by Amity Green
Her legs buckled and she plummeted forward. Jagged rocks stabbed into her knees. “Oh, dear God,” she whispered.
Empty space loomed dark behind the monstrosity, contrasting with alabaster bone dangling in sunlight. The spectacle of chain, spanned wings, and death was easily as long her school bus, the corpse alone nearly twice the height of her father, had it stood on the ground. The thing’s ankles and feet hung below her view, the floor of the cavern dropping off beneath the body. Thick links ran from there too, likely clasped around unseen ankles.
The chains creaked suddenly, the entire display wriggling, making the wings wave slowly, in an imaginary wind. Savannah squinted into the shadows below the arms and wings, allowing herself to clamber to her feet and step away, swatting at falling bits of dust and dried remains that threatened to land on her.
“Savannah,” Witcher said, from beside her.
She couldn’t help screaming, darting away from his voice. Sharp rocks bit into the soles of her feet. He stepped from darkness into the beam of light from above.
“Now, you see me.”
***
Chapter 16
Had Witcher been human, Savannah would think he had remorse. Did he wish he could go back to a time before he began playing with humans? When he was in the good graces of God, was he truly that lonely? It was certainly his reflection swinging on chains. At last, she understood his expression. Frustration.
“Look upon how He shows His love.” Tears welled. Witcher turned his face to the pinhole of light, peering toward the heavens.
Savannah backed away, one cautious foot behind another. She’d had enough hell for a lifetime, let alone one day.
“Stop!” Witcher commanded. His voice resonated, echoes erupting, quaking through the mountain. Savannah crouched, tucking her head.
Dust and gravel fell from above. Witcher watched her, still as stone in the ray of dusty sunlight.
She rose, tentatively, watching the rock ceiling. The tiny window above was way up there, probably about fifty feet, if she had to estimate. Behind her, the small room where she’d awakened was icy and sunk into complete darkness, like the Cave of the Winds. Even if she went back that way, a path to freedom wasn’t a certainty.
Witcher eyed her. She stared back. There was no way he’d let her leave on her own.
“How do we get out of here?” she asked. It was time to choose her words carefully, just like he did.
“You can give us both freedom.” He turned away from the angel in chains, walking toward her.
“Even if you’re right about that, I can’t undo this,” she said, nodding toward the skeleton.
“But you can, Savannah.”
“It wouldn’t be right. I won’t.”
“Then we both shall perish in the mountain. I will find placation through stinking apes of the Earthbound and you shall simply know no more. Here,” he yelled, waving an arm savagely. He grit his teeth, lips drawn thin and white. “Alone, scared, and in the damned dark,” he raged. His voice rose as his anger ignited. “Starving and wasting away.” He stalked up and grabbed her shoulders, shaking her hard. Witcher spun her around so she faced the suspended corpse. “Just like me!” he yelled.
Savannah cried, shaking so badly her legs were numb. Witcher was probably the only thing holding her up. “Stop it,” she pleaded.
“Why? Don’t you want to know what it is like?” He turned her in his grip, jerking her hard. “It hurts! To this day I feel myself rotting, enduring my flesh falling away. I fought against the bite of His chains for ages down here. And for what reason?” He shoved her back. Savannah watched him through a watery gaze, fighting to stay vertical. She stepped closer to the wall. He breathed in, shaking his head and wiping his eyes. “All because I took what was rightfully mine.” He walked two steps toward the bound angel. “There is no justice unless we make it for ourselves.”
“I don’t understand.” she said, just above a whisper.
He turned, responding softly. “I am His son, born of Him far before any who walk below. It is I who deserves to know you, before any other.”
She shook her head. “No.” Greater powers were at work. “I won’t undo something done by God.”
He searched her face. “I want you to love me, too, Savannah,” he said, softly. He grasped her hand. “Please, you alone have the strength to free me. You can end my suffering.”
