Keeper of the Innocents

by Kristy Centeno

  When I made it to the front door I came to find my next problem, it was completely boarded up and inaccessible.

  “Well, shit. This was a great idea,” I murmured.

  A cold breeze swept behind me and I knew I’d been caught. There was no more running. The Rake was right behind me. I made to turn but it moved quicker than me, grabbing my neck and wrapping its bony fingers around me, only this time from behind. I flailed my arms in an attempt to touch it. I needed to make contact to repeat the maneuver from before.

  Unfortunately, this time it wasn’t letting me get anywhere near its arms. By the time I thought about touching the fingers wrapped around my neck it was too late. It moved faster than me, cleverly shoving my face against the very door I’d been eying for a way to get into the house, and inched its ugly face uncomfortably close to mine. I could only see it moving through the corners of my eyes, but it was enough to make me squirm.

  Now I really was afraid. I was put in a position where my entire body was plastered against the door and reaching up with my hands was close to impossible. Its other arm pinned my shoulders in place, making sure I couldn’t move to defend myself.

  “You smart bastard!” I yelled, somehow able to keep myself from panicking as its face drew closer and closer by simply spitting out a few words.

  It didn’t make a sound as it opened its large mouth. For a second there I thought it was going to bite half my face off but instead, a low whistling noise drifted out. The sound, although far from being a reason to feel full fledged fear, caused my skin to break out in goose bumps. There was something very wrong with the sound. There was something very wrong with the way it seemed to cloak my entire body and squeeze the very life out of me.

  I guess I came to realize this was no ordinary sound when my mind was hit with a total state of confusion. Something was happening but I didn’t know what. The Rake’s mouth was inches away, emitting a sound which caused me to feel as if I was about to pass out and I had no clue why.

  Fear of the unknown elevated my state of terror, raising it to a whole new level. It was then I realized what the Rake was doing to me. It was literally scaring me to death.

  I tried to fight back—to wiggle out of its grasp, but I was too weak. I tried to summon my magic, but that proved futile. The Rake had taken too much of my essence and it took more and more as I continued to panic.

  Just when I thought it would end my short life, it let out a shriek that nearly forced my eardrums to implode and released me. The loudness of the Rake’s cry subjected my ears to a consistent ringing that prevented me from making out any noises except for that one.

  In a state of confusion, I crumpled to the wooden floor and buried my face in my hands. The world around me exploded in seismic activity, moving from side to side like a yacht caught out in the open sea in the middle of storm.

  I was instantly sick to my stomach. Forcing my body to move from a sitting position to my hands and knees, I heaved and heaved, thinking I’d end up releasing the contents of my dinner. Nothing came out, though. My stomach must have not been too fond of the idea of giving up the chicken noodle casserole because it refused to budge.

  The sudden illness did serve to bring me back to reality. The dizziness quickly faded and the ringing in my ears finally stopped. I became aware of a screaming person somewhere nearby. I quickly glanced up and found the Rake hovering over Rhyzel—who was flat on his back on the ground—digging its long, thin fingers into Rhyzel’s chest. The screams came from my next door neighbor.

  If I didn’t help him, he would die. Even when he tried with all his might to break free of the Rake’s hold, it just wasn’t happening.

  I got up, pushing on even though I felt like crap, and hurried down the stairs. Using the fact that the Rake had its back to me to my advantage, I lifted both my arms, summoned the magic within, and watched as ten purple threads shot out of the tips of my fingers and wrapped around the demon’s upper body.

  It reacted by letting go of Rhyzel and turning towards me. It tried to break free by wriggling and pulling on the threads, but he was completely hooked and unable to find a way around my magic.

  Mustering every ounce of power inside, I pushed torrent after torrent of it out of me through the threads and the Rake howled, struggled, and began to break apart from top to bottom. Its shape began to disintegrate, going from a whole to a shadow form and back.

  My little trick was working, but it also wasn’t enough to vanquish this particular demon. I needed an extra boost to get rid of it. That meant I could very possibly pass out from the effort it would take to accomplish this. I would be drained of magic once it was dealt with, but I had no choice.

  Recharging, I went for a second hit, hammering it with surge after surge of magic. I could feel my body shake with the effort, but I couldn’t stop. As long as the beady eyed demon lived, Devin would always be in danger. It would never leave him alone. I’d gotten enough information via my most recent vision to know that much. A hit had been put out on the little boy, and the Rake was in charge of getting rid of him.

  I had to keep attacking it with all I had, hoping it would be enough to finally get rid of it.

  Even when I broke into a cold sweat, common sense telling me to stop, that I was taking things too far, I kept super charging the Rake with enough magical power to deep fry him into oblivion. My knees buckled twice, but I managed to pull myself into a standing position, hold myself upright, and not lose sight of my mission.

  Pretty soon I started to shake all over, but even then I didn’t stop. I was so determined, had it been necessary to give my life for my innocent charge, I would have done it. Of course, it was then that the true meaning of being a Keeper came to me. If it came down to it, I had to do what was right in order to ensure the survival of those who would one day protect human kind from evil.

