Chapter 9: Chapter 9
It was a warm night outside the Darthwood Principal Theatre. Couples, families, singles and movie enthusiasts came to get their horror fix of the month. The picture ran for one hundred and twenty minutes, and it was over about three minutes ago.
The viewers had begun making their way outside with lazy paces. Brave hearts talked about how futile the attempts at jump scares were, and the faint hearted conversed with faces of
accusation for almost giving them a trip to the hospital due to heart attack. Nathan and Emily were among the exiting crowd, Emily’s arm locked around Nathan’s. Smiling as they talked and gazed into each other’s eyes dreamily.
“Oh, you beautiful faint-hearted maiden,” said Nathan, comic in his tone, “You’ve seen people coming back from the dead and scary ninja assassins, yet you still fear the hilarious attempts those foolish directors made at horror?”
“Oh, shut it, will you?!” said Emily with exasperation, albeit
smiling.
“How come you didn’t flinch even once?”
“Why would I?” asked Nathan in an obvious tone. “I don’t have a cat’s heart! You should’ve seen your face when that headless
ghost grabbed the girl’s feet from under the bed.
You were like- ahhhhhhh!”
Biting on the lower lip in mock rage, Emily pinched hard on
Nathan’s arm.
“Ahhhhh!” cried out Nathan. They both locked their eyes and
pretended to be angry. Then burst out with laughter.
The outside of the theatre hit their bodies like a blast of warmness after coming from the chilled atmosphere of the building’s interior, the air
pleasantly tingling on the skin. Making way through the chattering gathering in the yard, they slowly walked towards the parking lot.
Nathan’s green jeep was brooding in the murky darkness amidst of white and red Toyotas. Nathan proceeded with leaving the theatre car park once they both were inside the vehicle.
“So, where would my lady want to go now?” said Nathan. “Could you please drop me off at my place?”
“Already?”
“It’s getting late,” said Emily as she stole a glance at her smartphone. “I should be home right now.”
“But the night’s so young! And you said your parents wouldn’t be home for days.”
“Yeah, but I have some things that I desperately need to tend to at home,” said Emily apologetically. “But worry not my prince,” she said darkly, “I’ll let you take me to another date as my apology.”
Nathan bowed at her shortly, then smiled.
The green jeep stopped at road brushing Emily’s residence. It was a white duplex, it’s interior quite dark against the night.
Nathan hopped out of the jeep, rushed around, then held the door open for Emily to come out.
Turning red at the unexpected service, Emily stepped out of the vehicle.
“Thank you!” she said, moving aside to allow for the door to be
closed.
“Anything for you!” replied Nathan through a smiled. “So, let’s
go someplace to eat, same time tomorrow-”
But words failed to escape his mouth as Emily’s was pressing
onto him.
Responding back, he moved closer and put his arms around her narrow
waist. Their bodies caressing gently against the oncoming summer’s warm breeze. Moments passed by; the couple tore away from each other.
Grinning at the sight of Emily’s intriguing frame walking over the front yard towards the entrance door, Nathan decided he should head back as well. The jeep was slowly moving away from Emily’s house when she was standing before the door, inserting key into the lock.
The lock clicked and the door moved inward revealing the hallway that led to the living room. There was no light coming from the inside of the living room, yet she clearly remembered leaving one bulb turned on.
Thinking nothing of it, she stepped inside the hallway, took off her shoes then locked the door. She was suffering from total blindness inside the house. Since their front yard was quite large, the light of the streetlamps did not quite illuminate the interior.
Fumbling on the left side of the wall,
she soon found a small board holing a singular switch of the hallway. She turned it on.
Nothing.
Did the fuse blow out or something? Emily thought to herself, remembering the lights still being turned on in the neighbor’s houses.
Letting out a sigh of annoyance, she then tried to take her phone out of her pocket to access the facility of flashlight. Her heart missed a beat at the thought. She slapped her hip pockets frantically and then rummaged inside them.
But of course, it didn’t help to magically materialize the phone she did not have with her.
