Can't beat a little fiction.... Dark Ordained.

Ok, here goes nothing!

So the first fiction post I put up did better than I thought! It was a stand alone post and while I might add more to it in the future I'm not feeling it right now. 

Anyway that was just the warm up, me just testing the waters. This post is the prologue to the book I've been writing for years. I've written and re-written it so many times that my hard drive is full of excerpts. I literally have folder titled 'bits of book'. Different chapters that I've written and liked but removed because it didn't fit anymore. I plan to recycle them. 

Anyways, without further ado I present to you the prologue for the work in progress I've titled (for now) Dark Ordained. If you like it I'd appreciate you showing it some love by sharing and liking it on those social medias! You can find me on Twitter @Laurenailie0. 

Hope you enjoy!

L xx

***

Prologue

It was dark out now and a strong wind was whipping down the narrow road making the temperature drop. I’d been sat hidden in the allotments for a few hours already, watching the small, shingled house. It was a bungalow owned by an elderly woman. I’d seen her pruning the rose bush in her front garden earlier, she wasn’t at home now though. A middle-aged man, I presumed to be her son, had arrived, helped her into his car along with a small suitcase and left. I’d waited for dark to fall though, just in case she came back, and also to make sure I was less likely to be seen. Some might think it suspicious to see a woman in her twenties breaking into someone’s house. Not that I’ve done this before, I’m not a weird vegetable lurker, old person stalker. Well not usually.

My muscles and joints protested as I stood up, I brushed the dirt and leaves from my clothes and quietly left the allotments. I paused on the opposite side of the road and got a better look at the house. Small, dark and an old building it looked no different from the others beside it. What made it stand out though was church next door. Like the rest of the road the church was dilapidated and unobtrusive. Separately they were less than special but together they were the place I’d been searching for.

A few nights ago I’d had a dream about this house, a place I had never been and it had haunted me since. Now I was here, sure only by a gut feeling that I was in the right place, and now I was searching for something but I had no idea what, following that same gut feeling. I crossed the road and opened the front gate to the garden, it creaked a little. The front garden didn’t feel familiar so I headed around to the back of the house.

I had been having strange dreams for a while, years, but this one had been different. The dream had left me with a strange feeling that wouldn’t go away. Then I had been driving through this small town and the church had caught my eye. It was like time had slowed and my attention was drawn to the house. Every detail perfect, like déjà vu and I couldn’t forget the feeling. I couldn’t get the thought out of my head, the house, the garden and the church occupying my thoughts of every waking moment. It was mostly the sadness though, the sorrow I had no source for that had me skulking around in the dark. I knew what I was doing was weird, but I couldn’t help myself.

The larger side gate was locked but the wood was weak, I could push it and a gap opened up at the bottom. I was petite enough to squeeze through and with barely any noise I was in. The garden was dark, lit only by the street light at the front of the house. I could see enough though that as soon as I walked out into the garden it was as if I had stepped back into the dream. I was on the patio and it was just as I remembered, at the back of house and ended when it met the grass halfway back. There were raised flower beds against the right fence, running flush against the church wall, not an inch between.

 In my dream I had been in the back garden when I was overwhelmed by a sense of grief. Grief because a young man I had loved had died. Fallen from one of the church windows to his death and landed in the garden. I’d found a bench against the back of the house. I’d sat there and cried hard until I felt something warm touch my bare knee, a comforting hand. Jeremy. I had never been here before though, I didn’t know a Jeremy, let alone ever having been in a relationship with someone named Jeremy, so I had come to find out why the sadness still followed me.

Feeling stupid I crept further out into the open and when I hesitated I felt as though something bumped me from behind. Once in the middle of the garden I turned to look at the church annex. Poorly maintained it was falling down, the wood panelling warped and missing in places. Left to rot away from the main stone building. It looked as if the fence alone was holding it up. My sight drifted up, the only window on the second floor facing the garden was boarded over but even the frame was broken. Only two stories it didn’t seem high enough for a fall to be lethal. Then a morbid thought entered my head and I imagined a body falling from the window. I followed its path down to the ground and pictured the body hitting the floor. A lump formed in my throat and it was like I had seen it happen. 

