Fan Fiction ❯ Enchantment ❯ You Are Different ( Chapter 3 )

Chapter Three

Then she felt a sharp pain in her neck.

Suddenly the pressure on her breathing was gone and she fell to the floor. She could barely see two figures fighting before her, one the werewolf and the other a man. The werewolf was flipped upside down, but reached up and pulled the man down with him, pinning him there. The man pushed the werewolf off of him and they both staggered to their feet. The werewolf swung and hit the man, but was quickly knocked down by a sharp kick. Lily saw the werewolf hurry off into the shadows and looked at the man who had saw her. He was tall and athletic, with a slim waist and chiselled good looks. His dark hair hung over his eyes as he breathed deeply.

That was what caught her. His eyes seemed to burn like fire. They were as red as blood. Lily pulled herself up and looked at him almost intently, wondering who he was. He shook his head and quickly turned away.

"Thank you," she said quietly. "Was that a . . .?"

"A werewolf, yes," he said. "There is something going on here that you are part of. You must be careful. Don't let the darkness take you."

Lily thought that this was a strange statement, but she nodded her head and then he was gone. Alone, she stumbled home.

*

"Are you all right, Love?" Mrs Green asked, looking up at her daughter. Lily stopped rubbing her sore arm and looked up at her mother sheepishly.

"Of course I am," she said, looking down at her uneaten cereal. "I'm just not hungry, that's all." Nevertheless her mother leaned over the breakfast table and felt her daughter's forehead.

"You don't have a fever," she observed, sitting back down again slowly. "Are you sure that there is nothing wrong?" Lily nodded and took a bite of her cereal just to please her mother.

"Do you know what we are going to do on the first official day of our holiday?" Lily's father asked, taking a seat next to his wife. Lily shook her head and continued to watch the saturated cereal float gently in her milk. "Well," he said, a smile on his face, "there is a fair on in town today."

"A fair!" Lily's mother cried, pouring milk into her husband's cereal. "Oh, I don't know about that."

"Why not?" he asked. "It'll be fun, won't it Lily?" She nodded her head and began to stir the cereal with her spoon. "Games and stalls, rides, bearded ladies. Who knows what!"

"All right," Lily's mother said, reluctantly agreeing. Then, without another word, she wiped her hands on her apron and went to get ready.

*

Lily wandered away from the candy floss stall where her mother had decided to buy some snacks, well the whole cart really, and walked towards a large tent. It was deep red and blue and there were gold streamers hanging from the poles. She wandered around to the front and saw a large notice: Fortune telling by Lady Destiny. Palm reading, tarot cards and more.

It had never occurred to Lily that she wanted to have her fortune read before, but she entered the ten anyway, as if on impulse. Inside she saw a few chairs and a small desk with a woman sitting behind it. A large piece of material hung from the top pole and separated the rest of the tent from this small reception area. Lily walked over to the desk. The woman was painting her nails a deep shade of red and had a gold ring on every finger and gold bangles on both her wrists. Her dark hair fell down her back and her aged face was hidden behind foundation and red lipstick.

"Excuse me," Lily said, leaning on the desk. The woman looked up and raised an eyebrow.

"Are you here for a reading?" she asked. Lily nodded, then reached into her pocket and paid the woman the money. Then she turned and saw a small, shy looking girl sitting on one of the plastic chairs.

"Can I sit here?" Lily asked. The girl nodded.

"I'm Lixya," she said.

"I'm Lily," Lily replied.

"Have you ever come here before?" Lixya asked.

"To tell you the truth, I'm only here on holiday, but I've never had my fortune told before."

"Really?" Lixya asked. "I find myself in places like this all the time," she admitted. "I have such a lonely and pathetic life that I just want someone to tell me it's going to get better."

Lily looked at her in shock. "But you must be seventeen!"

"Sixteen."

"Oh," Lily murmured. "But how can your life be so bad?"

Lixya sighed gently. "I failed all my exams, I have no boyfriend and I just lost my job. It really hasn't been a good year for me."

The receptionist gestured for Lixya to go in and Lily sat by herself in silence for about five minutes. Then Lixya emerged and hurried away, followed by the receptionist. Lixya ran out of the tent and the receptionist stood, confused, and then ran after her. Lily raised an eyebrow and looked towards the curtain.

"Julia!" a deep voice called. Lily sat up quickly and realised that the fortuneteller, Lady Destiny, was calling for her receptionist. Lily slowly headed towards the curtains to tell Lady Destiny she had gone, but she stopped instead by the curtain.

"I know that the time is coming," Lady Destiny said aloud, even though she was alone. "I can sense it. I know that she is coming to us . . . You have? You didn't tell me. Then she is in grave danger. Where are you going? No . . . tell me what she looks like!"

Lily could not help herself. She peered around the curtain and saw a large woman wearing a long, flowing deep blue dress covered in diamond-like studs. The woman was pacing, waving her arms and talking to no one. She kept looking into the corner but there was no one there.

