by Rue Volley
I grinned and nodded to him, as I searched for it. I finally caught a glimpse of the screen lighting up on the car’s floorboard and looked at the screen. It said ‘Hollywood’, and I pushed the button and looked around the car.
“Hello?” I said.
Holly laughed on the other end, and I sighed when I heard her voice.
“Where the hell is this guy taking me?” I whispered, as I cupped the phone.
Holly laughed again.
“Okay… if you want to stay in character that is totally fine, but I will tell you that your performance tonight was unbelievable… And how lucky are we that we had a crowd who knew the books so well?” she said.
“Uh huh… okay,” I said, as I played with the front of my dress.
“Oh, you are the best,” she said.
“Thanks,” I said, as I peeked at the driver.
“Okay. Well, you give Johnathan kisses; I will see you soon,” she said, and the line went dead.
I dropped the phone on my lap and stared at it.
I looked up at the driver and tapped the seat.
“Where are we going?” I asked him.
He smiled and kept his eyes on the road.
“Well…to your home of course, as you instructed.”
I sat back and tried to relax… but I couldn’t really.
I was so tensed up… I doubted even Josh could knock it out of me right now.
Oh shit! WAIT… Holly said say hi to Johnathan… WTF? I thought.
The car pulled up to a medium-sized house, looked nice but not overly nice… I narrowed my eyes, and then it hit me. This is Josh’s house, the one I visited long ago, running into Sophia and having a more than weird conversation with her.
“What is this?” I asked him.
The driver got out and walked around to my side. I gripped the front of the seat, ad he popped the door opened and stood there. I peeked up at him and shook my head at him.
“I don’t want to go in there,” I said.
He grinned and pulled his hat off.
“I have read the books, Miss Volley… and this is where I say… Where would you prefer to go then?’” he said, as he stood back up and stared at the house.
I leaned back and slowed my breathing. I felt like I was on the worst ride at the carnival… you know the one. The one that makes you think that it is cool, but then you get on it and three seconds later you are gripping the bars and hoping that you don’t pee your pants. I flexed my fingers and looked up at him.
“What do I say now?” I said, as my eyes went wide.
“You say…’Well, okay then…I guess I will give it a shot’,” he said to me.
I slowly pulled myself out, as my skirt fought me with all the crinoline under it.
I stood up and stumbled a little.
He caught my arm and grinned.
I smiled at him, a weird I don’t know what the ‘f’ smile, and nodded.
“Well…okay then…I guess I will give it a shot.” I said, more like a question than a statement.
He laughed and tipped his hat.
“Good evening, Miss Volley, sleep well,” he said, as he left me and walked around the car and got in.
I suddenly tapped on his window, and he rolled it down on the passenger side.
“Do I live alone?” I asked.
He laughed again and drove off.
I stood there and slowly turned to the house and swallowed hard.
“Shit,” I whispered, as I grabbed the bottom of my dress and gripped it in my hand.
I started to walk towards the house, with all intention of not freaking the hell out… I mean, this is me spiraling to the bottom, right? I stepped up to the door and lifted my hand, and knocked. It was instinctual. I mean, this isn’t my house…it is Josh’s house. Then the door opened up, and Johnathan stood there smiling at me. I tried to not pass out; I really did… But I dropped like a rock, and he caught me before I hit the porch.
I blinked and heard music playing… violin exactly, well… violin and other strings. I blinked a few times, and my focus started to come back to me. The room was barely lit, and I laid there on the bed, a big fluffy one with lots of crap draped over the frame. I felt a hand on my hair and grinned.
“Josh?” I said.
Johnathan leaned into my face and grinned.
“Oh shit!” I yelled, as I sat up quickly and banged my head against his.
He hissed and so did I, as I rubbed the new wound on my forehead and tried to not have a heart attack. I grabbed my chest and stared at him, as he narrowed his eyes and ‘ow’d’.
