Dusk Being

• Cassie-Grace Mutton, Grade 8, Inaburra School
• Short Story
• 2010

Finalist in the 'Word Express 2010' competition

A lake of mascara-stained tears trailed down her cheeks and dropped onto the cold, lifeless gravel as she slowly approached them, trembling wildly. Her quivering breath became deep and heavy, as one of the hooded beings beckoned her further. There were supposedly five of them, but their black cloaks left them so well-camouflaged that only three were visible. Her white nightgown blew gently against the chilling midnight breeze, making her out to look like a ghostly figure.

The being who previously beckoned, now offered their hand out to her, which she grabbed fearfully. A chilling sensation forced her to skip a heartbeat, in which she collapsed to the floor, breathing violently.
‘You have to do this,’ One of them spoke in an unrealistic-hissing voice, not unlike a snake. It was unmistakably male, though. He offered his hand to her once again and she pulled herself up groaning. They began to chant gently from under their unrevealing hoods, in a hissing language she could not at all understand. A softly glowing, violet orb, the size of a tennis ball suddenly formed out of a dim vapor in the middle of their circle. It peacefully hovered against the midnight sky as she whimpered quietly.

‘It’s time,’ one of the others hissed quietly, finally contributing.
She raised her hand and carefully cupped her trembling fingers around the outside of the mysterious orb. A humid glowing mist swept off it and heated the palm of her hand. She took her last breath and clasped it gently. Her skin instantly began to absorb a shadowy residue, which traveled up the veins in her arm and entering her heart.

A collection of her most salient memories flooded her mind, then drowning into a solid darkness within her. She collapsed to the ground once more, and awoke to find herself in a new dimension differing from reality. The colours of the world had disappeared through her eyes, to be replaced by a dark violet. Her beautiful blue eyes were now seized by a deep blackness, and her voice had an uncontrollable hiss to it.

They had approached her earlier that day and they had persuaded her that she was a candidate for immortality. She was no longer human, but a Dusk Being. They had kept their promise of immortality. And it’s only price tag was her life.