Awake by Nightfall by Emilia Sherman (well read books .TXT) 📕

The girl muttered.

“She’s conscious!” Tamara grabbed her bag of water and started to bend the water. She formed a bowl of water. Aria reached into a pouch and threw some crushed herbs into the mix.

“Tamara, now.” Aria opened the girl’s mouth. Tamara forced the water down the girl’s throat. Aria shut it close and waited for the girl to swallow.

Tamara then covered the girl’s eyes with water. The water turned into a blinding, white light. If anyone was searching for the girl, they would see this light. She held there for a few seconds than let it vanishes. The girl’s body began to relax. The area around us seemed to calm down.

Sirens interrupted the silence, from a distance.

“What should we do?” Aria got up from her spot.

“Take her to the humans. We will dig up every piece of information on this girl. Who her family is and where she is going? I am guessing she will be in the hospital for awhile but not too long.”

“How do we take her without looking suspicious?” Aria whispered.

“I will take her from you.” A woman's voice came from behind us.

We were alerted and turn to attack whoever dared to sneak up on us. I assumed it to be a Heartless, or another Seeker. But to my surprise, it was a normal human wearing a cloak. It that what she appeared to be. I was not easily fooled.

The first thing that caught my attention, she wasn’t frightened. When humans see a three half-naked people surrounding a limp body, most would jump to conclusions and alert the authorities. This lady was nothing like this. Her facial impression showed sadness, but not one ounce of fear. I was little disappointed but I was still aware. A woman sneaking up on train Seekers. It was nearly impossible. So, I only made a wise guess.

“What is your name, Fable?” Her eyes stared back at me, angrily. I guessed right. Even though we were forbidden to talk to Fables unless it concerned our mission, I had to make an exception on this one.

“Cassandra.” Her voice was soft, almost a whisper. Her stern eyes never left mine.

“Are your orders, in anyway, come from Leon Knight?”

“No.” She looked taken aback but regain her stern look. “I know you have a Healer, Seeker. If I was lying, I know you wouldn’t hesitate to use her.”

I laughed. “Why do you want to help this girl?”

“That is my own business. She is with me, which is all you need to know.”

“Does she know?” I broke our trance and stared at the little figure.

“No.”

“Hmm.”

“Just give her to me. I will erase her memories.”

Ah, so, she wasn’t just any Fable. She had the power of memory manipulation. If she wasn’t a Fable, she would be a Seeker maybe, even a Heartless, depending on her skill. If she was a Seeker than, she would have no difficulty finding us quickly. Heartless tend to linger and observe their prey before attacking.

“Fine, but we will be watching.”

I moved away and let her walk passed me. I motioned the girls to follow my lead. They dare not move from the girl’s sides. The Fable didn’t seem to mind. She picked up the girl into her arms. I noticed she didn’t use her wings.

“How long has it been?”

“A hundred and sixty-seven years.”

Aria gasped. Tamara stared at the woman in shock. I was more in control of my emotions and facial expressions.

When one of us becomes a Fable and escapes to the mortal world, we become mortal. It was a slow process but we start to age. That is why, most of us, wouldn’t dare fall for a mortal. On the Day Star, we never aged after we finished our transformation. We become immortal. Even as a Seeker, I knew we couldn’t stay here long. We are to report back in three months and stay away for one month to regain our strength and immortality.

“Thank you for saving her.” The woman replied to our shock. She began to walk away but I stopped her.

“Her name, Fable.”

She looked a little defeated. Her eyebrows formed a V as she concentrated on rather or not to tell me. She let out a breath and finally said, in a whisper.

“Marina. Marina Stonehart.”


 

Chapter 03: In the Dark
Darien

White.

I was surrounding by white.

I had certain distaste for the color. Nothing I can do about it though.

Aria sat across from me. Swinging her legs, one at a time, to her own little rhythm. She was probably thinking about how to help everyone in here. She, being a Healer, was in her favorite spot in the mortal world. Tamara sat next to me, keeping her eyes down and her right foot tapping the ground. She was a claustrophobic, but most water manipulators are like this. Like water from the ocean, they like to be able to move around freely and hate confined areas. I was doing the same thing, trying my hardest to avoid any wandering eyes. But unfortunately for my case, I was too curious about humans.