“Oh god… so sorry. I, ah…yea, okay,” I said, as I rolled over and fell off the bed and hit the floor.
Johnathan jumped up and came over to me.
“Baby… are you okay?” he asked me.
I looked up at him and winced, as I rubbed my knee, and my dress was flipped up over my legs.
“Mmm,” he said, as he looked at what had to be exposed panties.
“Oh god,” I said, as I pushed my dress down and tried to get up like a turtle on it back.
Johnathan reached down and took my hand, pulling me up to him as he grinned. He leaned in, and I ‘oh’d’ and leaned over to avoid to it. I looked around the room, and it was decked out, with roses… and more roses and candles. My eyes got bigger, and I tried to catch my breath. I felt him touch my neck, and I flinched and rolled out of it, knocking over a candle. It rolled across the floor… wax spilling everywhere.
“Shit,” I muttered, as I tried to pick it up quickly and the wax ran over my hand.
I dropped it, and Johnathan caught it, one-handed and slowly stood up… smiling at me.
I tilted my head and then stood up straight, clearing my throat.
“Hi,” I said… because I couldn’t think of anything else.
“Hi back,” he said, as he stepped towards me.
He touched my face, and I won’t lie and say that it didn’t feel nice… the touch, I mean. I had missed Johnathan so much, in a totally friend like way. But having him there in the bedroom with all the prepping for ‘you know’ is just… well, just wrong, on so many different levels that I can’t even explain it properly.
“Ummm, the room is great. You…you are great, but I am so so sorry… I just wanna write tonight,” I said.
“Okay,” he said.
I sighed and started to walk to the door.
I turned back and grinned at him.
“It really is beautiful,” I said as I looked around the room.
He grinned.
“Be better, when you’re done writing,” he said.
I turned and rolled my eyes, and then hit the ground running. I ran to the end of the hall and then hit the stairs, almost falling down them. I stopped and looked to the left and saw the door… the one to Josh’s library. I ran to it, swinging it open and slamming it shut behind me. I leaned against the door and started to hold my chest, feeling my heart trying to come right out of it. I bit my lip and hissed, as I re-opened the previous cut, and placed my hand to my mouth. I pulled it back and looked at the blood on it.
“Oh god,” I said, as I took a breath.
I reached behind me and turned the old key that was in the keyhole, and pulled it to me, gripping it in my hand. I pushed myself from the door and stood there… looking around at a room, packed with books and paper… lots of it.
I stepped and looked down and moved my heel. I leaned down and picked up a page that I had written, with marks all over it… like editing of some sort. I stood up and dropped the paper back to floor and stared at the desk. There she was… my laptop. Open and beckoning me to sit down.
I walked to it and stepped around, looking at the old leather chair, my chair from the library, sitting there. I grinned and placed my hand on it, letting my fingers rub across the soft and weathered leather… a familiar feeling and comforting in so many ways. I leaned down, and the laptop flipped on. I stood up and stared at it, as it loaded the program. The famil
iar ‘ding, ding’ went off, telling me to sign in and get to it. I sighed and sat down in the chair, pulling it up and staring at the screen.
There it was all four books.
“Blood and Light.”
“Smoke and Mirrors”
“Oil and Water”
And the newest addition to the family…
“Clarity and Reason.”
I bit my lip and clicked on “Clarity”, hoping that it wouldn’t blow up on me. I narrowed my eyes when it loaded, and I saw it…
“My name is Rue Volley, and I live in...
I stared at it and waited for the pages to load. I know I had stopped at 150 or so, but then it kept loading. I watched and bit my lip again, once again causing it to bleed.
“Ouch,” I said, as I looked at it and licked my lip.
It loaded to page 361, and I shook my head and started to scroll.
“What the hell?” I whispered.
I rolled right up to the book thingy with Holly and leaned in… reading what had just happened, word for word. I took a breath and rolled it on…through the car ride, Holly’s conversation, and then right up to now...
