Fan Fiction ❯ Night Duchess ❯ Researching the Past ( Chapter 7 )

Night Duchess: Issue 7

Researching the Past

{Scene: Sasha and Shura are in the kitchen. Sasha is looking for something to make. She takes something out of the freezer and puts in the microwave.}

Shura: "What is that you put in there?"

Sasha: "Oh, this? It's a TV dinner."

Shura: "Why is it called a TV dinner?"

Sasha (shrugging): "I'm not sure. I guess because people can watch TV and eat these at the same time."

Shura: "TV?"

Sasha: "Television." {She points at the TV}. "We can watch some after we come back from the library."

Shura: "Interesting. How is that thing supposed to cook it without any firewood?"

Sasha: "Firewood! Ha-ha! It cooks it with electricity. It's the same thing that gives the heating in the house and the lights."

{The microwave dings and Sasha opens the door.}

Sasha: "Mmm, all done. Here you go."

Shura: "Why, that was fast. I think I'm beginning to like this time. We never had things like shampoo, subways--"

Sasha: "Indoor plumbing, electricity. Yeah. I know. We're spoiled, huh?"

{Sasha pushes the TV diner in front of Shura. It has roast beef, potatoes and corn.}

Shura: "Roast beef, potatoes and corn. We had this in my day. At least the food is the same."

{Sasha unwraps a candy bar and bites it.}

Shura: "What is that you're eating?"

Sasha: "It's just a candy bar. You guys didn't have that back then, did you?" {She grins and takes a bite.} "Oh, what would you like to drink? We got lotsa pop here."

Shura: "Pop?"

{Sasha takes a diet soda from the fridge, opens it, grabs a glass and gets cubed ice from the ice maker. She pours the pop into the glass and places it in front of Shura. Shura takes a bite of her dinner then looks up at Sasha's candy bar.}

Shura (thinking): 'That looks so good.'

Sasha: "Eat up. I'm sure you'd like to know what happened to the rest of your descendants. The library closes in two hours."

Shura: "Can I have a bite of your candy bar?"

Sasha: "Huh?"

******

{Sasha and Shura are now walking to the library. Again, like before, Shura stopped to get a better look at things and Sasha had to constantly grab her hand and pull her to the library.}

Shura: "This place is amazing. What do you call those contraptions?"

Sasha: "Vehicles. Cars, trucks, busses."

Shura: "Faster than horses?"

Sasha: "Heck yeah. I'll flag a taxi. We'll get there faster." {She raises her hand and waves it around.} "Taxi! Taxi!"

{Shura mimics her action.}

Shura: "Taxi! Taxi!"

{A yellow taxicab stops next to the girls. Sasha opens the door for Shura and tells her to sit in. Sasha slides in next to her and closes the door.}

Taxi Driver: "Where to, ladies?"

Sasha: "Library."

Shura: "Library."

{Sasha glares at Shura and rolls her eyes as the taxi starts to move again. Shura notices the buttons on the side of the door and begins to play with them. Locking the doors and unlocking them, rolling the windows up and down.}

Click. Click. Burrrr. Burrrr.

Sasha: "Shura, quit that!"

Shura: "Extraordinary" {Her hand moves to the door latch and pulls it. The door opens and she almost falls out of the taxi.}

Sasha: "Shura! Close to the door!" {She grabs her and the door and then locks it.} "You're going to get yourself killed. Put your seatbelt on!"

Shura: "My what?'

Sasha: "This!" {She takes her seatbelt and attaches it together.} "Now don't move a muscle! We're almost to the library."

Taxi Driver: "So, is your friend here new?"

Sasha: "Er, yes." {Sasha leans back and sighs.} 'Being with an ancestor who has been dead for 800 years is like watching over a child.'

{Shura's head starts to bob with the music on the radio. Sasha groans. Within moments, they arrive at the library. Sasha pays the man by sliding a card through a device for card swiping.}

Taxi Driver: "Thanks. Have a good day."

Sasha: "You too, sir. Come on, Shura." {Sasha takes Shura by the hand and pulls her out of the car. It takes off and the girls walk up the library steps.}

Shura: "What was that?"

Sasha: "What was what?"

Shura: "That…thing you had. Before we got out of the yellow stagecoach…"

Sasha: "The taxi cab." {She pulls out the card from her pocket) "You mean this thing?"

Shura: "Yes."

Sasha: "Debit card. You can use it to purchase things. Kind of like writing a check, but faster."

Shura: "Checks? You can buy whatever you want with that little thing? You don't have to keep gold coins with you?"

{Sasha shakes her head and they enter the library. There are many shelves with books and computers. For books that to high for people to reach, instead of using ladders, they use raiser devices by pressing a button on the shelf and a metal raiser the size of a manhole lifts the person up, like a miniature elevator.}

Shura: "I've never seen so many books."

Sasha: "We have more than just books here. We have computers with the internet, tapes, slides, DVD's…"

{Sasha and Shura come to a computer desk.}

Sasha: "Wait here. I'll get some books about Russia's past for you to look through."

Shura: "What is this device?"

Sasha: "It's a computer. Now don't touch anything. I'll be right back." {Sasha walks to the book case and pulls out books.}

Fillip: "Hi, Sasha."

