Legacy (3 page)

And with that, the General turned and walked out of the bedroom, closing the door quietly behind him before walking down the short corridor which hid a secret passage within its walls, acting as a speedy and inconspicuous exit from the Great Chambers.

Gereziac headed towards the bedroom window, and looked out at a night sky that was watching over a world about to change forever.

Soon his daughter will return to him.

Soon she will face her legacy.

CHAPTER ONE

I woke up once again screaming as loudly as I possibly could, sitting bolt upright in my bed trying to regain my bearings after enduring another terrifying tirade of horrifying nightmares. My t-shirt was saturated with sweat and my heart felt like it was trying to punch its way out of my ribcage, beating much faster than it normally should be doing.

Even my hair was dripping wet and I blew away a bead of sweat that was just about to drop from the end of my nose just as my bedroom door flew open to reveal the silhouette of my flat mate Tanya.

              “I take it that you’ve had another one of your nightmares then?” Tanya asked, trying to sound sympathetic whilst also trying to mask the fact that she was once again rudely woken from another night’s sleep.

I nodded my head and without any kind of warning, I suddenly burst into tears.

Tanya could not stay mad with me after seeing my reaction in such a helpless way and she headed towards the bed to offer comfort.

I instantly hugged her tighter than Tanya had ever been hugged before and I’m positive that she could feel my body trembling with fear.

              “You really should see a Doctor about these nightmares!” Tanya spoke softly into my ear.

              “He’ll think that I’m crazy if I ever told him what is in them and he’ll probably have me locked up.” I replied.

              “No he wouldn’t!” Tanya comforted me, “You can’t continue like this in silence. You haven’t had a good night’s sleep since I’ve moved in here and that really cannot be good for you. I’ve been your friend for years and you’ve always taken pride in yourself and looked incredible, but since you’ve been having these nightmares, you really have started to go downhill and I’m not going to sit back and watch you suffer any more.”

Tanya loosened my grip around her so she could sit face-to-face with me.

              “Naomi, first thing in the morning you and I are going to arrange an appointment with your Doctor and we are going to beat this thing together - you got me?”

I nodded, knowing that I had no choice whatsoever in the matter and all that I could do was give a little smile before flopping back onto my bed.

I could sense Tanya sitting on the edge of my bed for a while and as I began to drift slowly back to sleep again, more in exhaustion rather than anything else, I could hear her making her exit quietly to return to her room hopefully for a good night’s sleep.

But even though I lay on the bed in what looked like a peaceful sleep, my mind was continuously shooting bright lights and images through my head.

Images of two incredibly strong men fighting in front of me with neither of them surrendering at any point – and suddenly, they disappear from view.

There were flashes of an old magnificent stone church situated on a cliff side where people would enter, but mysteriously never re-emerge.

I even saw myself moving scared and confused around some of the side streets in my town as a feeling of paranoia continued to build inside me as if a million eyes were watching my every step.

But the next image that filled my head really freaked me out completely – it was a lot clearer than the others and from the moment it came into my head, I could not erase it and if I was to be honest, it felt like a premonition of my own death.

I saw myself lying on the ground somewhere in a sense of what could only be described as blind panic and extreme pain, looking up at a monster of a man with strong piercing eyes that felt like they were burning into my very soul itself.

I tried to remove the image from my head for what seemed like forever, but soon my body fought back and I managed to open my eyes to the welcoming sight of my bedroom, pausing momentarily to check that I had not once again screamed at any point.

The lack of Tanya running through my bedroom door once again to check on me was evidence that perhaps I had managed to endure the strange images in silence this time.

So, I leant across to my bedside table and realized that my usual glass of water was not sitting there and I cursed myself as I realized that I would now have to get up and go to the kitchen in order to quench the raging thirst that was building inside my throat.

I quietly headed past Tanya’s bedroom door, trying not to make any noise that could wake her and continued my journey through the flat towards the kitchen, switching on every light that I passed.

As I stepped into the kitchen, a sudden feeling of uneasiness ran through me and I panicked as I momentarily failed to locate the lightswitch.

I fumbled along the wall and when I did manage to turn on the light, I instantly noticed the pile of dirty dishes and cutlery that was left on the counter by Tanya earlier that night and the kitchen now had the lingering odour of what culinary delight had been cooked in there earlier.

