Fairy Statues and Disobedience (Chapter 2)

The raindrops falling from the abismal sky onto my bald head were like individual clocks, counting down the time I had with each plop.

I had left Dharla as soon as we got to the front gate and barged through security like I owned the whole city, all the while refining my plan.  Within minutes, I was in the heart of Esperanfort.

It was a widely spread-out kingdom, which was good for individual secrecy.  The clouds never left our vast sky except when they drifted over the snow-capped mountains in the distance.

Unfortunately, I could not appreciate the beauty, because my vision was blurred with anxiety.  I ran through the Central part of the city, almost knocking over an old man in my rush to the train.  The green and white vehicle stalled for me to jump on, steam pouring out of its head.  Impatient passengers stared at me so angrily I expected steam to spew out of their heads, as well.

The train rumbled past shops and banks, as slow as could be.  Each bump in the ground agitated me more than the last.  I swore with impatience, causing an elderly woman covered in pink shawls to scowl at me, sending her pale and wrinkled cheeks quivering.

I took a glance at the ceiling mirror as the train exited Central and entered Verte, the region of the city in which I lived.  My clothes were ragged and dusty from spending the past few days in the unbearably hot Algerian desert, and my face and head were burned beyond belief.  My expression was that of an angry bull, snorting with anger while trying to kill the Toreador.

The train finally jerked to my stop at the corner of Wivanova Ave and Clement Street in Verte.  I bounded off the train in the direction of my house.  It was between the hole of a venerable old man and a shabby convenience store.

I pounded on the door like a maniac, before remembering to use my keys.

I'm in!  I thought, which should not have been a surprise.

"Adriana! Adriana!" I screamed, running from our simple living room past the unused kitchen and into the dark hallway.  Our huge black Great Dane Vicious began barking at me from his position on the couch. "Where the hell are you?"  

Sometimes that girl made me so angry!  She was never present when I needed her.  How was I going to explain this to her?

"You might not be able to explain it to her, if they've already gotten to her before you do..."  A small, unexpected voice spoke unbidden into my ear.  I shook the thought away, and raced through the bedrooms and the bathroom.

I let out a bellow like an angry gorilla in my frustration, checking the house once more and the small backyard.

"Adriana!  Where are you when your father needs you!"  I yelled once outside the front door again, my voice cracking with fury.

Down each street I searched, sprinting and yelling, losing more of my sense with each step.  I jumped over a scrawny stray cat on the way.  

Then I realized where she could be: With that boy who worked part-time at the Farmacia de Verte.

I bounded down the streets to the building with the large red F on its sign, banging open the door so carelessly a large chunk of the glass window fell out and shattered on the ground.

"Moreau!  Where are you?  Come out, I need to see you!"

The weak, thirty-year-old pharmacist walked timidly into the room.  He glanced from my shiny red face and bared teeth to the shattered glass on the floor.

"What can I h-help you with, Acquisitioner R-Ramirez?  You stocked up on y-your depression medication only l-last week."  The small man stuttered as he always did in my intimidating presence, six feet five inches with the torso and legs of a body builder.

"That's not what I need!  Where's your assistant, ese pendejo, Daniel? Aveq m'ija, Adriana?"

"Um..." Doctor Moreau was sweating now.  "I'm not sure if they're together, but my assistant Daniel Flores went to the forest, the one at the edge of town.  I'm sorry if I can't be of more--"

I was already outside, sprinting toward the forest.  If Adriana's selfish flirting with the assistant ended up being the reason for her kidnapping or disappearance....

Once hidden among the dense trees, I called Adriana and Flores' names with every step.  My legs were soon branded with the cuts of the sharp branches and leaves that spread across the forest.

There was a murky darkness here; A darkness so thick I felt I could breathe it in.  The canopy above blocked any light from entering the depths of the forest.  The only sounds were my heavy breath and thunderous footfalls.

There was a movement up ahead.  I crouched, ready to attack, if it was not one of the kids.  

A slither on the ground.  A breeze of cool air.  In the thick of the forest?  That was strange.

