Emily
“Emily!” my mom said, running towards me. She embraced me tightly. I did the same in return. “I thought I was going to lose you,” she said quietly. From the relief in her voice, I could feel how frightened she had been.
“I’m so glad you’re safe Mom,” I said, tears welling in my eyes as I held her tighter.
“How about we go inside,” Kirya said.
We started walking up the steps of this bright blue, ornate house. The home was thin and reached what seemed to be three stories tall. Yellow stripes of color lined the window sills.
Kirya and the other two, who seemed to be part of a team, walked up the steps and went inside. My mom and I followed behind. When I tried walking through the front door, I ran into an invisible wall. The wall hissed and stung the skin of my face and hand. I jumped back holding my hand.
“Emily! Are you alright?” my mom said in surprise.
I watched the red area on my hand slowly return to its normal color. “Yeah, I think so.”
“Sorry, it’s a barrier meant to keep out demons,” Kirya stated. “It probably detected some residual magic on you from the demons earlier today.” She said this calmly, but when I looked up at her face, I thought I caught a glimmer of an odd expression. Suspicion? It wasn’t a look I would want to be on the receiving end of but her casual smile flitted back so fast, it left me to wonder what I’d really seen or if my brain was just glitching out on me. I decided to go with the latter.
Kirya waved her hand in the space of the door frame and energy crackled. “There. Should be disabled now. Come on in.”
Inside was far more spartan than one would have imagined when looking at the intricate exterior. The living room was small and had only one lumpy brown couch and a couple of dusty old Victorian chairs. A fold-out table stood by a wall in the area between the living room and the kitchen and held on its surface a panoply of weapons such as knives and some shorter swords.
“You guys have swords like that just lying around?” I asked Jake, surprised. Kirya and the one called Alex walked into the kitchen.
“Yeah, is that weird?” Jake answered.
“No, no. It’s totally normal. Everyone keeps their weapons on tables in the middle of their living rooms,” I jested, tone heavy with sarcasm.
Jake crossed his arms. “Well if this is so weird then where do you keep your weapons?”
I stared, at a loss for words. “I don’t have any weapons,” I said slowly.
“No weapons?” Jake furrowed his brow. “Well that just doesn’t seem smart.”
Before I could think of a way to somehow explain to this weirdo that normal people don’t have need for a genuine broadsword or throwing knives, Kirya called Jake into the kitchen. What kind of world has he been living in? I wondered, exasperated.
After dinner Kirya stood. “Alrighty, I think it’s time for sleep. I’d like to talk about everything but it’s late and you must be tired,” she said, directed at me. I wanted to say no, that I wanted an explanation for all the craziness that happened, but I truly was tired. The strain from whatever magic I’d supposedly used seemed to be catching up to me, sleep tugging on my eyelids. It was already midnight. “You both can stay here tonight. There are empty rooms at the end of the hall.” Kirya points to the hall extending off the left of the kitchen.
I got up, starting to carry my plate to the kitchen. Jake stood and took the plate from me. “We got this,” he said, “rest.” I nodded drowsily.
My mom and I walked down the hall to the last two rooms, passing two doors on the left and two on the right. My tired mind vaguely wondered if the interior of this house made any sense with the exterior. Mom took the room at the end of the hall and I took the one to the left of it, the third door on the left.
I had started to turn the doorknob when she turned to me. “Honey,” she paused, seeming unsure what to say, “I-I know that you’ve had a really scary day and that everything is confusing right now, but--” she took a calming breath, “I just want you to know that I love you and I’m always in your corner, no matter what happens.”
I nodded, too tired to expend energy wondering why she would have to say something so obvious. “I know mom.” I could feel the sleep weighing on me, desperately trying to pull me under.
“Okay,” she said softly, “I’m right in the next room. If you need anything, let me know.”
“I will.”
With that we went to our separate rooms. I went straight to bed and began a fitful sleep filled with dreams of terrible monsters.
…
When I woke the next morning, the plain beige ceiling of the bedroom looked so alien to me. I sat up in the bed that wasn’t mine, in the room that wasn’t mine and looked across to the dresser on the other side of the room. A change of clothes sat on top, my leather jacket too. Standing up and putting the clothes on was a challenge; my muscles ached like crazy, each movement sent tremors of pain through every part of my body. I slipped on the plain white T-shirt and loose jeans. Then I put my jacket back on. I won't part with this for a second.
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After I changed, my muscles were a bit more warmed up and it wasn’t as painful to walk to the door. I opened the door, and at the same time, Jake walked out of the door to my right. A beat of silence passed as we held each other’s surprised gazes. Finally, Jake spoke, “M-morning.”
He wore a slim gray T-shirt that hung from his broad shoulders and a pair of simple black sweatpants. His sable brown hair was flattened on one side from sleep. “Y-yeah, good morning,” I said, “Uh… where’s the bathroom?”
“Oh, yeah, it’s over there.” He pointed to the door across the hall from the room I came from.
“Thanks.” I walked quickly into the bathroom and shut the door.
Ignoring what just happened in the hall, I started splashing water on my face in an attempt to wake myself up. Looking in the mirror, the bags under my eyes seemed more prominent than I’d ever seen them; I hadn’t slept well.
