(Content/trigger warnings for this chapter: anxiety, someone told a character to kill herself, other mentions of bullying)
--Ranya--
Isabelle shook me awake at 11 that night. Her big blue four-year-old eyes startled me—they peered only a few inches from my face. I was 10.
"I heard noises in my closet," Isabelle whispered into my cheek. She pulled on her long, shiny black hair. I could hardly see her light freckles against her only slightly tanner face in the dark. "Can you please look for monsters?"
I pushed her hands from my shoulders and sat up in my dark room, shaking tangled brown hair from my eyes. Looking back on it, my room was pretty empty without all my plants shoved into every conceivable space. Just your average bedroom furniture—a bed, a bookshelf above it next to the window, a desk, and other basics.
I followed her down the hall to her room, flicking off all the lights she had turned on as I went, my feet itching from the scratchy red carpet. But as I woke up, my chest began to ache again from the day before.
Who would want to be friends with you, Ranya? You're pathetic.
You tell all these jokes, but it's just annoying. Go kill yourself.
Yeah, let's see you try to make new friends outside our group! As if you could!
I would make them pay. I would make Caelum pay.
My sister's room was less plain than mine. Butterfly decals nearly covered one whole wall, over a hundred stuffed animals were squeezed onto her little blue bed, and dolls were scattered across the floor. I hissed when I accidentally stepped on one's sharp hand.
I danced around the remaining dolls and pulled open the closet in the corner, going through the clothes on the rack while Isabelle watched me with wide eyes from the doorway. She had flicked the hall light back on. When I finished, I turned back around and closed the closet door. "No monsters."
"You didn't check the corners!" Isabelle said. I cringed at her loudness and listened for noises from my parents' room.
"Shh, shh, okay." I swung the closet back open and made a show of checking them.
"And the containers all the way on top!"
I couldn't reach them, or really see what was up there. But I backed up and pretended to, craning my neck.
"And in my shirts. You didn't check them all!"
I sighed and sifted through them—making a show of taking a few minutes—before turning back to Isabelle. "Still no monsters," I said.
"Are you sure?"
"Definitely."
"But I... I don't want to sleep."
"Do you want me to sing to you again?"
Isabelle smiled slightly. "The song you always sing."
"Okay, get back in bed."
Slowly, Isabelle slid back onto it and its flowery covers. But she still sat up straight, and made no move to get under her blankets.
I maneuvered over her figurines to the hall, where I flicked off the light switch. Then I did the same to her bedroom one, and the star nightlight at the foot of her bed lit up brightly.
I made my way over to Isabelle. "Get under your covers," I said.
Slowly, she slid her legs under her blankets, but she still didn't lie down. I sighed and sat against the bed. I didn't want to deal with this tonight. I'd like to say I had told her a year ago to come to me if she was scared after bedtime because I loved her, but the truth was, I was mostly frustrated with how she caused commotions with our parents that always kept me up for an hour, and if she came to me, I could sleep again sooner. Or at least, I thought so. It was actually only ten minutes. I was horrible at gaging time as a ten-year-old.
"Ranya, am I making you mad?" came her soft voice.
"Your fear isn't your fault."
"But are you mad?"
She slipped off her bed and tiptoed over to her bookshelf, where she pulled out a paper between two books. "I made you a picture!"
She thrust it into my arms. "You're here." She pointed to one set of squiggles. "And here's North, and Bunny, and Sandy, and Tooth, and Jack." She pointed to each bundle of swirls. "The Guardians, like you love! Do you like it?" She smiled up at me.
"It's great, Isabelle."
"Yay!" She threw her hands into the air, but they dropped back down. "Are you mad now?"
"I'm just mad at my friends. It's time for you to get to bed."
"Okay..." She tiptoed back over, and slid under her covers again. I began singing the eerie, anguished tune:
"Lullay sweet sister
Go softly to sleep
Don't fret about the fading light
The monsters that rise up tonight
They may draw near
But I'll always be here
Protecting you through the blight
Sister, focus on the bright
Go softly to sleep
You will be all right." I sang the other three verses as well. By the end, Isabelle had lain down, but her eyes were still wide open.
"What if there are monsters in the woods?" she asked. "It's really dark outside. That means monsters! Ranya, can you please check the woods?"
Sighing again, I trudged to her window, lifted up the clinking blue blinds, and looked outside. Clouds smothered the stars and Windshallow-purple Moon; I could hardly make out the forest's edge. The trees were just twisting dark objects in the middle of more darkness. But I still turned back to Isabelle and said, "I don't see any monsters in there."
