Twilight of the Abyss: Prologue
Prologue
The everyday noise of the city faded as Bella stood, her mouth dropped open in shock at her best friend. Time stood still in that instant, capturing everything like a picture. Every detail became vivid with perfect clarity. As Bella tried to find her voice, little details stood out in her mind. The way the setting sun entered the study and glistened off the antique sword collection, casting rainbow shadows on the walls. The muffled sounds of cars and pedestrians out the window, scurrying about their day, unaware of what was going on in the top floor of the brownstone house. The faint bumps and scratching beyond the walls that gave reminder that people lived just next door all seemed so far away and in another time.
“What did you say?” Bella gasped, stepping back. She could not believe her ears, or her eyes. This was her best friend, the person she had shared her secrets with and confided her dreams. It was in this very room that they had become blood sisters.
That seemed like a lifetime ago. Now, her best friend glared at her with insane eyes, filled with anger and hate.
“I said it’s all over. You lose, Bella,” she said with a smirk.
“Why are you doing this Am-“ Bella started, but she was rudely cut off.
“Don’t call me that! Don’t ever call me by that name again. I’m no longer her, no longer that weak human I was forced to become. I am Faydhonia now.”
“What?”
Am - No! Faydhonia - laughed. Before Bella’s eyes, she changed. Her limp blond hair grew and coiled into golden ringlets that fell just beyond her waist. Her pale skin started to glow and her blue eyes sparkled. The room filled with the sickly-sweet scent of flowers, but it quickly changed to the moldy smell of decaying plants. Iridescent wings sprouted from her back, buzzing angrily behind her. Whatever Faydhonia was, it wasn’t human.
“Oh, Bella,” Faydhonia mused, pleased at the look of astonishment on the girl’s face. “It would have been so easy to just kill you and leave you unaware of the truth. You’re so naïve, letting me get so close to you. You never did figure it out, did you?”
“What are you?” Bella took another step back, bumping into the desk. “What do you want?”
“I want you do die. You are pathetic, Bella. Everything was just handed to you! You never had to work for a single thing!”
“I don’t understand,” Bella pleaded. “I thought we were friends. We used to have sleepovers and make s’mores over the stove. How can you hate me?”
Faydhonia snarled, reaching towards Bella. A powerful force lifted her into the air, smashing her into the wall as Faydhonia smirked. Bella moaned as she pushed herself up off the floor, watching her friend with the hurt shining in her eyes.
“We were never friends! I only pretended to be your friend to get close enough to kill you! I never liked you! I hate you!”
Bella whimpered in pain, though she wasn’t sure if it was from her physical wounds or the hole that Faydhonia’s words had cut into her heart. This had once been her bestest and only friend.
With a cruel smile, Faydhonia magically threw her again. Bella screamed as she came crashing down on the desk, cutting her leg on the corner. The blood ran hot down her leg, soaking into her designer jeans.
“I could kill you now,” Faydhonia said. “You’ll still be clueless, weak. You can’t fight me and win.”
“Please, don’t do this,” Bella begged around her tears.
Faydhonia purred, “what is the fun in that, hmm?’ To defeat you when you are nothing? No, I want to kill the real Bella, not this pathetic shell.”
“I am the real Bella! You know me! Remember? Am-“
“Stop calling me that!” Faydhonia waved her hands and Bella flew through the air again. She cried out as she smashed into the wall, knocking a collection of fake katanas and worthless movie replica daggers to the floor. They scattered around her, rattling in their sheathes like dry bones.
Bella was sure that the noise would attract some attention. Surely someone outside had heard her screams, or the neighbors heard the thuds against the walls. Someone had to come to investigate or call the police. At any moment, she would be rescued.
Something must have shown on her face because Faydhonia sneered, “Waiting for your knight in shining armor? Don’t hold your breath. No one can hear you. No one will help you. I’ve set up a Silence spell. You are without any support. You will die alone and no one will ever morn you.”
Panting, Bella pleaded, “Why are you doing this? What have I ever done to you?”