  From the corner of my eye I could see Rhyzel laying on the ground on his right side, heaving heavily with the effort it took for him to take in air. A part of me wanted to see to him. To make sure he was okay, but my Keeper side told me to stay put. To finish my job.

  So I focused instead on the Rake’s end, ensuring its existence would end tonight. I wouldn’t be satisfied until it was gone and would no longer be a threat to Devin again.

  Thrashing in agony, the Rake’s body began to melt into a black goo on the ground, its body slowly disintegrating into nothingness as I continued to flood it with power hits.

  My ring began to cool off—a sign the Rake was at its end.

  As the last of its howls died down, I finally let go, stumbled a bit, and allowed the darkness threatening to swallow me to take over.

  ***

  My eyes opened slowly, quickly adjusting to the darkness shrouding me. I had no idea where I was or why my head hurt so much, but one thing stood out to me the most, I wasn’t alone. Even when I had yet to see anyone or anything, I could feel another presence nearby.

  I wasn’t sure how to feel about this since I didn’t know if my companion was friend or foe. I was only vaguely aware of my surroundings, after all. So far, all I could tell was that I was laying on something semi-soft, it was dark, and the amount of dust in the air was damn near overwhelming.

  It was clear to me that wherever I was hadn’t been cleaned in a long time. When I tried to move, I found my left shoulder and right leg to be somewhat sore. It was the pounding in my head however, that took the prize. It was so bad I felt like one wrong move would split my skull in two.

  “I wouldn’t try to move yet if I were you,” a male said, the sound low and incredibly appealing.

  “Rhyzel?” What the hell was my neighbor doing alone with me?

  “Who else would it be?”

  “I…what…?” The Rake! Of course! The images of what I’d just gone through—all the magical effort it took to vanquish that particular demon came rushing back. “Geez, how long have I been out?”

  I tried sitting up, but the drilling going on in my head stopped me right away. I
groaned aloud and lay back down. That wasn’t a smart move.

  “A few hours,” he replied nonchalantly. “I honestly thought you wouldn’t wake up till morning.”

  I had used magic to vanquish demons many times before, but my encounter with the Rake had proven to be more than difficult. No demon had ever required so much magical power.

  “You should have told me the Rake was so hard to kill.” I draped my right arm over my eyes, hoping the weight would stop the hammering going on inside my skull, but it only made it worse.

  “Would you have listened if I’d warned you?” I could hear him shifting in the dark, but it was too much effort to open my eyes to see what he was doing. “Besides, there was no time. We had to act fast.”

  Like it or not, he was right. We did waste a lot of time talking anyway, any more and Devin would have died.

  “What time is it?” I asked, hoping it wasn’t too late. I knew Mom and Dad would worry if I was out late and hadn’t let them know where I was or what I was doing.

  A light came on for about a second before disappearing. “It’s 3:25,” he replied.

  “What? Oh, my God.” I sat up, but the second I did what little I could see started to spin. My stomach just couldn’t take the waves, churning and squeezing as I tried holding myself in a sitting position. I gave up on that after a few seconds and lay back down. “Where are we?”

  “We’re still here.”

  “Where is here?” I glanced over to my left and spotted Rhyzel’s silhouette about three feet away. I could make him out sitting crossed legged with his back to a wall.

  “The abandoned house.”

  “Why are we still here? My parents are going to freak. I’ve never been gone this late before.”

  He moved his right arm and settled it on his leg. “How exactly am I supposed to carry you back home? On my back? I drive a bike. Or did you forget?”

  I winced. He couldn’t drive me back home unconscious. “Right.”

  “I could have called your parents, but I didn’t think they’d take well to the fact that I’m with you,” he added. “I better not risk my neck more than I already have.”

  I reached down to pat my jeans pocket and found that my cell phone was gone. “They called, didn’t they?”

  He didn’t bother denying it. “Yeah, but I didn’t pick up. I’d rather leave the explaining to you.”

  I sighed heavily. I would probably have some serious explaining to do. “Can I have my phone back now?” I realized that the light source I’d seen moments before came from my phone and it didn’t sit well with me to know that he’d probably gone through it.

  Rhyzel scooted closer until a distance of a few inches separated us, and handed over my phone. “You look great in a dress by the way,” he said, confirming my suspicions. There were several pictures of myself standing alongside a group of my high school friends during a post-graduation party.

  My cheeks burned at his comment. “Shut up.”

  I took the phone, searched through it quickly to find the flash light app, and turned it on, using it to take a good look at my surroundings as I waved my cell from side to side. I could make out outdated wallpaper, most of it drooping halfway down the wall, a three-legged table crumpled in one corner, and the dirty mattress I was laying on.

  Oh, gross! I would have preferred to lie on the floor. Then again, being that the house was, the floor was probably just as dirty, if not infested by mice, rats, or roaches.

  “This house has seen better days.”

  Rhyzel changed positions, sitting cross-legged, facing me. “It looks like the owners left in a hurry or they were thrown out,” he commented.

  “What about my charge?” I asked, remembering Devin.

  “Soon after you passed out, I heard police sirens. I don’t know what explanation the little boy could have come up with, but I hope it’s a good one.”

