by A D Seeley
“Hara,” Crystal had said in an attempt to soothe her. “At least he’s working for us. He’s one of the good guys killing the bad guys.”
“He’s still killing. Assassins don’t have any conscience. Inac has no conscience. I can’t be with someone who takes pleasure in killing another living soul.”
And that had ended Crystal’s attempts to make her feel better. Hara definitely hadn’t told her about finally sleeping with Inac the day before she’d dumped him. She was worried that, if she did, Crystal would never stop trying to cheer her up at the same time that she’d really be thinking about how Hara had joined the Slut Club—which Crystal would undoubtedly be the president of had there really been one.
Besides, Hara had been doing better the past few days—at least she was able to leave her bedroom—until New Year’s Eve had arrived. Working in a club full of couples ringing in the New Year was…difficult, to say the least. All around her, people were laughing and kissing, making plans with each other for the coming year.
The countdown was the worst, but at least Tracker was there to give her a hug and a kiss on the cheek. He had been an incredible friend the past month, always there and willing to talk and to listen. He had also made her understand and pity Inac—about all the pain he’d gone through. He was seriously one messed up individual. She prayed for him and his soul every morning and night…not to mention about a zillion other times throughout the day.
“Well, I’m out of here,” she said when she was finished cleaning.
“Okay. Are you sure you’re okay to be alone? I can cancel on Ji,” Crystal offered.
“I’m fine. I’m just going to go home and get some sleep. I’ll see you tonight at work,” she said, faking a brave smile for her friend.
“Okay.”
After hugging Crystal goodbye, Hara walked out into the cold, black, lonely morning.
***
Inac stood in the shadows across the street from the club, the perfect place to get a flawless view of Hara’s demise. He was a very patient person after all his years of hunting and could sit still in one position for days if he had to. When Hara finally came into sight he perked up, all of his senses reaching to their fullest. This was it; the culmination of five hundred years.
He could see Santoni moving toward Hara, his custom nine millimeter beginning to rise, the barrel glinting off the light as he walked closer. Hara didn’t yet know the danger she was in. She was just getting her keys ready as though this was the same as every other day. She looked so pretty in a pastel blue cardigan thrown over her black spandex spaghetti-strap mini-dress—an odd uniform for a club, but one that brought them plenty of patrons.
Santoni was close enough for Hara to spot him. When she did, she stopped dead in her tracks, the jangle of her keys ceasing their echo through the otherwise silent morning. She didn’t look scared, though. Just sad. Sad and disappointed. Like she was disappointed in Inac for going through with this.
A wave of guilt washed over him. He couldn’t do this. Not to her. Not to Hara.
He began running toward them from the other side of the street, yelling, “No! Stop! Don’t do it!” But they didn’t hear him. Or, if they did, they didn’t pay any attention to him. He was only halfway across the street when the gun went off, the blast reverberating off the buildings and street, echoing over and over again in his mind.
He stopped dead as another shot rang out, followed by another, and another…. Hara put a slender hand to her chest before falling to her knees. Soon she’d fall the rest of the way, but he wanted to protect her from getting hurt any worse than she already was so he surged forward, pushing Santoni out of the way.
***
Through the stabbing pain, Hara heard Inac’s voice yell at the same moment as she felt warm arms cradling her, catching her as she fell, “Didn’t you hear me?! I told you no!”
“Sir?” she heard another voice say. It probably belonged to the big man….
Then Inac’s voice said, “Get out of here! Get away!”
Hara looked up at Inac as he turned his face to hers. He looked so sad, but what she really noticed was how different he looked than “her Inac.” His cleft chin was covered in a thick, short beard, and his usually shaved head looked as unkempt as the rest of him. But what she noticed the most was the self-hatred and sadness in his eyes. He just looked so old. So old and tired….
It was difficult for her to breathe. Her chest felt heavy through the burning pains that were shooting through her entire torso.
“Hara…I’m…I’m so sorry. I’m sorry…” he said as he rubbed something warm that tasted of pennies from the corners of her mouth with his bare hands.
She gave him a small smile as she looked up at the man she loved so fiercely that she would be more than happy to die for. If her death would make him happy, then she gladly went to it.
“I forgive you,” she whispered with some difficulty.
“Shh. Don’t speak, Hara. You’ll be fine. Don’t worry. I won’t let anything happen to you.” But she knew he was lying. And she had something she needed to tell him before she went….
“I love you, Inac,” she said, unsure if she’d said his name out loud.
His eyes changed suddenly. The fear and hatred was replaced by love. The pure love that she felt for him. She could see it. He loved her. He really loved her.
But he couldn’t. He didn’t even love himself. Maybe he was acting again. Trying to make her happy in her last moments….
She was glad when he bent to kiss her softly. When he pulled away just barely, she heard him say, “Hara…I love you, too. For real. I’m not pretending.”
Even though she could feel her heart already skipping beats, she knew that one of them was because of his words. He really seemed to mean it. For the first time in his life, he loved somebody more than he loved himself. She saw it in the tears he was spilling. He’d never cried before, but now he was, and they were for her. For their love.
