Flesh: Chapter 1 by Nicola Collings (best novel books to read txt) 📕

                     The first male, blond and well-built leapt forward, going for Jesse, who leapt to the side, tendrils of white steaming off his skin.

                     “Jesse, you are under arrest for breaching you banishment and harbouring a Shadow, of which you must hand over, else we will seize it.” The human said, his voice deep and strong.

                     “Light slaves!” cried Fran. “Oh God Jesse, I told you to give her up!” she screamed.

                     “We have to get out of here!” yelled Jesse, flicking his hand in the direction of the blond light slave who was thrown backwards into the oncoming female in a flash of white.

                     Luna backed towards the kitchen, edging around Fran who was reaching for Jesse.

                     “Don’t do this!” she cried, “Please don’t do this, Jesse!”

                     “Come on, Fran!” he yelled, taking Fran’s hand. The pair of them melted into a thick white mist that flew from the room in a flash. Luna took one look at the humans that rushed towards her suddenly, and form somewhere she heard Jesse’s voice yelling, “Luna! Come on!”

                     Luna looked at the sunlight outside. there would be no way she’d last long in shadow form out there, but it was the fastest way to travel, and since the humans couldn’t follow...

                     Fuck it!

                     She burst into black shadows and fled from the house, melting through the cracks and crevices, and the next thing she knew she was flying over the village, the light closing in on her, singing her shadows, the burning pulsing in her head!

                     She looked for somewhere dark, somewhere secluded. There was a shout from behind her. Jesse and Fran were close.

                     The shades of green and blue sank together, Luna’s vision blurred, the pain growing steadily. Somewhere dark...somewhere safe...

                     A glimpse of something cold and Luna fled towards it. As fast as she could, she crashed through the roof of something...a house, a shed, a barn...something solid and sank into the dark corners, regaining her human form.

                     She breathed heavily, her skin red and singed, but healing fast. Her shadows shifted around her, the black caging her and slowing disappearing.

                     Tendrils of light came from a large door, Jesse and Fran coming towards her.

                     “Shit, Luna, are you ok?” Jesse rushed towards her, kneeling and reaching for her arms. She let him, glancing at Fran whose face was livid.

                     “Jesse! We’re going back! We’re taking this piece of shit with us and handing her over! Now!” she yelled, grasping at Jesse’s arm.

                     “No, Fran! I Can’t! I have to know what this means!” Jesse stood, Luna watched form the shadows.

                     “Look, Jesse, I’ve been taking care of you for over six months now, I stood up for you when they wanted to execute you! And this is how you repay me!”

                     “Taking care of me? I thought you believed in what I believed in!”

                     “I did! But now, can’t you see? We can go home!” her voice broke a little, her tone sounding a little resigned. “We can go back to the way things were! Be a part of society again!”

                     “They don’t want us back! They never will do...”

                     “They’ll want me.”

                     There was a pause.

                     “Excuse me?” Jesse’s voice was sharp.

                     Fran looked away. “They never banished me. I came with you because I thought you loved me. I thought you wanted to be with me. But, living apart from everything...my friends, my family...I want it back.”

                     “Fran...I do love you, but as a friend. You’re my oldest friend!”

                     “I’m sorry Jesse, but I can’t do this with you.”

                     Silence.

                     Luna stood up, looking around. It must have been a warehouse of something, because apart from the shaft of light beaming down, the room was filled with farming equipment. An old tractor sat in the middle, looking rather sorry for itself. She went to the window to see wide fields and what looked like a farm house on the hill rise.

                     “Then, I guess this is the parting of our ways.” Jesse’s voice was quiet, yet still seemed to echo around the huge metal structure.

                     “Fine. Goodbye Jesse.” Fran sobbed once, then sank into white mist that disappeared in the sunlight.

                     “Well, Now you’ve had your moment, I think we’re in trouble.” Said Luna, who pointed to a stream of dust making its way over the fields. “I think it’s the farmer. We should leave.”

                     Jesse stood, shaking a little. “Yeah...”

                     Luna waited. “Well...do you know any dark places I can hole up for a while?”

                     Once again, he was slow to answer. “Erm, there’s a Fault, just north of the village. There will do.”

                     “OK then, lead on.”

                     Part 5: Edinburgh

                     Fran strode through the huge doors of the cathedral. The man who’s spoken to her and Jesse met her at the altar.

                     “Well, where’s your boyfriend? So strange to see you without him. I thought you were each other’s soul mate”

                     Fran looked down. “He...we decided its better if we...”

                     “Ah yes,” he said, running a hand over his tie. “It must have been hard living with an outcast knowing that you could have come back at any time. Especially as you love was somewhat, unrequited.”

                     Fran flinched. “He did love me. He just changed.”

                     “Did he? And why was that?”

                     Fran didn’t answer.

