by Rue Volley
“Josh?” I yelled.
“Rue... please, please come out so we can talk, please I am begging you.” Josh said.
“I have a piece of the mirror and I am going to slit my throat.” I yelled at him.
“Oh god!” he yelled out.
“I swear I am… I am going to do it now.” I said.
I moved back from the door, next to the tub and waited… if I know him as well as I think I do… he will charge the door, he will and then I will make this happen.
I heard him run back in the room, knocking over everything and then he hulled ass towards the door. I jerked it open just as he leaned in to hit the door and he flew forward, hitting the mirror and the top half of his body went through it. He started to kick his legs like a baby and I groaned as I lifted his legs and jerked him through it. I climbed up on the sink and took a deep breath.
“Okay.” I said quickly as I took another breath and threw myself into the mirror… into more darkness… but this darkness I know, I can handle that.
I felt like I was flailing in cold water. Mirrors, for the most part are warm. Felt like a blanket, wrapped around you on a cold winter’s night. I had portaled so many times that I just knew how they felt, how you breathe but don’t, how your heartbeat slows down and then as you pass over the threshold you take a breath. It was like being born every single time. These are the things that no one in the Barrington family ever told me. You would think that Theo would have, I mean he is the nicest out of the three. Nothing against Sam and Josh, but they were turds by nature. I loved them for that, the letting me figure out stuff on my own thingy. I think that when you do, it became a part of you and I also believed that this was why I was able to jerk myself out of that woven spell. It was because they allowed me to breathe on my own, to learn on my own. To fight for life, the one I want… on my own.
I hit something hard and rolled. I heard a yell, muffled but spent no time figuring out who… no time. One mission obsesses me… one thought. Getting back to Calvary, back to my house, back to Grace with Joshua by my side. There was nothing more vicious than an angry Mom, now I knew of my Mother and Father too… I knew why they protected me, I knew why they battled and were willing to die. It was love. The love of family, the love of truly protecting those closest to you. The willingness to sacrifice everything, and you do…so easily when the time comes.
I pushed myself up and glanced to my right. Josh lay there on his side, still but breathing. He was alive, thank god. Now we had a job to do, I could feel it in me… the panic that had settled into knowing, knowing the ending to the story… clear and bright in my mind. Forcing me to stand up and that I did. I stood on my feet and fought off the foggy haze in my mind, I blinked and looked down at my clothes.
White gown… freakin awesome… OMG. I turned, realizing that we were in the library we’d come through the mirror. I must have thought about this room, the one that I have never really been able to take advantage of. The one that I so wanted to snuggle down in so many times. I had ignored the library after Gracie. Not bringing her there was a mistake. I should have, I let my feelings for my parents stop me, or maybe it was fear. The thoughts of the battle, and my parent’s final resting place. Maybe I wanted to shield her from that… no, no. It was me. I wanted to shield myself. Great.
I turned and looked in the mirror and I still look fifteen. WTF? I should be my age, whatever the hell that is. Who knew how old I actually am. I really didn’t. Age is just a freakin’ number anyway, it really is. Oh well. I turned and ran to Josh and leaned down. I rolled him onto his back and he slept. Why and how, I do not know. I tapped him on the head and nothing. Then he stirred. I grinned and stood up.
Suddenly it hit me. I needed to write. This was my story, mine alone… and everyone is at the mercy of my pen. This was the new, the part that I had not written yet… the part of me that needed life breathed into it, so with that I ran… ran from Josh and up the spiral stairs, around the outskirts of the walls that encase everything written, all stories in time. I flashed as quickly as I could to the top and stopped. A book lay open at the table, by my favorite chair. The light was on and a pen lay on the paper waiting… waiting for one hand… mine.
I sat down, picking up the book and looked at it. The page blank and staring back at me and I lifted the pen…knowing that this was it, I needed to write, write what I feel and what is in my heart I know what needs to happen… and this is how the story goes… As it had always been, and would be forever…
***
I touched the tip of the pen to the paper and Josh ran up and stopped, staring at me.
I looked up at him and grinned.
“You are writing?” he asked me.
“Yes… sit down.” I said.
“Now?... we need to go!” he said.
I rolled my eyes and looked at him.
“Seriously… you need to settle down.” I said.
He walked up to me and stared at the paper.
“So this… this is how it happens then?” he asked me.
I nodded and looked back at the paper.
Josh touched my hand and I lifted it again and looked at him.
“What?” I said.
“Make sure you get my hair right.” He said as he smiled.
“Really?” I said.
“Really… I mean, make me look cool.”
“OMG… sit down!” I said.
He laughed and sat down against the bookshelf and then he grinned at me, with those canines, nice and bright.
I sighed and looked at the paper again. I mean this is the moment, I need to stay focused, and I have to be...
“Be on point Rue.” Josh said to me and I looked at him.
