Suddenly, Natasha walks into Form. She has a heavy dislike for Maltor and Annas, and promptly hushes them out of the room, ignoring Maltor’s dazed expression. After being briefed on what had just happened, Natasha places the back of her hand on my forehead.
‘You don’t seem feverish,’ she says curiously. ‘So what just happened?’
‘Yeah,’ Ethan says, crossing his arms. ‘Who the hell is Alfonso?’
‘Sounds Spanish,’ Natasha says, smirking.
‘What did Maltor do to you?’ Ethan asks, a drop of anger creeping into his voice. ‘The moment he touched your back, you looked as though you’d just landed on the beaches of Normandy.’
‘Alfonso,’ I whisper, shaking with fright. ‘Alfonso, Alfonso was there, Ethan.’
‘Where?’ Natasha asks, her eyes widening with curiosity. She leans towards me, as though begging for more information.
‘Alfonso was there, that day. The day my parents died.’
‘What?’ Ethan splutters. ‘I’m sorry, but what?’
‘You didn’t think I was abandoned, did you?’ I ask, raising an eyebrow slowly. ‘My parents died, Ethan. And Alfonso was there.’
‘If I hear the name Alfonso one more time I’m gonna-’
‘Ethan! Show some sympathy!’ Natasha says, scandalised. ‘We’re talking about Albert’s parents dying here!’
‘Right, sorry, sorry,’ Ethan says, looking glumly at the floor.
I clench my teeth with anger. ‘If Alfonso was there,’ I growl, my eyebrows furrowing, ‘then does that mean he could have murde-’
‘Albert!’ Natasha cuts me off. ‘Shush! Your parents weren’t murdered! It’s just a coincidence that they died!’
‘You haven’t seen the house, Natasha!’ I shout, my anger boiling. ‘It’s caved in; destroyed! It looks as though it was burned! Coincidence? Coincidence, is it, that I was the only survivor? Coincidence, that the house was burned and destroyed?!’
Natasha opened her mouth to argue but shut it promptly. She repeated this action twice more, before finally deciding on a counterargument.
‘Show us the house,’ she said proudly.
‘Fine,’ I grumble. ‘Don’t know what good will come from it, but fine.’
‘That’s settled, then,’ Ethan says, looking between the two of us. ‘Us three, Jay, and Asbel, today after school, let’s follow Albert and he can show us the house.’
***
For the rest of the day, all I could think about was Alfonso and that other man. They had been there, I was sure of it. I wasn’t sure exactly what had happened that day, but they had been there. All I knew about that day was that my parents had been killed. Or in Natasha’s words, my parents had ‘coincidentally died’ that day.
I gritted my teeth tightly as I messily wrote the date in my English book. The name Alfonso was so familiar that I could almost touch it, yet it also seemed a million miles away. I kept noticing Maltor sneaking glances at me from across the room, and I tried my hardest to ignore him. What had he done to me? In fairness to Ethan, all of that had happened in the half a second Maltor was making contact with me. My hands shook as I wrote the title one line below my date, causing my handwriting to become jagged and rough, contrasting its usual curved neatness.
My stomach ached with fear at the thought of visiting the house with my friends. I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was going to happen. Something was going to go wrong. I felt hollow every time the haunted image of Alfonso and that short man just watching the wreckage of the house as though nothing were happening entered my head. They were so calm about the whole thing, only seeming to care about how they couldn’t get what they wanted. They didn’t rush in to help the doctors, they only stood there watching. All of a sudden, I knew what I wanted. I knew what could bring me a drop of happiness in this godforsaken world. Finding Alfonso, and bringing him as much pain as humanly possible. I knew what I wanted to do, I knew what I had to do.
When lunch rolled around, my friends and I sat at a table together and ate cold pizza in the loudest silence I had ever heard. We’d told Jay and Asbel about Natasha’s ‘genius’ idea, and they had agreed, although it seemed as though it was against their best wishes. Just two more hours of school, and we’d be at that house. Why were we going? I had no idea. It wouldn’t inform us of what happened that day, it would just prove my point to Natasha. Which is possibly the most selfish reasoning I have ever heard.
My head was throbbing with pain constantly, and I felt sick with worry. I clasped my head tightly, hoping I could pull the pain out of my skull.
