Night's Children: Nox Noctis
AN: hola, my lovely readers! Sorry this chap took so long to come out, been I had about 10 pages of this story written, when my mom took it in to get fixed with all my knowledge. And since all my stuff was saved on harddrive only, the guy repairing it deleted everything. EVERYTHING! So I was a little annoyed and didn't feel like writing this story for a bit. Sigh.
Anyways, just to let you know, I've decided to be completely unoriginal and use other artist's lyrics for songs. Truth be told, I wanted the stuff to have a certain feel to it, and that's quite frankly not the stuff I can write. So, I figured I would learn from the masters. In this chapter the lyrics are from AFI's 'This Celluloid Dream' I do not own them.
K, on wit' da story, yo!
Chapter One
It had been a mistake to come tonight, Riley thought bitterly to herself as she tried to make her way to the door of the RockOut. The throngs of dancing teenagers, mostly those from Turney High like herself, made it almost impossible to walk in a straight line, as she got pushed every which way.
Tonight was RockOut's 'Teen Night' and Riley wished she had stayed home instead with her current, and now legal guardian, Jimena. Perhaps read a book, gone to sleep early, or do some of the much-needed makeup work she had to do.
For the whole 2 months Riley had been a Daughter, things had gotten extremely hectic. Her grades were suffering, a once 4.0 student now pleased to get a C on her term paper, and everything was slowly going from bad to worse. It was hard being a part of an ancient prophecy to rid the world of evil such as the Atrox, and even harder to be a fifteen-year-old girl at the time.
She had come here with Imy's constant badgering. She needed to unwind, smell the roses, so she said. It wouldn't, after all, kill them to have a little bit of fun, now would it? Tessa had come along as well, between honing her new gifts as an illusionist, and trying to get her ecstasy and drinking binges under control, she needed a party. And Aria, of course, decided to avoid hanging out with the other Daughters, whom she referred to as 'The freak, the druggie, and the nuisance." When her 'other' friends were watching.
Riley liked Tessa, more so when she was sober. She had an edge, a certain realism that was hard to find in a now over-phony world. She spoke what she meant and didn't talk behind other's backs. If she didn't like you, she'd say so, and wasn't afraid of the consequences. She had made a huge effort to get clean after discovering her destiny, and Riley admired that.
Imy, though, had been having a rough time as well. After discovering Art's true background, she decided to break it off with him. Claiming that she couldn't be with someone if she wasn't sure she could trust them. Art had bit his lip and choked out that he understood, and that he'd wait if that's what it came down to.
None of the Daughters had any contact with the boys who had saved their lives, instead they practically avoided them like the plague, thankful for the intervention, yet not quite willing to place faith in them. It was especially hard for Riley and Imy to steer clear of Trysten, Lance, and Art, because normally their gigs were in the same venues as theirs.
Tonight for instance, Round Table had been playing.
And one look at Trysten playing, made Riley decide to abandon her night of 'fun.' She wasn't a people person, her empathetic powers having a large part of that, and she just knew in her gut that if she stayed things would get worse. At the moment, all she wanted to do was go home, read, or maybe work out a new song on her guitar.
But of course, two feet away from the door, her arm was grabbed by Imy.
"What's the rush Riley?" She asked easily.
Riley groaned and turned around to face her best friend. Imy, as always, looked like a model out of a magazine. Her dark brown hair was curled in ringlets under a black top hat, and she had on a tight black vinyl shirt with a green plaid skirt, complete with a black tie. Her nose, eyebrow, and now new lip piercing were in place, but instead of frightening people it probably intrigued them more.
"Don't tell me you're chickening out on my one night off," Came a voice behind Imy that Riley recognized to be Tessa's.
Tessa instantly reminded Riley of a female version of Apollo, god of the sun. A short, denim mini was frayed at the ends and had gold painted over it, accentuating Tessa's tan. A white midriff tank top showed a tiny gold stud in her navel. Her long, blonde hair was layered with gold glittered sprinkled in, and her eyelids were showered in gold that shot straight out to her temple. She grinned devilishly.
