See How She Awakens

by Michelle Graves

  “Prove yourself.” Damali’s even voice caught our attention. Strange that I could feel both the darkness’s reaction and mine simultaneously.

  “You dare test me, Seer?” The darkness roared, red flames flickered across my arms as the fury rose.

  “If you are, as you say, true darkness, this will just be a demonstration of your power. Surely you wouldn’t deny us this?” I had to give her props, she sure knew her way around psychos.

  “I accept,” the darkness replied, the flames receding.

  “Eric, be a dear and grab one of the remaining Seers.” Damali flicked her hand in the air as if she’d asked him to grab a cup of tea instead of a living being.

  Moments ticked by as we waited. I pulled at the darkness, struggling to find a foothold, to no avail. The darkness pushed back. The endless game of tug of war raged on as everyone else stood unaware.

  Screams echoed through the hall as the Seer was brought to the office. Eric entered, pulling a Seer by the hair behind him. As they entered the room, he tossed her to the ground at my feet. Her eyes looked up into mine.

  “Please have mercy upon me,” she begged. I knew this Seer. She’d been here when I had taken control. She looked at me as if I were her salvation, but I was just the opposite.

  “Mercy?” the darkness laughed, causing her to curl in on herself. “What is this creature doing here? What sort of test do you propose?”

  “You say you are darkness. If that is true, then you have the ability to spread that darkness to those around you.” Damali strode forward, staring into my eyes. “Anoint her in darkness.”

  “NO! Please no!” the Seer begged.

  My hand shook. I couldn’t let this happen. This Seer would just be the first. If I allowed this to happen, everything would change. I’d lose myself forever.

  “You will do this.” Damali’s voice reminded me of the vision. This was the moment. I wouldn’t let this Seer die because of me.

  The fire began to build inside of me as I expanded outward. I would protect her, this poor woman that had been caught in the middle of a battle she never should’ve been a part of. The heavens had abandoned her, the Council had been tainted, and the world spun on, ignorant of what was coming its way. In this moment, I was all that stood between her and the fall of darkness.

  The fire grew, the blue flames expanding outward. The darkness slipped.

  “NO!” the darkness wailed, my head thrown back in agony as I ripped myself apart, letting the fire consume every bit of me. I’d felt this once before. The battle played out in my mind anew. The demon had ripped the man I loved to shreds. He wouldn’t harm another soul. Never again.

  Time stopped around me. Dust motes froze in their airy dance as time coalesced. An audible snap sounded as the darkness lost control.

  “Run!” I shouted to the Seer at my feet. “Run, and don’t look back.” Reflected in her eyes I could see I was no longer even remotely human. I stood, a pillar of flame, my eyes glowed white, no pupil to be seen. Aberto’s markings stood out in the flames a dark pulsing blue. All that remained of my humanity was gone. She froze for a moment before racing to the door.

  Eric moved to stop her, only to be met with resistance. Somehow, he’d been frozen in place. I wondered if those that had come with me were there helping. Confusion was quickly replaced by rage as he fought against the invisible force holding him in place.

  “Abomination. I should’ve known it was a lie,” Damali spat.

  “It was no lie.” My voice sounded strange, a distant whisper. “I am the darkness.” The darkness roiled within me, begging to be let loose, but it would never have control again. It was locked away deep within me, a steel trap with no opening.

  “You are no darkness!” Brutus shouted.

  “Aren’t I?” I tilted my head, looking at him. If this had been a year ago, I would’ve had mercy on them. I would’ve exiled them, sent them away. Now, I knew the truth. The only thing standing between total darkness and the future of humanity was us. The heavens fought their own battles. They’d set us up with impossible rules, rules which kept us from ever truly ridding the world of darkness. An eternal game of chess being played out with generation after generation of Seers and Guardians.

  No more. I was no longer a pawn in their game. This world was mine, and I would protect it.

  “No, you aren’t,” Damali said with a sneer.

