Chapter One - Sylvie

Sylvie

          You hear those stories don’t you? In magazines, on the news, on the street. Everywhere. There are stories of fear, neglect, cancer and betrayal. I’m guilty of reading a few on my break, I like it because the whole activity makes me realise that my life isn’t so bad and that it has some significant, poignant meaning.

          Not once did I ever contemplate that one of those things would ever happen to me. It had of course and it was all down to two of my so called friends who thought it would be funny to stand in the centre of the AstroTurf and shout from the top of their lungs that my mum was crazy.

          She’s not la de da crazy. I mean, she doesn’t talk to herself or count how many cracks are in the pavement and such but she’s emotive. She psyches herself up about the smallest of things like completing the shopping but it can just be something just as minimal that switches her to suicidal.

          Life’s tough for me and Amy at the best of times, now they’d really pushed all the wrong buttons. I’d been home for lunch to see if mum was all right, Amy had been home earlier and had screamed at her and told her it was all her fault. You can’t blame Amy for being angry and hurt, just like it wasn’t poor mum’s fault that she was suffering. It’s hard to cope with the tribulations of being a teenager sometimes never mind a mental illness.

          ‘I’m really, really sorry Sylvie.’ Carly whines at me as I pull out the red wooden chair from behind my desk. ‘I don’t know what came over me.’

          ‘No you’re not sorry. Not yet, but you will be. If word reaches the forbearers they’ll execute her. But of course you already know that don’t you?’ Carly’s eyes widen in horror, her left hand flies to her mouth as she gasps for breath.

          ‘Gosh, look if anything comes of this I’ll swear that it was just a joke between friends.’ I feel my eyes glower at her, if she were to be wearing red now she wouldn’t stand a chance of staying upright. Friends? What planet had she been on for the past hour? I have no friends. Everybody has gone into hiding since the big announcement. And yet here she is telling me that she understands

          ‘No because if they do find out you’ll be history. My mother’s illness is not a joke. If you’d seen how torn Amy had been you’d get that into your thick skull!’

          ‘I’ve said I’m sorry. What else can I do?’

          ‘You can start by getting the hell away from me.’ She lowers her head and then smiles playfully. I clench my fists, ready to attack her with whatever nonsense leaves her mouth next.  

          ‘Kenzie wants to see you tonight.’ She pulls herself up onto the caramel brown table, allowing her legs to swing back and forth. ‘Right where the old alley lies round the back of the school. Quarter past four suit you?’ I roll my eyes clockwise. She and Marie have been trying to set me up with him since the day we’d met. Of course, every time they’d tried to set us up, Kenzie had refused to have anything to do with me in that way and that he just liked me as a friend.

          I’d found that I’d loved him ever since we’d glided over Molten Falls at Hephaestus’ Cauldron, he’d originally planned to go with his friend Rob but he’d chickened out at last minute. I wasn’t brave, I mean I couldn’t stand being in a swimming pool let alone thousands of feet up from the lava that was bubbling below. Somehow, Kenzie has always had that effect on me; he was always making me strive for better when the odds were five hundred to one. Maybe that’s how come I’d allowed myself to fall in love with him. It was easy enough to do right? At the same time though I felt ridiculous for feeling something for him, knowing that he didn’t feel the same way about me.

          ‘Quit playing games with me.’ I snap.

          ‘I’m not. Honestly, he does. It’s perfect.’ I don’t know what she meant by perfect but I’d already decided that I wasn’t going to meet him. I’d probably go and he wouldn’t be there and then they would make me the butt of their jokes for the rest of the duration. Well, it wasn’t going to happen. Not tonight. Not ever.

          ‘I thought Kenzie wasn’t interested in dating.’ Kimberly sidles up beside me. Carly’s jaw hardens.

          ‘He is he just doesn’t show it as much as everybody else.’ She protests. ‘Just because he’s not like all the other guys bragging about their conquests doesn’t mean he’s any different.’ Kimberly’s hands fly up to surrender.

          ‘All right, jeez, I was only saying.’

          My heart freezes at the sight of Kenzie hurrying in through the open door. He races around the room, making sure that every chair was in its place and that there was no rubbish left around in the open spaces.

