Darkness Within
Note: (counting new reviews) 1… 2… 3… YAY! Three new reviews… here's the next chapter, as I promised. You're in for quite a shock! R&R!
Chapter 11:Secrets of the Past
Fiacha nearly fainted. "W-what d-did y-you j-just s-say?"
This was not exactly the reaction that Joey would have hoped for. "Eh… I said… dat… I… love you, Fiacha."
She blinked at him, feeling like she was going to explode. He loved her? Really, truly loved her?
"Oh… Joey… I… I'm not sure… what to say… This has never happened to me before. I… I guess… I… Oh… I'm not really sure how long, but I know it now for sure; I'm in love with you."
Joey blushed and hugged her tightly. "Er… Joey… you're… squashing… me!" She mumbled.
"Sorry, but I though I'd lost you!"
"Never."
"You said dat I was gonna marry some other girl… I don't know about that… but I do know that I love you, Fiacha. Will you… be my girlfriend?"
"Yeah… but maybe we should try a first date… you know, just to be normal."
"Wanna see a movie?"
"Sure!"
Fiacha felt very melty inside, like an ice-cream cone left out in the sun, but she didn't mind. Sunlight was a lot better than being left alone in the dark.
And so, with nearly an entire airport watching them (decent PDA had been going one, after all, why not watch?) they walked out the doors more whole than when they had entered.
In the theater, they watched a sci-fi mystery flick, but Fiacha kept looking at Joey's side profile instead of the screen. Knowing that he loved her made it so much better to look at than a dumb movie. Besides, he was really, really cute.
"Did ya like da movie, Fiacha?"
"Yeah sure."
"You wanna see something really special?"
Wondering what on earth he was talking about, she nodded and then gasped slightly as he grabbed her hand and pulled her down the street. His hand was so warm. She blushed and stumbled a little.
"Right… over… here." He panted, turning another corner. In front of them was a clear, blue lake.
Two swans floated gracefully on the surface, making little ripples in the otherwise steady surface. It was the quietest, most peaceful place that Fiacha had ever seen. She felt more at ease than she ever had before in her life of work and duty.
"It's beautiful."
"Not as beautiful as you."
"I'm not beautiful, Joey. I'm pale and thin and… and my eyes are violet for goodness sakes! I'm not nearly as pretty as the other girls." She sighed and turned to look into those deep, brown, puppy-dog eyes. "Why me? Over all the other girls that you could choose?"
"Because… I don't know… You're just… You're not like other girls… other people, even. You never once made fun of me… or… or called me stupid or any of dat. It does get tiring, after all. And besides… you are prettier than any girl I've ever seen. You're perfect just the way you are."
She blushed at the stupidity of her question… things like that were best left unsaid. How embarrassing. "Sorry… I just… sorry."
"It's okay."
Both of them were a bit uncomfortable, and therefore several minutes of silence followed, until the sun was setting and the temperature was dropping.
"Oh no, dat movie I rented is due back today! I gotta return it!"
Giggling, Fiacha ran after him, figuring that she would come along for the time being. After all, hotels could get pretty expensive. Realising that she had giggled, she put a hand over her mouth in amazement. How much she had changed since she had met Joey was unbelievable. There was hardly a shred of darkness left within her soul to dampen the moment, and she felt generally happy. At least, she thought the dark within her was gone, but something stopped her the second that it crossed her mind. A girl couldn't change who she really was.
Later that night, as she stared at the stars from a second story hotel room, Fiacha closed her eyes and meditated, as she had not done in so long. She needed answers from within her soul.
What she found there disturbed her. Inside the serenity from earlier was a deeper, more powerful darkness than before.
It feeds from your love, little raven.
Who's there?
I'll give you one guess.
YOU.
Of course it's me. I am you, after all.
No, you are the darkness I banished before leaving the temple. You can't be back.
Back? My darling, foolish child, I never left.
I banished you.
