Dawne

Flames dance all around me. The smell of burning flesh makes me almost swoon. I can hear the cackling of the fire and the distant jeers of the crowd. “Witch! Witch, burn the witch!” 1

Remorse fills me. I shout “No! I am not a witch!”2

But I know I am lying. Deep down I know what I can do. I wish I couldn’t do what I can, but wishing gets you now where. Suddenly a deep voice booms into my ears, and the figure of a cloaked man stands in the fire. No one seems to see him; in fact, the flames do not even appear to touch him. The mysterious man speaks. “Dawne, you should not be here. You could use your Magick. Use your gift.”3

I know I am going to die. But I do not want to. I want to live. Even if it means using Magick. Despair grips me, and the horrible truth sobers me. The fumes are crawling through my lunges and I cough. “I don’t know how! I don’t know…” 4

I break off and realize I am sobbing. The man lifts his arm and points to me. He says something, but I don’t hear. Without warning a vision grips me. Goosebumps cover me and I open my eyes. Before me stands a boy, about my age, with broken angel wings and piercing green eyes. His pale skin and blond hair make me think of an angel, but there is a foreboding air about him that makes me think otherwise. A crossbow bolt shoots from behind me and pierces his heart. He screams. The sound fills my ears with pain, sorrow and accusations. I want it to be over…5

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I sit up. I am in my bed, in my room, in my house. A light layer of sweat makes me shiver. I am alive. Breathing a sigh of relief I climb out of bed and stretch. I need to find a boy I have never seen before. The boy with the piercing green eyes. In this small town in Essex I have never seen him before. And trust me, I have seen everyone. 7

I look into my mirror as I bring a brush through my long, night- black hair. The fashionable pale skin I have makes me look more like the walking dead, and my stone grey eyes are above dark rings. I stifle a yawn and start dressing into a plain light blue dress. I have business in the town to attend to that involves my beautiful, green eyed boy. 8

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The air in Chelmsford smells heavily of rain and the days first golden rays of sunlight are making their way to the cobbled road. The sight used to make me happy, when I was with my mother. But not now. Now they remind me of my fate. Now they remind me that, like her, I shall be burned. It just shows how no matter how much you help people and how much people love you, as soon as you can do something they can’t, they hate you.10

I stop at a few places to buy a bun and talk to some acquaintances, but soon I am continuing my way down to the centre of the town. I allow my mind to wonder and I am soon smiling sadly at memories with my mother. 11

The sound of footsteps alerts me to my current task. Two women are making their way from the cemetery, both dressed in black. I recognize these women. The older one, Melanie Cooke, is a witch who goes by the name of Blanche Chetwood, and the younger one, Elsie Loveney, is the witch who betrayed my mother. But no one believes me. I gave her a hard, cold glare as she walks past and Melanie/ Blanche gives me a sympathetic smile. 12

I reach the grave yard gates and they swing open with a squeak. Rows and rows of tomb stones seem to go on forever. A mist is moving in and everything is bathed in a pale sunlight. I reach the corner where my family on my mother’s side are all buried. All except for Gwen Chatwyn; my mother. But she is here. Metaphorically. With her sister. But I am not here to kneel at her grave and cry. I have done enough of that. I need The Book. The one about Magick. The one thing that will save me from being burned. 13

My aunt’s grave is freshly cleaned with fresh flowers; a white tulip from Melanie for forgiveness, and an anemone from Elsie. A symbol that she has forsaken my mother. I lay some apple blossoms and a white carnation. Promise and remembrance. “Mother” I say, barely loud enough for anyone to hear. “Help me. Please.”14

A light breeze moves my cloak and darkness takes me…15

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I see my mother walking in the dark cell that held her before she was burned. She is not alone, however. The man in back I saw in my dream is there, with the boy with green eyes. I know they can’t see me, but mother looks at me and smiles sadly. I want so much to hug her, but I can’t. I can only stand here until I am released from this vision. She looks like only a shadow of her former self. Suddenly I realize my mother is actually talking. “…guardian. Please, you mustn’t let her burn. Guide her.”17

