The Story is a Lie - Chapter 1

The Story is a Lie

Chapter 1

It’s not every day you see a demon running down the streets in broad daylight, especially when she had a perfectly good set of wings to use but that’s what George Mewford saw one morning in Lacintha whilst he was doing his general shopping. As he realised that he should probably move before the wild eyed girl ran into him, she did just that, knocking him and all his bags to the ground.

“Fuck, I am so sorry!” She stood up quickly but as she tried to run off again, George stopped her, standing up and grabbing her arm.

“What are you running from?” He asked her, wondering if he could help her somehow.

“About three police cars, a police chopper, two pedestrians and my brother, why?” The girl spoke quickly, that explains why she wasn’t using her wings…

“Follow me, I can help you… I think, well, I can try.”

“Wait what? Why would you want to help me?” Surprised, the girl’s voice is thankful.

“Because I like helping people, come on!” Leaving his bags on sidewalk, he starts to run quickly down the road, pulling Azure with him and into his house.

Only a few minutes after George shut the front door, a dark flash goes past the window, followed by four police cars with sirens blaring and the sounds of a helicopter overhead.

“Huh, they sent another police car out…” She grins. “Take that, assholes!”

“Please don’t swear in my house, I’m not a fan of those words.”

The girl just shrugs. “I’m Azure, thanks for helping me out.”

“Happy to help, I’m George.” He smiles and holds his hand out.

Ignoring his hand, Azure starts exploring his house. “Nice house you have here, how long you had it?”

“Only a few years actually…” In an attempt to ignore her lack of manners, he does as a good host always should. “Drink?”

“Do you have any alcohol?”

“No… but I do have coffee”

“That’ll do.” Azure shrugs, peering out the window. “I wonder how long it’ll take Carmine to notice he’s not following me anymore.”

“Who’s Carmine?” George asks, putting the kettle on.

“Carmine is my brother, the dark flash that went past just before. He’s a smart shit head, it probably won’t take him long to figure it out.”

“Ah… he’s pretty fast then.” Putting the coffee and sugar into two mugs, George starts inquiring about this strange girl.

“Well he was flying, what did you expect?”

“Ah, that makes sense…” As the partial feline pours the hot water and milk into the cups and passes the coffee to Azure, he takes a good look at her for the first time.

Demonic is the first word that goes through his mind, obviously. With those ice cold blue eyes and dark wings, she couldn’t be anything else. Against her black hair, you can see just how pale she really is, it’s like she has never seen daylight, not a single spot or blemish on her pristine skin.

“You staring for a reason?” Azure takes the coffee from him and watches him with those cold eyes.

“No, no, I apologise for staring.” George drinks his own coffee with his head down.

Boy is this girl trouble… swearing under his roof, quite rude, loud, obnoxious and obviously in trouble with the police and her brother has something to do with it… Why was he helping her again? Because he liked helping people… geez…

As Azure drank her coffee, she watched this odd man carefully.

He appeared to be part cat, with ginger fur all over his body, sharper nails than an average person, those wide green eyes and the ears that gave him away. Wait, and the tail, and the ginger tail. She couldn’t help but wonder why he was helping her… she’s in deep shit with the police after all. Carmine will sniff her out eventually… she needs to keep moving or George will be in danger too.

“Hey look, thanks for helping me but I need to keep moving, I don’t want to put you in danger.” Azure starts, draining her coffee and putting the mug on the sink.

“You’re staying right here. You go out there and they’ll find you immediately, you’ll be safer here.” George says firmly.

“If I stay here and they find me, they’ll kill you for helping me.”

“That’s not true, the police aren’t that cruel.” George didn’t believe her, not for a second.

“But Carmine would.” Azure was blunt and determined. “He’ll kill both of us in the blink of an eye; you have no idea what he is capable of.”

“If he would do that… would you?” The feline says hesitantly after a moment of silence.

“If the roles were reversed and Carmine had done what I did… yes.” The demon sighs softly. “I have to go…”

“What did you do?” He asks her, wanting to know more as he prevents her from leaving his house.

Why is he so persistent? Why won’t he just let her leave?