But ahead on the ground!  What is that?  Not ten feet from my view was what looked like a bodiless shadow moving across the autumn colored foliage.  The shadow was making noises.  A strange, slithering sound.  Or perhaps there was a snake nearby, and the shadow was not making noises at all?

It was gone as quickly as it had appeared.  Not knowing why, I went back a few trees and then took another route.  For some inexplicable reason, I did not want to pass by where that shadow had crossed.

After five more minutes of searching and screaming, I heard a young girl's voice.

"Papa!  Dad!  Pourquoi ess vusted aqui?"  Why are you here?

I heard a panicked rustling and then footsteps a few feet to my left.  A white jacket flicked past in my peripheral vision, followed by the blond head of a young boy.

"Oh no, you don't!" I pounded after him, my daughter running behind me, screaming and stumbling over the thick tree roots.

I grabbed the collar of Daniel Flores' white assistant's jacket and flung him against a tree.

"What were you doing with my daughter?  Answer me!" I shook the small boy until a fat tear wriggled out of his eye and strolled down his cheek.  No wonder the alley cat had reminded me of this kid.  Daniel Flores was so skinny he appeared underfed, and the shabby shave he had given himself made a strange formation of facial hair that reminded me of whiskers all over his pale, pink face. He was whimpering.  I loosened my grip, remembering I was supposed to be looking for Adriana.

At that moment, my seventeen-year-old daughter burst out of the trees, holding her side from running so fast.

"What - do - you - want?" She gasped out each word.

Adriana Luz Jimenez stood before me, a fully-grown woman now.  How I wished that she could be three once more, and that her mother Annelise could still be alive.  She held onto a tree to catch her breath, slightly bent over.  Her thick, wavy black hair made circles and curtains across her cream colored face - A gift from her mother.

My grip on Daniel slackened completely and I rushed forward to give Adriana a hug.  Thank God she's alive!

"Wow!  Dad, you smell terrible.  Where have you been?" She pushed me away, and I could see that the fierce anger and incomprehension of my arrival were not yet gone from her deep black eyes.  They were the staple of her visage, given to her by me.

"I'll explain on the way.  We've got to get indoors.  Walk with me, dear."

The Flores kid had disappeared by the time Adriana and I turned to make our voyage back home.

The silence deepened with each crunchy footstep on the leaves below.  I felt extremely awkward.  Adriana, however, shameless as always, merely glanced around the forest curiously.

That was when I noticed her outfit, and felt a fresh surge of anger as blood ran hot in my veins.  Adriana's short red dress and deadly black heels could trick any foolish boy into helping her get what she wanted.  Some might say it was hard to blame Daniel for being drawn to her, but somehow, I found a way.

"Where did you get that dress from, Adriana?" I began in a roaring voice.  "You're never wearing it again!"  Her pale legs glowed as brightly as the moon in the eery forest.  She giggled, her full red lips and black eyes back to looking care-free, instead of angry.

"Relax, Dad.  I haven't done anything with Flores.  I have standards, you know."

I raised my eyebrows to that.  Where was the girl who loved playing with dolls and wearing fake earrings?  I felt like I missed the last ten years of her life, being so involved with the NSSOE.

We didn't say another word until we reached the edge of the trees and started the trek down the steep hill.  The moon was at its highest point in the sky now, and a soft breeze brushed against our faces.  It was a nice change from the thick forest, but was not nice enough to get rid of my anger.

"Why are you flirting with that idiot, anyway?" Getting out the word 'flirting' to my daughter was like trying to chew through metal.  The next time I see Daniel Flores down a dark alley... .

Adriana rolled her eyes to the heavens and back.  "Dad, come on!  I would never like him.  I just need keys to the school.  Daniel's dad is a teacher there."

"And what on earth would you need keys to the school for?"

"Nothing, nothing..." She said quickly, impatiently flicking a stray black hair behind her ear.