  Kennan had died because of this woman’s madness, yet she thought I hadn’t been marked by darkness. Every step I’d taken since the battle, every day I survived, I’d dreamed of finding a way to make someone pay for his death. Yet she doubted me. It was time to become the badass Molly believed I could be. I would use the darkness inside of me, it would do my bidding.

  “Tell me something, Damali? How did you predict this would play out?”

  “You are an unexpected inconvenience. A bump in the road,” Damali spat.

  “Are you saying you didn’t see me coming?” Aberto hadn’t been able to predict what would come of me after he’d breathed his soul into me, it seemed no one else could either.

  “I see all. Just as I see your end looming before you.” Damali moved toward me, stalking me as if I were her prey. Only I wasn’t scared. I wouldn’t bow to her madness. Not this time. She pressed on toward me.

  “Do not take another step, or I will burn the ground you stand upon, Betrayer.” The words poured from me, a menacing cadence. Gone was the voice of reason. The voice of vengeance rose within me, taking hold. I was done with questions, with motives. No more time would be wasted. If she made a move, so would I.

  With a laugh, she stepped another slow step towards me, daring, taunting me in her approach.

  “No more.” The words echoed through the room as I absorbed every ounce of light in the room, only to push it back outward, knocking everyone back.

  This was it, the vision I’d seen play out. At least this portion; I wasn’t sure what would come next.

  Francesca rose to her feet, a feral cry ripping from her lungs as she surged toward me.

  Without thinking, my hand lifted. The blue flames licked against her forehead as I held her in place. Her arms waved violently as she struggled to reach me, her hands becoming claws as they tried to shred through my arm. But I was human no more.

  “You want darkness? So be it.” Primal instincts drove me as I pulled from the visions of the Revenants. If that is what they wanted for this world, let them be the first to pay.

  Francesca screamed as her skin began to char, slowly moving up her arms. She stopped attacking me; instead she clawed at her own skin. Her eyes filled with blood as she fell to her knees, chanting over and over incoherently. As she crumbled to her side, Eric charged.

  Aberto snapped into place, slamming Eric to the ground by the throat. His eyes were aflame with fury as he looked down on the Guardian that had tried to attack me. There was no mercy there. Gone was the Old One that had sought to pay his penance, in his place stood a man hell bent on vengeance. Slowly, Aberto’s free hand disappeared into Eric’s chest. His scream echoed from the walls, only to be abruptly ended as Aberto tore the soul from his body.

  “You will find no refuge in the heavens. Go and greet your darkness,” Aberto spat before fading from the room once more.

  Eric’s soul wavered next to his body, the earth slowly fading from existence beneath his feet. Hundreds of hands appeared, clawing their skeletal fingers into his legs. The sound of a thousand tormented souls screaming from below the only sound to be heard. “No, this can’t be. We did this for the Gods. NOOOOOO!” His final agonized scream echoed off of the walls and the floor closed, permanently erasing his existence..

  Brutus rushed forward. Like with Francesca, I didn’t think. My arm shot out to grab him by his throat. He stood a good foot taller than me, but power pulsed within me. The darkness stirred, reveling in the chaos. Strength seemed to manifest itself where once there had been none.

  The flames that were once my skin began to change
. Red flames began to move in time with blue.

  “The darkness owns you,” Brutus spat in my face.

  I lifted my arm and tossed him across the room. His body made a dull thud as it hit the wall before falling, broken, to the ground.

  When I glanced back down at my body, shock replaced the fury I’d felt seconds before. The flames no longer co-mingled, the red swirling with the blue. In the brief moments I’d spent reveling in my newfound strength, the flames had turned purple. The implications of what that might mean were terrifying. I sought the darkness inside of me, looking for it to be coiled deep within.

  Where are you? I called out in my mind. There was no answer.

  Realization washed over me. Somehow, the darkness had taken hold, only not in the way either of us ever thought it would. Every ounce of the darkness that had pulsed within me had somehow merged with the rest of me.

  What did that make me?

  What would I become?

  Fear began to wash over me, snuffing out the flames completely. My body once more became flesh as the terrifying truth wrenched my heart in an icy grip.

