Embers

by Daniela Elana

  Leo didn’t answer him.

  Behind the beat up, ally laid a community of people selling and trading food for silver and gold. Children ran playing on the streets, women sewed clothes and teens sold fruits. It felt as if I had sent back in time.

  “Would you like to trade your necklace for one of these blankets? It’s beautifully sewn and is made of mulberry silk,” a woman said, rushing up to me, advertising it me as she held it up. It was gorgeous, and I thought about how I could use a blanket. I rubbed the back of my neck, thinking about how she was trying to get me to trade the seal of Solomon for a quilt.

  “I’m sorry, I’d love to, but I’m going to keep the necklace; it was a special gift. Leo’s doing the trading over there,” I said. The woman glanced at Leo. Her eyes widened. She dropped the blanket and moved back, knocking into one of the tables behind her. She tapped on another woman and pointed at me. They whispered, watching us.

  “Is everything all right?” I said.

  “Stay away from us!” she said, picking up, a knife from a table.

  Leo ran between us. She pushed him out of the way, and tackled me, raising the knife.

  I grabbed her hand and forced the knife out. It went flying. The crowd that had gathered gasped. We struggled on the ground rolling around, knocking into table legs getting covered in dust. She grabbed my head and tried to smash it into the asphalt, triggering a nose bleed. I rolled her over on top of her, putting her in a hold. She sunk her nails into my arm and struck me in the face. I fell backward. Springing up like a cheetah, she kicked me in the stomach. I shielded my aching abdomen from the next strike.

  “Cecily, stop!” Leo shouted, pulling her away. She huffed blowing strands of her auburn hair waves out of her face.

  I rose, brushing the dust off me, both of our hair was disheveled. Something in Leo’s eyes was different when he looked at her in a way I’d never seen.

  Her coffee-colored eyes watered as she wrapped her arms around him, her long, auburn hair, bounced as she embraced him.

  “Leo! I thought you’d never return,” she said. He rubbed her back.

  “I missed you too, Cicely,” he said. She slapped him.

  “That was for leaving,” Cicely said.

  “I deserved that,” he said.

  “You sure do,” a man with dark graying hair said as he emerged from the crowd. He smiled at the sight of Leo and Cicely. When he saw me standing off to the side, he glared. The man walked over to Leo.

  “Son, you’ve made it back, why so long the wait?” Leo stared at his father, then at Cicely. All of the people of the town cheered for his arrival. He withdrew a bundle of deer meat, he had wrapped from his backpack and set it down on the table.

  “Rain and I hunted and skinned it last night, it should make a meal,” he said.

  “Good job, my son. But what kept you away all these years?”

  “I was soul searching, and I found Maricel. We share something in common,” he said, taking my hand. People whispered. Cicely glared at me, placing her hand on her hip. His brother crossed his arms.

  “What could the two of you possibly have in common?” Leo’s father asked.

  “We are messengers of the Lord, and our mission is to warn the country before it’s too late.”

  “Leo, do you know how crazy you sound? You’re no prophet, you’re an assassin.”

  “I’m more than just a single title.”

  “Son, if it weren’t for you, we’d never have what we do today. With your help, we fought our way to this place of safety.”

  “I’m aware, but what does this have to do with anything?” Leo said, rolling his eyes. His father ignored his comments gloating about his son’s achievements.

  “You trained all of the men of this town in warfare and help set up our militia and taught them how to hunt.”

  “I’ve changed,” Leo said. His father shook his head.

  “Your mother would’ve been proud if she were here to see the man that you became, but I’m sorry to tell you while you were in the world of heathens chasing her,” His father said pointing at me. “You’re mother fell ill and passed on to be with the Lord. We thought you’d never return, when Rain said he had no idea where you were, we were worried that you had been killed,” he said. Leo squeezed his eyes as if he were restraining tears.

  “Father, this is my life now. Maricel and I can’t complete our purpose without one another.”