                     “Come on, Fran, answer my question, and then maybe we can get on.” He leaned closer.

                     “Elder Marcus, please, I...”

                     “Tell me, Fran! Where is Jesse?” his voice turned sharp and hostile.

                     “He...He’s with a shadow. They took off. I don’t know where they are.”

                     Marcus leaned back. “So it’s true. He is harbouring an escaped shadow.”

                     “Elder Marcus,” Fran straightened up. “I was wondering, if I could possibly come back to Edinburgh.”

                     He looked at her, raising an eyebrow. “Why of course! You were never banished! You think we really believed you sided with him because you wanted to exclaim treason too? Ha! No, yeah, by all means, come on back.”

                     Fran relaxed.

                     “On one condition, Fran,” Marcus leaned closer to her again, putting a hand on the altar, his breath on her face. “When the time comes, will you help me with the dream the Lights have always had?”

                     Fran nodded, unsure of what he spoke of.

                     “Good.” He stepped back, looking up at a stain glass window depicting Christ. “We can start our little experiment with this shadow Jesse is so interested in.”

                     Fran gulped, knowing no good could come of this.

                     The Benedict Fault:

                     Luna knelt in the shadows of the cave, feeling every inch of the place. It was huge! The whole structure was cut into an area of woodland which masked it rather efficiently. As well as that, the place housed an old catacombs that ran into the deepest part of the Fault, and the place was so cold, Luna could see Jesse’s breath. It was perfect.

                     She, however, could still feel the ever-present pull and push of her shadow colony, despite it being extremely weak. It wasn’t even enough to make her feel ill. It just went to show their recklessness. They’d be at it for years.

                     “Jesse?” she said, her voice echoing. He was sat on a rock, his head in his hands.

                     “She was my closest friend. She said she’d be with me until the end of my banishment and forever after that. I never knew she had it in her to drop me like that. She was always so...innocent.”

                     Luna sighed. She was going to have to act the sympathetic here, give advice, make him come to his senses and just carry on. Yet when she tried to think of something to say, all she could think of was, “There’s other fish in the sea.”

                     Jesse looked up at her frowning. “Ah, I’d expect a shadow to say something like that. Anything but helpful.”

                     Luna sighed. “You think we’re uncaring, you think we don’t give a shit about other people’s feelings? Well, most of us don’t. But that’s because barely any of us have had any of that kind of experience.”

                     Jesse paused, looking at her.

                     “And don’t ask why, please, for the love of God. You lights know full well why barely any of us don’t really give a shit.” For a moment, Luna thought back to her time in sleep, watching her loved ones die, watching the people she looked up to and admired die. And once again, she found herself alone, with no idea what to do.

                     “I...I’m sorry.” He said.

                     “It’s fine. You get used to it after a while. After a couple of centuries.”

                     “I couldn’t even imagine.”

                     “No, you couldn’t.”

                     Jesse looked at her. She hadn’t noticed before but his hair, black and curly as it was, perfectly shaped his thin face, his bright green eyes shining.

                     “So,” he said, his voice getting perkier. “Why did you come to Edinburgh, and what happened to you to fall from the sky like that?”

                     Luna took a deep breath. “Well, it started when I found myself in a field in the freezing cold, realizing that I was now in charge of thousands of shadows, who all looked to me. But, their young, they don’t know how to respect their elders, having no experience of the outside world. They are reckless. They don’t know what they’re doing. The death toll has risen and it’s their fault. They don’t know the cost of what their actions could come to. They didn’t like that I told them this, I was stopping them from having fun. So, they tried to perform a Cleanse, an act that only Elders and Second in Rank could usually do, so I fled. Of course, it weakened me, but that was all. But I was stupid. Can’t really travel well enough in the sunlight to get anywhere safely, so, hence I fell from the sky to a place that I once knew.”

                     Jesse looked taken-a-back. “Jesus.”

                     “Yup. I’m screwed. There’s a war about to start and I can’t stop it.”

                     “But, wait, aren’t you their Elder. When they see how strong you are and why you should be in charge, they’ll fall in line, right? All you need to do is go back and kick them into line.”

                     Luna laughed. “I’m not an Elder. Oh no, not me!”

                     “But...where are the Elder’s then? Why aren’t they here, stopping the chaos?” Jesse looked confused.

                     “Because they all died. Very last one of them. In their sleep, they just...died. No one knows why. But now I’m stuck in a position I was never meant to be in. I am no leader.”

                     Jesse gasped. He stood. “So there really is a war brimming.”

                     “Yup.”

                     “So, what do we do? Maybe this is why I’ve been seeing you in my visions.”

                     “Probably. And I have no idea.”

                     The cave fell silent.

                     “Wait, I may have one idea.” Luna looked up, a plan forming.

                     “What?”

                     “I think we need to make a trip to Italy.”

                                                                                                End of Chapter 1