“OH CRAP!” she exhaled bitterly. Then barked at herself in the dark, “Good job Emily! You’ve lost your phone for the seventh billion time! You just love getting chewed at by mum don’t you!”
Without seeing any other way, she proceeded toward the living room miserably. The phone was the most important object in the world to her.
And the darkness didn’t add much to improve her mood either. She progressed taking one step at a time and soon found herself out of the hallway and into the living room. The rod cells in her cornea had begun working now and she could somewhat make out shapes of the ever familiar living room. Consulting from memory, she proceeded towards the stairs which would lead to her room.
There’s a big charger light that would rescue her from the power
problem. She could see the shapes of
a descending staircase not far away from her. She took a step towards it.
“Ahh!” screamed Emily as something cold and hard had made
exploding
contact with the little toe of her right foot. With teary eyes, she crashed
into the ground, clenching her teeth from blinding pain. Her hand
quickly grasping the wounded toe.
Once the pain became a bit manageable, she felt a furious confusion
rising in her. There wasn’t supposed to be any furniture where
she was.
So, what caught her toe?
A small orb radiating light of a shade of burnt sienna appeared from the
far-left side of where Emily was suffering on the floor. Flinching terribly,
Emily shot her focus towards the orb, totally oblivious of the pain. There
was something sitting on one of the couches. The figure holding the orb
gradually took shape from the intensifying light source. The figure stood
up without hurry, a long semi-translucent robe fluttering around her
sensual body, slipping to a side as she walked to reveal the silky skin of
her legs. Emily stared at the approaching figure. Utterly transfixed.
Nothing entered her mind, not even a single thought of running away
even as an elegant face began inching towards Emily’s as the
figure
stopped beside her. Emily could she the shapes in that shimmering face,
it was the most gorgeous face she had ever laid her eyes upon.
The
ghostly female did not look real against the sepia light erupting from the
mysterious glow of the orb that casted dancing shadows all around.
“Who- who are you?!” whispered Emily, afraid to even raise her
tone.
“I am immortal,” whispered the female back, a mysterious smile
playing
on her luscious lips.
Feeling speechless for a second, Emily swallowed. Then cried out,
“What’re you doing in my home? What do you want!”
The female smiled kindly, her slender index finger now touching
Emily’s
chin, as if raising her face towards the light for better view.
“Oh, sweet bird,” whispered the female in an enchanting voice, “I want
you!”
The woman swiftly retreated back, and instantly Emily felt a pair of iron
hand taking a hold of her. Panicked out of her mind, she tried to scream 26 | P a g e
only to be subdued by a folded cloth with a familiar fragrance of
disinfectants pressed tightly over her mouth and nose. In her frantic state
of being cut off from air, she tried to breathe hard. Air passed into her
lungs through the chemical-soaked cloth, and she felt a blackness
spreading over her consciousness at a scary pace. Her eyes rolled
backwards, and her struggle in the stranger’s arms ceased.
Seeing the sagging body of Emily, the female chortled, and said,
“A job
well done!”
Nathan had turned the jeep’s ac off and kept the driver side
window
down, letting the air blast against his elated face. He was humming a tone
that was popular in Cartmel back in England when he was just a kid. In
all these unending years, even seeing all these singers sing songs he never
imagined was possible to produce, that old tune never faded away from
the shelves of his memories. But only happiness was capable of brining
it out. There was Irina, Charlotte and Alexandra, girls who had stolen his
heart as he roamed through the continents passing centuries, subjecting
himself to bizarre adventures, forced or willingly. And now there was
Emily, a girl who had once again stolen his heart. It had been seventy
years since he last felt his heart flutter as if he had gone back to his
teenage self again.
Coming up to a red light, he stopped his jeep. Then looked for a bottle
of gin inside the glove compartment as thirst raised its head.
Something
rectangular and shiny over the passenger seat had caught his eyes. It was
Emily’s smartphone. Thanking the lady luck for Emily’s
carelessness,
Nathan made an U-turn towards Emily’s home. His face beaming
joy for
another chance of seeing her. And he knew she wouldn’t be mad
for it
either. He saw how precious this piece of modern object was to her.
