Kyle Schmid - Rowan >>>

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A knocking came at the door and a male entered the room; it was not the guard I knew. I did not turn to face him and carried on looking at the bird in the sky.

“How very ignorant.” The person declared, “Did you’re Mummy and Daddy not teach you respect? I heard they abandoned you when you were only little, I guess they never got the chance.” Anger built up in me, like lava bubbling under the top of a volcano, “Hello? Are you deaf little thing?” the voice taunted, I did not like his use of the word ‘thing’. I knew that it was a male voice, but it sounded harsher than the one I had heard in the clearing. “Don’t be dense, turn around and face me you stupid girl.” He said, growing impatient – I could feel the heat inside me as I tried to release it.

The man walked over to me and grabbed my arm; “Now you will have to face me.” he snarled yanking me away from the window. Slowly I turned my head and looked at him with cold eyes; I could feel that hatred of the position I was in leaking out of me. He let go and stepped away as if he had been burned. Looking at his hand he saw nothing on it, no mark or colour change to suggest that anything hand happened, but we both knew that something had.

“That was not clever.” I said with an expressionless face, still feeling the anger burning under my skin, “I can show respect to those who deserve it, I see you can’t...” I looked at his hand as a silvery black mark slowly appeared out of nowhere, he rubbed at it and tried to get it off, but it stayed there, etched into his hand for the rest of his life, “To remind you that anger burns and kindness heals.” I said as I slowly turned around to look out of the window again, not knowing, how or what I had just done.

He snarled and stormed out of the room, slamming the door shut behind him. The guard slowly walked to the door, “What did you do to him?” He asked in awe, “I’ve never seen him so afraid in my life.”

“I taught him the value of respect and kindness.” I said.

“But you didn’t teach it to me? Not that I am ungrateful.” He asked

“No, why would I need to? I know you are the one who carried me here and held me closer when I screamed in terror.” He stood there astounded.

“But you weren’t conscious.” he gaped

“No, I was not, but I never forget, you will be known by me for as long as I live, as will he.” I said, confused.

The guard walked away from the door. I sat on the bed and looked at the ground; tracing the pattern of the tiles with my eyes and feeling the worry fall over me like a blanket. Even though the guard had told me that Jacob and Johanna were safe I still had an uneasy feeling; I needed to see them myself to make sure.

Another thing that worried me was what I was doing; performing tricks and marking men I didn’t even know. I wasn’t thinking when I did those things; they had just seemed to happen. It seemed so wrong – it went against everything that I had been told throughout my life. I was supposed to be a normal teenage girl, no real family, but nothing different from that. Suddenly I’m being called a ‘thing’ and I have powers, which I apparently lent to a magical building who returned them to me when it died. How can a building die? “I must be going mad.” I reasoned to myself out loud; a complete oxymoron in itself – none of this makes any sense to me at all.

Although if I am a ‘thing’ and not human, it would explain a lot of happenings that I’d never really thought about; my memory, how fast I could run without getting tired, my intuition about how others were feeling. But it still didn’t make much sense. Johanna and Jacob could also do all of these things. I sat there in my room mulling it over, trying to figure it out, but my mind kept going round in circles and coming to no conclusion.

I ended up staring at the room aimlessly. I hadn’t noticed earlier how nice it actually was. The bed that I was sitting on was made out of a golden wood; it had fine linen sheets in the palest cream colour, with golden ribbing around the edges and feather pillows that matched. There was a table besides the bed, made of the same wood, little ornately carved wild flowers wound up the legs. The walls were painted an off white and the floor had a warm orange/brown tiles. The window was deep set into the wall, there was glass where it touched the outside fortifications but the indent onto the stonework created a little seat.

It was a quaint little room, bright and full of warmth and, had I been in another situation, I probably would have liked it. But it felt cold and unwelcoming to me; I was almost the exact opposite of my surroundings, with my black hair and blue eyes I contrasted completely with the neutral tones of the room, it made me feel unwanted in this normal place.

 After sitting in the room for a while I lay down on the bed and slowly fell into a deep, uneasy sleep. I was gradually waking up when I heard two voices in the room, standing above me, one of them I recognised as the man with the feather now on his hand, the other was a person I did not know.

“What shall I do?”

“Just leave me in here with her and go have your meal.” The feather man said, I could feel the hate radiating off him as he spoke the words.

“I don’t think I can do that Sir.”

“Why not?”

“I’ve been told to stay here with her always and never leave her door, the last guard ordered me to.”

“Do I outrank you last guard or not?”

“Yes Sir you do.”

“So do what I say, and leave me with her!” he ordered, still whispering but I could feel the venom in his voice even as he whispered. The new guard finally gave up and went away with his tail firmly between his legs.

I could feel the feather man’s eyes stare at me as I ‘slept’. He gently brushed the back of his hand across one of my cheeks and I pretended to stir, he held stock still as I did so, not even breathing. Slowly he moved his hand down to the calf of my leg and brushed it with his palm, I did nothing, “Show respect, hah!” he gloated as he moved his hand higher up my leg to my thigh, suddenly I could hear his thoughts clearly in the silent room; He hated me, he wanted my body, then he wanted me dead. He was confused and then it became clear in his mind and I saw it all. I was horrified of what he was thinking about doing.

