Grey days
“Eat up Lindsey. It’s Tuesday today you know.”
“I know.” I say in a dull tone. We don’t go to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. There known as our holy days.
“And don’t forget to put on-”
“I won’t mum.” She smiled encouragingly and left the kitchen. She’s used to me being grumpy and quiet.
It’s three minutes past ten exactly and I’m putting on special make up for church. I have to draw a simple arrow on my forehead. Only the girls have to do it, it symbolises our beliefs. The belief is that this is the only life we will ever have and like the arrow we will have an abrupt end and nothing after it. We believe that we will serve are purpose in life and then we shall gracefully accept our death.
A black arrow is traditional but all the ‘popular’ girls are trying to be original by wearing red. I wear brown, a dark almost black brown to match my hair, no one notices the difference in colour and that’s how I like it. Mum hurries me out the door; I usually wear dark and unfeminine clothes, I want to scare adults away from me and I want boys to ignore me. I don’t want love, everyone I love ends up dead. Girls tease me so I don’t care if they live or not.
We walk into the sanctuary of peace and worship for the dead. There is the sacred mark above the door; it is a circle with an arrow piercing the edge of it to show that nothing is eternal. We walk to the ebony pews, most of them are full so we have to sit at the back, I like it that way, we get noticed a lot less. There’s a huge statue of death at the front of the building, it’s not a very detailed statue. It only shows a large cloaked form with a Scythe heald in two skeletal hands. I have seen others which had shown the skull and sometimes ribs of what we believe death looks like. It looms over the priest eerily; he’s already started babbling about the evils and false beliefs of the Nabinans.
People that follow the Nabina religion believe that there is life after death and they model themselves on creatures that can live forever, the priests and preachers usually have their life lines extended with a knife so that it goes all the way around the back of their hand and re-attaches to the other end, signifying that thier life will never end but continue like a loop. Legend is that real immortal creatures bear that mark. The religion I follow is Damintionism or ‘death lovers’ as we are more commonly known, we all have a cut on our arm (another religious representation).
I meet Helena Bacet and Daniel Thomset on the way out of the ‘sanctuary’, they are the only people apart from my mother that I like. They are my age and are rather nice. We don’t talk often but sometimes we share a word.
“Hey,” Helena says, she has the same bright smile she always has, Dan waves politely. Helens blond fringe it kept out of her face with a clip so you can see her arrow (it’s seen as disrespectful for a young lady to cover it). Hers is bright blue. She notices I’m looking. “I couldn’t find any of the normal stuff and my mum ran out of black eyeliner so I had to go with this colour. I thought it would be cool but everyone’s staring at me like I’m a freak!” She laughs lightly and so do I, Dan’s very shy and only smirks. We all smile awkwardly at each other and then they start to leave. They both wave and say good bye. I feel normal for a second and then I remember my life.
***
It’s late in the evening, I haven’t done much today besides going to the sanctuary. I’ve contemplated a lot about what I will do tonight to avoid harm to those around me. Luckily we don’t have any neighbours because our home is pretty isolated. There is woodland behind our house and I know every inch of it. I used to explore there when I was younger and ever since I was 11 I’ve been waking up in there a lot and I need to know how to get out.
My mother is busy getting changed in her room. I put on some of my groggiest, patched up clothes. My room has a door straight out to the woods so I open it wide and hold it like that with a door stop. You see, strange things happen to me at night. I don’t know what but it’s not pleasant. I hurt things, I hurt people. If I run in to the woods the theory is that I will do less damage, but still people go missing and still I wake up with a stomach full of goodness knows what.
The evening sky starts to go dim.
“Goodnight mum!” I shout to her.
“Good night Lindsey!” She replies.
I lie on top of the bed covers and drift quickly into a deep sleep.
YOU ARE READING
Grey Wolf
FantasyLindsey Grey has a strange habit of waking up naked in the middle of the woods covered in someone else’s blood and guts. It’s been happening since she was 11. She has a few theories of what she is but she cannot be certain. Then ten days to her 16th...
