by Rue Volley
Johnathan rubbed his hand through his hair.
“I hate to tell you this, but broken doors will not matter… This will burn,” he said.
Brooke looked back at him, as she turned the key, and raised her eyebrows at him.
“It is made of stone,” she said.
“Oh yea,” Johnathan said, as he looked around the room.
“The building will make it, but the books are toast,” he said.
Brooke broke through the door and onto the glossy floor.
She looked up and saw black smoke floating over the skylight.
“God, they are fast!” she yelled out.
“Well, they are protectors,” Johnathan said.
Johnathan flashed to the shelves and started to flash down the row quickly.
He pulled books in a flash and threw them behind him.
“No… up there!” she yelled at him.
Johnathan looked up and realized that Rue probably took the books to the top level.
He looked back at Brooke.
“You stay here. I will find them,” he said.
She nodded and he flashed up the incline, in a circle, around the outer edge of the large room. Brooke tried to watch him as he blurred from her sight.
“So hot,” she whispered, as she grinned and looked upward.
The sky was quickly becoming black and the skylight was losing the sunlight.
“Hurry!” Brooke yelled up to him.
Johnathan leaned over the railing and gave her a thumbs up. She bit her lip and looked at the skylight. Johnathan scrambled to Rue’s chair. He looked on the table and under the chair. He slammed his fist on the chair and thought he heard a slight echo.
“No way,” he said, as he flipped the chair around and looked at the back of it.
He pried the leather from the metal rivets on the outer edge of it and pulled the leather off. Black books laid there, inside the back of the chair. He grinned and pulled them out of it and clutched them to his chest.
“I found them!” Johnathan yelled out.
“What?” Brooke yelled up to him.
Johnathan looked up as the glass started to crack on the skylight from flames shooting up.
He looked down at Brooke and waved his hand to her.
“Get out of here!” he yelled to her.
She looked up and screamed, as the glass shattered over her, and dropped to the ground, covering her head with her Bible.
“Oh shit!” Johnathan screamed, as he backed up and took a breath.
“Okay… you can do this,” he muttered.
He flashed to the edge and dove off with the books in his hands. He flew just under the falling glass and landed over Brooke. He grabbed her arm and flashed to the door right before the large pieces of glass crashed to the floor. He looked at the tree in the center of the room and watched as glass cut into it and a branch fell to the floor.
He picked Brooke up with one arm and swung her around to his back. She grabbed onto him tightly and Johnathan flashed through the entryway and out onto the front steps. He stopped and they both looked out at everything engulfed in flames.
“What dicks!” he yelled.
Brooke buried her head in his back as he flashed through the street, avoiding the burning debris floating in the air. A house blew to their right and it knocked them both to the opposite side of the street. Brooke rolled from his back and screamed as a tree started to fall towards her. Johnathan scooped her up in a flash, right before it landed where she was just lying.
“We have to get out of town… now,” she said to him.
Johnathan nodded and took her jacket. He dropped the Bible out of it and placed the books in it. He wrapped it up and tied the sleeves of her jacket around his chest.
“OMG… the Bible!” Brooke yelled out.
“Leave it… We gotta run,” Johnathan yelled at her, as another house blew up on the street.
Johnathan scooped her up and she wrapped her arms around his neck. He flashed as quickly as he could through the burning forest. Brooke slowly started to lose consciousness from all the smoke and Johnathan pushed harder to get her out of the rolling black smoke and flames. He hissed as fire licked at his feet and arms. Then with a huge push he threw them both out of the forest and into a field, not yet ravaged by flames. The run would have killed a human… He had to run up a steep hill. He rolled a few times with her in his arms. They came to a stop and he looked at her blackened face. She was not breathing.
“No,” he said, as he placed his mouth over hers and started to blow air into her lungs.
A couple of breaths in and she coughed in his mouth.
He backed away from her and coughed out the smoke she forced into his lungs.
“Oh god,” she whispered, as she pushed herself up and swayed on her feet.
Johnathan stood up too and looked back down at the town.
The entire town was engulfed in flames and rolling black smoke.
“What have they done?” Brooke asked him.
“Sent a message,” Johnathan muttered back to her.
Brooke reached her hand out and Johnathan took it, as they watched the flames engulf everything they had ever known.
Chapter 18
Instrument of Earth and Sky
Sam and I broke out of the forest and across the field. All I could think about is getting to those books, templates of my life. I know that I wrote them in a trance really. I wrote of people I did not know, places I had not been… a race that I did not realize, until that moment that I was a part of. I couldn’t remember what will happen, but all that has happened so far is crystal clear. I wrote it down… years ago. Sometimes awake, sometimes waking up in the tree with a pencil in my hand, book on my lap… shocked at all I had scribbled down. I wrote of Johnathan and Josh… my parents, their demise. I wrote of Valon, and even the asylum, although that was a little sketchy. I needed those books to lead me in the direction I needed to go, to find a way to save my love.
