Enchanted: a story

Yea so this is a story I wrote for school...

owo

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It was a howling night. The stars were hidden by the tufts of clouds that were also hiding the gleaming moon. It was a night of mystery, and the sort of night you would often find in a noir detective novel.

Nyx could not sleep. Her mind was clouded with strange thoughts, random, and eerie. She was given to strange wonderings, but at this time of night they seemed even more unnerving than usual.

The wind forced her window open, which was a sliding window and which she had not closed properly. She swept her thin white blanket around her, and quietly tiptoed over to the window, her feet trembling because of the cold wooden floorboards.

Nyx raised her hand to close and latch the window, her lithe white form looking like a ghost, but as she brushed the cold metal with her fingertips, a high-pitched, chilling scream was heard outside. Then, a bright golden glow half-blinded her, then died down.

Nyx blinked in fear. Her hands were cold and clammy. Slowly, forgetting about the window, walking as if though she was in a dream, she climbed into bed, her head filled with a hypnotic, musical song that didn’t seem to be coming from her thoughts, but from the scream.

~

Ring! Ring!

Nyx groaned, and reached out for the alarm clock. It was the summer holidays and she didn’t need a screeching red clock to wake her up…it sounded a lot like that scream last night.

Nyx shot up in bed, eyes wide open, suddenly remembering the song. And the scream. And the light. Could it have been a dream? She checked the time on her clock. It was 10:30 am.

She picked up her phone and dialed a number – her friend Kya’s – and waited anxiously for a response. Then came a sweet, slightly worried tone of voice over the line. “Hey, Nyx! How are you?”

“Can you come over?” Nyx asked. It would sound like she was insane if she explained the dream to Kya over the phone.

Kya paused. “Let me see…yeah, I’ll come over. Wait a sec.” And she closed her phone. Nyx put her phone down and yawned a little, then pulled on a dark green shirt with grey and black zebra-striped pants.

She peered out of her window. There was considerable damage to the street. Leaves were littering the streets, limp brown shapes, and – was that a dead bird? – Nyx couldn’t tell what junk. Branches lay across the passage.

She squinted as she tried to remember the song. How did it go? Something like Ohhh, ohh, oh oh oh, ohh, ohh, ohhhh. Nyx shook her head. That made no sense. It had words. But what words? Nyx couldn’t figure them out.

There was a knock on the door. Nyx called, “Come in!” and there was Kya, dressed in a black dress and black sneakers, looking very pale and worried. Over the glaze of her own anxiety, Nyx didn’t notice this.

“How are you, Kya?” asked Nyx.

“Well as can be expected,” was the flat reply.

“I had a strange dream…” and Nyx proceeded to explain the happenings of last night. Kya was looking at her. First with her head tilted, her expression uninterested, and then as she grasped what Nyx was talking about, with a sort of horror in her face. Finally, when Nyx stopped talking, she got up very dizzily from the bed on which she had been standing, and said, “I should go home; I don’t feel very well,” and without even a goodbye she stumbled out the door.

~

“Nyx, set the table, sweetie,” her mother called. It was nighttime – the moon was just rising over the spindly branches and it was time for supper.

“Coming, Mum,” Nyx replied, and set the dishes as her mother answered the telephone.

“Nyx…Kya has died.” Her mother was pale and worried.

“What?” Nyx stared at her mother.

“It was all very sudden,” said her mother, wiping a tear from her cheek. “I don’t know how. They found her body from behind our house.”

“I’m coming,” gasped Nyx, her face white, her eyes bright. “Be there in a minute.” She ran up the stairs.

She went to her room, closed the door, and did not come out until supper was finished and her mum had started to clean the plates away.

~

I have to do something.

Nyx sat up in bed.

I’m going to do something. Hunt for clues, maybe.

She ran downstairs, looking like a ghost in her white clothes. She shook her head, pulled on her coat, and quietly slipped out of the house.

No one could know how fast Nyx ran. She bolted like the wind.

There was a gold locket on the pavement. She picked it up, the pendant (a star) dangling from her palm. There was a catch on the side. She flipped it open, and then…her head filled with the same music, and a bright glow lit up all around her. The words were slurred…she forgot her surroundings…

Then a flash of grey-black fur. Then Nyx screamed and she was alert. She snapped the pendant shut and darted into the shadows.

Is this what happened to Kya?

A light shone in the house opposite, and the dark figure of a head looked down. Nyx backed away, silently hoping they wouldn’t see her in her white coat and nightdress. She felt extremely visible.

Then the head drew in and the curtains closed.

Nyx crept silently back to her bedroom, with the locket dangling from her neck. She shuddered. The fear coursed through her.

What have I done?

She looked at the moonbeams slanting across her room.

I have no idea what I have done.

~

“They’re holding her funeral on Saturday,” said her mother. The sun had risen, and Nyx was cooking pancakes for breakfast. The shock of the night before had still not left her.

Nyx felt the cold little star against her chest. She flipped her pancake.

“Kya…she never said goodbye.” The words came out sounding mechanical, like they were tinned.

