Eterna

Chapter Seven

“I remember this well. And these houses. This one here,” I pointed to one,

“Is Mrs Lang’s and this one is the Mayfield’s and this one is… mine.”

We walked towards my house and turned the dark brown doorknob. It was unlocked. I opened the door to a vast room with a table and chairs. But everything was a mess. There were drawers tipped out, cutlery broken and in pieces. I ran into the room I shared with my sister. There was blood all over the walls and carpet. It was dry and old, and was starting to crack.

I stumbled back as another flashback came.

I was in my room singing with my sister when my parents burst in. They told us to climb out the window. They looked terrified. We did as we were told and peered through a small crack as some soldiers came in and shot both my parents without a second thought. They fell to the floor and blood filled the carpet.

I screamed and my sister Madison put her hand to my mouth. But it was too late. They heard us.

We ran, heading for the forest, my sister pulling me as I cried for my parents.

Then it was over.

My eyes opened as Angelina and Chris came in and saw the wall. Chris puked in the corner. This was the blood spilt so that my sister and I could live. I darted around my friends and ran through the main room to the front garden where I nearly ran into someone. She looked at me in surprise, and I felt a sudden dread. She was quite old, and had short curly hair. She was as plump as a plum, and wore a tightly buttoned shirt and a long grey skirt.

“Bailee! Where are you?” My friends came to a stop behind me when they saw the old woman.

“Is your name Bailee?” The woman asked, her voice like crackling paper. I nodded.

“Come with me, your friends too. I can tell you everything.” We followed her into a house I’d always thought was empty.

“Why are you still here? Didn’t you leave when all the other neighbours left?” I demanded as I sat down on a green squishy couch that looked a little too new to be ten years old. Angelina and Chris joined me.

“I could ask you the same thing.” She looked vaguely familiar.

“We just came to visit, we don’t actually live here.” Chris pointed out.

“What can you tell us?” I questioned. She glanced at my friends.

“Not with them here. Make them leave and I’ll tell you what I know.” Angelina narrowed her eyes and opened her mouth to argue but Chris murmured something in her ear and they left the room. The woman got up and shut the lavender curtains.

“I know where your sister is. Come with me out back and I’ll show you where.” Excitement bubbled like a pot in my stomach. Then I wondered where she was going to take me.

“How do you know where she is?”

“I’ll tell you when you come with me.”

“Where is she?”

“Come with me.” She beckoned with her hand and I suddenly realised where I recognised her from. When my parents were shot, a woman had come up behind them and put a hand on one of their shoulders. She was wearing a ring depicting a snake eating it’s own tail, Ouroboros. It was an Egyptian symbol meaning life out of death, creation out of destruction. My sister used to read to me stories of Egyptian mythology, one including Ouroboros.

She was wearing the same ring on her finger. I stumbled off the couch and back against the wall.

“Stay away from me. I’m not going anywhere near you!”

She laughed and she started changing into some kind of beast. Her hands turned to clawed talons, and her face turned green and scaly. Her back grew larger and lumps formed down the middle of her spine. A huge green tail came out of her skirt, and her legs disappeared.I heard something rip through the back of her shirt. She half turned and I glimpsed a look at her back. She had giant green wings coming out of her long reptilian spine. She looked like something out of a horror movie.

I guessed that her gift was to turn into the snake-like creature Ouroboros on her ring.

“Last chance, come with me or die.”

Petrified, I turned and ran for the door. As I opened it I heard her right behind me.

“Did she tell you anything?” Chris asked just as the wall exploded. Pieces of flying debris went everywhere and dust spread across the courtyard. The Ouroboros was at least ten feet tall!

“Bailee! Come with me!” She cackled as she reached for me. I jumped out of the way and she grabbed Angelina instead. Chris, catching on to the situation, jumped through a portal and landed gracefully on the monster’s head. He kicked it hard but all that happened was it grabbed him too.

“Come with me, Bailee, or I will crush your friends to dust.” My head swam. What do I do? I looked at my two friends and thought of the sacrifices they made to come with me. I made up my mind.

“Put them down and take me. I’ll come with you.”

“NO! Run, Bailee, escape!” Chris demanded but it was no use. My decision was final.

“Good choice.” The monster put them down and picked me up. With her other hand she whacked Angelina and Chris unconscious.

“Just in case they decide to follow us.” She laughed and then did the same to me. The world spun to darkness.