by Box Set
Chapter Five
Abran didn’t move.
He stood there in the middle of the road, staring at us as we barreled down on him, his smile growing with every yard we traveled.
I entertained the thought of running him over briefly before I glanced to the side, toward the power lines I had looked at so longingly before, and saw the same Tar who had corralled us here flying so close I could see their eyes in the dark. They were watching us, waiting for us to try to run away again, to try do something stupid, like trying to drive off the freeway again or escape them or turn Abran into a skid mark.
Even though the idea of running him over sounded like a good plan, I wasn’t foolish enough to try it, not with them so close, not with their yellow eyes trained on us. Not with Abran staring at us so greasily my whole body tensed in fearful anticipation.
“We are going to have to talk to him, aren’t we?” I asked Travis quietly, my voice hissing from between clenched teeth. My blood was boiling in that uncontrollable way, but I tried to ignore it. Now was not the time to lose control of myself. I couldn’t be a liability, not with what we were going into.
Just seeing Abran, however, was making it hard to control the heat.
“What is he doing?” Travis hissed.
“He’s just standing there … staring at us.” And my blood was boiling again. Why wasn’t he moving?
Travis reached around me with a fearful groan, stretching his arm to the front of the bike, his hand strong as he palmed the tiny lights, igniting them with a press and sending a bright beam of light stretching through the street, shining over Abran like a beacon.
He smiled at the addition, his eyes shining with a bone chilling eeriness as he looked from me to my brother.
Travis tensed behind me as he began to slow the bike while my eyes were already scanning for anything that would work as a weapon on the abandoned highway, part of me wishing we were in a bedroom, instead. All that I saw were old cars, their fiberglass bodies useless to me. As strong as I was, I was fairly certain even I couldn’t manhandle an exhaust pipe enough to detach it from a car, even though I was sure it would be quite interesting to swing that thing around.
“Don’t do anything rash,” Travis counseled, his voice hard, as if he could read my mind and saw what I was planning. My blood only boiled more. It was getting harder to control the closer we got to Abran. “We need to hear what he has to say.”
Travis pulled the bike to a stop several hundred yards before his old friend, Abran’s eyes narrowing as we stopped too far away for his taste.
“You aren’t seriously considering having a conversation with that monster, are you?” My blood heated far beyond what I knew was safe, and my voice was much too loud. Even though Travis parked far enough away from Abran to keep our conversations private, he heard, anyway, his lips turning up into an even greasier grin. I guessed I shouldn’t scream things all over tarnation.
“No, but I am planning on not letting those things rip us to shreds, so if you have another idea on how best to accomplish that, be my guest,” Travis growled as he swung his leg off the bike, walked several steps in front of me before stopping, and then turned to me, his eyes spelling a danger that I hadn’t seen before.
I flinched on instinct, my blood cooling almost immediately. I cowered before him, my fists clenching around my tattered and blood stained pants, and stared him down, part of me too scared to look away from him in fear of what he would do. Who would have guessed Travis’s temper would have been the perfect antidote for my uncontrollable rage?
“I need you to keep yourself calm, Lexi. I can’t help you with that right now, so fight whatever is going on with you right now and see if you can find a weapon around here.”
I nodded once. This was going to be fun.
Lights going out, no gas in the bike, out of bullets. I mean, could anything else go wrong?
I really needed to stop thinking that. I was beginning to think I was cursing us. It didn’t make our reality any less of a bitter pill to swallow, though.
Winged beasts began to land around us, circling through the air like a flock of vultures waiting to pick up whatever meat was left after Abran was done with it. One after another, they came, their talons clicking against the asphalt, beady eyes peering into us, skin dripping with poison. They formed a large ring around us so tight-knit I didn’t see any way out unless I sprouted wings myself and carried Travis with me, something I was still wholeheartedly fighting.
As Travis turned toward Abran slowly, I was careful to keep myself behind him just enough to see while not making myself too noticeable. This was nearly impossible as Abran seemed to have set his sights on me. His desperate need to dissect me or turn me into a monster or whatever he had planned was very clear. I couldn’t stop the shiver that twisted through my spine, the hunger in his eyes making me feel unnecessarily uncomfortable.
As if being surrounded by monsters wasn’t enough, I had to deal with creeper central over there.
Together, we moved toward him, my eyes so focused on him I forgot to look for a weapon as we walked through the arena that Abran and his monsters had constructed.
An arena.
The word fit so perfectly it almost scared me. Yet, it was true. The way they all sat, the way they all stared. The way Abran stood before us, waiting with his hands on his hips and, I was sure, on the gun or whatever weapon he had below his neatly pressed suit jacket.
It was an odd sight to see him standing there in the dark amongst the skeletal cars and piles of ash in his handsome, black suit and shiny, leather shoes, as if he was on his way to a dinner party at the end of the world. I guessed, in a way, it was true, and the party was his own creation, the end of the world his own doing.
Everything about him was dark. His shoes, his suit, his hair, even his olive skin seemed to be darker where he stood in the shadows. It was like he himself was a shadow, just standing, watching us, waiting for his chance to attack.
