Page 6 of My Dark Obsession

‘Memories old and new-Memoriam Veteris Et Novi’

Amaya

The air was warm, and my hair stuck to my face instantly. I hated it. I always preferred the cold, a cool breeze against my skin and a dark sky to match my empty heart.

I was expecting the street to be full of animal shifters, flying creatures and people on brooms. Instead, I couldn’t see past the crowds of people in front of us, their backs to us as they watched and listened to the voice that boomed further on about the greatest deal of the week, fresh vamps blood straight from the source.

Yep, vamps blood. There were vampires here. Why would anyone want vampire blood? Was it magical? Did I want vampire blood? I kind of did. It would have been a pretty cool thing to own, wouldn’t it?

Rí guided me with his hand on my lower back through the crowd that parted the moment they saw the surly scowl and red eyes. Nosy onlookers stared at me; I kept my eyes to the old stone path.

The second we eased out of the crowd I gasped; there it all was, the magic, the mystery, the surrealness.

The supernatural. The same bear as last night strolled by with a sack hanging from his neck, a couple walked hand in hand, and both had long thick curling horns atop their heads.

A set of wolf puppies ran between legs yipping in their excitement as a tired looking woman ran after them, a smile pulling at her lips.

Stall after stall held trinkets and small glass jars of sparkling oddities that I simply needed.

This place was so incredible, I forgot about the humidity. I forgot about the cold churning in my stomach, and I simply gawked at everything. It was like a scene straight from a fantasy book.

“Come, we’re going to need coffee to deal with Cole.” Pushing gently on my back Rí guided me along the street.

So the person we were meeting was named Cole.

That was the first bit of information Rí had given me about his person with ‘connections’.

The itch on my lower back was soothed by his touch once more and I simply hated that.

I hated that I need him to help me get back, so the fact that he soothed my discomfort almost angered me.

I didn’t need anyone but my boys. I didn’t.

I pulled away from his hand and looked through each window we passed desperate for detail, hungry for more information.

I wanted it all. Some shops and stalls were similar to my town, such as clothing stores full of fabrics and mannequins.

Some stalls held steaming food that made my mouth water.

But the rest held so much more, and my brain almost couldn’t cram it all in .

A piercing squeak had me covering my poor recently healed ears and wince. Some animal must have been hurt; it must have been dying and screeching its pain for all to hear.

“Dragon man! Who is this?! Oh. My. Fates. Above. You’re simply stunning.

I love the look!” The rushed ramble took me off guard.

A woman with a bright pink apron stood in front of a coffee shop.

Her short curls bounced around her head as she jumped up and down in excitement.

She clapped her hands and squealed again.

Oh, it was a person. Not an animal.

Rí’s sigh had my lips twitching. He really wasn’t much more of a people person than I was.

“Come on in. Come on. Hurry up! Tell me everything. Oh you must be special if you have the grumpy dragon looking so happy!” My brows raised as I looked up at Rí’s deep scowl and thinned lips. Happy?

Still, he followed her in, yet again placing his hand on the small of my back.

The shop smelled incredible, the roasted nutty coffee smell accentuating the sweet smell of baked cakes. Glass shelves full of iced buns and huge rounded muffins shone brightly under the floating ball of light. Yep, a floating ball of light lit up the baked goods.

My mouth watered yet again. The boys would love them. My shoulders slumped.

The ache returned.

My curiosity diminished.

“Are you guys hungry? Here, have some coffee to go! I’m Bri! This is my shop!” The women Bri, smiled with her entire being. She grabbed two coffees from behind the counter and passed us each one before pointing to the cakes with an eager eye.

Rí licked his lips as he gazed at the glorious treats.

I shook my head and Rí sighed.

“So?” Bri rested her face in her hands, her smile wide as she stared at us with something akin to wonder in her big eyes.

“Oh! Your eye—” Rí cut her off with a firm growl as his eyes brightened ever so slightly. He really didn’t want people to mention my changing eyes.

Her large chest rested on the counter as she then whispered another “oh”. The counter pushed up her chest revealing a large cleavage that any women would be jealous of. Including myself.

Her curves and long lashes deserved to be appreciated and even I got that, but Rí only stared down at me as he finally said, “Amaya is my Circle Mate.”

Bri screeched even louder than before, and I tensed at the high-pitched sound.

Great, he was telling people?

“That is AMAZING, oh my Fates Above how Magical.”

My ears hurt.

Usually I shuffled away from overly eager and happy people because well, ugh happy people. But something about the curvaceous, bouncy women intrigued me.

For one, was she some kind of shifter? Was it rude to ask?

Rí cleared his throat once more and ran his hand through his hair. “Thanks for the coffee. We ah, have a meeting to get to. ”

Bri’s eyes widened before she bounced back up and started to clear a table full of empty coffee cups.

“Oh! Of course! Silly me! I’ll send some treats across to the bar for you both!” Turning to me she beamed before adding, “please come and talk to me anytime! Like, anytime!”

I was ushered out by Ri’s firm hand.

“Wow.” I muttered, almost missing his grunt of agreement as the same set of wolf puppies ran between our legs before the air shimmered around them and they turned to little boys with black-as-night hair and eyes as blue as the sky.

Eyes so like my boys.

I remembered the day I saw them for the first time, their blank little faces and their curly blond heads.

I stared at the little white oval pills in my palm. The powder coating my fingers as I counted them. Each one a piece of myself that I had lost in my seventeen years of existence.

I was going to swallow each one with no regret, no one to miss and no one to miss me. There was nothing holding me to this damaged world and I was okay with this.

