Pain. Coldness. Death. Three things I felt as my life slipped away. The cold, shinning silver blade turned and pulled out of my stomach, it was no longer silver, it was now a deep bloody red. Of course it was red from blood, it was my blood. I looked up, looking at the older male that was holding the crimson blade. I choked up blood and forced out, "W-why?" Blood ran like a flowing river out of the wound, dying my shirt red, and fell out of my mouth. Dark spots danced across my vision. "Your… your son… why?" His cold, blank face locked eyes with me. "You may have had my blood in your body, but you are not my son. My child would not have been a freak." Salty tears poured quickly out of my eye, those were the last words of my mother. They both have thought of me as a freak. When I understood that, I could feel my tight grip on life slowly loosened, I wasn't wanted here, I wasn't wanted alive.
Just as my eyelids started to fall, I could hear soft footsteps hitting against the floor quickly. I forced my head to turn and look at the door, just as it was thrown open. Soft blonde hair and brown eyes were seen, my brother, stood in the doorway, anger and pain seen in his face. "Daniel!" He screamed then turned to look at our father. "H-how could you!?" He yelled at him. Slowly tears poured out of his eyes, and our father turned to him. "Scott, stay out of this." He said in a tone saying, 'do as I say or I'll kill you' then he left. Scott stayed there till he was gone then he ran to me. He fell to his knees and held me to his chest, like he did when we were children. The blood till ran from my stomach, turning his white shirt red.
"D-Daniel… don't close your eyes, you can't die. You can't." He sobbed. I've never seen him like this before. He was the older brother, he was always more calm and had more control over his emotions then I did. "S-Scott, I… I don't like seeing you like this… stop, please… s-smile…" That didn't help either one of us, my tears fell more quickly and he now sobbed into my hair. "No-you're not going to die, it won't happen." He kissed my head, whipped my tears from my cheeks then his own. He laid me on my back then stood.
"I'm sorry, Daniel." With that, he took off running the way our father had gone. I wanted to stop him but it was far too late for that, it was far too late to save myself. My eyes stared up at the ceiling till soon my eyelids grew too heavy for me to keep them open. As they slowly fell closed, I thought that is the distance, I heard a scream that sounded too much like my brother but I'd never know, I still don't know if it was him or not. Maybe… maybe one day I'll know the truth.
When I opened my eyes, I wasn't sure what I'd thought I would see; I could have seen the pure white clouds and pure golden streets of Heaven. Or the dark, fiery pits of the Underworld. Or maybe, I could have seen nothing at is when I opened my eyes I saw the bright blue sky and fluffy white clouds, standing out against the blue sky like pure white shells in the blue ocean. I forced myself to sit up, thinking I'd feel pain and it would take over my body once more, but it didn't. I sat all the way up and didn't feel the slightest pain. With a shaky hand, I rubbed my stomach, where the wound should have been but it wasn't. I looked around, I was on a grassy hill, and below was a small town. Assuming I was dead, I stood and slowly walked down the hill. Finally, after nearly falling many times, I stumbled into the town. It was… different. The town was old, like it was out of a history book. As I continued to walk around, more and more people started looking at me, the women would hide their children and the men would slowly reach for their guns. I tried to calm my breathing as I rounded a corner; I had to keep my cool. But as I rounded a corner, I soon found myself on my back on the dirt road.
"I-I'm sorry, m-mister." A soft, quiet voice whimpered. Slowly, I lifted my head and looked up. There, sitting in front of me was a young girl, 7 or 8 with golden silk for hair and beautiful green emeralds for eyes. She wore a ripped, ragged dress and worn out shoe. Her face had dirt on it; there were small cuts and scars on her arms and shoulders. I stood and walked over to her, but when I got close to her, she flinched away and closed her eyes, as if she thought I was going to hit her. "I'm s-sorry, pl-please don't hurt m-me." She said, tripping over her words. I had no idea what was wrong with her? Back home, it was against the law for a male to hit a girl and yet she acted if this wasn't anything new to her. I held out my hand to her, she stared at it, not knowing if she should take it or not. "Go on, I won't hurt you." I smiled gently at her. She looked at my hand then up at my face, then slowly held her hand up to and gripped mine. When our hands met, there was a spark. It was weird, like my hand had touched the sun; her hand was warm, almost burning hot but there wasn't the slightest hint of pain.