I swallow hard as my eyes watch eagerly as he runs his fingers into his short, dark brown locks then lowers them to the base of his neckline and down to his yellow and red tunic that bulks out because of his toned torso. I will myself to look away, surely he’d realise that I was staring at him like some petulant stalker at some point and then what? His right arm flops beside him, his eyes focusing on everyone else but me.

‘Sir’s coming. He’s got someone with him.’ Everybody in the room begins moving to their seats, the scraping of the wooden legs echo off the walls along with the mixed chattering of voices. Kenzie’s big, round emerald eyes latched on mine and I feel my heart slowly begin to beat again, I can hear the blood pumping through my veins as his thick, red lips twitch into a warm smile. I give him a smile back, knowing fine well that I was turning the darkest shade of tomato red. He takes his seat without saying another word while the curiousity bubbles like the desire that was motioning through me.

         

Chapter One - Leah

Leah

            Slap bang in the middle of all of the chaos, where I exist is Gaea’s Forest. If you were to be the unlucky one gliding over Episkopos you’d just make out the resemblance of that to Mickey Mouse’s head, only difference is, is that it’s a much distorted, multi-coloured version of the Disney character. We have the best of surroundings there. We have trees which are as green as our lawns, home grown fruit and vegetables that are hand-picked and steamed, parks where everybody knows your name for good or bad, shopping centres that sell the coolest of gadgets and our school is situated here.

            What you’d also see while up above this prison are three diamond like spaces. Each of them are bordered by graphite wired fences with signs telling us bystanders to keep our mitts off otherwise we’ll be begging for death and it won’t come. I remember a while back that a young boy placed his hands onto it and soon after he began shaking. His eyes were bloodshot, the colour drained from his face and fingers but his chest was still rising and falling as if nothing was happening. I’d watched as the Ministry sent the crucifiers. They’d rolled him in a big, black sheet and they’d taken off quickly.

That was when the Ministry realised we were growing tired of being on the side-lines, after that they’d placed forbearers, three in each space, to make sure none of us ever made an attempt to get in ever. This had seemed to work. Plus two to them. Minus two to us. 

            Bending my knees I tilted the ski to the right and rode over a wave. The waters of Poseidon’s Ocean weren’t safe at the best of times, today though they seem to be on their best behaviour. I have just passed the Achati River and prepare to turn right as another wave meets the brunt of the front of the Jet Ski.

             Riding about on these waters is a big risk for me. Firstly because I’m not too great at riding a jet ski and secondly he could have been watching me from afar. I clutch the handlebars hard and desperately try and shake the thought from my mind. To think of him now would surely end up with me falling into the water and being some mermen’s lunch.

            To be honest, that sounds quite appealing. There’d be no going home to Ellie moaning at me to tidy my room, no Henna daydreaming about my hapless older brother, Steve and I can forget that ever a boy like him exists.

            I approach the docks of Acitta Trove and unmount my vehicles; my feet feel the way across the blanket of white and black ice. This is the part I dread too. Falling on my bottom and having him watch me would be so humiliating! I wouldn’t be able to look him in the face again.

 As I crawl nearer to Rosie’s cabin I take note of the icicles that have spouted above her pine window panes and the brown panel above the small black step. I catch sight of her then, walking hunched over as if she’s just been kicked in the stomach by some thug. She is wearing her black blazer over her light blue tunic; the bottom of her dark blue tights have been swallowed into the snow. Her boots are now lined with a thick coating as she stands in front of me. She kicks the brown fence with such force that it begins to keel over.

‘It’s such a good job I don’t have a camera. Your face would break it for sure.’ I say playfully to her but her eyes don’t meet mine. Her long light brown hair was tousles over her face, her cheeks are bright red with the bitter cold.

‘Har, har!’  Her eyes roam the area suspiciously, as if it’s her first time outside. I watch as her eyebrows raise slightly, her jaw opening inch by inch.

‘I’ve never seen that cabin before.’ It’s not like all the others that are dotted around the street. This one has mahogany painted planks on the outside instead of the usual light auburn that Rosie’s has. Its windows are larger too, more square than rectangular like ours and the lawn was immaculate. Rosie’s is a mass of mile high, uneven snow. Theirs were hardly covered at all.

