You guess what I'm hinting at? I just want to point this out now as it did come up in the first chapter. I wrote this is novel form - which means I didn't place spaces in and use your ordinary paragraph space/liner thing-o. So if sentences are in the wrong place it's not my fault!Spoiler
You haven't missed much. Baylee and Jaidon were introduced - they're the main characters so learn their names! Another thing that happened was Sybil - Baylee's sister - was possessed at the procession of mourning for Mr. and Mrs. Maher (the school janitors). She said that there was danger and the return of the Blue Jay hero. If you didn't get any of what I just said - because neither can I - go back, I say, and read the first chapter!
Also, here is the link to my page. Three words: Join or die! No pressure!
The Salem Witches held the World’s Capitol in their hands, draining the power from its foundations.
Chapter Two:
Tales of the Blue Jay
Chapter Two:
Tales of the Blue Jay
“…At midnight last night, a horrendous murder has befouled the Industrial Parks of Gallagher.” The news reporter put his hand up to the ear piece lodged into the side of his head. “Reportedly, the two victims are Mr. and Mrs. Maher; St. Croix Catholic College’s janitors. The police forces have failed to find any clues which would lead to the unjust killer.” He paused, trying to create tension and it was working! I slid in closer to the T.V., biting anxiously into my lip. “Will this place a damper on things for the Harvest Festival? That’s the real question on everyone’s lips-”
The image on the TV shrunk into a small dot in the middle of the screen. I blinked at it uselessly. What the hell? Peering at the TV screen, I noticed someone was behind me in the black sheen. Mum coughed into the palm of her hand, crossing them again to make her frail and small stature more defiant.
“Mum? I w-was just getting s-started on those c-chores…” Jumping back as I tried to recoil myself, I lost my footing on one of the throw pillows Sybil insisted being in every room of the house and collapsed towards the ground. Groaning, I looked up to see Mum leaning over me. In her hand was the TV remote.
“I was watching that,” I ventured, hoping I wouldn’t feel the hard end of her slipper against my side. It wasn’t that my mother was a bad Mum. She had raised me and my sister all by herself since my Father had died. It’s just when Dad left, he had taken my Mother’s happiness with him.
“We heard all that stuff in church, anyway! You don’t need a second dosage of it.” Mum retorted. “And also, this Bruce guy doesn’t have a single clue about what he is talking about. ‘Will this place a damper on things?’ Someone died for Pete sakes’! That’s the real question: who did it? I wish they’d place Danyo back on, he at least had some compassion.”
I let my shoulders fall; knowing Mum was going to erupt into a lecture about how the old TV news reporter was far superior to the one they had now. “Yes, but it’s interesting!” I could practically feel Mum’s ‘no tolerance’ stares glaring into me.
“You haven’t done your chores, Baylee.” Clamping my eyes shut, I tried to block out her image. Maybe if I closed my eyes tight enough and dreamed I was somewhere else hard enough; I might disappear and end up in the mountains somewhere. Maybe to be attacked by a wolf…or a coyote, either way I wouldn’t have to damn chores!
“Get up, lazy bones. I need those tasks done today!” she nudged my arm with the toe of her slipper. “I have to go to town to find you and your sister something decent to wear to the festival, get that news article I’ve been working on for the pottery barn published and I have to buy you some new socks!” Looking through a lock of brown hair, I spotted what was left of my favourite stripy socks.
Grumbling loudly, I stumbled to an awkward stand. It was enough she making me wear a damn dress to the Harvest Festival, though to make me part with my favourite socks – there was just too much injustice I can take! The smell of blueberry muffins cooling on the window sill made my stomach gurgle. I wasn’t going to ask if I could have one, because I knew the answer, but that wasn’t going to stop me from trying to get my hands onto one of them.
“But Mum, I have to go to school! Why can’t Sybil do it? She gets the whole week off because she’s sick!” I blew the hardest raspberry I could make up the stairs. If Sybil could feel that then my day was complete. My sister let out a fake cough, her voice trailing around the room. I rolled my eyes, pouting my lips in annoyance.
