Onyx - a little story I did for Language Arts

[Katana]

(Authors note: Rhea is pronouced 'Ray' in this story instead of the proper pronunciation: 'Ree-ah'. This is because I have named my main character after my mother, who's name is Rhea...anyway...^^ )

With unblinking eyes, she looked up at the house. Eerie in its entire visage, she shivered at the scene before her. Her mouth felt dry, and no words came to fall over her lips. The shrubs were untrimmed and unruly, the house old and broken. Vines dominated it's walls, and the glass of the windows hung warped, broken, and dirty. In the pale moonlight, the front lawn resembled somthing of a graveyard, cool gray stones reflecting the silvery beams that kissed their surfaces.
The whole scene sat enclosed in a thick forboding fog, frightening in it's own right. It seemed to draw our heroine, Rhea, in like a moth to a flame. Rhea stood at a mere five foot three with dark hair and brown eyes. She was very lighthearted and immature. She had always liked to do things everyone else couldn't...but this? This pushed the bar a little to high. She pressed on still, the house still drawing her like a moth to a flame.
Rhea shivered as her fingers brushed the cool, dusty, metal of the front gate. It opened with a creak that reminded her of a human scream. Every nerve in her body demanded that she go back, go home, but her feet willed her forward, seeming on their own. 'Why am I doing this?' She thought. Why was she doing this? Good question.
A year ago, her mother had fallen deathily ill. They went to countless doctors, tried numerous medicines, nothing helped alliviate her mother's falling condition. This brings me to the old house. Enclosed in this house, enveloped in it's darkness, sat a stone. It was rumored to be a bewitched peice of onyx, sifted from the riverbed of Styx. In Rhea's mind, however, where it came from was irrelevant, only it's purpose was worth it. It was rumored, that when placed over the heart, this one stone could heal any ailment that affected the patient.
The front walk was uneven cobble stone, as old and broken as the rest of the home. Rhea stepped carefully over each stone. She stopped, scanning the scene around her. Had she lost her MIND!? Past the overgrown gate, the lawn was even worse.
She couldn't shake the feeling of eyes on her back, but she pressed forward, finally reaching the veranda. She placed a foot on the ceranda, charily. 'It's okay...it's okay...' she tried to mentally calm herself. 'No hidden monsters, no trap doors, it's okay...' All this was was an old house, right? She took a deep breath, steadied herself, and porceeded.
"Here goes nothing." Rhea twisted the old brass doorknob, carefully. The door fell open with a creak very similar to that of the gate. She winced at the horrid grinding of the door on it's hinges. As she stepped inside, she looked at her hands. To her credit, they shook with only the most minor of tremors. She smoothed her hair, and took a step inside. With a sigh of relief, Rhea looked back into the yard. It didn't seem so bad now...
She peered aroun in the darkness, mind back on her task. She was to get the peice of onyx from the from the house, then she could leave. Then everything would be alright.
Rhea toed the line between the thin sliver of moonlight peering in from the door, and the shadow that engulfed the house. Telling herself that she had nothing to lose, she proceeded into the house. The stone would be above the mantle, she had heard. She was, as far as she could tell, in the family room. There was no fireplace, no mantle. She sighed. Walking into the long, dark, hall she noticed a table covered in cobwebs and dust. Brushing off some of the dirt, she discovered a candle and a book of matches. With a grin, she light the candle and blew out the match. Then, lifting the candle, she proceded down the hall. As she serveyed her surroundings, she noticed portraits, time and neglect leaving them ragged, faded, and dusty. Behind her she heard the faintest of footsteps. She spun quickly, so scared that she didn't notice the burning hot wax land on her hand. Once she was satisfied that nothing was there, she walked down the hall again, peering into rooms.
She came apon a room with a large fireplace, a door leading out into the backyard, several couches and such things. She stepped closer to the mantle, and the air chilled. Looking around, her heart beating so loud, she was sure it echoed through the house. Once Rhea had apporoached the mantle some bit, she noticed a black stone glinting moonlight from the open back door. Yes! There it was! She smiled, her walk speeding to a trot. She was only about a foot away from the fireplace when she noticed two eyes, burning like embers in the corner. The candle sputtered it's last words, as the flame died. Her breath grew short and scared. What was this? A cloaked figure came to form from just the eyes. The figure resembled the grim reaper she had always seen in pictures at halloween, scythe and all. A malevolent presence seemed to radiate from the figure, and Rhea started to back up step by step. A pale, but not skeletal, hand reached out of the draping sleeve of the cloak, pulling back the hood. To Rhea's suprise, it was a woman, fair to behold. She had golden hair that caught the moonlight, haunting silver eyes, and a scar just above her brow. She looked at Rhea calmly.