‘Oi, you alright?’ Asbel asks.
I slowly look up. ‘Yeah, my head is killing me, though.’
‘Chill the hell out,’ Asbel says, and I can see the effort on his face from trying not to roll his eyes. ‘We’re just going to some ruined house.’
‘It’s not just an ordinary house!’ I say, trying my hardest not to shout. ‘It’s the house my parents died in, Asbel!’
‘Proof?’ he says in an annoying tone that makes me curl my toes.
‘It- I- The house-’ I fall short on what to say. ‘I just know it is!’
‘You just know it, huh?’ he says, raising his eyebrows slightly, just enough to give himself a passive-aggressive look. ‘You just know that that house is where your parents were murdered?’
Natasha and Jay give Asbel a harsh stare, but he doesn’t move his eyes from me. Just as I open my mouth to argue, the bell rings, and we all quickly rise to head to our next class.
‘Ignore him, he’s just an ignorant sod,’ Natasha says comfortingly to me in Science. ‘If we show him the house, his opinion might change.’
‘Huh, Asbel? Change? He’s almost as stubborn as me,’ I say, coldly staring at the back of Asbel’s head, desperately hoping I can drill a laser through him.
‘How’s your head now?’ Natasha asks, tapping my shoulder to try and stop me from glaring daggers at Asbel’s mop of black hair.
‘Better,’ I say, trying to reassure her. It wasn’t better, but there was no need for her to worry about that. ‘Still hurts a bit, but it’s better.’
A wave of relief seems to wash over her face. ‘That’s good.’
‘Acclere, Santrrer!’ barks Mr Jones, the substitute for our class. ‘Mind sharing what’s so interesting?’
Mr Jones was a tall man, with brown hair, and a beard sporting the same colour. He had cold brown eyes, and usually taught PE, which complemented his athletic stature, but had somehow landed as our substitute Science teacher. Natasha’s face goes bright red, she hates attention. She gets flustered and fumbles with her words if more than 2 people are looking at her. I mean, I didn’t want to explain, but it was miles better than making Natasha talk to everyone.
‘Uh, I had a headache earlier, sir,’ I say, cursing myself for shaking. ‘Natasha was just asking me if I was alright.’
‘Ok, just shut up when I’m talking in future, yeah?’ he says, the corners of his mouth lifting.
Despite his choice of words, his voice becomes warm, and later on in the lesson, he briefly comes over to double-check on me. Of course, I tell him I’m fine, I’m not going down to the nurse just because I made a teacher worry.
Science was a double lesson, so I was stuck in it for the rest of the day, but the moment that final bell rang, I was out of the front doors at light speed. We all had to wait for Ethan, as he had a different class, but the moment he came out of the building, Jay and Asbel grabbed their scooters, and we were off.
Somehow, we were all laughing and joking on our way there, talking about everything amusing that came to mind. The moment we walked past the Beeches Pub, a light rain began to fall, small drops of water began to land on my forehead, and my senses heightened. Something was about to go very wrong, very fast. My eyes began to scan the area, looking for any signs of danger.
A swift breeze darts past my right ear, sending a shiver down my spine. I could have sworn I saw somebody dive behind a van across the road, but I couldn’t be certain. My wings ache, begging to be set free, as they usually do when I sense danger. I scratch them, wincing at the pain of clawing at my delicate feathers.
We cross over the Thornbridge Avenue roundabout, and then we’re on Haddon Road, with the house right there on the other end of the street. The rain is coming down heavier now, not heavy enough for us to put coats on, but heavy enough for me to get fidgety.
‘Look, maybe you guys should-’ I begin but Natasha cuts me a stare. I turn back around and stare at my feet.
‘We’re not going anywhere,’ she says firmly. ‘We’re coming to see this house.’
I begin to walk again, but much slower than before. Something is definitely about to go wrong, very wrong. Our feet make dull thuds on the wet concrete, and the rain is slowly getting heavier and heavier. Asbel pulls his blazer up over his head, which will protect his hair, yes, but it makes him look like an idiot at the same time.
Jay tells him this and Asbel replies, purposely making his voice deeper, ‘A small price to pay for salvation.’