I could only imagine why she could be planning to break into Verte's school.  Perhaps to get answers for a test, flood the building, or maybe let some horses in to roam around the classrooms.  Maybe it was from living, mostly alone, in a small town that Adriana created so many crazy and dangerous plans; So she could entertain herself.

Silence again.  It was always like this between us.  I thought things should be different since I was the only parental figure in her life, but Adriana had never let me into her mind.  

Maybe it was all of my NSSOE missions that kept me from being a good father.  Adriana had basically taken care of herself her entire life, with her mother dead and me never being present.  I tried to be a good father, but the feeling of inadequacy always crept up shrewdly and unpexpectedly.  Who knew what my daughter could have gotten into all those times I was not around?  Maybe if I had been there more often, she would behave herself more, would not wear short dresses, and would not trick people.  

Her resourceful but manipulative mind was another thing she inherited from me.  I told her over and over again she would make a good Acquis, but she would never hear a word of it.  I always tried to get some seriousness into her.  However, she was only interested in what was next in life, not the consequences and not her personal possibilities.

From her mother, Annelise, Adriana had inherited a calming and understanding presence.  At times when I was disappointed in her, like today, I would remember that terrible week that occured almost five years ago.  

Annelise had owned a gray cat named Spark since before I even met her.  When we moved in together, it was like Spark was our first child and I already knew how to deal with kids by the time Adriana got there.  That cat must have had supernatural powers because it lived until Adriana was twelve years old.  I remembered the day Spark died as one of the saddest in my life.  It had been the only thing that tied me to Annelise, and taking care of that old cat was like taking care of Annelise's memory.

"Dad, it's fine!" A pre-teen image of Adriana burst into my mind as I walked with a silent, older one into the heart of our neighborhood.  "Dad!"

I was crying and bent over the motionless cat.  It had happened so suddenly.  We woke up that morning, and Spark was dead.  Adriana was never really that fond of the furball (As she called him), so I would not have expected her to understand.  A child's curious fingers were prone to being scratched and bitten when they innocently probed the wrong place on a cat's body.  

My daughter had never seen me cry before. She was terrified, but determined to help in some way.  "Dad, don't worry." She said firmly.  "We all really loved Spark, even me, I promise.  But look at all this other stuff that Mom left behind for us!"

Then she ran over to the mantelpeice where there sat a small statue of a fairy.  She did this with such a serious nature, one would think she was on the most important mission in the world.  She picked it up and ran over to me, carrying it and something else behind her back that I could not see.

"Look!" She shoved both objects under my tear-streaked face.  The painted pink wings of the fairy went well with its lilac-colored face and pale-pink hair.  It played a gold harp and stood on flowers.  The fragile stone was getting dusty and was very old; It had first belonged to Annelise's grandmother Catherine, and who knew how long it had been sitting on dusty store shelves before she had bought it.  

The second object was a picture of the four of us; Me, Annelise, a toddler Adriana and Spark the cat, curled around Annelise's legs.  We were standing in front of this house, just after we moved in.  Annelise's chocolate brown hair flowed healthily around her, and her creamy white face was ecstatic to be at a new house with her complete family.  This picture, like the statue, was also very dusty.

"Look, Dad," The serious look on Adriana's face almost made me stop crying and burst into laughter.  I had never seen the girl with such a determined expression.  "Spark had to die, he's a living thing!  But look at this fairy and the picture!  They're not gonna die!  If you take good care of them, it'll be like Spark all over again.  They won't die, Dad, I promise.  And they'll still be here to remind you of Mom."

I wiped my eyes again.  Forgetting was my greatest fear.  If my wife and I had both been old when she died, I was sure it would not have been as bad.  Me being so young, however...I never wanted to forget and move on.  It would feel like a slap in the face to Annelise.  I looked up at Adriana, feeling a gratitute I could not express for the comfort she gave me.

By the end of that week, we got a baby Vicious.  It was hard to think back to the time that Vicious was a little black ball of fur and small enough to fit into one of my hands with his eyes barely open.  Now, when he stood on his hind legs, he was almost as tall as I was, and was the same height as Adriana!

