The Circle of Fire, page 23
part #1 of The Circle Series
Without trying, all the other pictures started to fall away one by one, leaving behind a collection of the person who had filled this position before it had been passed to me. The person who had had to die for that passing to take place. My mind was floating amongst the collection of memories and I wasn’t drawn to one over the others but one started to reach out and pull me to it.
In it I could see the day that Uncle David was told that his father had been killed and that he was now going to take his place. He had been told in the library when he had been reading. He hadn’t been surrounded by grieving family or worried friends, instead he had been told by Lloyd, during what felt like a lesson of some kind. Lloyd’s voice boomed in the same way it had when I had spoken to him and I would have recognised that huge, wiry red beard of his anywhere. Despite the memory coming from decades ago, Lloyd didn’t look any different. He must have aged really early. The room around him looked the same as it had when I first entered, although I think my trick with the chairs may have changed things slightly. I was suffused with smells and sounds that I could remember from my own time in the same room and that made the memory even more disturbing. I had walked in the same footsteps as my Uncle. I had seen the birth of my magical ability in that room where he had seen the death of his father.
Without warning, I suddenly bolted across to a new memory. This time, I was watching him spending time in a humble looking house. He walked between a large country kitchen and a very comfortable looking living room. Large, plump, well used furniture was dotted around the rooms as he walked and I could smell the rich aroma of roasting meat and the smoky produce of an open fire floating through the whole place. Without having been there, of knowing anything about where I was seeing, I could tell that my Uncle had been totally happy in this place, his contentment was almost palpable. A woman’s voice suddenly called out from through a doorway off to my left and as the view point turned to face it, I was greeted by something that made my heart ache. Into the room walked a woman of roughly five foot six with shoulder length brown hair. She strode into the room with a subtle strength and confidence that anyone would have found hard not to be drawn to. She was woman shaped, with curves in all the right places, not a stick thin reed of a person with a head too big for the rest of her body. Her face was covered in freckles and she was beaming a wide, infectious smile across towards me. I knew that this was a memory and that she was looking at my Uncle but she made me feel immediately that I wanted her to be looking at me.
“He’s awake,” she said and nodded towards the small bundle in her arms that she was slowly rocking back and forwards. Her voice put me totally at ease and sounded like it was infused with quite strength. The view moved forwards and looked closely into the face of the small baby in her arms. I saw a hand reach out and watched as my Uncle had gently rubbed the head of the alert little thing that nestled in his mum’s arms. I knew that I was looking at Clare and Matthew, the Auntie and Cousin that I had never met.
I felt like I was going to break as I watched the pictures which floated before me, the happy family life that my Uncle had so desperately wanted. The love that he had lost when his father was killed and his life was set completely to the Circle. As I looked on, I wanted to stay here and take part in this life. It all felt like the missing piece of my life since my parents were killed. Despite my want to stay, I then jumped out to another place. This time I didn’t want to stay.
I found myself looking at the inside of a car crash. I knew exactly what was happening around me, Lloyd had told me earlier in the night all the details of my Uncle’s life and I could recognise exactly what was floating before me.
I was strapped into the ruined car in the driver’s seat and I could hear the shrieking sound of tearing metal as I looked forward, not moving. The smell of fires filled my nostrils and I could pick out different accents to the smell. The flames from burning upholstery were putting out a smell of heavy chemical coverage. It was wrapping itself around everyone who was nearby and I was aware of feeling like I was being held in place by it. The other odour which was mingled in with the damaged car interior was a sweet smell that made me feel somewhat confused. I couldn’t recognise it through the chemical stench but I felt that it was familiar and that it was something good.
As I stared directly ahead, I could make out several black shapes moving slowly towards what was left of the car. Humanoid shapes which carried with them the real feel of menace and terror, skittered back and forth through my vision. And in the centre of the group was a shape that I would have recognised anywhere. His wide brimmed hat still sat down on his head to cover his face. Tyus was walking towards the car I was trapped in. His voice creaked out as he spoke.
“Who will take the line now half breed?” it was purely nails down a blackboard as he continued.
“We have undone the line to this cage. It won’t be long before the place falls and my master is freed.” He walked up to my side of the car and leaned into me. His voice dropped to a barely audible whisper of shards of glass and he reached out to grip my head.
“But I hope you will appreciate what we have done here for you? When my master breaks from his bonds, he will bring about the end of the human race, that pitiful breed that you are so driven to protect. He will free the others and destroy all of the Guardians, just as I have you, and the human race will be undone. Everyone on this planet will be pulled slowly piece from piece and they will all burn for us. You should be grateful that I have spared your family that.” With a slow, deliberate turn of his hand on the top of my head, he turned my attention to the passenger seat. My Uncle had witnessed these events first hand and I could only pity the awful picture which must have been burned into his mind.
In the passenger seat, still belted in, was the charred and broken remains of Clare. Every inch of her flesh had been incinerated by a heat that I had never seen. She had raised her right arm against the force of the attack, a futile gesture of defence against the scorching attack which had come from the driver’s side of the car. I realised as soon as I saw what was left of her that the smell which had made me feel so comfortable earlier was the smell of burning flesh. It had reminded me of the image of the contented farm house from my earlier memory. I felt sick as the association would now be for ever tainted.
