Blue Jay

Prologue

Destamona Swan grew up in a world corrupted by fear. Fear of the Blue Jay. Over thousands of years, the Blue Jay and its companion have taken child upon child to a place no one truly knows, and no one dares even mention its name. Vicus Damnatorum. But what happens when Mona's own sister is marked for worse than death? Not for the Vicus, no. Worse than that. For the Blue Jay itself. She is lost. But when Mona gets taken to the Vicus by her own sister, she finds a secret so powerful, so beautiful, and yet so dreadful that her youth and innocence dies within her, yet it is this very secret that could be her salvation, and maybe, just maybe, it could save the victims of the Blue Jay.

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The blue jay flitted from tree to tree, wings catching the wind, blue feathers ruffled and silky. A young girl in a red cloak and dainty black slip on shoes followed it as it flew down the forest path, flying in between the trees, fluttering over her head, floating down onto her shoulder only to take off again a second later, never staying in a single place for more than a second. The girl hurried down the path, feet pattering on the crisp, freshly fallen snow, black shoes dusted with white powder as she followed the blue jay quickly through the forest. The bird seemed impatient, it kept coming back to flutter round the little girls head--she could hardly have been any older than twelve, her long black hair framing her ivory coloured face, her ice blue, piercing eyes fixed on some hidden destination in the distance as she ran after the bird, desperately trying to keep up. She stumbled, crying out as her knees jolted forward and her hands hit the hard, cold ground, the snow providing little comfort. Warm, wet, red blood dripped from her fingers, dropping onto the pure white snow, spreading, corrupting the once clean, white powder. The cut on her hand stung viciously, but she wrapped it in her cloak and ran on, the bird tugging on the folds of her blood red garment.

Suddenly, she stopped, almost as if an invisible wall stopped her from running any further. She stood quite still and listened, looking around her like a frightened deer. Like prey. The blue jay landed on her shoulder, seeking warmth from the dark red lining of her hood, hopping and fidgeting nervously. And then--there she was--a tall, slim, feline, very beautiful lady. She wore a red cloak, her black, thick, luscious hair tumbling over her chest, her icy blue, cold eyes like two snowflakes framed by thick black lashes, her high cheekbones and rosy red lips accenting her flawless face. She was almost a mirror image of the little girl and her blue jay, and she looked upon them like a wolf might look at an injured deer, with a calm but demented hunger, studying her, assessing her. The little girl stared up at the tall lady, tense, waiting to run. The lady held her hand out to the little girl, unfolding her fingers and reaching out to her, seemingly kind. Without thinking, the girl took it, and the woman gripped it tightly, leading her away down the path, the girl helpless to do anything.

***

The little girl now lay bound to a cold stone altar, naked and struggling desperately to escape as the woman sharpened a blood red knife, cackling evilly to herself as she did so. Tears poured down the girl's face as she tried to wriggle out of the knots that bound her, her little blue jay chained to the altar with her, helpless to do anything but hop about madly, flapping and fluttering in vain. The lady walked slowly over to the altar on which the girl lay, cackling madly.

"Please ..." The little girl whimpered, her eyes shining with tears. The woman just laughed,

"Do you know what I'm going to do to you, little girl?" She asked softly, grinning madly at the same time. The girl shook her head, moaning softly as tears leaked out the corners of her eyes.

The woman grinned even wider, "I'm going to cut out your heart ... And eat it." She leaned close, and whispered in the girls ear, "but you're going to be alive to watch me do it."

The little girl whimpered and moaned, crying harder now, her blue jay trying desperately to escape, it's eyes bulging out of it's head in fear.

"No ..." The girl cried softly.

"Yes." The woman raised the knife, it's edge catching the moonlight and gleaming like as bright as the woman's eyes. Then it slowly began its descent towards the girls heart. The girl breathed faster, fully aware that these were the last breaths she would be taking, her eyes grew wide for a moment, and she drew one last deep breath, her heart thudding loudly in her ears.

The stabbing pain near her heart told her that the knife had made its first cut. This was not going to go quickly. The knife dug deeper, and the woman cackled, driving it down into the girl's body. The girl screamed, a blood curdling scream that only made the woman laugh louder. Surely she should be dead by now--what evil magic was this?

"You won't be getting any rest, little girl. No blissful peace. You're not going to die. You're going somewhere worse than death my sweet little angel." The woman whispered to her, laughing evilly. Tears dribbled down the girl's cheeks as the woman made another cut, driving the knife deep into her chest. The girls screamed again, the wrenching pain far too much for a girl of twelve to handle. The woman dragged the knife through the girls chest, cutting around her heart until, finally, she had cut a heart shape over the girls naked chest. She dug her fingers into the cuts she has made, blood spurting everywhere, tainting the pure white snow, spattering over the woman's arm, until, eventually, she lifted out the girls beating heart, still attached to the arteries and veins, the only things keeping her alive. With the knife, she severed the thin connections between the heart and her body, holding them in her hand. As she again took up the knife, she made a similar incision in her own chest, and drew a gold, heart shaped casket, covered in blood, filled with cogs and clockwork devices. Very carefully, still holding the girl's beating heart in her hand, she connected the severed veins and arteries to the fake, clockwork heart, placing it back inside the girls chest between her healthy red, exposed lungs. She missing chunk of flesh was replaced with a silver heart shaped block, fitting over the fake heart and filling the space where a chunk of flesh should have been. The woman held the still beating heart in her hands to her mouth, and bit into it. Blood dripped down her chin, and stained her teeth red as she chewed and swallowed with a manic look in her eyes. Her hands and forearms were spattered with the little girls blood, and her own chest was still cut open, with no heart inside her body. The little girl's heart was gone, and the woman slowly fell to the ground, kneeling on the now blood stained snow.

The little girl was lost. Not dead, no. Worse than that. She was lost from the moment she took the woman's hand.

A/N: GORY SCENE OVER. SORRY ABOUT THAT IT WAS A BIT GRUESOME. PLEASE DON'T BE PUT OFF BY THAT, HONESTLY, THAT WAS THE ONLY GORY SCENE FOR A WHILE IN THIS BOOK :-) THANK YOU :-) AND PLEASE COMMENT AND VOTE AND FAN AND ALLy THAT, IT COMPLETELY ROCKS MY WORLD :-D LOL