It's Not All Dark

Chapter 1 - A Piece of the Sky

There's a loud bang and I sit up from my slouch, nearly knocking the steaming cup of tea over my desk. I stand up and go to my door. It didn't sound like a physical bang. It sounded like magic, and not the kind of magic that's light, and starry, the kind of magic that creates the feeling of blackness itself and is the driving force of pain and harmful energy. The kind that stings your skin and is burning cold but at the same time intrigues and draws you closer.

Dark magic.

I hear shouting and run to the front door, throwing it open to find my mother with her wand raised to my father.

My father, who I haven't seen since my mother ran away with me years ago.
My father, who my mother said she had to protect me from.
Him, and his family. My brothers, even, she said.
She always said she was sorry. She got angry, panicky, when she thought I didn't see her, and sometimes she'd just stare at her hands, blinking so hard she hadn't even realized she was sobbing.

I step outside fully and my mother looks at me, eyes wide and brimming with tears.

"Get inside." She says to me, hand shaking as she continues to hold it up to my father.

"Chloé..." My father says, and stumbles slightly, adjusting the grip of his wand clumsily. I narrow my eyes at him. "Elizabeth..." He says, looking back to my mother. "Come home." He pleads, voice suddenly breaking.

"I have no home with you." She spits, voice firm despite how much she's visibly shaking.

"I lo- I love you." He says, stepping towards her.

"Leave us." She bellows.

His pout twists into a sneer, and he points his wand aggressively at her, a flash of red light shooting out of the end. She deflects it and huffs.

"You are no father to her and no husband to me... Your family is not ours." She says, wincing as she speaks.

"You don't know what you're saying." He says quietly, dropping his arms to his side. "You don't know..." He says, and without warning he straightens up, raising one arm straight at her and the other up with it, throwing his weight back before he thrusts forward, a flash of bright purple light shooting at her.

She, visibly startled, manages to dodge it.

"Get back inside, Chloé." She says as he throws another spell at her, and she deflects it back at him. He laughs.

"I can't--"

"Go, my love." She says, and smiles at me before returning her attention to him.

I turn and run back inside, trying to ignore the loud noises behind me, when I feel a rush of energy nearby me and a heat flashing by me. He shot a spell at me, and my mother had deflected it. I turn back, and her posture is changed. She's not longer pleading with him. She's angry... so is he. I run inside, my heart feels as if it'll beat out of my chest, and I sink down against a wall inside, shutting my eyes and trying to block out the noise.

Images of her flash through my mind, my mother reading to me, laughing with me, even her crying, and then the noises and shouting stop completely, and I tilt my head up slowly.

She must have won. He must be gone. He has to be gone.

I stand up slowly, wiping away tears I wasn't even aware had fallen from my cheeks, and begin quickly walking to the door again.

I open the door and step outside, expecting to see her standing there, probably crying, but instead he's there. He's standing with his hands lowering from above him slowly, shaking quite violently, as he stares in horror at the scene in front of him. I swallow and force myself to drag my eyes over to where he's looking, and immediately clasp my hand over my mouth as I see her.