Through the Windshield Glass

by Kristen Day

  "You're always forgetting where you put things, dear," I said teasingly as I dropped the ring into Daman's hand and offered my left hand for him to put the ring on.

  Daman stared uncomprehendingly at the ring, I could tell he knew I was planning something by giving him the ring, but he didn't quite understand what it was yet. I waggled my hand in front of my face, "I'm waiting," I said in a sing-song voice.

  Daman's Adam's Apple bobbed up and down, a small drop of sweat fell down his face and along his jawline, but he still couldn't take his eyes off the ring.

  "Oh, I'll do it," I finally said. I snatched the ring up and put it on, "There, doesn't that look nice?"

  Daman gaped at me and the officiator took the slightly stunned silence to pronounce Daman and I man and wife.

  "You may now kiss the bride?" the officiator said it like a question. He finally seemed to be doubting if he was actually performing his job correctly now.

  "Yes, King Alecsander," I taunted, "Kiss your bride."

  Cloudy gray turned to beetle black over and over in the orbs of Daman's eyes. He couldn't seem to decide if he wanted to be demon or human. His mouth was twitching again, and he looked even more terrified than I felt.

  I grabbed his hands which were as cold as ice and glared right into his ever changing eyes. He couldn't look away from me, he kept swallowing and trying to turn his head, but he couldn't tear his gaze away from mine. It was too easy, I knew it was too easy, but the sound of Leigh's crying prompted me to try.

  I smiled malevolently, grabbed Daman's face with both hands, closed my eyes and kissed him full on the mouth.

  Chapter Forty-eight

  My stomach jerk and I knew it had worked. I had trapped Daman in a memory, I just wasn't sure which one yet. When my feet made contact with solid ground again I broke away from Daman and opened my eyes.

  No longer was I wearing the uncomfortable, earthy smelling wedding dress; but my old jeans, and Daman's jacket. The ring on my left hand was real and Daman looked just as he had when I had almost married him in the doors.　Something cold resting on my clavicle told me that the necklace bearing Jane's name had also been returned to me.

  Daman and I were standing in my hallway, it was not the memory I had hoped to force on him, but it would have to do. At least we were in a confined space so he couldn't run, the only problem was I had no weapon.

  "You stupid girl!" Daman screeched. He pushed me hard in the chest and I fell to my back on the carpet and hit my head, "What were you thinking bringing us back here?" I was still blinking stars out of my eyes when I felt Daman's foot connect with my side. The pain was blinding and I knew I was at least two ribs short of a deluxe meal. I gasped and tried to roll away, but Daman grabbed my hair and forced me to stand in front of him.

  Involuntary tears streamed down my face, "I brought you here to kill you," I said truthfully.

  "That was the stupidest thing you could have done," Daman hissed. He threw me head first towards a door. My head connected painfully with a hinge and blood began pouring down my face from the middle of my forehead.

  "Then stop beating me up and just kill me already!" I shouted. The effort made me dizzy, but I steadied myself against the door behind me.

  "I'm not going to kill you," Daman said drunkenly, "I can't kill you or I'm dead too. You don't understand do you? There's something worse than me out there. All this time you've been hunting the wrong person, and now because of you all of your friends are going to pay for it."

  "Explain," I said forcefully.

  "Leif is coming to the wedding you just left," Daman said. His eyes were completely black now, his lean body had gone skeletal, his face was gaunt and pale; in short, he looked like death.

  "How do I get back?" I asked.

  Daman cackled, "The same way you got in, you've got to go through the doors. All of them."

  "I don't have time for that! Make them all disappear like last time!" I demanded.

  Daman laughed again and black poison dripped from his mouth. He advanced towards me until he was just inches from my face. He smelled worse than the last time I had encountered him in the hall. It made me long to smell sewage, burning compost, or even a decaying mammal baking in the sun. I swallowed my vomit and looked Daman straight in his black eyes.

  "I am not going through the doors again," I said angrily.

