Rising the Hell

And more questions

Elaina never moaned about her father, she was sure of him being in a better place. She spoke of how he would be holding her mother hands and smiling at her. She spoke how one day she was going to meet them.  Somehow, in all these years she started to have a fragile bond with Emma. Her days were filled with games with Nancy, walks with Lucy and tea with Emma.

Her childish cherub like face gradually featured into a beautiful young woman’s.  She was 12 now, her powers ready to be awakened at the slightest of glitch. She was a keen observer and she realized she was not like any other person. She trusted only Lucy to tell her about how she felt about it and Lucy was no ordinary; she helped the girl realize what power she has without actually telling it to her. This was something she learned from her earlier days as trainee; a person’s true strength can be revealed only when we let him explore himself, we should provide only the means.

Lucy asked her to explain what she felt was different about her, each time she told her a story. She came closer to a little bit truth and thus her training progressed without her even acknowledging. The upside of this was Elaina was still unaware of the fact that Lucy was different too.

The very first day Elaina got a hang of what her power was and how to use it, she rushed into the kitchen where Nancy was knitting a sweater, she asked her to get her favourite chocolate cookies.  Nancy stood mechanically and gave her the cookies out of free will; she would have never done that during the mealtimes. Elaina was all laughs when she told her little mischief to Lucy.

“Promise me… you would never do anything that shows you are different.” Lucy felt it was important for her to act like normal before she gets any further orders from her keeper ; telling her what to do.

Elaina was too caught in the fun that her powers gave her; she used to do little tricks for extra cookies, cheese and all little favours from Nancy.

Emma loved the girl, her laughter was contagious it brought a smile around her face. She had been closely watching her since the day of her father’s death. She noticed how she was always excited to go out, how she spoke secretly about her secret friend to Nancy. She followed her into the backyard, inconspicuous. She saw Lia running into the arms of another girl, she was about 15, frail like any other girl of her age but one look at her eyes told her not. Her eyes held wisdom and pride of a nightling.

“The presence of a guardian meant only one thing; the Night world knew of the girls existence…” A flicker of what seemed like anxiety passed through her face and it was gone in no time.

Since then Emma had a closer watch on the little girl, as days passed she could feel Lia’s aura growing stronger and that worried her much. Soon, she would be located and she had it all planned or so she thought.

The day had come when things would change forever; Emma had a vision of it. She wanted to notify the guardian but she couldn’t do it without exposing herself and that would mean she had to face the wrath of the king. She decided that she was going to face the problem all by herself.

Lucille had an unexpected visitor that day; the messenger. He dropped in for an unusual visit, trying to learn what all he could about Elaina’s progress in her training.

“Kiddo… don’t you think it’s time I see her. “ Lucille frowned. She always insisted of introducing him to Lia but he would simply answer all in time.

“May be not…”she teased him.  The Messenger: Keran was the only connection that she had with night world. He always brought her news about the world and stories from that world; with a hot cup of coffee was how they spend their times together.

Emma was engaged in house work, Elaina was sitting still on her window sill and watching out of the window. She had been doing that for a while, Emma had ordered her not to go out for this day.  

“Lia…Come out.  I have something to say to you.” Lucille gestured to her perched on the tree.

“I can’t… Emma has ordered me not to go out.” 

“I have something to show you…” Lucille instigated.

Elaina tried to go through the back door unnoticed but Nancy stopped her and led her back into the room.  She paced in the room trying to find a way to go out.

“Use the creeper…” she gestured her to climb down.

Lia initially had some difficulty to do that but somehow with a few scratches, she reached down. She ran towards Lucille who jumped down the tree and stood leaning towards it.

As the distance reduced, she felt something off about Lucille. She always welcomed her with open arms but today she was standing in a too confident posture,folding her hands. Her eyes that shone with affection were dark, her warm smile replaced by a smirk, panic rose in her. She tentatively took a step backward and began to run away from her. But Lucille caught her in no time with a swift motion.

“Ha! Got you…” A man stood in the place where Lucille had stood a few seconds before.

“It’s true then…” He said raising her chin up with his long finger.

“Eating you would be much fun…” he smiled crookedly.

He lifted her up by shoulders; she couldn’t think of anything to do even her powers seemed to fail her as she couldn’t concentrate because of the nerves. The screams couldn’t escape her throat, they were stuck in the midway.

“Come on…Let’s go.” Keran dragged her out of the comfy cottage.

As soon as Lia left the confines of the cottage and started walking towards the cottage, she smelled something in the air. She increased her pace and ran towards the Mansion. She saw Lia being held in the air. She was struggling, her legs aiming kicks in the air.  Lucille enhanced her vision and saw a demon sneering at Lia.

Emma reached at the same time to the field, she saw the guardian running for rescue. She even noticed the messenger closely followed by her, she couldn’t risk herself be seen but the child’s life is at danger. Keran would surely recognize her, what if the child was saved then her disguise would be revealed in vain. Would the guardian handle it? What if she doesn’t intrude and the girl is hurt?  Emma placed her trust on the guardian to take care of things and she created a shield over the child in case something goes wrong.

Keran sensed the presence of something more ominous in the atmosphere. He peered at his surroundings, he was in full confidence that Lucy would handle the demon; he had something else to watch out for. He let go of his senses poking in every direction, He picked up the dark aura, he remembered how Lucy talked about Lia blaming the women of the house having dark aura. He ignored it since Lucille confirmed that there was nothing wrong about that woman. Was Lucille right about it?