Evan: Book Two of the Destine Series

by Laurie D'Ghent

  Counting quickly in her head, Integrity spied eight people gathered in a rough semi-circle, not counting Evan and Jydda who, a quick glance verified, were still locked in verbal combat.

  The person that caught her attention first was the elderly gentleman who appeared to be in his sixties--to her untrained eyes, at least. She had never stumbled across anyone in her time at Westmarch who had chosen to appear so decrepit, and she wondered what his reasoning had been, or the logic of the person who had changed him. Despite looking like a kindly grandfather, he appeared the most avid about whatever was happening in the room beyond the window. Integrity tried to peer inside, but the king was standing at a poor angle. Unenlightened by the short stretch of wall, Integrity turned back to the crowd.

  Three women, three men, and the king remained, all fairly similar in aspect, if not in appearance. A few were less interested than others, chatting with their neighbors, giving only a passing glance to the action, while others were practically salivating. Integrity felt her hands grow cold.

  Another glance at Evan. He met her gaze for a moment, then turned back to Jydda. She may as well have been a poor piece of art hanging on the wall of a cheap motel room for all of the effect she'd had on him.

  Integrity was wondering if she would be shunted to the corner with the other mortals when a gasp, half despair, half pleasure, oozed from the watching group. Integrity instantly turned her gaze to the window, still unable to see anything. The crowd had turned away, talking animatedly among themselves.

  “She lasted longer than most,” a woman at Integrity's left said, one of the few standing near the window. “Although, I'm not sure they'll ever pay attention to where they're stepping. I mean, really!” She shook her head in delighted amazement.

  “Oh, we missed the last one,” the king said, mild disappointment coloring his words a sickly puce. “Come.” Setting his free hand lightly on top of hers once more, the cool temperature of his skin no longer noticeable above the numbness of her own, he led her forward a few paces, the room jerking into view. Integrity's presence became known with the slam of an unexpected wave knocking you off your feet.

  The undead began to swarm around her and the monarch as one, chattering over the top of each other until they became unintelligible. Integrity felt like the neighborhood ice cream truck. My arm for 50 cents, legs for 75, she thought, macabre.

  “Yes, yes, the guest of honor has arrived,” the king laughed, seeming to enjoy the attention of those around him. “Evan brought her just in time.”

  “Oh, let her go next, please?” Another woman nudged nearer the king, eagerness in her voice. Integrity almost expected her to start hopping up and down in anticipation. She's got a lot of money for ice cream, Integrity thought, slightly out of control. She can buy my head. One of Integrity's hands snaked up, clasping onto the base of her neck.

  “Now, now,” the king said, chiding over the excited children, “we ought to let at least one more of the other young ladies go. They have been waiting for so long.” He turned his gaze to the guarded corner, and Integrity could see something bestial lurking in his pupils. She began to draw her hand from the crook of his arm, but he placed his other hand once more on hers, freezing her in place without exerting any pressure whatsoever.

  A few of the spectators grumbled good naturedly, but they drew back and resumed their places before the window, looking toward the corner rather than the void beyond. The mortal girl who was staring blankly into space was propelled forward. She stumbled, still blocking her surroundings, then stopped. Several people in the crowd grumbled, one or two moved forward. Hand still laced through the king's arm, Integrity was taken aback to see Evan reach the girl first, grab her arm, and forcefully propel her through the waiting door to the room beyond. The elderly gentleman slammed the door home, slid a bolt into place, then hurried back to his spot near the window.

  “May I?” Still focused on the doorway, and the girl that she could see still standing near it, had distracted Integrity enough that she jumped when Evan spoke. He extended his arm to her in the exact manner the king had earlier. “Why don't you enjoy the show, your majesty?”

  “I think I shall,” the king said, releasing Integrity smoothly. She slid her opposite hand through Evan's arm, doing her best to not actually touch him. “Don't go too far, now,” the king said. Something unyielding in his voice made Integrity cringe. He glided away.