Aww, you thought that could stop me? I am the only true darkness princess… you are simply the result of an unhappy experiment. I never should have asked to be reborn… never should have begged the shadows to let me fulfill the prophecy. That is how I ended up with you. And that fool brother of yours thought he could save you… thought that, by letting the shadows' power completely take me, he could make you real. But you're still just my little shadow of light, just the unhappy result of one magic spell too many. I will claim this body, and my destiny, girl. Believe it. And I will destroy Wheeler when I do.
That won't happen. You're the shadow… the one who isn't real.
HA! I am the true daughter of the dark prophecy, you fool of a girl. There isn't room for you in this story.
SHUT UP! I am real.
For now you are, yes… but that doesn't mean you should exist, and it certainly doesn't make you the heir to my throne.
What am I but human?
You, my dear shadow, are a spirit, a drifting soul. I told you this before. You have pushed it away out of fear, haven't you?
She snapped awake, cold sweat rolling down her face. That terrible woman again… that horrible thing that dwelled inside her soul. What she had said was almost the truth, but not completely.
Technically, yes, she was not really the daughter of the dark prophecy. That girl had died many centuries ago, shortly after the pharaoh. She had been an immortal sorceress, but a powerful wizard had tried to do away with her so that she couldn't hurt the pharaoh when he returned. Before her death, Fiaralie had used a spell meant to ensure that she was reborn when the time was right, but there had been an error. Instead of being reborn, she was locked inside the future, inside the soul of a girl who was placed there for the purpose of fulfilling the spell. She, Fiacha, was that girl.
When she had awoken from her slumber trapped inside the innocent soul of a baby girl, Fiaralie had been outraged. But she was sure that she could take control of the girl and banish the light shadow of her image. It was Dolan that she had not counted on. He had seen the truth of what his sister was the moment he saw her and promised himself to protect her.
Fiacha had grown up with the dark voice of the shadow princess whispering in her ear and at one point, Fiaralie almost succeeded in her goal. But at the last moment, Fiacha had uttered the words of an ancient spell as a last resort, hoping to save herself. What she got was the disappearance of Fiaralie but the remainder of all her dark powers. And so Dolan told her that she would have to be the dark princess now, told her that the fight was over… that she was no longer just the vessel of a dark soul. Until just then, she had believed him. But now, seeing what still lurked inside her soul, she knew that Fiaralie was very much alive… and that Fiacha herself was still the soul that should never have been.
She had led herself to believe that all of what had happened was a nightmare, not real, and she had let it rest, unrecalled, in her memory. For all those years, she'd thought herself to be mostly normal, but still she was just a pawn in an ancient spell.
Her cell phone rang, startling her from her thoughts. She scrambled to answer it, tripping on the balcony and falling off.
A piercing scream emitted from her throat and she found herself hovering in the air, surrounded by a dark purple light. "Not this again," she whispered, willing herself back to the balcony.
"Why now?" she asked the bright, starry sky. "Why dig up the past when I was almost happy?"
Because it is not your happiness to be had.
"No," she whispered, letting a tear fall from her eyes. "It can't be real. After all these years… you cannot be here still."
I told you, without me, there is no you. Without my magic, you would not exist.
It was true, of course. She, Fiacha, the girlfriend of Joey Wheeler, was really little more than a creation of magic. She was just a spell. Now the old questions came back to her: Could magic sustain itself? Could she ever be independent of the sorceress who created her? Could she rightfully exist in this world? What on earth was she really?
The phone rang again and she picked it up with a shaking hand. "H-hello?"
"Fiacha, it's Joey. I just wanted to make sure you got there okay."
"Yes. I'm… I'm perfectly alright, Joey."
"Good. Wouldn't want my girl in trouble."
"Of course not."
What would he think if he knew the truth? Would he love her then? Could he love the girl who never should have been, whose very blood flowed with magic?
End note: Bet that I caught you off guard with that one! Tell me what you think about this revelation about Fiacha's dark past in your reviews, as well as asking for clarification if anything was a bit confusing. Thanks!