Sasha: "Fillip!" {She drops the books.}

Fillip (laughing): "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you." {He bends down and helps pick up the books. He notices one.} "Legend of the Night Duchess. You believe that myth?"

Sasha: "Yeah."

Fillip: "Is this for some project that I missed the details on? Are we doing a report about the night duchess in history class?" {He sighs} "I shouldn't have been skipping school those days in the last month."

Sasha: "Oh no. This has nothing to do for school. It's um, personal."

Fillip: "Whew. That's good."

Sasha: "And you oughta stay awake in class too. We might just do a project about the Night Duchess."

Fillip: "But history's so boring."

{Sasha looks over to Shura who is pressing the keys of the keyboard.}

Sasha (whispering): "And disobedient too."

Fillip: "What's that?"

Sasha: "Huh? Oh, sorry, Fillip. I gotta go."

Fillip: "But--"

{Sasha goes to Shura. }

Sasha: "I told you not to touch anything!"

Shura: "Forgive me. I was just learning how to…"

Sasha: "Type. I see." {The screen displays a how-to-type session} "Well, you look through these and I'll use the computer."

Shura: "Very well."

{She looks through the books as Sasha begins to research the Internet on Night Duchess. There are different drawings of her, the first Night Duchess and her kin, the next Night Duchesses and Night Raiders. She finds different descriptions of the bounty hunters and dangerous assassins they caught. The Night Duchesses' and Raiders' wear varies from the ages in futuristic and past times. Many of the raiders were bare-chested with guns, or from the past, they were in historic types of body armor with axes and such. She did not see another night duchess with the weapon she had used, except one. It had to be her daughter, Alisa.)

Shura (whispering): "I must know what happened."

Sasha: "Here. This is the 800 years you missed."

{Images come on the screen in rapid fast. Shura looks on wide-eyed. Many scenes are of war and destruction, some are inventions, society. All the scenes come to be too much for Shura. Her hands begin to shake}

Sasha: "You okay?"

Shura: "So much war…"

{All the tanks, weapons, smoke, body parts, blood and tears make Shura bring her hands to her head.}

Sasha: "Hey, what's wrong?"

Shura: AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!

{People in the library turn and gape at Shura. Sasha tries to calm her down.}

Sasha: "Please, quit screaming! Stop! Stop it! This is a library!"

{Shura stops screaming and starts shedding tears.}

Shura: "This was not the future I hoped to be. I want to leave, now."

Sasha: "That sounds like a good idea."

{They leave the library, with all eyes on them. They sit on the steps of the library.}

Sasha: "Might I ask what just happened in there?"

Shura: "Violent place the world has become. So many wars, blood and pain."

Sasha: "That's not all you missed."

Shura: "It's an effect of Kudram. I am sure of it."

Sasha: "Who?"

Shura: "Kudram. He is an evil spirit. He's infecting the world. That is why I came back to life. We have to stop Kudram, once and for all."

Sasha: "How?"

Shura: "I'll have to become Night Duchess again, and show you how to follow in my footsteps. Are you ready?"

Sasha: "I have to become Night Duchess too?"

Shura: "Yes. You are my last descendant. You must."

Sasha (groaning): "I'm not strong enough to become the new Night Duchess. I can't do it. The last Night Duchess was seen before I was born."

Shura: "I am afraid you have no choice, Sasha. You carry the burden around your neck." (she touches the medallion) "It is time to let the Night Duchess out of you."

Sasha: "Can't we go home first? I'm tired and I'm sure you are too."

Shura: "Very well. We will start tomorrow."

Sasha: "Tomorrow?"

Shura: "We must hurry."

{Sasha and Shura get in another taxi that takes them back to their home. Shura and Sasha talk over a snack and some Television. They are watching a comedy sitcom.}

Shura: "Interesting invention, Television."

Sasha: "No kidding."

(A man is locked in a closet and burns his hand in a light bulb.)

Shura: "Why did he do that for?"

Sasha: "He's cramped in there. And the other guy doesn't like him, so he locked him in there."

Man on TV: "Get me out of here! It was one date, just one date!"

Sasha: "He likes his sister."

Shura: "Oh."

Sasha: "I wonder where you'll sleep tonight."

Shura: "Anywhere's fine."

{Sasha hears sound of a car pulling up.}

Sasha: "Oh no, my mom must be home from work!" {She jumps up} "Quick, outside, to my tree house!"

Shura: "Tree house?"

{Sasha grabs Shura by the hand and opens the sliding door and makes her climb up the tree house.}

Shura: "How long must I stay up here?"

Sasha: "As long as you want! You can sleep here if you want to! Good thing winter's over!" {She runs back into the house and her mother is stepping in with her arms loaded with groceries.}

Sasha's mother: "Hi honey, oh, I thought I heard you talking someone.}

Sasha: "No. Here, let me help you with those."

Sasha's mom: "Thanks, dear."

Sasha (thinking): 'I sure hope Shura's okay.'

Shura: "Interesting place, this tree house. Though, I'd much rather fancy my old room…"

TBC

Copyright by Haley Dale.