by Rue Volley
“We are probably going to die.” I said.
“Don’t bet on it.” He said as he waved his hands and his wings broke through his back and spread themselves out to each side. White and black lines of color traced the translucency of them and I got transfixed on them for a moment. He looked at me and grinned.
“I have wings.”
“I remember.” I said and he laughed.
“Now, to kill that dick.” He said and he stepped forward and I looked at him.
“Joshua.” I said and he looked at me. “I took the core into myself.”
He lowered his blades and stared into my face.
“You did not.”
“I sure did, I had to… to find you.” I said to him.
“Listen to me… leave, go home and let me settle this.” He said.
I laughed. “Are you kidding me? That dick killed my family and me.”
“Well he didn’t kill you, he created you… or at least he did on accident. He did bite you and you bit him and his bite gave you something he did not count on.”
“What?”
“Immortality and the ability to change time.”
“Then I am going to use what he gave me, to kill him.”
He stopped me as I stepped forward.
“What?”
“You are making me so hot right now.”
I laughed.
“Seriously?” I said.
We both waved our hands and the doors blew off of the hinges and slammed into the wall across from us.
“Oh yes.” Joshua said as he stretched his hand out and looked at it.
“On point.” I said and we headed down the hallway and out into the courtyard. We both stopped as all of the Ravens took flight above us and I looked everywhere, but did not see him.
“Maybe he ran.” I whispered.
“Oh no, we don’t run.” Joshua whispered back to me and I watched him step out and face me.
“Come at me.” He whispered.
“What?”
“Come at me and try to stab me.” He said as he raised his eyebrows.
“I will not.” I said.
“Do it, he will see and think that you are trying to kill me.”
“I am not going to try to stab you.”
Josh flashed to me and flipped me over and I landed on my back, screaming out at him.
“Stop it!” I said.
“Seriously, this will draw him out… fight me.” He looked at me and studied my face.
“Or are you afraid too?” he said as he smiled.
“What?”
“I get it; you know I would win anyway.” He said.
I pushed myself up and stared him down.
“Would not.” I said.
“Then prove me wrong.” He said.
I gritted my teeth and came at him, letting the length of my blade slide down his and I felt a vibration creep up my leg and I oh’d.
“You still have no focus, none at all.”
“I do too!” I yelled at him as I lunged at him and he let me stab him in the side and I stepped back and shook my head.
Josh looked down and touched the cut on his side.
“Oh… look at that.” He said as he stumbled back from me. I stared at him and shook my head as I lowered my blade with his blood on it.
“Why?” I said.
He looked up as Michael appeared and started to lower himself to the ground as his wings moved slowly. I gripped my blades so tightly I couldn’t feel my fingers. Josh fell onto his back and Michael smiled as he started to walk towards me.
“Oh look at the mess.” He said as he quickly stabbed Josh in the shoulder and Josh screamed as Michael pulled it out and flipped the blade, splattering his blood onto the ground. I shook my head and bit into my lip, drawing blood. I tasted it and felt a slight vibration in my chest.
“You have finally done what needed to be done.” Michael said as he grinned at me.
“What would that be Michael?” I said.
He glanced at Joshua on the ground.
“You have stabbed him with hatred and no will to bring him back.”
“Oh that? Well...”
I glanced at Joshua who mouthed the word “lie”; I looked back to Michael and grinned.
***
“Oh I am going to kill these fuckers!” Sam screamed as she lowered to the ground and peeked out of the window.
“Honey…” Kai tried to say and she looked at him and he held his hands up as her look of hatred ripped through him.
“Okay… okay. They have wings? Alright then, we need to get up on the roof.”
“What?” Gracie said.
“The roof... now.” Sam said as she gritted her teeth and ran up the stairs.
Kai and Gracie followed and stopped when they saw her feet slip out the window. Kai ran to it and looked up to see her climbing the side of the house like Spiderman.
“God damn it.” He muttered and out the window he climbed, he peeked back in and looked at Gracie.
“Get under the bed now.” He said and he climbed up to meet Sam who stood on the roof with her blades in her hands watching the sky.
Then she spotted one coming across the sky and she flipped her blade in her hand and let the metal cut her. Kai looked down and grabbed at her hand.
“Don’t,” she muttered and she started to run in a blur across the roof and she jumped higher than Kai had ever seen her do.
Sam sliced her blade wildly in the air and with each weapon of light she created, she slayed one beast… then another and another and Kai watched in wonder as she had fifty killed in little under five minutes. Black wings and beasts fell from the sky like rain. Then a beast swooped up as she spun in the air and cut into her arm and flapped its wings wildly as Sam hit him as hard as she could in the jaw, rocking him back a few yards. Sam grabbed at her blade and flipped it in her hand once again as Kai watched her and felt her pain that the cut had inflicted.
“Oh son of a bit…” Kai screamed as he ran and jumped from the roof and she threw the blade as straight and true as she ever had in her long existence and it met its mark and Kai sliced the air above him just as she was coming down and they both grabbed onto the thin line of light suspended above them. Sam looked back and so did Kai as the blade sliced through the beast’s heart and it screamed and started to fall from the sky.
