Opal Rain

Opal Rain

  By Crystal Lewis

  Copyright 2012 Crystal Lewis

  Chapter 1

  The wind whipped my hair back. I ran hopelessly down the street, my heart was pounding in my chest I knew there was little chance of escape, they would catch me but I had to try I couldn't stay there not after all I had seen and heard. Without looking over my shoulder I knew they were gaining on me and it was only a matter of time before they caught me and it was all over, I would be dragged back to await my fate but still I pushed myself. They were almost on top of me and my will to run was waning fast when I saw the city limit wall just up ahead, escape was close now for the first time, if I could just reach that wall before they reached me I would be free they couldn't touch me, once I left the city I was out of their jurisdiction there was nothing they could do unless I had broken one of the laws of their city, which I hadn't my only crime was being born. As I approached the wall they were almost close enough to touch me but just as they were about to grab me I reached up put one hand on the top of the wall and swung my whole body effortlessly over the top. As soon as my feet hit the ground I was safe I could go where I wanted be who I wanted to be. At least that was what I had thought until I turned around. I had thought I was safe but I was about to be in the middle of something much worse.

  The night my parents had been murdered I had thought things couldn't get any worse. I was only 9 at the time and don't know what happened my brother had been 11 and had seen the whole thing but he would never tell me exactly what had happened or who had done it whenever the topic came up he would just walk away. The next morning we were taken to live in an orphanage, although the only family I truly had left was my brother I had been alright for a while and we were happy but the years past we grew up. The day he had turned 18 he was taken away from the small room we had shared, I was told that he had to leave and that I wasn't to follow no matter what but I had to know where he was being taken there was no way the only family I had left was going anywhere without me knowing. I let them leave with him and once I knew they were far enough away that they wouldn't sense me following them I slipped out of the room. I followed them as they weaved through the vast halls, my heart was racing they weren't taking him towards the exit they were taking him deeper into the building. They stopped and it appeared that they had reached their destination, a small room with an altar in the centre I crouched behind a seat to hide as the guard instructed my brother to sit behind the altar.

  "You know why you have been brought here?" the guard asked my brother.

  "Not exactly," he replied, "but I'm guessing that it has something to do with what you bastards did to my parents."

  My mind was reeling, he had seen these people do that to our parents and he had never told me, why had he let me believe that we were safe staying here with them even when he knew what they had done. I guess this might have been why he never told me what had happened, but I would never find out the truth from him now, they were going to kill him and I was powerless to stop them or I would share the same fate. When his executioner had turned his back to begin his preparations my brothers looked around the room until his eyes fell on me.

  "You shouldn't have come," he mouthed shaking his head; I just looked at him fighting back tears, I didn’t want him to see me cry I wanted him to think I strong enough to handle what was coming and not to worry. His executioner finished what preparations he needed and instructed my brother to lay on the altar. I knew what was coming next but I just sat there crying freely now that he couldn't see me. The minute I saw the knife plunged into my brothers chest I turned and run out of the room as fast as I could hoping that I would be able to find my way out of the building before they caught me. I had made it much further then I had expected when I ran out of that room but now I was standing face to face with something much worse.

  When I landed on the other side of the wall I turned around about to walk away I came face to face with something out of a childhood nightmare. A couple of vampires had grabbed a girl from inside the city and were dragging her off most likely to feed the rest of their tribe before I could do anything to hide myself they had spotted me.

  "It's her," one of them whispered, "The last survivor of their family."

  "It can't be her," the other whispered back, "he said they would never let her out of their site they are to scared that she would turn out like her mother."

  "Excuse me but are you two talking about me."

  "Yes, of course you are the last female survivor."

  "The last survivor of what"

  "Surely you must know your heritage," The taller of the two replied the surprise clear in her voice, when I didn't respond it continued, "You are the last living member of your family, your parents were killed 7 years ago by the same people that gave you shelter and just today killed your brother."

  So far they hadn't told me anything that explained what exactly my heritage was, I was just about to tell them this when the other began to speak.

  "Opal," it made me cringe hearing her say my name, "you are part of a great and powerful race, however there are now only a few of your kind left in existence. At first the three races existed in piece but then something happened I don't know what and the vampires and fey were forced to go into hiding. For a while the humans hunted us but after a while we became a mere legend. Then a few centuries ago war broke out between vampires and the fey again I don't really know what happened, for a while only a few lives were lost on both sides until the fey decided that they were going to try and involve the humans. As you can imagine the humans didn't react well to seeing these creatures of nightmare and driven by fear started killing in droves. When they realised that their race was about to be whipped out any family with children hid their heritage and began lives within human cities, but several of the families were discovered, and killed at last count there was barely 10 families not including yours that were still alive."

  "How do you know what has been happening with the fey if you have been at war with them."

  "When they made the decision to go into hiding they sort our help and since we are more closely related to them then the humans we did all we could and scouts have been monitoring them ever since and doing all they could without being detected themselves."

  "I can't possibly be fey I was brought up to believe that fey and vampires were to be feared."

  "You and your brother are both fey, but you were not raised by your parents," I was shocked by the revelation but before I could say anything else she continued. "The day after you were born both of your parents tragically died, normally under fey custom the children would have been killed as well but given the state of thing your lives were spared. Because it was outside of their custom to let you live you were placed into the care of two vampires until a human family could be found to take you as their own. Fortunately there were a few humans that were sympathetic to our cause one of them was a young couple they feel in love with you the minute they saw you. You were just 3 days old then and they took you and your brother and promised that they would raise you as their own and you would not be told the truth about your heritage until you were old enough to understand or if something was going to happen to them. Obviously they didn't have a chance to tell you before they were discovered hiding you and your brother, Your brother was told of your heritage a few days before the one who raised you were killed, they knew what was coming but didn’t think that you would have understood and entrusted him with telling you when he was ready he was planning on telling you just obviously never got the chance.”

  My head was spinning it was all too much to take in at once. I opened my mouth to speak but nothing came out my vision blurred and the last thing I remember is the girl I had thought was their prey yelling out that I was abo
ut to collapse.