BRANDON HARDEN - TISIPHONE

​Brandon Harden currently attends Full Sail University in pursuit of a BFA in Creative Writing. He is an entrepreneur and volunteers his time at the library. When not working he spends most of his time writing and researching. He is currently working on a novella series.

Tisiphone
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There's no turning back now she said as she moves slowly along a cobblestone road to somewhere made black by the almost tangible black dead of night. A canopy of pale blue moonlight dimly lights the path before her while its sides are walled by miles of tall grass fields. Strapped to her back are the totality of her existence being a tattered green knapsack and a golden tinderbox jingling by the tune of her footsteps and breaking the night silence.  To keep herself from succumbing to the billowing brisk of cold winds she grabs the tinderbox striking it which conjures a ghostly violet flame that dances in the air around her. Its warm glow removes all doubt and rekindles the faith she has in her training of the unseen arts. 
Speaking to the flame she commands “By desire of my heart and the will of my soul, so mote it be.” 
“And so it shall be, child of magic,” the flame replied as it arced and shrieked past her at the speed of light. Shortly after it vanishes headlights from a pickup truck pierced the night from behind her. The driver answers her signal to pull over, lets her into the truck and the two drive off.
“What brings you to the Never Road so late at night?” he asked as the truck bounces and dips over the cobblestones.
“Never Road?” she inquires reluctantly.
“A little way from here is a titanic ash tree forking the road into two paths. One path is a loop back towards the town while the other leads the big bright world that lies beyond the borders of our walled garden. While one leaves and is never seen again the other likely will never leave the town. So therein lies the name and which one are you,” he replied leering with subtle glances at his passenger salivating at the thought of catching worthwhile prey. 
“I suppose I will never return to this place but the weight of the trapped souls on this road who died at the hands of demon prevent me from leaving,” she said. The driver slowed the truck into parking as they reached the ash tree. Her answer had already thickened the ominous uneasy tension between them and the drivers owned thoughts made matters worse.
Can she smell the iron from the blood-soaked bed of the truck, he thought. “What on earth would give you that impression? I travel these roads often recruiting ideal candidates to serve their country. You see I left this town the first chance I got and chose to fight wars around the world instead of losing the ones at home. The only demons I’ve ever seen are the ones people wrestle within them,” he said hoping to lull his next victim with false security while reciting his head the enchantment that unleashes his true form. The girl has been void of emotion since getting in the truck with her gaze fixed on the ash tree unaffected by his transformation into a pale-furred wendigo. Intrigued by her disposition he grabs her neck with his talons trying to incite the aura of fear needed to satiate his devouring hunger. As he twists her neck he notices the golden tinderbox clutched in her hands he halts his advances. Recognizing the magic totem for what it is the fear he sought to impose upon the girl consumes him as he tries to leave the truck but to no avail.
Alabaster flickering lights appear and envelop the truck and ash tree humming a dissonant chord shaking the leaves off the tree and shattering the glass of the vehicle. “You cannot escape the pit, Damien, and now is the time to claim the mark my servant placed on your soul and avarice,” she said in a thunderous tone echoing across the wind. 
“Wh...What are you?” Damien bellowed trying tirelessly to escape his fate
“A wand for hire sent by the kin of the humans you've devoured and witch Elaine from which you stole your power,” she replied.
The swirling lights morphed into images of his victims. And he could see the energy currents forming the spell that binds him within the truck. The girl phases through the truck and stands between it and the tree. Striking the tinderbox releases the ghostly flame and engulfs the truck in a violet bonfire.
“Tisiphone, punisher of murderers, obliterate this soul from time and space.”
The End

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