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The Prophesy Tower. Chapter 54. Write a Novel Challenge.

Write a book illustration of gun firing in our write a novel challenge 2020 engaging school children from across the UAE

by Mahra AlmesaybehAugust 15, 2020

Neina struggled to process the sight before her.

“H-How is this p-possible…?” she muttered in such complete awe that her voice was almost inaudible.

Archie grabbed her by the shoulders, but it didn’t diminish her overriding feeling of shock.

“I promise I’ll explain everything soon, but right now I need you to trust me. Can you do that Neina?”

Neina’s eyes remained wide open, directly fixated on Ryder and Frankie, her mouth still agape.

“Neina.”

She breathed in through her nose and, with a shaking hand, wiped away the tears welling up in her eyes and flowing down her face. This shouldn’t make sense, but then again, nothing ever did anymore.

“Yes, yes I can,” Neina, finally, answered, as she pushed her voice through the extraordinary mix of happiness, sorrow, anger, frustration, relief and trepidation overwhelming her.

Charlotte stepped forward, “Right, I suggest we get a move on now before the castle’s scouting dragons catch your scent in this breeze.”

The usual sparkle in her eyes was seemingly absent and Neina could not help but notice how exhausted her old friend looked.

“We have a hideout not too far from here; if we leave now we’ll make it before sundown. We’ve wasted enough time already.” And with that, Charlotte, Frankie and Ryder donned their helmets and began their decent towards the village with Archie following swiftly behind.

Isla had remained awfully silent during the entire exchange, still reeling from her moment of hysteria. Neina attempted a reassuring smile, but the Heiress’s gaze wandered elsewhere.

As a final resort and with a second’s flicker of hesitation, she slipped her hand into Isla’s and tugged her in the direction of the others. Neina prayed that the affection and honesty of her touch would break through in a way that, as so often life, words only fail and dissipate to nothing, as invisible and ineffectual as excess pollen lost to the lightest Summer breeze.

“Are you sure the dragons won’t be able to detect us here?”

They settled in a cottage situated at the neck of the forest, a full mile past the village gates. The cottage looked like something out of a fairytale, but Neina forced her mind to see through the facade thrown up by the same hellish and dissembling Mors World she had become adept at recognising for its cruel distortion of truth. Yellow brick walls, flower pots on petite windowsills and a white picket fence – it was an image pinched straight from a children’s storybook. The irony of both having no ground in reality was not lost on Neina.

Charlotte took a hasty sip from her mug and nodded, “The dragons rarely scout past the village sector, and besides, the forest will mask our scent without question.”

As reassuring as it sounded, Neina trusted her instincts which screamed at her that they were far from safe. She would never again allow herself to be taken in by the duplicity of this world and its capacity to disarm. She had been shaken to the core of her being by the sight of Isla as she stood before the Queen. The way every single muscle in her body froze like a frostbitten finger. The way her whole frame flinched the second Orla uttered a word. The way her very being seemed to seethe with sheer terror. It made Neina sick – but it now allowed her to see through the sham of this world and made her powerful in ways unimaginable in her past life. More World had changed her.

Amidst the grim silence a shrill scream ripped against the walls of the cottage, Isla’s body contorting as she toppled to the floorboards. Neina watched in horror as Isla’s fingernails clawed at her face, jabbing mercilessly at her now red stained flesh. History was repeating itself as Isla ripped shreds of bloodied skin from her face, just as she had earlier at the castle. Only this time it was worse.

Neina motioned at the others to stay back.

“Isla! You have to fight this just like you did last time! It’ll be over soon…just keep fighting it!”

Archie shot Neina a worried look from the far end of the room, his steady arm lying outstretched behind him as he shielded the startled frames of Ryder and Frankie.

As Neina edged cautiously towards Isla, a deafening gunshot deafened her.

As an unbearably painful and acute ringing pain flooded her hearing, she tripped, sending her crashing to the ground. She felt the sound of her chin cracking as it hit concrete.

“Charlotte stop!” Neina shrieked.

The bullet lay wedged into the floor, centimetres from Isla’s head. Isla’s manic screams had manifested into pained wails as blood now gushed in torrents down her torn and battered cheeks. Neina pulled herself up from the floor. Pushing through her pain, she used all her strength to wedge herself between Isla and Charlotte.

“Why, Charlotte? Why on earth would you do that!”

Charlotte threw her head back in frustration, “She’s making too much noise. What are the odds someone heard us and is sending guards our way right this second! They will kill us all.”

“I’m worried too but this can’t be the solution, Charlotte!”

“Why not? Look at her, Neina. She’s deranged! The Isla we knew has gone.”

Neina shook her head and, clenching her aching and bruised jaw, found herself roaring with extraordinary force. “I said no.”

Charlotte guffawed cruelly.

“Are you forgetting that she is the sole reason we’re in this mess?” She gestured to their surroundings with frenzied arms, “Face it Neina, ethics don’t matter anymore. Let her die. I’d rather it be her than one of us.”

Neina forced the horror she felt at Charlotte’s inhumanity from her. She had to. She could not break down. Rationally too, she knew they needed Isla. She couldn’t explain why, but her gut knew that Isla was important. Charlotte was wrong. Isla was more important than any of them.

“Put the gun down Charlotte. We’ll figure something out.”

As if on cue, the wails come to a sudden halt.

Neina’s stomach twisted into a violent knot as she caught sight of Charlotte’s widened eyes and her sudden, sickly pale complexion.

She was seeing something that Neina didn’t.

Neina’s blood thickened with pure, ice cold terror as, very slowly, she turned to face …

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The Prophesy Tower – A Novel.

To read Chapter 1, click here.

To read Chapter 2, click here.

To read Chapter 3, click here.