Darkness The Diary of Samantha Owen (7 page)

“Don´t leave my dear Gabriel, I know that you have something for me.”

Intrigued, he turned again to the door and entered. The door closed by itself, leaving the house dark. He could see perfectly in the dark, so he entered a little further until arriving to a lounge lighten by a very small beam of light which floated above a small round table.

“Take a seat my dear guest.”

The witch was sitting at the other end of the table staring at him fixedly. He wasn´t scared of her, but so much mystery intrigued him.

“What do you want young man?” the witch enquired with a paused voice.

“What is your name?”

“You come in search of my help and you don´t even know my name”, she exclaimed surprised. “I think that you should leave young man. You don´t know what you are getting into.”

“Listen to me well false witch, I know perfectly where I am, so answer me what I am asking you.”

The witch looked at him and got up from her chair.

“Very well my dear young man. My name is Niv,” she exclaimed triumphantly. “The most powerful witch of this wilderness.”

After a moment of pause, Gabriel reflected and decided to be more respectful with the witch.

“Lady Niv, I would like to know how I can use this stone to find a wizard.”

He was taking the stone from his pocket when the witch made a gesture with her hand to bring it to her in order to inspect it.

“Oh!! You cannot possibly know what you have in your hands. This Stone belongs to the very same Phoenix, the immortal wizard. It is very difficult to get something like this. Where have you got it from?”

“Someone gave it to me.”

“And what do you want to do with it?”

“I want you to cast a following spell to find its owner, I want to find Phoenix.”

“A young man like you would like to find Phoenix?” the witch started to laugh resoundingly, she thought that the lad was having a joke at her expense. She looked at the serious face of the young man observing her. He was not going to leave without an answer. “Very well, and what do I receive in return?”

“I have a lot of gold and precious stones to pay you with.”

“That is fine, I will do it,” saying this and taking the stone in her small hands, the witch went to another room to look for her enchantment tools. She left the powerful stone on top of the worktop, but couldn´t give it back to him. She opened one of the windows that faced the forest and lifted her hand diligently, drew whichever stone to her hand and closed the window forcibly. In a rapid game of hands, the vulgar stone adopted the form of the magic stone that previously rested in the hands of the young son of the night. She returned with the tools and the false stone in her hand. She put them all on the table under the attentive watch of Gabriel. The witch was not going to do anything to the stone. It was an ordinary stone which had never belonged to any wizard. She thought that she was going to trick him like she did to all of the locals who came to see her. She thought to take a part of it, so that she could live longer.

Gabriel forgot about the strange noises that he had heard come from the back part of the house when he watched, puzzled with how the witch mixed potions on the table. All of a sudden, she started to pour an intense blue liquid from a small container over the stone. When the liquid touched the stone, it started to shine, lighting up the whole room. Gabriel was so fascinated that he did not see how the witch smiled maliciously. Little by little the light of the stone extinguished until everything was dark. Without expecting it Gabriel felt how the witch’s hands touched his head until he remained unconscientious.

The witch made use of this to do what she did best. She put her hands to the young man’s chest and slowly separated his right hand, taking with her the small thread of white light connected to the palm of his hand. She was taking a small part, good and heavenly with which the sons of the night were blessed.  Rarely had she had the occasion to fool one of them and she wasn´t going to miss the chance. Little by little she took this fine thread to a small jar that she hung round her neck. When she put it in she smiled, satisfied and awoke the young man.

“That is it done, young man.”

Gabriel was confused but, according to him, had not lost any detail of all that the witch had done. He assumed that he had not been tricked. The witch gave him the stone in his hand. It was no longer grey, now the stone was blue.

“Within two nights there will be a full moon. Put the stone in the earth and it will show you the way to your objective.”

Gabriel agreed and he gave her all the gold he had with him. Looking at the stone that he held in the palm of his hand he went home, with a strange sensation, but satisfied for having found someone who could truly help him. Now he was a little closer to reencountering his love. When he found Phoenix he would be happy again, like he had been that night.

The witch looked at how the innocent young man went into the distance. She knew that his heart was not pure as soon as he entered the house. She really didn´t know how
he had found such a difficult stone to find, belonging to the wizard Phoenix. But thanks to her cleverness she could change it for another when she went into her study to get the tools, as well as tricking him she could take advantage of his youth to prolong her life. The day had been perfect. She could leave this place and take the stone to its master. The most powerful wizard of all time!

Gabriel was tired after remembering everything that had happened that afternoon. He had not slept well for a long time, but
on this occasion he gave in to his tiredness and rested the whole night dreaming with his sweet Elizabeth.

A few rooms down, Eric could be found sitting on a bed with Samantha leaning on his body. He could not stop looking at her. He caressed her back thoughtfully. It had been an hour since Samantha had fallen asleep, but he had not left yet. He remembered how he had embraced her only a short while before.
Oh, how her warm body felt against his and the fresh aroma of her hair.

“I am a lost cause”, h
e had whispered as he held her.