Everyone would look at us, until I stare back at them. Frightening them. We didn’t look so good in this hospital. Our pale skin looked sickly in bright light. Even Tamara, her skin looked like a dried mud. There was something unusual about it. Or maybe, it was because we were all wearing black cloaks. I was still shirtless, and Aria and Tamara were still wearing their outfits. We had no choice but to bring them out because of our apparel wasn’t quite up to date with this century.

There were many other humans that looked oddly strange in this waiting room. A young, male human staring at a vending machine covered in metal piercings and skin tight jeans. A female behind him was wearing a skirt over jeans, like she couldn’t decide on what to wear. Sitting behind me, a male was holding a bag of ice that held three of his fingers and was wearing an eye patch over his eye. And yet out of all the humans, we had more of a haunting edge to our appearances. Haunting, yet interesting enough to catch everyone’s attention.

I jumped as I felt something burn against my chest skin. My hand grasped around the object. I checked around the room to see anyone noticed.

The burning sensation came from my Attain necklace. It was given to me after the Council gave me, my mission. An Attain necklace looks like a compass. It starts to heat up and points whatever direction a descendant’s talent is being use. I already knew who it was pointing at. That was the reason we were here in the first place.

Aria and Tamara have chain necklaces, too. Healers get necklaces with a bottle at the end. They put whatever they want inside, usually an uncommon herb. Aria’s necklace had some type of white crystals inside. She also added some pendants to it, a bow and a heart locket. Tamara’s necklace was more complex. Every element manipulator gets to make their own necklace as long it comes with something that represents their element. Tamara’s was a seashell. Her necklace had a piece of metal that had some writing on it than a twisted wire that held the seashell.

My Attain went cold just as fast as the heat had come. Cassandra must have had an distraction.

Aria stared up at me. Her green eyes were bright under the fluorescent lighting. She pointed at her necklace than pointed at me. She wanted to know if it was working. I rolled my eyes and nodded. She then pointed to the counter.

Cassandra was arguing with the hospital attendant and doctor. I bolted up immediately and went over. We needed things to go smoothly. The people that were looking at us were now staring at the new commotion. Humans don’t have a long attention span. They don’t pay close attention to details and assume too much. From what I could see, the doctor was looking around nervously like he was waiting for a person to take the woman away.

“You don’t understand I am her only family. She has to see me.” Cassandra said in a harsh tone. Her eyebrows formed the V-shaped again and her eyes began to tear up. She noticed me staring at her, and all her built up anger vanished. She turned her face shyly away. I walked up to her and grabbed her away from the doctor. The doctor let out a sigh of relief.

“What is the situation?” I put my hands on both of her shoulders, trying to be comforting.

She slapped my hands away. “I think I outdid myself with her memories. Her shield thing was still up and hard to get through. I was afraid of hurting her. I haven’t had to use my powers since she was born and even then, I used it for a very small matter…”

“How far did you go?” I interrupted.

“She lost pretty much everything. I tried to bring some of her basic memories back but the doctor interrupted before I could finish.” She places her hand on her forehead, rubbing her temples. She used too much of her power.

“You need to get some rest.” I waved my arm towards the nearest seat.

She ignored my polite request. “You don’t get it. I don’t know if I made her forget the whole entire night. I didn’t have time.”

“It’s alright. We will use some of Aria’s herbs.”

“No. I won’t let that happen. If she remembers anything, I will be there.” For someone as weak as she was, she still had the strength to push us away. “But there is another concern I have for her.” She lowered her voice. “That plane crash was no accident. I saw in her memory. Someone was there to kill her.”

“You erased that memory though.”

“Yes. If she knew, she might run to find out what happened to her parents. I wouldn’t be able to protect her. Alone.” She looked up at me in concerned.

Perfect. It couldn’t have work any better for us. Well, for me actually. Cassandra knew someone was after this Marina. She knew she was too weak to protect her, so naturally she came to us. She would need us to protect her and watch over her. Aria and Tamara would agree to help, and I would pretend to agree with them. We will be Marina’s own personal guardian angels. I laughed at my own personal comment.

“What was the mission assigned to you?” She asked.

My smile faded. “You know perfectly well, that I am not allowed to give that information away. Especially, to any Fable.”

“Last night, you said something about a Leon Knight. So, obviously, you are searching for a Fable.”

“Clever.” I frowned. “He is in this area. We know for sure.”

“So, you will be able to stay here?”

I hope by my stature that I was appearing neutral on the situation. Too much joy could