I wanted to die. I wanted to feel death's cold call and I was desperate to answer it.

I never belonged here, not just this house or crappy town. But here, in this world. I didn't know who I was, who my blood belonged to. I didn't know what family was and frankly I didn't care.

My entire life entailed being beaten and serving Him, my foster father. The town, the school, my very own peers looked down at me. Sensed something in me that I didn't understand.

Breathing in a deep breath of stale air I felt something settle within me. This was it. The end for me.

Lifting my handful of treasures towards my bruised mouth, I froze.

Voices echoed through the sparse house. A voice I recognized had my shoulders tensing in memory.

The social worker. What madness was this woman there for now?

The good for nothing bitch only came round when I either tried to run or she had another money scheme for them to try and weasel into.

“It'll be more money, twins Lyal, twins! It’ll be perfect for us." The excitement in the voice ended with a happy squeal.

Yep. Money. The word twins gave me an uneasy feeling in my empty stomach.

Looking back to my little oval pills of relief I closed my fingers around them and shuffled on my knees to the cracked bedroom window, dragging myself through the dirt and dried blood on the wooden floor, splinters piercing my skin through my ripped jeans.

There, stood on the dried yellow grass in front of the bitch’s old beetle Volkswagen were two small, blurred figures.

Pressing my face to the dirty glass, I just about made out two little boys, grasping each other's hands and standing perfectly still as if to be unseen.

My breath stalled in my throat. I felt frozen.

An unknown feeling unfurled in my chest as I squinted at these little twins.

I had to get closer. Something in me screamed to get closer. To take in the detail of their faces. Slowly sneaking down the stairs I peeked around the corner as Lyal and the social worker’s murmurs drifted into the kitchen. Seeing the empty hallway, I snuck out the front door.

There they stood. Big wide ocean blue eyes, messy blond curls that looked more knotted than my own rat’s nest hair.

For the first time in a long time I felt the urge to speak, my voice raspy from lack of use.

“He–hello.” one word. All it took was that one word and time stood still.

Nothing else needed to be said. The three of us felt it within our very beings.

They were mine and I was theirs. My back straightened, my shoulders firmed and the weakness inside of me turned into something I can only describe as pure obsession.

My clenched fist opened, dropping the pills that almost lost me my new reason for living. They scattered, lost in the overgrown dead grass.

“What are you doing outside?” Lyal’s grating voice drifted from the doorway.

Usually the tone of his voice sent shivers down my back, knowing I was about to get beaten or be put on another two-day food ban. But not this time, and never again.

Turning to face him, I stood in front of the twins. He wasn't going to touch them. No one was. They were mine.

My hand burned from the coffee I had squeezed from the cup. I shook my wet hand and froze from the intense look on Rí’s face.

“We’ll get ye’ to them.”

“I know.”

We didn’t stop again. Instead, we walked down the street, dodging the busy crowds and nosy passersby.

We didn't have to push through and create a path like others; one look at Rí and the people jumped out of the way.

Some outright avoided him. One man even fell into an apple cart, creating a mass of angry market men as the apples rolled into the curved stone gutters.

Some apples were pinched by grubby well worked hands. I looked away.

The streets became less busy the further on we walked. The humid air now stuck my t-shirt to my back and the hot coffee made me sweat more. However it tasted incredible, and one of those sweet treats would have complemented it perfectly.

The stalls ended abruptly and, in their place, stood empty barren-looking houses, reminding me slightly of the burnt ones in the Dead village I appeared in.

How did I get there? I had originally thought Lyal had dumped my body in some far abandoned village but obviously not. I was unconscious, beaten to near death and then I was in Wisteria.

I hoped that this Cole had the answers.

A strong sweet and slightly sour smell reached my nose, and I looked up from the thinning stone pathway to see a lone figure leaning against one of the buildings.

They were completely covered in its shadow, no detail available except the glowing cherry of whatever they were smoking.

They flicked the cigarette but never moved from their position.

I felt their eyes on us, following us as we moved further down the path. Rí’s slow stomp tried to match my steps but my small legs hurried to catch up still.

As we wound round a corner, the path completely ended, leaving us walking on dried dirt and weaving through thorny bushes.

“Where exactly are we going?” I said as he took over pulling a long thorny branch from my shorts.

“The Light City.” He answered whilst offering his hand for me to climb over a small hump. I ignored the hand and powered through the bushes.

I didn't have help before, and I didn’t need it now.

He surprised me by adding “The shadow land is home to the misfits, the shifters and the angry. The Light city is run by the council, all White witches.” He looked uncomfortable before continuing, “before the war, all supernatural’s were equal.

Yes, there were bigger shifters and stronger witches, but everyone was equal.

The war tore our realms apart; thousands of supernatural beings died and along with them, the peace. ”

Wars truly did destroy everything, not just in the human world too it seemed.

“How long ago was it?”

He paused in our walk and looked to me, tilting his head as he searched for some unseen answers in the bushes around us.

“Yesterday was eighteen yearsexactly.”

I kept silent. Nothing added up. I needed the how’s and whys and I needed them immediately. I wasn’t used to not having the information I needed. I hated the unknown.

We turned one last corner before he stopped in front of a blurred tree. I rubbed at my eyes with the heel of my hands, pushing down until stars appeared.

The fuck? The tree was still distorted by the blur. It covered about 6 ft in a full circle.

“Ye’ will walk through with me.” Rí held his huge, tanned hand out towards me. Waiting expectantly.

I once again ignored it, pulled my big girl pants up and stepped through.