Prisoner and Guard, Naomi M-B [great books of all time TXT] 📗

“I hate it when she does that.” After straitening up, and wincing, he then, finally, appeared to notice Molly. “Oh, hey, sugar,” he called. He attempted to stand, but slid back down, jaw clenching in pain.
“What did she do to you?” Molly stared at him. It wasn’t usual that she felt sympathy for jerks, but he was… so hurt and battered. Unwillingly, she felt herself feel sorry for him.
“Isn’t it obvious?” he asked, chuckling, “she beat me up, tortured me, bounced ideas off me in a brainstorm to find out why you can see us and then beat me up again.”
“She tortured

you?!” Molly exclaimed, “Why?”
Raising an eyebrow, he stared at her. “Because I hurt you and used magic on your mother.” He shook his head.
“Okay,” Molly snapped, sitting up, “I’ve been dealing with this because I’ve been hoping I’m going to wake up soon. But you need to explain what the hell is going on!”
With a long and drawn out sigh of exasperation, he struggled to his feet before stumbling over to the bed. He leaned against the barrier and slid down it back to the floor.
“Okay,” he sighed, “I’ll tell you a story, I’ll try my best not to be biased. I know there’ll find a lot hard to believe but… just go with me until I’ve finished. Alright…” He cleared his throat. “ About, two thousand years ago- I said go with me!” he snapped at seeing the look on her face. “So, about two thousand years ago, there was an order of… people or ‘Mages’. These mages had powers that set them apart from normal people. They reacted in different ways. Most were quite humble, they blended in with society; they became wise people and healers. Others were more ambitious, they became kings, queens and warlords. Finally, there were a handful of the most powerful mages. There is only one word to describe what they became: Gods.” He licked his lips, eyes glazed over as his head filled with memories. “Anyway, they lived together for the most part, in a huge community. It was an island filled with so many wonders… anyway, when they weren’t addressing their duties, they were there. They were like normal people when they were home, they could laugh and talk, they could make friends, fall in love, have a family… and eventually die when they felt that their time had come.” Eyes closed, Mist had a smile on his face. “We grew up there, me and Bree, we were friends actually. She was like a little sister. When we matured, we were some of the most powerful mages. I was slightly better than her of course,” he chuckled, “she became a… knight or vigilante or whatever you want to call her. She scoured the land for evildoers and put them in their place, etcetera etcetera. I on the other hand wanted to be able to help people in a more… benevolent way. So, I became a God. It’s pretty easy when you know how. In those days anyone who can appear in a flash of light and make something from nothing was seen as a God. I was a good one as well,” he remarked, “I wasn’t all ‘raaargh, sacrifice your new born children!’ I was good and… relatively kind.” All at once, his face soured. “But then, things went bad. You know our home, the island. Well it had another name: Atlantis. I’m sure you know what happened to it.”
“It sank,” she whispered.
“Correct,” he replied, “some stuck up jerk that was too big for his boots decided that he wanted to be the ruler of all the mages. He killed every person on there. Every man, every woman and every child. There were only a handful of us who hadn’t been there. Bree and I, obviously, my older brother Loki, a guy called Merlin and a few others… Why are you staring at me like that?”
“Merlin

?” She gaped at him. “As in the

Merlin? From the legends?”
“Yup.” He nodded. “The geezer taught me how to play Senet. This was before he met Arthur.”
“And Loki?” she continued, “the Norse god?”
“You bet!” Mist grinned. “Now that guy knew how to throw a party! But, that doesn’t matter!” he snapped. “What matters is that most of the people that I loved died a horrible, drawn out and torturous death before being crushed beneath thousands of tonnes of sea water. I went a little berserk to say the least. I destroyed loads of stuff, killed people, did a bit more destroying and pretty much undid practically every good deed my people had ever done.” There was a pause before he continued. “The others weren’t sure what to do with me, they knew that I had grown too powerful to be killed by normal means… that I had become too inhuman to listen to reason. So… they did the only thing that would work.” He licked his lips. “They sent Bree… They were probably crueller than I was by making her do that. Loki opposed them but he became caught up in his own problems. So, they sent out the youngest surviving mage and set her against the only living person she cared about.” Resting his head in his hands, he took a moment to compose himself. “Well, it was an epic battle by most proportions and it left me as dead as I could be. Bree was physically and psychologically exhausted. When we both recovered, we were different. I had already been placed in here, my prison, and… something in Bree had broken. When the others came together to decide who was going to be my guard for the next couple of centuries, it was practically unanimous. Bree was going to have to remain. She felt, angry and betrayed… so she took it out on me.” He stopped. Silence.
“Wait…” Molly said slowly, “if this was two thousand years ago and Bree only had to guard you for a couple of centuries