“God damn it Josh… let me write!” I said.
“Okay, okay.” He said as he waved his hand at me.
I stopped for a moment and stood up, I walked to him and knelt down on my knees. He stared at me, with those eyes, the ones that I knew… the comfort that I needed. I swallowed and glanced back at the table.
“Once I start writing…we are in it, I mean really in it.” I said.
Josh leaned up and placed his hand on my face.
“You write what you know Rue, what’s in your heart.” He whispered to me.
I nodded and then he kissed me… not like we haven’t kissed a million times before, but this kiss, this was the one. The one that made my heart jump from chest, my whole body started to vibrate as did his and for a moment, I did consider just letting myself get lost in it… but I can’t. I leaned back and he smiled at me.
“Always for you my love… I am in your sway.” He whispered. I took a breath and held onto that moment… the most beautiful words he had ever said to me, that anyone had ever said to me… and then I stood up and ran back to the chair, I took one deep breath and placed that pen to paper… ready to bring us all home…
Please, oh god… I hoped that I could finally do it…
Chapter 18
Woven Into One
Gracie entered Valon, stepping through the mirror gracefully, jerking Alex behind her. He stumbled and fell at her feet and she glanced at him… not as if she cared so much as it was an annoyance. She stepped forward and looked to her right as Cali came rushing to her.
“Grace.” She said as she fell to one knee and looked at the floor.
“Where is everyone?” she asked her.
“Von has left and taken the others with him… in search of you.”
“How considerate.” She said as she started to walk. Cali rose and so did Alex. Cali flashed to him and held her blade to his throat.
“Let him follow.” Gracie said as she started to walk towards the great council room.
“I would assume that Caine has left us.” Gracie said.
Cali flashed up to her side and nodded.
“Alandra killed him.” She said.
Gracie stopped and looked at her.
“Johnathan did not?” she asked.
“No.”
“Mmm… and tell me, where is Johnathan?”
“Gone, as well as the human girl.”
“Pity, I wanted to see him.” Gracie said as she stopped at the two large doors and waited.
Cali rushed ahead of her and opened the doors up; Gracie looked around the room and smiled.
“Well this stinks of retribution.”
“Yes.”
Gracie turned and looked at Alex, holding her hand up to him. He took it; a little confused and led her into the large room. He looked down as a skull crunched under his shoe.
“I never thought that I would witness Valon… and yet I am here.”
“Mmm.” Gracie said as she let his hand go and walked towards the center of the room. She kicked bones out of her way and then started to climb the steps, up towards and empty chair. She stopped and looked at it and then turned.
“The time has come… call them all home Cali… a war is upon us. One that I knew would happen… I have waited for this day, the day that angels would once again rule Valon… light the tower, alert them all… angels and rogues alike send out a bubble.”
“Rogues?” Cali asked.
“Yes… all of them, bring them… the last of the protectors will fall upon us and let the rogues serve as a barrier… they are expendable, but they will not know. What better way to dispose of them but to draw them here, under a false pretense, leading them to slaughter.”
“Yes… as you wish.” Cali said as she bowed and ran from the room, leaving the doors open behind her.
Alex stared at Gracie and then took a step towards her. Gracie held her hand up and he stopped.
“I brought you here with me to witness the beginning of the end.” Gracie said.
“I am grateful.”
“Don’t be.” Gracie said as she turned and sat down on the makeshift thrown.
“But I am… you could have killed me, I am sure and yet you did not.”
“It seems that I need you, and in that I find it funny.” Gracie said.
“Funny?”
“Yes… you are a mongrel; I know that now, now that I retrieved my memory.”
“I love you.” Alex said as he stared at her.
Gracie looked at him and grinned.
“How… how can you?” she asked him.
Alex ran up the steps and knelt down to one knee in front of her.
“Gracie… we escaped memory together, I loved you there as I love you now.”
“Foolish.” She said as she looked away from him.
“I find it no more foolish than the fact that I would forfeit my life for you.” Alex said.
Gracie looked at him and for a moment her face softened. It returned to her new-hardened look quickly.
Cali flashed back into the room and stopped.
“Grace… I have sent a message out, they all should return to us soon.”
“Good… then we fight, I would assume that the battle will come by nightfall.” She said as she stood and Alex watched her rise.
“Alex… come with me, I would like for you to see something.” Gracie said as she walked down the steps. Alex rose and followed her. He glanced at Cali as he passed her and she growled at him. Alex took a breath and continued to follow Gracie out of the doors and into the hallway. She stopped and turned to him.
“Do you know who I am?” she asked him.
Alex stepped up to her and raised his hand. She watched his hand and he stopped an inch from her face.
“You are Gracie to me.” He said. “A banished angel, not unlike all the others.”
“Mmm. I would tell you that it is more than that.” Gracie said.
