Hollow

Chapter 1

                                                            1

The slow cold breeze gently blew her long sleek black hair into her eyes, causing them to water a little. Taking her long bony fingers, Queen Nevaneh curled the loose strands around her left ear and gently dabbed under her eyes, wiping the glistening tears that were about to run down to her rosy cheeks. She looked down into the courtyard where she saw a young swordsman, practising with a dummy, stabbing it directly in the heart. He’s getting better. She thought.

Behind her, the wooden door creaked loudly as it was flung open. A young woman, no older than twenty, stood flustered in the doorway. The left shoulder of her elegant pale pink and white dress had fallen to her arm, and she caught her breath before speaking. The two hundred and fifty steps leading up towards the tower had winded her.

“My Queen! My Queen I have news of the merge!” she spoke quickly, before taking another deep breath, and leant against the side of the still creaking wooden door.

Queen Nevaneh turned to face her, a look of concern on her face, knowing the young woman was going to tell her what she already knew just by looking out of the tower window.

“My Queen, the enchanted forest! It is no longer accessible from dusk until dawn!” Still catching her breath, the young woman collapsed on the floor, clutching her chest, silently begging for air. Queen Navaneh stepped slowly over to her, and lifted the young woman’s chin with two of her long bony fingers. The young woman looked up at the Queen with her bright blue eyes.

“My dear, there was no need to wind yourself to bear this news to me. I somewhat had a hunch this would happen, only not so soon. The forest goes on for miles I don’t understand why it should disappear for such a long amount of time every night. It must be happening faster than I expected. Do you know what this means?” The young woman shook her head.

“It means we must find her. We must find she who is the chosen one.”

                                                                 *

Cass plugged her iPod earphones into her ears, closed her eyes and rested her head on the side of the car door, letting the breeze from the open window run over her face. Tomorrow she will start the three hour journey to Lake Lahiki with her younger brother Alex, and her father Thomas for their ten day camping trip.

Thirty minutes later, she was home from picking up the new tents from the warehouse. As soon as the front door was opened, she bounded upstairs and opened her laptop to see if her best friend Lisa was online.

“Cass, you said you would help Alex and I check the tents before dark tonight!” Her father’s voice boomed up the stairs.

“I know, but I promised Lisa I would talk to her before you dragged me away from civilisation again!” She shouted back.

“You don’t have long Cass, remember that!” he replied

How could I ever forget? She whispered to herself, as she looked at her clock noting the time, and counting down the hours she had until she was ‘gone’. Just three

Cass was your normal eighteen year old girl. (Or ‘young adult’ as she prefers to be called.) Well, that’s what she tells everyone. You see, she’s hiding a secret. It’s not a dark secret, it’s just one that no one, and I mean no one outside of her immediate family (Younger brother and father) can… accept or understand, as Cass doesn’t fully understand it herself.

Cass has blonde hair down to her chest and large brown eyes, framed by eyelashes that gathered more in the outside corners. A slightly pointed nose and a history of being a bad time keeper. She does well in school, with mainly A’s but a couple of B’s here and there. English is her weakness. She’s not a very good at writing, and usually resorts to the internet whenever an assignment is to write a short report on a certain topic.

Cass lost her mother when she was just eight years old. She died shortly after giving birth to Alex, Cass’s only brother, due to complications. Her mother had blonde hair and brown eyes like Cass, and was a very sweet and caring woman. She was loved by all, and she loved all. When her mother died, Cass was mute for six months. They were very close, and she never dreamed of her losing her at such a young age. Her father, Thomas, was distraught, but only showed his true feelings in private. He had to stay strong for Cass, and his then baby son, Alex.

Alex was obviously too young to even remember his mother. Only after Cass accepted she was never coming back did she start talking again and began to tell her brother all about her, and show him pictures. Alex is now seven, and keeps his favourite picture of his mother smiling on the side of a sunny river bank, on his bedside table.

Later that night at five to twelve, Cass took three long deep breaths before turning off the lamp in her bedroom and nestled herself between the baby soft pink and blue bed sheets. She smoothed them down beside her, and gently touched the locket she was wearing. Minutes later, it was midnight. The only way to tell the time in her room was by looking at her iPod, or her laptop, but neither of those were near her side. She knew because she felt a chill run down her spine, as this happened every night at the stroke of midnight for the past ten years. She began to feel slightly dizzy and sick, grabbing onto the sides of the springy mattress to try and steady herself, even though she wasn’t actually moving. Then all of a sudden there was nothing around her. It was pitch black, the light from the lamp on her table had gone, and she was all alone. She was stuck between two worlds.

Ten years it has been since this happened for the first time. Cass was scared, and woke up screaming in her room, not being able to touch anything. She was transparent, but her father could still see her as he came running into her bedroom half asleep. He tried to put his arms around her, but they went straight through her. It was like she was a ghost. Thomas closed her bedroom door, so as not to wake Alex, who was still a baby at the time, and slid down against the door with his head in his hands before  staring at Cass who was still crying, trying to figure out what was going on. He wanted to panic, but didn’t for the sake of his daughter; an eight year old Cass who had worn the locket for the first time since she received it on her birthday.

The locket was very old and silver, with an ‘I’ engraved onto the front. On the back was a picture of a forest.  It was shaped like an oval and the clasp was a very tiny sword, where you had to gently turn it to the right to open it. It came with a very long fine silver chain, which Cass had to double so it didn’t fall too low when she wore it. Inside the locket was an old piece of paper with elegant writing upon it. It read: ‘Show thyself, from I fell sleeping’

Cass had no idea what this meant of course, but she kept it to herself anyway. Thomas eventually calmed Cass down, and stayed awake with her all night, trying to come up with an answer to what was happening. During that time, they worked on getting her back to being solid again, or getting her to interact with objects. She just went straight through them. A strange tingly feeling overtook her when she did though, and that made her giggle. At seven in the morning the cold chill over her spine returned, and she slowly became solid. Her father, Thomas, had fallen asleep only five minutes before, and she woke him, sobbing and hugged him tightly. He whispered soothing words in her ear to make her feel better.