  “Come on,” Evan grunted, removing his arm so she was forced to drop her hand. He jerked his head toward the wall at the back of the crowd, a short distance from the guards and remaining performers. The music was really beginning to irritate Integrity.

  “Okay, listen up,” Evan said, stepping closer and lowering his voice. He looked over her head, then to either side. Once he was sure they were not being monitored, he rushed forward. “I'm going to create a distraction. When I do, you bolt for the hallway, get outside, and take the car.” He thrust a set of keys at her, and she took them mechanically. “Drive, fast, and don't stop for any reason. You stop, you die.” He glanced around once more.

  “What?” Integrity asked, flummoxed. “What are you going to do? Where am I supposed to go?”

  He whipped back to her, hissed, “I don't know what I'm going to do, and I don't know where you're supposed to go. Just drive until you run out of gas, then get out and run.”

  Integrity looked at the keys in her hand. “This isn't a good plan,” she said. “It's not even a decent idea. How is my running going to help anything? And what in the heck is going on, anyway?” She clamped one hand over an ear, trying to block out the music.

  Evan blew air out of his lips in frustration, pointedly ignoring the keys she extended to him. “Jydda's come up with some cockamamie scheme to prove you're not the Destine.” He ran a hand roughly across one side of his face. “She's so blasted convinced!”

  “What does that matter? Who says I'm the Destine, anyway?”

  “I do, okay?” Evan's gaze pinned her to the wall.

  “What? Why in the world do you think I'm the Destine?”

  “Because I was forced to watch you for all of those years!” Evan shook his head, redirecting the conversation. “That doesn't matter. Jydda has set up an...obstacle course,” he waved behind him, “to prove that you can't do any better than any other untrained teenage girl.”

  “Okay,” Integrity said, trying to stay calm, “so why don't I just go run the stupid course, fail, and we can move on with life?”

  Angry, Evan stepped to one side, revealing a section of window behind him. “Because if you fail, you die.”

  Є

  The music rushing on, thrumming in her blood, Integrity studied the room before her. From the little she could see, she developed almost immediate sensory overload. Lights, smoke, moving mechanical objects, and seemingly random items were crammed into the space. The crowd had somehow pulled the girl from her stupor, though Integrity could only guess how. Now frantic, the girl was looking around her in desperation. She locked eyes with Integrity through the glass.

  “She has to escape the room,” Evan said in Integrity's ear. “There's only one correct path, and, if she strays, she dies. The others that have gone before her are all dead.”

  Integrity felt horror creeping over her. “What?” she gasped. “Where did you get these girls? Who are they?”

  “I didn't get them,” Evan said, correcting her word choice. “And I have no idea who they are. I doubt anyone here does. I imagine they were picked up off the street, just like you were.”

  Unable to take her eyes from the girl before her, Integrity turned her head slightly toward Evan. “Have they been watched, too?”

  Out of her peripheral vision, she saw him shrug. “I would imagine so, though I could be wrong.” He fell silent as the girl moved forward. He shifted to one side to better watch her progress, and Integrity mimicked his movement.

  Moving cautiously, glancing around nervously, the girl moved deeper into the room. She passed a neon sign,
flashing a word that Integrity could only see part of. The light left a strange, eerie halo around the girl that lingered after she had moved on, almost as though she had left her soul behind.

  She stopped near a unicycle that was ridiculously tall, fought to stand it up, struggled to keep it balanced. The seat wavered back and forth over her head, the arc growing wider and wider until she lost control and it slammed to the ground, bouncing a few times before settling from the impact. Discouraged, the girl moved on, brushing against an inflatable clown. She flinched when it rocked on it's base and bumped into her as she walked away.

  Near the back of the room, hard to see in the dim, flashing light, Integrity could just make out three doors. The girl hesitated before them, glancing behind her nervously. Seconds ticked past, the crowd growing increasingly restless. Someone actually pounded on the window, causing Integrity to jump. The girl, however, did not react.