I shuddered at the imagery, my spine tensing painfully as I quickly returned to my somewhat desperate search for a weapon, even though I knew nothing was there. I was going to need something very soon if the wicked hunger in his eyes was anything to go off of.
“Hello, Abran.” Travis’s voice was hard, not even a shred of the false sugar he had used so many times before.
There was only malice.
There was only hatred.
I understood Travis wanted to talk to him and somehow avoid a fight, but I wasn’t sure this was the way to do it. I had to trust him, however. He had trusted me to steer the bike, and us, safely through the dark; therefore, I needed to trust him now, no matter how foolish I thought he was being. Besides, the malice was giving me the cover I needed to find a weapon.
I would take it.
“Hello, Travis, how nice to see you on this beautiful day.” There was the false security Travis’s voice was missing. Abran’s deep, accented voice traveled over to us, the suave Hispanic tones making him almost seem trustworthy.
Almost.
Good thing I knew better.
“Would you call it beautiful?” Travis did, too, it seemed.
He continued to lead us forward, our slow pace coming to a stop about ten feet from Abran. The Tar around us shuffled a bit at the stop in movement, their own anticipation for battle clear.
I fidgeted a little, my muscles tight, my hands pulling at my blood-soaked shirt as I once again searched for something that would work as a weapon. Heck, I would take anything at this point: a suitcase, a baby stroller, an open trunk. I went from item to item in desperation. I was sure there was some kind of weapon in the trunk, a crow bar maybe. It was short, but it was better than nothing.
I tried to stretch to see into the shadowed space. Instead, I caught sight of Abran out of the corner of my eyes, the sly smile on his face making it clear he knew what I was doing.
“Hello, Alexis,” he soothed, his voice full of a hungry lust that sickened me.
I said
nothing, merely stared at him as his smile grew, and his eyes flashed with an eagerness that only made me squirm more. I had seen it before, but hearing my name on his tongue only made it worse, the deep need in his eyes only growing.
I had heard the term sexual predator thrown around quite a bit in high school, but I was only now beginning to understand it.
My stomach was having trouble staying put.
Stepping behind Travis in a sudden need to escape this new threat, I fought the need to press myself into his back. I wasn’t that weak, no matter how uncomfortable Abran’s disgusting glance made me feel.
“Not going to say hello back? That’s okay. You seem to be coming along quite nicely. Seeing in the dark already, I take it.” He didn’t even wait for an answer. “Wonderful … wonderful. Beautiful.”
My stomach only dropped more.
Travis’s back tensed, at least I wasn’t the only one who was grossed out.
“What do you want, Abran?” Travis’s voice rumbled through me from where I stood behind him with my cheek pressed against him, my eyes focused on the yellow of the monsters that stood around us. “I can’t believe you would have come all this way just for my sister.”
Abran laughed at that, his laugh as deep and suave as his voice. It mocked us, digging deeper, and I felt the heat in my blood rise again. I felt it boil and press against my skin until I was sure my temperature was rising, my anger growing right with it.
“Oh, yes,” he soothed, the lust in his voice moving through me in putrid waves. “I would travel anywhere for her and the potential there. It saddens me you can’t see it, Travis. But, no, she is not why I have come. She will change in her own time, and then I will take her under my care just like I have all the others. I will make her mine eventually. And you thought you were running away from me.”
I flinched, the slime that seeped from him acting like poison against me.
And Travis had thought the idea of him sending Sarah to retrieve me was ridiculous. I was starting to think it wasn’t too far from the truth. Not with the way Abran was looking at me.
“Don’t worry about your little sister,” Abran continued, the slime in his voice returning. “She is not why I made this journey. I came for you.”
If I thought I had flinched before, it was nothing like the jerk that moved through Travis’s body, the way his breathing picked up. I stepped away from him on instinct, scared he would make a run for Abran.
“Me?” His voice was as hard as a rock. “What do you want from me?” Travis took a wide step forward, his motion broad and putting me right back into Abran’s line of sight.
I saw him standing there with that same wicked smile pulling at his lips, but he didn’t see me. He didn’t even bother to look. He only stared at my brother with a twisted joy burning through his face.
“Not from you,” Abran appeased, as if he had made that all better. “But of you. I want to show you something.”
Blood pulsed against my skull, the powerful surge aching against my skin as the heat rose. There was only one thing Abran would want to show Travis, especially with the way he smiled and the way he taunted us. I didn’t think my heart could tense in dread any more, but I was wrong.
“What have you done with my wife?” I guessed Travis wasn’t going to play the game anymore, either.
“Done with her?” Abran forced a laugh out, the feigned innocence in his voice nauseating.
I couldn’t help taking a step toward him, trying to convince myself not to attack as I stood right next to my brother, the two of us facing the man who was more of a monster than the creatures we were surrounded by.
“I haven’t done anything with her.” His eyes flashed to mine for the briefest of moments as his smile stretched deviously. “Well, not me personally, anyway.”
Heat boiled under my skin, and the muscles in Travis’s back tensed as he jerked forward, obviously using all of his will power not to rush the filth before us. I ground my teeth together with a snarl that only entertained him more, his eyes flashing to me, the same hunger as before in his gaze.
