The Nocere: A Haunting Dystopian Tale Book 1

by Heather Carson

  “Brayson, I need you to open the box.”

  He looked up from Vorie’s happy face to mine. “Are we taking him back to the world somehow?”

  “No. He didn’t do it. I need you to let him out.”

  Brayson stood up slowly, blocking Vorie from my line of sight. “I’m not letting him out without a damn good reason.”

  “The reason is he didn’t do it.”

  “Then who did?”

  “Someone so much worse than he could ever be.” My voice was so calm it shocked me. “Please open it now.”

  “Who killed her?” Brayson was getting agitated.

  Vorie stepped to his side. “Fawn said open it, my love. Please do as she asks.”

  Brayson clenched his teeth, but he closed his eyes and the box fell away.

  “Thank you. Now I need you to leave this place. Hurry. I promise you will see Vorie in the realm.”

  Brayson started to argue. Vorie spoke quietly to him as she urged him toward the door.

  “Fergus.” I fell to my knees beside him and lifted his chin. “I’m sorry I put you in the box. When Ruth told me you were there, I lost my mind with rage.”

  “I understand.” Fergus cocked his head to the side and smiled. The movement deepened his dimples. “When I get angry, I do stupid things too. You must understand that I would never do anything to hurt you. I just want you to be safe.”

  “I get it, but if you want me to be truly safe, I need you to get everyone out of here that you care about. Do it quietly but do it fast. Then wait for me at the portal.”

  “What are you trying to do? I can’t let you…”

  I put my hand against his lips. “Please do this for me. It’s important. I’ll explain everything in a little while.” Fergus reluctantly stood up. Brayson already left and I pushed Fergus out the door.

  “Go fast,” I pleaded with him. “I promise I will be right out.”

  After he was gone, I turned to Vorie. “I’m going to get you out of here now.”

  Vorie nodded. “But you won’t be able to visit me in the realm for a long time, maybe not until it’s your natural time to go.”

  “How do you know what I’m going to do?”

  “Perks of being a spirit I guess,” Vorie shrugged. “A lot of it is fuzzy, but I can make out the here and now. I knew he would come, and I knew what he did when you ran away. I figured this would be how it would happen.”

  “If you knew that, why’d you let me lock Fergus in a box?”

  “Oh, that was only for a couple of hours,” Vorie laughed. The melodic sound filled my ears and I focused on pushing it away. I needed to feel the anger consuming me right now.

  “I still don’t trust him,” she continued. “I figured locking him up and showing how strong your family is might do him some good.”

  “Vorie, I have to go now.” I looked at the clock. Fifteen minutes until closing. “Build a beautiful place up here for me, will you? Something like the wild.”

  Vorie smiled and leaned the ghostly outline of her head against mine. “Get to the real wild for us both. Live for me while you can.”

  I wanted to cry and hold her, but more than anything I wanted to keep the rage burning.

  “Before you go,” Vorie called out as I stepped toward the door. “There is someone who wants to tell you something.”

  The man who stood on the stage the first night next to the screaming spirit of Nessa suddenly appeared right beside Vorie. She smiled at him encouragingly.

  His balding head held wisps of hair combed across his forehead. I vividly remembered how the back of his head looked and I was hoping he wouldn’t turn around.

  “Sorry to do this to you kid,” Roger sighed. “But I have no one else I can trust.”

  “She’ll be alright,” Vorie smiled. “She’s the strongest person I know.” I watched them in confusion. Time was running out and I needed to get back to the bar before the customers realized all the employees were gone.

  Roger stepped forward and whispered in my ear. “Marley Macavay did this to me, but don’t ever tell anyone that name.”

  “Why are you telling me then?” I raised an eyebrow at the man.

  “Because someone has to know.” He took a step back, sparing me the sight of his wound. “Thanks for getting us out of here by the way.” Nessa materialized beside Roger and Vorie. She gave me a grateful smile.

  “Go destroy him,” Vorie winked.

  *

  I nonchalantly walked out from behind the bar counter. The evil man who’d stalked me since childhood sat at the table, beckoning me to him with a curling finger. Five or six other customers looked expectantly around the room, waiting for their servers to come back. I inhaled deeply and slowly reached for Lilith’s shoes.

  My first thought was to jam the heel into the monster’s neck, but that wouldn’t be good enough and it wouldn’t free Vorie. Flashes of hot white rage tinted my vision.

  I hated it here. Hated the realm, hated the in between. I hated the decay of humanity sinking further and further into an imaginary depravity. Even more than this, I hated The Nocere because it defined the celebration of taking real life and combined it with the simulated fakeness of the realm. I was tired of it all and pissed off at a race that died off long before I lived, leaving me with nothing but an abandoned world.

  I don’t know how I reached the stage. My legs carried me there without me thinking. I looked down at the wooden platform and remembered Vorie standing there the other night in her beautiful dress that she never got to wear out. I remembered burying her body next to the ruined rocks and Brayson’s last words and Genie’s eyes.

  This is the part where I pretty much snapped.

  I slammed Lilith’s heel into the wooden stage, willing the holographic fire to burn real and bright. Flames erupted as if from an explosion and instantly spread around the room. As the fire engulfed the bar behind me and the tables around me, I slowly walked to the exit. I could hear the customers screaming in terror, but I didn’t turn to look. Part of me wanted to see his fear, but I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of seeing my face.