“Don’t be so dramatic.” Mum picked up the pillow I had thrown to the ground and positioned it on the couch. Pushing me towards the door, she handed me a pail. “And anyway, something happened to your sister this morning and you know it. She shouldn’t be doing manual labour right after her traumatic seizure.”
I rolled my eyes, hoping that she didn’t see it. Mum believed anything that anyone said. Of course, Sybil had been out cold ever since we came home, though when she finally came to and Mum told her what had happened, she couldn’t remember any of it only immense pain. To me, that sounds like something out of a sci-fi movie.
“But I’ll get my uniform dirty!” I looked down at my white shirt, the words; St Croix Catholic College was spelt across the top.
“Can’t you remember school was cancelled?” Shoving me in the back; I staggered out the front door, jumping as it came to a defiant close. Grumbling I pulled on Mum’s gumboots. They looked pathetic, but I couldn’t possibly care less! Swinging the pail, I walked through the grassy track towards the barn.
“The one day I want school to be on is the one day it isn’t!”
You could see the whole of Gallagher from our little house. Straining my eyes, I spotted someone chugging along the main road upon a small tractor. What looked like tree remains were placed upon the trailer that was connected to the back. I was still wondering about Zima. What ever had happened to her at the Industrial Parks definitely shook her up. So far I had come to the conclusion that she had seen the murder of Mr. and Mrs. Maher’s. But there was one question that failed all of that; why hadn’t she called the police? Unless Zima was involved with the murder…
Cracking open the barn door, I glanced around the hay covered floor. But that wouldn’t be likely. Killing someone is easier then said, and Zima isn’t one for blood. The barn had been deserted for a year now, and yet Mum still liked it to be clean. Sighing loudly, I grabbed at a broom leaning against the wall. The smell of musk met my nose. I didn’t like the smell of musk. In fact, I just didn’t like cleaning. Gagging over my shoulder, I began to push my way through the muck, breathing through my mouth.
“Nothing to worry about,” I said in a shaky voice.
Looking around, I felt fear beginning to edge around my heart. I never liked barns. Especially big, old scary barns. As if on cue, something fell from the rickety stair case and clattered across the ground. I jumped and squealed, bringing the broom up to my chest. Just like in the horror movies. The dumb chick uses something pathetic to protect herself as if that is ever going to work! Something slinked through tufts of dead grass, stopping a few metres away from me.
“It’s just the cat! Nothing to be scared of,” I laughed nervously, beginning to back away towards the entrance of the barn. Its tail swished behind its head. Lowering itself, the cat pounced towards me, yowling furiously. Cats and I never got on, it was a pure fact. Ever since they had given me the scar on my left cheek, I also began to share their hatred.
Screaming, I began to smash at the floor around me with the broom, creating a thick dust cloud everywhere in the barn.
The cat screeched as it was thrown from my face. It disappeared into pile of hay. Doubling over I began to cough, my eyes watering. Looking around for the exit, I couldn’t see it. Light filtered through the dust, creating shadows over my shoes.
“Just take a hold of yourself, Baylee!” I muttered. Patting the wall reverently; my hands clasped around something small. I felt my eyebrows rise. What was it? Pulling it up to my face, a familiar yowl buzzed in my ear. Looking up at what I grabbed, I felt my face fall.
“The freaky cat!”
The cat lunged towards me, spinning its arms in the air. Squealing, I rushed blindly around the barn crashing into the walls. Placing my hands over my face, I struck something sharp. Blinking through the dust, I saw a shadow of something hard dropping towards me.
“This day just gets better and better…” I muttered as it struck me across the head.
Collapsing to the ground, I twitched, my legs beginning to buzz. Something fell onto my chest, opening up; the sound of rustling pages beamed in my ears. Sitting up, I flapped at the dust around me, coughing.
“A book?” I muttered.