‘That’s impossible. Things just don’t appear like that.’

‘I know right?’ There’s a big clatter that stops us, our eyes focus on a moving figure, the gate slams and suddenly she comes into view. She is a bit taller than me, three inches more in estimation. Her shoulder length black hair hides her gold hooped earrings, eye shadow licks at her eyelids, blusher caresses her cheeks and red lipstick paints her thick lips.

That’s not what gets my attention though. She is wearing a red, silky chemise which has black eyelash stitched lace at the sides, a little black bow was in place between her cleavage, making them the centre of attention.

At all four corners of Episkopos we are ordered to wear uniforms. Rosie’s consists of a blue tunic to represent the water and black tights with blue ribbons weaving over the top with black, patent leather loafers. My tunic was light green to represent the green grass of home; the trousers are the same colour with dark green ribbons and matching loafers.  How is she able to wear what she wants and not be condemned to torture? A door flies open from somewhere, I realise it’s the front door. Two women are standing with their arms round each other, both dressed in golden robes.

‘You’d better get back here now young lady!’ The woman on the left threatens her tone of voice flat and nonchalant. She has shoulder length caramel blonde hair and is smaller than the woman beside her. The girl doesn’t stop, she keeps on walking in her six inch stiletto heels, sashaying her hips as she goes. ‘I’m warning you!’ She stops and turns to face them.

‘Do as you please. You always do. What’s to say this is any different?’ The woman sighs and turns to the woman beside her who I assume is her partner.

‘I give up. You sort her.’ She leaves the doorway, leaving the remaining woman to deal with her. A hand runs through her short, jet black hair, her eyes narrow and her chin squares.

‘Come on darlin’.’ She coos as if the girl is a lost kitten. ‘We can work this out. Come back right now and we’ll talk hmm?’

‘That’s all you ever want to do!’ She yells. ‘What is the point in that? The world is going to end and all you want to do is talk?’ She shakes her head. ‘I thought you were different. I thought you’d listen to me.’ The woman catches us staring and smiles apologetically.

‘I am listening or I would if you gave me a chance to. Please, let’s just me and you go somewhere quiet and I’ll listen to anything you’ve got to say.’

‘She going to be with you?’ 

‘No. I promise it’ll just be me and you.’ The girl walks back to the cabin but as she shuts the gate her eyes meet us. Her eyebrows furrow, her breathing becomes haggard as her chest rises and falls erratically. Her hands fly from the gate.

‘And what are you two gawping at?’ Her hands smooth down her chemise seductively. ‘I know I’m gorgeous but pur-lease I have taste.’ The woman comes out in her slippers and drags her into the apartment.

‘What a tart!’ My voice is thick with disgust and horror. ‘Why haven’t the forbearers got her in custody?’ Rosie shrugs her shoulders.

‘I don’t know. Maybe they are unaware of her.’

‘No, the forbearers never miss a trick. They’d have locked up her freaky deeky parents too.’ She flinches at the word freaky and her cheeks turn a crimson red. It could have been from the cold but chances were very slim as we’d been standing here for ten minutes straight. I rub my hands together in a bid to bring heat. Rosie takes a few steps forward, her head tosses over her left shoulder.

‘We’d best get going.’ She informs adamantly. ‘We don’t want to be late now do we?’ I heave a sigh of frustration and follow suit.

‘I guess not.’ We head towards the docks in silence. 

Chapter One - Rosie

Rosie

            I imagine her. This mysterious woman of which my sensitive, emerald eyes should have lingered on. After so many tedious hours of childbirth her heart should have sang its own acapella verse, her arms should have been aching with want to hold me close and to love me unconditionally.

            Instead I suppose the opposite have happened. She had taken one look at me and thought that I wasn’t good enough. Maybe my eyes had been too big for my round face, my brown hair too thin on my head or perhaps I’d screamed nonstop since I had been born. Some people might say that it’s none of those; that she simply got scared and couldn’t face her responsibilities.