He moved his hand further up my thigh and carefully watched my face. I suddenly opened my eyes “You know what I have just found out?” I said to him surprised, “I can read you thoughts.” I felt the shocked expression on my face as I saw the worried one on his.

I regained my senses and narrowed my eyes at him with malice, he was held still, completely transfixed by my steely glare. “Obviously you didn’t learn enough about respect, did you?” I concentrated all hatred I had for him to the hand that was on my leg, he closed his eyes in pain, I wasn’t sure what to do, then he started to scream and I threw his hand away from me. I had meant to teach him a lesson. He stared at his hand; it had turned black – the skin was still as supple and soft as before, but now, black as coal. The feather was silver in the centre of his palm, standing out defiantly.

His eyes opened in shock and he swung his fist round, trying to hit me in the head, I dodged it easily. He tried again and I moved with more speed than I’d ever had in my life; so fast that my whole body blurred. He did a double take and then ran to the door, shouting for a guard to come and get me. The guard who I had heard before came into the room warily. He was only eighteen years old, only two years older than me, though with my knowledge he felt like he was the one who was at least two years younger. He had green eyes that were bright and had many shades to them, like no other human eyes I had ever seen. They also had a depth which I did not understand and they intrigued me more than I felt comfortable with. The way that his hair was styled also made me want to learn more about him; it was long, and flopped over his eyes in a slightly mysterious way. “Please miss, I don’t want you to hurt me, will you put these on for me?” he asked in a small voice, holding out a pair of handcuffs.

“No.” I said, he looked towards the door anxiously, trying to calculate if he could get out before I got to him. “I won’t hurt you, but if I wanted to run away, I would be at the door before you had taken a single step.” He looked at me and I could see the same fear in his eyes that I had seen in Johanna’s when we were standing outside the clearing; the fear of a monster. I broke down into tears as I saw how everyone would now see me. I turned away from him and sat on the floor, hugging my knees again.

“What’s the matter?”

“I know how you see me,” I said.

“And it upsets you?” he asked me, his guard down a little.

“Of course it upsets me! Yesterday I thought I was just like you, I didn’t know I had any special powers, I thought I was human, not the monster that you see me as now. I grew up in a Home with fifty other kids, I’m only a kid myself and I don’t know what’s happened to my normal life. I feel like I’m sitting in a nightmare, just waiting for the morning to come and wake me up.” I closed my eyes, “But it’s never coming. I’m always going to be stuck in this nightmare and there’s no way to get out.” I sobbed, desperately whishing I could go back to the way things were, but nothing happened and I sat there on the cold tiles, just hugging my knees.

Eventually I stopped and stood up. The guard was standing in the same place he had been when I’d broken down. “I’m sorry.” I said and stood at the window.

“What do you mean you’re sorry?” he asked me.

“I shouldn’t have told you that.” he stood there speechless just staring at me openly, “But now you know, so if you don’t mind Rowan I don’t want to put of those hand cuffs when all that I’ve done is protect myself form those that wanted to hurt me, I’m not a criminal, I’m just a lost girl.” He stood there without making a sound. We stared at each other for a while.

“Answer me two things.”

“I will try”

“How did you know my name?”

“I know it because I sense your thoughts, it is the same way I knew how you saw me.”

“Okay,” he shifted uncomfortably, trying to decide whether to speak out loud the thought that was running through his head.

“I know what that idea could cost you and I will not run away, of that you have my word.” He looked at me, slightly uncomfortable.

“How do I know that you word means anything?” I heard the words in his mind that he did not speak, and flinched at them, he looked at me with apologetic eyes, not realising that I had heard the unspoken sentence.

“This was all I had when I came into this world, it was the only possession my mother left me, take it now and give it back when we arrive.” I handed him the necklace that I had never taken off. Hanging from the slender sliver chain was a teardrop shaped basket that was hollow, in the centre was a bright blue stone, cut in a way that made the sun shine off it as if it were a star. The stone was always gleaming on me, but when I took it off we both noticed how it seemed to dull as the colour faded.

He looked into my eyes, “And you’re sure you will not put the cuffs on?” I felt my eyes blaze as he said it and he hurriedly put them away in his belt. When he turned around I put my hand onto his shoulder and he moved away from me quickly, “What are you doing?” he asked me.

“I am showing the others in your guard that I trust you to lead me onwards, it is either this, or I hold my hand in yours?” I gave him the option, noticing a feeling stir inside me that was strange and foreign.

“Shoulder.” He said in a monotonous voice.

“And think how the other guards will respect you for being brave enough to let me put my hand on your shoulder, as of course, I am the evil monster from the forbidden woods.” A small, hard smile played around the corners of my mouth as I thought of the way that the guards would treat him after this.