Okay, so I've decided to start publishing the first chapter of some of the stories on my profile. They won't be updated as much as my other three because they are my main focus right now but I still hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoy writing them! Let me know what you think :)
Power. How could one single word ruin a person's life? The feeling of authority, the absolute dominion over others? Some would yearn for it, some would kill for it and some will suffer at the expense of it.
Adelina Thorn was a sufferer. She had been a sufferer since she took her first breath of air on this earth.
Adelina had always known she was not born ordinary, after all, her entire family ancestry had never been ordinary. They possessed something a little extra which made them extraordinary. Because Adelina's family had never truly been mortal. She came from a long line of those who possessed magic in their blood and in their veins. But never once did that bother her. Never had it ever made her feel any different to those around her.
As a child, she quickly grew to learn the impact of which a misuse of power could cause. In the beginning, she grew with innocence. For a little over three years she lived with loving parents and a baby brother whom she adored. Everything felt safe. Free.
The laughter. The happiness she had felt in those three short years, her love for the gift of magic which she had been blessed with, it made her feel invincible. Like she could do anything and everything. It made her believe that nothing would ever be able to hurt her.
That happiness all seemed like nothing more than a distant memory now.
As she thought back, Adelina came to the conclusion that life had been so much easier as a child. Children were innocent, they would never know until later on in life that with innocence, there also came naivety; a total cluelessness to the true evil which lurked in the shadows of a perfect world. The type of evil which parents protected their children from for as long and as hard as they could. And they would continue to do so, long after their children became old enough to protect themselves.
Adelina never once realised the full extent to which her parents had gone in order to protect both her brother and herself. It was after those three blissful years when Adelina finally came to the hard revelation that not all wizards and witches were like her. Not everything in the world was good.
Because the world was full of opposites. With every day, there came a night. With every light side, there came a darkness which threatened to overshadow it. It was the same with magic and it was the dark side of magic which was responsible for the slaughtering of her parents.
Her beloved mother and father were the bravest people she would ever know and they were killed by a man... if man was even the right term to describe him because Adelina believed that he had been far more of a monster than a man.
He was one of the darkest wizards to ever exist. His ideals? They were quite simple. The monster believed in the notion of pureblood supremacy. Anyone different was classed as unworthy of the power given to them and thus the unworthy were tortured, killed or enslaved. Those who refused to fall to subjugation also paid the price.
In the end it all came back to one tiny, five letter word. Power. Power corrupted. It created and it destroyed. It made people feel strong.
Although in retrospect, there were some people who had been blessed with the power to lead others ranging from a small group to an entire civilisation. Those people who led did it well but it was the others. The others who regarded power not as a gift but as a tool. The others who used power for their own gain. They figured out very quickly that it was easy to gather followers with just the right amount of manipulation or blackmail. These followers looked to their leader in greed, in the hopes that one day, they would be able to acquire power of their own, to share in the glory, to be untouchable and to be protected. And then there came the worst of the lot; the followers who used power to torture without remorse. That was when the concept of humanity dwindled.
Power made people afraid and fear was the worst emotion to ever feel. Capabilities in that moment would be tested and some people would run, some people would follow, and some people would revolt. A revolt so strong that it would be enough to start a war. Their fear gave them the strength to fight. To try and right the wrongs of the world.
Adelina's parents revolted. They were fighters and they continued to fight for her and her brother until their very last breath. When they were killed, Adelina not only lost her mom and dad, but her little brother as well. For their own protection, both siblings had to be separated. And now, despite the number of times she had pleaded with her guardian to give her just one more answer, Adelina still had no idea where her brother was now. Perhaps he was still somewhere in England, under the protection of those capable of protecting him. That single hopeful thought made the dark haired girl happy.
As for herself, well, she was swept out of the country.
In the following years, Adelina had often thought the question; would the people back home remember her? How would they have explained her untimely disappearance? Maybe she was presumed dead. Whatever the reason was, Adelina found that she now no longer cared. For she understood that whatever false lies had been conjured, they had managed to keep her protected and more importantly, alive.
And yet the irony couldn't help but be appreciated. Her guardian, Evangeline Thorn had believed that New Orleans would have been the fresh start that the two of them so desperately needed. They had been drawn in by the tourism, the music, the joy but it had all been a ruse. Because if one knew exactly where to look, they would find darkness in every corner of the city. Evangeline and Adelina had fled from one war only to land smack bang in the middle of another and this was one that couldn't be escaped from.
By the time they found that out, it had been too late.
The young midnight haired girl twisted her agitated hands into a vice grip. Her eyelids blinked fast to force away any type of emotion which threatened to seep through. As she continued to watch the spectacle below, she couldn't bring her feet to move. They were plastered to the ground as if metal weights were attached and locked around her thin ankles. Maybe a more appropriate term for her state of being was 'paralysed by fear.'
She wanted to help, oh how desperately she wanted to help but what good could a mere eight year old child do? In that moment, Adelina both admired and envied her parents for their strength. It was that strength which she so desperately needed right now.
To a passer-by, she would be unimportant, just another face added to the sea of faces they saw every day. They would look up at her with a fleeting glance at the most, seeing only a young girl with her stark green eyes to the stars. All they would see was a normal yet picturesque scene. They would never focus on the details, just continue on with their normal lives and never once notice the faint trembling of that young girl's form.
