Wednesday 19 February 2014

Element Part 3

I don't know if you can sleep as water but let's just say you can.

Also, I suggest to you not to do it if you happen to go through a war zone. Which leads to the point I wish to make. I woke up as a lot of blood, because if blood is in the water I become the blood. It is not something you should do. I was so shocked that I exploded out of the water as myself. What lay before me were the remnants of a fierce blood bath. Bodies lay three or four thick on the battle churned ground which was a heavy paste of blood and water from the river I had been. The scent of death was hanging in the air like a noxious fog. A lot of books say death has a bitter smell, but when you break it down you find that a lot of things make up the tang. Hopelessness, despair, dreams shattered, fear, a last thought of home and family, pity for those you kill, hatred for those who may kill you, longing for peace, for laughter, for the madness to just end. A misty haze of blood mixed with the death smell has a metallic stench, which coated my throat and stole my breath and breakfast.

After I finished puking, I stumbled through dust choked air in a daze, utterly confused until my powers started to gently explain what I was trying to avoid.

Lillian, I'm sorry but the prince lied. There is no peace.

But at the Courtyard meeting at the end of every single year I went, he said that there was no war, and no invasions. Please let it be true.

My foot landed on a corpse, well, almost a corpse, and it let out a long moan. I went back to puking.

He lied Lillian, and you know that he lied about his parent's health. He said that they where recovering from their amnesia, which they came down with after an incident which no one but the prince witnessed. Everyone in the Kingdom knows they're dead, they just can't face the truth. But you can. Come on. Look at it.

No, no, no! I can't! Its hideous. The King is alive, the Queen is alive, the prince did not lie, there is no invasion, no war. I am at home, nobody knows about you or what I can do, I am safe and, and , and...

Your lying to yourself. Look around, Lillian. What do you see? Tell me.

I looked. I did. I saw everything I didn't want to see and I hated it. I saw pain and wasteland. The dying and the dead. Carrion birds eating the bodies, and dust, dust, dust.

You looked Lillian. Keep looking and never turn away or nothing will change. Use us to change this scene.

I can't. I can only destroy things not create them. You've seen me try. I can barely keep you in check! If I try to do something huge I may destroy the world! If I open the door for you I don't think I could close it.

My powers went silent. I kept going until I saw greenery in the distance. I started running. I had to escape that place. I suddenly realised that I was half way to being wind, stuck between human and air. My wispy hair flew out behind me, fading away to nothing. My limbs twisted into the wind, fluttering around me. My body was lighter then a feather, still there, but just barely.

I gushed into the forest, trying escape the smell and sound of the battle field. And eventually, after hours of running, floating, streaming I did. But I could not escape my memories.

They were not something I could forget.


                                                                    *  *  *  *  *  

The prince was, for the first time in years, guilt ridden.

He was having one of those nights, where all the things you ever did that was wrong was being remembered all at once. I was six, I stole a chocolate truffle, no one saw me. Lillian's mother looking betrayed, why did I tell her? I had to tell her. I lied about brushing my teeth when I was eight. The people, I changed them. I  broke a mirror and I blamed it on the maid. I was ten. She was fired.  The war, I killed them, killed my people, the Kingdom is in turmoil, I must keep it a secret. I lied about it to them and now they are dead, and my people are dying and I can't save them even with her help. Let it end. Please.

The prince drew his legs up to his chest and for a brief period of time he held his head in his hands, vulnerable and exposed, utterly broken by the shear weight of his thoughts.

                                                          To be continued

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