I slid down the wall to sit next to him. He put his arm around me and held me close like he used to when I was younger. “You’re freezing,” he said to me.
“So, are you,” I replied back. I knew the situation was bad and that we were both going to die but I was happy to be with my dad and have no anger in me.
“I’ve missed you dad,” I said. This wasn’t the reunion that I had wanted but at east I was going to get the chance to have on before I died.
He squeezed me closer to his body, “I’ve missed you too Ky-Bear.”
“I love you, daddy.” I said. I hadn’t called him daddy in so long that I felt a change in his posture; it was like he went stiff with shock.
“I love you to kiddo.”
I knew there was no hope. I knew we were going to die. There was nothing we could do. He didn’t even believe me about Selena being a vampire. But at least I had come to peace with my dad. I could die not hating him. But I didn’t want to die. There was so much life left in me. I always thought that I’d die an old woman curled up in my bed; not like this. I wanted to see Jonathon again at least to say goodbye. And Diana. Joseph. Danny. Even Mason. Patrick and Amelia who welcomed me into their home. I’d never see them again never get a chance to say goodbye and how much I loved and appreciated them. And then there was Jonathon. The love of my life. Gone for reasons unknown. Silent tears began to run down my face. I tried discretely to wipe them away without my dad noticing. Oh, Jonathon! I missed him so much. What if he had been there with me tonight? Would Selena have been able to take me with him there?
Jonathon, Jonathon, Jonathon. My mind flooded with his name, his face, his voice, even his smell. God, I loved him. I loved him with all my being. I wanted him here. My knight in shining armor. Jonathon, Jonathon, Jonathon.
I felt a tugging on my brain. Like someone trying to intrude on my mind. I pushed at it with all the power in my body and felt it disappear. What was that? It hadn’t caused me any mental or physical pain but my head still felt weird.
I stood up deciding that maybe I could find another way of escape. I crawled on my hands and knees rubbing the floor. Once again I found no way out through the floors. The windows were sealed shut with age and there was nothing to break them with even if I could manage to climb out of them. I kicked the door hoping that the old wood would break but it held strong. I rubbed the walls hoping to find a trap door. But all the walls were real. This was not good. I was quickly losing hope.
“There’s no way out,” My dad spoke from his spot on the floor. “I have checked every inch of this place,” He elaborated.
I knew he was right and I had figured out as much in my initial search but I still felt like I had to search. I had to do something. It was only a matter of time before she came back to finish us off. I let out a frustrated sigh. How could this happen to me? I was hungry and thirsty; my stomach growled loudly as if it agreed with my thoughts.
I sat across from dad and really studied his appearance. He had a large amount of stubble and there were shadows under his eyes. There were cuts and bruises all along his bare arms. I could make out caked in blood in his hair.
“How long have you been here?” I asked him.
“I’m not sure. Long enough,” He sighed.
I watched uneasily as the sun rose. How long would it be before she came back? My life was slowly ticking away from me. Every second counted. Why did it have to end like this? This was so wrong! This was not the way that my life was supposed to end. I should have had a happy ending with Jonathon by my side. Not a grave stone marking my untimely death.
In my frustration I ran at the door wanting to break it. Unfortunately I think I dislocated my shoulder. I screamed out in pain grabbing my right shoulder.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” my dad said coming over and tenderly feeling the shoulder. “You’ve dislocated your shoulder,” He said confirming my fears.
I wanted out so desperately. There just had to be a way out. There had to be.
The hours of that day passed slowly. As did the next three days. Selena didn’t return nor did anyone else. Maybe she was hoping we’d writher away. But that just wasn’t her style, not at all. Every day I got hungrier and thirstier. I was sure my dad was worse off than me but he didn’t complain. Out of some simple twist of fate it rained on the second day of my confinement and it leaked through the roof pooling into a dip in the uneven floor. As dirty as the floor was neither one us minded drinking the dirty water.
