by Lincoln Cole
***
Haatim didn’t want to open his eyes. The air rushed around him, and raw panic hit during the interminable fall into the abyss. However, in addition to the panic, he also felt a tranquil peace wash over him. If he had to die like this, then he could accept it.
Seconds ticked past while he plummeted, and he imagined what his body would look like broken and shattered at the bottom. Would it hurt when he hit? Would he feel anything? He prayed that he would die on impact and not suffer for hours before, finally, expiring. Haatim didn’t want to die alone in a hole after hours or days.
More time slipped past, and the whistling wind buffeted him as he fell.
Then, suddenly, he stopped.
At first, he believed that he’d hit the ground, though felt no pain to go along with his lack of momentum. It felt as if he lay on a bed of air, buoyed by something he couldn’t explain. His eyes popped open, and a pinprick of light above led out of the rift and to the sky.
Then, he floated upward.
Confused and bewildered, he looked around. Some entity or energy pulled him toward ground level. He flew out of the hole and settled on the street only a meter away from Abigail.
His friend looked exhausted when she collapsed to the ground next to him, but very much herself. Even her eyes had reverted to the brown that he’d known from so long ago.
The eyes that he’d fallen in love with the first time he’d met her.
“Abigail?”
“I’m here,” she said.
He scooped her into a tight hug and pulled her close. She shivered, cold, but he felt her hold him back. “Thank God.”
She didn’t respond. Slowly, they separated, and he glanced around. Haatim had forgotten about the demons, but when he looked up, he saw that most of them fled. Some ran, others flew, but they all tried to get away from them. Off to the right, the car still sat parked, and Frieda, Arthur, and Dominick stared at them with shock on their faces.
The ground continued to shake violently, and wide fissures spread all around them. The devastated city sprawled around them. Half of the buildings lay destroyed, some on fire, and utter chaos surrounded them.
“We need to go.” Haatim climbed to his feet and reached out to Abigail, who took his hand, a look of confusion in her eyes.
“Is it … over?”
“Not yet.”
They ran toward the parked vehicle. Arthur threw open the door and stepped toward Abigail as she came, an expression of sheer awe on his face. He had found a coat and pair of shorts now, probably from Dominick’s gear. They appeared a little small for him.
Arthur wrapped her in a big hug. “Abi!”
“I thought … I thought I’d never see you again,” she said.
“We need to go,” Dominick said. “The reunion has to wait.”
As if to emphasize, the ground shook even more, and then tipped sideways and sank. Quickly, they jumped into the car, and Dominick drove toward the road that led out of town.
The cracks lay all over now, expanding even further, and still, demons flew through the air. Dominick weaved around the cracks and rifts, bouncing over torn sections of pavement.
Haatim looked back at the town and wreckage. The demons scattered, disappearing into the woods and flying off into the sky. Soon, the place would have gone entirely.
“What’s that?” Dominick asked.
“What?” Haatim turned to face forward. The others all sat staring ahead. Things blocked the road.
“Demons,” Haatim said.
“Hundreds of them.” Arthur nodded. “They’ve blocked the way. They don’t want us to leave.”
Dominick slowed, but the vibrations of the ground caught up with them. The collapse had a compounding effect, and already, this section seemed about to fall too. “We can’t get through them.”
“Keep driving,” Abigail said. “Go faster.”
“There are too many!” Dominick said, but did do as asked. He kept going, picking up speed. Behind them, the road gave way and disappeared.
“Abigail?”
“Keep going,” she said.
The demons waited just in front of them, maybe fifteen meters ahead. They formed a wall to block them, claws and talons out and ready.
“Abigail?”
“Go!”
Haatim gritted his teeth and glanced over at her. They couldn’t make it through the horde blocking their way, and nor could they go back. But, if she thought that their car could get through the group, then she’d turned into a crazy woman.
When he glanced at her, though, he changed his mind.
Her face looked focused, and she had her eyes closed, concentrating and barely breathing. When they reached just a few meters from the horde, she opened her eyes, and they glowed.
Except, not red anymore. Now, they glowed with a golden light, pure and beautiful.
An explosion sounded. All the demons erupted. Not into puffs of smoke or cement but into black and green ichor. It splashed all over the car, blocking the windows. Just as well they’d come to a stop.
In shocked silence, Dominick eased past the goop and pulled out of the city and onto the road. A moment passed, and then Dominick reached up and flipped on the windshield wipers. It did little in clearing away the goo, but it gave enough to keep driving.
Another ten minutes passed, still in shocked silence. When Haatim looked over at Abigail, her eyes no longer glowed. She looked sleepy, but otherwise all right. Then she glanced at him with a quizzical expression, but he couldn’t think of anything to say.
Finally, Dominick said, “What the hell was that?”
No one answered. They continued in silence, heading away from Raven’s Peak. After a while, rain fell and washed the disgusting entrails and ichor off the car.
Abigail laid her head on Haatim’s shoulder and fell asleep. Still not speaking, they continued onward, looking to put as much distance between them and the city as possible before stopping for the night.
It took a long while for it sink in for Haatim, but when it did, he found himself smiling.