My heartbeat thudded in my chest, like a war drum. I controlled my breathing as Sam and I raced across the countryside towards salvation. We broke through another line of trees, and I skidded to a stop as I saw black smoke billowing in the air. I could feel a vibration in my fingertips, a familiar one. It was a trail, that of Johnathan. I could still feel him… I guess that I always would. I looked at my hands and up at the blackening sky. I felt Sam grip my hand and jerk me forward, out of my stupor. I had a bad feeling, a deep ache in my chest. Something was wrong; something was evil. I could smell it, smelt like death and destruction.
We flashed to the hillside overlooking Calvary. It was a town that has always been nestled in a valley. As a child my parents used to bring Kai and I up to the hillside, until the sun would fall over the horizon and the stars would break through the blackness of space. I remembered looking down at the town then and thinking of what a magical place it looked like. Not too much light emulating from it, sleepy-looking really… peaceful. It had always been home to me, with all my friends and family nestled in it. A safe haven. I knew every road, every house… and now the absence of the familiar heartbeats that inhabited it.
I sucked in my breath as I watched fire rage, flames reaching up towards the heavens. I raised my hands up to my face and watched them tremble, uncontrollably. I do that when something upsets me so badly I cannot process it…I shake.
I looked at Sam and she reached towards me. I broke out into a run…not flashing. It felt like slow motion to me as I ran down the hillside screaming at the top of my lungs. I felt Sam grab me around the waist and knock me to the ground. I cried out and struggled with her, trying to make her let me go. I pushed myself up, as she hugged me tightly, and looked at my burning town, all the things I had ever known, all the familiar smells and comfort of a home… the home that I grew up in with my parents and Kai.
I suddenly stopped breathing and looked up as debris floated into the air… looked like paper floating, like an apocalyptic movie. This wasn’t a movie
though… this was my life, burning in front of my eyes.
Sam grabbed my face and made me look at her. I shook my head and tears streamed down my face; I felt them warm and thick on my skin. I didn’t realize that I was still screaming. I couldn’t even hear my own voice. I sucked in my breath and closed my eyes as Sam pulled me to her, hugging me tightly. It was a terrible thing when you are not comforted by the touch of another. When you feel like you are completely alone, and yet you have everyone around you.
I continued to cry on her shoulder and then it hit me. I couldn’t feel Johnathan anymore.
I looked back at the town and then stood up and looked down at Sam.
“I can’t feel Johnathan, Sam,” I said in a mutter.
She looked up at me and pushed herself up quickly.
“Wait… wait,” Sam said.
She held her hands out in front of her and color started to swirl out from her hands and towards the sky. She slowed her breathing and then looked at me.
“I cannot feel him either,” she said.
I broke out in a flash from her and I could hear her scream my name. I couldn’t stop and think about it… I need to get into the town and find him. I had to. I know that Johnathan and I are not what I thought we would be, but I loved him just the same as I do Sam and Theo, and of course Kai. I came to the edge of the town and looked down the main street, flames on either side. I stood there in the middle of the road with my fists clinched, my teeth locked together. My anger was complete… my fear beaten down by it. This was new for me. And I knew who done it. At least, I can guess. This was a warning from Valon… in particular, Sophia Graph. She just drew the line and I was about to step all over it. In fact, I have a line, I do. You do not mess with the ones I love. Ever. I guess that was the moment when I can honestly say that I wouldn’t be held responsible for what I was about to do.
Sam flashed to my side and looked down the street, fire engulfing both sides of it. I hauled ass down the middle, right down the line. I watched as debris fell to the sidewalks. I spotted ‘Coffee’, the sign charred and swinging from the storefront. How dare that bitch come here and do this.
I heard a scream to my left and veered in that direction. Sam followed me. I looked up to see a child in a window. She had broken the glass, her little hands bloody. She leaned out the window, black smoke rolling from it.
I stopped and took a few steps back and then I jumped at the side of the building. I clung to the brick, adrenaline forcing my fingers into it. I had never felt stronger than I was right then. I climbed up, like I had done it all of my life. I reached the little girl and grabbed her hand, pulling her out in a flash. She dangled from my hand. Sam yelled under me and I looked down and dropped the girl. Sam caught her. Flames blew from the window and I was thrown from the building into the air. I twisted and saw the road coming up on me. Suddenly, I found my balance and landed in a crouching position.
I stared at the road under me and grinned. It was time to work. To do what I was created to do…
I am a protector, of earth and sky and all of her creatures who live here.
I could feel the earth’s core churning under me; could feel her rotation as it floated through space and time.
I stood up slowly and drew her power into me. I raised my hands and could hear the fire, loud in my ears. It called to me, and I heard it… I took a breath and separated my feet apart. I can send you back to your mother. I can draw the flames into me and allow them to return to the greatness of the core.
A blue flame rose from me slowly, at first it was just in my hands. Then it suddenly engulfed my body; it started to pulsate out from me, in rings. As my energy touched the flames engulfing Calvary, the orange and red fire became blue. I screamed as I felt its power surge through me like a tidal wave. I started to levitate from the ground, my body becoming an instrument to bring this natural force into order.