I tried to keep my mind off of things that would be painful. Namely mine and my father’s death and Jonathon. I was not about to open that can of worms. My shoulder hurt like hell. I was scared to have my dad move it back into my place. But I also thought; what’s the point I’ll be dead soon but I didn’t tell him that.
I wished someone would find us so desperately that I kept imagining that I was seeing it; like someone in a desert searching for water and seeing a mirage.
On the fifth night she came.
A noise startled me from my restless sleep. A figure was closing the ancient door. For a moment my heart leaped. Someone’s come to save us! But then I saw the long black hair and soulless silver eyes that seemed to glow in the dark.
She smirked. Then that smirk turned into a smile. A lethal smile. A smile that showed her elongated vampire teeth. It was menacing.
I felt the hair on my arms and the back of my neck stand on end. I felt like I had been dipped in ice water. I used all my strength not to flinch; she would not see me as weak. I would die fighting. In the opposite corner of the room my dad jumped up. Selena stalked toward me. My heart raced.
This is it. I thought.
Her eyes sparkled with pleasure. She was finally going to kill me.
Oh god please! Please save me! Let me get out of here alive! Don’t let her kill me!
Suddenly my dad ran at her.
At first she didn’t see him she was too focused on me. He hit her with all his force and she barely stumbled. She caught him by the arm and then held him to her. He couldn’t escape her strength. My dad looked at me fear shown through his eyes but also the undying love of a parent. He wanted to save me even if it caused his death. Tears sparkled on the surface of his forest green eyes; eyes that matched my own. He knew there was no hope.
She smiled at me again. That evil smile that held no mercy for the one she gazed at.
She put her hand in my dad’s hair as if she were going to stroke it. But instead she pulled.
I watched with sickness in my stomach as she pulled his head off his body with one yank. She let his body fall but held his head in the air for me to look at. I stared at it in horror. I couldn’t look away. My dad’s head was hanging from her hand. She looked like a demonic angel standing there holding my father’s severed head. Blood fell from his neck onto the floor with a sickening drip, drip, drip. I couldn’t believe my own eyes.
I closed them thinking that when I opened them the view would be different. I was wrong. She dropped his head and let it roll across the ground. My eyes followed it as it rolled towards me. His head stopped only inches from me. The eyes stared blankly back at me. The blood from his head and body was inching ever closer to me. The smell made my stomach churn even more. I kept gazing from the body to the severed head and back in horror. This can’t be happening, I thought. As the blood inched closer to me I couldn’t take it anymore. I stood and ran to the other side of the room. I threw up on the floor. My empty stomach heaved. The images of the body and severed head swam before my eyes. I couldn’t make them go away no matter how hard I tried. I sat back on the floor, my knees had gone weak from the sight and would not support me, away from my puke and the body but it still wasn’t far enough away; nowhere was far enough away. I pulled my knees to my chest and wrapped my arms around them. I closed my eyes and rocked myself trying to calm myself. I cursed myself silently for showing weakness.
Selena laughed.
It was horrible. Her laugh was more like a shrieking. It
was an evil laugh. It was the laugh of a super villain when they’ve caught the super hero in a trap. It made me want to claw at her to rip and shred her to pieces.
I kept my eyes closed even though I still couldn’t rid of the gruesome images. Make it stop! I wanted to scream.
I grabbed onto the one thing that could make the images disappear.
I broke the dam I had built and thoughts of Jonathon flooded me. If I was going to die then I was going to die close to him.
Jonathon, Jonathon, Jonathon. Memories of him flooded my mind. When I saw him in my dream. Him sitting on his car. Jonathon driving me to school that first day. Him comforting me in the hospital. Our day touring Rome. Me on the back of the vespa. The garden. The paintings. Everything came flooding vividly back to me.
I opened my eyes and saw Selena stalk towards me. She bent down to my eye level. She held out her bone white hand with long colorless nails. With one finger she stroked my face. My skin felt like ice where she had touched me.