  "Then you condemn your friends to die," Daman said, "Just like my Rose, lovely Scarlett, and that large one, Roman was it? Don't look so sad, his girlfriend will be dead soon too. Stephano told me she killed three of my best men when they went to your camp. When we found her in my palace it was too good to resist. I'll have　her executed, but not before my boys have had some fun."

  I gathered my strength and shoved Daman away from me. As he had been talking I saw each of the people he mentioned die as though I had actually been there. I could feel Kinga's blood spraying my face.

  I watched as Scarlett exited the room where I had been kept in the palace, I shouted for her to watch out as two demons came up silently behind her. One grabbed her hair and forced her head back, the other slit her throat wide with Bridgette's knife. Scarlett dropped to the ground, the two demons made three small slits in each of their own palms and washed their hands in Scarlett's blood. When they had finished they looked stronger, deadlier, and disturbingly more human.

  I tried to close my mind to the images, but I couldn't do it. I saw the attack on the camp and watched as demons and friends alike began to fall. Arthur intercepted a demon who had flung himself at Scarlett and was rewarded with a vicious disembowelment. Roan proceeded to kill the beast while he pushed Scarlett into a tent and commanded the　sobbing girl to stay there.

  The view switched to Roman and Bridgette, they were fighting back to back with much success. Roman looked like he was about to laugh as he easily restrained three demons at once. He turned to Bridgette and nodded to her.

  "This is for Arthur," Bridgette said angrily. Her vorpal blade slit all three throats of the caught creatures. She and Roman both turned back to the fight, but before another round of throat slitting could occur, Stephano arrived. Roman saw him first, he pushed Bridgette into a tent just before time was frozen and everyone was glued in place.

  "The Great King Alecsande cordially invites you all to attend his wedding," Stephano announced gallantly, "If you would kindly--" that's when he noticed the three freshly dead demons lying at Roman's feet.

  "Did you kill these men?" Stephano asked Roman. The invisible bonds released Roman and before Stephano could stop him, Roman lashed out, wrapped his massive hand around Stephano's thin neck and lifted him off the ground.

  "They were not men," Roman growled, "And neither are you."

  For a moment it seemed that Roman had won, Stephano was turning purple. However, just as the demon's life was about to end, an arrow pierced Roman's skull and the giant was no more.

  "No one else has to die if you will all kindly follow us," Stephano said. No one bothered to check the tents so Bridgette and Scarlett were left to grieve over their lost loved ones. I watched Bridgette cradle Roman's huge bleeding head in her lap as she sang him a lullaby and finally closed his eyes.

  Then I was watching her being overpowered in the halls by a hoard of demons, Daman emerged from their ranks and smirked evilly into Bridgette's face, "Don't worry, as soon as my boys are done with you, you can join your love."

  Finally, the torturous vision ended and I collapsed to the ground at Daman's feet. I could barely see, I could only just make out Daman's shoes.

  "You have become very powerful Daman," a deeper, more vicious voice said from behind Daman.

  "I was taught well," Daman said meekly. I watched his feet turn and his head came briefly into view as he bowed deeply to the voice.

  "It's really too bad you tried to escape me by marrying her," the voice said, "You would have been a wonderful assistant."

  Something whistled through the air and caught in Daman's chest with a sickening crunch. He
fell to the ground in front of me; completely and unbelievably dead.

  I was wrenched from the hall and found myself waking up in Michael's arms.

  "Alice, are you okay?" Michael asked frantically, "Why is your head bleeding?"

  "Don't mind that," I said weakly as I tried to sit up, "There are more important things to worry about. I've got good news, and bad news. The bad news is we're about to have company."

  "What's the good news?" Michael asked.

  "I'm a widow," I replied.

  Chapter Forty-nine

  Michael was still staring at me with his face stuck somewhere between confusion and happiness when time froze. I knew it couldn't be Stephano who had done it, the stillness was so complete I could barely breathe.

  At first I thought it was pain that caused the world around me to become black, but it was soon clear that the power that had extinguished the light was not my own human weakness. The evil in the air was palpable, it stroked my skin, played with my hair and whispered something in my ear I couldn't ignore.