  “You've got to get out of here,” Evan said, breaking into her focus. “No one can survive this gauntlet. It's just Jydda's way of getting rid of you, nothing more.”

  Unable to tear her gaze away from the girl, Integrity ignored Evan's statement. The girl, desperate, moved forward to the center door. She reached a hand out, grasped the doorknob, and turned it. The door swung away from her. The girl hesitated. Nothing happened.

  “Too easy,” Evan hissed beside her.

  A dark shadow swooped from the cavity, wrapped itself around the girl, and jerked her into the abyss. The door slammed behind them, the sound covered by the surreal music. A cheer went up from the crowd, mocking laughter intermixed. Chatter broke out.

  “What happened to her?” Integrity asked, knowing deep inside that she didn't want to know the answer.

  “Someone's feeding right now,” Evan said, shaking his head once. He turned to Integrity again, blocking her view. “Listen to me--”

  He was cut off before he could go any further by a loud voice behind him. Though Integrity missed the first few words, she had no problem hearing, “Let's let the girl go next.” She knew, without having to look, that she was “the girl.” Evan stiffened, closed his eyes for a moment.

  Integrity could sense the crowd creeping nearer, agreement on every tongue. She felt her throat closing off, wondered if she'd pass out before even entering the room. Maybe I'll never wake again.

  As people drew to either side, avid excitement on their faces, Evan turned to face the crowd, placing himself between them and their quarry. “Let the others go,” Evan said. “I'm not finished with this one, yet.”

  Knowing laughter floated over Integrity, pooling above her head to drip down over her scalp. The crowd began to withdraw. Turning her head to the side, Integrity could see one of the trembling girls hauled upright and bodily dragged away, her feet sucked up to her body and hovering above the floor. Nonviolent resistance, Integrity thought.

  Integrity knew when the door opened and closed by the swell of the music, but could see nothing beyond Evan's back. When the door remained closed, Evan turned to face her once more. “Do you see?” he asked. “You must leave.”

  “Evan, what good would it do?” she pleaded, trying not to think about her own turn in the room. “You know they'd only catch me. If you can't hide me, what makes you think I can hide myself?”

  Evan leaned toward her and spoke intensely. “You stay, you die.”

  “I flee, I die,” she rejoined.

  “At least there's a chance you'd get away!”

  “Slim to none. Not exactly hope inspiring.” When Evan looked unconvinced, she added, “I doubt I'd even make it from the building.”

  Evan turned from her, running a hand through his hair. They watched as the girl climbed a rickety ladder, minus several rungs, to a thick platform suspended from the ceiling. She crouched as the slat of wood swayed from the chains from which it hung. Evan turned back to her. “Why can't you ever just do what you're told?” he hissed.

  “Why do you even care?” Integrity spat back, taking a step toward him. Aggressive now, she threw caution to the wind and jabbed, “You sure didn't seem to care when you threw me against the wall last night. Or when you slapped me.”

  “Don't you get it?” he almost yelled. He grabbed her by the shoulders and slammed her back against the wall, not harshly. He fell silent.

  Integrity felt only anger, at first, but when Evan did not remove his hands from her shoulders, when the pressure he placed on them reduced, she felt something stir in her stomach. The music faded away, the crowd, the room, dissolving with it.

  Evan shifted his gaze from one of her eyes to the other, back again. Integrity swallowed, pressed her head against the wall behind her, the cool concrete spreading its temperature through her hair to her scalp. “Don't you get it?” he asked again, his tone completely different. He pushed her lightly against the wall, punctuating his next words. “I'm going to protect you from anything, even me.”

  Integrity opened her mouth, tried to speak, found herself lacking, and closed it once more. She knew what he meant, though he hadn't explained. He'd rather hurt me, drive me away, than kill me, she realized, a weight pressing on her chest. She felt uncomfortably warm, despite the damp coolness around her. Does that mean he doesn't really want me to leave? That he doesn't want me to leave him?

