by Nathan Parks
She lay back on her bed and stretched her legs straight out, throwing her arms above her head. She had to rest, but these days rest was like an elusive wisp of smoke that kept asking for one to wave their hands through it but is never really there.
“To think there was a time I thrived for all of this—a time where I could go days without even taking a break due to the vigor and passion, and now I can’t even stop to catch my breath if I wanted to!”
Her mind was all over the place tonight. Tomorrow she was going to be visiting Scintillantes, and she knew that would be an ordeal because the Arch Council was pushing hard on the Alliance members to step back and let things be. Many were doing that; however, she was the one rebel, and that came with threats of being stripped of her leadership.
She felt as though the Arch Council had given up on humanity and decided to allow the Fallen to overrun mankind. She couldn’t be upset at the points Serenity made earlier in the med area; she fully felt the same way. She would die fighting to keep that from happening. If she did just give up, then that would mean she had no reason to really exist. Wasn’t this the very reason the Alliance was formed?
Her mind played back over the last several years and the rebuke she had received over and over for protecting humanity. She had watched as the Clans were rocked back into the shadows. She had fought to keep it that way and even spoke up to the fact that now was the time to take them out. “Follow them into the shadows, and expose them all,” she had told the Council.
She had been held back at every crossroad; and during the moments that she took her team into the shadows, they discovered there was never support . . . they found themselves alone. Tonight, would just be one more checkbox on the Arch Council’s long list of unauthorized missions; and yet tonight also showed more than ever that there was a growing, unknown danger that was beginning to peek out and expose itself.
“What is going on?” She sat up and allowed her feet to rest on the floor. She ran her fingers through her hair and then stood up. She walked to a door that opened out onto a metal landing. She had it built about a year ago. She was tired of the stuffiness of the Sanctum, and there were times she just wanted to escape to the outside but still have her privacy.
She looked up at the night sky and realized that the night itself would soon be getting rest. Where had the night gone? Was the morning only a few hours away? She inhaled and held her breath for a moment. If only she could just stop time—even briefly. “Why do I feel, once again, that I am powerless and lost? I don’t understand why it is that this feeling never seems to leave me no matter how much I try to stay in front of everything.”
Over the last few years, she had learned to truly forgive herself for the moments she had fallen short, for the missions she had not gotten right, and for those she had attempted to protect but may have not been able to. She had grown inwardly quite a bit. She had learned to shed the things that were beyond her control and those moments in the past that she could no longer change. She had to. It had been destroying her.
Her hand instinctively went to the small vial that hung around her neck: Joan’s necklace. She had even come to an understanding with herself that the only way to ensure that she did not lose another “Joan” was to make sure her mind was present. She had beat herself up for too long over it, and this moment right here was where she existed.
◆◆◆
Chad was careful to ensure the young girl was strapped into the seat of the SUV before closing the door. She was in a medically-induced sleep in order to keep her from waking up while under the supervision of the Alliance.
Several tests had been run on her, but nothing revealed anything supernatural. Of course, that just meant that if there was or had been anything, it was able to stay undetected. He knew that the team had taken some great risk bringing her into the Sanctum without permission from Leah, but it just seemed right.
He walked around to the driver’s side and opened the door to get in when the passenger’s side opened, and Serenity slid in.
“Oh, come on, Serenity! You know Leah doesn’t want you taking her . . . let alone if she finds out it was both of us together.”
She smiled that killer smile. “Well, then we better get going before she realizes that both of us are missing and puts two and two together.”
“No, I am not doing this; she is already angry enough.”
“Chad, you know what we saw! You know there was something going on; and we both know that this girl is either a link to it, or she can tell us what was going on! This is big! There is no way that the Fallen were just chillin’ with all that activity.”
“Right now,” he said as he threw his hands up in submission, “I really don’t care. I just want to get back here and get some sleep. I still smell like ash from those vampires’ disintegrating.”
“Demons.”
“Oh, shut up!”
They drove out from one of the bay doors and into the darkness that was making way for the morning sun to peek up over the horizon. The city was waking up, and people were starting to move about. As mortals, both Chad and Serenity often wondered what it was that they couldn’t see; then again, Chad knew that it was probably better that he didn’t know.
They drove in silence for a while toward the hospital downtown; but he knew the silence wouldn’t last for long . . . and it didn’t.
“What do you think is going on?” Serenity posed the question. “We have Fallen activity that can’t be explained, and I have heard some of the other Alliance members say that many of the Clans seem to have gone underground as if preparing for a ‘lull-before-the-storm.’ Everyone you talk to expresses a feeling of uneasiness, and nothing seems to be right anymore.” She looked at him, expecting him to participate in this conversation.