But the worst was still to come.
In Clare’s left arm, covered as best she could from the force which immolated her, was the burned form of a baby. Matthew lay cradled in his mother’s arms and had been finished at the same time as his parent.
I could feel a bilious charge run through my throat and I knew that my Uncle had been broken by what he had seen. From next to me, I could hear a sharp laughter. Tyus was enjoying the pain he was causing.
“They won’t see any more pain now. They have been released.” His voice was filled with mock concern but quickly changed. “You can’t move can you? You see, I can defeat you and you can’t do anything to stop it. Do you want to be with your family again?” He snapped my view back to his horror face. He had stood over my Uncle and had gloated.
I could feel the fury building inside my own mind, a reflection of what had happened the first time round. Tyus’ face registered that my Uncle was trying to break whatever it was that was holding him in place.
“You can’t do anything about your bonds. We’ve got you held. Now, would you prefer that I kill you quickly, or that my,” he paused and glanced around at the shadows which were still circling the wrecked car, “associates should send you off more slowly? They haven’t eaten for a while so it shouldn’t last too long.”
The reedy laugh that followed was enough. My Uncle had roared out against whatever bonds were holding him and the sudden icing of the whole area in his field of vision showed that he was breaking free. Animal rage and the purest form of sheer violence ran through the memory and my Uncle did as much damage as he could. The image blurred and shook as whatever fight took place. Flames and beams of energy flew without me being able to pick out where they were aimed or who had thrown them. Shrieks called out through the melee until finally everything went black. I didn’t know what had happened but knew that my Uncle had survived the encounter. The memory of his family being killed felt as if it had been burned onto the back of my eyes. I could feel the anger and the loss that it had brought as if it had happened to me. I knew that I needed to wake up and try to shake the memory away. Before I could push myself back to consciousness, another memory came to the centre of my head. My face appeared, looking right at me. Certainly not what I had been expecting.
My Uncle told me that he would see me later and turned away. He walked into the winter night and made his way off on a mundane journey through town. I didn’t like the feel of what I was seeing. It felt like this wasn’t a new memory to me. The lights from passing cars formed into a hypnotic train of illumination and I could feel the memory wandering along without really paying any attention to the surroundings. My Uncle was at ease as he walked along the roadside and some of the roads looked oddly familiar. As he rounded the next corner into a secluded roadway my familiarity of the situation cleared. A massive black shadow shot passed my view point and I saw a bright flash of metallic claw whip out. I could feel that it had found its target. I was watching the last memory that my Uncle had. The memory of his final attack by Tyus and that of his death.
The view point we shared dropped down, as he slumped to his knees. I could hear awful gurgling sounds as I watched him clutch to his slashed throat. Before us, Tyus dropped back into view from the sky above. He folded his wings back into place around him and he took on the appearance of the gunslinger he had worn when I had first seen him. He cautiously approached despite the injury to his opponent, flexing his clawed fingers.
“It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Let’s finish what we started.” Without any further sound, he lunged forward and drove both his hands into my Uncles chest. He looked directly into Uncle David’s eyes as he twisted the talons in his chest, doing the most damage he could. They were finally face to face and I could feel the breath of the animal that had been killing my family for generations. The warmth made my skin crawl and I could feel the anger and fear in my Uncle.
“Now, let’s see what the next member of your pitiful line can do.”
With that, the edges of my vision started to blur and eventually the whole memory ended. I had just watched my Uncle die from his view point and I could feel the build-up of a huge anger towards Tyus and all of the creatures who had ever worked against us.
I roared my way back to consciousness and sat bolt upright. My chest was heaving as I dragged wildly at the air around me, struggling to regain a level of composure as the memories began to fade. All over my bed, and on the floor surrounding, was a thin layer of frost and ice. It glistened in the low light from the moon which was pouring in through the wide windows behind my bed. As I felt my heart rate beginning to slow, as my breathing eased and the anger of the dream sequence dissipated, the sheen of cold began to melt away as the temperature rose back to normal. I sat still in the centre of the bed as I felt all of the rigid tension which had been knotting my muscles slip away.
Eventually, I was calm.
I checked my watch to find that it was just after two. Andrea and Lloyd would be asleep now, resting for the fun and games that I no doubt had in store tomorrow. I slumped back and tried to get myself relaxed, hoping that sleep would come easily. Outside, a steady wind was blowing past the windows and I could feel the gentle thrum of the glass as it quietly resisted it. The clear night sky outside allowed the light from the moon to pour in and cast more eerie shadows across the wide floor and walls of my room. I could still smell the metallic hues of my Uncle’s blood and feel the fear he had felt at the very end. I could also still hear the scratching sound of Tyus’ voice, taunting him as he clutched at his injury. The voice seemed to be holding firm at the edges of my mind despite my best efforts to push it away. After a further five minutes of feeling frustrated at not sleeping, I sat up in bed and decided that I could do with a drink of water.