            My Aunty Dionne said once that giving birth to a baby is the most precious, most thrilling experience a woman can have. She’d always say that whenever she caught me scowling at the mention of a birth of a newborn. Sometimes, when she was really poorly she would just giggle and give me a cuddle. It’s those I miss most.

            My thin, pink fingers run along the brown, polished wooden lid and I sigh softly. God must really hate me. What other explanation is there for this kind of torture? Why else would he be putting me through hell? To tell anyone about God would be foolish anyway, the fore bearers would send me into oblivion for sure. The problem with Episkopos is that only fools will believe in the simplest things.

            Records say that Episkopos was founded in 095 B.P. All those years ago two large planets collided into each other, and then another two met them head on. This split the land mass into four quarters. Far west is where we live, Poseidon’s Ocean. If you’ve read about the myths you’ll know that he was the God of the sea and a merman. Some people say they exist. Some say that it is best staying a myth. I don’t know what to think.

            I wipe my eyes then pull off the lid in one swift movement. My fingers ruffle through the bits of paper and photographs, a sense of urgency ripples through my blood like a bullet would through the air, hitting its prime target.

            Anyone else would relish this. The curiousity of the unknown, getting to track down a missing relative and discovering little details of information that was unknown before. I would rather have a normal upbringing, a loving family who’d fight for me. Instead I’d drawn the short straw. Story of my life.

            If only there was a way to stop this insanity. Once and for all I could be what I was supposed to be, not what I wanted to be. My fingers tuck themselves into the palms of my hand, trying to bestow the anger that was building slowly. If only I could think without -.

            SLAM!

            She’s home. God, she’s early.

            ‘Rosie!’ Brenda calls up; her deep, musky voice bounces of the walls and travels into my eardrums making my ears ring. ‘Are you here?’ I roll my eyes anti clockwise at her pathetic question. Who did she think was here? I could hear the rustlings of carrier bags and I smile to myself. ‘Olly, you keep your mitts off those chocolate fingers! Don’t you eat enough?’

            ‘But mum.’

            ‘No buts. Hand’s off!’ Olly gives a whimper, a sign of his despair. ‘Rosie!’ I can see her now, flicking her long, peroxide blonde hair over her shoulders, her hands on her bony hips while her left foot taps away in an annoyed fashion. I felt the corners of my mouth pull up into a grin but stop myself. Now is not the time to be smiling.

            I avert my eyes to the other brown, polished box that has been sitting beside me throughout my search; my heart skips a beat. I’d completely forgotten about it. I take the box from my lap and place the other one onto it.

            The walls have just shaken with the velocity of her sigh, now the sound of her four inch heels are making the worn floorboards creak and my heart palpitate with panic. She wouldn’t dare come in here! Not after last time. She wouldn’t! No! The image of her tearing all my treasured possessions into shreds replayed in my mind. I swallow hard.

            ‘She’ll use this as a weapon.’ A voice whispers within the walls of my brain. ‘This will make you look badly if she finds them again. Rosie! What are you doing just sitting there? DO SOMETHING!’ Running on autopilot my hands grasp the edges of the lid and place it on top of the small but spacious box which secures the other half of me. The half that no one could ever know about again.

            A creak echoes through my ears and rattles its way into my eardrums as loud as a thousand gunshots. It was too late now. She’d caught me. I shove the box underneath my bed and wrap a strand of chocolate brown hair behind my right ear. The door creeps open ajar, her eyes lingering on where my left arm had flown from. Had she seen? The lines on her forehead crease as her eyebrows furrow into a frown, making her small nose appear huge.

            ‘I hope that wasn’t what I think it was.’ I shake my head adamantly at her.

            ‘Of course not.’ I shrug half-heartedly with half a smile, hoping that it would feign an innocence that my voice had failed to convey. ‘It’s just a project for school. That’s all.’ Brenda’s chest expands and deflates as the open ocean would the golden sand on the beach. A smile flickers across her face, causing the frown lines to disappear. It didn’t reach her brown eyes.

            ‘Good.’ Her eyes roam the room, her pink tongue clicking in her mouth. ‘Speaking of school shouldn’t you be there?’