Riley sighed, "I think I'm going to head home early tonight." She stated quietly.
Imy rolled her eyes, "We've been here twenty minutes."
Riley shrugged, "Well, I feel out of place, or something."
Tessa grinned, "Probably cause you're playing it more than safe with your wardrobe," She said, gesturing to Riley's clothes, "I mean, it's your own thing and that's cool, but you need to stop being so modest."
Riley felt a blush creep up. She was practically the living embodiment of the word conservative. With a simple black tee on and ripped, baggy jeans she didn't exactly scream hot girl in the club. Her cut off black socks served as arm warmers that went from wrist to just short of her elbow.
"Not only that, but after all that convincing I had to do to get you to pierce your bellybutton, you'd better show it off," Imy said sighing, reaching at her pants and pulling them down to hug her hips and exposing a sliver of stomach that revealed a tiny silver hoop.
"I don't know..." Riley trailed off, not really wanting to stay.
"Oh c'mon, give it at least an hour." Replied Tessa.
Imy nodded, "You haven't even danced yet." She paused and looked up at the stage, "And though I hate to admit it, the band is sounding as good as ever."
Riley bit her lip, nodding. It was true, Round Table's rhythms and beat were sounding at least ten times better than before, and they weren't so bad to start off with. The haunting chorus filtered through the air, and before Riley knew it, Tessa had grabbed her hips and was trying to get her to dance in accordance with herself and Imy.
She inwardly groaned. Riley was not a natural dancer. She always felt awkward whenever she moved with a rhythm, desperately afraid of screwing it up. Even more so was the fear of feeling emotions of mockery coming from onlookers. But it a few moments, her tight rigid frame had loosened up some and she was beginning to have some fun.
Over the increasing volume of music, she heard a sound that could only have been Trysten's croon.
Just like romantic verses
Just like a joyous end
Just like a memory it twists me.
Twisting me!
You land as lightly as a new snow
Cinematic
On to the melting boy
And melt away
You light as gently, you're so
Cinematic
Bathed in your radiance, I melt.
The tone in which he sang was full of remorse, and she briefly wondered if even those without empathy could feel it. She paused dancing and turned to look up at the stage, where for the moment her and Trysten seemed to lock eyes.
In the glitter in the dark
Sunk into velvet
Praying this, will never end
In the shadow of a star
In static pallor
I realize I
Never began.
The song started to pick up into the chorus again, but Riley was suddenly overcome with waves of insecurity. Whether or not it was from a member of a crowd or from Riley, she couldn't tell, all she knew was that she wanted to leave as soon as possible. There was a feeling of urgency, and of panic swelling in her chest.
She gently slipped away from Imy and Tessa when they were preoccupied talking to some guys from their school and headed out the door.
Once she left the building and noise, she inhaled the sharp cool night air, and looked up to the sky where a partial moon shone down on her. The last thing she saw before she passed out into darkness was the glorious milky light.
OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
That's it for today
Sry it took so long again
REVIEWERS
Aehart: Thanks : ) I hope you like it and thanks for reading (pauses) I rock? Oh my, this is rather awesome.
XxBrokenLoverxX: I'm sry : ( my internet died too. Alrighty then, waiting to hear from you!
Christine Marguez: Sry, not exactly soon- I'll be better I swears!
Lover of Rain: me too. I think its such a cool myths, its one of my favorites
Angelie: Hehe, I shall answer nothing.
Sleepneeded911: Thank you! That's a huge compliment. I don't know about the rest of the DOTM readers, but I don't like the directing she's heading in with her knew books (probably from book 6 on....but more noticeably books 11 and 12) and I'm trying to bring back what made the first books so great. If I fail, I fail, but I figured its at least worth a shot, no? Thanks for reading
CC: I'm glad you're liking it!
Toodles
!nym!