The train. It was the same cold mossy floor and swirling mist. Unkind metal seats and rusting walls covered in foliage. I saw my feet dangle just out of this fog and climbed onto my knees to face the window. Papa. His silver hair shone in the moonlight. He was a burly man; I could see tears slip from his chin to the floor as the bronze knife pressed into his neck. Face a blur and the killer shrouded in shadow. In a quick motion, his throat was slashed, and he fell to the floor. I saw blood pooling around his head. Those, Blue? Green? Eyes staring at me as the train pulled from the station and the killer walked back into the dense brush of the forest. The scent of sea salt and blood and death filled the carriage. I screamed and punched the glass and I got further away from him. I saw blood on the windows, and I was my proper age once again. His spirit standing above me.
“It is all your fault,” it said. Over and over again. I screamed, pounding my fists into my head trying to make it shut up. I found a knife under a seat and pushed it where his heart would be. I stepped back and papa was gone. In his place, Atlas stood in horror, looking down at the knife in her chest.
“Pandora…” she asked, looking at me with tears in her eyes.
“No!” I screamed stumbling back. I looked around me and saw my friend’s bodies piled high, bloodied, and broken. My hands are covered in their blood.
I saw Mariana my sister her eyes now black sockets of nothing. Atlas a hole where her heart should have been. Bones’ head separated from his body. I looked at the knife in my hands. It was cool and slick with blood. I pressed the blade to my throat and pulled it across quickly, but nothing worked. Stabbing, gauging, slitting. I was bloodied and pain filled my body, but I didn’t die. I screamed, trying to stab the middle of my back, where the scar twisted and stretched like vines. I couldn’t reach. I dropped the knife and cried as a sword pushed through my back dripping with my blood.
“This is all your fault,” the voice said, and I fell backwards into the acrid water of the river Styx.
I shot up and covered my mouth in a muffled scream. Tears burned the back of my eyes. It was a dream. It wasn’t real. I took a deep breath as there was a gentle knock at my door. I sighed and pushed hair from my face. “Come in…”
I looked to the door; where Drake stood holding a tray. “It’s been a while since you stayed here,” he noted; coming in to sit on the bed.
“Yeah… I know,” I said pulling my knees to my chest. Drake sighed. He had changed little from when I met him three years ago, only his hair. It was still wolfish and black, but the red was now behind his shoulders in a peekaboo style.
I looked to where Aztec lay on the edge of the bed. I could smell herbs and flowers. Drake wore a baggy shirt over long sleeves with a pentacle on it. He wore ripped black jeans and pink fluffy socks. I smiled as he came to sit by my side.
“You got any words of wisdom, for me?” I asked resting my head on his arm. He was silent, thinking of an answer. He nodded and looked me in the eyes.
“You will never be as evil as people think you are,” He sighed. “You look tough but deep down inside yourself are a broken, beaten and a terrified child; the same one who watched her grandfather die, and lied to all those around her,” Drakes gaze was distant. I closed my eyes. The memory was still fresh. His face so clear. It tugged at something in the back of my mind, and I wondered had we met before.
“He looked familiar Drake…” I sighed
“People can do that, in my over 5000 years of life, there have been many humans who remind me of those I’ve lost. Not just in appearance but in personality sometimes it was nothing but their eyes or the way they walked.”
I hugged my knees closer to my chest. Koa Ku’ aukai was in hospital, Mariana was on black out and Atlas had returned to homeland with Lani to inform his family and for a yule event she was forced to attend.
Drake wrapped a large leathery wing around me, leaning his head on my shoulder. “How’s the wound?” He asked.
“It’s fine… DHE, cleared it up and it didn’t hit anything important.”
“Dory?”
Tears rolled down my face. “Those pieces are getting smaller…”. I sighed whipping tears off my cheeks and getting to my feet. “I feel like punching something.”
Drake laughed; it was like a huff of air as he pulled me close. “Good thing I’m a fantastic punching bag. Let’s go the playground,” he said standing up offering his hand. I took it gratefully.
Drake and I rode our way towards the Playground, a large arena that reminded me of the roman colosseum. The wind rushed through my hair as we made our way down the path. I could feel Aztec’s muscles working under his fur; his breath curling in the cold. Drake was just ahead of us.
He rode a large Hell hound. It looked like a mix between a Doberman and a Jackal. It’s eyes burned blue and where a Doberman was orange, was the same blue as its eyes. He would have looked normal if not for the exposed skull and his size. He was the size of a shire horse. Larger than Aztec even at his full size.
“We goanna let them outrun us?” I asked the wolf.
‘Never,’ he replied. He reared and we shot off after them. We overtook them and the race began. Zooming trough trees and down the path towards the Playground; Drake at our heels.
Running down the path, Aztecs muscles working like a machine under his pelt. As the playground approached Drake and I were neck and neck. So close, I thought as the full arena came into view.
We tumbled into the centre of the arena and skidded to a halt. The animals were both huffing. I looked to Drake who was also breathing hard. Who had won?
Drake looked up to me and sighed; a laurel of black leaves, made of shadow swirled around my head. I laughed out a breath and dismounted Aztec. He shrunk down to his regular size. Drake slid of his hell hound, and he too shrunk down to the size of a Doberman. Drake pet his head absent mindedly.
“Good race,” He smiled.
“Good race,” I repeated.
Drake ruffled my hair, walking towards the changing rooms. I did the same.
I tied my hair in a braid and wrapped my fists. I put on a pair of black leggings and a sports bra. The leggings covering my feet, exposing my heels and the balls of my feet.
Drake was waiting for me, He wore a tight long sleeved shirt and loose pants with no shoes. He raised his fists and took stance. I chuckled and did the same.
“Lets, dance.”
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