… Twenty years later…
Raven and Loki Grey looked nothing alike. Whereas he seemed to have absorbed his mother’s hair, fine and blonde, she possessed long hair of the deepest black, shot through with bluish streaks that contrasted with her fair skin like night against day. Loki was short and stout, strong and steady. His sister, on the other hand, was tall and lithe, graceful and unpredictable. Loki was of average appeal, possessing a face friendly and open but otherwise unremarkable. Raven on the other hand was a rare and exquisite beauty. Her skin was fair and flawless, her cheeks always slightly flushed, her lips full and red. Though their parents’ eyes were brown and amber, Raven’s were a sultry midnight blue that would turn black when she was angry.
For twins, they could not have been less similarly inclined. Loki enjoyed the sun, summer, and his favorite color was yellow. Raven, however, was fond of the night, of winter, and of the crystalline white of fresh fallen snow. He relished the gay speed and tempo of the fiddle. She, the sweet sorrow of the violin.
Yet, despite their differences, the brother and sister were the closest of friends. There was nowhere the one went that the other could not be found nearby. And so it was that morning, as they rested by the water’s edge, listening to the brook babble the incoherent secrets it had carelessly told for decades.
“Sooner or later, you’ll have to make a decision.”
Raven stared into the stream for a few seconds and then shrugged. “Very well, then,” she said softly. “I’ve chosen not to decide on any of them.”
Loki rolled his eyes. “Mother and father are beginning to worry.”
Raven shot him a weary smile. “They refuse to listen to me, Loki, as do Brayden and Selby and a host of other would-be suitors. It isn’t as if I have ever pretended to be interested in the prospect of marriage,” she said. “I’ve told them all how I feel. I’ve kept no secrets about my intentions.” She stopped, looked up, and then turned to fully face her brother. “Loki, do you know any husband and wife in our village, other than our own parents, who are happily married to one another?”
Loki blinked. Then he looked away, irked that he actually could not think of any.
Raven sighed. “There, you see? It brings unhappiness. I don’t want any part in that.”
In the distance, chapel bells sounded, six in a row, marking the Twilight hour.
“We had better return. This time of day always makes father nervous.” Loki stood and began making his way back to the trail, stepping over brambles and tree roots as he went.
Raven frowned. “But this is the best part!” she called after him. She peered down into the water, which always took on a strange reflective quality at around this time. Then she looked up and gazed across the river’s breadth, to the twisted forest that lay beyond the boundaries of her village’s territory.
She gritted her teeth in frustration. The night’s approach called out to her in a whispered language only she seemed to hear, much less understand. The reprieve from summer’s unrelenting heat caressed her skin like a cool rag on fevered flesh. She rose hesitantly, and sighed again.
“Come on, you!” called her brother, already several yards down the trail.
Raven stood there for a moment more, her eyes searching the wooded shadows across the river. It always felt like there was something more in its darkness… something moving. Watching her?
“Raven, now!”
Raven jumped a little and bit the inside of her cheek. Loki never liked being out at twilight. None of the townspeople did. It was superstition, she knew, and perhaps they were right. The way the Phaen Forest looked to her just then told of secrets and mystery and she could well comprehend how many people would be afraid of that mystery. People always feared what they didn’t know. What they didn’t understand.
She turned on her heel and her long white dress billowed out behind her as she easily leapt over branches and tree roots, making her way to the trail as if there were nothing in her path.
Loki stood still on the trail, his hands on his hips, shaking his head. “You continue to run through the countryside like that, and you’ll break a limb for sure. I’m amazed at how you never manage to do so.”
“You fuss too much, Loki.” It was Loki’s way to constantly worry. But it grew tiring. “Go on then,” she said. “Lead the way.” She stopped beside him and gestured for him to continue walking. Then she smiled indulgently and promised, “I’ll follow obediently behind you.”
Loki sighed, shook his head, and turned down the path. Raven smiled to herself as she followed in his footsteps, but her gaze often strayed to the river’s edge, and the tangled woods that beckoned beyond.