I threw the covers back and swung my legs out, dropping my bare feet onto the cold tile surface. That jolt of cold really was going to help me get to sleep. As I stood up, a chill wrapped itself round my body and I started to shiver. Coupled with the dizziness of fatigue I was now feeling since standing up, I really wasn’t going to be on tip top form in the morning.
I quickly padded over to the bathroom and filled a glass with water, gulped it back in one swig, filled it again and headed back to bed. I was absolutely exhausted and my head was starting to show more and more that I needed to get some sleep, if anything, the dizziness was getting worse.
I set the glass down next to the bed and was about to settle back to sleep when I noticed that my mind was starting to play tricks on me. I shook my head to try to clear it but it was at that point that a large shadow on the nearest wall to me moved, turned to face me, and lunged out.
19
The shock that the shadow drove in me caused me to stand stock still for a split second, not believing that whatever it was, was really running right at me. The dizziness in my head built rapidly and I finally worked out that it was my magical drunken sixth sense which had been calling to me. It was all I could do to just reach my arms out and attempt to grab the shape as it flew from the wall. It landed on me with the force of what I could only equate to a super charged, stampeding pillow. It had no distinct edges or hard mass. Any grip you tried to take on it seemed to contract under the force of constriction. We both flew back onto the bed and it landed squarely on top of me. I could now feel that, despite its peculiar make up, it weighed about the same as I did. That made it feel like it was smothering me without it having to move. But it did move.
Shards of inky tendrils flew from the centre mass and aimed at my face. One wrapped itself around my throat while the other pushed into my face and covered my nose and mouth. The smell of rotting flesh and decay filled my nostrils. In an instant, I could feel the air being pushed from me and the panic began to build. I flailed wildly at the assailant who had me pinned down. I struck out at the tendrils at my face but they seemed to be reforming around me wherever I aimed a blow, all the time maintaining a crushing grip on me.
The edges of my vision began to slowly ease in on me and I could feel that the shadow was winning. It was going to choke the life from me and probably destroy the whole house unless I could do something. I needed to break out to alert everyone else to danger that was inside the house. The edge of my vision sank loser together. It was no good. Wherever I gripped or beat the shadow it seemed to just absorb the force and keep on coming. I was going to be beaten in a sneak attack and killed in my bed. I was going to let everyone down. Pictures of the people who had been helping me bobbed helplessly in my mind, Lloyd, Mike. I’d never get to find out if Andrea really was as playful as she looked but I had let my Uncle down. This would be where the line ended.
The image of my Uncle was what did the trick. He had been killed when he was walking along a footpath in London, far away from the field of battle. He had been picked off without a fight. That wasn’t going to happen to me.
Before the tunnel of my vision closed off completely, I felt my anger rising at the thing that was sitting on my chest. How dare it come into my house and try to catch me when I couldn’t defend myself. The fury climbed quickly in me and I could feel the temperature around me beginning to drop. In my mind, I began to visualize a wide scream of flame that I was going to aim at my attacker. The thing had noticed the change as well. A panicked tension surged through it as the frost began to form around the bed. That was the distraction I needed and I didn’t hesitate. Summoning all of my strength, I kicked up at it with both of my legs as I pushed with my arms. The combined force was enough to send it crashing back towards the wall it had erupted from. It landed with a gentle thud and then a crack as it hit the floor then slid into the wall.
I bounced up and focussed my attention on the shape that lay, scrabbling to right itself, at the edge of the room. All of the energy that I had pulled in to explode fire was still at my bidding so I poured it all out towards the shadow. I didn’t care what damage was done to the house. I didn’t care if my actions may have been questioned. I was going to destroy that thing and the almost animal need to totally undo it was intoxicating.
The flame lanced out and in a second, had totally engulfed the shadow. As the orange/white fire danced and leapt, I could now make out a stick thin shape within the mass of black. Its bony limbs were flapping wildly and its large head snapped back and forth with the force of the movements. It writhed and kicked against the force of the flame and I could make out a faint whine as it was burned away to nothing.
I stood over the bubbling corpse, prepared for the Hollywood villain ‘leap from the flames’, but it never came. The flames consumed every piece of the silent enemy, leaving behind only a charred stain, smouldering embers and a hideous smell of burnt flesh. I kicked at it and a sense of morbid pleasure ran through me. I had been faced with a very real threat and had dealt with it in the best way possible. I was safe and so was the house.
My head began to spin violently.
The sudden shock of it almost sent me stumbling into the still burning embers but I steadied myself before I fell. The danger wasn’t over.
I scanned my way round the room, taking in as much detail as I could, trying to pinpoint where the next attack would come from. As I went I risked breaking off some of my concentration and calling out to Andrea and Lloyd. Lloyd hadn’t actually shown me how to do it but I didn’t have anything to lose did I? My mind called into the night for Andrea or Lloyd, pleading them to be awake and to come to my aid. Nothing happened. No-one spoke back and there was no reaction in my head. I kept looking around and backed myself into the nearest wall, into the first available space without a shadow of any description lying across it.
