The Stranger- Chapter 5

Damn. Annoyance and rage gripped me like a snake coiling around its prey. If I could, I would make sure Jacob Wraith would suffer and die by my hand. He was virtually heartless, I could see the cold in his eyes. The ice must have left its mark on me, as I was in no mood to hear from anyone. I stormed to my room and found a corset, underwear, a plain shirt and pants to wear and tossed them on, and then ran outside. I tore through the halls and down the stairs, furiously speeding down another hall to a small wooden door. My hand reached out so fast I could barely register what I was doing, and I tore the small door open, continuing my rampage outside into a meadow filled with sweet grass. The sweet scent did little to calm my nerves, it would take much more than that. Birds were singing, bees were floating from flower to flower, the sunlight of the very late afternoon warmed my skin. As much as this was calming me, I refused to let go of my temper. I broke into a run, sprinting through the meadow to the edge of a forest. I carefully navigated through the trees until they broke off to reveal a sapphire lake in the distance. My chest heaved as I sighed with relief. Just as I was about to run towards it, I heard footsteps and snapping twigs to my left. Panic ran through me as I darted behind a large oak tree, watching for someone through the trees.

            I held back a gasp as I saw Jacob Wraith wandering through the trees. He looked sullen, even depressed. I could feel the misery radiating off him. He lifted his hand and took a knife from his coat pocket, then dragged the blade over his palm. My eyes went wide with shock as the liquid from his palm was black, not red. Or was I not seeing things correctly? Wraith held his hand over the pond and let a drop of the black liquid fall into the waters. A small tremor pulsed through the ground and the entire pond turned black, trees started to bend and wilt, grasses started to shrivel and decay, and the fish in the pond floated belly up in the black water. What sorcery had he done? An overwhelming sense of hatred and negativity consumed me, and for a moment I thought I would run over to Wraith and kill him. I forced myself to remain still and started playing violin scales in my mind, trying to calm myself down. Every emotion I felt turned to pure terror as the air a few feet in front of Wraith cracked as if it were a wall. A hideous monster, a beast with a thick neck, flaring nostrils, red skin and giant curled horns at the top of its head pressed through the crack. It wasn’t completely substantial, however, and couldn’t move more than a meter in front of the cracked space.

            The voice that came from it was more like a growling beast’s, “Atael… What is the meaning of summoning me here, to this human threshold?”

            “My Lord… I’ve found the girl. She goes by the name ‘Annabelle’. She’s that fool Drevensek’s daughter.”

            My heart caught in my throat. He was speaking of me! And that beast called him Atael. Who was Jacob Wraith? What was that thing?

            “Drevensek?”

            “Yes… And Anzeleaz has already captured her heart…” Wraith whispered the last sentence, bowing his head and cringing.

            “FOOL!” The beast thundered, “You need to capture her, break her! And swear to me, your Lord, that you will do all you can to keep her from being in the Legion of Angels!”

            “My Lord, it is not so easy… I do not think that means of seduction will work on her. She has the temper of a raging bull.” Wraith winced under the beast’s glare.

            “You will rip her wings from her body! You will bleed her dry and serve her to me on a silver platter! Are you blind, Atael? She is the one that will bring my war with the world to an end! If she stands in our way… He will win…”

            “I understand-“

            “No. You don’t. The next time you come here, I expect you to be holding her dead body in your disgusting arms! And if you cannot kill her before the War, then as the head of the Demon Army, you had better pray that you can defeat the Purity. Am I understood?”

            “Yes, my Lord.”

            “Good… This is your last chance at life on this pathetic ball of mud. Do not fail me.” The beast faded into nothing behind the cracks in the air, which closed up. The water returned to its crystal clear appearance, the fish springing back to life. Everything in the forest was released of death’s grip and all the negative emotions left me as quickly as they came. I felt as if I should have died with everything else in the forest, but I didn’t…

            Wraith sighed heavily. He stared into the sky, his face riddled with despair as he whispered to no one, “But what if she isn’t meant to die?” I saw from the distance, a single tear slip down his face. It was black like his blood. I thought of everything I had just seen, the mention of demons and angels, the beast, the strange names…

            I covered my mouth with my hand and bit back a scream. They couldn’t be speaking of me! I knew I was no supernatural being, but Wraith… He was, without a doubt, a demon.