"That stone...I, Randilyn have been chosen to gaurd it, and you have come to seek it...Therefore, you must die." She raised her scythe, aiming it to lop Rhea's head off. Before the cool metal reached Rhea's neck, however, she had bolted into the backyard through the open door behind her. She didn't stop running until she was sure the stone's keeper wasn't following her. Falling to her knees, her chest heaving in and out heavily, taking in the night air in huge gulps, she looked around at her surroundings. It was then she noticed that she was in a graveyard. Her pupils shrunk in fear. It was then that she stood, surveying the situation she had now run into.
Turning to where she had fell to her knees, she observed at statue. It was an angel, but it's condition ruined it's comforting intent. On the contrary, It was horrifying. The wings were broken off, and in their place, rust had set in, pouring down the back of the angel. Two streams of rust fell down below the angel's eyes, and stained it in patches. In the moonlight, the rust looked identical to blood. If only out of morbid curiousity, Rhea stepped up to the angel, slowly. As she was just about to reach the wounded creature, her foot hit somthing, sending out a clear ringing tone. She knelt to see what it was. Silver glinted on the surface of a double-bladed sword. It had a black marble staff with a silver blades at each end. Rhea smiled, picked it up and twirled it, catching it.
"Just like spinning a baton." Suddenly, she realized all that time she spent pretending to be a cheerleader as a little girl would pay off. Ready for the fight, she stood. She couldn't back down now. A new found strength had filled her with courage that would either be her savior or her downfall. She took sure steps walking back to the house. She couldn't let her mother down now. Readying her newfound weapon, she walked into what could be her death.
The gaurdian was waiting for her just as she knew she would be. Randilyn lunged at her, scythe bared. With a clear clank of metal, Rhea deflected it. She winced however, as it snagged the skin on her cheek as Randilyn retracted it. Beads of crimson formed over her tan skin and she ran towards the mantle. She was cut off mere inches out of reach of the stone, but she managed to knock Randilyn onto her back, and she peirced Randilyn's chest with her sword. Randilyn looked up with a look that showed no pain, only regret.
"One fall will injure me, but will never kill me." And with that, she kicked Rhea sharply in the side, knocking her back. Rhea took this chance to grab the onyx, stuff it in her coat pocket, and run in the direction of the door. Randilyn would not have this, however, and chased after her, scythe bared once more. Rhea did not look back. She simply kept running, even as she heard the metal behind her.
With one last look, Rhea ran out into the yard, jumping over the gate, into the street, and didn't stop until she was on her own porch. She laid the onyx down on the weathered wood, and examined the sword. It seemed to almost glow. She smiled. Somehow, she had managed to get through it all. Somthing had given her courage. And now, everything would be alright. Even her mother. Laying the sword in her room as she walked down the hall, she pulled the onyx out of her coat pocket. She placed it over her mother's heart, and said the words that seemed to come to her lips.
"And with this simple phrase, I recall all the yesterdays, Say farewell to pain, For this coming rain, It will bring you life." Her mother's eyes fluttered open, confused. Her mother sat up.
"Where...where am I?" after a few seconds she took in her surroundings, then looked at her daughter. "Rhea..." she noticed the onyx, now laying on the bed. "You...you didn't..." Rhea nodded.
"Yeah, Mama, I did. All for you." Her mother threw her arms around her, and Rhea did the same.
"You brought me back from death's hands...But death...she seemed pained to let me go..." Pausing from her reccolection, Rhea's mother pulled back, looking at her. "But I don't think I'll ever forget her empty eyes...and most of all, the scar above her brow..."

(Whadda ya think?)

[Sperrit]

Wow! That's really great Katana! You should post more stories! Keep it up!

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[Katana]

Thank you. ^^ I'll post stories whenever I write someore. I think the next one i'll post will be my seemingly neverending "Playing Games With Death". Hee.