She stood, dusted herself off then looked at me. Her eyes slowly turned cold and hard from thinking. "W-who are y-you?" She asked in the same scared, little kid's voice. "Daniel, Daniel Khoury." When I said my last name, her eyes widen and she looked around as if someone would appear and hurt us. She reached for my hand and hurried us down the dirt road. She pulled me into a small rundown building and up the stairs, locking the door behind us. "What's wrong?" Stupid question. "Y-your name, your l-last name… that's m-mine…" My eyes widen, it was just a coincidence, right? I remember Scott once telling me that our last name was really our mom's, the last name Khoury went a long way back, and it has a very powerful history but he would never tell me what that was.
"Y-your… our last n-name is b-believed to be a w-w-witch name. Th-the people here think I'm a w-w-witch and anyone with the same last name as I, is a w-w-witch too." I sat on the bed as she explained. "A witch name… I'm not a witch, I have no magic." She shook her head, "Th-that doesn't matter to th-the people is town, you act any different th-then th-they do, th-they will call you a w-w-witch and th-they will hurt you, even kill you." I stood and walked over to her, placing my hands on her shoulders.
"Why do they think you're a witch?" She pulled away and held up her hand so her palm was facing upward. There was a dark red hourglass shape on her skin. "A birthmark? Why would that people think you're-."
"W-wait." She gasped out, staring at the mark, then her eyes had a glassily cover over them, her breathing slowed, barely noticeable, and the mark started shining. As that happened, I looked out the window and saw that the sky growing dark. I turn back to her and she looking up at me, breaking whatever was going on, the mark stopped moving and the sky brighten again. "What was that? How did you-."
"I d-don't know h-how. It just h-happens, I d-don't know wh-what it is." Could it be that she really was a witch? Can you be a witch and not know it? The girl didn't seem bad, but I didn't even know her. Before I could even open my mouth again, there was banging at the front door. She paled and took my hand again, opened the bedroom door, led me down the stairs and pulled me into a hidden room under the stairs. "S-stay here." She tried to turn to the front door but I took her hand, making her look back at me. "I'm not letting you go out there by yourself." She shook her head, "N-no, you c-can't." Her eyes turned the color of green stained glass then my body went numb and she pulled away from me. She closed the door slightly, "I'm s-sorry, Daniel. If we m-met sooner, th-then maybe w-we c-could have b-been friends but th-this isn't wh-where you are needed, you h-have to keep living till you find your h-home." For being such a young girl, she spoke as if she was much older.
I looked through the creak of the door, I couldn't see much but I saw shadows and heard their voices. "We warned you about using your cursed magic." Her shadow backed up into the hall, the other's shadow walking to her. "I-I didn't." She tried to convince them, but failed. One grabbed her arm and gripped it tightly. "Stop lying, witch! We saw the sky go dark, now what were you doing?!" He yelled at her, tightening his grip on her arm.
"I-I'm not lying... I didn't." The man let go of her arm, raised his hand and slapped her across her face, making her fall to the ground. My teeth grind together and I tried to move but whatever she did to me stopped me from doing so. "We've lived in fear of you and your cursed magic for too long, we are done." The man pulled out a dagger and stood over her. "N-no, please…" I heard her choke out the small plea but it didn't stop him. The man lend down, stabbed the dagger into her chest, them he left.
Slowly, the hold on me started to break, when it was fully gone, I burst through the door, and ran over to her. Her eyes were glassy but not from her magic, and the dagger was sticking out of her chest, there was a thin river of blood trailed out of her mouth.
"D… Daniel… you s-should… go." She didn't have much time left, I could tell. Shaking my head, I sat down next to her and held her. "No, I'm staying." She smiled a bit. "Th-thank you… Sophie…" I looked down at her. "What?"
"S-Sophie… th-that's my name." With that, her once bright emerald jewels now went dull and forever hidden of the world. I reached for the dagger and slowly pulled it out, then I saw a clear, shining tear drop on her cheek, and another, and another. They were mine; my tears. I rubbed my eyes, trying to get rid of the tears. I set the dagger down on the floor and picked her up. I took her outside and I saw the crimson sky hovering over the town. I could hear thunder in the far distance, and the red sky seemed darker as if the Earth itself knew of this young death
I was now under the night sky. I was right, it started raining and I couldn't go back to that house so now I walked around the town. I couldn't get that picture out of my head, "Sophie…" She was too young to die, especially like that, no one should have to die like that.
"Oh my, young man please you must get out of the rain." I turned and saw a woman standing in a doorway. "No ma'am, I'm fine." She shook her head, "Please, sir, I just finished making dinner, you look like you could sure a warm meal and you shouldn't stay out in the rain." I really shouldn't have but the thought of food pushed that out of my head. Slowly, my legs started to move towards the house and into the bright room. I turned to thank the woman when a voice in another room stopped me. It was the same voice as the man who killed Sophie.
