Destiny

Frozen in place, Linwe watched helplessly as the slim, dark skinned man with a shock of white hair hid in the shadows near her father Eol’s car and waited. She new he was up to no good the way he stayed to the shadows, not allowing a single drop of light to shine on him...



A few seconds later her father came out of the all night convenience store with bag of groceries in his arm and headed for his car. Lin felt her chest get tight as she realized what would happen. She tried to shout out a warning to her father but her voice refused to work. And so did her feet. They wouldn’t budge from where she was standing.



Taken by surprise, her father was unable to do any more than drop the bag and raise his arms in a hasty defense as a sword came slashing out of the darkness. The blade bit deeply into his right forearm, cleaving the limb into two.



Her father’s scream of pain echoed in the night and made the hair on her body rise. Linwe sobbed as she watched her father being attacked.



Daddy!” she screamed silently in agony, unable to be seen or heard.



The sword was long and gleamed in the moonlight, looking like something straight from the medieval days. It rose menacingly again and came down but this time her father had somehow managed to escape its bite.



Groaning from pain, Eol clasped at his injured limb with his good hand and crawled backwards in an attempt to get away from the man. There was a soft chuffing sound coming from the creature as it slowly followed her father across the parking lot asphalt and Lin realized that it was laughing. Laughing at her father’s helplessness. Tears streamed from her eyes in torrents as she watched, trying in vain to close eyes that just would not obey.





“How did you find us,” Eol asked through gritted teeth as he tried unsuccessfully to regain his footing.



“Your daughter told us,” the evil dark man whispered gleefully as Eol finally made it to his feet. " She led us straight to you. No more running Eol. We have you know." Then with an ease that sickened her, he ran his sword through her father’s stomach until it exited through his back.



The screamed that came from Lin’s throat then burned her vocal cords and made her throat feel as if it would explode. And this time it was heard. The glass in the surrounding cars all shattered and the man that attacked her father grabbed his ears painfully as her shriek took on banshee proportions.



Unable to do no more, Lin screamed and screamed and screamed. She screamed for someone to help her father, for the creature to stop, for someone to wake her from the awful nightmare that just felt so real. But no one heard her. And finally her screams died as her voice grew too hoarse to support them.



There was blood bubbling from her father’s mouth as he slowly fell to his knees. It was then he finally looked towards her and in his eyes she saw a regret that made her want to howl in anguish. In his eyes there was the grim truth of the matter; he was dying and there was nothing any of them could do to stop it from happening..



“Daddy,” she sobbed out as she watch him die, wanting with every fiber of her being to go to him. And suddenly just like that she free. On shaky legs she ran to his side, ignoring the man that was hunched over with his hands still clasped to his ears in obvious pain.



“Oh god dad… please,” Lin sobbed and she held her father’s bloody. “Please don’t leave me!”



His lips moved as he tried to say something and Lin had to bend close to hear him.

“Wake up honey, you have to wake up.”



His words confused her. Was this just a dream then after all? If so why did it feel so real?



“Please wake up,” he whispered weakly as a tear slid from his eye. Drow….kill…you…”



“Daddy I’m scared,” She screamed at him as his eyes closed. “Don’t leave me alone!” Lin started shaking him roughly, trying to get him to open his eyes and to just hang on until help arrived but his eyes remain stubbornly closed.



“Don’t be afraid my sweetling,” A harshly lyrical voice cooed from behind her suddenly and her skin pebbled with goose bumps. The voice sounded like broken glass tinkling to the music and was almost pretty in its roughness. “I’ve finally come for you. My Queen… you need not fear me...”



Turning slowly, still holding onto her father’s hand for strength, Lin decided to face the killer. Her eyes widened in horror as she got a good look at the ebony skinned man with the shocking white hair. His eyes were blood red on yellow and they stared at her with a covetousness that made her want to puke. Then it smile and she saw the pointy teeth and an obscenely pink tongue with a pointy tip.