Her mother didn’t answer. Nyx placed the pancake onto her plate and squirted syrup over it, the movement almost robotic.

“Carmelita!” called her father from the living room. Nyx’s mother left the kitchen.

Nyx just shook her head sadly.

“Nyx, three people have died under mysterious circumstances! Not a single mark on their bodies!” Her father’s voice drifted in from the living room.

Nyx was suddenly very alert. Was this anything to do with the locket?

“And near them there were tufts of fur…and claw gouges…” more information floated into Nyx’s head.

Nyx left her half eaten pancake in the kitchen and ran to see the news. A primly dressed reporter was saying, “And the police are still looking for more clues. All the evidence points to some sort of murderer who used poison, and used fake fur to mask himself.”

“Oh, hello, Nyx.” Her father looked at her. “We are going to a theatre tonight.”

“What kind?” asked Nyx, pushing back her hair.

“Lore. Old legends. It’s called The Legend of the Satyx.”

“Oh all right,” sighed Nyx. “Tonight?”

“Yes. Be ready at eight.”

~

Nyx checked her reflection in the mirror. She looked quite nice, she supposed, exactly how you were supposed to be dressed for theatre, in a satin dark green dress, and her grey coat and black newsboy cap.

“Nyx, I told you to be ready at eight,” her mother’s voice drifted up the stairs.

“I am,” Nyx called back. She touched the little golden star hanging from her neck.

“Then come down.”

Nyx ran down the stairs and climbed in the car. It was raining, and it was cold. Nyx was glad of her jacket. When they got to the theatre, Nyx took her coat off and spread it over her to keep her warm.

The lights dimmed and suddenly, all was quiet.

A group of girls appeared on the stage, dressed in white dresses. Their hair was blond and they were wearing white satin slippers.

They began a hypnotic dance, and the music was enticing too.

The music!

It was the same as the music from the golden locket. Nyx stared. Was this a coincidence…or…

The girls began to sing.

“Every once in a thousand years a portal opens, and each time a creature gets through.”

“That creature seeks you down and you better hide, otherwise the creature will kill you too.”

“It is called the Satyx and it escapes from the spirit realm, to find a magic not found there.”

“A person will rise and capture it to save mankind, but the creature is dangerous so you better beware.”

 There was a gleaming rush of light, and when it cleared, the dancers were gone. A woman, wearing a gold shiny dress, began to speak.

“Once upon a time, in a far-off land, unreachable for ordinary man, in the midst of a thunderstorm, a creature fell into the spirit realm.” Her voice was hushed.

“It found a golden necklace, and it enchanted it, to make sure it could always go back and forth between Earth and its home.”

“But, unfortunately, before it could make its second journey to Earth, it lost the locket.” Her voice sent shivers down the audience’s back, and Nyx sighed. Could she have been wrong?

“Some say that it was lost forever, and some say that the Satyx found it again.”

“A child will rise from the ashes of humanity, they say, if the Satyx is ever discovered,” and the way she said this made Nyx’s head perk up.

“And they will capture the Satyx, although it will be distracted by certain enchantments.”

Nyx felt uneasy in her stomach. “I’m going to the bathroom,” she whispered to her parents, and slipped out.

But in her absence, the woman went on in a deep, sing-song voice: “Beware and be warned, for this tale is true, be careful and watch out or no good will come you, find only that you seek,” she closed her hands over a small golden light in her palm.

When Nyx came back, the woman was singing in an opera-type voice: “Or you may yet come to rue!”

 There was a moment of stunned silence. Then the audience burst into admiring applause.

~

Nyx opened her notebook on her desk. Her mother and father had loved the performance. She thought it was interesting, but not for entertainment purposes. It had something to do with the locket.

“Every once in a thousand years a portal opens, and each time a creature gets through,” she murmured. The moon gleamed in the dark night sky.

The Satyx. It had a name. Nyx’s face was screwed up in grim determination. She would finish what Kya had started. Everything was coming clear in her mind. She would capture the Satyx.

~

Nyx darted from shadow to shadow, looking for a creature with striped black and grey fur. The golden locket glinted in the dark, threatening to give her away. She tucked it inside her shirt and then spotted a small child some feet away.

A grey-and-black mass was partially hiding him, and Nyx could see his scared blue eyes. She crept out, slowly, staying downwind, making sure the Satyx couldn’t smell her, and…

Whoosh!

A scaly grey tail flicked in the air, almost beheading Nyx. She ducked and ran to the Satyx, forgetting all about that creature seeks you down and you better hide, otherwise the creature will kill you too. All that mattered now was the child’s life. She pushed him out of the way, yelling, “RUN!” and the creature’s teeth met in her shirt.

It threw her across the alley, rendering her unconscious. All she saw was a flickering golden-blue gleam, as it all went black.

~

“Hello? Hello?”

Nyx’s eyelids fluttered open. Slowly the world came rushing back to her. She had no idea what had happened to the little boy. And a girl with dark brown hair in a braid tied with crimson ribbons and a crimson dress was leaning over her. And she had a golden-blue gleam around her…

“What’s your name?” she asked, her voice soft. Nyx felt something. She felt she could trust her.