“Where is she?” Travis snarled, each word strained as he desperately tried to force them out with as much feigned calm as possible.
“That’s what I want of you,” Abran swooned, his voice making it obvious that he was getting exactly what he wanted, that we were playing right into his hands. I didn’t think either of us cared at that point. “I want to show you what I’ve done.” He stood still in the middle of the street, his breathing calm, his back straight, while my brother and I faced him like two wild animals whose fragile tethers were about to break, our shoulders hunched, our teeth barred.
Everything was so still, so quiet. Everything froze as we waited for the signal to attack, as we waited for Abran to unleash whatever demon he had sheltered and the battle to begin.
I needed a gunshot, something to tell me it was okay to rush this man and attempt to rip his arms from their sockets. Weapon or no, I would find a way.
“I have something to tell you about your wife,” Abran finished, his voice so calm that, for a minute, I was sure she would step out from behind him, clad in some beautiful gown, a trophy for the villain, for him to lead into his ridiculous party on his arm.
Travis seemed to expect it, too, for his eyes began to dart around, his back relaxing just enough to be noticeable.
Instead of the beautiful prisoner, however, it was a Tar, a winged beast with blood dripping down its skin, the dark face leering at us from behind hundreds of razor sharp feathers. I thought I knew what was happening before Travis did, my head spinning in agony and fear, my focus only on the thing he beckoned forward.
Don’t say it, I pleaded silently to myself. Please don’t let it be true.
“Travis.” His voice was slow, his gesture giving away what was about to happen before it did. “I would like you to say hello to your—”
“No!” Travis’s voice was a scream that ripped through the black, his motions reacting so fast that it was all I could do to lunge myself at the massive width of his back, to hold on tight and hope it was enough to keep him in one place. Instead of holding onto him, however, he flailed, his hands rough as he pushed me off him, sending me to the ground in a heap, my back rolling on the asphalt, my head impacting painfully.
I screamed in agony whether I wanted to or not. I was certain, by this point, I had sustained far more concussions than were possible to survive. The pain was unbearable and the noise so intense that even my own scream was only translated as a hollow resonance inside my skull.
The heat in my skin rose as the pain did, my temper continuing to shift and writhe, the intensity so much that, even though I could not see through the pain, see through the hands that I pressed against my eyes in an attempt to quell the agony, I wanted to attack someone.
I wanted to kill.
I screamed again at the desire and forced my eyes open, determined to find something, anything to attack, only to be stopped in my tracks.
It was back.
The world underneath the darkness.
The world that glowed with an internal radiance, the world with no dust, no pain.
Even though now the pain seemed to have followed me here, it wasn’t as bad as it had been a moment before. It still ached. It still burned.
I froze where I had landed on the road, my eyes wide as I watched my brother rush Abran, his body only a smeared shadow, everything distorted and blurry as if someone had colored it in with runny markers, as if he hadn’t made it all the way through to this side of whatever curtain was separating one world from the next. I could tell he was there, could tell he moved, but everything was wrong, like I was looking at him through fogged glass.
Travis ran toward him, his mouth opened in a scream that sounded like an old recording, the sound distorted as if it, too, was trapped in the ebony world. I watched him run, watched as two of Abran’s sentries stepped before him, their massive bodies blocking his way. Except, they weren’t the big, b
lack beasts that I knew were there.
They weren’t even the creepy white angel I had seen before.
Yes, they had the same wings of bleached bone. Yes, they had the same translucent skin. However, everything about them was different. They wore clothes. Remnants that were ripped and shredded and tattered, yes, but still clothes. Clothes should have been the biggest concern, the biggest warning of what we were facing and what Abran had really done to the creatures that had taken over our world. Yet, they weren’t.
It was their faces.
Their faces were white and pale and as translucent as the rest of them, the black, emotionless mask replaced with a human countenance stretched in eternal pain, a final scream etched onto it.
The other creature I had faced had been terrifying, had smiled with a mouthful of crimson blood, with blue, malicious eyes that chilled me. These ones had none of that.
They screamed in agony, blood of the brightest red dripping from their mouths, their eyes vacant holes that stared out, unseeing, the empty cavities producing another steady stream of their own haunted crimson.
I stared at their faces, the agonizing pain reflecting the fear I felt in my bones, the panic deep and heavy as it pulsed through me.
Looking away from the two who had stepped in front of my brother, I scanned the circle, scanned face after face, scream after scream, and saw the people behind them. It wasn’t until I fell onto the face of an old man that I recognized at once that I stopped. Yes, he screamed. Yes, he bled. The face behind that, though … it was … human. It was real. It was familiar. It was the face of the man from the so-called hearing back at Azul. He was a Tar now, a puppet of Abran’s, trapped in eternal pain.
I could see him.
So, if Abran had said that was Bridget …
My head snapped toward Abran, toward the Tar that stood beside him and the man that was frozen in an eternal scream.
A man.
It wasn’t her.
I stood quickly, fully intending to tell Travis who had backed up to stand beside me once more, but instead, I froze in place, locked in position by Abran who stared at me, who smiled at me. Who, if I hadn’t known exactly where he stood, I wouldn’t have recognized him at all.