Of the three cars and the nine people in the collision, only one person survived the accident. Yuri Cheremisinov, the man who fell asleep at the wheel. The families of those who were killed are trying to gather a case for manslaughter and driving while intoxicated.
Next to the article, which continued on 4B, were black and white photos of three men, Dawn, and his mom. There was also a family all with curly brown hair. . The girl in the photograph couldn’t have been more than two years old. All victims, he thought.
This is entirely my fault.
Yuri dug his hands in his pockets and walked out of the kitchen. He opened the door to his bathroom and went inside. On the counter were several pill bottles. Yuri reached for one of the bottles, unscrewed the top, and then poured all of the pills in his mouth. He then did the same with both of the other two bottles.
Within minutes, sharp pains filled his abdomen. He began to shake violently and he fought down the rising urge to vomit. He went into the shower, made the water scalding hot, and then lay down inside of it with his clothes still on. As he lay down in the tub, drawing his knees up to his chin, he thought, I am so sorry. I’m never going to forgive myself for this.
Chapter Five
“Poor Dawn,” Eden moaned as she sat up.
At that moment she blinked and realized she was once again in the Demon prison. She lay on top of the table where Yuri must have moved her. She gazed his way and stared into his face. For just a second she thought she saw worry in his eyes, but then his worry was swiftly replaced with anger when he saw she was awake. His eyes narrowed.
“What did you just say?” Yuri asked.
“I didn’t say anything,” Eden said, realizing her mistake.
“No, I heard you,” Yuri said. “You said Dawn. Who have you been talking to?”
Eden didn’t say anything. She just stared at him. He ran a hand through his hair, and Eden knew why all of those women had left him their phone numbers. There was something about him. Something intoxicating.
“No,” Yuri said. “You can’t know anything. I haven’t told anyone.”
Yuri glared at her as if daring her to say otherwise. She didn’t. Judging by the mad expression on his face, she realized Yuri still had not dealt with his issues, even though he had spent time in Zemiothstai. But as she watched him, she found she couldn’t be angry with him. Instead she felt an odd kinship.
“You’re going back to your cell,” Yuri said, reaching forward and seizing her. “I’ve never seen a soul with so many tricks up her sleeve. No wonder Commander Donovan wants you. You’re trouble.”
With a growl, Yuri continued to drag her out of the room and down the hallway. As she went, she caught her first sight of the man who had come to her cell the night before, Don. She knew it was him because he was yelling as a set of three guards held him up against the wall. Don had black hair, blue eyes, and a cleft chin. When he gazed at her, she saw his eyes were angry and determined, not afraid.
“What are you doing with him?” Eden asked, freezing. She wasn’t sure if Don had truly come after her while she was with Yuri in the interrogation room, but she didn’t like the fact he was being strung up against the wall.
“That is none of your concern,” Yuri said, snarling at her. “Come with me. Don’t look around.”
Yuri seized her and began to pull her toward the stairs. Eden threw a fleeting look over her shoulder at Don and saw him continue to struggle. She believed he had not seen her. She had a strange, sick feeling in the base of her stomach.
****
That night, Eden lay curled up in the straw when somebody fiddled with her door in an attempt to open the lock. She nervously struggled to her feet and stared at the door. With Yuri walking the halls like an overgrown guard dog, she didn’t want to call out Aaron’s or Sergeant Dale’s name anymore. She didn’t want to lose her only chance of getting out of this place.
But how am I supposed to get out of here and keep Yuri with me? Yuri is supposed to be one of my five. She shook the thoughts from her head and headed to the door, figuring she should worry about how to get herself out of this prison first.
The door opened and Sergeant Dale and Aaron both stepped inside, carrying vials of holy water. Both of them stopped in their tracks when they saw her.
“You’re fine,” Aaron said.
“Why wouldn’t I be?” Eden asked.
“Usually Yuri’s first step is intimidation,” Sergeant Dale said. “I’ve worked with him before. He’ll holler his guts out the first time he meets you. I thought you’d need the holy water to replenish your strength, but your energy is bright.”
