Chapter Three: Party Pooper

I didn't believe for one instant that this beautiful sword was actually some big scaly dragon's molar.

I twirled it experimentally testing the weight of the blade. It made a faint whooshing noise as sword met air and cut it smoothly. I looked down my present and saw it was straighter than Brad Pitt.

"Bounday you shouldn't be giving our daughter a sword for Christ's sake!" my dad exclaimed as Melanie oooed and ahh-ed over the fine details on the hilt. Against my hand was smooth black silk but below it were beautiful flowing runes of bondage.

"I like it." I told them placing it back in the lacquered box. "Somehow, it fits me."

Bounday beamed at me while my mother scowled. In a huff she passed me her gift. I opened it slowly and inside a cardboard box were pom poms. Gag!

"I was hoping you would attend a mother-daughter cheerleader camp this summer." She told me. "I still have my pom poms and it will be so much fun."

I could already see my mother had decided my fate for this summer. Instead of hanging with my friends all day long playing video and computer games, I'd be stuck in Rah rah land with a bunch of preps.

Bounday, sensing me fuming clapped me on the back and gave me a shake. "Come on Tai tai, think of the new experiences you'll have."

I gave him a dirty look that spoke of all the lovely experiences I'd give those preps this summer.

Rah rah…

Then it was my father's turn to deliver the goods. At the time he handed me the small wrapped box, Thorne excused himself to make a phone call. A call that would end up changing the course of my day and my life.

Inside the box, was a silver ring with a solitaire ruby in the middle. I gasped as I took it out of the box and slipped it on my right middle finger. It glowed and twinkled in the light as I raced over and hugged my father. I loved my present.

It was then that Thorne came back into the room, seemingly proud of something. Something that would soon become too apparent. But I didn't know it then. Then I was still gushing over my ring, showing it off to Melanie and to Thorne.

Present time was over and the real fun began. Thorne and Bounday struck up a conversation while my mother told Melanie all about the plans she had for the summer. The fun that was to be had by doing flips and wearing dorky and skimpy short skirts that only kept getting shorter every decade. Dad drifted from conversation to conversation. Between talks about myths of the Witch Queen and her twin daughters and the intricate secrets of hair styling, I strayed over to the lacquered box and lifted up the Sword of The Darkness.

I gazed at the perfection of the blade. Felt the binding runes with my fingertips. Ran them along the edge of the blade leaving drops of blood behind. The sword enchanted me, it drew me into its legend. I began to wonder about the dragon. Was his skin scaly, as a crocodile's skin or smooth like leather? Was his eyes blood red or a golden bronze? Did he have horns like a bull or was his head smooth like a tyrannosaurus? Did he have wings like a gargoyle? Was he even a he?

I closed my eyes and tried to picture a creature that could have had a tooth that could have been molded into a sword. He had to be big. Big with many sharp teeth like the one I held. If he enslaved humans, he had to have been very smart. Smart enough to use his size and strength to his advantage.

I pictured a huge ugly dinosaur like creature with huge bat wings and a forked tongue. His massive claws were blood soaked, his skin like harsh sandpaper and black as sin. His eyes blazed as much fire as he breathed. His roar…

A roar filled the apartment shortly before the door burst in and a big hairy monster charged in followed by two others. My mother's screams filled the air. My father, who moved forward to defend her, was send flying across the room by a hard slap by the first beast while the other two went after Melanie and myself. My friend and mother screamed and went for the door and found it blocked by Thorne. He wouldn't let them pass and the beast cornered them.

I threw the beautiful lacquered box at the fiend as I leapt to my feet. He broke it into a million pieces as I ran for Bounday, the only calm good guy in the place, still clutching the sword in my hand.

"Holy Hathor!" he cried as I reached him. "Those wanna-be Bigfoots are werewolves!"

He turned to me excitedly, "Tai tai, real werewolves! Look!"

I took a swipe at the one pursuing me and drew blood. The creature howled and gripped its injured hand then growled at me.

"Come on and get some Fluffy." I growled back waving the sword in front of me like I saw some other sword carrying people do. "I aced courses in butt-kicking with an A plus."

Bounday looked at me incredulously and tried to get me to put the Sword of The Darkness down. I refused, thank you very much.

"That is enough." A familiar voice commanded from the doorway. Everyone spun around to see Mr. Cyningesleah and his creepy butler step in. Melanie went racing into his arms crying while my family gathered behind Bounday and me.

"Okay, give me a really good reason why we shouldn't call the cops and animal control." I demanded. Guess it was the safety of the spiffy sword and lotsa adrenaline that made me sound tough when I really was a very scared and confused little girl.

I caught Thorne smirking behind his dad as the man calmly set his stepdaughter behind him. Then he turned and addressed me.

"The Night World owns the police. If you call, I can't assure your safety."

"The Night World exists?!" Bounday cried as if he just discovered the secret blend of herbs and spices in Colonel Sander's fried chicken. "And the lamia and shifters and…"

Thorne's father sighed, "Yes. All of it exists. I'm surprised a witch as yourself hasn't ever been told."

Bounday seemed even more excited with that last bit. He turned to me and said giddily, "I'm a lost witch! No wonder I keep finding neat stuff."

"Great news there." I replied emotionless as Mr. Cyningesleah slowly went over and sat down in a chair across from everyone. His werewolves flanked him, Thorne and Melanie.