All the blue flames started to make their way back to me. Sam crouched down as she watched me hover overhead, hugging the child in her arms. The blue flames crossed over her and the child, and all burns, the child had sustained, lifted from her skin and collected into the blue flames. The entire town’s fire was collected into mine, my blue flames. My light.
It all made its way back to me and I cried out as it raged around me like a tornado of blue flames. I narrowed my eyes and clinched my fist, forcing my arms to my chest, keeping it all with me. I lowered my head and everything went into slow motion for a moment. I looked out into the beautiful blue flame and saw my reflection in it. I knew then what I had to do; I had to return it to the churning core.
I screamed, as I twisted, and threw my hands towards the earth and all the flame followed it, as a hole cracked in the earth under me. I gritted my teeth and cried out as I forced it all into the crack in the road, and then it was all gone, as was my strength. I dropped to the road with a thud on my side and watched as Sam scrambled to me. Her voice sounded funny… like it was in a tunnel. She rolled me on my back and pulled me up into her arms. I grinned at her and then closed my eyes. So tired, more so than I had ever been before.
***
Josh sat on the bed and flipped his blade in his hand over and over. He stopped when he heard a throat clear and turned to see Theo standing there in the tent opening. Josh grinned and started to flip his blade again.
“I am feeling pretty feisty,” Josh said as he watched his blade flip into the air and he caught it and then slammed it into the ground at his feet.
He watched it vibrate and then settle down. He turned and smiled at Theo.
“See, I am just starting to get my strength back.”
Theo smiled a little. He knew that Josh was just entertaining him.
“Well, good,” Theo said, as he stepped up to him and stared at him.
Theo clutched the black book in his arms.
“You look like you miss me already, Theo… Knock it off,” Josh said.
Theo sat down and stared out at the room.
“I have found nothing. In fact… your survival is a mystery to me. I know that you were bitten by Caine, but his blood will not sustain you,” Theo said.
“Wow, way to be positive,” Josh said, as he pulled his blade from the ground and stared at it.
Theo sighed, “I only want to be honest.”
Josh looked at him and placed his hand on his face.
“I am not an idiot. I know what is happening,” Josh said.
“Then why do you insist on a ceremony?” Theo asked him.
Josh stood up and walked across the room. He placed the blade down on a table and looked back at him.
“Her happiness is all I think about; what she would like,” Josh said.
Theo looked at him and tilted his head at him.
“I would think that you would be more concerned with how she will fair without you,” Theo said to him as compassionate as he possibly could.
Josh laughed and looked down at the blade and ran his fingers along it.
He looked back at Theo and grinned.
“You know I plan on cheating death,” he said.
Theo stood up and laid the book down on the bed.
“I would expect you too,” he muttered, as he ran his fingers across the cover of the book. “I am frustrated that I have found nothing to assist you.”
“Don’t,” Josh said to him.
Theo walked to him and placed his hand on his shoulder.
“I know that it is unlike us to feel such things as regret and worry, but I fear that I cannot help myself. Perhaps I have become weak with age.”
Josh turned to him and smiled.
“It is not weak to care,” Josh said.
Theo sighed and stared at his face, wanting to say so many things… but he held his emotions back. He cleared his throat and walked back to the bed.
“Well,” he said, as he picked up the book. “I am certain that Sam and Rue are picking out some beautiful things for the ceremony.”
Josh looked at him and sho
ok his head.
“Tell me now that I am doing what I should. I do not want her to be unhappy, Theo… I only wanted to divert her attention from my apparent fate.”
Theo laughed, “You make her unhappy...? Did you happen to see her face, Josh? I don’t think that I have ever seen happiness before I saw it in her eyes.”
Josh teared up and looked at Theo.
“I love her more than I love myself,” he whispered.
Theo stepped to him and hugged him.
“I know,” Theo whispered.
Lily broke into the tent in a rush and looked at the two of them.
She tilted her head and Josh broke from Theo and cleared his throat.
“My tent, Lily,” Josh said.
Theo laughed, as it reminded him of something that Rue would say.
“Sorry… Ummm, Sam and Rue, they are headed to Calvary… something about books,” Lily said, as she stared at the two of them.
“What?” Josh said, as he grabbed his blades.
He rushed to the side of the bed and picked up his leather shirt, as he dropped his blades on the bed.
Theo stared at her.
“Of what books do you speak?” Theo asked her.
“I don’t know… something about 5 of them.”
Theo clutched the black book to his chest.
“She wrote more...? Oh my god, she wrote more!” Theo yelled out, as he looked at Josh.
Josh looked at him, as he hissed and pulled the leather over the binding wrapped around his chest.
“Great, she wrote more books… and?” Josh said, as he continued to get dressed.
“This is wonderful news, absolutely wonderful,” Theo said with excitement.
“Okay… so you love books. Get ready… we go now,” Josh said.
Theo turned to Lily and nodded.
“Retrieve your brother,” he said.
Lily flashed from the tent and Theo looked at Josh.
“I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but don’t you think it would be best if you rested?” he asked.
Josh laughed and hissed, holding his side. He placed his blades on his back.