It took about fifteen minutes for him to drive back to Emily’s
house.
Parking the jeep beside the road, he started towards the house.
Just as 27 | P a g e
he went to push the bell beside the front door, Nathan noticed the entire
house drowning in darkness. Why wouldn’t she turn the lights
on?
wondered Nathan to himself. But his heart skipped a beat noticing the
slight crack on the front door. He pushed it gently, his jaw beginning to
drop in shock. The front door was unlocked!
Nathan quickly brought out his own phone and turned on the flashlight.
With hurried steps, he went inside while making an effort to produce no
noise at all. His vast pool of experience advised him to be take caution.
A feeling of unknown dread began creeping inside his stomach and he
suppressed the urge to shout out Emily’s name as he passed the
hallway.
The dread abruptly turned into terror as the light of his phone swept
over the wrecked situation of the interior, sofas flipped, vases smashed,
counter tables shattered. The room looked as if a compact hurricane had
made a trip here. Looking around the room, his eyes suddenly halted
over a hanging coat on the east side wall right beside the staircase. It was
an odd place for a coat hanger. Anticipation bit as he walked towards it.
Nathan recognized the coat, it was Emily’s. She wore it just
yesterday
when they were hanging out in the amusement park. He slowly
unhooked the coat and brought it down, revealing a beautiful blade
buried deep inside the wall. Judging by its hilt and the pattern work of
the part of the blade that wasn’t buried into the wall, Nathan
knew it was
a Japanese Weapon, a Katana. Terrible feeling slowly turned into anger;
Nathan felt it burning in the pit of his stomach.
“How dare they!” whispered Nathan, a shade of death mixed in
his voice,
his eyes glued to the hilt of the blade as if trying to reason with
it, “Do
they not know that Emily is under my protection? Do they not know that
stepping into the area marked by I, the immortal Nathanios Dragonfyre,
means certain death?”
Nathan’s entire body appeared to remain frozen as he stared at
the
Katana. Then, he slowly began pulling out his smartphone, calling a
number from speed dial.
“Yes, boss?” said Mark from the other side.28 | P a g e “Send a party to Emily’s residence, her living room was
devastated. Fix
it up to how it was. And call on my Knights!” “What happened to her, sir?” asked Mark. “Kidnapped,” replied Nathan shortly.
“Is it the woman and her ninjas again?” “Appears so.”
Mark remained silent for a moment before saying, “Sire, are you
sure
calling upon the Knights would be wise in this town?” “Call them.”
The coldness in Nathan’s voice made his caretaker on the
opposite side
halt for another moment. The memories of old war days came rushing
into Mark’s mind, the sheer power of Dragonfyre’s soldier forces
fighting
and laying waste to vast armies, turning cities to burning embers and
ashes. No one in history survived to tell the tales once they’ve
incurred
his wrath. Mark attempted to protest, “But the destruction it
will cause,
sire! Unleashing the Knights here would be-”
“Silence!” hissed Nathan, his face turning red as he spoke.
“I am your servant, my lord!” pleaded Mark. “I’ve been at your
side for
three hundred years, and not once in my life have I ever let you down!
Please, allow me to get together a party to search for her. If you wish to
pursue a life here in Darthwood with Emily Stone, please do not rush to
deploy the Knights here. The era’s changed sire, laying waste to
everything out of uncontrolled wrath like we used to back in the day
won’t work anymore. There’ll be consequences you can’t turn back
from!”
A long silence fell as Nathan fought against the liquid rage that was
boiling inside his stomach. He considered Marks’s advice.
“Her parents will return in five days,” said Nathan at last. “You’ve got
that much to find her.” “I will, sire.”29 | P a g e “And Mark?”
“Yes, sire?”
“You wouldn’t let me down, would you?”
A sound of short laugher came from the other side. Mark said smoothly,
“Have I ever, sire?”
Next day at school.
The length of the library rustled with the student’s movements.