"What's this Night World?" Mel asked her stepfather. "Is it like some funky secret club?"

"It's a whole new branch of society!" Bounday exclaimed. "Full of different races that aren't even human. Vampires, shape changers, witches, dragons. You name it and it's in the Night World. It's as old as the human race, maybe even longer!"

"That's nice, but what does that have to do with us. Us normal, not insane people." My mother asked. I didn't like the smile on Mr. Cyningesleah's face.

"I could show you that the Night World exists." He told her. "I could make you fear the dark and all that it brings. But, then you and me and everyone in this room would have to die and who wants that."

He chuckled at the fear on my parents' faces and continued, "No one. So now all you have to do is simply give me the Sword of The Darkness and I'll pretend that you don't have knowledge that will certainly lead to your doom."

Bounday lost his flightiness then. "The Sword is Tai's! I just know it! I-I saw her when I first laid eyes on it. It was meant to be."

The man yawned, "Perhaps your little vision meant for you to give it to Tai so she might give it to me." He turned to me and extended his hand, "Give me the sword, Tai. It belongs to me."

No, a little voice told me. Bounday's vision is true. His visions have always been true. The voice gained volume as it spoke more.

He said that mom and dad would get married. He said that they would have a little girl. He's made hundreds and thousands of dollars on the things he found due to his visions! The Sword of The Darkness is yours Tai. It's meant to be!

I pulled the sword closer to my body, "It's mine."

Before I could blink, Cyningesleah was on his feet, had me dangling an inch in the air by my throat hissing and baring his too sharp, too real fangs at me.

Melanie ran and tried prying her stepfather's hands off me but effortlessly he shoved her aside. When my parents raced and tried the same, I saw the first of a very long line of deaths that were to come. The werewolves moved in a blur. One moment they were across the room, the next they were tearing into my parents, spraying blood everywhere.

They say that it is a parent's destiny to die before their child. They say that it might be painful but then there is peace. When my parents died in front of me, at the hands of those animals I could see my mother and father's eyes. There was no peace, only pain and then emptiness.

I would have cried as Melanie did. Screamed out and tore at my hair in horror. I might have had an icy, numb wave hit me as Bounday appear to have had. But I was dangling by my throat courtesy of the man who had my parents killed. I had other things to deal with.

"I can feed you to my wolves child, even if you are a friend of my son and stepdaughter. Do you want that as your fate as well?" Cyningesleah demanded. Thorne came up beside me and spoke to me quietly.

"Tai give him the sword. You're human, we're lamia. We are the tops of the food chain; we rule this world. Tools like the sword are not meant to be in the hands of a kind, sweet girl like you. Only someone like my father can summon The Darkness."

The lack of air must have gotten to me. Why else would I have laughed at him? Laughed good and hard at Thorne's words. At the sheer madness of the whole conversation, of the events of the past few minutes. Night World? Witches, vampires, my parents dying at the hands of werewolves?

This had to be a dream. Melanie wasn't whimpering in the corner being comforted by Bounday. The werewolves weren't eating my parents' corpses. Thorne and his father weren't vampires bent on stealing an eerie sword. I was asleep. Mom and dad were alive. Bounday and Melanie weren't here, Thorne and his father weren't here. They were at their normal home leading normal lives.

Well…maybe not Bounday….

About when I was daydreaming about how Bounday lived his life away from me, got a reality check in the way of a slap to the face.

"OW!" I cried as I dropped to the floor in a heap. Somehow I didn't land or drop the sword I had in my hand. Go me.

"Be thankful I didn't use my full strength." Mr. Cyningesleah snapped towering over me. "So will you give me the sword or will you be joining your family?"

I glanced over at Melanie when she whimpered at her stepfather's words and returned my gaze to him.

"Why do I have to give you the sword? Why not take it?"

"Because if I did I couldn't summon The Darkness. The sword first must be given to another before The Darkness can be summoned. Your uncle gave it to you and you will give it to me."

"Don't make my father hurt you, Tai." Thorne pled. "I like you. For a human you're really cool."

Girls used to dream that Thorne Cyningesleah would say words like that to them. Not the last part, but the part about liking them. I used to dream Thorne would say those words to me. Hear the depth of his emotions in his voice like now. But I kept remembering the sight of my parents' death and the scent of blood was all around me.

I wished then I knew how to summon this Darkness Thorne and his dad was talking about. I bet it would seriously wipe the floor with these freaks, I remember thinking. Make them hurt like they hurt me. Save me from death like a dark knight in shining armor.

Do you truly wish this, an unfamiliar voice inquired innocently. You may not realize the depth of the consequences of such an act. Think and chose wisely.

I snapped my head up and looked around for the source of the mysterious voice but found no one new.

I just want to be safe from the bad guys, I sighed. I want Melanie and Bounday and me to be safe and happy and alive and not have to worry about people like Mr. Cyningesleah.

Speak these words and only these word whenever you or yours are endangered. I summon The Darkness. The voice replied solemnly.

That's it?

"Give me the Sword of The Darkness. Now!" Mr. Cyningesleah roared pushed his son aside. If he was to kill me, he didn't want his son to get in the way.

I looked up at him and said in a tiny voice, "I summon The Darkness."

Those four words sealed my fate and those around me.

I'm baaaack. Sorry it took so long.