Suddenly, I heard the sound of the front door violently slamming open. Muffled voices and footsteps spilled into the house. I stood in front of the bathroom mirror, water still dripping from my face, straining to listen to what was happening on the other side of the door. Something sounded off. The voices sounded tense, maybe even aggressive. I heard Jake. He sounded like he was arguing.
After the day I’d had the day before, my instinct was to find something to protect myself with. I was suddenly glad for these weirdos’ obsession with blades because I found a three inch knife in the top drawer of the vanity. Heart pounding, I reached for the door handle, turning it and opening the door just enough to see the entryway. I figured that if I moved the door slowly and quietly enough then no one would notice I was there. I was wrong.
The second I peeked out of the bathroom, I found the person at the front of the group of “guests” starting right at me. She looked to be a young woman, perhaps about two or three years older than me, but she had an ethereal presence that, when I looked into her piercing, unworldly gaze, it felt like looking into the eyes of a being much older than I could understand. I felt uncomfortably frozen in place with her stare locked on me; I was stuck, peering meekly out of the bathroom door. Everything in my vision appeared to warp and blur, except for her face. She smiled a thin, toothless smile that stretched just a bit too wide. “Ah, there you are.”
She started to walk towards me. I was still pinned in place despite how I willed my muscles to move. Jake stepped in front of her and held his arm out to the side to block the whole hallway. His hands were shaking, including the one he held behind his back, the one frantically pressing a button on one of those remote-looking communicators that I’d seen Kirya with yesterday. The woman turned her gaze on Jake and I felt the vise on my muscles fall away. Still, I didn’t dare move. I barely dared to breathe.
“Young Guardian,” the woman started in a voice like the searing pain one might feel after being cut by a sharp blade, “what you’re doing is ill-advised.” She said this with a light tone that would otherwise be nice, if it were spoken by anyone other than her, but sent a chill down my spine. Jake stood his ground.
Then, Kirya appeared coming through the front door. “My, what company we have here! I can hardly enter the room.” She shoved her way past the two of the guards standing in the doorway to take a place in between the woman and Jake. “What a pleasure this is. The Grand General, the hailed Shuyona of the Eirguard, deigns to honor our humble squad with her presence.” Kirya said with a flourishing bow. Talk about laying it on thick. “To what do we owe the visit of such an exalted guest?”
The woman wrinkled her nose in evident distaste. “Ah, Captain Aella. I was informed that you had found and detained an unregistered magic user and yet,” she glanced around the room, “you do not seem to have any immediate intentions on returning for the situation to be… handled properly.” A spike of fear shot through me. Hadn’t Kirya said before that I’d used magic? Are they talking about me?
“Ah yes,” Kirya started, “there were some unexpected complications with demon attacks and I believed it best to bring the unregistered when we were fully prepared for any possible additional attacks so, I made the decision to wait until morning.”
“Protocol states that all unregistered be brought immediately. You know the rules Captain.”
“Yes, I’m aware, General,” Kirya said, tone no longer humorous, “However I believe that it was the right—”
“Enough. Be grateful the unregistered didn’t fall into the hands of the Demons,” the General hissed. “If she had,” she glanced in my direction then back to Kirya, “I would have no choice but to strip you of your rank and certification as a guardian.”
I could see Kirya’s jaw work as she gritted her teeth and bowed. “I understand.”
“Good.” The General then spoke to one of the soldiers standing next to her, “We’re bringing them all with us. Get the one in the bathroom. The ones in the bedrooms too.”
All of a sudden, the current of fear inside me picked up again. “Wait, where are you going to take me?” I stood and held the knife in front of me as the soldiers flooded the hallway.
“Emily,” Kirya said, my gaze jumping to her, “It’s alright. They came from the place that we were going to take you and your mom.” The nonchalance of her voice didn’t match the look of wariness in her gaze. Still, I lowered the knife.
The General seemed surprised by what Kirya said. “The girl’s mother?”
Just then, one of the soldiers came out of the bedroom at the end of the hall. He was holding my mother’s arm like they do in movies when they don’t want criminals to run away.
“Talia.”
My attention, which had shifted to my mom, concerned for what would happen to her in this nonsensical situation, snapped back to the General as she said my mother’s name.
“Alas, you could run no longer.”
The soldier brought my mother out of the hallway and another one, as I stood in utter confusion by what was going on, pulled me out of the bathroom by my arm. “Hey! Let go of me!” I said, but the soldier’s hand would not move. She took the knife from my hands and threw it to the floor.
“Emily!” my mom shouted, “Don’t hurt her!” She tried to run to me but the soldier holding her would not budge.
“A child. Is that what it was, Major General Cyra?”
What?
My mom turned back to the General. With that look in her eyes, I could tell she was angry. Her voice was cold when she spoke, colder than I’d ever heard it. “I have long since renounced that name.”
The General’s smirk deepened. “Well I guess it doesn’t matter what you used to be called. It makes no difference now. You’re merely traitorous filth,” she said, looking down her nose as a malicious smile continued to play on her lips. The General whirled around to face the open front door. “Ah, an unregistered and a traitor, what a day this is,” she said with a delightedly airy tone. Turning to one of the soldiers she said, “Wrap things up here quickly. We have a trial to hold,” she looked back at my mom, “A trial that should have happened seventeen years ago.” And with that, she swept out the door.
⊲ 2.2 ⊳
2284 words