Natasha stifles a laugh, and I see Ethan roll his eyes. I realise that Ethan hasn’t said anything the entire walk. His eyes seem nervous and alert, and his jaw is set. His brown eyes scan the area frantically, yet I know that he is taking in every detail. He notices me looking at him and he just nods. No words, yet that slight movement of his head let me know everything I needed to.
We pass Rob’s house and it is right then, in that exact moment that we passed into the further end of Haddon, that I was certain. Certain that something was going to happen. I can’t explain how I knew, but I could not shake this overwhelming feeling that somebody, no we were all going to get hurt. I had led my friends into a trap. Something was waiting for us here.
I stop walking, my breathing shallow, my heart pounding frantically. The rain is coming down so heavily that it has taped my hair to the top of my head. Natasha bumps into me, as she hadn’t noticed me stop.
‘Turn back,’ I say quietly. ‘Go home. It’s not safe here.’
All of a sudden there is a loud thud from over the road, and my head snaps to look for the source of the sound, and my feet plant firmly in the ground, ready for whatever comes at me. But there’s nothing there. All I can see through the heavy rainfall is the few cars on people’s drives, the normal houses, not caved in or destroyed.
‘What did I just say?’ Natasha asks, sounding annoyed. ‘We’re not going anywhere. Nothing you say or do can stop us from seeing this house.’
‘Yeah,’ Asbel says, straightening his back. ‘I’m actually kinda excited to see what’s here. You’ve got nothing to worry about.’
My throat begins to burn, which usually happens before I cry. Sure enough, five seconds later, the dreaded warmth of tears reaches my eyes, and my chest swells with a mixture of sadness and pride.
I turn back towards the house. As I said before, nobody can see me cry. ‘Thanks, guys.’
Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.
A few more metres, and then we turn onto the drive. The burned car is of course gone, but they can’t just remove the house, so it still stands. It looks worse than it did in the strange vision thing I had. There’s a tree growing from what seemed to be the living room, and it’s about the same size as the actual house. The windows are either cracked, half-gone, or just not there. Some of the walls that were still standing seemed to have bricks falling out, so it was only a matter of time before the house collapsed on its own. Some of the furniture in the living room is black and burnt; something definitely happened here. Huge claw marks had dented the entirety of the upstairs wall. Just what beast had raged in this family home?
Jay’s one word summed up what everybody was thinking: ‘Whoa.’
‘What-’ Ethan begins, faltering. ‘What the hell happened here?’
It all happened within half a second. I knew it was coming, I really did, I was just powerless to stop it. There was a loud bang, the loudest bang I have ever heard. I quickly turned to push Ethan out of the way, but I was tossed backwards by an invisible force, and I slammed into the tree growing out of the living room. My body felt as though it were on fire. The pain coursing through my veins was unimaginable. All I wanted was for it to be over. This cycle of pain and torture, when would it end?
I leap to my feet, ready to fight, and a sickening voice reaches my ears. It’s high and shrill and sounds as though it belongs to a person from a psychiatric ward.
‘You want to know what happened here, boy?’ says the voice. ‘I can tell you.’
Heavy rain smashes against my eyes, forcing one of them to close. Ignoring this, I plough forward, back onto the drive to see this mysterious person. It’s an alarmingly tall woman, with straggly black hair drooping over her face. She is wearing huge blue earrings, and her harsh black eyes send an overpowering shiver down my spine. Clothing-wise, she sports long black robes, which seem to trail for about two feet on the floor behind her. Beneath the robes, she is also wearing full black, with a black shirt and black trousers.
‘Ah, Albert,’ she says in a sickeningly sweet voice. ‘Did I hit you? I’m sorry.’
It’s just one of those voices that are so unbearable, that it makes you automatically hate the person speaking. My hands slowly curl into fists. What did she know?
‘Out with it, then,’ I say coldly, adding as much steel to my voice as possible. ‘Tell us what happened here.’
‘Oooooh, aren’t you scary?’ she says in that sweet voice again. ‘You’re so scary, I don’t think I can speak anymore.’
With that, she exaggerates shutting her mouth, even making a pop sound when her lips meet. I reach into my blazer, groping around for my knife.
‘Fine, then,’ I growl. ‘Guess I’ll make you talk.’
I draw my knife as quick as lightning. The steel blade is seventeen inches long, and even in the pouring rain, it appears to glimmer with hope. I charge at the woman, placing both hands on my knife, and positioning it at her stomach.