"What do you mean 'she'd here'? Ah, Julia . . ." The woman's face suddenly flashed and then she looked angrily at Lily.

"I'm sorry to interrupt," Lily said, backing up, "but Julia, if she is your receptionist, just followed that girl out of the tent."

The woman nodded and the anger seemed to drain away from her face.

"Sit down," she commanded. Lily obediently did as she said and took a seat. Lady Destiny took Lily's hand and closed her eyes. "Your name," she said, then paused. "It is Enchantment, is it not?"

"It's not," Lily said, confused. Lady Destiny's eyes opened.

"No, it isn't," she agreed, "but that is the meaning of your name, isn't it?"

"My name is Lily," Lily said. "Another name for a lily hybrid is enchantment."

"Yes," Lady Destiny said, her eyes widening. She tightened her grip of Lily's hand and suddenly said, "You wear a symbol of your name."

Lily nodded and showed Lady Destiny her necklace, the crystal cross with the imprint of the lily etched into it. The woman suddenly had tears in her eyes and they began to stream down her cheeks. Although Lily asked what was wrong, she was ignored. Lady Destiny closed her eyes. "You have a dark past and a dark future. You do not belong where you think you do. There was a death in your family that changed your life. There is a secret that will change your future. I see a tall, dark man and a pretty girl with white hair. You must be wary of her. Trust only who you think you can."

Lily nodded her head, now even more confused. "How do you know all this?" she asked.

"Because, child," Lady Destiny said, "you are very special. There are many people who may try to harm you. You are the same as us, but being the same means being different."

Lily lowered her head and looked at the pendant hanging around her neck. "I don't understand," she whispered.

"You won't at first," Lady Destiny said, removing her hand from Lily's, "but I promise you that you will find the path that you have strayed from."

When Lily looked up she could have sworn that for just one moment she saw the man who had rescued her from the werewolf, the man with eyes red as fire. She shook her head and left the woman, who was still crying, and as soon as she pushed the curtain out of her way she could hear Lady Destiny talking to herself again.

"She will achieve it, I am sure."

Then Lily swore that she could hear the voice of her mystery rescuer answering, "I know she will."

*

Lily walked out of the tent and saw Lixya standing by a stall full of cuddly toys. The object of the game was to throw balls into a high basket. Lily couldn't for the life of her figure out what Lixya was doing there. She was small and did not seem very athletic, but when her new friend stepped back it all became clear. The person running the stall was Shadow, and Lily had to admit to herself that he was very cute. With a smile on her face she walked over to meet her two new friends.

"Lixya! Shadow!" Lily cried as she ran over to the stall. Lixya turned and waved at Lily. "Lixya, are you all right?" Lily asked in concern. "You ran out of there pretty quickly."

"I'm fine," she answered, smiling at Lily. "I just get a little emotional, that's all." She turned to face Shadow. "So you guys have met, then?"

"Yeah," Lily said quietly, looking at Shadow. He looked just as uncomfortable as yesterday and Lily couldn't help but notice the large bruise on his face. "How are you?" she asked politely.

"Yeah, fine," he said, turning away from her. "Lixya, isn't that your mother over there?" Startled, Lixya turned, then nodded. Quickly she waved at her mother and then left after murmuring a goodbye.

Lily turned to face Shadow, but he was no longer behind the stall. She spun around and cried out in shock as she saw him standing right next to her, looking at her seriously. Suddenly he pulled her forward with surprising force and Lily found herself being dragged behind the stall. She was alone with Shadow.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing?" she cried, pulling her arm away from him. He didn't answer, but continued to look at her very intensely. Lily closed her mouth and looked back at him.

"Did you go to see the fortune teller?" he asked. Lily nodded.

"Yeah. Why?"

"Did she explain anything to you?"

"She said some strange things about me being different, but being the same." Lily wasn't sure why she was telling this to Shadow, but she needed to get it off her chest. "She said something about my name and my dark past and dark future. I thought it was just regular old fortune telling stuff. Does she have a problem? Is she mad? Are most people around here as strange as the people I've met? Are there still wolves in this country?"

"Did she warn you of anything?" he asked, ignoring her questions.

"Yeah, as a matter of fact. She warned me about some girl with white hair and anyone I didn't truly trust. Why? Why are you asking me this stuff?"

"She's telling the truth," he said quietly. "You have to be careful. You're not just an ordinary girl, though you may seem like one."

"I don't know what everyone means. I don't know what's happening to me. It's all about when I was young, right? A death in my past, and my name. It must be about my family. But my parents are just regular people!"

"How do you know that?" Shadow asked. She looked at him, puzzled.

"What do you mean?"

"Lady Destiny told you only to trust the people that you really can trust. What I'm trying to ask you is if you trust your parents. Are they telling you everything they know? Can you really believe what they say?"

"Of course I can!" Lily snapped. "I don't know what you're trying to suggest. They're my parents, aren't they?"

"Are they?" Shadow asked. "If you are the same, then you are different."