  Damn! It was my job to clean up that mess. I should have made sure to leave no evidence of what happened. But I’d screwed up big time. It was too late to erase what had happened since the police were involved.

  “I should have—”

  “Don’t beat yourself up about that now. There’s nothing you can do. The little boy is alive and that’s all that matters.”

  When had he grown a sensitive side? Why did he have to talk as if he cared about me? Why did he always behave like such a…human? It was confusing as hell and hard for me to see him as anything but.

  I moved the phone to where he sat next to me and aimed the flashlight at him. His t-shirt was torn where the Rake had had its long, disgustingly thin fingers imbedded in Rhyzel’s chest, but aside from the dried blood on the actual cloth, there was no sign of him ever getting hurt.

  “Are you okay?” I glanced at his face. He was pretty much calm, appearing even bored. “You know, I thought for sure you were dead back there.”

  “I came close,” he stated, as if it was normal. “It’s nothing that hasn’t happened before.”

  Maybe he had been too close to dying too many times and it just didn’t faze him anymore. He didn’t seem to be shocked by what had just happened.

  I, on the other hand, was probably never going to forget the Rake or its detestable effects on me for as long as I lived. Just thinking about it made me want to puke.

  “It’s a lot to get used to.”

  Rhyzel gave me a look that I couldn’t quite read. It was a mix of surprise and impatience. “I never said I’d gotten used to this.” He lifted his shirt, revealing the long scar on his lower abdomen.

  I think he expected me to shrink away in disgust, or gasp in surprise, but I did neither. I’d already seen the scar once before during a vision. I already knew it was there, and what it looked like. I was neither disgusted nor surprised by it.

  Ignoring the aching pain in my head, I lifted my upper body a bit, holding my weight on my left elbow. I shifted my phone to my left hand, pointing towards him, and reached out with my right hand. I don’t know exactly what compelled me to touch him, but I was suddenly overwhelmed with the need to run my fingers over his scar.

  I didn’t look directly at his face, though. I was afraid that if I did, I would chicken out, so I kept my gaze on his chest instead. The tips of my fingers inched closer and closer and I held my breath in anticipation.

  When they finally made contact with his warm skin, I had to bite my lower lip to keep me from gasping aloud. Unable to restrain myself, I slowly caressed the length of the scar from tip to tip, gliding my fingers from his left pectoral and down the angle to his navel.

  I could hear Rhyzel’s quick intake of breath. “I saw how you got this,” I confessed, finally having enough courage to look at him directly.

  Rhyzel’s face was a complete mask of passiveness, but his eyes said everything his face tried to hide. There was written emotion in those green orbs of his. Whether it was because of me or due to the memories of the past, I had no clue.

  “I didn’t mean to share that.” It was obvious he wasn’t comfortable talking about the subject, but he made no move to stop me or cover his chiseled upper body.

  “I know,” I whispered. “Share what you’re thinking right now instead.”

  He shook his head. “You don’t want to know what I’m thinking.”

  I was clear on one thing as I continued to observe him, whatever his thoughts were, they had nothing to do with the past. I would have seen it if that were the case.

  Looking at him, it was hard to see the evil—if there was any evil in him. He was different in every way possible, but at the same time, not so different from your typical college guy.

  Rhyzel Connor represented my worst nightmare—an evil I would one day be forced to destroy, but a guy I could find myself falling for. How could I handle something so complicated? I wasn’t ready to deal with something like this.

  I snatched my hand back. From the very beginning I’d told myself not to feel any form of sympathy for him, but after what had happened in the past twenty-f
our hours, how could I loathe him? It kept getting harder and harder to dislike him.

  Rhyzel shoved his shirt down, and I looked away. I found it hard to keep my gaze on him after that moment of weakness. I needed to sort out my feelings, and being so close to him was of little help, so I let the phone drop on the mattress so the light wouldn’t illuminate his profile.

  Feeling my arm going numb, I sat up slowly and forced myself to deal with my headache as best as I could. Whether laying down or sitting up, it was just as bad, so it didn’t matter what position I was in. This time, the nausea failed to appear and I took that as a good sign.

  The sole of my shoes touched the floor as I scooted to the edge of the mattress, using my hands to hold myself up by flattening them on each side of me. Aside from the annoying ache in my head, nothing else bothered me much and I wondered at that. I had cut my shoulder and thigh during my encounter with the Rake, but surprisingly, neither hurt as much as they should have.

  I was pretty sure the cut on my shoulder would need stitches, and the one in my thigh was a mystery. Knowing that something didn’t feel quite right, I reached out for my phone again and used the flashlight app to inspect my battle wounds.

  I was caught off guard by what I found. The cut on my shoulder was almost completely gone with barely a pink scar—which appeared to still be healing—the only proof that I’d gotten hurt at all.

  “What the hell?” I studied the rip on my jeans, the one I’d gotten on my inner right thigh just before I fell off the fence and found that there was barely a scare there, too. “What did you do to me?” I turned accusing eyes, as well as my cell phone light, in Rhyzel’s direction.

  He looked as if he’d been waiting for this moment all along. “I gave you some drops of my blood to drink while you were unconscious.”

  “What?”