"No, Ranya, you have to check out there." Isabelle's voice was loud again, and something rustled in our parents' room down the hall. She looked up at me with big puppy dog eyes. "Please?"
Her fears seemed stupid back then, but I did want her to go back to sleep. And I didn't want to get caught out of bed from her noise. "Fine." I trekked to my room to put on fluffy green slippers and grab my plastic flashlight from my desk before creeping downstairs and out the back door. I was just going to pretend to check around in the forest for a few minutes—cast my light on the trees and peer into the woods. I grimaced as the cold Windshallow-purple water lingering on the grass brushed against the sides of my feet. Insects chirped and buzzed; I pushed scratchy branches away from my face and gazed through the tangled green undergrowth. I didn't want to stay out here for long. After all, the forest was where I most often saw the Watcher.
Something materialized a few feet away—a bright sphere of light hovering at about eye level. It glowed like a small sun, and bathed the world in brightness.
I stared at it for a few seconds as I squinted and my eyes adjusted. Is this another mystery of Windshallow? I glanced over my shoulder at my sister's window. Just barely, I could see her little face watching me.
She clutched the window frame. I turned back around. Weeds and fallen branches crunched under my feet as I stepped forward and reached out to touch the sphere.
It vanished as soon as my fingers were about to brush its surface, plunging the world into darkness for a second, but then it reappeared a few feet away. I stepped deeper into the woods to reach it, but it again disappeared and reappeared farther into the forest.
"Is this one of those creatures that leads you into the woods and kills you? Like an angler fish?" I whispered. When I got no response, I shrugged and followed the trail of vanishing lights farther into the woods.
Light after light, I followed. The trees grew thicker and denser. Ten lights. Twenty. Fifty. Eventually, when the sphere vanished, ten reappeared and encircled me from the forest floor. Branches tangled above me, purple water dripping off the broad leaves onto the dirt. Wildlife rustled in the distance. I glanced around for anything else out of the ordinary. What was this secret?
"Ranya Meredith Kirkwood," a bodiless voice rumbled deep and echoing, reverberating through the trees.
I recalled Isabelle's description of... "Are you my sister's Guardian Angel?"
"Guardian Angel? That's not the term I would use, but—"
"You warned her about the lightning and helped her with her powers?"
"Correct. But Ranya—"
"And you warned her about that brown recluse in our basement, and when there was the green snake under the front porch?"
"Yes. Ranya, I don't have much time."
My face finally fell from my stupidity. He's not just a figment of a little kid's imagination? Could he choose who could hear him? I didn't think he was another secret of Windshallow.
Then I blinked. "What are you here to tell me? And why did you lure me out into the woods?"
"Ranya, I—" His voice cut out for a second. My hair stood on end like lightning was about to strike. "Ranya, I don't have much time. I am being hunted. I came to warn you about your sister."
"Then why don't you tell her?" But I knew the answer without him having to say it. It would terrify her for weeks, making her latch onto my mom and dad. Shivering silently at preschool. Sleeping for only a few hours a night, and needing someone to comfort her at all times.
A cold breeze whispered through the branches and grass around my feet like it spoke of a dark secret.
"Why don't you tell my parents?" I asked.
"Because this concerns you more," the Guardian Angel replied. "I'm sorry. I'm so very sorry. Ranya, this is all I know: one day, Isabelle will get something you want very dearly. You will need to take it from her, or she will die."
My chest plunged into the coldest, darkest cave. "Die?"
"Yes. And you will feel terror yourself this very night. That is all I know, Ranya. I'm so very sorry."
The lights encircling me flickered. A sound reverberated through the trees—a high, hollow laugh.
"Ranya, hold out your hands. Quickly."
I stuffed my flashlight into my pants and stretched out my palms.
"I leave you this so you may protect her and yourself," the Guardian Angel said.
Light burst so brightly it hurt my eyes, and I squeezed them as tight as I could. Something cold and smooth pressed against my right palm. I curled my fingers around it and opened my eyes as the light faded. A double-ended spear of some sort lay in my hand. It was silver and branched into ten curled points on either end of the shaft. Lightning crackled between the curls.
Another laugh echoed through the forest, closer and louder this time. It joined with another, lower and smoother cackle. Something sharp-smelling whistled and winded through the trees.