“He didn’t get much of a chance to holler.” Eden gave Aaron a meaningful look, and his eyes widened in understanding. “I was out for most of it.”
“Oh, no,” Aaron said.
Sergeant Dale gazed from Aaron to Eden. “I don’t understand what’s going on, but I have a feeling I don’t want to. I’m putting myself out on enough of a limb coming here with the lieutenant and letting him inside.”
“I was surprised to see you two together,” Eden said.
They exchanged glances.
“We had a talk,” Aaron said.
“About what?” Eden asked.
“About getting you out of here.”
“I’m letting you out,” Sergeant Dale said. “Tomorrow I’m going to come up here and deliver you a Demon uniform. Aaron will check to make sure no one is coming, and we’ll escort you out.”
She bit her bottom lip. There was no way she could leave without Adanna, and now she knew she couldn’t get out of here without Yuri either.
“Your friend will be waiting for you outside the prison,” Sergeant Dale said. “She’ll be much easier to escort out of here than you are. I’m not sure this is going to work. If you get caught…”
“If I get caught, then you’ll be in big trouble too,” Eden said. “Thank you for helping me.”
“Yeah.” Sergeant Dale gazed at his shoes.
“It’s the right thing to do,” Eden said quickly, before he could change his mind. “I’ve got to fix this Blood Stone mess before it’s too late.”
“That’s part of the problem,” Sergeant Dale said. “I haven’t done the right thing in a long, long time.”
****
The next day, Eden sat on the floor again when the door opened. She gazed up, expecting to see Sergeant Dale, but instead Yuri darkened the threshold of the room. She gave a frightened sigh, praying to God that Sergeant Dale didn’t choose this time to come inside.
Yuri followed her nervous glance and frowned. “I want you to explain what happened to you in the examination room up there. I can’t get you out of my mind. How did you know about Dawn? Nobody knows about Dawn.”
Her back went rigid and she stood up. She understood why Yuri was here. She gazed into his bright eyes and took a step back, against the wall. If she explained to Yuri what she was supposed to do, he would never follow her. At least, she didn’t think he would. She wasn’t about to risk the chance, though, that he’d stab himself with a sword and make himself reincarnate for the sake of the Demons.
“Yuri,” she said, “I can’t.”
With his eyes narrowing, he strode toward her, grabbed her by her forearms, and pressed her against the wall. Yuri was so close had he leaned forward, their faces would have been touching. He continued to hold her against the wall, and fear filled her. I wonder if I was wrong. Would Yuri hurt me? She had never seen so much anger burning in somebody’s eyes before, even her dad’s. She bit her bottom lip.
“Tell me what’s going on,” Yuri said, continuing to press her against the wall. “What do you know?”
Eden didn’t say anything. She couldn’t. There was no point lying, either. She had always been horrible at it.
“Tell me,” Yuri said, shaking her so her teeth clacked together.
“You wouldn’t,” Eden said. “You put on a tough face, but you’ve never hit anyone in your whole life. I bet tha
t’s why Donovan put you in charge of me. They probably needed someone who wouldn’t make the mistake of going too far.”
Hissing, Yuri released her and stepped back, wide-eyed. Eden wrapped her arms around her chest, frowning. As she gazed at his face, she knew her words were either right or, at least, he thought they were.
“You’re smart, I’ll give you that,” Yuri said. “But you appear to have forgotten something.”
“What’s that?” Eden asked, biting her lip in confusion.
“So am I.”
Eden froze as she watched his eyes glow. It was the glow of somebody who had monstrous ideas, and she didn’t like it.
“I can have your friend sent away,” Yuri said. “Adanna, is it? The reports say you were a calm, easy to manage prisoner until we took her away from you. Right now she’s just downstairs.”
“What are you suggesting?” Eden asked.
Stepping forward again, Yuri cupped her cheek and made her stare him straight in the eye. She realized he was trying to intimidate her. He was succeeding.