She lifted a hand to his cheek above the beard and lightly rubbed it, trying to wipe a tear away with her weak and feeble fingers. When she did, he closed his eyes as though he was concentrating on the feel of her bloody hand as she left a crimson streak of it along his cheek.
“Don’t cry,” she said.
He shook his head as though about to tell her that he didn’t cry. But when her hand became too heavy to hold up any longer and it fell away, he caught it, looking at the tears on her fingers in shock. It was as though he had no idea that he even was crying.
He gently held her wrist, lightly caressing it so that she barely felt it through the haze of fire trying to pull her into the blackness creeping into the corners of her vision. She was falling into it when his voice brought her back.
“About your family…” he said as he put a comforting hand to her cheek.
She shook her head…or at least she thought she did. But she couldn’t be certain through the tightness in her chest that was making it difficult to take in a breath.
“Forgive and forget,” she managed before a rasping cough began deep in her chest. As she coughed up fire, she felt Inac pull her closer to him as though protecting her from the pain she was feeling. She was having a difficult time getting in the breaths and, once she did, they had a weird rattle that a part of her barely noticed.
“Pro…omise…me?” she said between gasping breaths.
“What? I’ll promise anything,” he said as he stroked her face.
“No…more…bad. O…only…good,” she managed to get out in whispers she hoped he could hear. Black spots were blocking her view of him so that she could only see pieces of him as she began to feel extremely dizzy and languid, like she’d had too much of Inac’s wine.
Her vision was almost all black now but she heard him say, “I promise, Hara. I’ll only do good. And I’ll atone for everything I’ve done wrong.”
She smiled as she felt herself slipping away.
“Then my death is wor…orth—”
&n
bsp; “No!” he said, shaking her until she felt roused just a bit. “Your death won’t ever be worth it. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. It should be me.”
“No. Just use…immor…ortality…for good…do good…” she managed before more coughs came over her. She felt fluid from her lungs escape, giving her a moment longer with him. She was gasping, doing everything in her power to get a breath into her lungs, but she couldn’t. It hurt so bad. Everything hurt so bad. She needed air.
She started panicking, but Inac’s words gave her comfort.
“I’ll be a saint,” he promised.
She smiled again as the coughs ceased. She no longer hurt. Now everything was peaceful and she began to fall asleep. She couldn’t feel Inac, but she knew he was still there.
“Remember…?” she said without feeling her mouth move, so she wasn’t sure whether or not she’d really said it.
“What? What do you want me to remember?”
“I love…” she said as everything faded away except for a bright light.
***
“I love…” Hara began. But she didn’t finish. Her breathing spluttered for a moment before it stopped and Inac watched the last glimmer of her leave. Soon her eyes were mostly closed and her body relaxed, her heart and breathing no more. She was dead.
“Hara?” he cried, looking at the blood from his fingers and her mouth that were marring her perfect face, looking brighter on her skin devoid of color. “Hara?”
When he realized that she was really gone, he let a wail escape along with all his tears. Thousands of years’ worth of them. He cried for Hara. He cried for himself. But mostly, he cried for the newfound love he’d ruined by being the man that he was.
Every wrong he’d ever done, every crime against God he’d committed, came back to him in his equally newfound heart. He wished that he could take them all away. He was sorry, truly sorry, for all the pain he’d caused.
“Why God? I know that I’ve made myself Your greatest enemy, but why? This isn’t fair. I’m sorry. I’m…I’m so sorry. She didn’t deserve this. Not Hara…. Not when it’s only because of my manipulations that she’s no longer Your Chosen One. Please? I’ll do anything; I’ll give You anything. Take my life, my immortality, and give it to her. Let me die and give her my life…. Please God?” He was rocking back and forth, holding her body in his arms. He’d already closed her empty eyes the rest of the way.
“Please God. Take me. Take me instead. Even if it’s only to send me to Hell. Just take me instead of her. Please?” he cried.
“Please…” was all he could manage as he cradled and rocked Hara’s lifeless body back and forth, his sobs slowly becoming hysterical. He didn’t care about anything in this moment other than her: the love of his life. Was there nothing he could do? Nothing to bring her back? He was willing to do anything; sacrifice anything. If only He would answer his mournful cries….
Just as his despair was overtaking him, a light appeared, burning bright in this miserable parking lot.
“Ka-in, my son.”
Inac looked up, beholding God for the first time since his punishment had been decreed.
“Please?” Inac squeaked. He felt such shame in God’s presence. Where before he had been arrogant and unabashed, now being in His presence made Inac wish that he could shrivel up until he was no more.
“Thou comest to me with a humble and contrite spirit?” God asked him, looking stern.
“I’ll come to you with whatever you want me to if it will save her. Please? She needs to do her work. And if you need someone’s life to keep the balance, then take mine.”
“Thou knowest what that would entail?”