I closed my eyes trying to hold back tears I knew weren’t mine. Jeremy, I could picture him in my mind. Blond hair, average height and average build but a kind smile and gentle eyes. My heart was racing, I had no idea what was going on. Dreams sometimes left you with lingering feelings, as though they were real, I knew that, but these feelings hadn’t faded and now as I stood in the same garden, the feeling of déjà vu making my skin crawl, wanting to sob my heart out for a man I had never met, I felt ridiculous. I turned to leave and came face to face with my own reflection in one of the back windows.  My hair was a dark, long, windswept mess, eyes bright with unshed tears, my pale face bleached out by the moonlight. Behind me stood Jeremy. He smiled as I stared, I blinked my eyes and strained to make them focus but he didn’t disappear. I didn’t dare turn around. I tried to run but my feet wouldn’t move. I saw him reach forward, I jumped as I felt his arm slide around my waist, felt his warmth as he stepped up close behind me. He pressed his cheek to mine and ran his fingers through my hair and I just stood there frozen. I squeezed my eyes tightly shut.

“I knew you would come for me,” he spoke softly in my ear and I felt the tears leak down my face. The grief was crushing.

“I don’t know you,” I managed to choke out.

“What do you mean Emily? Don’t you recognise me?” his voice was still soft but there was a playful lilt to it now. 

“What? I’m not Emily? My name is Eve.”

“You look like Emily to me. Open your eyes,” I did as he told me. 

My reflection was no longer my own. In front of me was a sweet looking young woman with strawberry blond waves that fell to her shoulders. Grey blue eyes that were only slightly different from my own and freckles I had never had. She was wearing a yellow dress that was very different from the jeans, t-shirt, jumper and coat I was wearing. As I stared at the girl in the glass she smiled at me and I felt my face mirror the smile. The smile grew and a sparkling laugh escaped my mouth but I was sure the laugh wasn’t mine. I wasn’t looking at myself, I was looking at another woman, at Emily. Emily was a ghost, she had to be and she had control over my body and she had brought me here. Then I caught sight of Jeremy standing behind me, he was smiling to, I think. The sadness filled me again. Something wasn’t right with Jeremy.

“What happened Jeremy? Why did you leave me?” getting the words out was difficult like trying to talk when you’re not fully awake and the voice wasn’t my own, sweeter and higher. Jeremy looked confused and the same gut feeling that had brought me to this garden in the first place told me that Jeremy hadn’t fallen. He was pushed, thrown. Thrown with enough force that the impact had killed him.

“Pushed?” Emily’s voice was tearful again. Jeremy looked sad.

“By who? By my father?” Emily was really crying now, her sobs shaking my body, making my throat hurt. Jeremy didn’t answer her, he just wiped away her tears.

“It doesn’t matter. We can be together now, ok? Come here,” Emily nodded and then I felt a strange tearing sensation like pulling apart something that’s been stuck together with static. 

Then it was over and the feelings of sadness and loss drained away as well. My reflection was my own again and I could move on my own so I turned to face Jeremy, now with Emily by his side. He looked at me and it was like he was seeing me for the first time.

“Thank you. We couldn’t have reconnected without you,” his voice was still gentle but held none of the affection it did when he spoke to Emily.

“You’re welcome,” my speech was slurring from how tired I suddenly was. I still wasn’t sure what had just happened.

“Can we have your blessing?” Emily was clinging to Jeremy’s arm. I sat myself on the nearby bench.

“My blessing?”

“Yes, so we can move on,” Emily separated from Jeremy and came to sit on my right hand side.

“Ok,” now I was really tired, my eyes were heavy. Jeremy came and sat on my other side.

“You have to release us,” Jeremy exchanged a look with Emily.

“Just imagine releasing our spirits up into the atmosphere. That’s how I’ve seen it be done,” Emily grasped my hand in both of hers.

It felt strange but I imagined them becoming lighter than air, lifting them to drift upwards with the wind into the sky. I heard Emily giggle and managed to turn my heavy head towards her. The image of her was dissolving around the edges, drifting upwards just as I imagined her to, like embers from a fire caught on a breeze. One look at Jeremy and I knew the same was happening to him. Together they both got up and waited hand in hand as they completely lifted into the sky. When there was nothing left of them it was if every last bit of energy I had had left with them. My body was too heavy for me to keep upright on the bench and I felt myself slip sideways. Even breathing was difficult. 

I heard the heavy approach of someone dropping over the fence. I couldn’t open my eyes to look but I felt them move up close to me and felt a cool hand feel for my pulse.

“Bloody hell,” the voice was exasperated but definitely male. I couldn’t tell much else though, it was as if my ears had been stuffed with cotton wool. I felt my body shift as I was lifted from the bench and the swaying as I was carried.