Turner spoke up at that suggestion. “Roberta, that’s way too dangerous. I won’t allow it.”
Roberta turned to Turner, determined. “We have to try, Geoffrey.”
Kala wasn’t sure she liked the idea of someone poking around in her head, but the pain was so intense she would try anything to make it stop. “Please,” she begged.
Turner gave his wife a look that said he trusted her judgment.
Talan looked at Roberta doubtfully. “I’m not sure it would do any good.”
“Listen, her brain is unfocused right now, she’s giving in to the pain and fighting it at the same time. If I can go in there, I can make Kala relax enough for the two souls to integrate.” Roberta tried to convince Talan.
Kala screamed again in agony.
Talan nodded. “Do it.”
Kala was ready to scrape her eyes out from pain — then...
A sudden calm melted through her.
She heard Roberta’s voice in her head, soothing, “Relax. Let him in, Kala. Let him in and calm yourself.”
Kala felt another squeeze of fire in her chest, but Roberta’s voice grew louder. “Give in, Kala. Relax.”
With every word, a sense of serenity started to take the place of the pain.
Just when Kala thought she had given in to the calm completely, her body seized in a fit of pain. She screamed.
Roberta’s voice echoed in her head and spread through her entire being. “Calm.”
It was so gentle...
The pain stopped.
Kala looked at Roberta who seemed to be coming out of a trance. When Roberta’s eyes met hers, Roberta said in awe, “Such power.”
Coursing through her veins, Kala felt exactly what Roberta was talking about. Kala had never felt more alive in her life. She felt like she had been injected with a double dose of adrenaline. Her heart pounded in her chest and Kala could feel the blood pumping through her veins like millions of tubes connecting her body together. Kala’s senses were on overdrive. She heard everyone breathing as clearly as if they were snoring. She smelled every chemical in the lab like it was right under her nose. And Talan’s hand. Kala felt the pores and tiny hairs of his hand like they were craters.
It made her want to panic and fly at the same time. Kala settled on standing.
Roberta and Talan stood with her.
Talan’s face was wide-eyed. “You shouldn’t have been able to survive that.”
Kala took deep breaths to calm both her excitement and nerves. “Roberta helped me.”
Roberta still looked dazed, but she smiled at Kala warmly. Turner searched his wife for wounds as if she had been in some kind of battle.
“Roberta kept you calm, yes, but physically, Kala… you shouldn’t have survived that.” Talan shook his head. “To integrate with a god…a human…”
“Yes, I’m very special. But am I safe? What does this mean Talan?” Kala still had so many questions and Talan was the only one who was remotely qualified to answer.
“I’m not sure, but the rules have definitely changed. You’re no longer an emissary of Atlas, which means if anyone kills you, they won’t become the next Atlas. I’m fairly certain it means you cannot be killed by a mortal.” Talan was apparently trying to work everything out himself.
“And Demons and Malaks?” Kala was more worried about the supernatural than an overzealous human.
“Gods can be killed, yes, Kala. You’ve just done it. Why do you think Atlas has been in hiding all these years, tricking humans into doing his job? As far as Demons go, you’re in more danger now than you were before. They’ll want to kill you once and for all so the world will be in chaos forever. The only advantage you may have is the fact that the Malaks will want you safe at all costs now, since no one can become a new Atlas.” Talan shrugged. “Angels are like that, they only see in black and white.”
“Aren’t you running out of time?” Turner asked Kala.
His words cut her like a knife.
Kala had sealed her own fate.
There was no tricking Atlas into taking his job back. She was Atlas.
She could either kill Jack or let the world destroy itself.
There was no turning back now and frankly, Kala still hadn’t decided yet.
Kala turned to Turner. “What would you do? If your mission was to kill Roberta or the world would end?”
Turner didn’t hesitate. “I’d let it burn.” Turner nodded to Fortski to leave and helped his wife toward the exit. “I’m assuming you two can leave the way you came, unless you need any more help from me?”
“No. Thank you for everything.” Kala was still reeling from Turner’s words.
Talan reached out and took Kala’s hand. “To Jack?”
Kala closed her eyes in confusion, but slowly nodded.
When her eyes opened she was in Jack’s bedroom at the hideout he had taken her to. Jack was asleep, the sheets and blanket in a tangled knot from his restlessness.
Talan was gone, letting her decide what to do on her own.
Seeing the room made a lump form in Kala’s throat. It was just like the vision Talan had shown her. Tomorrow morning Jack would go to the alley and seek out Penny and the world would destroy itself.
“I made sure he would sleep the night.” Penny’s voice came from behind Kala.
Kala whirled around to see the woman step out of the shadows.
When she made eye contact with Kala, Penny took a step back. “Impossible.”
“Possible,” Kala corrected. She didn’t feel like getting into it with Penny right now. She just wanted to be alone with Jack.
But Penny had a different idea. Penny charged at Kala with her hands outstretched.
Kala blocked Penny using a simple Aikido move. She pulled Penny’s energy into her, then pushed it back into Penny’s chest with an open palm.
To Kala’s shock Penny flew across the room and smashed into the wall, causing it to crumble into a Penny-sized crater.
“Whoa,” Kala said in surprise. Being a god meant super strength.
Penny recovered quickly, but instead of attacking, she slumped her shoulders and looked on the verge of tears. “Possible,” she whispered.
It was as much of an apology as Kala was ever going to get. Kala walked over to Penny and put her hand out for Penny to shake. After a few moments of hesitation, Penny finally accept Kala’s offer.
“Sorry about shooting you… and breaking your neck… and lighting you on fire… and smashing you into a wall.” Kala felt the need to apologize.
