a photo shoot for Men's Health magazine. His big shoulders leaned in towards mine as he sat with his body turned into me. He wanted to be close that much was clear.

"Wow, now why won't Mum and Dad buy me one of those?" RJ's head was on full alert with her eyes nearly bulging out as she stared at a huge shiny black Land Rover that had just pulled up not more than twenty feet away from where we were all sat.

"Because Mum and Dad don't have a hundred grand to spend on anything, let alone a car!" Jack turned his head back around in disgust as if knowing who was in it.

"Is that a Range Rover project Kahn?" One of Jack's friends said as though he wanted to go up there and start licking the bodywork. Another answered his question with amazement himself.

"I thought they were only available in Europe, man that's a sweet ride." Every student was now staring at it as they went by. Some even took pictures with their mobile phones.

Jack had leaned into me as if to try and draw my attention away from who was in it.

"So I was kind of wondering if maybe you'd like to catch a movie one night?" Oh no, was he asking me out on a date? I was starting to think of how to form the words when RJ saved me.

"Oh my G.o.d, Kaz there's a stunning looking girl waving to you." I turned my head round and saw Sophia's perfect figure standing there in a designer dress waving one manicured hand at me. I got up and went bright red as everyone but Jack was staring at me with their mouths wide open.

"I'd better go and see what she wants." I walked over to her and the big black beast of a car that was still burbling behind her. I heard RJ say as I walked off, "Who's that?" And then a murmur of whispers continued about the mystery girl.

"Hi Keira, I thought we could walk to History together." She embraced me as if she hadn't seen me in years. The scent of her perfume nearly knocked me out. She smelt like a luxury flower garden and I imagined the Hanging Gardens of Babylon to have the same affect. She was about to link my arm but then stopped and turned back to the car. She knocked on the window and turned to me saying, "Silly me, forgot my bag." The window went down with a gentle humming and it was as black inside the car as it was on the outside. A strong looking hand leaned out with a Gucci bag to match the dress and shoes and everything else about her.

"Thank you Dominic, see you later." My heart nearly stopped! It was her brother in the car. I wanted to run. Instead I just turned round to face the other direction and held my head down. I could have sworn I heard a noise made in response to my actions and it was too deep a noise to have been Sophia's. The window did the same noise and I knew it would soon be over. She came back to where I stood and linked my arm.

"Come on then, let's get the dreaded Reed over and done with." I smiled and waved goodbye to my friends who were starting to disperse themselves. They stared in amazement but only Jack looked angry and hurt. Sophia noticed as he was now glaring at her full of hatred in his eyes.

"Who's that, your boyfriend?" I choked back a nervous laugh that made me sound more mental than I already felt and she looked at me with a strange expression.

"No, why would you think that?" She smiled and stared back in front as we walked towards the entrance of our building.

"Well it was my brother who noticed, you... umm...seemed cosy sat there, deep in conversation. I guess he just a.s.sumed." I couldn't speak. I just did that strange little grunting noise I had done earlier. Like trying to swallow a big pill that was stuck half way down. Why on earth would he even mention me? I'm surprised he even knew who I was. He must be cautious about his employees.

"Nah, that's just Jack my friend RJ's brother... I...umm... don't date." I said as it felt like this was the theme of the day. I felt like a quiz show contestant where the presenter introduces you in a dramatic loud voice saying your name and something about your personal life only mine would read; "I'd like to introduce our next contestant Keira Johnson. Keira enjoys obsessing about her boss, who barely knows she's alive. She's come over from England due to being cast out, likes drawing the Monsters she sees in her head and most importantly enjoys explaining on a daily basis how she never dates... COME ON DOWN!"

I could have added a lot more but I did want to make it through the day without feeling like a complete loser. After all it was bad enough that I had Reed for my next lesson, not to mention the news I had yet to tell Sophia about me turning the job down. With her cute little doll like face it was going to be like telling an entire Kindergarten there was no Santa!