Their
whispers floated in the air from the many spots hidden behind the
shelves. Tables were filled with bent over girls and boys, focused on
studying the spread open text or fiction books. Margaret was passing
them all with a hurried pace, progressing towards the history section. She
was required to collect a book on the first world war to complete an
assignment from her history period. Nearing the end of the long library,
she finally found herself in the history section. Shelves filled to the brim
with books containing text and stories spanning countless decades
crowded the section. Looking through the labels on the side of the
shelves, she soon found the cluster of shelves she was told by the librarian
that she would discover her desirable book in. Seeing a label named
“World Wars” in one row of shelves, Margaret walked between
the
passages of two wide shelves, her eyes glued to the smaller labels over
the mini wooden planks. She was moving sideways watching the names
on the spine of the books.
Just when she was about to extract a thick text book from a dusty bunch,
she crashed into someone from the left. Flinching, she jumped aside with
a gasping sound, book fell from her ungrasping hands on to the floor
with a solid “tash!” noise. Margaret stared at the boy in whom
she had
bumped into unwillingly. A slender, tall boy in dark clothing stood in
front of her, his startled face looked weary, his crystal blue eyes looked 30 | P a g e
muddy above dark bags, his wide and perfectly built stature seemed
almost like an angsty silhouette against the sunlit glass window crammed
in between the shelves.
“Nathan!” gasped Margarete. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t see you there!”
“It- it’s okay.”
Smiling at him, Margarete said, “What are you doing in the library?!”
Nathan gave a nervous smile, “Why? Do I look like someone who
hates
books?”
“Yes!” she blurted. Then, quickly shook her head and said apologetically, “I didn’t mean it like that! It’s just-”
“It’s alright,” replied Nathan, his voice almost inaudible as he
turned his
gaze towards the dust covered hardbacks, “you can’t trust
memory. Past
fades away very quickly. But books never fade.” Margarete stared, caught off guard by Nathan’s tone. She
cleared her
throat, then said, “Oh! I almost forgot, where’s Emily? I looked
everywhere for her. You see, I wanted to show her the story I was
working on and yeah, Clair wanted to see her as well to…
anyway, never
mind that now,” she laughed, “did she come with you?”
Nathan sighed. “She has a bit of fever, so I told her to skip school.”
“Oh god! That’s horrible! I should go see her-”
“If you don’t, Margarete, and please tell the other’s not to go see her,”
Nathan put his hand on her shoulder, nervously smiling, “It’d be
a big
favor to me. You see, I’m trying to take care of her.”
Margarete looked concerned for a moment, then laughed and said slyly,
“Ohh, I see what’s going on here. You’ve really fallen for her, haven’t
you?”
“Yes,” replied Nathan honestly.
“Okay! You can have her all to yourself, Mr., and I’ll tell the
others to
lay off too. But you better take good care of her!”31 | P a g e Nathan smiled shortly then began walking away.
“Oh, why did you come here anyway?” asked Margarete from
behind.
Showing the books in his hand, Nathan replied, “Just trying to
read up
on some first world war stuff is all.”
Back outside Margaret’s classroom, she saw Clair standing with Daniel
in the hallway beside the railing, conversing about something.
She went
up behind them and burst out, “Guys! You wouldn’t believe what’s
happening!”
Clair and Daniel both flinched at the sudden call. Clair grasped her chest
and barked, “Marg! You almost gave me a heart attack!”
“What is it, Marg?” asked Daniel, looking flushed from the jump- scare.
“Emily’s got a bit of fever, and since her parents aren’t at home, she’s
having Nathan taking care of her!” said Margarete looking at the
two intently.
“Good for her,” commented Daniel simply.
Clair grinned wildly and said giddily, “Oh, that girl is moving so fast! I’m
going to call her right now-”
“Wait,” Margarete put a hand on Clair’s arm, “Nathan asked us
not to
bother her at the moment.” She whispered, “He begged us so
that we
leave her all to him!”
Clair’s eyes sparkled and said with a scheming expression, “Hmm, what
did you ask in return?”
