Ellimere the Strange - Chapter 3

Chapter 31

Fallon and Katy made their way back up to Gareham castle completely clueless about what Gerda had said. So instead of going to see how Cali was doing they followed her advice and went to the Common Room up on the second floor. They both seemed to be thinking similarly, that the woman was a daft old bat. But nevertheless they both followed her advice. The girls sat around in the Common Room for quite a few hours before heading around to their dormitories at half-past-one. The Castle didn’t have a rule about a curfew so most of the students stayed up very late. The Castle’s dormitories were put into sectors, so the girls had to walk through the higher residency to get to their own. They walked along the Higher Residency and looked at Cali’s door. They didn’t stop to knock but they looked as they continued to walk. And they disappeared around the corner. The next half hour was very quiet. The girls were the last to walk these halls. Then Cali woke up. She stared at the ceiling for a while, and tried to figure the reason for why she had a headache. As she realised, she sat up and looked around the room and saw Nathan fast asleep on the floor. The room wasn’t very light, but she could see has face. She smiled as he snored softly. She got up and turned on the lamp that was in the corner. He didn’t wake, so she was glad. She went into the bathroom and filled the sink with some cold water. As she splashed her face she looked into the mirror and shook her head as she stared at her reflection. She didn’t like herself very much and always put herself down. She turned around and saw Nathan standing in the doorway.2

“Oh hey,” she said, “you’re awake.”3

Nathan smiled at her. God he’s so cute when he sleeps… she thought.4

“How are you feeling?”5

“Quite refreshed actually, considering this throbbing headache.”6

He smiled at her and went back to the main room. He went to stare out of the window in the corner. Cali splashed her face again and went to join Nathan. She stretched and yawned as she entered the room.7

“Oh god…” she yawned.8

The happiness that Cali had felt for a moment disappeared and she threw herself onto her sofa. Her eyes began to fill with tears again and she shook her long brown about to cover up her face. Then she sat up again.9

“I, um, I am gonna go for a walk okay? You can stay here if you want…”10

“Are you okay Cali?”11

“I uh, just need some fresh air.”12

On that she picked up her keys and closed the door behind her, running down the corridor. Her long hair floating around behind her. She slowed to a walk again when she got to the Main Hall and wiped her face with her sleeve. She couldn’t stop the tears but she could go somewhere no one could see them. So she thanked the Commander Evan in silent thought for leaving the doors open all of the time and headed outside. She followed the path that led around to the training courts and the helicopter pad and up the path on the side of the hill to her most favourite place at the top of it. There was a Willow tree and a spring here. No electrical light could be seen here, even from the Castle. All she wanted was the Moon’s light to sooth her skin. Cali knelt down next to the spring and looked up at the sky, staring at the moon’s radiance and the stars as the shone above her. If only she could fly up to them then she wouldn’t have anything to fear. Even death wouldn’t make her afraid... the next moment she knew a cold voice sounded.13

“You know this used to be my favourite place to come until I went away…” this voice made her jump. She felt a shiver in her spine.14

“Who are you?”15

“I am Gabriel, you are Cali Northfield are you not?”16

“Yeah, I am.”17

“It is okay, you do not need to be afraid.”18

Cali looked up at him and saw his smile. He was quite handsome, worn but handsome…19

“Do I know you?”20

“In a manner of speaking yes. Your spirit knows of me, but you do not.”21

Is this guy for real? What the hell is going on? She thought.22

“Please can we go somewhere more secluded?”23

“Yeah, sure,” Cali said confused, “Follow me.”24

She climbed up off of her knees and led the way back down the hill. So much for silence. So she followed the route she had followed previously back to her room. Goddammit, can’t I get a moments quiet in this place? They stopped outside her room. Gabriel waited patiently for Cali to open her door. She swung it open and…25

