“Come on Cole, it’s this way!” I hear a vaguely familiar female voice say as a warm hand entwines itself in mine to lead me.
The female voice guides me through the darkness for what feels like days. As I travel through the darkness, I sometimes get visions of happenings in the other realms.
“Lila…Ah’m sorry lass…Cole…he’s dead.” Dagda softly explains.
“No…you’re lying…Cole can’t be dead! He just can’t be!” Lila shouts as she breaks into tears. I see Colton hop into her lap, trying to comfort his upset mother before the vision fades away.
The next vision is several days later. It appears to be a funeral procession; only after I see Tia, Sara, Natasha, Lila, and Cheza do I realize that it’s my funeral. Lila is bawling into Natasha’s dress as Natasha tries really hard to not cry; the same goes for Tia and Sara, but they are slightly less successful. Seeing Cheza just breaks my heart; she is in the same doll-like state as I was at Jason’s funeral. The only difference is that I’m unable to comfort her like she did for me six months ago.
“It’s only a little further, Cole.” The voice says gently and suddenly I realize that it is the voice of the fox-girl from my dreams…so that was Kita all along! She’s Kiviuq’s fox-wife from the Inuit legend…I think…at least that makes the most sense.
Approximately two days later, I receive a third vision. I see Cheza lying in my bed, wearing nothing but one of my white t-shirts as she cries into my pillow.
“I’m sorry Cole…I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you…I went outside…and now you’re dead…because of me…” Cheza quietly cries.
I agonizingly watch as she reaches across my nightstand, grabs my switchblade, flings it open, and drags it across her wrists before she severs her femoral arteries on insides of her thighs, but she doesn’t bleed.
“WHY!? WHY WON’T YOU LET ME BE WITH HIM AIRI!?” Cheza bawls. “I DON’T CARE WHAT YOU PROMISED HIM! Just let me be with him…Please Airi!”
Cheza presses the blade against her neck and drags it across, but she still won’t bleed. This is the most painful thing I’ve ever experienced: I’m forced to watch Cheza’s agony while knowing that I’m the cause of it and that there is nothing I can do about it.
“I can’t take this…stop it…please…JUST MAKE IT STOP!” I scream as all of my senses fade into nothing.
[End of Book 2]
References
Have you come across something in this book and thought ‘I know I’ve heard that before, but I can’t remember where it’s from’? Well that’s what this section is for! I have painstakingly marked down every reference in this book that wasn’t self-explanatory so that you don’t have to wake up at 3am and shout “Got it!” when you finally remember.
1: Tom Cruise in Tropic Thunder.
2: I’m told that it’s what you need to dissolve a dead hooker in a bathtub. Something along those lines is also said by Mathew McConaughey to Ben Stiller after the panda incident in Tropic Thunder.
3: John Woo - Chinese director that is known for slow motion scenes that involve diving through the air whilst firing two guns and is also known for putting doves in his movies. He directed Mission Impossible II and the movie Hard Boiled, which was turned into a video game called Stranglehold.
4: Kill Bill Vol. 1 - Lucy Liu
5: What’s My Age Again? by Blink 182
6: South Park Season 16 Episode 11 - “Going Native”
7: Pirates of the Caribbean, pretty much any of them.
8: Hitman: the video game franchise was adapted into a movie, wherein the main character is played by Timothy Olyphant.
9: Dragon Ball Z
10: Click: the movie starring Adam Sandler about an architect that is given a remote by Christopher Walken that is supposed to make his life easier.
11: Parody of Menace II Society on The Boondocks. Phrase is supposed to be used when someone is caught lying.
12: The Heartbreak Kid starring Ben Stiller.
13: South Park Season 8 Episode 11 - Quest for Ratings
14: The Girl Next Door, the movie with Elisha Cuthbert and Emile Hirsch. Not to be confused with The Girls Next Door, the show about playboy bunnies.
15: Archer Season 2 Episode 9 - Placebo Effect
16: Get Him to the Greek starring Jonah Hill, Russell Brand, and Sean ‘P. Diddy’ Combs.
17: Scotty Doesn’t Know by Lustra, theme song of Eurotrip. If you’ve never heard it, Google it because it’s pretty hilarious. Note: if your name happens to be Scotty and you just found out that your girlfriend has been cheating on you, I wouldn’t recommend listening to this song.
18: Avatar: The Last Airbender - the animated show that was on Nickelodeon, not the shitty M. Night Shyamalan movie.
19: In Mortal Kombat, the character Sub-Zero is a ninja with ice-related abilities.
20: Bioshock: video game that takes place in an underwater city called Rapture.
*: Hypnos is the Greek god of sleep, as well as the personification of it.
Acknowledgments
First, I’d like to acknowledge that there are some discrepancies in this story. I know that there is no night in Greenland in June and therefore no aurora borealis, but I had to either ignore that fact, change the timeline, or move the location to the southern hemisphere and use the aurora australis. I went with the option that didn’t require major rewrites. The only reason I’m acknowledging this is because I assume that the vast majority of my readers are ignorant to the photon emissions caused by the ionization of nitrogen and oxygen atoms, or how the earth’s tilt drastically affects daylight hours when closer to the poles. I don’t want to be blamed for ruining someone’s summer vacation by being the deciding factor for taking a trip to Greenland because of a misconception that auroras can be seen in June; you’d be better off going to Australia for something like that.
I thank Jerry Magnum Porsbjer for his photograph of the aurora borealis that I altered for the book’s cover. I also thank my Australian Shepherd for sitting still long enough for me to get a good picture of his amazing eyes.
I’d like to take the time to thank you, the readers. If you enjoyed this book, please tell your friends about it and write a review. The review doesn’t have to be long or complex, just it being in existence helps me continue doing what I enjoy while providing some entertainment and a distraction from the lives of some who really need it. Indie authors thrive based on reviews from readers so I thank each and every one of you that takes the time to write one.
About the Author
A.L. Bridges was born and raised in Washington state. He currently resides in Phoenix Arizona and wonders why in the hell anyone decided to settle in the middle of the desert when it is so stupidly hot there. In the year that he has lived in Arizona, he cannot recall a single instance when he has walked outside and not thought “Damn it’s bright!”
Feel free to email him at [email protected] with comments, criticisms, or suggestions.
For updates on the latest books, visit http://albridges.blogspot.com
or follow him on Twitter @Albridgesauthor
[Book 3 of The Gods’ Executioner Series: Psychosis and the Executioner will be coming soon. Check my Twitter feed or blog for updates]
Mania and the Executioner Page 31