  As much as I wanted to leave them burning, I knew this wouldn’t be enough. I stepped onto the red carpet of the hallway and threw every ounce of my anger into tearing The Nocere apart.

  As I raced down the hall, the pieces of the structure crumbled around me. The black painted walls bubbled and swayed until they dissolved. I swear I also felt the heat of the flames licking my back as I ran. Each step, I forced myself to imagine the grates and their symbols. I watched them melt into a molten stream and disintegrate into nothing. By the time I jumped out of the exit door, The Nocere ceased to exist.

  “Holy shit Fawn. What did you do?” Fergus stood waiting with eyes as big as saucers.

  “What I had to do.” I felt a surreal calm wash over me as I walked to the portal.

  “No. This is bad. This is so unbelievably bad. Do you know what is going to happen to you?”

  “I’m leaving now Fergus.” I put my hand on his shoulder.

  “They are going to hunt you down. All of them, not just the mafia. I don’t know if I can protect you.”

  “Let them come.” I looked up at his face and smiled. “I never asked you to protect me and I never needed you to. I honestly don’t even know who you are, but you didn’t kill Vorie and I’m sorry for not believing you. It’s time for me to go now.”

  Fergus stared at the empty space where The Nocere once was. “Hurry.” His voice was angry. I jumped into the portal and ran down the darkened street.

  *

  “What’s going on?” Genie cried from the couch as I threw open the front door hard and rushed inside the flat.

  “Genie please,” I begged as I grabbed her hand. “I have to leave. I need to get to the wild right now. Please come with me.”

  “What are you saying? You’re acting crazy. There is still more time on your contract.”

  “That doesn’t matter anymore. I blew up The
Nocere. They’ll tack on fifty more years if they catch me.”

  “I don’t understand.” Genie pulled her hand from mine. “Why would you do something like that?”

  “I had to. It was the only way to free Vorie’s spirit and get rid of her killer. She’s been trapped there since she died and hasn’t been able to cross over.”

  Genie’s face was pale. “Why didn’t you tell me this? I need time. A few days to plan and prepare. I can’t just rush off in the middle of the night.”

  “I don’t have time. We need to go right now. Are you coming with me?”

  Genie shook her head and tears spilled down her cheeks. “How could you do this to me? You’re all I have left and now you’re just going to abandon me.”

  “You can come with me. I’m begging you to come with me.”

  She ran to her room and slammed the door behind her. I could hear her sobbing on the floor.

  I rushed to my own room and pulled out my backpack to start packing. I shoved in the farming books then stuffed in extra clothes and shoes from my closet. I rolled up a light blanket and attached it to the outside of the pack. Then I ran to the kitchen and tossed matches, a knife, and flashlight in there. I loaded the rest of the space with cans and bags of food, shoving water bottles wherever they would fit. I pulled the box of pears from the pantry and left them on the counter.

  “I have to go now Genie,” I said as I tried the knob on her locked door. “I love you.”

  There was a vehicle honking on the street below. My heartbeat raced as I ran to the window. Peering through the blinds, I saw Brayson’s truck with the headlights on illuminating the asphalt and trash on the road.

  “What are you doing here?” I screamed at him through the open driver side window as I bolted down the stairs. There were boxes tied down in the back of the truck.

  “Getting us out,” he said sadly. Blood dripped from his forearm down the side of the truck.

  “No. Brayson,” I cried. “Why did you take your tracker out?”

  “Get in. I’ll explain as we drive.” I jumped into the passenger seat and he turned the truck around.

  “You won’t be able to go see Vorie. I did this, you didn’t. You shouldn’t have taken it out.”

  “I didn’t have a choice. Vorie told me what you were going to do and made me promise to get us both out of here.” He stared straight ahead. “I’ll see her again when it’s time. Plus, I stole the blueprints. They’ll know I was an accomplice. Did you get the bastard?”

  “I did, but I don’t know if that matters in the real world.”

  Brayson clutched the steering wheel harder. “There’s a knife in the glove compartment.”

  I opened the latch and pulled out the folding knife. It had a wooden handle and was engraved with the name of someone who no longer existed. Then I bit my lip as I sliced my skin, digging the tracker out for the second time in my life. I rolled down the window and tossed it onto the dirty street. Brayson pulled the truck onto the freeway and we watched the city fade away in the rearview mirror.

  Epilogue

  ∞

  “Do you know where we are going exactly?”

  Brayson drove the entire night following backroads and avoiding major cities. We were sitting on the side of some rural Nevada road watching the sunrise and eating cold beans from a can.

  All night, I had wanted to sleep but the thought of leaving Genie behind kept me awake.

  And Lane? We were never that close, and I knew he wouldn’t want to come, but I should have at least left a note. Then Alister. I didn’t even tell him good-bye.

  I tried hard to focus and forget the nagging guilt. The back of the truck was full of supplies that Vorie meticulously stored for months. Brayson grabbed as much as he could. There were boxes of food, sleeping bags, cold weather gear salvaged from an REI store they found last fall, cases of water, and some gas cans. He’d even found a shotgun and some ammunition, but neither of us knew how to shoot.

  The road atlas was spread across my lap and I tossed the empty can of beans into the back of the truck.

  “Vorie wanted to go here.” Brayson pointed at a circle of blue surrounded by shades of green in the state of Idaho.

  “Then that is where we are going.” I traced the route on the map with my finger. We were halfway there. “I’ll drive.”

  *

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  The World that Was: A Haunting Dystopian Tale book 2 Releases June 23, 2020

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