His Dark Materials

Chapter 5

Lyra groaned, she sat up. "careful, lyra!" came pans worried voice, she was in a bunk bed, her ribs hurt like hell. She stood up slowly, wondering if she'd actually seen Mrs Coulter running for her. No. She was evil. The master was right. She couldn't trust her. She slowly walked over to the window, touching it with a hiss soon to follow, it was absolutely freezing. "where do you reckon we are pan?" she asked. Without waiting for an answer, lyra moved to the mirror, nailed to the wall, seeing her swollen and bruised cheek, she lifted her dress, the left side of her ribs were black and blue. "this is nothing... I bet i could still take on half the scholars at Jordan College!"

there inside the dark room where lyra was restlessly sleeping, a young man, who’s working for the magisterium for nothing less than power and recognition was strangely glancing down at lyra, checking on her as one would explain. the child was too tiny, her daemon not settled yet but he thought he could have a bit of fun either way, so he sat down at lyra’s bed and brushed a stray hair off of the girl’s lovely face. he noticed that the sleeping lyra looks a bit like this woman who runs the general oblation board at bolvangar, but the others probably already knew the child was her daughter, perhaps for that exact reason she ended up here, on her way to svalbard.

Lyra felt someone move her head, their fingers briefly brushing her cheek, she smiled in her sleep, perhaps it was Mrs Coulter, now she'd calmed down a bit, she had thought things through. What if Mrs Coulter really was good, and she was just trying trying to protect her. She was so tired of being mad, of being cautious. She opened her eyes slowly, looking up to see a man, not Mrs Coulter. She gasped in shock, it could have been a shriek and she sat up, pushing herself to the edge of the bed, her heart had never beat so fast in her life. Not even when getting told off by the master. She could run of course, but even pan had noticed the vibrations, the Rocky trip. Her mouth went dry, he was quite handsome in her opinion, even enough so back at Oxford her and the other children on the street would make fun of, but something about him, seemed unpure.

the man smugly leaned forward to whisper something in lyra’s ear. “you look like her” he already had a deep hate for this child, whenever he looked at her he kept remembering the woman who cut out the soul of his brother, the woman he swore to kill a long time ago bit never got a cnace to, but now he had a change to even do greater damage. oliver (his name) kept caressing the girl’s cheek before punching her right in the face. “do you have any idea what she did?” his lips were as close to lyra’s as possible and his breath smelled of old whiskey.

If lyra wasn't scared or confused before, she was now. Her bottom lip quivered in fear. "i... I look like who. My mother...?" she guessed without a pout, her guard still up, pan was violently shaking by her leg. She frowned as her cheek was caressed "what...?" she'd always been one for talking when she wasn't meant to. Lyra tensed up and a cry of utter unbelievable pain filled the room. Her cheek was swollen, the man was fully grown, and as mature as she'd become living briefly with mrs Coulter, in reality, she was still a young fragile girl. Her face ached and burned. "w... What.. Who?" she questioned, not dare meeting the man's gaze, her cheek cut a bit. She tried to kick herself backwards, get further away, but found no look. She was so disgusted by how close he was, how much his breath smelt that she could only picture negative events to unfold next. "w.. Who did what...?" her bottom lip shook, her voice broke, she couldn't escape the smell of whisky which was enough to make her complexion turn pale and for pan to pass out.

the cruel man let out a maniacal laugh before he got a chance to answer her question. “you don’t know, she never told you, did she?” oliver painfully, in an annoyed manner took her arm and with all of his  strength shoved the girl against the black wall of their zeppelin, his raccoon daemon took a hold of pan too, in an unpleasant way. “wake up girl! SHE is your mother, mrs coulter is your mother” he loudly yelled back at marisa’s child, he knew he wasn’t allowed to cause a scene but he just couldn’t help it. “and your mother cuts out peoples daemons, just like that” he snapped his fingers as the angry daemon thew pan on the metallic floor, he wanted nothing more than to kill the child, but she was soon about to be cut from pan, and that was what mrs coulter dearly deserved in return, for her actions, he presumed.

Lyra screamed a little, let's not lie, a lot. "what are you talking about...!" though she didn't say much more, it seemed he was angry enough. She winced as she was pushed against the wall, she felt an enormous pain in her head, her vision going blurry she lifted her hand and touched her head, hopefully pan wouldn't feel it. She gulped in terror, endless tears riding down her face. "p. Please.  Stop" her eyes widened at what he said, was she really her mother, she felt sick, and she couldn't even talk to pan right now. Was that why Mrs Coulter was so nice to her, for a moment she was all but happy, if she was her mother, then she'd be coming for her, but. If this was also true, was she going to cut her like the other children. There was a sickening truth. "i...." she couldn't breathe, couldn't focus, right now she needed the alethiometer, she needed Roger. She curled up in his grasp, the pain inflicted on her daemon going to her too. "i... Please..." she shook her head, this was too much. Way too much to deal with. Surely there was an explanation. "stop... You're hurting me" she mumbled, she didn't know how long she'd been held captive.

he noticed one thing about lyra, what she hated about torture the most was that her daemon hurt, he was sure of that. and lyra was already out of breath so he took the weakened pan and tried squeezing him. “this is going to be such a nice surprise for your mommy” he hissed quite hysterically, clearly enjoying this before he let go of pan, who fell on the ground in front of lyra. another man came in to say that they’ve landed, his eyes winded but he couldn’t care less for the child so didn’t say or do anything to help her. when he walked out oliver faced lyra again, and looking into her teary, barely opened eyes he mentioned another detail “she is losing her power you know.. she won’t save you and as for your daddy, he is too busy spreading his heretical ideas at jordan college to notice you.” oliver walked outside, grinning with such pride, his head held high.

Lyra screamed as pan was squeezed. She tensed up, she felt so weak, so tired. "stop..." thankfully someone came in, she cried, sobbing, she groaned and immediately went to pan, the sobs making her head hurt but she didn't care. She scooped him up and put him in her bag, kissing the tip of his nose gently. "it'll be okay pan, i promise..." she gulped. She shakily stood up, dropping to her knees again, she got out, drowning as she heard an engine roar, sounded like a quad bike or something. She frowned and shrugged, Mrs Coulter was probably still in London.

"mother..." she whispered.