A shrill scream of pure terror exploded from her and she just knew she was looking at her death. Her screamed ended in a choked whimper when she noticed the sharp yellow claws on the end of each of finger. Claws that looked capable of ripping out her throat. Claws that were extending out to touch her…



Just as the creature reached for her with those claws, Lin was startled awake by Inwe’s hand.



She had been screaming uncontrollably and had awoken her sister.



“Linwe wake up…you’re dreaming.”



The instant she was awakened her first thought was to make sure that it truly was all a dream. Scrambling out of her bed she dashed out of their room and into their parents’ room with a confused Inwe right behind her.



She burst into her parents’ room, wanting to see for herself that her dad was in bed with her mom where he belonged.



But he wasn’t there.



“Daddy,” the soft cry left her throat and she whirled around determined to search the entire house for him if she had to. He had to be there!



“Daddy!” she yelled out for him as she ran down the stairs, ignoring her mother who called out to her. There was no sign of him in the kitchen or the living or the den.



“Daddy!” she screamed and ran out side into the garage only to find his car missing. Filled with an encompassing panic she ran back into the house, crashing into her mother and sister who had been just about to follow her out the door.



“Where’s daddy?” she asked her mother wildly. “Where’s my daddy!” She was screaming shrilly at the end and her mother’s reply was a hard slap that made her teeth click together.



“Lin you need to calm down and tell me what’s wrong,”’ was her mother’s firm reply. Ladora showed no emotion at her daughter’s hysterics.



“Mom something just killed daddy. I saw it…it was black and had white hair and it was horrible,” Linwe sobbed, clutching her mother like a lifeline in the middle of a storm. “Oh god mom it was awful.”



“It’s ok honey,” Ladora spoke but it was as if by rote. Her eyes got a faraway look even as she held Linwe to her and stroked her hair. After a while her face went pale and her eyes became focused once again and the look on her face was terrible to see. Right then Linwe knew that her mom believed her though she acted as if she didn’t.



In a quiet voice she commanded both her children to get dressed and then they waited. Neither Inwe nor Linwe knew what they were waiting on and Ladora refused to tell them. Filled with grief Linwe held onto her sister as silent tears slid out of her eyes. Inwe was crying too but it was from the emotions she was siphoning of her sister more than anything. She could feel everything Linwe felt but she didn’t know why she was feeling them.



In less than an hour there was a knock on the door and both girls looked towards their mother for a sign as to what they should do. Without a word to either of them Ladora stood and opened the door.



There was a cop on the other side. Huddled together Inwe and Linwe listened as he told their mother of their father’s death. The story was that he had been mugged. They all knew differently. Their mother thanked the police and came back to them.



“We have to leave,” she spoke woodenly and they gaped at her.



“Leave? Why?”



“Go upstairs and pack everything that you can fit in the car.”



“But mom…” Inwe began but the fierce looked her mother sent her made her words stop. As one the girls quietly went up the stairs.



In two days were gone.



They didn’t even take the time to bury their father. Ladora just packed up all that they could carry and left. What they couldn’t carry stayed behind. She didn’t even sell the house. She just left.



It was hard for Lin to adjust to life without her father especially since her mother would answer none of her questions concerning him. She point blank refused to even talk about him. It was as if she simply wanted to forget it him and for a long time the girls couldn’t understand it. Her parents were in love with each other. How could she have just accepted his loss so easily?



One night during the first few months of her dad’s death her mother had asked her a question out of the blue.



“The night your father died…did you answer the voices?”



“Yes,” Lin whispered guiltily. Ladora stared at her long and hard before walking slowly away and even though she hadn’t said anything to the fact, Lin knew right then that her mother blamed her for her father’s death.



If only she hadn’t answered the voice. Her father had told her that something bad would happen if she did and yet she still went ahead and answered because she was angry. In her eyes it made her an awful person and an even worse daughter. It was her entire fault that her dad had died.



Afterwards, she swore to herself that she wouldn’t answer the voices anymore no matter what happened. As she grew older though, it got harder. The voices increased their insistency and instead of just two dual voices alternating it was nearly twenty now. Nowadays it was all she could do to stay sane with them in her head nagging endlessly.



But she never answered them.