Secrets in the Dark

Lily awoke with a shudder. Her heart was thumping loudly in her chest, and her vibrant red hair was damp from the sweat that glistened on her forehead. Tears slid quickly from her emerald eyes as she gasped for breath. She was scared. Lily looked at the sleeping figure beside her. James slept undisturbed and very much content. She gazed at her husband enviously; he never had nightmares like hers. Lily lifted her hand and went to shake James awake when suddenly she stopped herself and pulled her hand back. She had woken James up every night for six days. That's when it had started, her dreams of darkness and whispering from the corners of rooms. Invisible beings watching her and taunting her with their dreadful secrets was more then she could handle. Lily held in her sobs and laid her hand on her stomach. She was six weeks pregnant. At first Lily thought that the nightmares were just some side affect to her pregnancy, but as they continued, she knew it was something else.

Lily scanned the room with anxious eyes. Everything was dark and she could only make out the shapes of things from the small amount of light that came from their bedroom window. Unexpectedly Lily's eyes fell upon a figure at the far end of the room. It was tall and shrouded in the dark. It stared back at her with luminescent eyes, and Lily's scream got caught in her throat and she sat there defenseless and silent. It continued to stare at her in an almost quizzical way, like it was confused about something. A second later its luminescent eyes brightened as it found the answer to its problem. Lily watched curiously as it rose what looked like a wand. The thing pointed it at her and Lily stiffened. It said something and a small spark came from the end of the wand. Lily went to open her mouth to scream but she suddenly realized that she could not. Her mouth was frozen shut! She went to wake James up but found that her whole body was frozen; she couldn't move a single muscle. Lily held her breath as the creature's luminescent eyes disappeared and something moved towards her.

The moment the creature came out of the dark and into the moonlight, Lily let out her breath in a sigh. It was a beautiful creature. It had wings that spread out like that of an angel, the tips reaching up to heaven. The wings were covered with blinding white feathers that glittered and sent flickers of multicolored light in every direction. Lily's eyes were dazzled as she looked at the rest of the creature. Its body was that of a tiger. The orange and black stripes that ran across its body were the purest and most vivid colors she had ever seen. As it came closer to her, Lily realized that it was at least three times the size of a normal tiger. Its stunning wings were enormous as well, and when the tiger extended them completely, they hit the ceiling of the bedroom. Lily looked into its eyes and saw that although they were an abnormally bright blue, they were not luminescent. Something else had raised a wand at her!

At that exact moment, someone stepped out from behind the tiger. It was a human from its appearance, a male to be exact, but despite that, it was about four feet taller then a normal human should be. The man had large white-feathered wings similar to the tiger, although his were almost completely invisible and ten times less striking then his tiger companion. He came close to her and she saw that he was wearing denim pants and a black t-shirt!

'What a contrast!' Lily thought to herself.

An angelic being wearing clothing like that of a human seemed catastrophic. The angel smiled at her as though it could read her mind and he shook his head sorrowfully. Lily wanted to say something but when she tried, she was suddenly reminded that she could not move, so instead she continued her observation of the man. She looked quickly up at his eyes and saw that he was the one that had the wand because his eyes were a luminescent gray. Lily also saw that his hair was a weave of pure gold, cut short and being blown back ever once in awhile by an invisible breeze. Abruptly he began to speak to her in a whisper and his voice was filled with an elegant tone. Lily found herself beginning to wish that she could listen to the voice for hours, but then she tried to shake her head and throw the thoughts away. Still frozen in position Lily was starting to get agitated. So instead, she listened intently to what the man was saying.

"Ah yes, good. You are finally paying attention. Madame I'm sorry for the frozen charm I have used on you, but I just didn't want you to wake your husband up yet. My name is Jacob and I'm one of the high lords of Anglicrose. I have a lot of things to tell you in a limited amount of time. Now please be very calm, because in a second I'm going to free you from the spell, and please restrain yourself from waking your husband. I promise in due time we can come back for him."

Lily sat there confused, but her attention was swiftly drawn to the wand that the man raised at her. Sparks came from the end of the wand and Lily sighed and found that she was finally able to move again.

"I'm sorry sir, but I don't understand what's going on."