Who is my guardian? The Man in Black speaks. His accent is foreign, probably Romanian. “I shall, but there is the question of The Book. She needs to be able to find it in her time of need.”18

The boy with the green eyes just stood there. I cannot tell if he is even listening. My mother nodded her head slowly. “Yes. Yes, what about a spell that will bind me and the book to my sister’s grave? Kale here can help her find it.”19

The boy with green eyes looked up with shock at my mother. Kale. His name is Kale. This is just great. I was going to use The Book to find him, now I need him to find the book. 20

Darkness takes me…21

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I am sitting in the cemetery, twilight flooding between head stones and tombs. I have no idea where to find Kale. I stand up, my knees shaking a bit. I slowly walk with my intention of going home, but my feet walking me in another direction. I find myself in an old part of Chelmsford. It is eerily quiet and I know something is not right. I hear a man shout down from between two houses. I follow the shout and see where everyone is. A mass crowd is packed in between the two houses. They are all looking up at a small ledge sheltered from the sun. I strain my eyes to see what is on the ledge and gasp when I see a boy with blond, blond hair and piercing green eyes. Kale. There is a window not far from where he is and I make up my mind to save him from his current situation. I run into the house, ignoring shouts from servants and the like. I reach the window and climb through. I hear the crowd gasp as I walk along the ledge to where Kale is. He looks up at me with fear in his eyes. “Why are you here? I will kill you.”23

I smile slightly. He doesn’t know who I am. “You are coming with me, Kale.”24

He looks slightly shocked at me knowing his name. “Dawne…?”25

I nod and he looks as though he is seeing a ghost. He takes my out stretched hand and pulls. I feel my feet lifting off of the ground and for a moment I fear that he has pulled me off the ledge. I open my eyes and see I the ground falling away from me. The sun had set and I could not see the ground below me. I looked up at Kale, but I saw no wings. I was sure I was dreaming. I closed my eyes and held tightly to Kale’s hand. Before long I notice we have landed. I open my eyes and look around. I am in a dusty room with candles lining the walls. In the room is a large bed, a vanity table, a mirror and a wardrobe. Everything looks as though it has been in isolation for the past century. Kale is standing on the other side of the room eying my cautiously. I frown thoughtfully. My eyes open apprehension. He seems to avoid sunlight; people want to kill him, the broken wings in my dream and the flying. Kale is a vampire! I gasp and Kale looks at me defensively. “You’re a witch, so I don’t see why you should have a problem.”26

I straighten my dress and look at him as confidently as I can handle. “I need The Book first, or have you forgotten that?”27

Then he surprised me. He laughed. His laugh send shivers down my spine and goose bumps formed on my arms. “Of course you do. I am Kale Lucien Doinel. And as you have figured out, a vampire.”28

He spoke to me as though I was a simple child. Well I was not. “Well, Master Doinel, I am Dawne Evangeline Chatwyn, and I do think that since you knew my mother and can help me obtain The Book. You are obligated to.”29

I knew I sounded like a snob, but it served him right. He looked as though I had slapped him, and I smiled. Kale regained his dignity and looked my up and down. “I think, Miss Chatwyn, that you should find a more suitable attire. There are dresses in the wardrobe.”30

With that he left the room and I looked in the mirror. My dress was torn from climbing through the window and creased from my unplanned nap in the graveyard, and my hair was matted and looked like I had never brushed it in my life. I looked through the wardrobe. All the dressed were dark colours. I picked a deep crimson and black dress. I brushed my hair and let it fall loose down my back. 31

If Kale was to help me find The Book then we had to find it at night. I walked out of the room and through the house. It was ancient. A door stood ajar and candle light came from within it. I walked slowly towards it and inside I saw Kale lying on a sofa by the window gazing out. “We should find The Book now.”32

He looked up, a look of surprise on his face. When he saw me his eyes opened wider than I was sure was possible. He composed himself and stood up. He was half a head taller than me and his long blond hair was tied back with a black ribbon. “Well then, Miss Chatwyn…”33