I never forgot the day that Adriana had comforted me so much.  It relieved me to know that she did have some good in her, despite all the recklessness.

By this time, we had reached our house and had just sat down on the light brown, worn-out couch.

"So what were you doing for Acquis this time?" Adriana asked after a short time, looking up at me as she pet a sleeping Vicious' head.

"I've told you," I responded patiently, "I went to look for someone to replace Duvan II.  But she was dead.  Like all the others."  

"Oh, that's right...We need a new king."  She nodded, unconcerned.

I suddenly remembered why I had searched for her so vigorously in the forest, and I slapped myself for forgetting.  Adriana looked at me like I was crazy.

"Adriana, I - I..." I cleared my throat and wiped my sweaty forehead.  I knew she was not going to take this well.

"All of those people that were supposed to be new kings and queens...They all died. All of them!  The killers are always a step ahead of us.  I wish I could have stopped their deaths, but..." I cleared my throat again.  

My daughter was getting confused, both black eyebrows scrunched up in frustration.  I continued, "I could have prevented their deaths, but you see...I needed to keep them away from you."

"Who?  The heirs?"  She was completely bewildered, still petting Vicious.

"No, the um...The killers."

"What?  Why would I need to be kept away from them?" She asked indignantly.

Her eyes grew round with shock as some comprehension sunk in.  "They don't want anything to do with me!  They're killing heirs, not random people off the street!"

"If their mission is killing heirs, then you have everything to do with them.  Adriana, you're an heir to the throne.  Normally, that would be fine.  But now we have these enemies.  They're a complete mystery to us, which makes them even more dangerous.  They only thing we do know about them is that they want the heirs dead.  That means you, Adriana, and unless we get you out of here, and-"

Adriana got up from the couch and started backing towards the hallway.

"No, I'm not an heir.  I don't have anything to do with that!" She protested, shaking her head as though that would make her assumption true.  "What idiot told you I was royal?" She laughed at the end, as though trying to put some sense into the conversation

"Nobody told me anything.  I knew it your whole life, but kept it to myself once Duvan II died.  When the next person in line died as well, the Sages starting tracking everyone's lineage.  They found out that you and your mother were distantly related to someone with royal blood."  I began to speak faster now, as though that would make Adriana accept my words as truth.  "They confronted me a few weeks ago and demanded that I hand your over.  I told them to give you more time, and to search for other people!  I told them there had to be more possible heirs, and that they didn't want a seventeen-year-old girl ruling anyway.  But now, you're the only lead they have, and our enemies-"

"No! They can't kill me!  I'm not royal.  It's a mistake, someone messed up-" She was scared, and flicked her head between the door, windows and the hallway behind her.  It was as though she feared the entrance of bloodthirsty enemies who would kill her, or an Acquisitioner army that would make her queen first and let our enemies kill her afterwards.

"Yes, you are!" I roared, advancing on her.  It was necessary for her to understand.  She covered her face in her hands, and curled against the wall.  "You are royalty and they want you dead!  You have to-"

"No!  Dad, stop it!  You're crazy!" The screaming woke up Vicious, who started barking loudly.  She released her hands from her face, and with it came a strong gust of wind that almost knocked me off my feet.  Adriana was getting stronger, but her powers were more out of control than ever before.  I backed away a little, holding my hands up as a sign of peace.

"Listen to me, Adriana.  I do not want them to get to you.  You must trust me, you are royal!  You might be killed tonight if you stay here!  To live, you must go to my sister's house in the Rechoi section of the city.  They won't know to look for you there."

Our time was running out, but Adriana continued to shake her head in defiance.

"So what if I'm royal? You're an Acquis, they can't hurt me if you're here!"  Tears bubbled at the corners of her onyx eyes.

"We thought that too when we protected Duvan II's heir and when we tried to get to this heir in Algeria!  Both were dead, and the Acquis could do nothing!  Please, Adriana, you must do as I say."