It had finished.
They lived.
Epilogue
They drove in silence for a few hours, finally stopping at a hotel a few cities away. The roads held little traffic at this time of night, and if anyone outside Raven’s Peak knew what had happened, they didn’t let on. It seemed too quiet.
Haatim felt exhausted in ways he’d never even imagined but also euphoric and vindicated beyond his wildest dreams. They had won; or at least, had survived. Though the town lay destroyed, and countless dangerous demons got released into the world, Abigail lived, and Arthur had come back.
Abigail lay asleep on his shoulder, but when they parked to go up to their hotel rooms, he tapped her to wake her. She yawned, looking up at him blearily, and he smiled.
“Hey,” she said.
“Hey.”
He helped her out of the car, and then walked her up to her room, helping her inside. She kicked off her shoes and collapsed onto the bed, falling asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.
When he made his way back to the vehicle, he found only Frieda there. She smiled at him, and then shook her head. “Passed out?”
“As soon as she laid down.”
“I can’t believe …” Frieda shook her head. “I can’t believe it’s over.”
“Not quite,” Haatim said. “What about Mitchell?”
She sobered, frowning. “We’ll have to deal with it.”
“If we can find him. No doubt, he’ll have gone into hiding.”
“We will find him,” Frieda said. “You can count on that.”
“Where did Dominick go?”
“I sent him to get clothes. For Arthur and Abigail.”
Haatim laughed. “We didn’t exactly pack thinking we’d win.”
Frieda smiled. “No. We didn’t.”
Dominick returned about an hour later with a ridiculous amount of clothing. Frieda took it and put it in Abigail’s and
Arthur’s rooms for when they awoke, and then the three of them went to the hotel dining hall and sat down to eat. Haatim wanted to shower and get cleaned up, but right now, he felt starved. He ordered two of their largest meals, including sides, and then ate all of it.
Frieda and Dominick watched him with something akin to surprise.
“What?” he asked.
“Hungry?” Dominick said.
Haatim looked down at the empty plates with a bit of embarrassment. “Yeah, maybe a little.”
By the time they’d done eating, Abigail and Arthur had woken, changed their clothes, and showered, and now came down to join them. Abigail took a seat next to Haatim, smiling. She had brushed her hair and cleaned up, and he couldn’t help but stare.
“What?” she asked. “Do I have something on my face?”
When she brushed at her cheek, he shook his head quickly. “No,” he said. “You just … you look beautiful.”
Abigail blushed and looked at the menu, smiling ever so slightly.
Arthur leaned down before taking his seat and kissed Frieda full on the lips. That drew surprised looks from Dominick and Abigail, followed by a round of laughter. When they parted, Frieda sat there, breathless.
“I’ve wanted to do that for years,” he said. “To hell with the Council.”
Dominick cleared his throat. “About that.”
Arthur frowned. “What?”
Dominick opened his mouth, and then shrugged instead. “It can wait.”
They ordered their food, and everyone sat in silence, just savoring the moment and glad to be alive. Once Abigail and Arthur had finished, they headed outside and into the night air to talk away from the crowds.
They explained to Arthur what had happened since he’d gone, and about the loss of the Council and Church. Some of it shocked him, but certain parts didn’t seem to surprise him as much.
Dominick asked him about his time spent in Surgat’s hell, but he brushed the topic aside. Clearly, he didn’t feel ready to talk about that, so they dropped the issue. Whatever had happened there, Haatim knew, it had been horrible.
“What happens now?” Haatim asked, finally. “What do we do next?”
They all glanced at each other. Arthur remained extremely quiet, lost in his thoughts and barely seemed to pay attention.
“I don’t know,” Frieda said. “You should leave, though.”
“What?”
“The Church won’t stop hunting us. All of us, but not you. Father Paladina assured me that you would stay safe as long as you cut all contact with us, but they won’t stop coming after the rest of us until we all die.”
“Because of me,” Abigail said.
“Because of all of this,” Frieda said. “Not just you.”
“But, if I did die,” Abigail said. “Then the Church wouldn’t have any further reason to come after you.”
“We don’t know that,” Frieda said. “What we do know is that if Haatim leaves, he can stay safe and escape from all this violence.”
Haatim stood in silence for a few seconds, all eyes on him. He let the information sink in. This gave him what he’d wanted: a chance to get out of this life and away from the people who’d lied and hurt him. Ever since he’d met Abigail, his life had gone on a wild roller-coaster ride of violence and loss.
This offered his chance just to walk away like he’d planned earlier when entering Raven’s Peak. He had accomplished what he’d set out to do, and Abigail had come back safe. Yes, he could leave now, never look back, and pick up his life where it left off in Arizona.
Except, he realized, that wasn’t his life. Had never been his life. He had just gone through the motions, wandering in a daze. Abigail hadn’t disrupted his life when she rescued him from the cult but woken him. No, he had nothing to go back to.
His life waited right here.
“No,” he said. “I won’t go anywhere.”