“Dawne.” I interrupted. His piercing green eyes bore into me and made me fully aware that he could bite me and end my life as soon as he wanted to. “Dawne, The cemetery is a small walk from here, but I could fly us, if you…”34

I didn’t let him finish. I would only fly with him if there was no other choice. “Then we had better get walking, Master Doinel.”35

He smiled slyly. “Kale, Dawne. I am Kale.”36

I felt my face heat up and I was relieved that he had turned to walk out of the room. A sudden excitement bubbled into me. I followed him out of the house and into the dark streets. He was not wrong when he said that the cemetery was a small walk. The cemetery was highlighted in the moon light and the silence weighed down on me. We arrived at my aunt’s grave. I looked at where I put the flowers and frowned. What I hadn’t noticed before was the stone box built into the stone. My mother obviously put a spell on the box so only my presence with Kale’s would reveal it. I knelt down to open it and inside laid a book with a leather cover and inscriptions on the cover. I touched it and the inscriptions began to glow. I opened it and felt what could only be Magick flow through me. I read the page I turned to which seemed to explain Magick to me. I looked at the flower Elsie put down for my mother and it burst into flame. Kale jumped and I smiled triumphantly to myself. I paged through The Book, oblivious to my surroundings. I looked up when Kale spoke. “Dawne, we must go. People are coming here.”37

I heard their footfalls on the ground and put The Book back into the box and stood up. A group of men came towards us wielding ropes and crossbows. It echoed my dream. A crossbow bolt buzzed passed my ear. Using Magick, I used all of my will to stop it. It did. Two inches away from Kale’s chest. Everyone gasped. More crossbow bolts were shot, but every one of them were repelled by an invisible wall. It felt so good to use Magick, but it drew on me. Soon I was tired and I knew I have very little strength left. I looked to Kale. “Fly away…” 38

I couldn’t finish what I was going to say. His strong arm wrapped around my waist and we flew up into the sky. Using the last of the energy and strength I had, I burst forth Magick in the form of fire. Darkness took me…39

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I opened my eyes and found I was on a bed and defiantly not dreaming. My head pounded and I could barely lift my head up to see my surroundings. But I could see Kale. Sitting on a chair next to me, the vampire was staring at nothing. “Kale…”41

My voice was barely a whisper, but his head whipped around and looked at me. “Dawne! You’re awake!” He paused, seeming to think. “Why did you save me?”42

I smiled slightly. How do you tell a creature of the night that you loved them? That all of your dreams spoke of him being the one? That you would die if he did? “My mother told me to.”43

He looked at me in bewilderment. “But she never…”44

“Hush Kale. My mother told me when I was younger to never let the one you love die when you can stop it. So I did. Besides, you saved me when I told you to fly away, did you not?”45

A look crossed his eyes that I could not name. “Dawne, I love you, but you are a witch now, and me a vampire. We would never be able to be in the sun together. You would die before me, and I would not be able to stand loosing you like that.”46

Men. “Then bite me. Please. I would not stand to know I cannot have you. I give up any life I had or could have had for a life with you. Make me a vampire. Please!”47

Desperation hung in my heart. I closed my eyes to block the tears. That is when I felt it. The pain in my neck. A small smile worked its was to my lips. I opened my eyes to look at him. Tears brimmed his eyes, and the green was gone. His eyes looked dead. The pupil was too small to see, and the colour was a light, light blue. Darkness took me…48

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Once again I awoke. I did not feel all that different, but I knew I was. My fingers made their way to my neck and I felt them. The two marks that would set me apart. Happiness filled me. A bitter-sweet thing that I have what I want, but not without loss. It was night time and Kale sat by the window looking out. “Kale. Let’s fly away. Start anew.”50

He looked at me, piercing green eyes locking with my grey ones. “Yes. Lets.”51

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Dearest Melanie,
It comes with great pleasure that I announce my union with Kale Lucien Doinel, a Norwegian vampire. I have found a way around the obvious issues and I have changed my name. I am now Evangeline Dawne- Doinel, the only vampire who can use Magick. I do not need the book anymore, and have left it for you under some zinnia and pink carnations. Please be cautious of Elsie Loveney.
I will always remember you,
Dawne