The Hope Of The Three (Book 2 of the Hidden Trilogy)

Chapter Sixteen: Ghost town

Eliana

Miles was much better at magically transporting people than Adira. We landed on the ground softly, our feet hitting first and the gentle touch of the ground was a nice feeling for a change.

"Well, good luck in here in ghost town! If you end up a ghost I wouldn't be surprised, some of them are pretty ruthless down here. Cheerio!" Miles exclaimed making my nerves grow even more. It was enough that we stood in small tunnel cave that was so dark that only miles green glowing form provided light. We could see that the dark cold stone walls of the tunnel had been carved out to form alcoves that resembled shelves. And on those shelves were coffins. Which you would think was alarming enough. Not to far away was the end of the tunnel, and it ended in a big door. Made out of bones. Yup, pretty freaky stuff. Part of me wanted to keep Miles around, so he could zap us out of there when we needed it, but we had a deal, and Miles fulfilled his end of the bargain.

Miles disappeared in a millisecond and with him went out light source. The darkness filled every part of my vision. My hands found cold wet stone and I felt along the tunnel walls until I reached a dirt ridden bar thing. I could tell that it was on of the ribs of the door, I pulled on it hard but it wouldn't budge.

"Over here," my voice echoed through the chamber, the stone bouncing my voice back many times, something about the echo made every sound seem so pure, I found myself being slightly fascinated, "I found the door, help me open it," The sound of a set of footstep got louder and I felt the hot breath of someone in my ear. Then a hand fell on top of mine, accidentally, but it wasn't moved. I used all the strength I had and pulled on the door handle, or rib, although it was disturbing to think of it that way. My back found something warm as a leaned my strength back, pulling on the handle with all my weight. With the strength and help of the Person behind me, the door pulled open. Unfortunately for me, I was still relying on the strength of the door to keep me for falling, as I was leaning back with all my weight. With the surprise opening of the door I felt back and would have landed hard on my butt if not for the person who helped that ended up being a soft cushion.

"Oomph," the pillow yelped as we landed with a thud, I almost giggled at how feminine it sounded. Light poured out from the doorway and I saw that my pillow was actually Umair. For some odd reason I could feel the blood rush to my cheeks as I scrambled to me feet and look to the doorway, hoping he didn't notice my strange behaviour.

Ali and Adira led the way into the light, and yet somehow beyond the light was more darkness. There was nothing, there was no floor or ceiling just darkness.

"Ah, the sun warrior, I have been expecting you," a chilling voice said out of the darkness, a silvery light appeared in the darkness and I felt my eyes burn, I had to look away to adjust to the light. There, in front of me in ghost form, stood...floated...hovered! The Darkness Master hovered above the darkness. There was two masters that I knew of growing up, the Darkness Master, you took in a darkness apprentice and trained them to be the next Darkness Master and the Sun Master. Well, my brother was the darkness apprentice. This man-ghost had trained my brother, "It is ever so lovely to see you again. You have come looking for the Sun Master I presume. You are to ask her where the Sun woman abides?" I couldn't tell you how he knew all this, but I suppose as the former Darkness Master, he had his sources, "You don't have to go looking for her, you now have me. And I can tell you that the Sun woman is in the Sun," I blinked. The Sun woman was on the sun? We went all this way looking for her when she was literally on the planet that I ruled?

"Why didn't you sense her Eliana," Ali whispered quietly in my ear, trying to make it unnoticeable.

"Yes, why indeed," the Darkness Master voice cackled "Could it possibly be because you only have half the powers of the Sun warrior?" My heart dropped into my stomach, panic flooded every part of me and I could feel Umair, Adira and Ali staring at me, all I could do was look down.

"Oh! So she hasn't told you?" I silently begged for the Darkness Master to stop there, tears of desperation filled my eyes but I couldn't get any words out asking for him to stop "You see, while my co-worker, the Sun Master, was delighted to find this little girl who had turned her evil apprentice in and warned us about her, a little girl she could then claim as her replacement apprentice, and use her dying wish-"

"Dying wish?" Umair interrupted, clearly mystified. The Darkness Master looked at me through grey misty ghost eyes, wanting me to explain.

"Every celestial being can make a wish when they die," my voice came out crackly and my throat was sore from trying to push the giant lump down.

"The Sun Master wished that dear Eliana would become the new Sun Master, however, I was not blinded by the same fear and delight that my comrade was," the Darkness Masters eyes hadn't left me, more tears left my eyes. I couldn't stop them from coming, I knew what he was going to say next. It was something I buried within me, something that I never forgot no matter how hard I tried.

"I could not over look that she was a murderer," The darkness Master calmly said as I covered my mouth with my hand, trying to dampen the noise of my muffled scream of pure agony. It had been buried deep and was now being let out. My scream was horrid, like one you would hear when a wife suddenly became a widow. Or a mother suddenly wasn't, the sound of a heart breaking. Somehow the Darkness master sent images, memories through my mind.

A knife in my hand, my walk to a dark stone chamber, a girl laying asleep on a soft cot held by chains.

I fell to the ground in front of the ghost, the pain of the memories taking away my will to stand, to breath, to care about anything at all. Sobs echoed around the darkness, they racked through my chest, my face twisted in an ugly mess of tears and snot.

The knife on skin, a drip of red. Eyes opening, a choke of realization, a choke of panic, a choke of death, silence.

More sobs, the memory's bouncing through my mind something I could not ever, ever forget. The feeling of murder never quite leaves you. I had a killed a star, even Alena. That was not my fault, that was not my choice, I was under an influence. This was my choice, my fault, my kill, my murder. I begged for the ghost to stop I begged through my rasped hysterical sobs and disgusting tears and I couldn't stop crying. No one offered me any comfort.

"My dying wish, was for you to never behold the full power of the Sun Master," I could barely hear through my misery.

"Please," I begged, I screamed the word, I whispered it, I repeated it over and over and over until my crying wouldn't let me anymore, yet the ghost continued.

"Because, while Aswa is indeed vengeful," the ghost bent down to my level as he whispered the final words in my ears "you are more dangerous than he ever could be."

It seemed like the entire world stopped to hear that one sentence.

"No," I whispered, and repeated it again and again until yet again they became sobs and tears and screams and agony against agony and terror and a million different feelings at once I felt like I was being torn in three thousand different directions and the only way to relieve myself of such pain is to scream, and scream at the top of my lungs.

So much that I couldn't care what was going on, there were arms around me and I was being dragged somewhere. And still I was caught up in my memories, in what I had done and no matter how hard I tried I couldn't stop. There was a slap of bars behind me as I was thrown in some sort of cage and then the cage started moving.

All I could do was cry.