“Oh baby, you are such a badass.” Kai said and she looked back at him and smiled and then the beast threw his blade and it sliced through Sam and she coughed up blood as she looked down and let go of the light and dropped from Kai as he screamed and dropped after her. He fell on top of her and the blade sliced through him too and she looked at him and shook her head.
“You dumb ass.” She said as she tried to breathe.
Kai gritted his teeth and rolled off of her and pulled the blade out his stomach and smiled with blood on his teeth. Sam grabbed the blade and pushed it through herself and screamed as she thrust it and it popped out of her and fell to the ground.
“Oh fuck.” She said as she hit the ground with her fist and Kai crawled to her and touched her face.
“Why… why would you?” Sam said.
“Where you go, I go.” Kai whispered and she touched his face and he kissed her and then he nodded and rolled off of her as the blood continued to spread on him.
Sam looked over at the beast lying on the ground as it wheezed and she grabbed the blade and crawled to it, lifting herself up as she swayed and brought it down into its heart and it screamed into her ear.
“Oh shut up.” She said as she touched her chest and crawled back to Kai and looked down on him.
“I feel funny.” He said.
She smiled and touched his hair.
“Not for long love, not for long.” And then she laid her head on his chest and they both closed their eyes and drifted towards peace.
***
I looked at Josh on the ground and then back to Michael.
“Yeah, I guess I finally killed t
hat thing.” I said.
Michael smiled back at me. He pulled his blades and lowered his head.
“You are such a fantastic creature, I hate to do this.” He said as he lunged at me and I flipped over him and brought my blades close to his face as he leaned to far back to look natural. I landed easily and flipped the blade in my hand and stared at it as the color started to fill it with such poisonous hate…the hate I needed to release into it all along.
“Michael.” I whispered as he looked back at me.
“I am just as strong as you.” I said to him.
“It would appear so.” Michael said as he came at me again and I pivoted on my foot and came around and smacked him in the side of his big head. He stumbled and immediately felt his head and saw blood on his fingers.
“Come on.” I said as he yelled out at me and he sliced his blade at my face and I lowered down and it barely cut the tips of my hair off and fell to the ground around me. I smiled and stood up.
“I needed to trim the dead ends anyway… thank you.”
He gritted his teeth and the playing was over, every blurred movement he made I countered and as his blade struck mine for the tenth time I swept his legs with mine and he fell onto his back… rolling out of the way just as I slammed my blades into the stone where he had just been.
I jerked them out and he ran and then spread his wings and I screamed “Oh hell no” as I place my blades onto my back and jumped as high as I could and I grabbed him and crawled onto his back as he screamed and started to jerk everywhere as he flew. I tried to hang on, but it was like riding a wild horse and I almost slipped and then regained control as I grabbed at his shirt.
I crawled up and wrapped my arms and legs around him and he sliced his blade in the air wildly as he tried to stab me, he finally flipped it in his hand and stabbed back towards me and I slid to the side and grabbed the blade, hissing as he jerked on it and cut through the flesh on my hand.
I then bit into his shoulder and he cried out as I tore a chunk of his flesh out and spit it, letting it fall to the ground beside Josh. Josh looked at it and back up to us and shook his head and I rolled my eyes at him.
Josh made a stabbing motion and I raised my eyebrows at him and then Michael started to climb, higher than I had ever been before. I watched as he picked up speed and I closed my eyes and held onto him as he reached the edge of space and I felt the pressure in my head and my chest as did he. Then he broke through the atmosphere and we held there for one moment and I looked down at the earth and saw the beautiful colors all swirling on it, full of life and it made my heart shudder in my chest at the sheer beauty of it and filled me with love and hope for everything and everyone and then the earth’s gravity caught us and we started to return, so fast you could not see us at all, except for a blur and fire and light started to trail behind us.
I gritted my teeth and stabbed Michael in the back and he screamed and continued to fall. I saw the earth coming fast and I held my hand out in front of him and concentrated harder than I ever have and a bright spear of bright blue came racing from my hand, the power of the core itself bearing down on the earth and Josh looked up and saw us and yelled out as he rolled out of the way and we hit the earth, harder that a meteor and earth blew up behind us as we crashed through, we tore throw layer after layer of rock and dirt and finally passed through heat and steam and we broke through and I looked down at the core and knew we would be consumed by it.
I crawled onto his stomach and stood up as he fell with his eyes closed, I raised my blades and drove them both through him and he screamed out, I slammed my hands against his chest and my Mother and Father and Kais faces flashed in my mind and let them go and with it the power of the core itself and the bright blue light consumed him as he gasped for air and it threw me upward, away from the large ring of bright blue flame I had released into him and Michael fell towards the fire and brimstone screaming and full of the pain I had carried with me since the beginning of time.