"I know and I understand, but you must come with me for now so I can explain things. Hurry, the time is already ticking against us."

Lily frowned and got up from the bed. She looked back down at James whom was still sleeping peacefully.

"Shouldn't I wake him up? Wouldn't it be easier to explain things to both of us?"

"No, I'm afraid it would just make things more difficult. There is a certain task for you alone Lily. As I have said before we will come back for James, but right now it's you I need to talk to. Come quickly and get on Blaze." Jacob pointed to his tiger that was now sitting patiently and starring at Lily curiously.

Cautiously Lily walked forward. She placed a shaking hand on top of the large tiger and after petting it a few times it purred contently.

"He's a good boy. So don't worry because he won't hurt you or let anything happen to you," said Jacob lightly.

Lily climbed onto Blaze and held on for dear life. Jacob got on behind her and instantly the room dissolved in a swirl of light. Lily clamped her eyes shut and when she opened them again, she found herself high in the clouds above her house. Blaze was flying quickly through the evening night and within ten minutes they landed on the grass beside a large dark lake. Jacob helped Lily off Blaze and she quickly sat down on the soft grass beside the tiger. Blaze lay down beside her and she leaned against his silky fur. Jacob took a seat on a large flat rock nearby, looked quickly at Lily and then began his tale.

"Okay were shall I begin. How about why exactly I'm here, and then I'll move onto what I need you to do. Okay well first off as I have told you before I'm a high lord of Anglicrose. Anglicrose is a place that is almost never mentioned to any witches or wizards ever. And for good reason might I add, because it is a place of time. Now I'm sure you probably don't understand so allow me to elaborate. Me and many other high lords of Anglicrose are the keepers of time. We make sure that nobody uses extreme magic and suddenly messes up the smooth running of things. We can see the past, the future and the present. Unfortunately our security has been breached, and someone has stolen a time turner. A time turner is almost like an hourglass but when you turn it over it takes you back in time. Or for this specific case, forward in time."

"Forward?" asked Lily confused.

"Yes, we have specific time turners for certain things. Some may take you back a short while in time while others may take you back many years. We also have time turner's that allow you to move forward in time by a great amount. We keep theses turners locked away because it is very dangerous for people to go to the future. Because if they should bring something back with them then it could be disastrous. As I have said before someone has managed to get passed our security and they have gotten one of these locked away time turners. Only someone of extreme power would be able to get passed our security and we need to catch this person and bring back the time turner. So what I'm about to ask you will be very dangerous and maybe even fatal."

Jacob paused a moment for a deep breath and before he continue Lily spoke.

"I'm sorry Jacob, but I cannot help you. I'm pregnant and if I lost my baby, I would never forgive myself. Maybe my husband could help you, but if he does don't put him in danger. I love him too much to lose him. And even if I did help you what makes you so sure that the person that took the time turner will still be there. He can just jump to any day he wants at any time."

"Ahhh..." sighed Jacob, "Lily you don't understand. The time turner has limits to it. For the ones that jump ahead of time, it forces the person to stay in that time period for a least one week before they can jump again. And Lily you must help me because you have to save your child's life!"

"What do you mean?" cried Lily.

"Lily you have to stay calm or we can't do this. The person that took our time turner was Lord Voldemort."

Lily cringed at the name and pulled her knees up to her chin and began to rock back and forth.

"I still don't understand," said Lily.

"I know. I'll explain. Your... oh wait hold on a second. First whatever I tell you now will be devastating. But keep in mind that there is nothing I can do about it, and that when you are done with your task and return home you will forget that you ever had a task in the first place. I will bring you back here on this very night, and when you awake from your dreams I wont be here, and you will never see me again."

"But why? Why I can't remember?"

"Because it would be more than you could handle."

"I have a feeling that I'm going to be lost a lot of the time when I speak to you. Nothing you say makes sense."

"You will understand in a moment. Are you ready to hear what I have to say about your son?"

"It's a boy?" whispered Lily as she put her hand on her stomach.

"Yes," replied Jacob, "Are you ready to save his life?"

Lily looked up at him with confidence and love flaming inside her soul.

"Yes!"