“Keira!” I heard Draven calling me over the crowd as he searched and before I let myself be found I threw up every mental guard I had. It was so strong it felt like an invisible layer covering my skin, not only my mind this time. It felt like a fortress around me and flowing with some new energy. I hadn’t felt this strong in a long time and I knew why.
“The kiss.” I whispered to myself touching my lips briefly as I ran. I kept going only looking behind me to check Draven wasn’t following.
“KEIRA!” I just saw him roaring in the crowd looking all around for me. If anything seeing him this way was just like going back and reliving that night even more. I almost felt bad watching him panic, my dark knight in a sea of colour but then I thought back to those words and who they were spoken to…
So then I ran harder. I ran faster. I ran scared.
I jumped as I dodged a masked fire eater blowing flames into the air and the people around him clapped.
“Sorry…I’m sorry.” I muttered as I backed up into another one of the entertainment, only this time it was a creepy skinny guy dressed in what looked like jet black skin with arms down to the floor. He wore a startling white mask that had a thin beak dripping with blood that came from the centre of where his eyes should have been.
“Oh!” I said as he walked on his hands and turned his head to look at me like an owl would, listening out for prey. I started backing away now that I had finally crossed the mass of people and found the other side. I turned and walked straight into another body.
“I’m sorry…wait, what are you…?!” I never got to finish as the mystery man started manhandling me away from the rest of the crowd. Suddenly running from Draven instead of confronting him was not looking like one of my best ideas.
“Get off me!” I shouted and tried to twist my body from his painful grasp.
“Be quiet!” A grating and harsh demonic voice spat from behind a sculptured white mask that looked like a handsome but evil man smirking. The eyes were black voids of nothingness and two single tears of blood dripped down the stark white plaster of his mask on one side.
“DRA…!” I started to scream but then a hand was clamped tight over my mouth. My first thought after the panic was, ‘Jesus, not again!’ but as soon as the thought entered my mind I felt something.
At first I wondered if it was the same energy that knocked all those people back moments ago and I hung on to hope until I realised it wasn’t. No, it might have started in the same way but it ran along my skin like when your body shivers for no reason other than an overload of some emotion you can’t always place. This feeling rippled from the ends of my limbs and crawled along my nerves to the centre of my heart.
I sucked in a heavy, harsh breath as I felt the weight invade my organ as if someone had sent some supernatural charge to my core. As soon as I released the sharp gust of air from my burning lungs it all shot straight from my chest through to my back and straight up my spine, ending at the base of my neck, where my birthmark was. The feeling made my body arch and bow backwards, making it now impossible for my captor to keep a hold of me with the force of my sudden movements.
“No!” He growled trying to restrain my body back to under his control but it felt like my bones were made from steel and my flesh from granite. I was unmoveable and the feeling was like taking an intoxicating drug that flooded my system with a calming and euphoric presence. It was as though I was an invincible force and with my head still thrown back looking at the night sky I felt like someone up there was also looking back down at me.
“Seth!” He hissed the name and I angled my head, still looking up enough to see him staring above me towards St Mark’s Basilica. There at the Cathedral above its central arch stood a man against one of the four bronze horses. He wore a long jacket that was split at the back and both sides were blowing around from being up so high. I could tell he was wearing a mask but I couldn’t make out enough of the details, only that it looked like stiff material wind swept to one side. It almost gave him the appearance of some Cathedral phantom standing watch.
Well whatever the case the man who tried to take me knew who he was and what was happening. It was enough to give the guy second thoughts at least as he let go of me and fled into the oblivious crowd. The instant he let go I was released from this extraordinary power and my body slumped forward as if exhausted. I placed my hands on my knees as I bent forward trying to compose myself, dragging in air and suddenly feeling constricted in such a tight dress.
I then looked up one last time to see the man who seemed to have saved me. He gave me a salute with his hand from his temple and this was combined with a nod before turning to leave. I then watched as he jumped down to somewhere out of sight but not before I noticed the artist’s utility belt at his waist where his jacket split.