“You wouldn’t understand, just let me leave.” Azure snaps at him but as no later than she had finished her sentence, there is a heavy, loud knock at the door.

“I know you’re in there, sis! I can smell you!” Her brother’s voice yells loudly.

“I can smell you too and I can tell you now, you don’t smell very nice!” Azure responds, yelling back.

“Is that your brother?” George asks quickly, his green eyes widening.

“Yep, I told you he’d find me… Is there any way you can leave this house while I deal with him?”

“I’m not going anywhere till you tell me what you did.”

“Are you fucking kidding me? You need to get out! Now!” Azure demands, desperate.

“Then tell me.” George says, not wavering for a second.

“I can hear you!” Carmine’s voice shouts, the wooden door starting to splinter under the force of his blows.

Azure growls, the blue in her eyes and on her wings seemingly darkening. “I killed our parents in a house fire, along with our baby brother, Harlequin and he wants revenge. Do I blame him? No, but it was an accident. Now will you leave?”

George doesn’t move, stunned. Oh for fuck’s sake… Azure pushes him into the lounge room and onto the floor, out of sight.

“Hey little sis!” A dark grin spreads upon her brother’s face as he comes around the corner. “I’ve been looking for you.”

The red in his eyes mirrors her blue ones, the red colour on his wings dark and obvious, showing his annoyance and anger.

“Really? Couldn’t tell.” Azure, in her usual smartass tone responds accordingly.

“Who’s your friend?” Carmine asks, glancing over her shoulder to George, still lying on the floor, frozen.

“Leave him, I forced my way in here to hide, leave him alone.”

“You seem awfully protective over him if that is the case.” There is a malicious tone in his voice as he steps around Azure to get a better look at him. “Should I kill him? I don’t want him to remember that either of us was here.”

“No!” Azure says quickly as her brother starts to move closer to her new friend.

“No?” Carmine’s signature malicious grin spreads across his face. “You’re going to tell me ‘no’ when you set our house on fire? You’re going to tell me ‘no’ when we both watched our parents scream and burn as your fire took their lives. You’re going to tell me ‘no’ when you let our baby brother, who hadn’t even seen anything of the world, burn and die. You let Harlequin die.”

He spits out the next sentence, snarling at her. “And now you and your little friend can join him.”

Azure’s eyes widen as the room heats up slowly and a border of crimson flame circles her brother, protecting him against his own power. She immediately starts concentrating, working against her brother, her signature cerulean flames battling against Carmine’s red fire.

George slowly wakes from his state of shock to bright lights swirling around his living room, much to his own surprise.

“Wha…?” He starts, looking around.

“Get out of here!” Azure’s voice calls out to him through the fire.

“Azure…” She’s in trouble… is that her brother…? Carmine, wasn’t it?

George stands slowly, slightly unbalanced as he tries to reorientate himself with the room and the world. As he looks around, he doesn’t notice Carmine turn in his direction and hurl a bright ball of red flame right at him. Just before it hits him, a sphere of blue flame combines with the red, creating a neutralised, purple fireball that hits him square in the chest.

“See? You are protective of him.” Carmine’s wicked grin shows his intent as he steps closer to the fallen feline.

“Get the fuck away from him, he didn’t do anything!” Azure runs to stand in between her friend and her brother, swallowing any and all fear in her throat.

“He helped a criminal, that’s a crime in itself.”

“Then you’ll have to go through me.” Her blue eyes stare into his red, flaming orbs as she draws on all her power, creating a barrier around herself and George and propelling a fireball of pure blue flame in his direction.

Carmine retaliates immediately, sending an orb of green flame of equal power back at her, intercepting her fireball and fusing with it.

Green…? Azure’s thoughts race as she recognised the green flame and its power. Carmine is red, destruction… She’s blue, illusion and Harlequin was green… time.

As the teal orb continued its path towards her protective barrier, Azure prayed that the barrier would deflect it. She prayed and she prayed until the very moment the orb hit her shield, dissolving it and creating a bright light that filled the room, blinding them all.

And that’s the last thing Azure remembers.