She shook her head. The hell he’d been reduced to was fitting, a silent tomb removed from the light, just where a demon belonged. The essence of the thing had crept out into the world, feeding off energy from the living. Fear and lust were strong emotions, powerful enough to fuel the monster and enable him to appear to her as a man, as the man she wanted to see.
“I want you to get me out of here.” She crossed her arms and watched him hard, without blinking.
He looked surprised. “I cannot.” He looked from her to the skeleton. “You must agree to free me.”
“Well it looks like we have a problem then.” Savannah scooted a couple sharp rocks out of the way and bent to sit down before she fell down.
“I assure you, Savannah, the only way to free yourself is to free me.”
She leaned back carefully, making sure there wasn’t a jagged piece of granite jutting out to stab her. The only answer she offered was a shake of her head. She wouldn’t be the one to set a demon loose. He’d done horrible damage, even when he was still somehow tethered to his corpse. If he had freedom, God only knew what he would do to people.
“You don’t believe me.” He walked close and peered at her intently. “This is all that He left of my physical form. I am caged.”
“I can’t.” Savannah’s eyelids were heavy with exhaustion from taking an overdose of sleeping medication. She hadn’t eaten or slept right for weeks. Throw being drowned into the mix and she shouldn’t have been breathing. The fact she was able to move at all was impressive. She crossed her ankles, tucked her legs to her chest, and rested her head on her knees. Her chest and legs warmed slightly, but the temperature of the rock wall and floor quickly chilled her again. She allowed her eyes to close. “I just want to sleep.”
His voice carried over the cold rocks. “Accept me, Savannah. See me for what I am. We can leave this place and live in the light together.”
“But I do see you for what you are. I’ve seen what you do and how you use people to get what you want.” She grew colder by the moment, but welcomed the feeling. He was right. She would die slowly in the dark cave with a rotten angel corpse. A little different than how she planned it, but dead was dead and one wouldn’t get blood from a turnip. She breathed deeply, looking for sleep as he went on.
“The rest are merely puppets. I only have to do that because there hasn’t been one strong enough for me, one who sees what I am. Who sees what He has done to me.”
“None of it matters anymore. I don’t believe all of this crap anyway.”
“That’s it,” he said. “That’s why you can do it. You do believe, but you disagree with the things He does. You disagree with His choices.” Gravel scattered as he paced around. Savannah glanced up. “And this,” he waved a hand at the winged corpse, “is not just.” He stood right before her. “How many times in your life have you wondered about why He allows injustice?”
“That’s different.”
“You’re different.” He picked up her wrist and tugged her to a shaky standing position. “I didn’t see it before. I thought you were like the others who share your blood, who’ve shared my attention in the past.”
“You’ve tried before?”
“I have, but none see past my Father and His wrath.”
“Wrath? I see something that was punished for doing wrong. It’s hardly injustice. It’s just punishment. I can’t do this.” She pulled away. Vertigo grew, the dizziness taking over. Savannah sat down hard, rubbing her temples with weak, trembling hands. Rocks poked through the thin fabric of her underwear but thankfully, her bottom and legs were chilled and nea
rly numb.
He sat beside her with a heavy, resigned sigh. “Why must it be so hard with you?” He pulled her head down onto his thigh and smoothed her hair back.
Refusing to let him comfort her, she pulled away and curled up, watching him. A rock dug into one shoulder blade, but she ignored it. Witcher crossed his ankles in an all-too-human fashion.
“I don’t want to watch you die, Savannah.”
“I don’t want to die down here with you, either. I don’t understand why you chose me out of so many people. I won’t give you what you want. I’m not so special.”
“But you are. And my choice is made. I told you my name.”
“You’ve never told anyone?”
“No. You’re the only one.”
“Val-Kryel.”
“Yes.” He beamed at her. “That is my name. You alone have it.”
“You have the freedom you had when I first saw you. Just head out, back up there where you were before this.”
“You’ve given me what I have so far. I am not totally free. No one can see this likeness but you. I am not yet complete.”
She waited but he didn’t finish. “What?”
