MORRIGAN

I hear Lin scream in the distance. I run towards the source of her voice, but icy cold fingers firmly grip around my wrist and jerk me back. I wake up sitting upright at the edge of my bed with Lin scrunched up in a ball beside me. She slowly opens her eyes and in a sleepy voice asks me, "what's wrong pea, had another nightmare?" I nod, and before I know it she drifts back to sleep. I bury myself under the covers and try to go back to sleep but the nightmares never stop.

They started coming in when I saw that women on the street, the one with the green hair who died in front of me. It's not her death which was the cause of my nightmares, it was what she said to me. She said: " Protect your sister. Morrigan wants her. She will take her to Akeldama and perform the sacrifice to restore her strength." Her words greatly disturbed me. I have seen many people starve and drop dead on the street and that is what keeps me moving, if I give up then I die which means Lin also dies cause she won't be able to survive on her own and I can't let that happen.

Even though we weren't particularly wealthy we always had food to spare. My dad's death was very harsh on us, he and my older sister Marge died in a fire. My mom couldn't handle the loss, she went crazy and was sent to an asylum. Lin was only 9 and I was 14. It's been 2 years since then and we survived by working in an inn and by selling valuable things I find on dead bodies on the street and sometimes I also do illegal hunting and sell all of that on the black market. We wake up in another 3 hours, Lin goes off to school and I go to hunt.

My dad used to some times take me and marge hunting. Lin never came, she always stuck to books. Marge could use bows and arrows as if she had been using them her whole life, while I was always good at setting snares. When I was in the woods I felt cold even though it was mid-July. I caught 2 rabbits and 1 squirrel, but the squirrel caught in my snare was already dead. It was choked by a necklace. I carefully removed the necklace from the strangled squirrel's body. It was a beautiful necklace with golden pearls and a dark red pendant which was darker than blood. It must be really expensive but I didn't want to sell it. It looked too valuable, too precious to sell. And then I remembered it was Lin's birthday tomorrow and this would be the perfect gift. I still had mixed feelings about giving Lin the necklace, I kept thinking if it would be right or not to keep something which could buy me months of food. I decided to think about it after dinner. So I went to the black market which we call the street- doc and sold my game but I held onto the necklace. Then I went to take my shift at the inn. I came back home exhausted. Lin had made a soup from the leftover rabbit and some roots and herbs. And then we went to bed.

I had another nightmare where the lady with the green hair was standing in front of me and she said, " No! Don't do it, don't give it to her!" I didn't sleep for the rest of the night. Around 7 am I woke Lin up and wished her happy birthday. I decided to give her the necklace as I had never given her a proper gift. I decided to take the day off and we went to visit mom. I dressed Lin in one of my old dresses which I wore for my birthday when I was 12 and I wore one of Marge's dresses. She had her long brown hair up in a tight plait and I did a plait in my long blonde hair as well.

Anne my friend who works at the inn with me came by and gave us a box of chocolates, a delicacy which we rarely get to enjoy. My friend Keith who is a cabbie gave us a ride to the asylum. It took us 11/2 hours to reach. When we reached my mom's nurse asked me where I found that necklace, she said it was one of a kind and she also said that it looked really pretty on her.

When we entered my mom's room she made an expression as if someone had died. She got up came towards us and tugged on Lin's necklace. Lin was suffocating but the necklace refused to come off, we tried to tackle my mom away from her but we couldn't, she was suddenly too strong. She kept on yelling "No, no, no take it off!" Soon two men came in and tackled her back, my mom scratched one of them and he started bleeding. They pinned her down on her bed and sedated her. She was soon unconscious but in the brief moment after she was sedated, when she was conscious she told me "protect her Pearla. Morrigan the goddess of death is after her." That was the same thing that the lady with green hair said. The nurse told us to go back home and that mom was in no condition to talk to us.

Lin had turned very red because she had almost choked to death. Keith was still waiting for us and was surprised that we came back so early. I told him what happened and he didn't ask any more questions. When we arrived home I asked him if he knew who Morrigan was and he knew a lot about her. He told me "Morrigan was the goddess of death and she used to be worshipped by our ancestors and if they didn't do what she told them to do then she would kill them. They were her slaves. She used to live in Akeldema, the field of blood and death. Someone opposed her, I don't know who that was but he was believed to be a god. He managed to get a drop of blood from Morrigan's body and turned it into a pendant which he attached to a necklace made of golden pearls made from his own blood. He was dying as Morrigan had scratched him and released her poison into his bloodstream. He handed that necklace to the keepers and said that Morrigan can do no harm to them as long as they have the necklace and she is alive."

I asked him how did he know so much about her and he said: " My grandmother was a keeper." Then he lifted his hood and a clump of green locks covered his face. Then I realized that lady was Keith's grandmother and then that meant the necklace I found was the blood necklace and the 'she' he was talking about was Lin! I thanked him for his help and he offered to stay and help but I refused. We had some chocolates and rabbit stew for dinner and then went off to bed. At around 2 am I woke up cause I had a nightmare that Lin was being choked to death, her green eyes were screaming with pain but I couldn't help her. Before I woke up from the nightmare I saw Keith's grandmother and she said: " you're the key."

After I woke up and saw that Lin was sleeping beside me and the blood necklace was glowing. I tried to take it off of her but instead, we were transported to another plain, we were in Akeldama. I saw her, she looked strong, fierce and cruel with her black hair flying in the air and her black eyes fixated on me. "oh, I thought you'd never come with all those people warning you." "what do you want from her?" I asked her. " From her nothing, she was just a way to get you here. I knew I wasn't strong enough to get you here on my own so got her here and you just came along. Now, I do want something from you, your life. If you don't agree I'll just have to kill her" she said as she started to choke Lin with the necklace. I pulled her arm and my fingers burned her skin and then I understood I was the key.

I reached for her face and she tried to run, but her pain was overbearing and she fell to the ground and turned to dust. Aside from the blood and stench, there were also beautiful jewels and gold ornaments. I woke Lin and we grabbed as many jewels and gold ornament as we could. Now we had to figure out how to get out of this stinking place. Then I thought, we came here by touching the blood pendant so why not try that. Whooop! We were back! I hugged Lin and removed the blood necklace from her neck. well... a few weeks passed we sold the jewels and got a lot of money for them and I tried to go back to get more and you know what it worked! So now we have a never-ending supply of money. But she still haunts me, thinking that she might return. What if I'm not there when she does? Well anyways...