  Shock radiated through my body as I glanced down to where the icy pain originated. It wasn’t fear I’d felt taking hold.

  A sharp piece of metal jutted from my chest where I felt the icy grip moments before. A bloom of red wetness seeped through the white fabric, spreading outward from the metallic point. What was happening to me? I thought I couldn’t die? Disbelief warred with reality as the truth of what I was seeing finally registered in my mind.

  “ABOMINATION!” Damali screeched from behind, shoving the blade further in. The sneaky bitch had stabbed me. She’d moved so fast, I hadn’t even see her.

  The weight of her was ripped from my back as the souls of the ten began to pop into existence throughout the room. My vision blurred as the last of them appeared.

  Weakness filled my limbs, my mind still struggling to catch up as I fell to the ground, no more than a crumpled rag doll.

  I wasn’t supposed to die.

  This wasn’t supposed to be my end.

  “Izzy, NO!” Aberto rushed forward, lifting me into a cradle against his body. “No. No,” he breathed, over and over again, as tears streaked down his cheeks.

  I wanted to comfort him, to tell him it was all right. I’d died saving the world. There was no better end to my story.

  “Do not leave me here alone,” Aberto pleaded.

  Slowly, I lifted my hand to his face as he had mine countless times before. My vision faded as I told him the words I hadn’t fully admitted to myself, “I do love you.”

  Blackness began to consume my vision until all I saw was a vast empty plane. In the distance I heard shouting.

  Damali was dying. It was over. Molly would be safe now.

  Death wasn’t what I expected it to be. I thought there would be lights, or some sort of vast cloud opening. Instead, there was nothing but the inky black. No light.

  I supposed the fact there were no flames was a good sign. I could’ve ended up really becoming the darkness. I was cool with avoiding a tea party with the devil. I wasn’t even sure what one might wear to such an event.

  The never-ending expanse of black prevented me from seeing anything. Not even my hand in front of my eyes. Maybe I didn’t have a hand anymore?

  There was no point in walking, or moving for that matter. I couldn’t see what was ahead or behind me. My luck, wherever I was, I was perched upon a cliff, and the first step I took would be straight over the edge. Lowering myself down to the ground, my thoughts began to wander.

  It was surprising that the darkness wasn’t cold. I’ve always thought of the dark as being a terrifyingly cold place. Strange that not being able to see out, or around me, wasn’t causing me to panic. Usually enclosed spaces did. Weird.

  On and on my thoughts tumbled. Nonsense playing out in my mind, unable to focus on any one thing for more than a breath. Every time I tried to think of how I’d gotten here, my mind would turn to something else.

  Each time I began to feel anything of any real import, my mind would drift away to another thought, erasing the previous notion completely. My mind tumbled endlessly from one place to the next, never resting.

  A blinding light burst into life on the horizon, breaking the relentless thoughts. It grew larger, as though it moved toward me. Illuminating the void as it went. There was truly nothing here. Nothing but the inky black. The light came to rest a hair’s breadth from where I stood.

  Standing in the center of the light was a familiar face. I knew this creature. Uriel looked down upon me, disgust and irritation warring for dominance in his eyes.

  “Come to take me home?” I laughed. Being in the dark for so long must’ve gotten to me. How long had I been here? Has it been days, seconds? Maybe I’ve been here for years. Did it matter?

  “You are a quandary. Heaven will not accept you for the darkness within, and hell rejects you for your light. Thus, I’ve been sent to usher you back to the only place in which you can exist.” Uriel seemed completely put out by the whole thing.

  He acted as though he were the one hearing that he couldn’t die because there was no place for his soul. What did that even mean? And seriously, he was sent to get me? Who sent him?

  “Are you saying I am going to be immortal? I mean, I wasn’t sure if I could die or not before, and this place doesn’t really feel like death, but still. Eternity on earth?” Anxiety welled up within me. I’d known when Aberto had changed me there was a price to pay. I knew I would be harder to kill than most, well supposedly. All Damali had to do was thrust a knife through my heart. That seemed to do the trick just fine.