“I am not … whole,” he said. After a moment he looked at her again, searching for understanding in her face.
She shook her head. “Sorry.”
He sighed and let his head fall back against the wall. The bit of light provided by the pinhole above illuminated the perfect shape of his jaw, glinting with highlights in his hair. “When you let yourself love me in return, I will be restored. You will want me that way.” He dropped his gaze to hers.
Savannah’s eyes grew wide. He walks from the cave on four legs and takes the men of two. “That really is you over there.”
“Yes. The punishment He chose is ultimate, perfect. I can never be with you in earnest without using a—”
“Okay. I get it. It’s surreal enough to be having a conversation with you after everything you’ve done. I don’t want to think about the details like that. I am going completely insane.” She stopped talking before she blurted how she wanted him to die, all pitiful and shriveled. Her outbursts never worked out for the best.
“For a time, I begged Him to just kill me rather than to reduce me so.”
Savannah let her eyes close. There was no way she’d let him loose. Her brother and sister were safe. Their mother certainly would always look out for Number One, so she was okay, too. Sleep would take her and the pain would melt away. She curled into a tighter ball on her side, waiting for her thoughts to drift away. She’d possibly see Daddy again, on the other side. She lay still and silent for a while.
“Do you suppose the Williams man loves Molly?”
She opened her eyes with a jolt. “You son of a bitch.”
He didn’t respond and Savannah kept still, considering the implications of what he meant. “You planned this all along, didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
“So why play with me?”
“I’m not playing with you. I bared myself to you. It would have been preferable for you to see that, and to let yourself love me. To see this in me, that I can be good. I can be what my Father intended. All it will take is your love, Savannah. Then He will love me again. I will have you. I will, once again, be in His grace.”
“You’ll leave Molly alone if I help you?”
“I will not come to her again.”
“Can we leave this place?”
“I will take you out of here.”
She watched him, judging his sincerity. His gaze was steady, not even a blink. “I love you, Savannah.”
“I’ll do my best as long as you quit saying that.”
“Thank you.” He lowered his head and placed a kiss in her hand. “You will be very happy. I promise.”
He helped her to her feet, both steadying and pulling her forward at the same time. Savannah shook her head, trying to clear the fog. Her body ached, ten times worse than having the flu, weakened and sick.
“Don’t fight. Accept me and know peace.”
Savannah tried to relax the muscles in her face, concentrating on calming down, which was a lot easier to think about than to accomplish. Every fiber of her being wanted to shove away from him and run.
One of his hands cupped her chin, tilting her face to his. He pulled closer, placing his lips gently to hers. Her jaw locked and she squinted hard, trying to think about anything else, anything but feeling him touching her so closely.
The dizziness intensified. She drew a big breath in through her nose, forcing herself to still and relax. Fighting took so much energy, and she was so weak there wasn’t much fight left in her. The knot of dread loosened in her stomach. Giving in might be her death, but she was out of cards. Her breathing leveled out as he kissed her cheek and jaw, moving to her forehead and back to her lips. Serenity, more powerful than she’d ever known, warmed away the trembling. His lips were cool and smooth, and she tamped down panic each time it flared, knowing she should be repulsed. Goosebumps formed on her forearms as parts of her skin began to call out for his touch. She opened her eyes, just barely, to see what his face looked like. His beautiful eyes were closed, the lashes dark fans against perfect skin. Of course he looked perfect. He pulled every image and feeling straight from her mind and became what she wanted. Broken, she let herself fall into him. She had to believe in him. Trusting he wouldn’t hurt her anymore, wouldn’t hurt Molly again, was the only option.
Gentle and slow, he tilted his head farther, deepening the kiss and she closed her eyes again, trying with everything she had to stop thinking of what he’d done, of what he was. He wanted to be warmth and the comfort that she yearned for, to take her away from pain and cold, and the fear of being alone without her family. He would stop all the pain. She wanted him to. Savannah gripped his shoulders hard, holding on to the one thing that could make the pain stop. She hadn’t really wanted to die. Her soul begged for each second of freedom from pain. She concentrated on enduring him. The euphoria she experienced was worth it, to feel something other than the heartbreak and terror she’d endured for weeks, a time that lasted so long it seemed to make up her entire life.