‘Albert!’ Natasha cries out, but her voice is lost in the downpour of rain.
‘Hm?’ the woman says as I dash towards her. ‘Don’t you care about my bodyguards?’
I hadn’t even noticed them. Two men, each over six feet, with bulging muscles, and thick beards to complement their strong masculine looks, stand on either side of her.
Realising that I indeed do not care about her bodyguards, the woman raises her eyebrows. She rapidly draws a long stick from inside her robes. It looks like an ordinary twig, yet it is about 12 inches long and seems twisted and curled.
A flash of light explodes from the end of her stick, and out of the corner of my eye, I see it slam into Ethan’s chest, sending him spiralling back into the house’s front wall. My eyes widen with anger, and that’s when one of the men ploughs his fist into the side of my jaw. Blinding pain rockets through my body, and for a few seconds, I see stars. I swing my knife around, scratching his hand. The man frantically pulls his hand back, staring at the faint trickle of blood pouring down his fingers. The other bodyguard grabs me by my collar and swings me around multiple times. As he lets go I spiral across the street, slamming into a hedge, feeling twigs and nettles pierce my skin.
Blood falls gracefully down my face and, disgustingly, I can taste it. I spit into the bush, and frantically crawl out, to find one of the bodyguards running at me. I only have one option. I’m fast, sure, one of the fastest kids in my year, but I can’t outrun a six-foot-two athletic beast of a man.
I tear my bag and blazer off and hurl them at the bodyguard, hoping they will faze him. They didn’t. He swats them away as though they were flies. I make a break for the driveway after seeing the woman and the second bodyguard advance on my friends. I feel rain slowly make its way onto my wings through the holes I cut in my shirt. Sure enough, I couldn’t escape Bodyguard Number 1. He grabs my arm and spins me around so quickly that I feel my neck crack.
‘This is fer me arm!’ he shouts, pulling a fist back.
Taking a quick deep breath, I snap my wings out powerfully. My right wing slams into his face, loosening his grip on me, and he hits the floor. I run forward as fast as I can whilst being battered by the wind, all 12 feet of my wings ruffling in glory. I jump into the air forcefully, and I beat my wings once, twice, thrice – and then I’m up in the air. I soar gracefully, gaining altitude quickly. I see the woman point her stick at Jay, and my anger soars.
Tucking my wings in tight against my back, I divebomb the ground. My target? That woman. When I’m a foot above her, I shoot my wings out sharply, and I grab her shoulders with my outstretched hands. Beating my wings as forcefully as I can, I lift her into the air. A jet of light shoots out of her stick, and whizzes past Jay’s ear, missing him by less than an inch.
Looking down, I can see the shock and horror on everybody’s faces as they gaze up at me. Through the rain, I must look like some form of a dark angel to them. I soar higher and higher until I reach about 35 metres in the air. That’s when I see the woman quickly point her stick at me. Thinking fast, I let go, just a second too late. Blue sparks fly from her twig, and all but one catch me in the stomach. A startling amount of pain erupts in my gut, and upon looking down I see thick blood oozing through my shirt. My vision becomes fuzzy and it is at this moment that I become truly fearful.
A terrifying scream emerges from the woman’s mouth as she falls. I see one of the bodyguards ready himself to catch her, only to have Asbel plough into him at full force. Somebody else catches her, though, and with a jolt of horror, I realise that it is yet another bodyguard.
‘Huh,’ I whisper to myself, ‘with the number of bodyguards this woman has you’d think she were the Queen of England.’
Chuckling softly to myself, I begin to fall with speed. I’m going mad, I think to myself, I’m going to die an insane 11-year-old. The ground rushes towards me, and my body goes numb. Yellow lightning seems to crackle over my body, and my eyes widen with fear. Then I hit the ground; hard. I barely even feel the pain, it just seems like a faint shock.
Upon lifting my head slightly, I realise I had not hit the ground outside, but rather the upstairs floor of the house. The carpet is a light grey to match the walls, and there is a destroyed bed that looks like it was once king-sized, though now I couldn’t even fit on it. Next to it sits a charred cot, and I thought for a moment that whatever had happened here had brought a baby to its end. There’s a photo on the wall of a pretty woman with flowing brown hair and warm blue eyes standing next to a tall man with black hair and soft hazel eyes. They were dressed in formal wear as though they were going to a party; the woman in a red dress, the man in a suit. I smile at the happiness on their faces.
