The front door of the house groaned open.
Shalom was crossing the foyer when he noticed the haunting creak of the door and the foreboding sight of Trystan behind it.
Shalom saw that Trystan was carrying something wrapped in a blanket and stained with something dark. He could faintly catch a sweet scent, but the blood was too overpowering. It seemed familiar.
"What the fuck happened Trystan?" He asked, fear coating the passage of his throat. His words sounded strangled. "where's my daughter? Where's Jenny?" He questioned again, his voice just on this side of hysterical.
Trystan pulled down the blanket to uncover what he was carrying.
Shalom slammed his knees to the floor not feeling the pain. His entire world came apart as he saw the lifeless eyes of his daughter in staring at him.
Her face. Her beautiful, happy, joyful face, had black veins branching out from below the eyes and the temples.
Temnota
He thought.
...
Trystan looked up from the dark fabric covering his niece's motionless body. He felt numb. Everything was blurred and static. He didn't register the pain in his side from a stab wound. All he felt was the rip where his heart was. All he could see was the black claws of the Temnota sinking into his sweet girl's chest. At that moment he had felt the helplessness he had felt when he had found out that his mother had died. No, when he found out his mother had died because she had killed herself.
He looked up with bloodshot eyes to see Shalom's soulless ones gazing right back. He felt movement and looked up to see Karsyn enter.
"What's going on?" She asked walking into the room when she abruptly stopped. Her pink eyes flashed with something before a guttural scream tore out her mouth. She wailed, yanking her hair and dragging her nails down her face and arms as if trying to get rid of leeches. She fell onto the ground and sobbed, screamed and cursed.
"FUCK!" Another voice screamed.
Bren had also entered the room after hearing the commotion.
Karsyn rocked her body not thinking of anything other than blinding rage and grief. She wrapped her hands around herself as she felt another pair of hands wrap themselves around her.
Shalom
She curled up against him crying into his shoulders, their tears mixing.
"What happened?" She heard Bren ask as if from underwater her voice distorted.
"What do you fucking think happened? It was a Tem attack. It went out of control. There were too many of them." Trystan snarled.
Trystan gently lowered Jenny's body on the cold stone floor. As cold as her dead body.
Shalom carried Karsyn murmuring something about a bed and sleep.
"I DON'T WANT FUCKING SLEEP!" She screeched. Shalom flinched at the cuss word.
"Kars.." He whispered, his words breaking at the end. Hearing that Karsyn burst into louder and longer sobs.
"What happens-" Kyan trailed off as he took in the sight in front of him. His sister was cradled in Shalom's hands crying in wracking sobs, Shalom was white-faced and sickly pale with tear tracks on his face. Trystan was silent with bloodshot eyes and a wounded and grimy body. In front of him was a small figure wrapped in a huge cloaking fabric. It did nothing to hide the lifeless form of his sweet little Jenny who he had seen full of life just an hour or two ago. He stopped in his tracks as he noticed Bren crying silently. Bren had never cried since her husband's disappearance a few years before.
Kyan could feel his cool tears inch their way down his face. He could feel his brother's pain, his sister's pain. Their grief and sorrow. Their hope diminished. Their innocent little girl was dead.
Bren was the first to stand up and talk.
"We have to start planning for the funeral." She took a deep breath as if steeling herself for what's to come next. "Shalom, carry Karsyn upstairs and run her a bath. Trystan I want you as well to take a bath and clean your wound lest they close up over it trapping any infection inside." She ordered pushing them towards the door with a summoned wind. Turning to him she said, "Kyan, I want you to carry Jenny to a room and change her out of her clothes and dress her in the ceremonial garbs. I want you to then take the turmeric paste, rose and lavender oils as well as some rosemary leaves. Mash them together and smear them across her forehead and torso. Also, stuff her nose and ears with cotton." Kyan nodded wordlessly as he carried his niece in his arms. He strode out the foyer and walked down the hallway willing the house's magic to guide him to a room with all his requirements. He soon reached an ebony door with floral carvings and a crystal knob. He walked in and got to work, pushing everything out of his mind.
Shalom and Karsyn meanwhile had reached their rooms. Shalom carried Karsyn inside and laid her on the bed as he filled the bathtub his bones feeling weary. He suddenly felt very old. He poured a few oils inside and walked back into the room to see Karsyn still in the same foetal position. She hadn't even wanted to go near their beautiful daughter who was taken away from them too early. He knew that she was hurting - he was too, but he would not let her fall back into the abyss that he had so carefully pulled her away from. He undressed her ignoring the feel of her soft skin under his and carried her inside lowering her into the bathtub. He then undressed and slid in behind her making her sit up. Her sobs had quieted to hiccups now. He washed her, silent tears streaming down their faces as they sat in the bathtub. They sat in the quiet bathroom the opulent beauty of it going unseen as the images of their daughter's motionless body kept going through their minds replaced with her smiling face causing them to cry harder; their grief renewed as the pain registers all over again as they are reminded that she will never smile that smile at them again. She was gone. Gone like dandelion seeds dispersed by the wind, like a memory long forgotten. She was just, not there. She is no longer full of life with her whole life in front of her. It was like a veil had been draped over the world and everything seemed duller and quiet. Their daughter would never be their flower girl at their wedding. They didn't even know if there would be a wedding. She was gone. They thought again.
Their daughter was dead. And she would never come back.
...