Through her closed eyes, their surrounding grew brighter. He broke the kiss.
“Keep your eyes closed, Savannah.”
“Okay,” she said.
“I will never let you be harmed again. You are safe. Trust in me.”
She nodded, leaning into his shoulder for support. Was it possible he didn’t know about her weakness and exhaustion? Did he grasp the concept of simply running out of energy from not eating or sleeping? Her body was shutting down and fear was the only thing keeping her mind going. He might have had no idea.
“Do you love me, Savannah?”
She hesitated briefly, recognizing she’d be signing a contract with one word. There was no way around it. Her consent was the only way to keep Molly safe. “Yes. I love you with all my heart.”
Wind slammed into them, but she held on, burying her face in his shirt, praying he wouldn’t let her be hurt. The fabric next to her cheek grew warmer. A familiar scent, like pending rain, grew stronger. Fear knotted in her limbs and she went rigid, clutching at him hard as memories of drowning incited panic.
“No,” she said. “No more rain.”
“I took it all away. Everything is as it should be. I will take you out of here and you will bring Molly home. Then, you will keep your word to help me.”
Savannah managed a nod. Whatever…
One of his hands latched around her right wrist, so tight the joint popped. The knee-jerk reaction was to pull back, and that’s exactly what she did, but the meager attempt to free her arm yielding nothing. Witcher’s face was tilted toward the light. He didn’t react to her prying at his fingers, just held tight.
“Let go!” The tenderness was gone the instant she gave her word.
Light exploded around them in a flash. Her feet left the ground. Heart lurching, Savannah’s chest locked up li
ke she’d had the air knocked from her lungs. Her head was entirely too heavy to hold up any longer. For the first time in her life, Savannah Caleman welcomed relief as she passed out cold with shock.
***
Chapter 17
A soft breeze hissed over the top of a tumbling creek nearby. The cloud of exhaustion faded. Lifting heavy arms, she covered her face and cried, ashamed of her weakness. “No!” Her voice cracked. Giving up had been too easy. She didn’t consider what it would be like to face what she’d done. Her body ached from exhaustion and hunger, and her soul sat heavy in the pit of her stomach like an old wad of gum.
Savannah inhaled a little too deeply and broke into a coughing fit. The world spun to the right. Bright, pink light burned through her eyelids and stung her eyes, but she forced herself to ignore it. A rock bore into her hip to the point it was unbearable, so she rolled onto her back. Her fingers searched the surface she laid on, which was a sun-warmed slab of rain-slick granite. For the first time in as long as she could remember, her stomach rumbled. Savannah put a hand up to shield her eyes and fought gritty eyelids so she could open her eyes to see. She let her feet down and sat up in late morning light.
It took a few minutes for her eyes to adjust, but soon she focused on the familiarity of aspen trees. A car sped by on a gravel road in the distance. Birds sang. The vertigo lessened a little, but she moved slowly, not inviting it back.
No matter how crappy she felt, it was time to push herself into motion. Keeping Witcher happy ensured Molly’s safety, so that’s what she would do. Her legs wobbled beneath her, but she took the first step up the hillside.
After a while of walking on more things that stabbed through her socks, her heels ached and the rest of her soles grew numb. She took it slowly, her surroundings growing familiar when she came to a cluster of bushes beside a thick corner fence post. She was on her family’s land. Sure enough, about a hundred yards outside the fence was an old mining shaft and pile of tailings her parents told her to stay away from. They’d likely worried she fall to the bottom, but the deadly hole in the ground was capable of doing more than just killing somebody. It was a gate to a special sort of hell. Witcher had yanked her up out of the cavern and left her baking in the sun, twisted up on top of a boulder.