“I can have her moved from here, Eden,” Yuri said, not blinking. “I can have her sent away to a completely different base. So far away you may never find her again. How would you feel then?”
“No,” Eden said.
“Do not mess with me,” Yuri said. “I didn’t get to be a general by being a layabout or a fool. When there is something I want to know, people tell me. And you will.”
Will he do it? In his memories, he had never been this bad. This angry. As she gazed into his face, she felt as though she was disappearing. She didn’t understand what was happening in his mind or how he had gotten to be like this, but she knew she pitied him and feared him.
“Yuri, I—”
There was a bang on the door behind them. Yuri whipped around and snarled.
“Sir, we need you out here,” a male said.
“Jared, I told you I was busy,” Yuri said.
“But it’s urgent, sir,” said Jared. “We’ve lost a prisoner. Adanna Meyers, number thirteen. We can’t find her anywhere.”
With a snarl, Yuri whipped around and grabbed her shoulders again. Eden had to fight down a grin as she thought, They did it. They got Adanna out of here. As she gazed into Yuri’s eyes, though, she began to wonder whether they would make it in time to get her out of here.
“What did you do?” Yuri asked.
“Me?” Eden asked. “I was in here the whole time. I didn’t do it. Maybe you need to count prisoners again, Yuri.”
“You—” Yuri pointed his finger at Eden and his eyes shot daggers. “You infuriate me. I’ll get to the bottom of this. I swear it.”
Turning, Yuri stormed to the door, opened it, and shut it behind him. As she settled back down to wait, she could hear Yuri yelling for a long time afterward.
Chapter Six
Several hours later, Eden heard the sound of her door jiggling again. She stood up for what felt like the thousandth time that day and gazed at the door expectantly. Sergeant Dale came inside, looked over his shoulder, and then shut the door behind him.
“You okay?” Sergeant Dale asked. “I heard General Yuri came out of here riled up.”
“He didn’t like that Adanna had gone missing,” Eden said. “Thought maybe it had something to do with me.”
“Why on earth would he think it had something to do with you?” Sergeant Dale asked sarcastically. “Poor General. After you disappear, this is going to be the makings of a bad day for him.”
“Mmm,” Eden said, and she couldn’t help but feel bad for him.
But she knew she wouldn’t go far from him. She wasn’t sure how, but once she was free of this prison, she was going to get Yuri to come with her back to Horace, the Angel continent. As for the other two souls, she wasn’t even sure where to begin looking for them. But I’m more than halfway now, she reminded herself, frowning.
“Change into these,” Sergeant Dale said, tossing her black pieces of clothes which smacked her straight in her face and knocked her from her thoughts.
She gazed down and saw the Demon outfit: a pair of black pants, a button up black shirt with golden buttons with an insignia of two swords crossed over open flames on the breast, and a black hat with a large visor. The better to hide my eyes, she realized. She knew her different colored eyes and her long, golden hair would be a big giveaway. She didn’t exactly look like the average Mary.
“Do souls change the normal way?” she asked. “I find it hard to imagine a soul can switch clothes.”
“It’s a matter of perspective,” Sergeant Dale said. “You believe you can change, so you can. I’ve seen people alter their entire soul’s appearance easily because they got rid of the belief they couldn’t.”
“Really?” Eden said, running her hand through a strand of her golden hair. She loved her hair, but if it increased her chances of getting caught…
“Yes,” Sergeant Dale said. “Now hurry up. I’m getting nervous. I doubt General Yuri is going to stay away from you for long.”
“Turn around,” Eden said. Dead or not, she still didn’t want Sergeant Dale looking at her naked.
Nodding, Sergeant Dale whirled around and faced the door. Eden seized her T-shirt, pulled it over her head, and then tossed it to the floor. Surprisingly, it didn’t sit on the floor like a normal shirt would have. It disintegrated as if it had never been there. Eden, gasping, tugged on the black shirt and buttoned up the golden buttons. She then pulled off her tight denim pants and pulled on the black ones. They bagged around her. She pulled the hat over her head and moved the visor so it dropped low over her eyes.
