The Seers

• Linda Chen, Grade 6E
• Short Story
• 2015

Without the presence of the seers, everything seemed darker, the atmosphere gloomier, and even nature itself seemed miserable. The seers had left the world behind, shrouded in mystery and many unanswered questions.
“There will be death by the lightning-struck tower.” Those had been the last words the seers had said before departing with a silent swish of their cloaks. They had simply vanished, even taking with them their air of mystery that usually seemed to linger long after they had left.
Adelaide wasn’t surprised with the seers’ brief departure, she was just mystified by how they could even consider the idea of leaving after everything they had done. To her, the seers would always remain unexplained enigmas.
Meanwhile, as her thoughts began to drift, a storm had started to gather, and then rage outside. Rain battered the ground relentlessly and streaks of lightning illuminated the dark night sky. From time to time, booms of thunder could be heard above the heavy fall of millions and millions of rain droplets.
Around her, Adelaide was surrounded by towering bookshelves, filled with astonishing stories of the impossible. Books were the only things Adelaide hadn’t lost years earlier through cruelty. But now she knew nature was unpredictable and limitless.
Prodigious flames, craving for destruction and damage, destroying everything in its path. Intense flames hoping to cause much more than just anger, sorrow and losses…
That ringing thought, etched clearly in her memory, still haunted her even though she knew times like that would never happen again.
But Adelaide knew there was an impossible plot, even more catastrophic than the first, waiting to obliterate everything and anything.
Something suddenly flickered faintly in the corner of her eye. Adelaide froze and watched, motionless and helpless as stars along the horizon started to fade into the dark cloak of the night.
She had just realised that this was exactly what the seers had prophesied, and why they had decided to leave the world rather than live through what everybody feared the most.
“It will happen tonight. The stars will disappear before the world ends. Before the world ends, look up. Always look up.”
Adelaide scrambled out of the castle, her eyes hazy from watching the stars fade. She looked up at the sky. Nothing but infinite darkness - it was exactly what some people might call ‘the forces of pure evil’.
Is this what the world wanted? Pure evil, pure darkness?
Out of the corner of her eye, she watched as lightning flashed above her head, and struck the upper tower.
Adelaide took a deep breath and waited.