“WHAT THE FUCK? What happened, are you okay?”26

“Uh, uh, yeah, just peachy.”27

Whatever had broken into her room had dislocated and gashed Nathan’s arm from its socket. It had somehow entered her room without breaking down the door, and ripped apart nearly everything in her room, then broken out through the window that Nathan was looking out of earlier that morning. Cali turned around looking at the mess.28

“Um could you, like, help me please?”29

“Oh yeah, yeah sorry.”30

She twisted his arm back into its socket and wrapped up his arm with a piece of material off of her shirt. Gabriel held it outstretched for her. After much yelling and gasping from Nathan she had wrapped it up.31

“Oh quite being a wimp.”32

“You’d be like this if some sort of demon thing broke in to the room and attacked you.”33

“A demon? What did it look like?” asked Gabriel.34

“I don’t know, I was too busy hiding from it, but it still found me.”35

“You must have seen what it looked like Nathan,” said Cali.36

“Since when are you interested in demons and stuff like that?”37

“Nathan stop being so full of shit and tell me what you saw.”38

“Okay, sorry. Well it looked like me or you, but it was really tall like eight foot or something. His face was really worn down, you couldn’t tell if it was human.”39

“Danagar,” said Cali and Gabriel. Cali looked at Gabriel, he did vice versa.40

“What? How did you know that Cali?”41

Nathan looked at both of them confused.42

“Okay now what is going on and who is he?”43

“Nathan, this is Gabriel. Gabriel…  Nathan.”44

“Hi.”45

“Nathan. I have to tell you something very important, you have to believe me.”46

“Okay, go on then.”47

Cali sat down and looked at Nathan.48

“I am not Cali Northfield, I am Ellimere Huntervale. I am seven hundred years old.”49

Nathan stared blankly at her.50

“I went into hiding seventeen years ago after I found out that my best friend, Danagar was a traitor. He had been working to resurrect his Mistress Orrana. I found out that he was killing people for her resurrection. He told me when he returned he would hunt me until I was dead. And so I moved to Leicester and stayed with the family that he had killed as their adopted daughter. When I went to my place at the top of the hill and Gabriel turned up, I decided that my time was through as Cali and that I needed to throw away my disguise.”51

“Really?”52

“Yes. I am sorry for lying to you for so long.”53

“Miss Ellimere, we must go home,” said Gabriel.54

“Not yet, you can return I have some friends I need to apologise to.”55

“Okay. I will see you later.”56

“Yes.”57

Gabriel turned around and disappeared. Ellimere stood up and turned around slowly. She held her hand flat at her side, palm facing forward towards the door. Just at that moment, Commander Evan stopped in the doorway. Ellimere had her eyes closed and she couldn’t see him there. She whispered a few words and her disguise shattered. A thousand shards of her former identity fell slowly into the carpet. The magic that had once held them together gathered together in an orb in front of her and was absorbed into her chest. Evan stood gob smacked at what he was seeing. He looked as though he was about to faint, but he stood strong on his legs. Her long black hair fell straight past her knees and her long dress swayed around as she moved. She opened her eyes and saw him in the doorway with his mouth open.58

“Hello Evan. I see you know the truth.”59

“The truth?”60

“Yes, well I am no longer Cali Northfield now. I am Ellimere.”61

Ellimere Huntervale in their world was known as…62

“Ellimere the Strange?”63

“Yes.”64

“Oh god.”65

As he finished speaking he fell to the floor. She walked towards his unconscious body as it lay on the floor and tapped his face to wake him up. A few minutes later he came round.66

“Agh, it wasn’t a dream.”67

“I am afraid not Mr Campbell. Please don’t lose consciousness again.”68

“I-I-it’s okay. D-d-don’t worry.”69

Nathan meanwhile was still staring at her in confusion. He hadn’t seen her face yet. Evan scrambled to get up off of the floor and kept on falling slightly as he got up. Ellimere was surprisingly beautiful and very tall. She was everything that the books about her had described. But her history wasn’t well spoken about. She helped Evan around the corner of her door and sat him down gently on a step that wasn’t covered in debris.70

“Well wh-what happened here then?”71