“Nyx,” Nyx whispered, her voice trembling. She had a bad pain in her head.

“I fought off the Satyx,” the girl said. She was panting a little. “My name is Elena.”

 “Do you – know what it is?” stammered Nyx, putting a hand to her head. She touched something wet and warm. When she brought her hand down, there was a stain on it the same color as Elena’s hair ribbons.

Nyx gasped and began to breath really heavily. Elena put an arm around her. “It’s all right now,” she said, “but you know the old song, don’t you? Every once in a thousand years a portal opens, and each time a creature gets through,” she started, but Nyx nodded.

“I have to do it alone,” she whispered. “But could you help?”

Elena looked startled. Then a soft smile spread across her face. “I’ll help you,” she said quietly, “but only if you fix my pocket watch for me.” She brought out a bronze colored antique watch.

“I’ll do it,” replied Nyx. “But first you have to capture the Satyx with me.”

“Deal. But what about the wound in your head?”

Nyx said quietly, “It doesn’t matter. I might be killed anyway,” and she felt the world spinning again. Elena grasped her hands and pulled her up into a standing position.

She tore a strip off her dress and tied it around Nyx’s head. Nyx caught sight of her reflection in a mirror. I look like a ninja.

They ran, or rather in Nyx’s case, speed walked, Elena stopping every few minutes for Nyx to catch up with her.

Suddenly, Nyx heard a roar. She looked at Elena, and could tell that she had heard it too. Elena put a finger to her lips, and they began creeping across the streets until they spotted the monster.

Nyx stifled a scream as she got her first real glimpse of the Satyx. Its eyes were green with no pupils, and its fur was sleek and shiny. She suddenly froze as she realized it had spotted her.

It gave a roar and charged. Nyx shut her eyes as she smelled a sweet breath in growing intensity, then something tugged at her and pulled her up.

Nyx opened her eyes. “Elena! I didn’t know you could fly!”

“’A true magician never reveals his best trick,’” answered Elena. Then she went a little higher and swooped across the city.

The faint lights gleamed as Elena took Nyx to the outskirts of the city. Then, she set Nyx gently down, in front of a shack.

“This is where I go to when I come from the spirit realm to Earth,” said Elena.

It was old, dilapidated and run-down. Elena opened the door. It creaked, and in the silence, it was an unexpectedly loud noise.

Inside, it was empty. There was one small grimy window in the corner. As soon as Elena closed the door and they were inside, it started to rain.

“Just as well,” said Elena. “Now will you fix that pocket watch for me?”

“Show me.” Nyx held out her hand.

Elena gave it to her. Nyx opened it and checked the mechanisms. It wasn’t badly broken; it was easy to fix. It took only a few tweaks to get it whirring again.

“There you go,” said Nyx, holding it out. Elena took it, but with a gleam in her eye Nyx hadn’t seen before.

“Thanks,” said Elena. Nyx suddenly realized all her worries. The wound in her head, the Satyx was still on the loose, and the child…oh, the child! Is he alive or dead?

Nyx looked at Elena. “So what do we do now?”

Elena looked at her. “I’m sure you’ve been wondering how your friend Kya has died,” she began in a strange tone of voice.

Nyx didn’t ask any questions. She just nodded her head.

Elena walked to the door. She took a key out of her pocket. Just before locking the door, she glanced at Nyx and said quietly, “I’m sorry, but I have to do this.”

The key turned in the lock. Elena slipped it into her pocket. “Have to do what? What are you doing?” Nyx tracked her with wary eyes.

“So I’ll tell you the truth,” Elena continued. “I can’t keep secrets from you any longer.”

Nyx just stared. Something was tugging at her, telling her to escape somehow…

“I killed Kya.”

“What?”

“Yes.”

Nyx couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“Why?” asked Nyx, taking a step back in sudden fear.

“I needed her magic. I needed it. She had the locket’s magic infused inside her. You don’t. You’re smarter than her. You blocked yourself out completely.” Elena had a wild, hungry look in her eyes that Nyx had never seen before.

“So you’re in league with the beast.” It wasn’t a question. More of a statement.

“Yes.”

Nyx backed away. Elena opened the window. The patter of the rain came to her ears, but Nyx barely heard it. “Goodbye,” Elena whispered.

Elena scrunched herself up, making herself tiny, and flew out of the window. Then she closed the window.

“ELENA!” Nyx screamed in combined fear and rage.

She banged on the walls. On the door. Tried to break the window. No give.

“HELP!” she yelled.

She looked at her locket and flipped it open. The golden light filled the shack, and a silhouette flew out.

It unlocked the door.

It was a boy. He looked about the same age as Nyx, and had green eyes and black hair. “Go out,” he said. “Elena’s a little double crosser.”

Nyx shrank back. If he came from the spirit realm, could he be trusted? The boy must have seen the look in her eyes because he said, “Go! Before they find you!”

Without stopping to ask who “they” were, she ran out of the window and arrived, dripping, at her house door.

But Nyx’s story did not end there. She had quite a few more things to get through before it could.