I looked up and suddenly he appeared, my Joshua, dirty and bloodied, gritting his teeth, wings spread out farther and more beautiful than anything I had ever seen before, the tips of his wings started to catch fire and blacken from the heat of the earth’s core and yet he continued to fall towards me, gritting his teeth. I reached up to him, as far as I could, hoping...full of hope, the hope I had for him, for us and for the future...he grabbed my wrist, jerking me to him muttering “Stay with me” and I closed my eyes and felt the heat start to consume me.
***
I woke up in my bed and opened my eyes slowly as I looked around me. It was my room, still the same and just as I had left it. I rubbed my head and then touched my chest and felt a slight burning in it. I lifted my shirt and saw the bindings still holding this wound I had received together, although I had no idea if it would ever heal and then it hit me and I stood up quickly and ran down the stairs and looked around.
No one was here, no one at all and my heart beat hard in my chest as I busted through the door and out onto my porch and looked down the driveway to see Gracie walking towards me. I screamed and ran to her and hugged her so hard I almost knocked her down. I then kissed her a thousand times on her cheeks and forehead and she narrowed her eyes and kissed me back.
“Oh god… oh god.” I whispered as I held her close to me and then I pulled her back from me and stared at her.
“Where is everyone?” I asked her.
“Waiting on you, Rue.”
“Hey… it is Mom, not Rue.” I said and she laughed at me.
“Where are we going?” I asked her as she pulled me along with her and before I knew it we were at the library steps and I looked up at the building and it looked beautiful, like it always should have been. Gracie ran to the doors and opened them up, looking back at me and smiling.
“Mom.” She said and I followed her in and looked out across the large room and breathed in the sweet smell of books, which I had always loved.
Elijah stepped up with Brooke and I smiled at both of them and looked at the two of them with curiosity.
“Where is everyone else?” I asked them and they started to walk.
“Probably irritated, I am sure dinner is ready.” Brooke said and Elijah glanced at her and grinned.
“Yeah, Theo is bitchy about people being late.”
“We are eating in the library?” I said as Brooke opened the door up to my wing of the library and I stared at a huge tree, white and majestic, reaching towards the sky. I looked up and held my chest as memories came back to me.
“Mom… it is fine.” Gracie said and she led me to the stairs on the tree and started to walk up them, holding her hand out to me.
“Trust me.” She said and I followed her, not feeling anything odd… no vibration or earth moving. I stopped at the top and looked towards the door and it was no longer made of wood, it was a mirror and it started to roll like water and I watched as Brooke went in, followed by Elijah and Gracie looked at me and smiled.
“Mom… come on, we are late.” She said and I held her hand and we stepped through, right to the porch of my house as a child.
I shook my head.
“This is memory.” I said.
“Of course it is.” Gracie said as she smiled and opened the door up to my old house and I followed her. I stepped in and Theo was cooking and chatting away and Kai was sitting in the chair with Sam on his lap and I took a breath and they all stood up and one by one they hugged me as tightly as they could. I smiled and wiped a tear from my eye. Brooke, Johnathan and Elijah stepped up to me and I hugged Johnathan with all the strength I could muster up in me. He stepped back and looked at my face and I grinned as tears streamed down my cheeks.
“Thank you.” I whispered and he grinned. I cleared my throat.
“Ummmm, why are we here?” I asked them all.
Sam smiled and looked at Kai and he looked at me.
“We have to be here.” He said to me.
“What?” I said.
�
�Yeah… we kinda died.” Kai said and I shook my head.
“No… no.” I said to him as I touched his face.
“Oh but we did… but no worries, this is just fantastic. This house and the fresh air and the lack of crazy… I love it.” Theo said as he waved his spoon and I started to cry harder.
“Oh my.” Theo said as he came to me and touched my face and then hugged me. He felt warm and not at all what I would think death would be.
“Did I… oh god, did I write this?” I said and everyone laughed.
“Oh no… no. You would have certainly written something along the lines of exploding heads and dragons, this is what memory should be and we belong here.”
“Won’t you fade?”
Sam smiled and looked at me.
“No, not as long as you remember us and I would guess between you three we will be here forever.”
I smiled and wiped the tears from my eyes and started to laugh and then I stopped and looked around.
“Where is Josh?” I said as the fear gripped me that he had in fact died too.
Everyone looked at each other and pointed to the library. I sucked in my breath and ran to the door. I opened it to find him with his feet up on the desk reading one of my books and I looked at him and sighed.
He looked up and grinned at me and laid the book down on the desk and walked to me. I lunged at him and hugged him so hard I could have just sank into him, I really could have.
“So you like my crooked canine teeth?” he said as he grinned.
I nodded.
“And my mouth.” He added.
“Uh huh.” I said as I watched his face.
“And I drive you absolutely crazy, but you don’t want me to know.” He added.
“Shut up.” I said as I lunged at him and hugged him hard, burying my face in his chest.
“Wait… why are my books here? Shouldn’t they be gone?” I asked him. He smiled as he looked down at me.