They reached the village road just outside of town and followed it up to the town center, where it widened. It was empty, as all of the townspeople had retired for the night, not wanting to be out at that hour.
Raven had been watching the ground beneath her feet and was so engrossed in her own thoughts that she didn’t notice Loki had stopped in front of her.
She ploughed into him, stumbling back a step. He didn’t move to help her, and that, more than the stumble itself, was what made Raven look up in surprise.
Three young men were blocking their path.
Raven’s gaze narrowed. She knew all of them well enough. The one in the middle was the eldest of them, at twenty-seven. Brayden was the blacksmith’s son, and appeared it. He stood a full foot taller than Loki, his work shirt as tight across his chest and around his upper arms as his father’s was known to be. The other two were younger, but like Brayden, had become her hopeful suitors nonetheless. Selby was the spoiled son of a land owner who resided in a fairly large manor house on the outskirts of town. Cael, the tavern keeper’s only child, was somewhat quieter than the others, but was constantly harassed to marry by a mother who desperately wanted grandchildren.
The three of them glanced from her to her brother. Loki barely breathed.
“What do you want, Bray?” Raven asked.
Brayden’s gaze slid down her long form and up again. His gray eyes sparked. Beside him, Selby smiled the degenerate smile that most of the young women in the village knew all too well. Only Raven had managed to stave off the infamous depravity of a rich man’s heir. Cael, however, simply looked down at the ground. He seemed to not want to be there.
“I think it’s best if you three return to your families,” Loki said, his voice low and calm.
Selby snorted, tossing a strand of long blonde hair away from his face. His blue eyes flashed menacingly.
Brayden spoke up. “Get out of the way, Loki. We’ve no business with you. Your sister, on the other hand, owes us a little of her time.”
At this, Selby laughed out-right, and took a step forward. Raven’s heart crashed against her rib cage. She ducked further behind Loki.
“Back off!” Loki ordered. His amber eyes flashed a warning at Selby. His stance widened, his hands curling into fists at his sides. Raven swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat and began to search the ground around them for something to throw.
“Stay out of this, boy!” Brayden bellowed at Loki. Then he came forward, and with more speed than either of them had been expecting, he shoved Loki to the side. Loki stumbled, fell to one knee, and came back up again, facing the blacksmith’s son.
Raven dove for the nearest good-sized rock, but before she could palm the weapon, Selby had her by her upper arms and was spinning her around, pulling her back and pinning her to his chest. She struggled uselessly in his grasp and cringed when he callously laughed in her ear.
A few yards away, Cael stood still and watched as Brayden faced off with her brother.
“She’ll never agree to marry you if you molest her, Brayden! Are you mad?” Loki tried to reason with the large man as the two circled each other like wild animals. Brayden was taller, but Loki’s form was stout and solid. They were not exactly evenly matched, but Loki was known to have the constitution of a rock.
“She never would have agreed and you know it as well as I do. Your sister is nothing but a tease.” Brayden stopped, and his expression turned dark. Loki tensed, watching him carefully. “We heard you both by the river. She’ll never change her mind. There’s no point in pretending any longer.”
Brayden and Loki lunged at one another. Raven closed her eyes, but the darkness of her lids did nothing to stop the sound of their scuffling feet and grunts. She forced her eyes open again and watched as Loki ducked beneath Brayden’s large fist, but did not quite manage to side-step his other swing and the blacksmith’s knuckles dug deep into her brother’s mid-section, knocking the wind out of him.
“No! Brayden, leave him alone!”
Selby shook her hard, jarring the joints in her shoulders and causing her teeth to clamp down onto her tongue, drawing blood. Her eyes watered from the pain. His fingers dug into the flesh of her arms. “Keep quiet, lovely. We’ll let you know when we want to hear you scream.,” he hissed.