“Jack can’t become Atlas anymore, can he?” Penny asked, brushing past Kala’s apology.
“No. No one can.” Kala sighed.
“You’re the Fated One.” Penny didn’t sound happy, but she didn’t sound angry anymore either.
“Looks like,” Kala answered.
Penny’s voice cracked. “Is Jack the Potential?”
Kala felt tears in her eyes. She simply nodded.
Penny closed her eyes in pain, then opened them, looking at Kala with sympathy. “I’m sorry.”
“Me too.” Kala turned to watch Jack sleeping peacefully. Then she focused back on Penny. “Asmodeus called you Pandora. You’re not the real Pandora are you?”
Penny nodded. “I’ve been training Atlases for centuries. I thought Jack was the Fated One. I didn’t know what the scrolls meant, but seeing you…” She left the thought unfinished.
Kala knew what she meant. She hadn’t expected this outcome, either. After everything Kala had been through, finding out that Penny was Pandora just seemed to be another layer to a very large cake. Something to be filed away for later.
“I want to be alone with him,” Kala asked of Penny.
Penny didn’t argue. “If you need my help in the future…”
Kala nodded.
Penny left the apartment.
Kala took a moment before she walked over to the bed. A part of her wanted to wake Jack up to spend as much time with him as possible befor
e she’d have to make her life-altering decision. Instead, Kala snuggled up behind him and wrapped her arm over his chest. Even in his sleep Jack instinctively clasped on to Kala’s hand and held her tight. It made her want to scream it was so emotionally painful.
Kala glanced at the clock.
0d 06h 04m 12s.
11:56 P.M.
Kala closed her eyes, letting sleep take her.
“Kala, wake up.”
Kala opened her eyes to see Jack’s face staring down at her. He leaned down and kissed her deeply. “Where have you been?” he asked between kisses.
Feeling his body on hers and his kisses made Kala want to forget everything, but instinctively she pulled away and checked the clock.
0d 00h 03m 3s.
5:57 A.M.
Three minutes until the end of the world.
Kala jumped out of bed. “Jack.”
Jack was up next to her. “What is it? Did you talk to Atlas? Did you get him to fix it?”
Kala shook her head, not wanting to accept what was happening. “Jack.”
Jack stood there, staring at Kala, obviously trying to process the situation.
“I’ve seen it, Jack. We can’t exist together. If one of us doesn’t die, the world will instead. But I won’t do it. I can’t. I can’t kill you!” Kala was almost in hysterics. Standing in front of Jack, imagining shooting him…
Kala looked around the room.
It wasn’t just the same room from Talan’s vision, it was the room where she saw herself in every television killing Jack.
“We have to get out of here.” Kala grabbed Jack’s hand and started to pull him out of the bedroom, but Jack didn’t budge.
“I knew it,” he finally spoke.
“Jack, I mean it, we have to leave. We have two minutes,” Kala pleaded.
Jack grabbed Kala’s other hand so he was holding them both. “Listen to me, Kala: I knew it. I knew it from the beginning. You have to do this.”
“WHAT? NO WAY!” Kala couldn’t calm herself down no matter how hard she tried.
“Kala,” Jack’s voice cracked.
It smashed Kala’s heart into a million pieces.
This was the moment. The moment of Talan’s vision where Kala ran out of the room and Jack couldn’t find her. A part of her wanted to do it. To run and never look back. Never have to do what she knew she must.
But Kala stayed where she was.
“Jack,” her voice was so small she could barely hear it.
“I was never made for this. I let you kill the President. I couldn’t do it. I didn’t want to.” Jack seemed to feel the need to confess to Kala, but Kala didn’t want to hear it. She just wanted to throw him over her shoulder and hide him somewhere until… until what?
As if in answer, the ground started to shake.
“It’s starting,” Kala swallowed hard.
0d 00h 01m 10s.
“Kala, it was always supposed to be you.” Jack’s eyes were so full of light and hope it made Kala want to cry.
“I can’t do it!” she screamed.
The ground shook harder, almost causing them to stumble.
Jack went to his bedside and pulled out his gun.
The gun.
The gun from Kala’s vision.
“No, Jack.” Kala shook her head. This wasn’t happening.
Jack carefully placed the gun in Kala’s hand and knelt in front of her.
Everything was the same.
Everything was the same, except Kala couldn’t shoot him!
A jolt nearly toppled Kala to the ground.
“Kala, you have to,” Jack pleaded.
“Jack,” was all Kala could utter.
“Please. Don’t let billions die to save me. I’m not worth it.”
“Yes, you are!” Kala was crying now.
“No, Kala. I’m not. No one is.”
“Jack.”
“Kala, please.”
Kala couldn’t breathe.
She couldn’t think.
Everything hurt too much.
“I won’t,” she choked.
Her head was spinning.
Kala felt the metal of the gun as if it was made of burning ice.
No.
“Please,” Jack begged.
No.
Numb.
“Kala.”
No.
“I love you, Jack.”
Kala pulled the trigger.
3d 23h 59m 59s
Becca C. Smith received her Film degree from Full Sail University and has worked in the Film and Television industry for most of her adult life. In 2010 Becca published her first novel, Riser followed by the sequel, Reaper, in 2011, and the finale, Ripper in 2013. In 2012 Becca wrote the children’s novel Alexis Tappendorf and the Search for Beale’s Treasure. She is also the co-author of the teen graphic novel Ghost Whisperer: The Haunted. Becca currently lives in Los Angeles, CA with her husband, Stephan and their two cats Jack and Duke.
Her website is: www.beccacsmith.com.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Biography
Atlas (The Atlas Series) Page 23