Dragon Breath

Chapter 1: The Debt

The angels were everywhere, looking down on me with their hands clasped in prayer. Candle light played at their faces. Although the vast room was dark, save for the few candles dispersed around me, I felt safe. I had no belief in God, but I did believe in something else. I had facts that a monster no god that we know of would permit to live.

“They’re going to come back soon, you know.” Great-great Grandpa always smiled solemnly.

“That’s what you keep saying, Grandpa.” I nodded while perching my tiny five year old body next to his thinner one on the hospital bed. An air tube linked from a machine and into his nose, allowing him to breathe, more or less. The pinching item on his finger allowed the heart monitor to beep steadily in the background.

“Are you still doing what I’ve told you to do, Kiesha?”

“Every day.” I smiled.

“That a girl.” He patted one of my miniature hands with his one withered one. “You do our family proud.”

Head bowed, the memories flowed through my mind. Twelve years from that day hadn’t changed my practices. I’d been coming to church and praying like Grandpa Harold had always ordered. As a child, if I put up a fuss about going, he’d tell me a story about the dragons. They were never pretty and it didn’t take long for me to stop whining and go on my own will.

I used to just pray that I never saw a dragon. Now I pray for those encounters….and my great-great-grandfather…

I was only ten when I saw my beloved ancestor fight for his life. We all thought that he’d die of old age-the man was well over a hundred for some strange reason and still living a healthy life. But no….That’s not how he went down.

August 25, 2004

The door to his room was slightly ajar. No nurses helped me get here-I’d only been coming to see him since I was born, so they knew me well. My senses screamed to bolt and run home. Curiosity and worry for my great-great grandfather had me go to the door.

“…told her everything? How sweet.”

“You won’t be saying that when she becomes of age.” Grandpa Harold’s thin voice chastised.

“Who says she’ll be able to live that long? You’ve revealed too much,” then he lowered his voice slightly, “and you’re too feeble to stop me.”  Shivers racked down my spine from the stranger’s voice and words. Were they talking about me? Grandpa Harold only told me about the dragon stories-he would barely talk of anything else since I was so interested in them. Moving silently and slowly, I peered into the room.

A man was glaring down at my relative from the foot of the hospital bed. The stranger was very tall and strong looking. Run! My mind demanded. But I couldn’t. That was Grandpa Harold….the best great-great grandpa ever…

“Over my dead body will you or any other being from your world touch her!” The bed growled. I gasped from the sound, having never heard it before. Oh, did that get their attention. The dangerous stranger turned and, for a fraction of a second, I saw his eyes slit.

“Kiesha, run!” Grandpa Harold’s bark had me scurrying.

My small legs carried me down the white halls. The sharp clicking of shoes against the tiles alerted me that I was being pursued-and fast! Just before rounding the first corner, something yanked at my purple jacket from behind.

As I struggled to get out of the coat in time, something else tackled the stranger. The force had me tossed into the wall. Blurry eyed from the impact, I looked back at the man. Grandpa Harold was standing up on his own two feet between the stranger and me.

I smiled at first. Hey, great-great grandpa’s standing! After a minute, my eyes widened. Holy shit! He’s standing!!

“You stupid mortal!” The younger of the two snarled. His hands seemed more like claws, and that really had me quivering.

“Kiesha, get out. Now!” My relative by blood barked.

“But Grandpa-“

“NOW!”

Watching him with wide eyes, I eased around the corner. The weird stranger came at him with speed that I couldn’t perceive. Grandpa Harold grabbed one clawed hand effectively but was too slow for the other one. I watched as it tore through his body-skin, muscle, bone, and all-in one clean, sick thrust through his chest. Then it was removed.

As he fell, the man smiled.

Crying harder than I’d ever cried in my life, I somehow forced myself out of that building and tore home.

He’d let me go-there’s no other reason for me to still be living. It was all I could think of to make sense of the stranger. Why he killed my wonderful relative was still beyond me, but I wasn’t going to let him or anyone like him get away with it. Blood has been spilt. It’s my job to spill it right back at them.

In the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. The words rang in my head as I crossed myself before murmuring “Amen.”