“Oh! That’s right. You don’t remember, do you?” Faydhonia made a tsking noise with her tongue. As she approached Bella, the frightened girl scrambled away on her hands and knees, ignoring the pain in her leg. She hid behind the desk, curled up in a ball. She could hear Faydhonia pacing in front of the desk, taking her time. The desk proved to be a flimsy barrier against the monster that was once her best friend.
Faydhonia tapped her nails against the desk. Click-clack-click. Click-clack-click. When she spoke, her voice was calm. She sounded like the person she had once been, not this glowing creature that made no sense.
“You always had it all. The good looks, the effortless good grades. Boys eager to be near you and the girls always wanting to be you. I hated you for it. You flaunted your good fortune in my face, laughing at me as I struggled to keep up with you. Always in your shadow. I was just you little tag-a-long companion, Faydhonia the Invisible. Wasn’t I, Princess?”
“Princess? What are you talking about?” Bella shook her head even though Faydhonia couldn’t see her. Or, could she? Bella wasn’t so sure about anything, anymore. Nothing that Faydhonia was saying was making sense. Bella wasn’t beautiful. She was plain - ordinary - with pale red hair and green eyes. Not sparkling emerald or jade or any other romantic color. Just a rather uninteresting shade of green that bordered on muddy brown. She was too skinny and covered in freckles. She wasn’t popular and the boys never cared too much to be in her company. It was always Am - No! Faydhonia! - whom the boys wanted to be around and the girls sighed in jealousy over.
“You are Princess Bella,” Faydhonia said. “I gave you everything, and you never noticed!”
“I’m not a princess,” Bella protested. “Please, you have it all wrong.”
Faydhonia overturned the desk, exposing the fearful Bella. Before Bella could run, Faydhonia grabbed her by the throat, dragging her up. Bella clawed at the hand with no luck.
“I have nothing wrong, Princess,” Faydhonia snarled. “You are the one who is wrong.”
“Please,” Bella croaked. “I was your friend.”
“We were never friends. The very thought makes me sick!” Faydhonia physically tossed Bella away from her. She landed in a crumpled heap on top of the fallen swords. Her hand landed on top of one jewel-encrusted dagger that would have been worthless in an actual fight. The dagger glowed and changed shape into a wand that sent tingles up Bella’s arm.
Use the wand, Bella, a voice whispered in her mind. It sounded familiar, but she couldn’t remember who it was. Use it now.
“No more games, Princess,” Faydhonia said. “Now, you die.”
Use the wand!
Bella held out the wand, unsure of what it would do. For a moment, Faydhonia looked surprised and almost afraid. Then, a force exited the wand and sent Faydhonia crashing into the wall. It was a welcoming sight.
“Where did you get that,” demanded Faydhonia as she stood up. She wiped the blood from her mouth. “You can’t have that! It was buried with your father!”
“My father isn’t dead,” Bella said, holding the wand in front of her like a pathetic shield. “You’ve got the wrong person.”
Faydhonia smiled. “Even with the wand, you can’t remember. This is precious. You have the Sacred Wand of the Fairy, but you don’t have the memories to use it!”
“The what of the what?”
“The Sacred Wand of the Fairy,” Faydhonia said. She slowly moved around Bella. Bella kept the wand between them at all times. “It doesn’t matter. I’ll still kill you. You don’t know how to fully use it.”
A dark power surround Faydhonia, and Bella knew she was seeing her death.
Use the wand, Bella! You have the power.
“How,” she whispered. “How do I use it?”
“I’m not telling you, silly girl,” Faydhonia laughed.
The power is inside you. You must send her to the Dark Abyss.
Bella closed her eyes and felt the tingling power of the wand radiating up her arm. She could feel it touch inside her, stroking a part of her that had lain dormant for so many years. As a child, she had always known that she was special, playing the part of a fairy princess in her imaginary tea parties. Dancing with butterfly wings as she pretended that she could fly. Never had she thought that her make-believe would really mean anything.
She held out the wand, the words forced from deep inside her. She didn’t even know what they meant or what she said. The black power of Faydhonia was met with a radiant white light.
“No! What are you doing!” Faydhonia tried to swat at the light, but she screamed and cradled her hand as if burned.