In the midst of the spectacle below there stood a man. Adelina had no idea how to describe him as calling him a monster would be too kind. He stood tall. Like a judge a jury and an executioner all in one. His followers crowded around, entrapping the woman in an inescapable circle.
But unlike the others who had fallen at his hands, this woman refused to show weakness. She knew the severity of the situation she was in but she refused to let it show. Almond eyes stared into the face of her future killer. Eyes which were so alive, so full of fire.
"Evangeline Thorn. You have been sentenced to unauthorised use of magic. How do you plea?"
He was enjoying this; he revelled in it, just like he always did. It was what he did to those who he had deemed a threat to his city. Instead of a mercy-filled clean death, he preferred to drag it out instead. He put on a show. Made it impressive. Entertaining.
Everybody making up the formation of the circle was laughing like a bunch of hungry hyenas closing in on their prey. From afar, Adelina could still see the faint quiver of fear in Evangeline's form and yet her guardian still managed to stand tall, refusing to bow down at the knees.
As Adelina watched, she could only process one single thought. How could they be so cold? How could they be so unaware that during their mirth, there was one lone figure standing above them, the only one who wasn't laughing? The figure with the rapidly watering eyes and the slowly breaking heart.
Evangeline noticed. She met Adelina's glistening emerald eyes. The sorrow, the love which was shown within the locked gaze was incomprehensible. The amount of emotion within that one second glance between one young woman and the child whom she had come to class as a daughter was so pure.
As if in sync, the two of them inhaled one deep breath before Evangeline turned back around to face the leader of the pack. "I refuse to plea," she said, her voice so unnaturally cold for someone who had always been so warm in personality. At the tense silence which followed, Evangeline grew bolder. "I refuse to plead. I refuse to feel regret."
Her head snapped up, her gaze hard and unemotional as she addressed the vampire king with a cool, indifferent confidence never once before seen in the eyes of a victim. "Good look Marcel Gerard. You may proclaim yourself as the king of New Orleans but when you have the responsibility of power, when you boast about it, when you use it to suppress your enemies, there will always be someone much stronger than you waiting in the shadows. Your reign will never last. Enjoy it... and figure out whether you desire to come out of this power play alive."
Her ominous words echoed through the bitter chill of the air. For a moment, everything was silent. No one spoke. And then that silence was broken by the laughter of the king. A chorus of raucous laughter immediately followed.
Because Evangeline wouldn't be saved. Her words were in vain. Because when vampires ran the city, everything else became an inferior species. The creatures of the night followed only four rules: Supress the witches. Supress the werewolves. Control the humans in a way which enabled the parties to keep on going and the blood to never stop flowing. Anyone who stepped a toe out of line would be executed.
Evangeline was a witch. Evangeline had used magic. Evangeline had stepped out of line. It was as simple and as uncomplicated as that. No mercy would ever be given.
Marcel then struck the killing blow. Like a viper, his movements were swift. Precise. Evangeline's skin now seeped blood.
One lone tear trickled down Adelina's cheek but she couldn't bring herself to wipe it away as she watched on with widened eyes, listening numbly to the screams of her guardian which echoed on into the night.
All of it had been in the name of power. That one simple word which had the ability to bring a whole city to its knees. And that was exactly what Marcel Gerard had done, no matter what the consequences were to anybody else.
It was on that day when Adelina finally understood the truth. Power didn't make her feel strong, it made her afraid. Because Marcel Gerard was powerful but for a man like him to get to where he was, he squashed down those he deemed stronger than him. Those who dared to defy his rules. Anyone who dared to show their power in New Orleans was dead before they even had a chance to draw their final breath of air.
And as Adelina's watery emerald eyes stared unseeingly at the motionless body of the only person brave enough to love her, to keep her safe and take her in, all Marcel and his vampire cult did was continue to laugh. They sped away to celebrate their successful suppression of yet another witch.
Completely unaware of the small family they had ripped apart. Blind to the grieving feelings of a young girl. A girl who was barely a teenager. A girl who had just been made an orphan once more.
It was in that moment when Adelina felt it. Her emotionally-fuelled magic was beginning to brew from deep inside her. It was the uncontrollable raw power of a child who had no idea how to use it or control it. As her magic bubbled up to the surface, threatening to explode, all Adelina did was clench her fists.
The dark haired girl stared ahead, her emerald eyes blazed fire and crescents of blood began to form beneath her skin from where her fingernails dug hard into her flesh. Never once did she react to the pain. Pain was simply a product of stimulation.
She was too young at that time, too naive to know that she was not like the witches of New Orleans. Her magic didn't come from her ancestors, it wasn't channelled, nor was it connected to nature. Adelina's magic was her entire being. Her core. A true representation of herself but it could be that no longer.
If Adelina wanted to continue surviving in the city of New Orleans, she needed to be human. Never again would she show her powers. Marcel Gerard would never know who she was or who she grieved for.
If there was one thing which Adelina was certain of, it was that despite her crippling fear, she refused to die.
From that day onwards, Adelina was no longer going to be a witch.