38 – Departing souls
Part Four – The Wizard
39 – Sharing and not sharing
40 – All serve a purpose
41 – Here comes the wizard
42 – A watched walker
43 – The river
44 – The good news
45 – Darkness brings shadows
46 – The weariness of it all
47 – The other side
48 – Out with the old
49 – A creepy battleaxe house
50 – The darkest room
51 – Mother nature, Father God
52 – Home but not for long
53 – Phones and buses
54 – In the dog house
55 – We’re going to get you
Part Five – The Prophet
56 – A very big fish
57 – Stained things
58 – Daydream Island a day dream
59 – A man in a long black coat
60 – It’s the hair
61 – A lighter soul
62 – Attack the swarm
63 – Goodbye island
64 – Supernatural mystery
About The Unseen Series
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Part One – The High Priestess
1 – The wind and the dark sun
RUBY FISHER SAT ON A TIMBER BENCH on the front balcony of her second-storey unit, staring into nothing, dwelling on life and death and school and whatever else came to mind. It was mid-morning on Saturday and the Brisbane climate had moved from hot to warm with the cold air lingering longer now. The world presented greyness about itself today—even her tree-lined street lacked vitality. A gust of wind invaded her space and scattered dead leaves around her feet. Her mother would often ask her where the wind came from and where it was going. Ruby had no idea, but knew the question had a spiritual connotation. They always did.
She looked down at the brown curled leaves and kicked away the ones within reach and watched as they tumbled over the edge into the abyss. The wind carried memories. It had been two years since her mother went to be with her maker, and Ruby missed her every day. Her dad had another life now but Ruby was stagnating—just going through the motions. Mum would be disappointed.
School. School carried memories as well. She struggled with the teasing. ‘Ruby redheaded stepchild’ they called her. She’d asked her mum lots of questions. How come no one else in the family had red hair? Was dad her real dad? Stupid question, because there was a definite red tinge to his beard when he grew one. It was in the genes—the medieval Irish decent. Mum told her she was special, to toughen up, to harness the fiery temper attributed to redheads. So, she toughened up but had no temper, so went looking for medieval powers instead. But they remained hidden.
The grieving process had been long and dwelling on the good times spent with her mum helped, but today she was flat and needed a kick-start.
And men. Men saw redheads as a conquest. As she matured, men became obsessed with her but she worked out it wasn’t the red hair, but what men do—they seek to conquer. She was waiting patiently for Mr Right, but he needed to come along before she burst out of her twenties. No hurry. She had years up her sleeve and just needed to avoid the obsessed ones. The wind returned and rustled leaves on the balcony. She watched them dance.
And God. Why had God taken her mum away? Why didn’t he protect her? Was he even real? Mum had believed he was. Killed by a drunk driver. The driver pleaded for forgiveness. Ruby couldn’t forgive. She didn’t know how. She wanted God to show up and show her how to forgive but he hadn’t turned up. At least, not yet.
She looked up to the clear blue sky which challenged her gloomy mood.
Dad had called last night, talking about how he saw the sun turn black. She’d experienced a brief moment of panic at the idea of her dad delving into the occult, but he explained he had trudged through the Danish marshlands and watched millions of migrating starlings dancing and swirling in the sky. Their number so great they covered the sun as it set—it went black.
The image stayed with Ruby, a large black swarm in the sky and the black sun. She dreamed of it and had woken with the dream fresh in her mind. She blamed the dream for the gloominess and for leaving a remnant . . . a remnant of what, she wasn’t sure. It wasn’t a feeling of dread. More a premonition that her life was going to change.
Maybe it was just hope. She pushed her hair behind her ears. Maybe she needed a haircut. No, there was an energy. Her body was in tune with it. Something was coming. She hoped it had nothing to do with a dark sun, but it was the kick-start she needed.
<°)))><
A few days later, Ruby sat with her flatmate and workmate in a not-too-crowded doctor’s office. Zoe convinced Ruby it would only be a short stop on the way to work—she just needed a prescription. Ruby agreed only because it took her half Monday morning to kick back into work mode. Any distraction helped.
Ruby didn’t like doctors’ waiting areas. They spooked her. People waiting to see their doctor looked anxious, sad, and sick. Most didn’t look after themselves, and left it to the poor doctors to fix them up. She made her breaths shallow and slow so as not to let any foreign objects into her body.
The morning news blared from the television mounted in the corner of the room. A lady had walked out from the reception area and aimed a remote at the television to flick through the channels. Every channel blurted out news shows although one did have Sesame Street—the ageless Sesame Street—but after a quick look around, the remote beamer returned to the original channel, turned the volume down, and gave a shrug. She smiled at Ruby as she returned to her work area.
With the drama of the channel surfing over, Ruby scanned her environment. A man with a whitish-blond beard, which didn’t suit his age, sat scrolling through his phone. He gave his neck a twist as if aligning it—he’s at the right place if it fell off. Ruby pictured the man’s head falling off and rolling over and knocking down the plastic bowling pins standing upright amongst the children’s toys under the television. What a ridiculous thought. Maybe she needed to see the doctor. Another couple flicked through magazines. Magazines just didn’t want to die.
“Look, Ruby.” Zoe pointed to the television. “There’s an ad for that festival on the island that I’ve been telling you about.”