  "I can give you back your life," it said. I could do nothing but listen to the essence. I felt it touch hand, it traced the circle in my palm and I watched as it lifted away, glowing and golden. The circle floated to just above my head, "You don't have to be your family's angel any longer. You can go back to before you died and choose to live."

  I felt I was in a dream, the whispering no longer seemed menacing. It was more like enticing, friendly, and kind. I could see my room in front of me like I was standing in the doorway. My bed was undone and inviting, I knew all I had to do was lie down in it and I could go back to living with my family. The voice urged me to do it. My heart beat fast, I so wanted to take　a step, but something held me back. I couldn't decipher what it was, but it kept my feet from moving.

  "You can even save your friend," the voice promised. Suddenly, I saw Maria standing in my room. She looked perfect and I wanted to run to her, but again, my feet seemed to know something my brain did not.

  "Alice," Maria said, "Don't you want to help me? I shouldn't have died, I was tricked, I don't want to be dead."

  "I know," I said, "I know, but--"

  "You can save Michael and Leigh as well," Maria said, "You can keep them from dying in the horrible ways they did."

  "Please, Alice," I heard Leigh's voice beg. I whipped around looking for the source of her voice, but I couldn't see her.

  "Alice, none of us should have died the way we did. You can change that, all you have to do is go to sleep," Michael's voice urged. It was as if he was standing next to me, his breath tickled my ear, but when I turned he too was absent.

  I wanted to obey so badly. My head began to hurt with the effort of ignoring the pleas for help. I was dizzy, lightheaded and in tremendous amounts of pain. With each throb of my ribs and pound in my head I lost more of my nerve. It was agonizing to know that I couldn't do anything despite what was being promised to me.

  "I can't save you, Maria," I said finally. Maria looked enraged, but she didn't say a word, "You were dead before I got out of my driveway, there's nothing I could have said to save you."

  Maria began crying bitterly, "You won't even try?" she asked desperately.

  "No," I said firmly. The word was heavy and sharp. It sliced through Maria's thin constitution and I watched as she crumbled into a desperate dying heap on the floor.

  "How can you say that?" Maria shrieked. She started crawling towards me, but she didn't make it far before her chest begant to echo blood again. Within seconds she was lying on the floor gasping out her last bloody breaths. She looked up at me with the last bit of light in her body before her pupils became cold and dark. The desire to rush to her was almost unbearable, I grasped the doorway and tried to look anywhere else, but I couldn't escape Michael and Leigh.

  "My brother murdered me, Alice," Michael said, "You can stop him from ever doing that, you could even stop him from dying and ruining so many other things."

  Michael's request was tantalizing, but Leigh's plea was worse, "I gave my life to help a girl, shouldn't I get a reward for doing that?"

  I clamped my hands over my ears and shut my eyes tightly, but it only made things worse. I could see Leigh being suffocated to death by the girl who had hated her so much. Her little loving face changed colors gradually as she let herself die. Within minutes her face matched her eyes and she looked like a fragile China doll as she fell from the girl's arms into a graceful heap on the floor.

  Then I was rewatching Michael's　death, his heart beat for the last time and I opened my eyes again,　"I can't save you! Why can't you realize that?"

  "But you can, Alice," the whispering voice said, "All you have to do is go to sleep in your bed and when you wake up, everything will be as it should be."

  "Prove it!" I insisted.

  The scene in front of me changed, I was now looking at myself lying in my bed as I had the morning I died. I watched as I saw the text from Maria and immediately sprang into action, but something was different. Instead of rushing to my car, I called Maria's home, not her cell phone. In a frantic voice I informed Mr. Cole to stop his daughter before she killed herself. I heard him run up the stairs with the phone still in his hand and listened while he burst into Maria's room, wrestled the gun away from her, and held her while she sobbed into his chest.

  Then I was looking into Maria's future. I saw her falling in love with a handsome man while I stood by as her maid of honor. We grew old as best friends, she died with many children and grandchildren; while I died an old maid who never gave up hope. Somehow, I was all right with that because I knew Maria was happy and I had been the cause of it, and I knew it would be selfish of me to take any of that away from her if I married someone better or had more children.