“Yes,” Inac sobbed. “I’ll suffer in the worst pits of Hell for all eternity. It will be worse than any torture I’ve felt here. It will be worse than what the Christians say Christ suffered in Gethsemane. I’m willing to live that life. Just save her. Please?!” he howled.
God nodded. “Then it shall be done.”
Inac cried out in joy. Hara would be okay. God kept his promises just as Inac did.
He looked down at Hara, barely noticing when the light of God disappeared because he was so focused on watching for any minute movement from her still and bloody form. It seemed an eternity before he saw a diminutive ripple in her chest. Soon after, a white light as bright as the midday sun accompanied it, spreading through her limbs and up her throat, disintegrating the blood that touched her until any evidence of her death was burned off of her skin, though her clothes were left tattered and sticky. He watched as the light bubbled out of her mouth, opening it with its force. When it did, she took a quick intake of breath.
Inac cried out in his joy.
“Hara? Can you hear me?” he said in a gentle voice that spoke volumes of his newfound love for her.
Her eyelashes fluttered like butterfly wings and parted until her incandescent crystallized violet eyes were gazing up at him.
“Hi,” she whispered with a smile.
He let out a sob and brought her face to his chest.
“I’m sorry, Hara,” he said, unable to keep himself from weeping from the joy he felt at her being alive and okay.
She pulled back to look him in the eye. She didn’t seem to be in any pain. In fact, she wasn’t even weak.
“I know, Inac,” she said, her face radiant as though that light was still inside of her. “I watched. God let me watch.”
“Then you know—?”
She was looking at him with the same joy he felt at her being allowed to live.
“How much you really do love me? Yes,” she said as she began crying, though hers were full of elation and love.
He smiled as he stroked her hair, tears still falling unheeded down his face. “Good. I’m glad He let you see so you won’t wonder once I’m gone.”
Her brow furrowed momentarily. “Where are you going?”
“Didn’t you hear? I traded me for you. I’m going to the deepest fires of Hell, which is actually a lot harder to get into than you people think. I bet Hitler won’t even be there…” he said, rambling on because he didn’t know what to do; he’d never cried before.
“I heard that, but…you didn’t hear?” she asked, her innocent eyes wide with surprise. “He didn’t tell you?”
“Didn’t tell me what?”
“You asked, Inac. You asked for forgiveness. Maybe not in so many words, but your heart and soul were begging for it. You were truly sorry….”
“So?” he asked when she didn’t go on.
“So that’s all God has been waiting for,” she said with the broadest smile he’d ever seen cross her face. It was as though her very love was pouring from it. “He was just waiting for you to feel shame and to ask. He’s forgiven you. You’re no longer Cain. You truly have become Inac.”
“But I don’t understand…?”
“He said that the key was in my name. Does that mean anything to you?”
“Well, in the language of my father, Anahara means for the purpose of deliverance from a curse….”
“So she’s fulfilled the prophecy,” a new voice said.
Inac and Hara both turned to Tracker in surprise. Behind him was Crystal, Vinnie, and a few other workers. All of them looked ruffled, so Inac was pretty sure that they’d probably seen a good portion of things. Inac had been too consumed with Hara and God that he hadn’t paid attention at all to the world outside of their little bubble.
“What do you mean? How?” Inac asked as he took a rag Tracker offered him to wipe Hara’s blood off him before he painted her with it again—other than her clothes, she might no longer have blood all over her, but both him and the pavement were saturated with it.
“That’s in the prophecy,” Tracker told him. “That her name is the key. So it was about you all along. They tried to keep her from you, but it was you. You were her work.”
Inac laughed as he stood up, pulling her up with him. “And here I thought I was working her the whole time.”
She giggled at his corny line and leapt into him, kissing him as she said, “I love you.”
“I love you, too.” And this time, he meant it.
“So you’re the Bible Cain?” a wide-eyed Crystal asked, walking up to the three of them.
“How long were you guys standing there?” he asked, looking at the group behind her instead of answering her question.
“About the time you got to Hara. We saw everything. Like…was that God?”
He nodded. “And yes, I’m that Cain, as well as the one in the Qur’an and Torah. I’m the first murderer on Earth.” And, for the first time in his life, that admission made him bow his head in shame.
“No you’re not,” Hara said, taking his hand. “Today you became a new person. You became Inac. You’re the man I fell in love with.”
He smiled, unable to contain the love and happiness trying to burst forth from him.
“Your eyes,” Hara said as they began walking inside to explain everything to Crystal and the others.
“What about them?” he asked as he took the jacket the bouncer from the club was offering her and exchanged it with her cardigan thick with gore.
“They’re blue,” she said as he wrapped it tight around her shoulders.
So he really wasn’t Cain any longer. For his crime, his eyes had been as black as his hate. Now, they would be as clear as his love. He didn’t know if everything tying him to Cain was gone—he could still see the tattoo on his arm, as dark as it had been the day it had been burned into him—but mortal or immortal, he would love Hara until the end of his days.
Coming 2013
Redemption: The Cain Chronicles Book Two
To be kept informed of more books in this series, or other
books by A.D. Seeley, visit www.adseeley.com, like