  “Have you lost your mind? Someone, the likes of her isn’t even clean enough to set foot in Flo. You put everyone here at risk bringing that wench.”

  “Be quiet!”

  Everyone gasped.

  “Ah, I see the prodigal son has returned but has fallen under her spell,” an elderly man stepped forward who wore a long red robe with a full head of dark gray wavy hair.

  “There was a reason why I left this place.”

  The older man shook his head with a hiss, and the whole community mimicked him.

  “Woe to you, Leonardo,” the man said. Leo looked up at him. “For you are wise but a fool at the same time. Like King Solomon, your love for strange women will be your demise.” He and the entire community turned their backs to Leo.

  “Woe to Leonardo, Woe to Leonardo...” they repeated in a mundane tone. The leader of the group turned back to me. His eyes narrowed. Leo reached for his father’s shoulder—he shook his hands off.

  “I have come for some bread, butter, water and blankets would anyone care to give them to me,” Leo said. Everyone ignored him. They looked at the leader for permission to give it to him.

  “Let the man have what he came for, he’ll need it since this is his last time Leo is welcome unless he puts her away,” the man said. “For now he’s dead to God and to us.” The man walked away. A group of women and girls in long white dresses joined his sides. Some looked to be only twelve years of age. He stopped by me as he passed.

  “I hope the flames of hell engulf you for brainwashing our Leonardo,” he said. Cecily handed the blankets to Leo and glared at me.

  “When you come to your senses, you’ll realize she’s nothing but the queen of devils,” she said. He sighed.

  “Thanks, Cicely for the blankets.” He handed me them as he carried the paper bags full of supplies.

  We walked away, and he didn’t say anything to me. His dark eyes remained sullen. I turned back all of the people in the town watching us with crossed arms.

  My body stiffened, wondering how they could judge me without knowing me. Flo was no better than the media who made me out to look like some type of half-witted, hypocrite.

  We sat in silence before he shifted the car into drive. He hadn’t bothered to look at me and had yet acknowledged me since we had left. Was he now too ashamed of me? God, I prayed not. After all, we had been through.

  “If I knew things would go that way, I never would’ve brought you, I’m sorry about all the stuff they said to you….” His voice trailed as he kept his eyes straight ahead.

  “I’m used to all the hate. It’s the theme of my existence,” I said.

  “Leo, are you and Cicely...?”

  He glanced at me for the first time since we had left and furrowed his brows.

  “Are we what?”

  “You know…” I held my tongue, I didn’t even want to say the words.

  “Together?” he asked. I nodded.

  “No.”

  “It seems like it,” I said. Leo arched his brows.

  “Before I left, she and I dated for a few years. We grew up together. Deacon, the leader of Flo, paired us together before we were born because our mothers had gotten pregnant around the same time.”

  “Wow.”

  “She’s a childhood friend.”

  “You two seem like more than friends.”

  “We had an arranged marriage set up after her twenty-first birthday, but she’s more like a sister.”

  “Why?”

  “Cicely
started flirting with me when we were fourteen. I wanted to keep it platonic because I didn’t want to end up like the rest of the members dead in the eyes with no control of my own destiny.”

  “That’s how you view commitment?”

  “No, I believe in commitment with the right person, but Flo is different.”

  “Different how?”

  “It’s a cult. I had seen the outside world and desired to live differently. I had been bouncing back between living with the community and the outside world.”

  “I’m sorry about your childhood growing up in the cult must have been rough.”

  “Deacon” believed we were living in the last days. My parents were drawn to the sermons as a teen couple who had run away from their foster home. Deacon found them and converted them to join his community.”

  “Deacon sounds predatory.”

  “You think that’s bad. When Deacon discovered my gift of foresight, he encouraged my parents to sell me to the state as part of God’s will, so I could be used in God’s end time’s army and train the others for Armageddon.”

  “He wanted your parent to sell you? That’s slavery!”