            And that beast was Satan himself.

            I tried to slowly back away as Wraith stared into the sky, but stumbled over a branch. The noise of me falling into the dead leaves alerted him, and he immediately snapped his head back. I froze, praying he wouldn’t see me. It seems my prayer was a waste, however, as his eyes rested on me and his face twisted into a snarl. I turned around and tried to crawl back the way I came, but saw legs in front of me.

            “Girl.”

            I stared up at Wraith’s face in terror. Large black bat wings stretched from his back, just like in my drawings. He looked furious. I said nothing, just stared at him in shock.

            “You saw nothing. You remember nothing. You know nothing of me except my name, and my friendship with your father.”

            These were lies. I knew everything! But for some reason, I believed him. Becoming drowsy, I nodded. My vision began to fail.

            “I am Jacob Wraith. You know nothing else besides what I tell you.”

            My eyes slipped shut and I collapsed into the ground. His voice still rang out in my head.

            “None of this ever happened.”

 

            My head was spinning as I twisted on something soft… My bed? I opened my eyes slowly and saw my father sitting in my writing desk’s chair. When I lifted a hand to my head, his eyes snapped up to me and he sighed with relief.

            “My God, Annabelle. You worried me to death.” He walked over and knelt beside my bed, taking my hand gently.

            “What happened…?” Try as I may, I couldn’t recall anything from after my father introduced that man… Jacob Wraith.

            “You went to the lake and fell, and hit your head on a rock… Lord Wraith found you and carried you back home.”

            “Oh…” Was that really what happened? For some reason, I was gripped with fear at the mention of Wraith’s name. The fear itself quickly subsided, but a strange uneasiness never left. It must be all in my head… I did hit it on a rock, after all…

            The door flew open and Wraith wandered inside, looking concerned. “Is she okay?”

            “Yes, thank you again, Jacob.”

            “No trouble, James.” The way he stared at me was kind and full of worry, but deep within his eyes I could see ice. Cold wastelands of his character. It intrigued me. I sat up and swatted them away.

            “I’m fine. Thank you for helping me, Lord Wraith.” I noticed I was dressed. Who had dressed me? Katherine? Shrugging it off, I hopped up off the bed, “Well, I’m off.”

            “Annabelle, you aren’t going anywhere.” My father used his most stern tone.

            I gave him my saddest, most pleading look and he caved almost immediately, nodding his head for me to leave. With a smile, I began to walk off, stealing one last glance at Wraith’s beautiful face. His eyes caught mine and time seemed to stop momentarily, a flash of emotions that I couldn’t process swishing through me. My head snapped forward again as I continued out the door. I walked through the hallway and down the stairs to the front door, pulling on my high heeled black boots over my pants. Kendell crossed my mind and I decided to head down to the iron shop to see him. By now it was night time, the street lamps beginning to illuminate the roads. There was barely enough light in the sky to see without them. People stared at me for a few moments longer than usual, as I almost never appeared outside in my pants and a blouse. Dressing this way as a girl was considered “unladylike” and “vulgar”. I thought it was perfectly practical. My walk through town was uninterrupted for quite some time until I walked by the tailor Ms. Brewer’s shop and saw Collette loitering around outside, surely hoping to talk to the tailor’s son Landon. She saw me and turned her nose up in disgust. I gave a smirk and continued my path down the dirt roads. A pebble soon distracted me as I kicked it down the road, leaving it on the curb once I got to its end. I started to whistle as I walked, the iron shop only a few feet away. Climbing onto the steps, I was about to open the door when Mr. Calsworth appeared holding it open.

            “Hello, Miss Drevensek. I assume you’re looking for Kendell?”

            “Uh, yes sir.”

            “You and me both. I have no idea where the runt is. Could you find him for me?”

            He wasn’t at the iron shop? I nodded and piped, “Sure thing!”

            Mr. Calsworth smiled and nodded. I hopped off the iron shop’s porch and thought of all of Kendell’s hideouts. When he was sad, he was usually at the restaurant’s bar. Otherwise, I could almost always find him at the lake behind the manor. Very rarely I could find him in the back of the church pews, just staring at the statue of Jesus.