"And I leave you this so you may never forget," the Guardian Angel said. I shut my eyes before the light flared this time, and something smaller and colder wound around my other hand. I opened my eyes to see a long silver chain wrapped three times around my palm, crisscrossing tightly like a spiderweb. In the middle sat a large pendant. It was trimmed in silver lining and glittered with green galaxies.
"What does it do?" I asked. But then amber flashed to my right, and my eyes flickered down. Out of the corner of my gaze I saw him—the Watcher. His all-gold eyes glowed relentlessly, and his black and gold armor fashioned into a mass of sharp-edged swirls and lines glinted in the light over his stiff body. His longish black hair rustled slightly in the breeze, revealing the intricate gold patterns on his tawny-toned face. Gripped tightly in his hand was that thin golden staff as tall as his six feet of height. My tormentor. He aimed that staff toward something in the sky as if it were a javelin he was about to spear into someone's heart.
"Run!" the Guardian Angel shouted.
"No." I brandished my spear. Electricity whined and sparked from the ends as if on my prompting. "You protect my family. I'm gonna help you fight."
"My hunters can't know who you are. I'm hiding you for now, but I can't hold it while I attack. Run."
"But you need help."
"It would be more difficult for me to fight if I had to protect you."
"But—"
"Ranya, you need to live. Run."
I hesitated, but then turned and obeyed.
The calm obliterated.
Behind me, lights shot toward the Watcher from someplace in the sky. Thick metallic-smelling ink shot from the end of his staff. When it touched the lights, they shrieked, and darkness smothered them to nothing within half a second.
I was left in pitch darkness except for the electricity flashing in my spear.
I tore through the forest with my weapon in front of me. Branches scraped against my cheeks and ripped at my arms as I struggled to knock them out of the way and keep my pace.
The laughter echoed much closer now. Something shot through the air above. One look up, and I nearly gasped. Dark glinting sand loomed over me, and battered my side with rough, grainy points. Bursts crackled where I was hit, and I was knocked to the ground, scraping my knees in a patch of dirt surrounded by dead grass. No, all the plants around me were dying. Leaves wilted on trees and fell like heavy snow. Grass browned and shriveled. All green life cracked and split and broke.
Spikes of pain jerked up my side as I tried to pull myself to my feet and run. Blood ran down my leg. The black sand reared again in less than a second since it had struck. Wait. Black Sand... like from the Rise of the Guardians movie? But I don't believe in Pitch—how would I see this? Though I heard Isabelle's Guardian Angel when I didn't believe in him...
Light burst in front of me, and when I'd regained my sight, the Black Sand had vanished.
"Run!" the Guardian Angel shouted, and I managed to pull myself to my feet and did.
Sharp loose rocks scattered around a narrow creak threatened to trip me as I ran toward where I thought the forest ended. I risked one glance over my shoulder and saw only darkness. But it pulled light from my spear into itself. The electricity dimmed. The inky dark flowed toward me, toward everything, and shriveling the plants in front of it. The Watcher.
I picked up my pace and turned back around just in time to slam face-first into a tree. Hot pain burst in my nose. I broke into a run again.
Something yanked on my spear, and I jerked to a halt.
I spun to see what it had caught on. Black Sand tightened and laced around the shaft, pulling it and me back toward the approaching death it stemmed from. I pulled as hard as I could with both hands, gritting my teeth. I tried to use the nails of my second hand to claw the stuff off, but as I tore some from the spear, more snapped on. Tightened. I tried to jerk the electricity into the grainy substance, but it held too tightly. The spear wouldn't budge.
"No," I growled, and pulled with everything left in me. The grass under my slippers browned and shriveled. The trees on either side of me creaked and groaned.
Then the Black Sand yanked the spear from my grasp into the darkness.
I stood there for half a second, almost considering going in after it, but even ten-year-old me knew that was stupid, so I turned and ran as light struck against the darkness again. It had taken a while. The Guardian Angel was failing.
Eventually, I emerged from the forest several houses down from mine. Escaped.
"There are no monsters in the forest," I told my sister after I had scrubbed off my blood and wrapped myself in a coarse black blanket from the couch.
In the morning, I told my parents everything. They believed me.
Neither Isabelle nor I ever heard from her Guardian Angel ever again.
(A/N: I will be out of the country for the next couple of Fridays, so posting times those days will be weird. But remember to vote, comment, add to your library, and follow if you're enjoying this! :D)