Friday, February 15, 2013

Raeza Blayd: Do You Remember when the Walls Fell?

     Now you finally get to know what happened to Raeza, I think I've procrastinated it long enough! This chapter was hard to write...I took at least three wrong turns on my way. I hope this isn't another one of them! FVS

   Raeza's pulse kept eerily perfect time with the still-ticking explosives just outside the door. The glow of the 'withstand' spell was starting to fade, like all her magic eventually did. This one had lasted a good three minutes, longer than most. The door was her own handiwork, something she understood. That was probably part of it. She winced as an aching pain spread through her head.
     She whispered 'withstand' again, and again, but the door didn't change. Raeza was unsurprised, she could barely do magic even when she could think straight. She would usually stop now, go get some water and lie down, but she really couldn't afford rest. Instead, she decided to push the limits.
     Time slowed as Raeza poured her magic into the door, remembering the last time she'd tried to push the limits of her power....
     Flashback:
     A meadow with a low stone wall at one edge. A picnic blanket is spread across the grass, seating two girls, another is perched on the wall, paper and pencil in hand. The girl on the wall is about sixteen, with her dark hair pulled out of her face in a short ponytail. The way she grins, you'd never recognize her if you saw her today. Of the two on the blanket, the older one is clearly Raeza. She's just as quiet here in the past, but more happily an peacefully so. The other girl bears a face that is new to us, clearly the youngest of the three, her hair lighter brown bordering on blonde. The way she innocently smiles will stick in Raeza's memory, branded there by the events that are about to come.

     "Stupid bleeding Treacle. They should've stayed in the garage, where nobody could hear them." Faeris scowls. It's only then that she looks like the Faeris you know. Time has yet to change her, but it will.
     "Fae, it's Beatles, not Treacle! Treacle is molasses!" The dark blonde girl laughs.
     Faeris shrugs and ruffles her sister's hair. "Okay, Mae-Mae. Bee Skulls it is."
     Raeza smiles. "Now you're getting it wrong on purpose!" Maeve nods in agreement, and they both look at Faeris with their best 'serious and not at all amused' faces.
     Faeris pulls out her pocket mirror and holds it in front of first Maeve's face, then Raeza's. They both double over in laughter at their own expressions, and Faeris grins and jumps down from the wall.
     "You know I'll never get the name right!" she announces cheerfully. "Why is it less important than me calling your boyfriend Kelley?"
     Raeza turns scarlet and looks at her bare feet. "He's not my boyfriend. And his name actually is Kelley."
     "Right. What did I call him, then?" Faeris's confused expression makes Maeve giggle.
     "You called him Kelley. I was surprised you actually got someone's name right, remember?"
     "Yeah," Faris agrees, clearly not remembering. 
     "Did he ask you on a date, Raeza?" Maeve bats her eyelashes teasingly, mimicking an aunt of theirs who always asks nosy questions.
     "No, and he's not going to, either. We..."
     As if intentionally meant to save her from having to continue, bright and sunny meadow is plunged into an inexplicable blackness.
     
     To be continued.

2 comments:

  1. Erm... I guess you really don't. But soon!

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  2. Oooh...I liked this. The ending really has me hanging off the edge of my seat...figuratively speaking, of course. Otherwise that would be Norwegian-style awkward.

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