, why is she still here?”
“That’s a complicated story,” Mist replied.
“Okay,” Molly announced, “I think I believe a bit. I mean, I’d be an idiot to just deny everything. But I have two more questions. Why can’t anyone else see you? And how come I can?”
“We’re Chronolocked,” Mist explained, “that means we’re removed from time and space. We’re not affected by anything but because of that we’re out of synch with the rest of reality… so, normal people shouldn’t be able to interact with us. As for your second question… well, between hitting me and finding out which spell hurts the most, Bree revealed that the chronolock is possibly being corroded by my magic, so anyone who hasn’t learned the ‘laws’ of reality might be able to see us. It’s also what let me cast a spell on your mother.” At that moment, Bree walked in. The pair froze and stared at her.
“Didn’t I warn you,” she hissed, staring at Mist, “Didn’t I warn you what would happen if you told her?” She strode towards him.
Mist rolled his eyes. “You expected me to comply?” he demanded, “seriously, you should know me be-” Bree’s boot collided with his face, smashing him backwards into the barrier. She reached down, picked him up by the collar and threw him across the room.
“What were you trying to do?” she spat, smacking him across the face, “get her sympathy? You’re a filthy murderer. You betrayed our friendship, you betrayed everyone

. Don’t lie to her and don’t lie to yourself

.” She kicked his stomach then jumped to stamp on his face. She didn’t give him a chance to speak, she just beat him ruthlessly. When she became tired of that, she touched her hand to one of the arms of the spiral on the wall. It glowed yellow. Mist screamed, his body contorting and thrashing. Face completely emotionless, Bree touched another part and Mist’s screams increased.
“Stop it,” Molly whispered, horrified. “Stop it!” she screamed, leaping off her bed and grabbing hold of Bree’s arm. “Please,” she begged, “just… stop.”
Bree stared down at her then sighed. “I apologise.” She smiled. “But do not worry; I am searching for a way to reverse the corrosion. Hopefully by this time tomorrow, you will no longer be in danger.” She gave Mist one last kick and then walked to the door. “I suggest you either get to your bed and sound proof it or get out of the room.” With that she left.
“Mist?” Molly whispered, crouching down in front of him. “Mist… are you ok-?” She was cut off when he grabbed her. But, this time, he made no move to hurt her, instead he simply held her. Swallowing, she tentatively stroked his hair.
“Don’t worry,” he breathed, “I’ll be okay.”
“How can she do that?” Molly demanded, “how can she treat you like that? It’s not right, it’s… inhumane.”
“I deserve it,” he replied sadly, “for what I did to her.” He wouldn’t elaborate instead he tightened his on her and rested his head against her shoulder. Lips trembling, Molly didn’t resist, she just hugged him back.

~/.~

“So,” her mother said, when dinner was finished, “how is everyone?” Mutely, Molly grinned and gave the thumbs up. Across from her, her father launched into a long talk about all the stuff that needed doing in the house over the next week to get it sorted. However, Molly couldn’t concentrate on his words. Her eyes kept drifting upwards to the ceiling, worried about Mist. What was she going to do? There wasn’t anything that she could do to stop Bree from reversing the corrosion. But if that happened, she wouldn’t be able to help Mist.
There were still questions that needed answering: Why was Bree so angry? What had he done

to get that kind of treatment? If Bree succeeded, Molly would never get an answer.
“Alright!” her mother announced, dragging Molly from her thoughts, “I suggest we get an early night. Then we can get to work on the house tomorrow.” For once, Molly didn’t complain.
Upstairs, she changed into pyjamas in the bathroom before settling down on the floor beside Mist.
“What’s going to happen now?” she asked.
He smiled slightly. “You

are going to go to bed, I’d suggest soundproofing as well. Especially at midnight.” He stared at the floor solemnly.
“Why?” she demanded, “c’mon. Please, just tell me. If I’m going to be able help you, I need to know.”
He sighed. “When I was first imprisoned, I was… very angry. They hadn’t been able to fully constrain my magic, they still haven’t actually, so my spells still had some effect. I blamed Bree for my capture and… pretty much everything. So, my magic was directed at her full of venom and malice and anger and… basically, loads of negative emotions.” He bit his bottom lip. “Now, because of me… she suffers from Nightmares. I mean proper Nightmares, things so powerful that they torment your every sense and drive you to the brink of insanity. The only place she can sleep is… you’ll see.”
Frustrated, Molly just gave an exasperated sigh and stamped to her bed. Pulling the duvet to her chin, she stared at the ceiling. The spirals were glowing softly. “Good night,” she whispered.
“Night,” he replied.
At about midnight, Molly’s eyes snapped open. There was the sound of running footsteps. Bree. The door was closed but the black haired simply melted through it. She was clutching her head and her face was contorted. Her eyes were wide and rolling in her head. Yelling in either fear or pain, she staggered over Mist and grabbed his shoulders.
“You bastard,” she screamed, “you did this! You- argh!” She collapsed to the ground, head in her hands. “No!” she yelled swinging her arms out suddenly, “get away! I’ll kill you! Get away!” She