‘Wait a minute,’ I whisper, hearing my voice slowly get quieter, ‘those are my-’
‘Albert!’ comes a shout. Natasha and Ethan dash into the ‘room’. ‘Thank God you’re alive!’
‘What the hell?’ Ethan says, puzzled. ‘You’re smoking? Wait, no! As in there’s literal steam coming from your stomach!’
‘Oh, God, there is!’ Natasha says quickly. ‘We need to get you to a hospital, and qu-’
My body is tossed into the air so quickly, that it seems to take a moment for my brain to catch up. Looking down, I see the woman aiming her stick at me, holding me in the air endlessly.
‘I feel like I’ve been in this room before,’ she says sickeningly. ‘I just can’t put my finger on it.’
Cold anger washes over my body, trapping me.
‘You- you what?’ I say, barely louder than a whisper.
The woman turns to the photo on the wall. ‘Oh! I remember these two! They kept screaming when they saw me, can’t quite remember why! There was no reason for them to be sca-’
A scream left my body, unlike anything I had ever heard in my life. A scream so full of anger and resentment, it scared even me. Flinching, the woman let go of her grip on me. Still bleeding from the stomach, I fell to the floor again, but this time I was up quick as a flash, and I grabbed the woman’s twig and wrenched it from her hand.
‘You!’ I scream, my mind full of one thing: rage. ‘Rotten! Little! C-’
Some invisible force tosses me backwards. A loud crack seems to echo through the air, and five people seem to materialise in between me and the woman. The most noticeable figure is a tall man, almost as tall as the bodyguards, with grey hair combed backwards and blue eyes that make me feel safe and comforted. He is accompanied by two women, both of whom didn’t even reach his shoulders, one has flowing black hair, and the other has short blond hair. They both have dangerous green eyes and are wielding sticks of their own. The other two figures are two men, one of whom is considerably shorter than the other. The short one has close-cropped strawberry-blond hair and brown eyes. The taller one has medium-length hazel-coloured hair and eyes sporting the same colour.
‘Are we late?’ says the tallest man in a deep, croaky voice.
‘Seems like it,’ says the blond woman, who has noticed me. She immediately crouched beside me and began eyeing my wound cautiously. ‘Are you okay?’
‘Yea-Yeah,’ I gasp. Slowly rising to my feet, I find myself struck by the presence of the tall man. I didn’t know him, yet just looking at him made me feel as though he were strong and fearless. ‘I’m gonn-gonna kill her.’
The insane woman cackled loud and high, tilting her head towards the sky. Tears of laughter fall down her bony cheeks, and she clutches her stomach, gasping for air.
‘You? Kill me? The great Amy Wright? I don’t think so, you little weasel!’
‘A-Amy?’ I whisper. Again, the name was infuriatingly familiar, yet I had no idea where I knew the name from.
She stretches her arm out, but I’m quicker. I point her stick at her. Her eyes widen, and so do everybody else’s. I have no idea how to use one of these fancy sticks, and it feels weird in my hand. It’s like another hand had replaced my own. It didn’t feel right. The stick begins to feel hot in my hand, nevertheless, I tighten my grip.
By this time, Jay and Asbel have run upstairs, and they are standing behind the two young men, whilst the two women protect Natasha and Ethan. It’s just me and the old man standing before Amy and her three bodyguards.
‘You don’t even know how to use that thing!’ Amy screams shrilly, but her voice is quavering.
‘I’ll learn!’ I shout back fiercely. ‘Now tell me what happened that day!’
She motions to her bodyguards, and one of them steps forward. The old man next to me draws a stick of his own, and a jet of red light flies from the end of it, hitting the bodyguard square in the chest. He hits the floor, unconscious, with a dull thud.
‘You really want to know?’ Amy says, sounding bored. ‘You’ll never be the same again once you learn.’
‘Amy,’ the old man says. ‘Watch it.’
‘Shut up, old hag.’ Amy snaps.
‘Tell. Me,’ I say as harsh as I can.
Just then, a fourth bodyguard lumbers up the stairs outside the door, but he is carrying two limp bodies with him.
