~Beaufort, South Carolina.Earth. The Past.~
The hot summer day beat upon her as her head bowed and she closed her eyes to shut out the light. At least some of the trees were keeping her cool, offering some potential protection.
Shawna had always been pale, had always had the midnight black tresses and cupid born mouth that as a child seemed permanently fixed into a pout but black hair and pale skin never seemed to be the summer's favored and the shade of the trees was her ward from the cruelty of the sun.
Another funeral. Another wake. Mourning and grief, the welcome celebration to death. It was such a contradiction that left Shawna ignoring the whole spectacle and staring out into the hazy lines of the horizon. Eyes so dark they near seemed forged of midnight itself blinked in surprise before they squinted.
If only to make herself believe what she was seeing. The man in the top hat and the black coat and skeleton painted face stood before the rest that lingered in the heat of the horizon.
Beyond her will Shawna took a curioius step forward before her wrist was grabbed and she turned around sharply to find the eyes of her grandmother resting on her.
"What is it?" "You see them don't you?" "Who?" "The Shadow Man and his....friends."
Shawna nodded silently as her voice was kept level and soft, something to not disturb the ongoing event before her.
"What do they come for?" "Why honey, they're here for you..." "Me? Why would they want me." "The same reasons they wanted myself and your mother at this age. It's in our blood....we were born for it. The generation of the women in our bloodlines carry the strands of power."
The strands of power. Shawna almost laughed as it seemed too far out there, but when she'd been seeing the dead since she was a small girl, she didn't have a reason to laugh.
Intuition. Ghost watching. Soul sight and emotional bonds. All of it she knew so well. Her mother had taught her not to fear the things she watched and saw. Then again her mother also advised her to never speak of those things to people outside of the family.
That they wouldn't understand, that they'd lock her away.
Her mother was gone now and still the words haunted her.
"They need you child, and what they need, they eventually come for."
The words brought her from her thoughts as she smiled absently to her grandmother in reassurance. Those cinnamon dark eyes of the woman seemed to hold a strange emotion....something akin to longing and perhaps jealousy.
Expressions that never should have been on an elder's face were there and Shawna couldn't shake that uneasy feeling as she turned away from the Shadow Man and her grandmother and everyone else, mumbling some soft excuse. She needed to get away from this twisted gathering of death and shadows....no matter how much it was 'in her blood', she just needed to get away.
No looking back, and at that hour it wasn't heat she felt on her skin but the cool of the grave.
This would only be one of the first signs, only the beginning.
The hot summer day beat upon her as her head bowed and she closed her eyes to shut out the light. At least some of the trees were keeping her cool, offering some potential protection.
Shawna had always been pale, had always had the midnight black tresses and cupid born mouth that as a child seemed permanently fixed into a pout but black hair and pale skin never seemed to be the summer's favored and the shade of the trees was her ward from the cruelty of the sun.
Another funeral. Another wake. Mourning and grief, the welcome celebration to death. It was such a contradiction that left Shawna ignoring the whole spectacle and staring out into the hazy lines of the horizon. Eyes so dark they near seemed forged of midnight itself blinked in surprise before they squinted.
If only to make herself believe what she was seeing. The man in the top hat and the black coat and skeleton painted face stood before the rest that lingered in the heat of the horizon.
Beyond her will Shawna took a curioius step forward before her wrist was grabbed and she turned around sharply to find the eyes of her grandmother resting on her.
"What is it?" "You see them don't you?" "Who?" "The Shadow Man and his....friends."
Shawna nodded silently as her voice was kept level and soft, something to not disturb the ongoing event before her.
"What do they come for?" "Why honey, they're here for you..." "Me? Why would they want me." "The same reasons they wanted myself and your mother at this age. It's in our blood....we were born for it. The generation of the women in our bloodlines carry the strands of power."
The strands of power. Shawna almost laughed as it seemed too far out there, but when she'd been seeing the dead since she was a small girl, she didn't have a reason to laugh.
Intuition. Ghost watching. Soul sight and emotional bonds. All of it she knew so well. Her mother had taught her not to fear the things she watched and saw. Then again her mother also advised her to never speak of those things to people outside of the family.
That they wouldn't understand, that they'd lock her away.
Her mother was gone now and still the words haunted her.
"They need you child, and what they need, they eventually come for."
The words brought her from her thoughts as she smiled absently to her grandmother in reassurance. Those cinnamon dark eyes of the woman seemed to hold a strange emotion....something akin to longing and perhaps jealousy.
Expressions that never should have been on an elder's face were there and Shawna couldn't shake that uneasy feeling as she turned away from the Shadow Man and her grandmother and everyone else, mumbling some soft excuse. She needed to get away from this twisted gathering of death and shadows....no matter how much it was 'in her blood', she just needed to get away.
No looking back, and at that hour it wasn't heat she felt on her skin but the cool of the grave.
This would only be one of the first signs, only the beginning.