Then she slashed at me. Her nails digging into my skin and setting me on fire. I grabbed my cheek and felt blood. I gritted my teeth. Why was it burning? It wouldn’t stop!
“If you thought your dad died a sickening, painful way, then you’re wrong. He died easily. He didn’t see it coming and didn’t feel a thing. I promise,” She said in her icy voice.
I closed my eyes as she struck at me again.
“Oh, Jonathon I love you.” I thought to myself. I felt a strange pressure in my head again but this time I didn’t fight it I succumbed to it hoping it would take me away from the pain that Selena was inflicting; the physical and emotional pain.
“Kylie,” came Jonathon’s voice in my head.
“Am I hallucinating?”
“No, love. I’m here.”
“Where’s here? I’m in heaven aren’t I!”
“No, love you aren’t in heaven you’re still alive. I’m communicating with you through your mind. You don’t have much time left.”
I didn’t believe Jonathon’s voice was really there. But this was a wonderful thing to hallucinate. “So, I am dying?” I decided to continue talking so I could keep hearing his heavenly his voice.
“You aren’t dead yet. I need you to focus Kylie. Can you do that for me?”
“Yes,” I said. This imaginary conversation in my head was wonderful. I could die happy.
“First, where are you?”
“I don’t know.”
“Can you give me any details?”
“It’s. . . old. And stone. Small like a shack.”
“Are there are other buildings near you?”
“No, just fields.”
“Good girl. This helps. Alright, the second thing I need you to do is open your eyes and stall for time. Can you do that?”
“I’ll try,” I told the imaginary Jonathon. I would do anything for him; hallucination or real.
“I’ll get to you as soon as I can principessa. I love you with all my being.”
“I love you,” I whispered to his fading voice.
I opened my eyes and vowed to keep my promise to my imaginary Jonathon.
I looked up to find Selena standing over me.
“So, you’re going to kill me?” I asked around the burning in my face and arms. She broke into a smile.
“Oh yes, slowly and painfully,” she said with enjoyment. God, she’s sick, I thought.
“Why?” I asked hoping she’d branch off into a lengthy story.
“Because Jonathon killed Andrew! I left for only a little while and when I came back Andrew was dead. Dead! And Jonathon killed him! I trusted Jonathon to keep Andrew safe while I was gone! Jonathon just watched him die. He should have saved him! Why should he get you when I can’t have Andrew? He was my best friend, my only friend, and he didn’t save my soul mate so why should he be allowed to have you? Huh?”
“I’m sure Jonathon didn’t kill Andrew,” I whispered.
“But he did!” she cried. “I left and when I got back Andrew was dead! Jonathon killed him! He should have saved Andrew! Andrew wasn’t supposed to die!”
“How did Andrew die?” I asked.
“His body resisted the change. It’s a rare thing to happen but it did. Jonathon said I did everything right! So, why did Andrew die? Why didn’t Jonathon try and save him? Why did he let Andrew die? Why?” she wailed.
I racked my brain trying to come up with something else to ask her. Anything.
“How did you and Jonathon become friends?” I asked.
She laughed her menacing laugh again. “Oh, that. He found me after I had been attacked and knew what was happening to me so he brought me back to his house and told me about what I had become. I was a mess when he found me. Covered in blood and screaming for death. And now it’s your turn,” she said advancing on me. Her teeth and eyes shining in the moonlight.
My time had run out.
She grabbed my wrist, her nail digging in, and pulled me to my feet. My wrist burned where her nails had dug in drawing more blood. But the burning in my face and wrist was nothing compared to the pain in my shoulder. She had yanked me up by the arm with the dislocated shoulder. I bit down on my bottom lip so that I wouldn’t yell out. I wished desperately that my hallucination had been real and that Jonathon really was coming to save me. She cut both my wrists with her nails. The burning in my body became stronger. She also cut my collarbone, neck and arms. The burning became stronger with each cut of her nails.