‘I found these two snooping, ma’am,’ he says gruffly.
Looking down at the bodies, I freeze with horror. In the man’s left hand, he holds Maltor, who is covered in blood and steam is emitting from all over his body. In the man’s right hand he holds Quinn, another friend of mine. Despite being 5 months younger than me, he is easily an inch or two taller than me. He has medium-length brown hair that droops over his eyes, yet now it was matted with grime and blood. His glasses were askew, and his dark brown eyes seemed lifeless.
I flick the twig at Amy’s hand as she tries to grab Quinn’s face. One single spark flies across the room, slamming into Amy’s hand, making her recoil.
‘That hurt, you!’ she shouts.
‘Tell me what happened! Then I’ll give you this little twig back and be on my way!’
‘But will you?’ Amy says incredulously. ‘Will you really? Or will you swear to cause me as much pain as possible?’
‘Why don’t you tell me and find out?’
The corner of Amy’s mouth curls upwards slightly. ‘I killed your parents.’
My hands begin to tremble. I feel sick to my stomach. My knees feel weak with nausea and horror. But Amy continues.
‘Friday 13th March 2009, that’s when I killed them. Right here in this room. I think you’re standing in the exact spot you were on that day.’
‘Amy,’ says the old man cautiously. ‘Leave it at tha-’
‘Your father died protecting your mother. Out in the corridor. He barricaded the door to this bedroom to try and stop me, and that was his mistake. He focused on protecting you and your mother so much that he forgot to grab his wand. He couldn’t fight. Your stupid dad tried to swing his fists at me.’ Amy points to the top of the stairs outside the door. ‘That’s where your fool of a father died. His body fell down the stairs. Must have been a horrible sight for the doctors when they arrived, his body all mangled at the bottom.’
I hear Natasha choke back a sob, and my throat begins to close up. Raw anger boils inside of me as I stare at the woman- no, the beast that killed my parents. It feels as though I haven’t blinked in hours with the amount of time I had been staring at her.
‘Your mother, though, was a different story. Poor, poor, Catherine. She could have hidden you in a cupboard or something, you would have fitted, but she didn’t. When I charged in here, all she could do was beg for mercy and stretch her arms out in desperation to protect her only child. She died, right where the old hag is standing right now. Foolish parents they were. Your father had some sense, sacrificing himself for his fiancé and son. Your mother, though, was just selfish.’
‘My mom? Was selfish?’ I murmur so quietly that I don’t even think half the people in the room heard me. The old man did.
‘Your mother was the greatest thing to ever grace this Earth,’ he says tightly. ‘And this cow killed her.’
Amy continues without even looking at the old man. ‘And then I got to you. You really stumped me, you did. When I pointed my wand at you and aimed The Killing Curse, it just bounced right off of you and hit me. And I died right here, where I am now. If it weren’t for the three goons behind me, I would have been gone forever!’
Hot tears well in my eyes and I close my mouth tightly, willing myself to stop. The rain is calmer now, just down to a light patter. In my moment of weakness, I drop Amy’s pathetic twig. A bodyguard dived for it, grabbed it, and handed it back to her.
The old man points his wand at Amy and her goons, and fires a huge blast of light, causing me to squint my eyes tightly. When the light disperses, Amy and her thugs are gone. The man turns to me, crouches, and wraps his arms around me. Thick tears fall from my cheeks onto his shoulders, and I stare blankly at the wall, my vision blurred due to all of the tears resting in my eyes.
Looking around, I can make out Natasha being consoled by one of the women. I notice Natasha shaking with tears and the woman talking to her seemed to be trying her absolute hardest not to burst into tears as well.
Ethan, Asbel, and Jay are talking to the other woman. Jay and Ethan seemed stunned into silence, and Ethan is clutching his chest in agony. Asbel is standing there staring at the floor, only answering the woman’s questions with basic one-word answers. His brown eyes seem disturbed and scared, unlike anything I thought he was capable of.
Maltor and Quinn are being checked over by the other two men. They seem concerned about the damage done to the two boys but I hear one of them say. ‘They’ll surely be fine, we have loads of good medicine for them back at the city.’
The old man hugging me is shivering. Whether from the cold or tears of his own, I have no idea. His arms tighten around me, and with a warm voice he says softly, ‘You’re safe now, Albert.’