Prologue of my first novel - The Void, Book One in the Fifth Corner Chronicles, © Roxanne Franklin 2013, all rights reserved. Prologue Celine lay next to a crystal clear creek that gave birth to white froth as it tumbled over and through the rocks. She soaked in the babbling sound she had always loved and made pictures out of the clouds in the sky. She felt the warmth of the sun and lifted her face to soak it in. The scent of the water was carried by the breeze to trickle along her skin and fill her heart like honey on a sore throat. The soft brightly colored leaves and blades of deep-green grass beneath her cooled her skin and gave a wonderful contrast to the warmth of the sun. She breathed in the aroma of the purple wisteria flowering on the weeping willow next to her. She followed its twists and turns as it wrapped itself lovingly around the branches. She lost herself in that world, that purple world far away from the crippling pain and loss that lurked in her past. Slowly, almost undetectably, the sun began to fade. The wisteria turned from purple to black and squeezed the life out of the willow. It wept as the twisted black weeds took over its limbs, lifting along its dead arms to reach for her. The leaves beneath her turned brown and brittle and the grass between the leaves turned to spikes, drawing blood to the surface of her skin. Something was coming. Celine ran to the creek, wading through water that was now red with black shadows. She ran away from the source of the creek. The crescent moon was hidden beneath the clouds, the only light coming from the stars. She stumbled in the dark. She knew it was close; she could feel its avaricious hunger on the back of her neck like hot breath. She turned to look behind her as she ran and could barely make out the form of a huge horned water snake. The last of the light from the stars was covered by the clouds. She listened in the darkness as the snake closed in fast behind her. She realized she would not be able to out-run it, and she was tired to the bone of running. She stopped and rested her hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath. Time seemed to slow way down, and she watched little circles begin to form in the water at her feet. She looked for the rain clouds, but the clouds were white and billowy, and moving relatively quickly with the wind that had picked up. Absently, she moved a hand from her knee to her face, and found the source of the raindrops as her reflection was illuminated by the crescent moon and winking stars peeking through gaps in the clouds as they moved across the sky. Her eyes were suddenly huge and round, and were circled in soft white feathers. The other feathers seemed red at a certain angle, then went back to gray. She watched the empty black of her eyes begin to show new signs of life, and breathed in long and deep, filling her being with a newfound wind. Celine turned to face the horned water snake just in time to watch it writhe helplessly to stop as its belly slid the last few feet to reach her. Its eyes, once slanted with twisted pleasure, now grew wide and black with fear as it witnessed her transformation from a girl to an owl. She spread her wings wide, surprised by how big they were, and lifted her legs just as the snake slid beneath them. She looked down triumphantly at the snake. These wings you sought to break will be your own downfall, she whispered into the snake’s mind. She let out a long, shrill screech and swooped back down, grasping the snake’s coils in her long, sharp talons. Paralyzed with shock and fear, the snake closed its eyes. Open your eyes! Helpless, the snake looked up into her eyes, which were no longer clouded with fear and pain, but now round and primal and glowing in the night, with the unmistakable deadly focus of self-preservation. In the waning moonlight, she watched the red water swirl around its body writhing in the pain it had created as she forced all of its own black shadows back into its own eyes. Just as she was about to run her talons through its body, she caught a glimpse of a fear in its eyes that had been put there a very long time before. She realized the water dripping from its eyes wasn’t from the creek. The picture came back that had haunted her for years: the four-foot rectangle six feet deep with a little boy lying on the ground at the bottom of the hole. He had short dark hair and one hand clutched a dirty, tattered stuffed wolf that had once been white. The other hand was wrapped around a keychain with a family portrait on it that was attached to his belt loop. The snake in her talons transformed back into that little boy. Celine’s throat clenched up and tears poured down her face. She released him, gingerly placing him back into the creek. She hovered there for a moment staring into his eyes, and watched a tiny dim light begin to grow within them. She felt her talons turning back into legs as he backed away from her. She watched him walk away and sit on the bank of the creek. His eyes darted between the dripping stuffed animal in his hand and the two directions of the creek, stopping when his eyes met hers and filling with pain and guilt till it spilled down his little cheeks. She smiled at him through her tears, hoping he would make the right choice this time but knowing he was the only one who could choose his path. Choosing her own, she turned back toward the source of the creek. After a few minutes, she paused as she heard him walking slowly through the creek’s shallow waters at a safe distance behind her, heavier splashes now as the boy was now a man. She smiled as she heard the key tinkling on his keychain as it swayed slightly from his belt loop.
Posted on: Sat, 13 Dec 2014 09:56:07 +0000
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