Straining my eyes, the image of something began to materialise upon the page of the book. A picture of someone on a wall. Swiping at the dust covering the page, the image became clearer. Screeching, I flung it across the ground and forced myself to my knees. The book fell onto the page, the image snarling up at the roof. A demon-like creature was pinned to a wall, silver stakes pushed in its flesh.
I clamped a hand over my mouth, fear beginning to turn my skin pale. “What is that thing?!”
Crawling across the dust swept ground, I leered over the book. A breeze kicked through the barn changing the page. An image of a Blue Jay with its wings stretched framed the front. I frowned. It looked familiar. Picking up the book, I turned it over in my hands. Dad had read me this when I had been younger! Sitting back heavily, I clasped my fingers around the binder protectively. Dad had read it before he had died from the accident to be exact.
“Don’t tell her those stories, Zale!” Mum said stopping the doorway to my room. I craned my neck to look over my shoulder. Mum had never liked the idea of me reading books about killing, especially ones about the Blue Jay. She got even pickier when Dad died; throwing away everything that had an essence of the Blue Jay to it. I guess you could say Mum hated that fairy tale, saying it was barbaric and cruel.
“They’re not stories, Mummy!” I said in a matter of fact tone. “They’re real! The Blue Jay saved everyone from the evil Salem Witches!”
Dad laughed and tousled my hair. “Zale, tell her they’re not real. She doesn’t listen to me!” Mum smiled, her eyes
glittering. He grinned at me again, love shining in his eyes. I giggled and stood up, pulling the book from his hands.
“Do you think I could be just like the Blue Jay, Daddy?” I asked, looking hopefully at him.
Dad pulled himself to his feet. Grabbing at the feather duster we were supposed to be using on the walls, he pointed it at me, a glimmer of laughter shining in his hazel eyes. They always glimmered. They even sparkled before he was placed into the ground forever.
“I don’t know, are you willing to fight?” he poked me in the chest with the fluffy end of the duster, raising his eyebrows.
I giggled, staggering backwards and nodded hurriedly. “Are you willing to stare danger in the face and tell it to suck a marshmallow?”
“Suck frog legs!” I added in, placing the book to my heart.
Dad turned and jumped onto my bed. “Then my dear girl, I knight thee honorary Blue Jay apprentice!” Tapping my shoulders with the feather duster, my eyes grew wide with hope. Mum rolled her own and chuckled, placing the basket of clothes down in front of her. “What ever you put your mind to whether that be climbing the highest mountain or catching the largest snake-” Mum gasped, horrified. I laughed, knowing Dad was playing on her fear. “-You can achieve it! Trust me!”
Wiping at my eyes, I banished away the tears. Flicking through the book, I laughed as I noticed the same coffee stain marring one of the pages.
“Still there,” I slid my finger down it watching as the coffee stain crumbled away. Looking underneath, I noticed it was the same picture that had frightened me. Flicking the page, I stared at the demon pinned to the wall. It looked so real…
Everyone in Gallagher knew of the brave tale between the Blue Jay and the Salem Witches. Where an ordinary man took on the appearance of a Blue Jay to save everyone from the Dark magic that ‘plagued the lands’. In the tale, it was said that Salem and Gallagher were actually united as one great city to form the Capitol of Earth. If someone had control of the Capitol they had control of the world, which is exactly what the Salem Witches wanted. Mum said it was all a hoax, where one man tried explaining the prosecutions of the actual Salem Witch hunt. No one was actually a real witch, though the citizens found that out the hard way.
I never really believed Mum when she said that but then what else could it have been. There weren’t really any demons or witches; maybe it was just a hoax. A little part of me though always disagreed.
“Baylee, hurry your butt would you! I need your help!” Mum’s voice burst through my thoughts. Stumbling to my feet, I placed the book back onto the shelf next to distorted tap pieces and other bolts and other rusted trinkets. Though, you could never say that to anyone because they’d think you were insane and before you knew it, you’d be on the first plane trip to an asylum.
“I’m coming Mum. Just wait a second!” I replied. Staggering through the hay, I turned and glanced back at the picture of the Blue Jay. “One day,” I muttered, quickly rushing out of the barn.