"-your name?" I looked back at the woman. "What? I'm sorry, I didn't hear you." She just smiled at me. "What is your name? My name is Amanda Drake." She held out her hand to me. I smiled softly at her and shook her hand. "Daniel K-." I cut myself off before my last name slipped out. Slowly she opened her eyes and looked at me.
"Just then did I realize her hair was a soft blonde and her eyes were brown, just like my brother. "Are you alright," she asked. "Your last name?" I had to think quickly. "My last name… it is Kay." Amanda studied me for a moment before smiling again. "Well, it's wonderful to meet you." Her smile was so pure, so sweet and full of care. "Amanda! Get in here!" His voice ran through the house. Her face fell; the smile on her face lost its sweetness and soon fell from her face. "Yes, I'm coming." She took my hand and pulled me into the kitchen. "I'm sorry, Xavier." I'm guessing that was her husband, and not a very nice one.
"Amanda, who is he?" He stared at me and it felt as if I was dying all over again, his cold and hard eyes stared at me, as if he knew something. "He's name in Daniel and he was out in the rain, I had told him that he could stay here till the rain stops." "Alright, sit." Amanda and I sat at the table. We sat and ate for a while in silence till Amanda asked something that told me I needed to leave soon. "What happened to the girl?"
"The witch? That cursed girl and her magic are gone, for good." Xavier just counted eating his food while Amanda sat there, unable to finish her food. To hear him talk like that made something snap inside of me. I slammed my hands down on the table, hard, standing up quickly, the chair I was using fell back landing on the ground. "What is wrong with you?" An inhuman growl like sound came from my throat./span span style="font-size: 16px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Xavier stood up, keeping the glaze between us. "I watched you, you killed her! Sophie had done nothing wrong to you or this town and you took her live, a little girl!" Amanda stared at me, I could tell by the look she was giving me, she was telling me to stop but I didn't. "She was a child, simple as that! She may have had something different about her but she was still human! She was still-." I was cut off when a shape, quick fist met my jaw. From the force in the one move attack, I stumbled back. My back soon met the wall, helping me to stand right again. "Xavier!" I heard Amanda call. "Stay out of this, woman!" He snapped back. I blinked a few times, the punch made small spots move across my vision a bit.
Just as I was able to see again, my shirt collar was pulled and my back was pushed against and up the wall. "Xavier, put him down!" He wasn't listening her, he was too forces on me. As I looked into his eyes, I noticed that his eyes were green, now they were browner than more. "Who are you? Who are you really?!" His gripped my throat tightly. I choked as he dug into the skin of my neck. "Daniel K-Khoury…" I gasped for air, and just as it felt impossible to breath. The hand around my throat pulled away dropping me to the ground. My hands were on the floor, trying to steady myself while taking deep breathes. "Another witch." He said, somewhat calm.
Forcing my body to stand, my knees nearly giving out a few times, with my eyes half closed, I still saw the shine of a silver dagger. My eyes flew open, and quickly I throw myself to the side. I stumble slightly, and looked back to where I once stood. Right where my chest was, the dagger was sticking out of the wall. Xavier gripped the handle and with of swift pull, the dagger was free again. Despite my hatred towards Xavier, I knew I was a disadvantage if I was to try and fight. He stepped towards me again, dagger in hand ready to attack again. I stood still 'till he made the move to stab me, and when he did, I was ready. When he moved, I jumped out of the way and towards the door. I throw the door open, and ran out into the still falling rain. "I'll find you, witch! And I'll kill ya just as I did the other one!" If he said anything else after that, it was covered up by the pouring rain. I still didn't know this place that well but I knew that I couldn't stay there.
The rain stopped after an hour or so, since I left, I found an old dirt road and I been following it out of town. The wind blow softly and it was the time in the morning where the sky was a deep red with a mixture of light and dark shades of blue and purple. I still didn't know where I really was or how I was still alive but I did know that I saw a young girl die for nothing and her killer tried to kill me as well, I also knew that I will do the right thing.
"Xavier, just you wait, you'll get to see this witch again." I will make sure you know the pain you have caused Sophie.
"Daniel..."
An Old Soul
Shattered Throughout The Times
Must Be United
To Bring the Lost, the Hurt, the Forgotten, the Magical Together
The Descended of the Priest Who is Lost, Hurt, Forgotten, and Magical
Though He is Young
He is Powerful To Live in Times of Hardships
He will Unite the Lost with the Found
The Hurt with the Healed
The Forgotten with the Known
And the Magical with the Normal