Keriwena

Prologue and chapter one of an (untitled as of yet) urban fantasy



His credulity was suspended until he looked down and saw crimson bloom between the trembling fingers held against his side. A lifetime’s worth of carefully guarded power was leaving him and in this place, there was little he could do. Time slowed. He felt his knees give way, and in the interminable fall to the pavement he opened up to the living world about him, searching for a way to keep himself alive until she arrived.

Even now, the two gang members were off limits. Their sneakered feet thudded heavily as they escaped across the dilapidated basketball court, one secreting a gun back under his shirt and the other similarly concealing the bag of cocaine that had been at the center of the drug deal inadvertently interrupted.

Power lines crackled blue overhead and the August sun pulsed fiercely yellow, but he could use none of that now. It was too late. In desperation, he pulled from the meager blades of grass and scraggly weeds struggling to push up through cracks in the crumbling asphalt. A green surge eased his pain as the plant life surrounding his collapsed body withered into the ground, but he knew that this would not sustain him long.

He hadn’t even known she existed until two weeks ago. Since then, finding her had been his only task. She must be Awakened before they found out about her as well. When he learned she would be here, such focus had been his that he had not even realized what he’d stumbled upon until it was too late; two little boys, posturing as men, striving to enter the adult world of their neighborhood with drugs and a gun. What a waste.

An inquisitive, fluting chirp sounded just outside his field of vision. Little friend, he sent weakly, will you help me?

The sparrow came into view, hopping toward him soberly. Why should I sacrifice my life just to give you a few more minutes?

There was no time to explain. Instead, he opened his mind to the bird, allowing it unfettered access to all that he was and making himself vulnerable in a way he never had before. He hoped it would be enough.

I cannot save you, came the response, but I give you my life so that you may have the opportunity to do what you must.

This time, the rush of energy that suffused his body was much stronger. Tears welled in his eyes as he saw the tiny form of the bird fall beside him. He knew now that he had a chance to hold on long enough for her to find him.

Hurry, he thought.

Chapter One

“Are you sure you know what you’re getting yourself into?”

“What?”

Jen squirmed under the steely gaze of her roommate Jacky, whose green eyes narrowed into the look of sheer exasperation usually reserved for soon-to-be ex-boyfriends.

“I said, are you sure you know what you’re doing?” Jacky leaned across the small table, a predator.

“Well, I--” Jen started, but Jacky bulldozed right over her.

“Geez, Jen. You could have had the pick of any school you wanted, and you chose Prentice Middle School? What the hell were you thinking?”

“It sounds bad, but it’s really--”

“Did you know that school has the highest instance of teen crime in the state? Did you know that there are gangs there? Real ones where they all carry weapons and sell drugs. You’re going to get shot. Or stabbed. Or both! You’re going to get killed by a thirteen-year-old Blood wannabe gang banger trying to prove himself to his testosterone-stunted little friends and I’m not even going to get the satisfaction of saying I told you so!”

Jacky punctuated her outburst with a dark scowl and paused, taking a sip of her latte.

“I know exactly what I’m getting myself into Jacky. I researched all the schools I applied for, and I feel like this is where I can do the most good for--”

“You’re going to be an orchestra director, not a superhero, Jen. You don’t have to throw yourself to the wolves just because you have some demented sense of altruism. What are you going to do, save the world one violinist at a time?”

“Maybe.” Jen flushed, “Maybe I will! Look, I understand that it sounds like a nightmare, and I can’t really give you a good reason, but I know this school is where I’m supposed to be. I wish you could just support me instead of constantly telling me how stupid you think I’m being!” She slammed her own drink down and lost control of the cup. A wave of chai surged across the brown and white chessboard painted onto the tabletop.

Both women reached for their napkins and mopped at the mess between them, silent. After a moment, Jacky raised her head, her face set to begin Round Two. When she saw the determined look on Jen’s face, her shoulders slumped in defeat and she let out her breath slowly. One perfectly manicured finger tapped on the damp tabletop.

Jen could practically hear her friend internally counting to ten and waited it out patiently. Jacky was a mercurial ember, quick to catch fire and slow to cool. They had been through this round of arguments before, but she hoped this was the last time. Classes started in a few days.

Jacky was her oldest and dearest friend. They had endured high school and college together and were now sharing a tiny apartment while they tried to get their respective careers started. Without complaint, Jacky had survived all of Jen’s violin recitals and orchestra concerts and Jen, in turn, had attended countless plays and waited outside theatres while her friend had tried out for movies, commercials, and everything else with an open casting call.

Neither of them could quite eke out a living as a performer, however, which is why they had arrived at the grand decision to find day jobs. Temporarily, of course.

Jen had applied for a teaching job for the coming year. Her mother had insisted upon her getting certified when she made the decision to major in music, and now she was actually glad to have put in all the extra classes. Jacky had no such recourse and had recently been hired as a waitress; a situation they laughed at as being alarmingly cliché for a struggling actress.

Jacky sighed again and both girls smiled, the tension between them dissipating.

“Well, I tried. Congratulations on the job I suppose, even though I do think you’re completely out of your freaking mind. Here, I even got you a present.”

She reached behind her chair and produced a green and blue-striped gift bag with ‘Happy Birthday’ scrawled across it in curling red script.

With a laugh, Jen started rummaging around, discarding several clumps of re-used tissue paper. Her fingers settled on something smooth, round, and hard. To her own dismay she pulled out a very real-looking human skull.