*

Lily quickly found her parents, and though they asked her where she had been and what she had done, she did not tell them. All day at the fair she had thought and thought about what Shadow and Lady Destiny had said. How did they both know so much about her? What were the secrets from the past that judged her future? Did her parents really know something that they wouldn't tell her? What was the thing that she had quickly believed to be a werewolf? Who was the man who had saved her? Somehow she knew that all the separate threads could somehow be weaved together and she would see the big picture, but she had to do that on her own.

Lily wandered home from the fair on her own, preferring to wait a while so that she could think. She slowly walked back to the cottage, her hands in her pockets and her head down. She stopped in front of the door and fumbled for the spare key. When she looked up, the man who had saved her was standing before Lily in the darkness.

"You have unanswered questions," he said. "You belong somewhere different." He took a step forward. His eyes were no longer red, but a dark blue. He looked at her almost mournfully and then said, "Appearances can be deceiving." Then, just as quickly as he had appeared, he was gone, and Lily was left alone to ponder over the meaning of his words.

*

When Lily awoke later that night, or early the next morning, she grew restless and decided to go for a walk. She dressed quickly and exited the small cottage. As she walked through the safe part of the woods, along the concrete road that led to Shadow's cottage, she thought about what had happened. Ever since she had come on holiday with her parents everything had changed. No longer did she feel as if she was different to her parents, she felt as if she didn't even belong with them. Lady Destiny, who apparently talked to herself, knew so much that it scared Lily, and Shadow was one very strange boy. Not to mention the werewolf attack, the strange man with red eyes who had saved her and all the warnings from various weirdoes. Never before had she felt so confused.

Lily stopped and stood before the small cottage where she had first met Shadow. The pale moon bathed her in silver moonlight and her dark hair flew behind her in the cool wind. She continued to watch the cottage in silence, and then looked at her necklace, raising to her face. She dropped it back and it fell slowly against her pale skin. The, with determination clear on her features, she turned and ran into the woods. It was beginning to rain, but that didn't stop her. Lily stopped in a small clearing, the cool rain pouring down onto her, and she flung back her head and looked at the dark sky. She stretched out her arms and spun in a circle, letting the rain soak her. She closed her eyes and ran a hand through her wet hair.

"What do I need to know?" she cried out, her voice echoing all around her. "Tell me what I need to know!" She waited for an answer, but she knew that she wouldn't get one. Lily fell to her knees.

"You'll catch your death out here," a voice said. Lily froze and then turned to see who had spoken. She could barely see the figure in the shadows. It stepped forward and Lily recognised the man who had saved her from the werewolf. His hands were in his pockets and he stood silently, the rain seemingly not touching him. Lily, on the other hand, had water droplets running down her dark hair, hanging from each curl like diamonds.

"At least someone has answered my prayers," she cried, standing up and walking towards him. "Who are you?"

He grimaced and took a step back. It seemed like a fault in his cool posture. He shook his head, water droplets falling from long threads of his dark hair. "I'm no one," he said. "You on the other hand . . ."

"I'm no one either," she snapped, brushing her hair out of her eyes. "Tell me your name."

"Gabriel," he said quietly, hanging his head.

"Okay, Gabriel," she said, not noticing his sudden discomfort, "who am I?"

"I don't know your name."

"It doesn't matter what my name is," she said angrily.

"Of course it does," he said, looking at her wet face. "You needed to know my name, they need to know yours. It's very important. It tells you who you are."

"Well then, who am I?" she asked. He shook his head.

"I can't tell you. You have to find out by yourself. I can only help you."

"Well, who are you?" she cried, growing very impatient of the game he was playing with her.

"You can't know that either," he whispered. Lily growled slightly and placed her hands on her hips.

"How on earth am I supposed to figure out this, this . . . riddle! I don't have any clues, I don't even know why I'm listening to a bunch of weirdoes like you lot."

"You lot?" Gabriel repeated, confused. Lily raised an eyebrow and nodded.

"Yeah," she said, and raised a finger on her hand. "You," she said, and raised another finger. "Lady Destiny." Much to his shock she raised a third finger and said, "Shadow. Why?"

"Who is Shadow?" he asked seriously. "What does he know?"

"I don't know," she admitted, shrugging her shoulders. "He's some strange boy, about my age. He told me to listen to what Lady Destiny said, trust no one, you know. Pretty weird stuff. He seemed to know a bit about what was going on, which is more than I can say for myself."

"What does he look like?" Gabriel asked anxiously. Lily shook her head and raised a hand in the air, exaggerating her annoyance.

"I don't know. Quite tall, silvery grey coloured hair, yellowy green eyes. Pretty strange really. Not the usual."

Suddenly Gabriel growled and formed a fist with his right hand. "A host resembles the wolf within him," he whispered.

"And what does that mean?" Lily asked.

"I was sent here to protect you," he said, spinning around to face her, "and I think that Shadow is the werewolf that attacked you."

~TBC~