Whoever said 'there's no place like home' was probably a homeless hobo on a freight train living in the outdoors. Because only those who don't have something can assume it's perfect and flawless, and my house made me feel like that when I arrived there.
I looked at it, my eyes squinting at the frame, the structure and building, horrifically I felt no rush of comfort, no sweet sense of relief that I should have .My heart was steady and numb, as my mom led me through the house and sat me on the couch, no pulsing rush of joy but a sensible shroud of calm.
That's all I felt.
What in Glob was wrong with me?
"Sarah? Honey are you okay?" A voice pulled me from my thoughts.
My mom sat infront of me with a tray of scones and orange juice, my tummy felt empty all of a sudden.
"Dig in right?" I smiled gluttonously as I reached for three scones and my mom smiled without stopping me.
Wait a minute!
"Uh, mom, aren't you gonna stop me? Say it's bad to eat so much sugar or something?" I hesitated to put the third scone into my mouth, yeah I'd eaten the first two already.
"I would but Honey, you heard the doctor before we left, you need to build back your weight and not look so-"
"Boney?" I offered sardonically and she sighed with frustration.
"No, stop saying Boney, that's not the word I'd use and you shouldn't either. Go with... slimmer." I gave her a look," What?"
"Mom, I'm the definition of Slim fest, have you seen me? School is going to be hard without Lucas and looking like this? Maybe I can wear three layers."
"Now, Sarah Bucklehim, you listen here." She moved to my side of the couch," You are beautiful, inside and out, and the people at school would be blind from seeing that. So you lost weight, doesn't matter, you're still you Honey. Okay?"
"Okay, Mom. I'll try not to imagine the stares I'll get are for me. How's that?" I asked her and she chuckled..
"It starts somewhere I guess. Now eat up, you missed Scary movie Sunday and I had to record what we'll watch." Mom moved to the DVD player and set it up," We're going to be watching Creature of the Black lagoon and then today's main film, none other than My girlfriend is a ghost."
"The first one is good but the second one, really mom? That's such a cheesy thing, and is like a romantic comedy than a horror film. I love romance but not on scary movie Sunday. Pick something else please."
"Okay, okay I get it. Inspiration seemed to vanish when I found you and Lucas that day." Her eyes grew misty," It was so... nevermind. No fussing over it. You're awake and Lucas will be too."
"Yeah, definitely." I replied hopefully, in my mind I could see Lucas plummeting into that red chasm of fire and darkness.
It wasn't real, I told myself, we just both had seizures, at the exact same time we touched the-
"Oh my Glob!" I gasped in horror.
"What? What is it Honey? Do you feel woozy?" Mom was on my side in an instant and holding my face with fear and I realised my blunder.
"No, I just... realized I wanted to watch a rom com afterall." I went to the DVD player and picked from one of the DVDs placed in a box next to it," Let's watch Married my step grandmother, it's good right?"
"Oh, Honey, we haven't watched that since-"
"Let's just watch Mom." I cut her off quickly and she gave a small sigh," Come on Mom, sit down."
"Okay, I'll sit, just let me get the snacks I left in the kitchen." She said and I nodded my head.
As soon as she left my face grew tense with trepidation, and my hand went to my chest and I gripped my pink Bunny sweater. The cards, I thought fearfully, where were they? I had completely forgotten to ask for them after I woke up, spending too much time either distracting myself or convincing myself what I'd experienced was a dream.
Burn them, that's what Lucas had suggested and I'd refused all for my moral principles.
Now he's in a coma and I... I took deep breaths, quick and fast, easing my heart as best as I could.
Just in time too, my Mom walked back in with a tray of popcorn, grapes and strawberries, also a bowel of-
"Sweet delicious glorious nectar of the heavens!" I exclaimed as I snatched a sweet bun and looked at it with reverence.
Mom had refused to give these to me at the hospital, something about health and doctors, but my heart had been in too many pieces to listen. Now, as I held this beautiful pastry in my hand, I felt my broken heart revive as my mouth started to salivate.
"You can eat three, too much sweets is bad for you and your health is really important right now." She said and I gasped and looked at her.
"Mommy!" I quivered my lips slightly as my eyes looked at her pleadingly.
"Sarah." She raised a brow and gave me a dry look.
"Pwease?" I begged her and she sighed in defeat.
Sick Sarah for the win!
"Fine, five but no more. I also need to eat them too. Where's that remote?"
"Mum dwon knom." I replied with two sweet buns in my mouth and she gave me a pointed look," Mwummy!"
"Oh what will I do with you Sarah Bucklehim?" Mom chuckled as she pulled me close, kissed my forehead and flicked On the DVD player and we watched the romcom movie.
Meanwhile my mind echoed with one thought throughout the movie; I had to find those cards... and burn them.
Also, sweet buns are so yummy!
...
At the outskirts of the town of Oakwood was the wilderness, miles of forest stretching into mountainous terrain before reaching the nearest city. When the pioneers who built the town arrived, they harvested the timber of oaktrees and built the town and a cemetery.
The town had changed over the years, modern development made alot buildings evolve with the times, although a few historical landmarks were still around. One of the things that had survived the two centuries of time since the town's founding was the cemetery. This cemetery was no longer in use, since the town had built a modern cemetery closer to town, thirty years ago called Oakwood cemetery.
The old one lay in rest like a retired corpse, between the town it had seen grow and the forest it had been born from. Oaks and pine trees were scattered around by nature and old human design, dead leaves blanketing many paths that were older than the town's own citizens. Graves and crpyts of gothic style and design stood grimly as sentinels of the deceased and departed.