He didn’t want to; he sat there quietly.
“Oh, come on, Chad! Stop being a punk! You know you can feel it! Even as a mortal I can feel it in the air! I can feel something is happening.”
He shook his head. “Serenity, I don’t care. I just want to go kill vamp . . . demons . . . and go to sleep. Just maybe I can catch a good flick at the theater and one day have the chance to have a real date. Outside of all that, I just don’t care.”
She turned and looked at him with a look that said, “There is no way you are that shallow.”
He didn’t say anything more.
◆◆◆
Behind them, the young lady was buckled in, her body still in an induced sleep but only physically. Deep below the surface, voices danced about, and madness screamed at her.
“What is your name?”
“Leave me alone,” the girl’s spirit sobbed. “Leave me alone. Let me be. You know my name!”
“You chose to be at the gathering tonight. I am here because you chose it.”
“No, I didn’t choose this. I want to be left alone.”
“You were there.”
“I DON’T CARE! I don’t want you! Leave!” she screamed out within the hollowness of her spiritual existence. “Don’t you get it?”
“What is your name?”
Her spirit shivered and trembled, curled up in a dark corner of her mind. She didn’t want to speak, and she didn’t want to exist; she wanted to escape. That is all she had ever wanted for so long. Her parents never seemed to care, and her friends never were really true friends. She was alone. She had only wanted some consistency, acceptance, and love . . . not this.
“You know my name! You called me by it. My name is Victoria.”
“Some of us know it; some of us do not. Victoria, you are part of us now; and we are a part of you until he comes.”
Sobs . . . more sobs. Trembling . . . more trembling. “No, this is a dream!” She began to tear at the skin on her arms. As she did, her body began to shake. Skin began to fall away in ribbons, and just below the surface of her skin were black, centipede-like worms crawling en masse.
“NO, let me go! Let me be!” She could feel the black worms crawling in and out of h
er skin now, and she could hear voices of different evil pitches laughing. It was as if she was drowning in a well of sulfuric evil.
“You chose for us to be here,” a little girl’s voice sneered.
“Who are you?” She was full out shaking now. There was no more trembling. This was a soul’s last effort to break out of a living horror but unable to shake the bonds that held her. “Wh . . . who are you?”
“We are him, and he is us.”
“Who?”
“Legion . . . and he comes.”
◆◆◆
Chad slammed on the brakes and jerked the wheel to the right as he pulled the car over and leaped out of the driver’s side door. He flung the back passenger door open where the young girl’s body was convulsing as foam dripped from her lips.
“What in the world is going on?” he yelled.
“I told you! There is something inside of her!”
“It can’t be! You tested her!”
“I know, but I also know what I feel; and I know what we saw at The Warehouse. Chad, be careful! There is something taking her down inside!”
As Serenity jumped out, she flung the opposite door open and looked in horror as the young lady’s body bent in unnatural positions against the restraints of the seat belt. Serenity thought she was going to lose it as the girl’s skin began to ripple as if there were thousands of creatures beneath it.
“Chad . . . be careful!”
Chad reached into a cargo pocket on his pants and pulled out a plastic vial that had a breakaway tip. He pressed firmly with his thumb, and the top snapped clear. He thrust the tip of the vial between the lips and over the tongue of the convulsing girl. Her eyes shot open and she looked straight at him, but nothing but black could be seen where eyes should be. With inhuman strength the girl shoved Chad, and he felt himself get flung backward.
“Not that easy, Momma’s Boy,” a voice spat out from the girl’s mouth that was clearly that of a man, a man’s voice trimmed in the anguish of the screaming of a thousand souls.
Chad was shoved into oncoming traffic. The squealing of tires stabbed at his ears, giving him no room to doubt his mortality. If that was not enough, the smell of burning rubber and the showering of stone and street crud hitting his face as vehicles did what they could to avoid him clearly brought his life into perspective. Horns honked, and he could feel the wind of a truck as it missed his head by inches. He felt a strong hand grab him by his arm and pull him into the air and back toward the SUV. It all had happened in a minute, but it seemed like 15.
The young lady in the car was screaming as she now thrashed at Serenity. The Alliance member had a sedation syringe from a kit she carried on her, and soon the girl was once again out.
Chad brushed himself off as he looked over to the Guardian who had pulled him from the traffic. “Thanks, Man.”
“Not a problem,” the Angel said. “What in the world do you all have in there?” He motioned toward the vehicle.
“We aren’t sure, but what we do know is that we can’t take her to the hospital like this,” Serenity stated matter-of-factly as she came around to the front of the vehicle.