            ‘It’s lunchtime mum. Nobody stays there anymore. The dinners are just revolting.’

            ‘Right. When are you due back?’ Her eyes glitter with interest, the nerves in my fingertips prickle. Could she really care? Just this once?

            ‘Half past. Double Science too.’ I lay my head in my hands. I was a goner. Homework had been the last thing on my mind and now mentioning Science had totally propelled me back into last week when we’d been told what to do.

            ‘The whole schooling system’s a joke! Fancy teaching all you kids useless stuff like that.’ I couldn’t help but wonder what subjects she would have us studying if she was in charge. Feminism perhaps? Or maybe even Occultism? It was hard to tell with her sometimes.

            ‘They don’t see it like that.’ I pull myself from the bed and haul my black backpack over my small shoulders. I wait, hoping that the knotting in my stomach is because of the curse of being a girl rather than that of instinct. I wait. And wait. And wait.

            Nothing. She spins me around and lets out a gasp.

            ‘What are you still doing with that bag?’

            ‘I’ve always had this. It’s the one that Aunty Dionne gave me two Christmases ago.’ Before she lost her fight with Breast Cancer I want to shout but I don’t, realising that my anger is boiling up at her distaste.

            ‘That is my point. We will have to get you a new one.’

            ‘But-.’ She holds up the palm of her left hand, her way of warning that a discussion isn’t happening.

            ‘But nothing. Dionne has been gone for a long time now. It’s about time you let her go.’ I shake my head, wanting to argue the fact that Dionne had been a big part of both our lives once upon a time. There was no point. I would surely lose it anyway. I hear a giggle from the hallway and find Olly clutching the packet of chocolate fingers that he was forbidden to have. I bit my bottom lip anxiously. He was going to be in so much trouble. He’d opened them. 

            I knelt down to his level and tickle his chin.

            ‘You’re a little tinker aren’t you?’ He giggles while searching for another finger. Pulling out three he shovels them all into his mouth, chewing on half each triumphantly. The springs of my bed mould to their rightful place as the door creaks open.

            ‘What did I tell you?’ Brenda shouts as she swipes them out of his hands. His eyes fill with tears and begins to cry. ‘You can stop that for a start. If you did as you were told you wouldn’t be shouted at would you?’ Olly begins screaming uncontrollably and Brenda sighs heavily. Her eyes glower at me. ‘You should know better. A big girl like you! Really Rosie?’ She shakes her head. ‘Get yourself to school. I don’t want you getting into trouble again. You understand?’ I don’t answer her. I rise to my feet, sparing a glance at Olly who looks at me with such sadness it breaks my heart. There’s nothing I can do for him though. As usual I’m only one girl without an array of hope.

Book Blurb

‘The rules of the elements are contradictory; that water and fire only exist to ruin the other. Yet when they come together, they are the most beautiful parts of life you could ever set your eyes on.’

            Thirteen year old Rosie Campbell has a secret that she can’t tell anybody. She is struggling with the fact that she could be gay. In Episkopos homosexuality is banned along with many other things that we take advantage of. When a new girl arrives in Poseidon’s Ocean it seems that temptation is swinging her way until she receives a letter from someone declaring to be her mother. Will she discover if she’s telling her the truth?

            Thirteen year old Leah Wrenn has one priority; getting her fifteen year old stepbrother, Lawson to notice her. When Lawson announces that he is going out with Lauren, a girl who he has known since he was little her world falls apart. With all the heartbreak she turns to her notebook but she forgets that the Ministry are constantly watching which leads her to be punished. Will she ever get Lawson to see her as more than just a sister figure or is she doomed to be partnered with someone else?

            Thirteen year old Sylvie Robinson wants nothing more than to have a normal family life. With her mum, Jennifer battling Bipolar Affective Disorder and stepdad Les always on call for his job all hopes of that seem impossible. As the new girl from Poseidon’s Ocean appears, she is told that her mother is dead. Her dreams turn to being an individual instead of somebody who is without a mother and a traumatised sister to look out for. With individualism also banned from Episkopos what will happen to her if she takes her aspirations in her hands?

Front Cover

Lady of the Kryptonites

By Blaze Mckenna