Loki glanced up from where he had doubled over, trying to catch his breath. He managed to drop and roll just in time to avoid Brayden’s work boot as the large man tried to kick him in the head. Loki rolled back to a standing position and rushed forward, ramming his shoulder into Brayden’s waist and driving him backward, where they both went crashing to the dusty ground.
Raven pulled her blurry gaze away from their twisting forms to look at Cael, who yet stood with his hands in his pockets, an undecided expression on his youthful face.
“Cael, help us! Please, you don’t want -” Selby slapped a hand over her mouth before she could say anything further, and without thinking, she took the opportunity to bite down. He bellowed in pain and then growled, spinning her around once again and then roughly shoving her to the ground. She landed hard on her back, the impact forcing the air from her lungs, momentarily stunning her.
“You’ll pay for that, bitch!” he yelled. Raven did not possess the breath to cry out as he was then on top of her, ripping viciously at her clothes one second, slapping her across the face the next. Again and again, he hit her, and with each blow Raven saw stars swim before her eyes and tasted more blood in her mouth. Somewhere in the periphery of her consciousness, a struggle continued, but she could no longer tell who had the upper hand, and a part of her no longer cared. A numbness was setting in. She was aware of what was happening to her, could hear, more than feel, the contact of his fists and palms with her flesh, her bone, but even that awareness was fading. As she felt her clothes being ruthlessly separated from her beaten body, she began to desire nothing more than blackness, a sweet and forgiving darkness that would come and whisk her away from reality before she had to suffer any further degradation and pain.
Quite suddenly, she was no longer being beaten and Selby’s weight was lifted off of her. Raven lay still for a moment, too stunned to move. Then she moaned, rolled over onto her side, and opened her swelling eyes.
Cael held a very surprised Selby by the collar of his shirt and was shaking him roughly. Raven did not waste time pondering what might have brought about the change in Cael; she could barely bring herself to care. She pushed herself up onto arms that felt detached from her body, and looked down at the ground. Blood welled from her nose and dropped to the dirt, splash after tiny splash. Her body begged her to curl up and cover her head and fall asleep.
But her mind would not allow her to forget about her brother. She turned her head, searching for Loki through eyes that could no longer properly filter out light.
Brayden stood over her fallen brother a few yards away. As she watched, unable to stop him, the large man kicked Loki in the stomach. As her brother tried to roll away and lift himself up, Brayden kicked him again. This happened several more times, until Loki lay facing his sister and she saw blood spill from his open mouth.
Raven stared at the blood; her brother’s life liquid, staining an unworthy ground.
She looked up at Brayden, who now towered over Loki, his breath ragged, his expression insane.
Raven’s vision swam, but it now swam as red as the blood pouring from her brother’s lips. “I damn you to Hell, Brayden Smith. You and Selby both,” she hissed, drawing breath through split lips and expelling it through a raw throat. “May Abaddon’s devils devour you alive, and may you feel every last torment they inflict upon your flesh for the rest of eternity.”
Brayden glanced at her from where he stood, and his eyes widened. The ground began to tremble beneath them. Raven looked down. Cael and Selby stopped fighting.
A faint rumbling sound filled the air. The quaking grew in strength. Raven ignored it, somehow finding the will to crawl over to her brother. Brayden stepped away from them, nearly stumbling as he retreated. Cael and Selby separated, their attention now entirely focused on the dancing pebbles around their boots.
“What…?” Selby backpedaled as a tremor split the street open in front of him and steam rose from the crevasse’s depths. He looked up at Raven, who was now kneeling beside her fallen brother a safe distance away. “What have you done?” he asked.
Raven did not answer. She was as shocked as he was.
A second chasm split open between them, further separating Raven and Loki from their attackers. Brayden shook his head. “No.…” He looked around them, a mad expression on his face. “You did this!” He yelled at Raven as he tried to move away from the yawning holes that were being carved into the street. However, anywhere he moved, another chasm opened up in front of him, until finally, he and Selby were surrounded by steaming, sweltering rifts.