“Gideon told me to protect you guys if you needed it. I am glad he sent me. He didn’t say anything about a Familiar.”
“He did what?” Chad asked in almost aggravation. “If he sent a Guardian, then he must have also believed there was something else to this girl.”
“Told you,” Serenity smirked.
Chad just shook his head and walked back around to the open passenger door and looked at the young lady. “Ok, so what do we do now?”
“You tell me,” Serenity stated. “Leah said she is fine . . .”
“Yes, but that was based upon your test.”
“Ok, either way, we can’t take her back to the Sanctum. That’s all we need is to have whatever is in her to decide that being inside her is not as cool as taking on the Alliance inside the Sanctum or, even worse, breaking through Patmos.”
Chad ran his fingers through his hair and rested his head against the top of the door. He looked over to the Guardian. “Any suggestions? You are the immortal here.”
He looked just as lost. He didn’t have anything to do with any of this. His job was to guard, and Chad was grateful he had done his job well.
“Please, Sir, don’t let them take over.”
“Where are we going to take her? We can’t take her back to the Sanctum!” Chad couldn’t think. He was pacing back and forth in front of the vehicle with his arms up and fingers interlaced behind his head. He was lost. He had been given direct orders from Leah to get this young lady to a hospital; but after what he just saw, he knew they couldn’t do that.
Serenity sat on the hood of the SUV and watched as the traffic passed. “What ARE we supposed to do, Chad? I mean, come on! We are mortals, and whatever that was can for sure be marked as NOT mortal.”
He just stopped and looked back at her. She had been a part of the Alliance before him, but they had really grown close. They made a great team, but right now this team seemed to have no clue.
“Let’s think this through,” he said. “According to your test it appears that there is nothing supernatural within her, but we both saw her body be thrown into the center of the room, and we both just witnessed all that commotion and crazy speaking.” He began waving his arms around as he tried to make his point. “If it wasn’t for what happened at The Warehouse and that crazy, insane strength and voice, we could say that maybe she is mentally unstable; but that isn’t it. Well, I mean, it could be part of it . . . no offense.” He emphasized the last part as he motioned toward the young lady as if she could hear him. “But we do know there is something.”
“Something that can go so deep within a mortal that it is as if it is part of them . . . or is them! This thing is stronger and deeper than any Possessor,” Serenity stated. “This thing scares me.”
“Well, let’s just get a bottle of holy water and throw it on her and leave her here.”
“Chad!”
“I was joking! Sheesh, give me some credit. I have to have something to ease this situation.”
“Hey, I know where we can take her! Get in!”
Chad looked at her inquisitively. It was never a good thing when Serenity all of a sudden had an epiphany. “Where?”
“To someone who will understand her better than we can.”
Chad just stared at her. “No!”
“Got a better idea?”
“No.”
“Then get in! I am driving.” Serenity jumped off the hood of the vehicle and made her way to the driver’s side. Everything in him told Chad this was not going to be good, but he knew that arguing with her would be of no use . . . and she was right: there was nothing better.
He threw her the keys and got in.
◆◆◆
“Where are you taking me?” a soft and scared voice asked from the back seat. “Are you kidnapping me?”
Chad lifted his head from where he had been resting against the window as Serenity drove toward their destination. He didn’t even realize that he had dozed off. “No, Victoria, we are not kidnapping you. We are trying to protect you.”
Victoria sat up in her seat and looked out the window of the SUV. The sun was just breaking the horizon; and from the scenery, she could tell she was far from the city.
“Protect me from what? Who are you?”
Serenity looked back to her left to see if she could switch lanes and then allowed the vehicle to drift in that direction. She was relieved that her two traveling companions had awakened because she herself had started getting drowsy. They had been traveling for a few hours, and she had not slept now for almost 24 hours.
Serenity looked in the rearview mirror at their passenger. She looked normal—like a teen girl who had a rough night—but normal. She could see the confusion on the girl’s face. Clearly, this young lady had been through a lot. She didn’t show signs of panic, even though she had awakened to find herself
in a vehicle with two strangers.
“Going to answer my questions or do I just wait for you two psychos to dump me on the side of the road? Also, how in the world do you know my name?”
“I’m Chad and this is Serenity, and we know your name from your driver’s license.”
“Well, guess the license can’t tell you that I prefer the name Tori . . . and oh, by the way, I don’t scare easily.”
“Glad you don’t, Tori,” Serenity stated, “because we aren’t trying to scare you. You got yourself in some pretty deep stuff last night, and we are helping you.”
“Like what? Did I snort some crank and slash the throat of the mayor’s wife?”