I sat back and stared at it, the words typing on their own. I tilted my head and read it on the screen. I held up my hand and waved, as the words wrote themselves out.
“What the hell?” I said, as I stood up and pointed at the screen.
“I am crazy, right?”
The typing stopped, and the little bar just sat there blinking at me… then it typed.
“No.”
I sucked in my breath and looked around the room.
“OMG…OMG…OMG,” I said.
“Okay…okay okay okay… Listen to me, Rue…wake up. You are losing it, totally losing it here,” I said out loud.
Then the laptop started typing…same thing over and over…and over.
I leaned in and stared at the screen in shock.
Opentheboxopentheboxopentheboxopentheboxopentheboxopentheboxopentheboxopentheboxopentheboxopentheboxopentheboxopentheboxopentheboxopentheboxopentheboxopentheboxopentheboxopentheboxopentheboxopentheboxoppentheboxopentheboxopentheboxopentheboxopentheboxopentheboxopentheboxopentheboxopentheboxopentheboxopentheboxopentheboxopentheboxopentheboxopentheboxopenthebox…
I leaned in and narrowed my eyes, as it sped up…
“Open the box?” I said.
The laptop stopped and dotted…YES…
I stood up and touched my head.
“Okay, open the box… I get it,” I said.
I looked around the room, as I kept glancing at the laptop and hoping that it wouldn’t stand up and try to talk to me. I looked at the bookcase…full of all kinds of books, including mine. There all three books sat, on the shelf, and I touched them… They felt so strange to me, in book form. I had only known them on the laptop. I lingered there, and the laptop ding’d again. I looked at it.
“I know…open the box…I am looking for it,” I said.
I shook my head, realizing how crazy it was that I was talking to the laptop in the first place, but it started it, or I did… Oh hell, I don’t even know anymore. I looked down the shelf, and I spotted it, the little box that my Dad gave me. I grabbed it and pulled it off the shelf. It had dust on the top of it, and I blew on it and coughed when the dust blew up in my face.
“Geez… really?” I said, as I held it in my hand.
I looked up on the shelf, and there was a paper lying there, must have been under the box. I picked it up and shook it off too. It had dust on it, and I walked back to the chair and sat down, with the paper in one hand and the box in the other. My laptop flipped off, and I stared at it.
“Oh I see, now that I have the all-important box…you go to sleep,” I said.
I sat the box down on the desk and looked at the paper. My parent’s picture was on it, in black and white, and I unfolded it and stared at them. They looked so happy in the picture. My Mom’s head leaning on my Dad’s shoulder, and my Dad grinning, like he was the luckiest man in the world. I leaned in and started to read it.
“William and Grace Volley of Calvary, Minnesota were involved in a terrible accident, on the bridge leading to Adda, on February 18th. Unfortunately, neither one survived.”
I sucked in my breath and kept reading.
“Both children survived… Rue Volley and Kai Volley, as they were able to get out of the submerged vehicle.”
I dropped the paper and looked at the box on the desk.
“I don’t… I can’t understand this,” I said, as the room glitched and I felt dizzy.
“Oh, you do… you have to.”
I looked up, and Sara…well book Sara, stood there and stared at me, looking oh so pretty in her dress.
“OMG,” I said, as I stood up and almost fell over the side of the chair.
I backed up and felt the window’s ledge behind me.
I narrowed my eyes and stared at her.
“Sara?” I said, as I rubbed my arm.
“Yes, Rue… it is me,” she said.
I took another breath and kept my eyes on her.
“I don’t… I mean, what is going on?” I asked her.
“Rue…you know… think about it,” she said, much calmer than I ever heard her talk before to me.
“Sara, please… I think I am crazy,” I said, as I held onto the ledge again.
“No… you are not; open the box,” she said.
I looked at the desk and stared at it, and then back up at her.
“It’s not going to blow up, right?” I asked her.