  “The community settled in Georgia and lived comfortably from my bondage. There were other kids they took from our community,” he said. I gasped. “We were a good control group. Having been isolated from the outside world. Cicely’s older sister was one of them. She also was trained to be an assassin.”

  “Interesting.”

  “Our parents would walk us to the air force base where they would shift us back and forth. I was eight when they began training me. For nearly twenty-two years, I’ve been an assassin. Once I was fully trained at sixteen, I was released to live in the community as long as I went on assignments.”

  “How was it like assimilating back into your community?”

  “Difficult that’s why I took off after my twenty-first birthday. All I knew was killing. When I got offered a huge sum of money to carry out the dirty work of those in high places, because of how skilled I was. I gladly took up the offer.”

  “How much were you looking at?”

  “Usually a quarter to half a million an assignment.”

  “You must have been assigned to some pretty high-profile jobs.”

  “I was.”

  “You lived pretty lavishly before all this?”

  “I lived a fairly modest life, but never owned my own home, I’ve never needed more than what could fit in my duffle bag.”

  “Are you kidding?”

  “It would be too suspicious a guy like me in his twenties with no college degree turning up with all of this money when I had been posing as someone with basic odd jobs.”

  “I see.”

  “Before I decided to leave home, there was a time where I tried to be happy with Cicely, but the offers never stopped from people in high places.”

  “How long did you two date?”

  “Five years. Cicely wanted me to give up being an assassin to marry her. I started killing again when I was eighteen.”

  “What did you tell her when you took off?”

  His eyes stayed fixed on the road.

  “I told her it would be hard to settle down and get married without always having to worry about protecting her.” His words made it clear where her anger stemmed from and how bad he must’ve hurt her. “I didn’t tell her I was going back to a fulltime life of crime, or that I had already been getting my hands dirty, nor did I say I was leaving for good.”

  “No wonder she hates me so much…she must think...What do you think Belial’s next move is?” I said, trying to change the subject.

  “Not sure, we’ll have to keep watch,” he said. I could tell he wasn’t in the mood to talk.

  Sirens sounded with a flash of red and blue lights. Leo glanced in his rearview mirror, to see the headlights of the police tailing us. He pulled over to the side of the road. “Whatever you do, don’t make a sound or move, I’ll take care of it,” Leo said as he put on his sunglasses and rolled down the window. The officer came over to the side.

  “Good evening, sir,” Leo said.

  “I see you were driving with a broken tail light,” the officer said.

  “My bad, I need to get it fixed,” Leo said.

  “Do you mind if I see a copy of your license and registration,” he said, leaning in. His eyes moved to me and narrowed.

  “Sure thing.” Leo dug into the glove compartment and handed him his ID. The officer stared at before going to scan it. I sat silent as we waited.

  “Felix Croft,” the officer said, “I need you to step outside the car.” Leo got out. The officer’s eyes changed to a maroon shade, growing brighter as if his eyes were ready to unleash a surge of fire. His skin glowed a silver, metallic tone. Leo motioned away, but the officer shot a laser at his hand. He gritted his teeth, toppling over

  I flung the car door open and ran at the officer from behind, driving my switchblade into his hard drive. He shook with black smoke emanating before collapsing. Leo lay beside the disabled android writhing in pain, and I helped him up into the car.

  “I’ll drive,” I said. He hunched against the window as I drove. “I’m sorry, for not listening,” I said. He shook his head.

  “You never do, Maricel. You could’ve died!” I didn’t answer him. “Now isn’t the time to be selfish, if one of us goes, there is always the other. Our lives aren’t about ourselves anymore; they are about getting the word out.”

  “Leo, there are other prophets.”

  “Next time I’m in trouble I can handle it on my own,” he said.

  “Here take this,” I said at a red light tearing off a piece of the cuff of my jacket and handing him peroxide. “I know it’s not much, but your hand needs this to heal.”