  Evan's gaze drifted downward, away from her eyes, locking on her lips. Integrity's lungs collapsed.

  The music slammed back into place as the crowd positively roared. Evan jerked his hands away as though he'd been burned, rotating 90 degrees to see what the commotion was about. Integrity caught a glimpse of a flaming mass before he moved to block her view once more. She knew, beyond any doubt, that the flames encased the girl. The room swam before her, Evan's form distorting past recognition.

  Despite her blurred vision, she had no problem understanding him when he ordered, “Get out of here.” The stretched, curved streak of black that was all she could now see of him wavered away, toward the crowd.

  Unable to see clearly, Integrity stumbled forward, bumping into more than one person, unable to dissect one voice from the next as they talked over one another. Her vision clearing, the music pounding physically in her skull, she found the door to the gauntlet. Sliding back the bolt, jerking it open, she was surprised by it's weight. Integrity stepped into the cacophony of the room beyond and swung the door shut behind her, grasping desperately at the handle. She felt someone slide the bolt home with a slam.

  She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and tried to block her surroundings.

  Evan broke the window.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  Over the music, pounding painfully inside the arena, Integrity barely heard the whump. She turned to her left, saw the window vibrating. She could see several people teeming together, the edges of broken glass separated from her by the now still window. She turned her attention away—there was enough to distract her—she didn't need to worry about what the vampires were doing. They were the least of her concerns.

  What the heck are you doing? she asked herself as the music crescendoed, forcing her to wince. She looked at her surroundings, trying to determine her next move.

  Directly in front of her there was a narrow walkway leading down the side of the room, hardly enough room to sidestep between the wall and the objects next to it. Wondering whether that was a clue, Integrity stepped to her left to view the rest of the room. A wide pathway opened before her, random items cluttering either side. Trying to block out the excruciatingly loud noise and see past the strobing light, Integrity stopped to consider her next move.

  Okay, back center door is a no-go, she recounted. That girl fiddled with the unicycle. The second girl got up on the platform, she glanced up and to her right, where she could dimly see it, and ended up on fire. Not a good choice, either.

  Most of the items around Integrity appeared to belong in a circus, although there were a few things that made little sense. Spying a book-filled shelf to the left, she sang in her head, One of these things is no
t like the others, one of these things just doesn't belong. The music pounded cheerfully on. Integrity moved cautiously to the bookcase.

  All of the tomes matched, encased in thick leather. Integrity scanned the titles, hoping she would find something that stood out. Moby Dick, Harry Potter, Jane Eyre, Anne of Green Gables, Time to Die, Old Yeller. Stumped, Integrity stared at the books. “Why in the world would they bind all of these books the same? Contemporary, classic, garbage, genius...” She couldn't hear her own voice, and felt no shame in speaking aloud.

  Steeling herself, hesitating longer than she should, she began removing the books one by one. In her mind, she imagined a wall sliding open, allowing her to escape into relative safety, but the books did not trigger anything. Disappointed, disgruntled, she left the books lying in a stack on the floor and moved on. Well, at least it didn't kill me.

  Inflated beach ball, hula hoop, a bag of sawdust, a bale of hay...nothing seemed to make any sense. Feeling increasingly uncomfortable, Integrity wondered what she could be passing, where her salvation might be hidden. Evan had said that the doors at the back of the room were too easy, that the solution wouldn't be so simple, but that didn't help her. So, what's not simple, then? she wanted to yell. What's important and what's just filler?

  Nearing the center of the room, Integrity glanced at the ceiling. A slowly rotating disco ball was surrounded by hundreds of helium filled balloons, all black. The result made her think of reflected darkness, spreading, oozing, into every area. She quickly looked away.

  A neon sign to her left flashed “Danger” over and over, each burst of orange blinding her momentarily. Trying to rub the floating balls of light from behind her eyelids, Integrity paused once more. Is it reverse psychology, or the truth? Is it really dangerous there, or is that my way out?