She was beyond listening.  Still shaking her head, Adriana yelled, "I won't leave here!  I have nothing to do with this, and there's no reason for them to kill me!"  She turned to run down the hallway, but I grabbed her by the wrist.  Vicious was jumping around our heels.

"Let go!" Adriana screamed and whipped her wrist out of my grasp.  She slashed her arm through the air towards me and everything from the mantelpeice, including a small, lilac and pink fairy statue, flew at me.  I blocked them with a wooden shield I produced by drawing it in the air in the nick of time.  I heard the sound of a fragile statue breaking.

It was a fight now.  I had had other fights with my daughter, but none as important as this one, and none where her powers were so dangerous.  I would do whatever it took to get Adriana to understand the situation and be safe.

She was holding tight to both sides of the dark hallway entrance, yelling again.  "Why do you want to send me away?  So you can keep me safe, like you did with mom?  Look what happened to her when you tried to protect her!  She's dead!  And I'm going to die too if you think---"

"You know nothing!"  I yelled, trying to trap her in vines that I made sprout up from the carpet and curl around Adriana's ankles and shins.  "Stay here and listen!  Stop trying to make things difficult!"

"Get them off of me!"  She tried to create a knife with which to cut the vines, but failed.  The metal flickered for a moment in the palm of her hand, then disappeared.

"You do nothing for this family except cause trouble!  You know nothing about your mother's situation!  You're as stubborn as a mule!"

Face now cut in tracks of tears, Adriana said feebly, "So that's why you want to get rid of me?  Because I'm not good enough for you?"

I stopped making the vines wrap themselves around her waist.  "No, Adriana, that's not what I--"

"Yes, it is!  That's what you want!"  With a powerful jerk she broke free of the vines and pushed her hands forward.  A spinning whirpool of water, as high as the ceiling and as low as the waist, came spinning ferociously towards me, sucking in everything on the floor.  Before I could think of a way to stop it without nearly destroying the house or injuring Adriana, the whirpool descended on Vicious and sucked him up into it.

Spinning, his limbs being twisted in the middle of the vortex, Vicious' eyes bulged.  He was drowning. Adriana was screaming and crying.  I concentrated, closing my eyes.

A moment later a wall of wind sliced through the water, releasing Vicious onto the ground.  The water flung itself at Adriana, who was standing directly behind it when I aimed the wind.

I bent over the spluttering Vicious to make sure he was okay.  Adriana leaned against the wall, hair plastered to her face and dress darkened with water.  She looked like she had just climbed out of the Mediterranean.

Once I caught my breath, I told her bitterly, "You'll never be a master of your powers if this is how you let them get out of control, Adriana.  Go to your room and begin packing.  Once I make sure Vicious is all right, I'll be coming in to lock your windows until you leave Verte tomorrow at noon. I've arranged for my brother-in-law to come get you.  Be ready."

With one last look of hatred and disbelief, Adriana stormed to her room.  She dripped water all the way, and slammed the door shut behind her.

Reviews

[snopadelic]

This chapter really caught my eye. I liked the first chapter where as the last chapter ends with a lot of exposisiton about the setting this gets straight into a more personal account. Your descriptions of the settings are very vivids and build up a picture in my mind of location et. I loved the discription of rual. using the mirror so he could see himself looking like a frightning bulldog was genius.
The other thing i liked about this is since we are in a different world which has magical powers etc this in a way grounds us into a reality. The guys a father and you describe his insercuritys as a father, his grief for his wife, his inability to move on with realisim and its fantastic to read. Also the faft he dosn't understand his teenage daughter, very realistic, and it pulls you into the story. I like the inclusion of his memorys of the dead cat. Again we get a picture of Adrianna as a rebelious teeenager which fits.
I like the action sequene its a nice change of direction and moves along well. Again the desription of the scene is very vivid, i felt for poor viscous getting caught up in the whirlwind. Also now we know Adrrianna temper has control of her pwoers which could become importan.
Really good read and can''t wait to read the next chapter tonight

Once again, an interesting read. And, yes, the tension is what makes this chapter.

[Kena]

The tension brought this chapter to life. Keep it up!