“Umm… I didn’t think of that,” Margarete said plainly.
Clair said in mock exasperation, “Oh, you stupid bookworm, this
is the
perfect time to squeeze some big treat out of-”
“So, Emily is sick?” floated a familiar voice from behind, cutting
Clair across.
The three flinched as they spun round to face Ethan standing behind
them, his face filled with concern.32 | P a g e
“Yeah,” replied Clair curtly. “Why? Do you care?”
“Don’t be stupid! Of course, I do!” said Ethan furiously, then
exhaled,
trying to suppress his anger. Then he said in a forced calm voice,
“Why
wouldn’t Nathan want anyone to contact her? Isn’t that weird?” “No, Ethan,” snapped Clair, “It’s not weird. It’s called love! You
should
try it sometimes!”
“Look,” said Ethan, trying to reason, “We don’t know who this Nathan
guy really is, what if he is doing something weird to her while making
sure no one else can contact her?”
“The fuck is you talking about!” flared Daniel, suddenly shoving
Ethan
back. Nathan staggered to keep balance from the force. “The
only thing
weird here is that you’re being creepy as fuck, man! Stop being
so jealous
and talking crap behind Nathan’s back and act like a fucking
man!”
Glaring at the lot of them, Ethan appeared to be trying to burn them
alive. Finding it futile, he turned and strode back into the classroom.
For the entirety of the math period, Ethan sat at the back of the class
looking as if his pants were on fire, spinning the ballpoint pen between
thumb, index and middle finger rigorously and glaring at everything his
eyes could find.
The bell tolled, and the teacher left. Next was the lunch period. Most of
the students had left. But Clair, Margarete, Daniel and Nathan remained
inside with those who were preparing to go for lunch shortly.
Ethan slowly got up, his fists tight with determination, going at the tables
the four sat and laughed conversing, he stood before them and looked
at Nathan directly, they all looked surprised by this sudden confrontation.
“What’s up dude?” asked Nathan.
“What happened to Emily?” Ethan said coldly. “She’s sick, didn’t you hear?”
“Oh really?” Ethan took a step forward. “And where is she now?”33 | P a g e
Nathan looked really taken aback. “Why? What’s that to you?”
“So, you can’t answer where she is?” Ethan looked almost
pleased.
Nathan moved with unease. “No, she’s at my mansion. Since her
parents
are out touring, I thought it’d be best to keep her there so that I can look
after her better.”
“What!” gasped Margarete. “You didn’t say that before!” “We wanted to spend some time together, that’s all!” Nathan
said
defensively.
“But there’s something funny going on,” said Ethan with a
mocking
grimace, “Clair, when did you last talk to Emily?” “Yesterday morning, why?” said Clair with a frown. “And where was she then?”
“At home, why?!”
“Yeah, the funny thing is that no one’s seen Emily go near your mansion
for the last three days. And I’ve just checked, Emily is not at her
home
either!”
“How did you check?” gasped Daniel. “You were here with us
the whole
period!”
“And what do you mean by ‘no one’s seen Emily go near your
mansion
for the last three days’?” asked Margarete, her eyes squinting
behind the spectacles at Ethan.
“I have my sources. I never trusted this joker,” scoffed Ethan
pointing at Nathan.
“So, you’ve been spying on me, eh?” said Nathan with a scowl. “It’s not
legal, you know that right?”
“I’ll happily see you at court once you’ve told us what you’ve
done with
Emily you bastard!” whispered Ethan, venom oozing out of his
tone.
“Nathan?” Clair looked sideways at him, puzzle in her eyes, and
smartphone in her hand. “Why is Emily’s phone switched off?”34 | P a g e
“What!” said Margarete and Daniel both at the same time,
looking
dumbstruck, then quickly pulling out their phones and dialing
Emily’s
number. But there was no response, with a sunken in expression, they
both looked up at Nathan, with question in their eyes.
Exhaustion seemed to have made the bags under Nathan’s eyes
darker.