At present, the cemetery was bathed in faint moonlight, wisps of wind slithered by the tombstones and fallen leaves. The air held the taste of dust and memories faded into time, bland and pale in the night. Shadows and sounds of nocturnal animals moved around the cemetery, the hour was truly late.
From a fallen tombstone, a tiny thread of darkness condensed and slowly spread out, melting out onto the world. It expanded and grew denser, solid and twisted like clay being shaped, not by a hand but by a will.
The shape the darkness formed grew clearer and clearer until it became an outstretched arm of shadowy design. The appendage clawed the air for a moment before it reached down and clawed the ground, seemingly trying to pull itself from the grave marker.
As it struggled, more darkness spewed out, taking more solidity and structure, until a face and torso manifested. The being clawed harder, pulling its body out from the grave like a man pulling himself from the jaws of death. Finally, with a large gasp, the being freed themselves and appeared in their true form.
Silver white hair swayed in the midnight air, as the moon light illuminated a man of shadow, shrouded in its mysterious touch. Two eyes of lunar hues opened and gazed around with the warmth of the dead and the disposition of entitlement. With a scythe of dark obsidian and silver, a cloak of slithering ethereal shadows and an air of finality, the Reaper appeared in all his mortality inducing visage.
"Intruder... intruder...unwanted." harrowing whispers echoed around the cemetery at his arrival, each voice seething with various emotions of fear and anger and sadness.
Iazel's eyes narrowed as he raised his scythe and rested it next to him, then his eyes turned to the oaktree nearby.
"Dryad, this space is for my kin, why do you call me the intruder when you, Fay, intrude upon my people's land?" His voice was calm and cool, not quite hostile but not friendly either.
The oaktree in question stood still, unmoving and still, but Iazel did not turn his eyes from it. After a moment, an ethereal hand of wood and flesh reached out from the bark and a being stepped out from the tree.
A seemingly young maiden with vibrant green hair and pale eyes and a dress of leaves and gossamer web stood a few metres from him. Her face was flawless, without blemish, but she could not be perceived as human by anyone, for she was not human.
She was a dryad, A Fay , one of the Children of the Codex of Life, sentinels of nature and another guardian of order within the Fallen Mortal Realm. Her kind oversaw the transition of humanity through the ages, guided the life of the Realm and accounted for life to come.
Wardens and Fay were allies in the aligning purposes of existence, but they were not friends, each people valued their purpose over the others and that often led to moments of ill will. The Fay Queens and the Sovereignty of Death had disputes of territories, for when nature and death are in one place, which code rules over all?
In this instance, Iazel was asking why this dryad was calling him an intruder when he, a Warden, was in a cemetery.
"This space has been forgotten, left to be reclaimed by nature and her children. This is no longer your space, leave intruder." The dryad's voice was like an echo in a hollow tree.
"Forgotten and forsaken are two different things." Iazel raised a finger," Until the last Death marker has crumbled to dust, the space is of the Wardens alone. You know this law, your Queen's voice acknowledged it centuries ago. Do you break the Code?"
Iazel grabbed his scythe, his eyes getting dangerous and the dryad yelped like a cub who'd heard the snapping of a beast's teeth.
"Peace, peace, I beg you peace." The dryad waved it's hands in fear,"This land has rested for nearly half a century, the Wardens have guided the souls here long ago and departed. Not even Grave children reside here anymore, I but thought... that it was unwanted."
"You thought neither wrong nor right." He stood up straight and looked at the distance where the lights of Oakwood pierced the night." Until further notice, this space is mine."
"Yours? Are you a Chancellor of the Wardens?" She asked and iazel's aura grew cold.
"Chancellor? No. I am but a dog who's eyes are blinded, by rage, regret and emptiness." Iazel's gaze turned to her," You don't obstruct me, Fay, and I won't obstruct you or your kin."
The dryad remained quiet for a moment, her eyes thoughtful and weary. It had been decades since she'd conversed with a Warden, but one thing she remembered was their unscrupulous nature. If push came to shove, she knew he'd do what he wanted with her consent or not.
She wished she could fight him but... she couldn't.
"Very well, but vow on your Codex that you won't usurp the little ones here. Your kin often claim life when it encroaches where you believe you have right." She asked him softly and he tilted his head.
"Vow? On my Codex?" Iazel's lips pulled up in a hollow smile," Fay, so demanding. I'll vow on that, but you must vow to silence. "
"Silence?" She furrowed her brow in confusion," As in?"
"You never saw me," Iazel vanished and appeared before her," I was never here."
The dryad quivered in fear, her eyes wide from the shocking display of speed.
She hadn't seen him move at all! How was he that fast?
"I-i accept." Her voice sounded weak but her eyes were resigned.
"I vow on my Codex not to usurp the Fay of this sacred space on the condition that you maintain silence of ever seeing me." Iazel's words echoed in the night air.
The dryad's eyes glowed a viscous dark blue and the leaves in her dress rose when he finished, before returning to normal. Iazel's eyes glowed black and white for a moment as his vow was taken by the Codex of Death.
Codex vows were contracts that could be made by Wardens with other parties, ensuring they kept their word. Breaking the vow was impossible, the Codex would destroy whoever tried, leaving neither body nor essence.
"Goodbye, Fay." Iazel's words whispered silent, his form having vanished after the vow was struck.
The dryad's eyes turned to the distant town and she took a deep breath, the wind picked up and blew leaves into the breeze. She had disappeared by the time the first leaf touched the ground, and the cemetery returned to its still old silence.