Beyond the Wall of Darkness
Alex
Beyond the Wall of Darkness
The fire was coming. It swept towards the village from all directions. It was bursting with heat, and as it loomed over the small buildings, it turned into thick tendrils of deep black smoke. The smoke consumed everything. Invading buildings, rolling through every space, large or small. It overtook villagers, silencing them with the eternal sleep of this terrible wall of darkness. The silence was total, until there was something. There was a voice. My sister Rosie.
“Luke, where are you? Where have you gone?” She emerged from the smoke, her bright blue eyes wild with fear. Her platinum blond hair gave one last shimmer, and disappeared as she fell into the dark once more.
I could see it outside, finding small gaps like keyholes, and underneath doors. It crept into my mother’s room. I heard her get out of bed, and open the front door. Smoke poured in, rolling over the threshold. My door slowly creaked open. It was Miranda, my mother. But at the same time I knew that this was not the mother I loved. Her eyes were completely black, like the pupils had overwhelmed the white. A vacant smile played across a face that was not her own. She sent the dark forward, and all the pain, and suffering, and loneliness of the world came crashing down on me in a massive wave. There was so much dark, and evil. Too much to fight through. I heaved upward in one last final burst trying to break free, but my efforts were smothered as the dark pulled me under.
Suddenly, there was light. Sunlight, shining in through my bedroom window. The darkness had been a dream.
I’m Luke. I have light brown hair, deep brown eyes, and a mass of freckles spread across my nose. I live in a village in a world of light, and happiness. A world of good. The village is simple, and everyone is nice and helpful. The place that I call home is a small three-room house. The main room serves as a living room, kitchen, and dining room. My sister, Rosie, and I share a room, and our mother gets the other one. It’s made out of dark wood cut from the forest. Large windows let in abundant light, so we never need torches.
I looked out the window at the village’s magic wall standing defiantly against the ancient wall of dark that has plagued our world for decades. No one knows where it came from, only that it is deadly. A skilled warrior and defender of our village went missing when the wall first appeared. That warrior was my father. The main wall of black writhing darkness stands about a mile away, and in the morning it blocks our sun. The wall that shields us is a mass of color, jumbled but not mixed. Varied precious metals and jewels glitter throughout its wide expanse. I spot gold, and several diamonds sparkling down at me. I can see its heart of enchanted silver glowing from within. The wall was constructed from some of the most powerful wizards in history, made to keep away dark magic.
Amosa, our village chief and also enchanting teacher, had stopped by our house yesterday to tell us that there would be a test today. Amosa is the most experienced enchanter in the village. Her dark gray hair had once been black. It waved slowly back and forth, and reached just past her shoulders. Amosa is a panther, tall, graceful, and deadly.
Enchanting is not what you might think it is. Most people think of magic as throwing fireballs, and blowing things up. Enchanting is magically enhancing the ability to do something. If I wanted to enchant myself to run faster, I could. A couple times a month I do self enchanting. Some enchantments are permanent, and some are temporary. The permanent ones build up over time, and in the past, people enchanted so much that they became minor gods. There is a balance though, because if you enchant too much you go crazy. Temporary enchanting is much stronger, but wears off in about a day or two.
I saw Amosa, sitting cross legged in the shadow of the wall. Narus and Rosie were waiting behind her. I quickly got dressed and rushed outside.
“Well, look who decided to show up,” taunted Narus, an ugly smirk on his face.
Rosie sighed. “Just leave him alone and let’s all focus on the run.”
So that was what today’s test was. A running race.
“Rosie is right, if you bicker any longer, I might cancel the race,” warned Amosa in her calm, smooth voice.
“Sorry Amosa,” I apologised.
Narus just snortled and turned away.
“Okay, who wants to start?” asked Amosa.
We all eagerly walked to the starting line.
“What’s the course?” I asked.
“One lap on the inside of the wall,” replied Rosie.
Amosa called out, “Runners to your marks. SET,” Bang! Amosa used her magic to fill a pebble with so much energy it exploded. We were off. Rosie had a strong start, just like always. Narus was hanging right behind her. Weird, he usually started slow and got faster. As the race went on, Narus kept acting strange. Rosie stepped on her shoe, untying it. As she bent down to quickly tie it, Narus, who was still trailing right behind, chose that exact moment to stumble, trip and fall. He waited to get up until Rosie was done tying her shoe. As we rounded another corner, there was a sign that read “Final Mile.” When Narus saw this he bolted in front of Rosie and took off sprinting. There was still a mile left. Why would he be sprinting? Narus took a hidden knife out of his shoe and stabbed at something on the wall. No, it couldn’t be. He was attacking the magic of a section of the wall.
“Narus what are you doing?!” screamed Rosie. Narus didn’t respond. I couldn’t allow this to happen. I started sprinting towards Narus, who was still diligently striking the wall over and over again. I reached him right as he broke the magic. How did he break the magic so fast? That must have been a highly enchanted knife. Rosie and I immediately put our backs to the wall. Narus wasn’t fast enough. A tendril of smoke wrapped around his waist and flung him over the wall. Another tendril snaked its way through, and started floating around lazily. Searching. It slowly came towards me, slowly wrapping around my leg. Suddenly it jerked away, and completely covered Rosie with an opaque blanket of smoke. I screamed as Rosie was flung through the gap.
“Rosie!” My body was numb. My mind was numb. Rosie couldn’t be gone. I refused to accept, refused to give in. I stepped in front of the hole, and stopped dead. Amosa came running from her place at the finish line and yelled “Get away from there you fool!” The last thing I saw before I blacked out was Amosa sealing the wall, with Rosie on the other side.
No one ever did ask me what I saw that day on the other side of the wall. And even if they did I don’t think I would be able to answer. Still my heart aches for my beloved Rosie, long ago buried on the other side of a magic wall.