“Um, thanks.” She looked over at Jacky, one eyebrow raised inquiringly.

“It’s for intimidation,” said Jacky, leaning back and looking smug. “I swiped it from the community theatre props room. I think you should keep it on your desk and tell your students that’s what happened to the last kid who pissed you off. Might even give you some street cred, because you certainly don’t look very intimidating.”

“Hey now!” Jen laughed, hefting the skull in one hand and aiming it across the table, “I can be plenty intimidating when I want to be.”

“Yeah. With the skull.” Jacky retorted.

“Ha. You’ll see.”

With a grin, Jen set the skull down on the table where it seemed leer back at her almost cheerfully. She lifted the gift bag hanging off the back of her own chair up onto the table, “I got you a present too, Madame Waitress.”

Jacky rolled her eyes, “Don’t remind me.”

The t-shirt was a perfectly hideous shade of purple, with the initials of the school printed in obnoxiously giant yellow letters: PMS.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Jacky wrinkled her nose, and held the shirt up against her torso, “How do I look?”

“Awful. I just figured if I had to suffer through it, the least you could do was show me a little support.”

“Helloooooo. Skull.” Jacky folded up the shirt, put it back in the bag, and reached out, squeezing Jen’s hand in her own. “I know you can do good things at that school Jen, I’m just worried about you. You know?”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Jacqueline!” a rotund man in a coffee-stained apron leaned over the dessert bar at the front of the shop, snapping his fingers self-importantly. “Break is over. Get back to work!”

Jacky rolled her eyes, “Be right there!” she yelled back with false cheerfulness, batting her eyelashes at her boss with the vapid expression she had adopted for the character of ‘Jacqueline the Waitress’. She turned impishly back to Jen, “Gotta go learn how to make 50 different lattes. Stupid man. Martinis tonight?”

“Definitely,” Jen agreed, “I need to run by the school, but I should be home by the time your shift ends.”

“Alright, girl. Take care.” Jacky stood up just as the man began snapping his fingers again.

“Jacqueline! Come!”

“Jacqueline! Come!” Jacky imitated sotto voce, reserving the tone for some future part no doubt.

Jen stood, collected the skull and her belongings, and left the shop.

When she arrived at the school, the parking lot was deserted. Most teachers were probably savoring their last few days of summer vacation, she decided. As a new teacher, Jen had a lot to prepare and so had spent much of her time at the school lately. She wanted everything to be perfect.

An old basketball court lay adjacent to the parking lot, enclosed by a warped chain-link fence. On previous days the vines and weeds that climbed up and twined about the fence had obscured her view of the court itself, but today something was different. Much of the plant life had been cleared away, but sporadically, creating one clear space through which she could see a still form lying on the asphalt.

Jen walked quickly through the open gate and onto the court, her breath catching as she approached to what appeared to be a well-dressed man in his fifties incongruously sprawled amongst rocks and trash. Plants lay dead and crumbling in a 5-foot radius around his body while everything beyond was still green and thriving. A small sparrow lay next to his head, still and lifeless.

Despite this oddity, the pool of blood spreading from the man’s side gave Jen no room for pause. She ran and knelt beside him, placing two fingers at his neck to find a pulse. It was there, but faint.

Quickly, she reached into her back pocket to pull out her cell phone. His eyes opened. He sat up halfway, grasping her wrist. Startled, she dropped the phone on his blood-soaked stomach with a wet thump.

“It’s you!” he rasped, “There’s no more time!”

“Sir, please calm down. Let me just get my phone and I’ll call for help.”

She pried at his fingers with her free hand, trying to extricate herself.

“No time!” he intoned and took hold her other wrist as well. His eyes rolled up in his head and Jen, fearing the worst, struggled against him again only to find herself caught in an amazingly strong hold by one so close to death.

A series of images flashed through her mind with such rapidity, she could not fully see but a few.

Her mother, young and laughing - An old woman, sorting through books with loving reverence. Calliope! – A young man, achingly beautiful, but whose cold green stare made her feel like a child.

He let go of her wrists and lay back, panting horribly, wetly. Jen noticed now that he had a red glow about him. An aura, but it was faded and flickered faintly. She blinked and looked away, but everything around her was different now too. Suddenly, she could feel the energy surging about them both.

The blades of grass pushing up through the asphalt pulsed vibrantly green, and she knew their struggle, reaching ever upwards towards the light. She lifted her head, following their devotion, and was nearly blinded. The sun was so much brighter than it had been just moments before. It sizzled, red and gold waves streaming outwards across the clear summer sky. Powerlines over her head sparked blue with electrical energy, humming efficiently. She could sense the energy in everything, she realized, animate or not.

“What have you done to me?” she whispered, terrified.

What must be done came the response, startlingly clear in her mind. You have been Awakened. I am sorry I cannot stay to guide you through the troubled times ahead. You must seek out the ones who can help, you will know who they are. I have only one gift to give you, and it must be now before it is too late.

Jen looked down and found herself caught by the man’s gaze as surely as she had been by his hands. She caught a mixture of emotions in a wave that rocked her back on her heels. Anger, sadness, and – love? Before she could react, he lifted one hand to her cheek and she felt a rush of power enter her body so strongly, she could not withstand it. She fell across his chest, slipping into unconsciousness even as he released his last, labored breath. Then, silence.

Otto Ray Sing

You've done well with your dialog, but as the two women are talking lets see some gestures, eyebrow movements and such. Other than that all I can say is, "I want more!"

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A-L

good stuff.