“Rest in the Abyss,” Bella said as the light intensified. Then, it vanished and the darkness remained. All was still for a heartbeat before the darkness pulsed and collapsed into itself. Faydhonia screamed as she was swallowed by the darkness.
Bella stood there for a moment before dropping to her knees. Tears flowed down her cheeks as she thought of her friend, the one that she knew. Not the insane Faydhonia. She remembered their camp outs, sleeping in a tent in the living room while her father pretended to be a wild animal. They would shriek and laugh as he roared and shook the tent until her mom would come out and tell him to stop.
She remembered spending weeks with her friend after her father left, wanting to live with his new mistress instead of staying with his family. She remembered how they used to sit at lunch, giggling about their favorite book series and sighing over how romantic the hero was.
“Why did this happen,” Bella whispered.
“It happened because of Morgause.”
Bella looked up, but she saw no one. She slowly stood and looked around the room. She had heard a man’s voice, the same voice that told her how to use the wand. She had to find out who was speaking.
“Hello? Anyone there?”
“Just a moment, dear.” There was a glowing light by the overturned desk. Bella watched as it took the form of an elder man. He was stooped over with a long white beard that dragged on the floor. Twinkling green eyes smiled at her over a bulbous nose and under two very bushy white eyebrows. A golden crown sat on his balding head and two delicate wings perched on his back. His clothes were robes of brilliant gold.
“Who are you?”
“Why, dear Bella, I am your father.”
“No, you’re not. My father left us when I was five. You look nothing like him.”
The winged man laughed, and it was a nice, inviting sound. “Bella, I am your true father. That mortal that you call father had nothing to do with your creation. You are the reincarnation of my own darling daughter.”
“I can’t be,” Bella said. “This is a dream. I hit my head too hard. I ate a bad taco. Someone is playing a trick on me.”
“No tricks, daughter. You are the only surviving member of the royal family of the Fairy. You hold all our power in your hands.”
Bella looked down at the wand. “This thing?”
“Inside you. You are my daughter, and you are the only one who can avenge our deaths,” the old man said. “I am King Tearlach, ruler of the Fairy and keeper of the Elements. I was once known as a wise and kind king, and our people flourished.”
“Fairies don’t exist.”
“We do, Bella. We have always existed. You know this.”
Bella shook her head. It didn’t make any sense.
Yet, it did. Everything that she had always secretly known was becoming a reality. Didn’t she just send her ex-best friend into a place that she knew in her heart was called the Dark Abyss? Didn’t she feel the truth in the words of the old man, knowing in her heart that he was indeed her real father? She could feel it, just as she felt the power awakening inside her. She was really a princess.
“Okay, I believe you,” she said slowly. “How did you die? How come I’m human?”
Tearlach smiled sadly. “Ah, it was my greatest folly. I had hired a new court wizard. He was a charmer and we were caught in his spell. Your mother - your real mother, the good queen Ula - and I thought that he was a good man.”
“Morgause?”
“Yes, Morgause Perfidas, the Dread Overlord of Evil. He betrayed us in a most brutal manner.”
Bella frowned. “You thought a guy who calls himself the Dread Overlord of Evil was a good guy?”
“He didn’t call himself that when we hired him,” Tearlach said. “He was just the wizard Morgause, then.”
“What happened?”
“He started courting you. However, you were engaged to marry Avery, Prince of the Elves. He thought to woo you away from the prince, but once you saw your betrothed, you were in love. Morgause flew into a rage and cast his lot with the vile vampires and werewolves.”
“So, there are really vampires and werewolves in the world?”
“Oh, yes. And now, they serve Morgause, eagerly awaiting for the day when they can overthrow the humans and plunge the world into darkness.”
“How do we stop them?”
Tearlach leaned over Bella and kissed her on the forehead. “You must find the Elvan prince, Avery. Morgause locked his memories inside a mortal boy, just as he sent your spirit into a human girl. Free Prince Avery, and the elves will follow you. Then, you will have the power to completely lock Morgause into the Dark Abyss and save the earth.”
Words in Chapter: 2443
Words total: 2443