            Filled with enthusiasm, I started my search at the church. It was the closest place to the iron shop, so I figured I might as well stop by. Walking quickly, I made my way to the church. It wasn’t far past the road I was on, so I began to walk faster. The church sat on the end of the road, its windows glowing with candlelight. I ran up the steps and pushed the large doors open, looking around. No one was there except the altar boy. He looked at me in surprise as I waved and ran off back into the night. The next place I decided to look was the restaurant. I broke out into a run as my impatience to see him grew. The restaurant barely came into view after a few minutes of running at full speed. My legs started to feel like dead weight so I slowed to a brisk walk, my tired limbs protesting every step I took. I was breathing heavily from running, so I just began to stumble down the middle of the road. Swallowing my exhaustion, I started running again. The restaurant came closer and closer until I jumped up onto their porch and leaned against the wall to catch my breath before I stormed in there. When I was under control again, I opened the door and scanned the bar. To my delight, he was there. So were a glass and an almost empty bottle of brandy.

            “Kendell!” I cried.

            His head slowly turned to face me, then contorted into a miserable expression. I bounded over to him, my shoes clicking on the hardwood floor. I could feel my own face creasing in confusion as I stared at him. He was hunched over the bar counter as if he was an old man.

            “What’s the matter? Kendell?”

            “Why are you here? Shouldn’t you be with your lover, Wraith?” He spat Wraith’s name as if it was a curse. Even after downing almost an entire bottle of brandy, he spoke as he always did, smooth and controlled.

            “Lover? Kendell, all he did was help me after I hit my head on a rock. Where is this coming from?”

            Kendell stared up at me curiously, “You hit your head on a rock?” 

            “Yes, that is what they tell me…”               

            “Don’t you remember? When you came from your bath, how Wraith so helpfully addressed my pathetic status as an orphan?”

            “He did what?” I blinked, taking a seat on the stool next to him.

            “How much do you remember, after you hit your head on this… ‘Rock?’”

            “I only remember my father telling me the man’s name, and his face… Everything else is black. Are you sure he said those things? He seemed like such a gentleman.”

            Kendell seemed to snap and slammed his hand down on the counter, “Damn it, woman! How could you forget that? You even sent him running!”

            “I… Did?”

            Confused and scared, I watched Kendell’s face crease with irritability and confusion, then morph into an expression of realization, then shock, “Where were you when you hit your head?”

            “The lake?”

            Kendell looked mortified. He grabbed my shoulders, crushing them, “The lake? Are you sure you remember nothing? Not a single shred of memory from right before you hit your head?” His eyes were wide and they stared deep into mine as they always did, his voice low and hushed.

            “I-I told you, I don’t remember anything after my father’s introduction…”

            “Then try! Try to remember something, anything!”

            “Kendell, you’re hurting me!” I hissed.

            The few people left in the restaurant were staring at us. Kendell let go of my arms quickly and ran a hand through his hair. He got up and pulled a few crumpled dollar bills out of his back pocket, then dropped them on the counter. Kendell grabbed my arm and dragged me out of the restaurant. I wanted to protest but I couldn’t find my voice. He was walking so fast that I could barely keep up. When we reached an old abandoned shack on the next road, he pulled me inside and shut the rotten door. I couldn’t see much because it was so dark out.

            “Kendell? What are you doing?”

            I heard his steps and felt his hands clasp around my face. He had been drinking, but I couldn’t smell any alcohol on his breath, “Annabelle. Please. Stay away from Wraith.”

            “Why? He seems like a good man-“

            “He’s far from it, Annabelle!”

            “How would you know?” I felt myself growing angry with him.

            “Because,” Kendell let go of my face and I could see his silhouette pace through the room, “because I have a feeling, an awful feeling, okay?”

            “Well, I’m sure you may feel one way, but what if I feel differently?” I challenged, growing angry with him.

The anger was lost when he stepped into the dim light and I could see his face. The irritated expression cracked into raw pain. Kendell stalked back over to me and took my face in his hands again, then whispered,

"Because..."

He didn't finish his sentence. Instead, he caught my lips with his.

Reviews

[Wolfwind]

Oh wow! The story becomes intense! I love it! The twist of the memory suppression and Kendell's seemingly other worldly gut feeling has added a whole new dimension to the level of the plot. I have to admit, I'm with Kendell and his concern for Annabelle, I can only hope she remembers in time, before something really bad happens. Bloody demon's always causing problems with good folk! ;)

Fantastic Chapter!
Aaron