“Haatim, you should seriously—”
“After everything we’ve gone through, after everything that happened to us, I’m staying. I can make decisions about things, and I choose this. Whatever the hell just happened back there in Raven’s Peak, we let a lot of evil into the world.”
“The demons,” Frieda said, smiling.
“Thousands,” Dominick said. “Most just left and remain out there somewhere.”
Haatim said, “And it will fall to us to stop them and send those creatures back to wherever they came from. The way I see it, we’re still Hunters.”
They all stared at him.
Then Dominick burst out laughing. “Couldn’t have said it better myself,” he said. “Count me in.”
“Me too,” Arthur said. “We made the decisions that led to this, and the responsibility lies with us to help set things right.”
“So, what, then? The Council has gone,” Frieda said. “Our allies disavowed us. We have no more obligation or necessity to live that life.”
“Then, we make a new one,” Haatim said. “We start over. Maybe, we can convince the Church to stop hunting for us, maybe not. Either way, we have a job to do, and we can’t sit around patting ourselves on the back. Our job starts now.”
Everyone turned to look at Frieda, who hesitated, and then raised her hands. “All right, then. I’ll make some calls.”
They spent the rest of the night talking and reminiscing. One by one, they all headed up to their hotel rooms to sleep until only Haatim and Abigail remained. They sat at the picnic table in silence, enjoying the night air and each other’s company.
She looked distant, thoughtful. Haatim watched her, wishing he knew what went through her head. Generally, she seemed a quiet person, keeping to herself. Haatim had thought he’d broken through her barriers, but each time he took one down, another went up in its place.
“I love you,” he said.
She blinked, coming back to reality, and looked over at him. Then she opened her mouth, but he held up his hand to stop her.
“You don’t need to say anything,” he said. “You don’t need to tell me it back or say a single word, and it will never change no matter how you feel about me.”
A moment passed. “Then, why tell me?”
“Because you’re leaving,” he said.
Surprise flashed across her face, quickly replaced by sadness. Finally, she nodded. “How did you know?”
“Because I know you just as much as I love you. I can’t stop you, and nor would I want to. I won’t ask you to stay because it wouldn’t be fair to you.”
“I feel … different,” Abigail said. “In the town, I …”
“You stopped me from falling in midair,” Haatim said. “How?”
“I don’t know.” Abigail shook her head. “No one else saw it happen, but you all saw when I …”
“… made the demons explode?” Haatim smiled.
“Yeah, but I can’t explain it. I forced Surgat down and beat him, but something feels different.”
“You took control. You won.”
“Maybe,” she said. “But it changed me.”
“How so?”
“I don’t know. That’s what I need to find out. I need to find out for myself, or things will never go back to normal.”
Haatim nodded. “I understand.”
Abigail breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you.” She rose from her seat. “I should leave now before the others wake. You’ll tell them for me?”
“Of course,” he said. “You will come back?”
She nodded. “I will. This isn’t goodbye forever. Only goodbye for now.”
Haatim thought about that. “You promise?”
“With all my heart. I will return to you.”
“I’ll hold you to that,” he said. “Don’t make me wait too long, or I’ll come looking for you.”
Abigail smiled. “I know you will.”
Then she stepped in close and kissed him on the corner of his mouth.
His heart skipped a beat, and he wrapped his arms around her and pulled he
r close. He focused on the way she felt, the smell of her skin, and the taste of her lips.
When they pulled apart, her eyes glowed that same golden color he’d seen in the car.
A flash, and then they returned to normal.
“Goodbye, Haatim.”
Then, she turned and walked away from him.
“Goodbye,” Haatim said.
Every fiber in his being wanted to go after her, to keep her here. But he didn’t. At that moment, he knew that he loved her in a way he would never love another human being no matter how long he lived. And because he loved her, he would let her go.
He just prayed that she would come back.
End of Book III
Lincoln Cole
About the Author
Lincoln Cole is a Columbus-based author who enjoys traveling and has visited many different parts of the world, including Australia and Cambodia, but always returns home to his pugamonster, Luther, and wife. His love for writing was kindled at an early age through the works of Isaac Asimov and Stephen King, and he enjoys telling stories to anyone who will listen.
Coming 2017…
Lost in the Shadows
Prologue
“Come out, come out, wherever you are!”
Father Paladina knelt under the stairs, eyes closed and struggling to control his breathing. Each gasp sounded like the cracking of a tree branch, and he couldn’t contain the occasional sob as terror coursed through his veins.
“I can smell you, priest. I know you are in here.”
The voice was coming from upstairs in the kitchen. He hadn’t had time to close the door to the basement when he came in, and he couldn’t remember if it was open before or not. He should have been able to remember, but right now if felt like his mind wouldn’t work.
He couldn’t remember ever being so terrified in his entire life. He held his rosary between his fingers and pressed it against his lips, praying as hard as he could for the strength. He knew he was going to die, and the only thing he prayed for was the strength to die well.
After all, right now it wasn’t only his life at stake: his everlasting soul was as well.
“Are you in here?” the man—if he was still a man—asked from somewhere upstairs. Father Paladina heard a squeaking sound as a door was opened. This was followed by silence, and then another squeak as the door was closed.