I look like a unisex American gangster. Eden gazed down at herself, frowning. Did the other soldiers look as silly as she did? Not that she had seen. Maybe, instead of blending in, she stood out more.
“You can turn around now,” Eden said.
Sergeant Dale whipped around and eyeballed her, scowling. “Did you eat when you were alive? Those clothes were the smallest size we have and they still bag around you.”
Eden frowned at him. “I was built this way, okay? My mom is the same way.”
“Okay, whatever,” Sergeant Dale said. “Let’s just get out of here before we get caught.”
Eden stepped forward, feeling uncomfortable in all of the extra material. Fear filled her as she approached the door and she knew chances weren’t good she wouldn’t be caught. Judging by Sergeant Dale’s tense face, his thoughts were similar. She touched his arm gently.
“Thank you,” Eden said. “For helping me, I mean.”
Sergeant Dale frowned at her, but she saw his mouth twitch in an almost smile. “I owed you, remember? You saved me.”
“You didn’t owe me anything,” Eden said.
Grunting in discomfort, Sergeant Dale said, “Let’s go, Eden. You can thank me later, after I get you out of here.”
Nodding, Eden felt fear fill her soul. Now was the time to escape. Then she could worry about everything, from the Raiders to the pursuing soldiers.
Once Sergeant Dale had opened the door to the corridor. Eden stepped through and gazed around. It was dark and there were only a few soldiers around. One of the soldiers spotted Sergeant Dale and walked over to him with a grin on his face, and Sergeant Dale gripped her arm and held it within his hard grasp.
“Remain calm,” Sergeant Dale said. “This guy’s real slow, but unfortunately, he’s a sergeant like me so I can’t just order him away. I’ll shake him off.”
When the Demon reached them, Eden pushed her hand on the bill of her hat and pushed it farther down to hide her eyes.
“We haven’t had an escape. Ever.” The Demon soldier shook his head. “What do you make of it?”
As Sergeant Dale made a disgruntled face, her eyes darted toward the cell across from hers. Don’s cell. She then gazed at Sergeant Dale and then back at the door again. Would Sergeant Dale go for it if she tried to rescue Don? She doubted it. Biting her bottom lip, she thought, What am I going to do?
>
At that moment she heard the sound of thundering feet on the stairs and gazed down, eyes wide. She recognized the sound of a large squad when she heard it. Sergeant Dale must have thought the same thing because he pushed his Demon friend out of the way and began to drag her down to the other end of the hallway and toward the next flight of stairs.
“Go up them,” Sergeant Dale said. “Hide in one of the rooms. Quick.”
“But they’ll find me up there,” Eden said, desperate.
“I’m going to try to distract them,” Sergeant Dale said. “Let’s just pray it isn’t Yuri heading this way.”
“It’s him,” Eden said. “I can feel it.”
“Then you better run. Now.” Sergeant Dale pulled out a big, silver key and handed it to her. “Here. In case the doors are locked. Don’t lose the key. We’re only given one.”
Groaning, Eden whipped around and sprinted up the stairs. She discovered this hall was empty. She laid eyes on the room where she had first met Yuri and sprinted toward it. There were many cupboards in there. Sure, she may have been too thin to fit into any Demon soldier uniforms but she could get into tiny places and hide.
As Eden opened the door and darted inside she heard a loud, hideous, cry from downstairs. It was Yuri. He was so angry she could hear his voice a flight of stairs up.
“The prisoner escaped?” Yuri howled. “The prisoner Commander Donovan specifically sent to us for special guard has escaped? How? There are over five hundred soldiers in here. A woman that looks like she does isn’t going to just walk by without being noticed. What were you thinking?”
Somebody responded, but Eden didn’t take the time to listen. She shut the door behind her and gazed around the empty room. A weapon. First I need a weapon, just in case I’m found. If these rooms were used for torturing prisoners then there had to have been something inside that she could use in order to fight the Demon soldiers.
What Following Brings Page 5