HELL IN HURRENELL

 

Rating: PG
Genre: comedy/Dark Humour
Setting: Hurrenell Lighthouse
Main Characters: Neon, Rune

 

Part 3

Neon collapsed on a chair. Or at least what passed for a chair. The last few days had been hell. Quite literally in fact. Pyro had set fire to his room, several times a day. He considered himself lucky to still have all of his belongings. And Rune was creeping him out more than the first day. Neon was sure that Rune and Lillith were coming up with some twisted plot together. Lillith kept on sitting near Neon, going through several different, and definitely imaginative ways in which Neon was likely to die. And they were different every night. Rune stared with the same scary smile as normal. Neon couldn’t forget the threat that Rune had made. Everywhere he went now he was always looking around, trying to seek out some trap, some ambush. Anything. Partly because his paranoia led him to believe the demon kids could strike at any minute, and partly to prove to Hyru that Rune really was out to get him. Yes. Hyru. None of this would be as bad if it wasn’t for Hyru. He would probably have been able to handle the disturbing stories if Hyru wasn’t acting like she was. In her eyes, Neon could see clearly, these demented, twisted small humans were perfect little angels. She wouldn’t hear one word against them. And worse, if they did something bad, even in front of her, Neon always got the blame. Even if that little brat Pyro set fire to Hyru’s hair, which he had indeed done several times, Hyru just ignored this fact, and screamed at Neon for corrupting their “perfectly innocent little minds”. It was driving him crazy. He sighed with exasperation, wincing slightly as somebody knocked on the door. He heard Hyru walk through the hall to  answer it. At least the little brats seem to have lost interest in him for the moment. He relaxed, ever so slightly, still expecting an ambush if he let his guard down. Yep. There it was. The quiet footfalls. Probably Rune again. He tensed himself, trying to ignore the advancing footsteps. They stopped behind him. He sat upright, with the intention of turning around and surprising his attacker. Then Hyru’s voice rang out.

“Neon. Bad news I’m afraid. Master Koru has fallen ill. I need to go to him” Master Koru. Hyru’s mentor, before she started travelling around the world in search of new, more advanced magic. She had lived with her mentor for years, since her mother had been killed by bandits, raiding her home. Her father had died two years previously. Hyru and her mother lived in the small town of Lein, about fifteen miles north of Hurrenell. She was five at the time of the raid. She had just started lessons with master Koru. She had barely survived herself, the only thing that saved her was climbing into a small alcove between the cellar door, and the fireplace. Unless you knew it had been there, you never would have seen it. Fortunately for Hyru, the bandits had had no interest in burning the village. Anyway, Master Koru had found her, kneeling by her mothers body, tears streaming down her cheeks, holding her cold and lifeless hand, in a hopeless attempt to prove to herself that her mother was still alive. He had taken her in, and now Koru was almost like Hyru’s own father. Neon knew how important he was to her. Despite himself he felt almost pleased at this news. They could get someone else to look after the kids, and get away from this damn lighthouse. He was dimly aware that Hyru was continuing to talk.

“As much as I hate to do this, I have to leave. You have to promise me that you won’t hurt any of the children while I’m gone” Not hurt any of the children…that didn’t sound to good.

“What?!” asked Neon sharply

“Well, we can’t leave them here, all by themselves. You have to stay here to look after them!”

“On my own?”

“Well, yeah. I have to leave. You can handle them! Their a bunch of angels, they won’t be any trouble at all!”

“Your…leaving me here”

“Yes”

“alone?”

“yes”

“With these…..children?”

“Yes!” She turned to leave. “I have to go immediately. You understand, don’t you?” Neon nodded dumbly. Oh dear god, he thought watching her leave, the nightmare has just gotten worse. He sat slowly down again, falling into a light, uneasy sleep.

 

END OF PART 3