  “You will exist where there is a place for you.” Uriel replied before thrusting a hand into my soul. His light grew infinitely as it expanded within me.

  The void flew past, twirling around me as I was thrust back into my body.

  I shot up from the slab upon which I was laid. I could feel the cold of the stone sinking into my skin. Looking down, I saw I’d been dressed in a deep green gown. Carved all around the stone were symbols. Some for safe passage, others of love, on and on they went. Swinging my legs over the side of the table I sat, dumbfounded for a moment.

  Where was I?

  Who had put me in this ridiculous dress?

  More importantly, what in the hell had happened at the Council?

  “Hello?” I tried to shout, but my throat felt raw.

  When no one came forth, I tried to lower myself off of the table. The icy floor met my feet as I struggled to stand. I didn’t feel right. What had happened to me?

  “AAAAAAAH!” A shocked cry came from behind me. I turned to find the Seer, Cristie, standing with a very shaky candle in her hands.

  “Can you tell me what in the heck is going on?” I pushed through the pain in my throat. I wanted some answers.

  “Um, um. Hold on,” she mumbled, as she whirled and ran, almost dropping the candle in her haste to exit the room.

  My legs felt like wet noodles as I attempted to stand, so I gave up and sat down on the floor next to the stone upon which I’d been laid. All around the room candles danced, their flames casting eerie shadows as they moved.

  Memories came clicking back into place. The darkness, the fight, then the inky void, every thought ending with Uriel. What had he said?

  “Izzy?” Aberto appeared in front of me, looking at me warily, as if I were a ghost.

  “Why does everyone keep looking at me like that?” Irritation filled my voice.

  “You were gone.” Aberto said, falling to his knees in front of me. Relief washing over him as he looked me over, searching for anything that might be wrong.

  “What do you mean I was gone?” Confusion washed away as a blinding light exploded in my mind. Memories flooded back in. The Council. The purple flames. Damali and the knife all came rushing back. How had I forgotten being stabbed by that psycho?

  My hand lifted to my chest. There was no gaping wound where she’
d stabbed me. Quickly, my other hand shot towards my back, trying to feel for the spot where I’d been impaled, but there was nothing.

  “Holy crap, that psycho killed me. Please tell me you destroyed her?” Aberto looked at me strangely. “What? I’m not dead, you can stop looking at me like that.”

  “Izzy, you have been gone for some time.” Aberto moved toward me. “Where have you been?”

  “Somewhere really, really, really dark.” I felt different. I couldn’t quite explain it. There was something missing—or rather, not missing—that had been before.

  “Where?” Aberto pressed on. Ever in need of answers. It was like he didn’t believe I was really me.

  “I don’t know. Uriel just showed up and told me this is the only place I can exist. He said heaven wouldn’t take me because of the darkness, but hell wouldn’t have me because of my light. Then he shoved his hand into my chest. There was a bright light, and then I woke up on this cold slab.”

  Crap, that was right, I was immortal now. Son of a biscuit-eater. I was stuck here. Forever.

  “You mean to tell me that you are truly eternal?” Aberto asked.

  “Immortal, eternal, it’s all the same,” I mumbled. Starting to be freaked out by the way Aberto was looking at me. “What? Is there something on my face?”

  “Izzy, what do you remember?”

  “I remember it is super creepy in here. Can we maybe go somewhere less dank and cave like. I’m immortal, not a vampire bat.” I stared around the dark cavern wondering just where in the heck they had stashed my body.

  “I must be sure it is truly you. You are not acting yourself.” Aberto moved a little closer. Like that would make a difference. I was beginning to feel like a specimen under a microscope.

  “Who am I acting like?” This was irritating. If someone I cared about came back from the dead, I’d been stoked.

  “You are acting like yourself, only before the loss. Before the darkness came over you.”

  Aberto’s words crashed into me, dragging forth every moment I’d longed to forget. The pain. The loss. Every last second played out in my mind. I gasped for air as the onslaught of pain gripped my heart firmly before letting go forever. Something had changed in the darkness. Realization slowly dawned—Uriel.