If the dirty dishes wasn’t enough to irritate me slightly, I soon realized that Tanya hadn’t even bothered to close any of the curtains in the kitchen or the lounge before making her way to bed earlier - and living in a ground floor flat in the middle of a busy town with the curtains wide open really did make me feel quite vulnerable indeed.

But right now a drink was on the cards and I took a clean glass from the kitchen cupboard and headed towards the sink to run the cold tap until the water was cold enough to pour into it. And as I did so, I momentarily glanced at the microwave to my left and saw that the time was 2.30 a.m.

Great! Here I am standing in my brightly lit stale-food smelling kitchen in the middle of the night with no chance whatsoever of getting back to sleep for quite a while.

So, with a full glass of water in my hand, I headed towards the lounge contemplating whether to switch on the television to hopefully find something mildly interesting to help pass the time that it took for me to feel tired enough to return to bed.

And typically, my ever so house-proud flat mate hadn’t even bothered to switch the television off properly and had also left the remote control lying on the floor next to an empty packet of crisps.

The two of us have been living with each other for just over a week now after Tanya’s boyfriend suddenly ended their relationship and left town with some woman he had been secretly seeing and after an evening of drinking wine and criticizing men, we both thought that it would be a great idea to share my flat, but her constant untidiness was now beginning to pick away at me.

But Tanya is my oldest friend and her sympathy and patience towards my constant nightmares when others would have probably left by now made me realize that things could be a lot worse without my flat mate.

So, I picked up the remote control off the floor and pressed the standby button to be greeted by the menu of one of Tanya’s DVDs on the screen - looks like switching a DVD player is another thing that woman can’t do properly!

So, after one of my moments of rolling my eyes and tutting to myself, I walked over towards the patio doors to pull the curtains.

The right curtain closed like a dream, but the left side played up as usual due to the curtain pole having a dent that always caught the curtain rings as it slid across.

And that is when I saw a shadow just outside the window.

At first I thought it was my imagination playing games again, but another longer glance confirmed it was definitely a shadow and it was now moving towards me.

I remember screaming and dropping my glass immediately which smashed as it came into contact with the hard wood floor close to my feet.

Further down the hallway, Tanya had jumped out of her bed and had run instinctively into my bedroom, but when she found nobody there, she headed straight into the lounge to find me staring out of the window in what could only be described as a state of hypnosis.

              “What’s wrong Naomi? That was one hell of a scream and I’m sure I heard glass smashing!” asked Tanya.             

But my reply was nothing but silence.

              “Answer me!” she shouted, “What the hell is going on?”

And once again no answer was given.

So, an ever increasingly concerned Tanya rushed up to me and spun me round only to see a lifeless face looking back at her and in a blind panic, she slapped me hard across the face.

I instantly came to and held the left side of my face that she had hit and it stung incredibly, I can tell you! Tanya immediately grabbed me though and apologized for what she had done to me, but all she got in return was a panicked sentence from me.

              “Someone is out there Tanya and whoever it is wants to hurt me!”

CHAPTER TWO

Tanya nervously looked out of the window after what I had said, but no matter how intently she did so, she could not find one sign of anyone or anything wandering around our garden.

              “I really do think that your lack of sleep is starting to play games with your mind, Naomi and I strongly suggest that you should settle down on the settee while I make us both a nice cup of coffee.” Tanya said in a tone that indicated how fed up she was becoming due to my constant interruptions to her sleep.

But my stubbornness to prove to her that I was not imagining what I saw drove me to continue staring through the window hoping to find proof that someone was indeed lurking around outside.

I could hear a deep sigh at the side of me and as I turned, I caught sight of Tanya shaking her head before heading towards the kitchen.

As I watched her disappear from sight, my shoulders and back suddenly went ice cold – which was scary enough, but as the chill began to spread to other parts of my body, something heavy fell outside with a thud.

I turned around nervously thinking that I was about to be met by the sight of someone trying to break in, but instead I saw the remains of a broken flower pot on the ground, its contents spilt out across the concrete slabs.

And then I saw the culprits – two of my neighbour’s cats sitting nonchalantly on my back wall just staring directly towards me, completely unaware of the near heart attack they had just given me.

Rationalisation filled my head as I noticed the shadows they were giving out from the street light behind them, making them out to be a lot bigger that what they actually were.