She smiled and stepped towards me. She glowed like the morning, during winter. The kind of glow that doesn’t ever dim and makes you squint your eyes and hurt a little, but you just cannot look away.
“Open it and become what you are,” she said.
I reached for the box, and my hand shook.
I picked it up and rubbed my fingers across the top of it.
I peeked up at her, and she nodded to me.
“You are its rightful owner… my shield; as your mate is my sword,” she said.
I felt my heart thumping in my chest, as I opened the lid up.
I pulled back the old tissue paper and stared in the box.
“No way.”
She laughed and stared at me.
“Use it, Rue, for no matter what timeline you live, your parents will still die… It is written, and I cannot change it,” she said.
I pulled the chain out, and the watch stared at me, twisting in front of my face.
“This is the necklace that Caine gave to my Mother and Kai gave to me… and finally, my Dad gave it to me, in the asylum,” I whispered.
“Yes… it is yours, made by me, and I wish for you to finally use it as it was intended for. It has taken a millennium for you to finally have it, and longer for you to understand its value,” she said.
I looked up at her and blinked.
“How many times have I lived before?” I asked her.
“Too many to count, but it always ends up the same… Except this time…for you love, truly love…and you can now say goodbye, to your parents. Rue, let them go… You do this, and things will set themselves right,” she said.
She looked to her right, and my parents stood there. I sucked in my breath and looked at them. My Mom grinned, and my Dad winked at me. I ran to them and hugged them so hard, that I lost feeling in my arms. My Dad pulled me back and leaned in my ear.
“Let us go to memory, Rue. I am sorry that we did not tell you what you were… We only wanted to protect you, but you are strong enough to do this without us now.”
I looked at him and tears streamed down my face.
“I am a protector… of earth and sky and all who inhabits her... I will love you both, forever,” I said.
My Mom nodded and kissed me on the cheek.
I watched her start to fade and my Dad along with her.
I stepped back and gripped the watch in my hand. I slowly lifted it and placed it around my neck and turn
ed to Sara, who smiled at me and nodded. I looked up, and the room started to light up… brighter than the sun, brighter than anything that I had ever seen before. My whole body hummed like an engine, and I looked at my hands as they started to glitch. I took in the deepest breath… the one that really filled my lungs for the first time, and felt my body lift up and start to turn. I closed my eyes, and Josh became clear in my mind, in my heart and all through my soul… that finally felt whole and normal, just like me.
I heard a scream and felt my body hit the floor. I rolled to the side and looked up, as Sam flipped in the air over me and sliced her blade through the air at lightning speed. I grinned, and Josh yelled out my name. I looked at him and grinned. There he was… my Josh, all geared up for battle and looking a little frazzled. I rolled again when a blade hit the floor next to me. I stood up quickly and yelled out to Josh, and he flashed to me. He stopped and grinned that he was able to do it at all.
I looked around, and I was back, in the room… at Johnathan’s house and hell had broken loose. Lucifer had Jonah by the throat, Clytie was choking Sam, and Johnathan sat there on his knees, looking all demon and uglier by the minute.
I looked at Josh and smiled.
“Where the hell did you go?” he yelled at me.
I shook my head.
“You wouldn’t believe it,” I said.
I turned to him, as all the crazy went on around us, and grabbed his hands.
He looked at me and tilted his head.
“No time for talking!” he said.
I closed my eyes, and my body started to glow Blue… brighter than a star about to explode. Josh closed his eyes and held onto me; I could feel his hands shaking in mine.
“I love you,” I said.
We both threw our heads back, as a bright flash blew up out of us both and filled the room above us. It was the tree of life… the only thing that I could really see in my mind. We started to lift from the ground, and Mia and Lucifer cried out, as the skin on their faces started to flake away. I opened my eyes and smiled at Josh, who was already staring at me.
“It is beautiful,” he whispered.
“I am the shield of the creator, protector of sky and earth and everything that inhabits her.”