I screamed. I just couldn’t hold it in any longer.
The door burst open with a sickening crack. Selena whipped her head around. “No!” she hissed.
My eyes couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Jonathon. My Jonathon. The love of my life. My knight in shining armor here to save me. But my happiness was overshadowed by the burning in my body. I felt like I was slowly being burned alive at the stake. I continued to scream and shake.
Jonathon and Selena stormed at each other. Through my haze I noticed that his arms and hands were glowing with blue and purple flames. He threw his flames at her but she deflected them easily with what looked like a shimmering force field. Jonathon looked like a beautiful golden angel fighting a dark demon. His look was feral but somehow beautiful; an avenging angel. Jonathon somehow managed to look scarier than Selena. Maybe it was because I had never seen him look like this. He was always the picture of calm but now was not the case. I don’t know how long they fought; the pain in my body was too strong to tell how much time was passing. It could have been minutes or hours. It felt like forever.
Finally Jonathon got past her defenses. Selena was on fire. The blue fire was shimmering against some kind of purple sheen. She screamed and tried to put out the fire raging on her body.
Jonathon picked me up, as I continued to scream, and ran. It felt like we were soaring; and we might have been.
The empty fields soon turned into small towns which then turned into the city. The whole time I screamed and shook.
“Where are w-we g-going?” I asked through my stupor.
“Home my love, home,” He said. After that I blacked out.
I awakened to Jonathon placing me on the couch in the family room. The rest of the Pulmer’s were running around trying to get to us with an array of medical supplies.
“D- don’t put me on the-the couch Jonathon! I don’t want to-to ruin it with my-my blood!” I managed to say around my pain.
“Kylie don’t be silly,” He said trying to calm me.
I felt my body begin to shake even more uncontrollably.
“Make it stop Jonathon! Make it stop! Please! It burns! Oh, God it burns! Make it stop!” I yelled through my pain. Why wasn’t he stopping the burning? Jonathon’s eyes glazed over, filling with water. “I’m on fire! Make it stop! Please!” I screamed hysterically.
“Patrick what do I do?” He asked his voice full of pain and worry.
“You have to feed her or she’ll die.”
“I don’t want to. You know how addicting blo
od-letting is.”
“I know Jonathon but it’s the only way to save her. She’ll die in minutes if you don’t.”
“Damn it,” Jonathon yelled crashing his fist into the coffee table which broke in half. Even in my stupor I managed to think to myself, why is it that the coffee table always gets broken?
“J- Jon- Jonathon p-p-please help m-me. It burns!” I said my words shaking with every uncontrollable jerk of my body.
I watched with shaky vision as he pulled a some kind of enchanted looking knife out of his pocket and cut the palm of his hand. Blue blood welled at the cut.
“Don’t worry my love I won’t let anything happen to you.”
He put his wrist to my mouth. “Drink up beautiful,” He said with pain in his eyes. I looked at him questioningly. “It’ll stop the burning, principessa.”
I hesitated but put my mouth on his wrist swallowing the blood. It was warm and delicious. It flooded my body with pleasant warmth. I felt the burning begin to fade. I drank until it stopped.
“Rest now beautiful,” he whispered into my ear. “I love you,” he said as the blackness consumed me.
Chapter Twenty-Five: An Apology
I awoke with a start.
I was lying in my bed pillows propped up all around me. I looked at my arms and was shocked to see that the scratches were gone. I felt my face and the scratches were gone there too. I rotated my shoulder and found that it was in its proper place and not sore at all.
Was it all a dream?
“Good morning beautiful,” sounded a voice from the corner of the room. I jumped. Jonathon was leaning against the wall watching me. He walked over and sat down on the edge of the bed. “How do you feel?” he asked.
“I feel fine. What happened? What made the scratches and burning go away? It was real wasn’t it?”
“My blood made it go away. Our blood has healing properties so when you drank it, it healed you.”
Fallen (Fallen Series Book 1) Page 23