  He snatched it and yowled as his flesh stung. I kept my eyes on the road.

  * * *

  We arrived just as the sunset. As we stood in the garage, I noticed that his bandage was slipping.

  “Here let me fix it,” I offered, stopping him by his elbow. He turned while I wrapped it over his hand.

  “Thanks,” he said, turning away from me and heading inside.

  “What happened?” Rain said as we entered.

  “I don’t want to talk about it,” Leo said, pouring out the bags of food onto the counter.

  “So how was the trip?” Caroline said as she and Leslie crowded around me.

  “Pleasant,” I said.

  “Come on, what went on?” Leslie said. I sat down by them.

  “His family are a part of an actual cult called Flo.”

  “Cult?”

  “They think I’m the spawn of Satan, including his family.”

  “Wow, that’s rough. I’m sorry you had that experience,” Caroline said, placing her hand on my shoulder.

  “Then there’s his psycho ex-fiancé Cicely who’s not over him after several years.”

  “I feel bad for her actually. They must’ve had an awful breakup,” Caroline said.

  “I might have some sympathy for her if she didn’t try to stab me.”

  Caroline gasped, and Leslie’s eyes widened.

  “Are you okay?” Leslie said.

  “Yes, Leo stopped her, but he’s cooled down toward me after he saw Cicely again.”

  “At least he defended you from her.”

  “I guess, but I wish he’d warm up to me again and not let his run-in with her make him question his friendship with me.”

  “Maricel, are you jealous?” Caroline asked.

  “Jealous? No, I just don’t like that he’s pushing away,” I said, feeling my heart beat faster from what she insinuated.

  “I think you have a crush,” Leslie said.

  “No. It’s not like that. I care about him because I’m supposed to protect him.”

  “Protect him from what?” Leslie said.

  “I had this nightmare Belial beheaded Leo. Since we’r
e assigned to the same mission, it only makes sense I protect him.”

  “That’s not your job. I think that you’re masking your true feelings. Don’t let what happened with Azazel hinder you from loving again,” Leslie said.

  “We are in the middle of an apocalypse. What good is loving someone?” I said.

  “Look at our marriages,” Caroline said.

  “You got married before this all started.” I walked to my room, closing the door. Standing in front of the mirror, I examined myself. My cheeks were still plump with baby fat, giving me the look of being several years younger along with my almond eyes and full lips that seemed like they were frozen in a slight pout. From behind, I spotted someone.

  “Maricel.”

  I pivoted around and caught my breath. Azazel stood there, placing his finger over my lip.

  “I’m not here to hurt you.” His hand left my mouth, and he took a seat in a chair. “Just like old times,” he said, looking around the room. “Comfy place you have here.”

  Azazel’s short haircut brought out the sharpness of his face—a look I’d never grow used to.

  “I’m not one to give up on what I want, so I’m extending my offer.”

  “Azazel...”

  “Consider yourself lucky. I don’t like to beg, and I’m rarely nice to anyone,” he said. I didn’t answer him. “Is this what you really want, to live in this rut with these clowns?”

  “You’re better than that, Maricel. You were made to reign beside me, I know you better than anyone on this earth,” he whispered in my ear.

  “You used to know me, but you don’t anymore,” I said. He shook his head.

  “Ah, Maricel. You’re cute when you grow a backbone. I’ll annihilate everyone who is against me. Since you’re on the wrong team, I’ll have to destroy you too. You wouldn’t want that,” he said, moving closer.

  “We’ve always been enemies, Azazel,” I said, turning away.

  “Have we?” He placed his hands on the crown of my head. His touch was still as warm and electric as I remembered. I winced, but he was too strong.

  Flashing before my eyes, the image of a fierce ruler seated on the throne as a procession commenced. He ordered people to build him a monument, one that would stretch into the heavens.

  “Do you see this man?” Azazel said. I nodded. “Who is he?”