Simmering Darkness

By E.J Bennett

Ariel the daughter of Mother Nature finds it hard to fit in with the rest of her peers and does not want to follow in her Mothers footsteps. She is training to take over from her Mother Gaia and become the next Mother Nature. There is one problem, Ariel does not feel loving and passionate about nature she wants to burn the earth to ash. She as a deep anger inside of her that screams to be let free and destroy everything in her path.
Can she overcome the darkness that threatens to take over her? Or will she pay the price for letting her anger get the better of her?

• Language: English
• Publisher: E.J Bennett
• Release date: Dec 29, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386437680

Book preview

Simmering

Darkness

By E.J Bennett

Copyright © 2017 by E.J Bennett

All rights reserved.

This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher/author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

This book is completely fictional and the places, situations and characters are made up from the author's imagination. Any similarities with any person living or dead, is purely coincidental.

PROLOGUE

The clouds had gone grey without much warning. It had begun as a whispering in the air, a subtle message of what was to come, heard by all but only understood by a select few. The day had been beautiful, bright and sunny. The sky had stretched out above them in a seemingly never ending expanse of blue swirls. The now-grey and pouring clouds had floated gaily above anchored to nothing and freely floating, basking in the light of the yellow, blazing sphere that was the sun. It had seemed like the ideal day for a stroll, or a picnic. Seemed. The instantaneously grey clouds had come as a bleak warning. A bleak, sudden warning and the formerly cocktail blue sky gad acquired that grey tinge that usually made children sigh as their playtime was about to be interrupted. Before long, the drizzle had started, gradually gathering momentum until the rain was fully established.

The day drew along rather slowly as the rains poured down steadily. It was not an unusual occurrence, but it was one which had not exactly been foreseen. Bereft of adequate preparation, there was no way one could have anticipated the steady showers that now assailed the region. The sky grumbled like a great big tummy in the sky protesting a bad meal and lightening cracked across the sky, splitting it in two in a momentary flash of light.

The sun, they say, enables life and the rain grants it safe passage. The robust clouds coughed up falling balloons of moisture like a weeping baby after a rare spanking, wetting the fields below. The vegetation below seemed to rejoice as the long awaited precipitation drummed against the canopy with a pitter patter that echoed all through the forest, unrelenting and steady in its rhythm. Animals below scampered for shelter from the slowly strengthening rain and others simply snoozed enjoying the cool air that accompanied the rain. The sun had been reneged to the background and struggled to shine, reflecting off the raindrops in different colors. It seemed to have happened without any warning, one minute there had been no signs of rain and the people had carried on with their lives with that notion. But then the skies had begun to cry and they'd been caught off guard.

They should have been expecting it anyways. It wasn't as though it wasn't due. Weren't they meant to be thankful? After all, their crops needed the precipitation, how else were they to survive? The rains poured down steadily, washing away some top soil and running off, filling the rivers and lakes. It was a wet day and the reality of that was gradually setting in.

Already, some small children had taken to playing under the rain, laughing joyously as the sky teardrops slowly and gently pelted their prepubescent bodies as their mothers yelled for them to get inside lest they receive an already well deserved spanking. The ones whose playtime had been interrupted stared out at the rain blurred horizon, wondering when this unwanted visitor would finish its display and leave. It had overstayed its welcome as far as they were concerned.

She looked over them, a scowl spread over her face. How dare they? After what she had done? It seemed she had underestimated humanity's penchant for ingratitude. And to think she had been worried that she had come too late. Her anger boiled through her even as her decision slowly formed in her mind. Why had they sent her here? Had it been a silly test to find out how she would react to their ingratitude? Was it even possible for them to have envisioned something so cruel?

It wasn't exactly intentional. See it from their perspective a tiny voice whispered in her head and she hushed it harshly, floating unseen amongst the people and their various complaints. She wondered if they would have been moved to be so honest if they'd been aware of her presence. She doubted it highly and it made her even more upset. Such duplicitous attitude deserved nothing but pain and suffering. She wondered what her mother saw in them. These vile uncouth creatures whose main motive for being created was defeated by the fact that they seemed intent on wiping out everything they came in contact with. Something in her could relate with their penchant for destruction, wars, all manners of conflict, it was almost poetic, but still, it annoyed her greatly. She turned to the sky and felt a scream of pure anger bubble up inside her, but she bit it down allowing the rain pour all over her, barely feeling the cold water as it soaked her through and through. Of course she knew what the others would say. 'That's just how she is. She just lacks control', 'Why was she sent on such a mission? Didn't her mother know better?', 'her mother ought to have known better, I can't tell how such a kind being could have spawned another so entirely different from her'. She scoffed, as if she'd asked to be one of them. Goody two shoes.

She was used to their scathing comments when they thought she was out of earshot, but she had long given up trying to make them think otherwise. They seemed more than determined to treat her like some abomination and she was certain that with the plan she was now concocting in her mind, she would definitely fit their profile perfectly. She sighed, floating higher up as the decision took root. She'd been so happy and expectant, giving them what they wanted. What did they know about anything? She could very well have held back, disobeyed and they would have been still been the ones crying up for help. Silly beings, they surely knew how to plead when it suited them didn't they? They'd perfected it. Made it an art and now, it was basically second nature to them.

The anger boiled deeply within her and she stared daggers at the houses in the village below. The streets were deserted now and a reasonable distance away, the dense vegetation bathed and seemed to be enjoying the bath she had provided. She smiled sourly, not quite feeling anything that even remotely resembled joy, well at least she was getting some gratitude from the trees. How hard was it to show some gratitude though? She asked herself as she waved her hand and her wand appeared glowing slightly, an outward expression of the anger that boiled within her.

She smiled at the irony of it. The same wand she had used with the intention of bringing them joy was about to bring them the retribution they so deserved. They liked to complain right? She felt compelled to give them something to really complain about. For a brief second she wondered what her mother would say. Her opinion was the only one she really cared about now, but the moment passed quickly as memories of the perceived injustice and unwarranted ingratitude she'd just suffered came back to her. No, they definitely deserved this. If her mother decided to punish her, well, it was her decision.

Just as this was hers.

With that final thought, and with the cold reality of what she was about to do settling in her mind, she flew up into the scar, a divine being in search of retribution for a perceived wrong. She waved her wand and the clouds shifted slightly, gathering closer and becoming denser than they'd been mere minutes ago. She smiled, a cold, hard expression that did not quite reach her eyes. She stared down at the village once more feeling the annoying stirrings of remorse threaten to bubble to the