Dark Harbour: The Tale of the Soul Searcher (45 page)

‘You still have it, don’t you?’ Stella said as she saw the cord of The Akasa Stone around his neck. ‘Why don’t you use it for what you’re supposed to use it for? The reason I gave it to you.’

He shook his head listlessly.

‘You know who I am, don’t you, Jeremy? You know what we are. Why won’t you look inside me?’ She moved closer to him, stepping within his jagged aura, trying to pull his eyes up to look at hers. As ever, they were like buttons, holding everything inside.

‘I waited forever for you. When I lost you, it was a pain I never stopped feeling. And I know you feel that same pain, Jeremy. I know you’re still hurting so much. But I can help heal you.’

‘I don’t know who I was, Stella. You’re talking about a lifetime that I don’t even remember.’

‘Why won’t you try and remember? Why don’t you just search yourself?’

‘I know who I am.’

‘Who are you, Jeremy?’

‘I am Vladimir. Throne of the Fires.’

But all Stella could see before her was the lost little six-year-old, the one she’d swept into her arms as she’d wept with such elation.

‘If that is so, then why are you here?’

Vladimir closed his eyes and then sank to his knees in the wet sand. With both his hands he grabbed the hair on his head as though he was trying to pull it from his scalp, his knuckles turning white, his left hand beginning to weep once more.

‘Love me, Jeremy. Love me again. Abandon this dark path and come with me. I love you.’

‘I don’t love anyone!’ Vladimir cried.

She knelt next to him and put an arm around him. A wave crawled up the beach and swarmed through them. She could feel his black walls crumbling at last, a chink of light through his impenetrable fortress. She gently took his arms and pulled them away from his face.

‘Look at me. Just look at me.’

And he did. And she felt that sweet rush of air on her face like someone had just opened the door between dimensions. The brush of an angel’s wing.

Vladimir closed his eyes tight.

‘Now will you follow, my love?’

‘No,’ he replied as he pushed her away and stood up straight. With the loudest roar that could be summoned from his lungs he once again screamed: ‘No!’

He was Vladimir, Throne of the Fires, Angel of Karma, and he had another soul to search. That hourglass of blood that burned in his mind every single moment of his life. And at every moment he could feel time slipping away, his soul purpose going unfulfilled.

He turned away from her and walked back towards the town, back to where he was going to make his own destiny.

And Stella remained kneeling by the shoreline, staring at the reflection of her moonlit face in the swirling waves. And just like that day twenty-six decades ago, the waves would carry away the tears that now fell from her eyes.

Afterword

If you have a thirst for more then fear not…
There are further tales to read about this strange town, although none has yet slipped through the dimensions and ended up in my possession.
However, not so long back I received a letter from Joseph Kiel that he put through my letterbox (Harbour Master style) in which he told me that the next book is going to be called
Dark Harbour: The Tale of The Night Shiner
.
He said it’s on its way
 

Richard Dutton, March 2016

About the Author

Little is known about the writer Joseph Kiel, only that this is his first novel. Whether he is a resident of this place called Dark Harbour, or whether he is just an observer of it, nobody knows.
In his parallel dimension, Joseph may live in a house just down the road from you. If you can slip through the strands of the time-space continuum, maybe you might bump into him one day. Or maybe he is already secretly amongst us… somewhere… (try
Twitter
).
Joseph’s trans-dimensional counterpart,
Richard Dutton
, is a filmmaker from Sleaford in Lincolnshire. He wrote and co-directed the independent feature film
Shadows of a Stranger
which had the sixth Doctor, Bungle, and the Voice of
The Cube
in it.
Richard continues to write film scripts and maybe he’ll make another film one day, at least in a parallel universe.
To keep up with all things Dark Harbour then here’s yet another link for you:
www.darkharbour.co.uk