  My view changed again so I was watching Leigh's life. I was volunteering at the home where she was staying and I heard the screaming of angry girls coming from another room. I hurried into the room just in time to pull Leigh from the girl's arms and call an ambulance. Leigh survived with a good attitude and few bruises. She grew up to be a highly successful doctor, she married a fabulously wealthy man and she had five beautiful children. Again, I felt a great pride in knowing that I was the reason for all of Leigh's good fortune.

  The last person's fate I saw was Michael's. I was looking at him in the heat of battle again, but it was a different scene than the one I remembered. Michael was not dragging Daman's body to a fox hole; he was standing alongside his brother watching the chaos before them unfold. It was clear neither of them had seen real combat before.

  "Tell them to get into a hole," the voice whispered in my ear. Without even thinking about it, I obeyed. Somehow the brothers heard me and both sprinted for a hole just in time; the concussion from the bomb gave them a few bruises but both survived the bombing and many more to come. They returned home heroes, they both married fantastically beautiful women. Sudden intense jealousy overwhelmed me, I felt something flinch in the air as though my extreme change in thoughts had startled it. For the first time I was thinking of myself, I knew it was selfish, but I didn't want Michael to marry anyone else.

  "Alice," the voice warned, "You can be a hero. Just go to sleep."

  "I can't be a hero!" I protested, "I can't go back in time to save Daman and Michael, it's not possible! There's no way I can save Leigh either, I don't even know where she died! And Maria didn't want to be saved, she would have found another way to kill herself, there's nothing I could do!"

  Chapter Fifty

  The vision ended, my eyesight cleared and I realized I was on my hands and knees gasping for air, but the air around me was so repugnant my lungs refused to take it in.

  "You should have gone to sleep, Alice," Leif's voice said from behind me, "Now I have to kill you while all these people watch. Turn around and face me."

  I closed my eyes for a brief moment before I slowly turned and stood to face the man who I　instantly realized was no man at all. Leif was terrifyingly tall, almost two
feet taller than Michael. His skin was black and flaky as though he had been mummified and recently unwrapped, his arms snaked down into long talon-like fingers and he had no facial features save for the tell-tale demon black eyes. The skin of his head was stretched taut over his skull and gave the impression that he was being suffocated, when he spoke I realized I could feel it more than hear his voice.

  "Why do you have to kill me?" I asked in a surprisingly level voice, "I didn't do anything to you, just let my friends and I go."

  Leif laughed again, the skin on his face stretched even tighter and I feared I would soon see the inside of his skull.

  "You married that traitor didn't you?" Leif questioned, "Which makes you a traitor as well, traitors cannot survive, they are the seeds of rebellion and the leaders of foolish crusades."

  "At least let my friends go then, the only thing they are guilty of is being fooled by me," I tried. I could accept him killing me, I was almost to the point where I would welcome it by then.

  Leif looked like he was considering, his eyes closed halfway and he cocked his head to the right as he thought, "Where are they?"

  Involuntarily, my eyes slipped to Michael for a fraction of a second. I could feel Leif's glee at discovering Michael so easily, "He'll have a lovely seat to see the woman he loves die. Now where are your other guests?"

  "There are no others, just him, the rest are dead," I lied.

  Leif sprang close to my face, he smelled of decay and, though it appeared dry, his skin was clammy and cold. I didn't dare draw back for fear he would check the tent behind me, I couldn't run around him without risking Michael's safety. All I could do was stare at Leif's throat and breathe through my mouth as he spoke, "Do not lie to me."

  "I'm not lying," I choked out.

  "Very well, I'll find them eventually. But by then you will already be a lovely little corpse," Leif whispered in my ear. Chills ran down my spine and spread into my fingertips. I stepped back, but I was stopped by Leif's hand on my wrist, he pulled me even closer to him and his eyes held me in a hypnotic stare, "What is a fitting way for a queen to die?" Leif asked.