He could not bear to se
parate himself from her. At that moment she was the only person he cared about. His only desire was to be with her. He feared that one day she might no longer want to be with him. He knew that she wanted them to be together but he couldn´t imagine how much love Samantha felt for him. He knew that sometimes he confused her, but on occasions he couldn´t avoid feeling a profound pain knowing that their time together was coming to an end. Each time he looked at her he was fighting with himself, he knew the things that he shouldn´t do, but his love for her pushed him to do what she wanted. He knew that he could not last much longer without kissing her again. He knew that within a short time, he would give in and fall at her feet.

As he reflected upon his situation with Samantha, he thought that he had never had or felt a love like this. She was different from all other girls that he had known.
Inquiring into his own past he remembered, his tormented relationship with Susan.

They had met in their infancy and so
on they became best friends. Their friendship was so strong that it was strange to the people who knew them; but they trusted each other completely. As they grew, the feelings of both changed. At first Susan fell deeply for Eric. When she realized that she wanted to be with him, not just because he was her best friend but because she felt something for him, she told him. To begin with Eric didn´t believe her. He couldn’t believe that his best friend and confident, that his pillar of support could have fallen in love with him. He saw it as something impossible. It even angered him because he didn´t understand it. Susan cried for a long time, but decided not to make more comments and forget about him. Even after this situation they continued to be friends. But a few years later Eric started to feel attracted to Susan in a way that he had never felt before. He liked it. At last he understood the situation that he found himself in with Susan and he started to look at her in the same way that she had looked at him not so long ago. When he was with her, he felt almost happy. But when he was alone and he came back to reality he would get annoyed with himself for not being able to tell her what he truly felt for her. Until one day when he got tired of being annoyed without solving anything and being tired of hating anyone who got close to her, he told her. He told her at a party and cut no strings, not even a little delicacy as Eric remembered. Hearing these words leaving Eric´s mouth, Susan didn´t know what to say. They moved away from the people and sat alone on a bench, under a broken lamppost. Eric didn´t know what to do, nor how to behave. All of sudden Susan started crying. She cried and cried without Eric being able to do anything. And when she finally stopped, she scolded him. She got angry with Eric, because she couldn´t believe that only a short while back he had disregarded her in such a way, making no effort to understand her and now he was telling her that he had fallen in love with her.

“It is too late now
,” Susan sighed.

After hours of arguing, they drew apart for a while. They both felt hurt and let down. But their friendship was unbreakable. They forgot the fights
and after a while went back to being friends. The relationship between them had changed, they felt renewed. Little by little the friendship led them to unexpected love. At that time both felt attracted to each other, they decide to try giving it a go, this time the love flooded the hearts of the two youngsters. They were fine for a while, they were happy, or that is what Eric thought was happiness at that time. Although little by little they felt that their love was vanishing. The reality was that it was all an illusion; they did not love each other. Susan was full of jealousy and Eric could no longer bear that situation. Finally, they broke up.

The memories of that fleeting courtship flew around in Eric´s mind. After reliving that instant from the past, he could confirm that what he felt for Samantha was different. And with her he had found his true happiness. He knew that he could speak to her about anything without stirring up an argument. Seeing the thoughts of the beautiful girl, he understood her way of being. He knew perfectly what he felt for her. He would never feel jealousy seeing her with another man, nor would he accuse of
anything without asking her first. He couldn´t get angry with her, because he knew that he really loved her and her happiness and wellness was the only important thing for him. At that moment, Eric was still not too clear on what happiness was; he simply knew that seeing her smile, his heart and soul filled with joy and hope, of love and peace. He didn´t know what it meant for others, but for him, that was his happiness.

Making this affirma
tion from the depth of his soul made an enormous smile appear on his face. He continued to watch her fixated. He embraced her strongly for a second and gave her a kiss on her forehead. Then he got up from the bed and decided to write how much he loved her. Before leaving, he turned round and saw how she slept for one last time. After this he went to his room, he had a lot to write.

Chapter
5

The light filled the room when I woke up, I felt like something was missing but I didn´t know what. I tried to look for a bathroom without finding one, the house was very big and I didn´t remember Eric telling me where it was. I turned to go down another corridor when I found Gabriel.

“The bathroom is over there,” he signaled with his long fingers.

“Thank you,” I said plainly.

“Wait.”

I waited expectantly.

“I wanted to know what you think you will do when we get to the Kingdom.”

“I don´t know, why?” I asked confused.

“Well, I was thinking that seeing as these days we will be staying in Eric´s house, that when we arrive we can stay in my house if you wish,” he started to walk while talking to me and I followed him. “It is quite big and is closer to the training ground and the Counsel.”

I didn´t know why such friendliness, but if Gabriel really knew my sister then maybe I could find some sort of proof of it in his house. Or some clue as to her whereabouts.

“Of course we can stay there. Thank you very much.”

“We have arrived.”

Without realizing it he had brought me to the bathroom that I sought after.

“Thank you.”

He agreed and left. He still had that somber aspect even though he tried to disguise it. He had an outer shield, educated and discreet, but I knew that his inner being was not that way. His eyes revealed his evilness.