He felt his patience reach its limit. In a moment of impulse, he burst out,
“Would you lot please stop bugging me about her! She is my lover! She
is my concern! I can care for her more than any of you ever will, you
pointless quims, sitting in your pretty little institution of
fantasy!”
Nathan immediately got up, then stomped out of the classroom leaving
all his books and notes on the table and vanished from sight.
Ethan’s contemptuous gaze followed Nathan’s shadow as he
walked off
beyond the entrance of the classroom. He brought his gaze back into the
room and studied the three who remained seated behind their tables,
looking stupefied as if failing to comprehend what had just occurred.
“I- I don’t understand,” Clair almost cried out. “What just happened?!”
“What does quim mean?” asked Daniel, confused.
Margaret replied miserably, “It means vagina.”
“What!” Daniel shouted indignantly. “He called me a vagina!”
Ethan eyed them with disappointment, then sighed deeply.
“Look you
guys,” he said urgently, “do you still think I’m just being a jelly
exboyfriend after all that?”
Clair looked dagger into Ethan’s eyes. Then said quietly, “No,
Nathan
acted suspiciously. Something is going on that he is not telling
us.”
“Finally!” breathed Ethan. “I’m hearing some sense!” “Okay what do you have in mind?” said Clair.
“Let’s hear you out,” said Margarete.
Ethan moved closer, then whispered, “How about we follow
Nathan and
see what he’s up to-”35 | P a g e
“Did you really have spies tailing Nathan?” asked Daniel with
disbelief.
“You’re seriously a major dick!”
“Yeah!” snapped Ethan. “And it may save Emily’s life now!” “I’m worried about her,” said Clair looking down at her phone
screen,
still the voice saying that Emily’s phone is switched off. “And I don’t have
a better idea right now.” She looked up at Ethan. “Alright, Mr.
Jell-O,
since Nathan isn’t acting like himself, let’s follow him and see what he’s
up to.”
The army green jeep was rushing like a gust of wind through the road.
Nathan had forsaken the school in an impulse failing to keep his cool
getting cornered by Ethan in front of everyone like that. The charade
and facade of this false life having to live through it over and over again,
it weighed on his mind like a giant ball of metal. Lies, and lies, and lies
he had to tell to be able to live amongst humans. It grew tiresome beyond
his endurance and he flipped, pushing away once again the people who
had begun caring about him. A dry laughter echoed inside his mind for
the fate’s damnable irony towards him. One would think being
immortal
is desirable, yet it felt nothing but a curse to him. Bring! Bring! Bring!
Nathan pulled out the shaking and screaming smartphone out of his
pocket and laughed to himself about it. Smartphone! he said to himself.
Who would’ve thought humans could make such strange
trinkets! It was
such an impossible imagination even a couple hundred years ago!
“What is it, Mark?” he said in a heavy tone.
“Are you okay?” said Mark through the speaker. “I’m fine,” Nathan said shortly. “Report?”36 | P a g e
“Yes. You’d be delighted to hear that we’ve discovered the
location
Emily is being held.”
Just hearing it made Nathan’s grip on the steering wheel tighten till his
knuckles turned white.
“Good!” he said.
“The Knights have arrived, sire. And I’m done with the process of
assembling an assault unit to rescue Miss. Emily Stone. We will be
heading out shortly.”
“I’ll lead the attack myself,” said Nathan.
There was a pause. Then Mark said, “I understand, sire. I’ll hold
the
troop until you get here.”
Nathan severed the connection, and inserted the phone back into his
pocket. His eyes glazing with violence, his breath controlled, mind
racing. Adrenaline began coursing through his veins remembering battle
memories of his past. The sheer power the enchanted warriors would
display when Nathan himself led them. And now the time had come to
fight with the Knights once more. Finally, he can put an end to this
nuisance that was the Woman and her Black Serpent ninja assassins!
They’ve hunted him for over a hundred year, and never once did
he take
them seriously enough to call for a war. War always came with high price
tags. And they always ended in horrible ways.
“They’ve kidnapped my love!” whispered Nathan grimly as the
mad
wind blasted against his face through open window, his eyes still shining with violence.