She started to walk away from him and he followed, waiting… almost holding his breath. She stopped at the tower entrance and waved her hand over the mirror. She stepped through the waving reflection and Alex stepped forward, following her. He stepped out into the center of Valon, he looked up and birds flew overhead, some landing on open windowsills. He looked out and Gracie walked to the fountain. She stopped and looked up, smiling at the angel… the statue in the middle and looked back to Alex.
“Come here.” She said as Alex stepped towards her and stopped, looking up at the statue and tilting his head.
“This is the angel, the first… he created Valon… this heaven on earth. They followed him here, all of them. I love him… for he is my Father.”
Alex looked at the statue and then back at Gracie.
“This is Joshua, isn’t it Gracie.”
“Yes… my Father… throughout time. I have died many times, as he has… as well as my Mother. We always come back together though, different time, different place… but it always ends the same.” She said.
“You end up in memory.”
“Yes… always the same. A life lived and then it fades. We are not allowed to be.” She said as she looked up at him.
“Why?”
“Because he is cursed, and with that curse he passed it to my Mother and then to me.” She said.
“You are not cursed Gracie, you cannot be.”
“Oh but that I am… this battle… the one that will come, has happened many, many times. It always ends the same. I watch as she kills him, my Mother… Rue Valon. She finds out what he truly is and she kills him and this will be no different than the rest, I feel it coming. I tell you this because I want it to change. I want it to be different this time, therefore I want you to help me.” She said.
“What… anything Gracie… for you.” He whispered.
“Help me invoke the creator, she is the only one who can stop this cycle.”
“What?... you tricked her, you trapped her in memory… you said we had too, to escape.”
“Oh, and that we did, to leave, but now I need her… I need her to enter me so that I will have the strength to kill him myself, it has to be me Alex… otherwise the cycle will never be broken. He will allow it to come.” She said.
“You cannot do this, if you do… she will not let you live.” Alex said.
“If I do not, the cycle will never be broken. I can live in memory Alex, I would rather… knowing that this all ends.”
“I thought that you said you wanted angels to return to Valon, that was what you told me.” Alex whispered.
Gracie turned to him and smiled.
“I lied… this is the first time I have returned knowing who I am… I am a vessel.”
***
Kai sat on the train and munched down on his bag of potato chips, Sam smiled as she watched him and Theo rolled his eyes as the crumbled fell all over his shirt and he brushed them to the floor. Sam stood up, ready to clean it up and Theo beat her to the floor. He looked at her and shook his head. Sam crinkled her eyebrows and then she sat back down as Theo brushed the mess into his hand and walked it to the trashcan. He brushed the mess into it and turned back to Kai.
“You are a pig.” He said.
Kai raised his eyebrows and looked at him.
“You are a pig and my sister is not your servant.”
“Theo!” Sam said. He raised his hand to her and shook his head as he looked at Kai.
“Get up, go and find a broom and clean up this mess, my sister may accept your habits, but I do not.”
Kai dropped the bag and stood up, staring at him.
“I don’t think that Sam minds.” He said.
“Well… I do.” Theo said as he walked to him, grabbed him by the ear and walked him to the door.
Kai ‘ow’d’ and Theo opened the door up and pushed him out. Kai stumbled into the hallway and Theo shut the door on him as he grinned and then turned back to see Sam standing there, tapping her foot with her hands on her hips.
“No need… I know I am right.” Theo said as he walked past her and sat back down. Sam turned to him and raised her eyebrows.
“That was so unnecessary!” she said.
“I do not agree and will not… so sit down.” Theo said.
Sam huffed and walked back to the booth and sat down, leaning back and lo
oking out the window with her arms crossed on her chest.
Theo sighed and looked at her.
“You need to be different than you are.” Theo said.
Sam looked at him and rolled her eyes.
“Like what?” she said.
“Like someone who is not attached like a child to its Mothers apron strings.” Theo said.
“I am not!” Sam said as she shifted in her seat.
“Oh but that you are and I dare say it is… oh what word would suffice?... umm, pathetic… yes, that is the word.”
“Oh my god.” Sam said as she looked at him.
“I am not ‘pathetic’… I love him.”
“There is a fine line between ‘love’ and ‘slave’.” Theo said and she raised her eyebrows again.
“I am not a slave.”
“Well… then act as if you have some worth, he is a pig beyond repair, and I find that now that we are free to do as we wish, I am going to tell you exactly what I think.”
“Well… thank you for the share time, but I think that you should mind your own business.”
“Really?” Theo asked her as Kai stepped back in with a broom and closed the door behind him. He stopped with broom in hand and looked at the two of them.
“I’m sorry.” Kai said as he started to broom up his mess.
“Kai...”
Theo held up his hand to Sam and she stopped.
“You should be and I would like to see you clean this up and then apologize to my sister.” Theo said.