Cael stood to the side, once again immobilized by indecision, his expression one of abject horror.
And then a clawed hand appeared at the lip of one of the deep openings. And another. And another. Raven froze in fear and Brayden bellowed in terror as the chasms surrounding him and Selby were suddenly spilling over with red-eyed, black-clawed creatures. They crawled from the depths of the rifts, hissing steam making their scaled skin shine grotesquely. Flames licked at their monstrous feet, urging them further on until a dozen or more of them stood in a grotesque circle of evil around Brayden and Selby, who were now screaming without pause.
Raven watched as the creatures attacked. She could not look away. She sat there, paralyzed, her eyes glued to the scene as the beasts pulled her and her brother’s attackers to the lip of one of the giant gashes in the ground. The flames in the rifts leapt higher, as if hungry for the human prize that awaited them.
Raven’s hand rested protectively on Loki’s head, and she finally glanced down when she felt him stir beneath her touch. He moaned and retched into the dirt, more blood finding its way into the puddle beneath him. She put her arms gently around him, attempting to lift him into a sitting position.
He opened his eyes and looked from his sister to the hellish sight thirty feet away. His eyes widened. He straightened, astoundingly finding the strength to get his legs beneath him and stand. Raven pulled herself up beside him, fear making her strong. Her attention once again locked on the same nightmarish scene.
“You witch!” Selby screamed as the creatures brought him to the ground and began to drag his legs over the edge of the abyss. “Call them off!” he yelled. He twisted and turned, fighting frantically, his manicured hands unable to find purchase in the smooth dirt. “Help us, Raven! Call them off!”
Raven stared, her eyes as wide as his, as the would-be rapist was finally pulled completely over the edge. His final scream pierced the twilight air and grew fainter as he descended further and further into the pit.
Raven began to tremble. Loki pulled her against him and backed up a few paces as Brayden was then dragged to the edge of the rift. The blacksmith’s son’s cries of desperation were nearly drowned out by the now roaring flames leaping from the chasm’s depths. At the last moment, Raven squeezed her eyes shut and covered her ears.
She could feel Loki’s grip on her arm tighten and was vaguely aware of his fingers cutting into the bruises she already possessed. She knew he didn’t mean it. She knew he was reacting to what he was seeing. What she could no longer look at.
Raven listened to the roaring of blood through her ears and the pounding of her heart. Moments passed. Then the ground began to shake once more. Her eyes flew open in time to see the rifts closing. Steam coiled backwards, flames died down, sinking into the depths of the chasms from where they had come. There was no sign of Brayden or Selby or the hellish creatures. Cael had fallen to his knees, his hands on his ears. He was shaking his head vigorously from side to side, as if he could make what he’d just witnessed disappear from his memory if he tried hard enough.
Within another few seconds, the chasms were gone. The ground stopped trembling. What steam remained dissipated into the atmosphere. The only sounds were those of Cael’s whimpering.
The young man slowly withdrew his hands from his hair and opened his eyes. He peered about himself and then at Raven and Loki. He scrambled to his feet, his gaze once again searching the ground. Then he peered at Raven and pointed. “You…” he said. “You did this! What are you – some kind of sorceress? You let those… those… they took them….” His gaze slipped from hers to the ground around him and he began to move. His steps were cautious at first, as if he was certain the dirt would split from beneath him at any moment. Then, when nothing happened, his steps became quicker, broader, until finally he was running down the street away from them.
Loki stood silently beside his shivering sister.
“Loki.…” She swallowed and tasted blood. “Did I do that?” she asked softly, her voice barely more than a whisper.
Loki did not answer right away. When she turned to look up at him, his expression was very grim.
He looked down at her. “Whether you did it or not, you’ll be blamed. The village council.…” His voice trailed off. Brayden and Selby were dead. Vanished. Swallowed up by the devils of Abaddon. The village council would believe her to be a witch.
She would be executed.