“Don’t take it into you!” She could hear his shouting, pleading with her. Unfortunately, it was too late. The anger and strength he drew from the darkness now coursed through her veins, intoxicating her with his power.
“Maya, don’t. Once you allow the darkness in you will never be rid of it.”
The words brought with them the images of the young girl and her fiancé, the ones she had sacrificed in order to save herself. Leaning over, she whispered softly into his ear, “I already have.”
“No!” Jarod screamed, his voice full of desperation. Tightening his grasp on her hands, he flipped her over his head and onto the dirt floor of the cell. She struggled to escape his grasp, but he straddled her hips, pinning her to the floor. “I will not allow you to turn into what I have become,” he yelled dodging her swinging arms. “I would kill you before I let the darkness have you.”
Maya ceased her struggling as his fist slammed into the ground beside her head. Their gazes locked in a moment of intense, unbridled anger.
“And now you care?” she demanded, thrusting one of her hands into the wound in his chest. Jarod grimaced, but swiftly grabbed her hands, pinning them to the floor next to her head, and rendering her defenseless. His rage coursed through her body, blocking out her pain and overwhelming her with the desire to kill.
“Release me!” she screamed, fighting and thrashing beneath him.
Leaning over her, Jarod’s weight pressed down against her. “Let it go,” he whispered softly in her ear. “Come back to me.”
“After all this time, now you look for me!” she screamed, throwing every bit of her strength against him. But it was no use; despite all his power within her, she was still no match for his strength. “I have spent months trying to reach you, to connect with you, while you continued to shut me out and push me away. The only time I could ever catch a moment of your attention was when I was suffering, when the darkness was hovering over me, and even then it was fleeting.” Tears streamed down her cheek, the fury fading from within her. “So why shouldn’t I cross over? I have already taken the first step, how much harder can it be to embrace it, to plunge myself into it with you? If I do, maybe then we can finally connect and we both won’t have to be alone anymore.”
His chest heaved with a massive sigh, his eyes fading back to black. Once she had settled down, he slowly released her, and helped her back to her feet. His face softened as he wiped the tears from her eyes, “Maya, I have done everything in my power to try and protect you. Yet it seems in my attempts to keep you isolated from my own darkness, all I have succeeded in doing was pushing you into your own.” Grabbing her, he pulled her in close to him and held her. “I don’t know what happened the other night and I won’t force you to tell me. But, Maya, I can’t let you be consumed by the darkness, I won’t.” His grip on her tightened and her entire body melted into his arms, relishing in the comfort she had been desperately seeking for so long.
“Then please quit pushing me away.” She whispered, pressing her face into his chest, “I can handle a lot of things Jarod, I swear, but being alone isn’t one of them.”
They remained that way for what seemed like forever, entwined in each other’s arms, his hand brushing through the length of her hair. It wasn’t until a sound in the corner caught their attention, that they both remembered where they were. Maya looked around Jarod at the mass of Full-bloods huddled together outside the cell, watching them silently. “What do we do now?”
“We get out of here.” His brow furrowed as he pulled the hand resting on her back around, noting the blood. “Damn it, Maya …”
“I’ll be okay, just get us out of here.” She smiled nervously up at him. “And soon. I don’t like being in closed in spaces.”
“That makes two of us,” he replied, scanning the room around them. “There. See that?” He pointed to a discolored spot on the ceiling. “Water has been dripping through, weakening that area. And I am willing to bet they didn’t run these damn bars through the roof.”
“But its solid stone,” Maya countered, studying the jagged rocks above them. “How are you going to break through?”
“Using that.”
Leaving her side he headed across the room toward the cell door lying about a foot away from the frightened group. The Full-bloods scattered in various directions as he approached, but Jarod paid them no mind. Lifting the door, he focused on the odd spot in the ceiling, and threw his full weight behind it. The force of the impact sent a cascade of rocks and mortar falling down upon him, but Jarod continued repeating the movement over and over again, and before long a sliver of light shone through the small hole he had created. It took only a couple more hits and suddenly Maya was looking up into a hole in the ceiling large enough to fit a person through.
Jarod dropped the door and donned a self-satisfied smirk. Maya couldn’t help but grin back. He bowed his head slightly and waved a hand in front of him. “Ladies first.”
“No. Them first,” Maya insisted, glancing at the frightened faces around them.
Jarod frowned. “Maya, I am not here to save—”
“But you can,” she interrupted, taking his hand into her own. “I can’t leave them in here to die. Please believe me when I say that I can’t add that to my conscious, not after what I have already done.”
Seeing she would not be easily swayed from her plight and not wanting to remain in the confines of the cell any longer, Jarod surrendered, “We get them out, but after that they are on their own.”
Maya’s face lit up knowing at the very least these people would not be forced to wither away inside this locked room. “Thank you.”
Staring up at the roof, then at the frail bodies of the Full-bloods, Jarod groaned, “I don’t suppose any of you can jump?” Confused looks were exchanged amongst the group, and Jarod groaned again, “I didn’t think so.”
Scanning the room, he spotted some old crates stacked off to the side of the metal door. Picking them up two at a time, he began to stack them underneath the hole until they formed a sort of stairs leading to the roof. Once he was finished he stepped back and turned to the awestruck group. “Well go on, get out,” he barked.
One by one they scurried up the crates and through the hole, until only a young lady and an older man remained. Together they stood side by side next to the body of the man the chief had injured.
“Well, what are you waiting for?” Jarod snapped.
“My name is Henrik and this is Gretta,” the older man paused and gestured to the man on the floor, “and this is my son, Loras, her father.”
Maya looked down on the mangled face of Loras and struggled not to weep. There was nothing they could do to help him. They had still been banned from using the red formula when they left the Tower, so they didn’t have any with them. But even if they had, Jarod would never have risked the repercussions that would have resulted from allowing a civilian its use.
“There is nothing I can do for him,” Jarod responded callously, “his body is too weak. He will not heal.”
“I may be uneducated, simple if you must, but I know my son’s fate.” Tears fell down the father’s cheek. “I only ask we do not leave him here in this perpetual state of suffering, to starve and waste away alone. Please, I do not wish to offend, but I know who you are and what you do. If somehow you can find it within yourself …”
Henrik paused, unable to finish, his body racked with grief. Laying a gentle hand on his shoulder, Gretta picked up where he left off, “All we ask is for mercy, that he not be forced to suffer more than he already has.”
A looming silence engulfed the room as Jarod stoically studied the faces of the pleading pair. “Say your peace.”
Nothing more needed to be said. Together they knelt next to the body of Loras and offered up a prayer to the stars that he find peace in the life beyond this one. Maya’s heart ached, feeling their sadness over their fallen loved one. Jarod, ever stoic, watched only in silence. When they had finished, together they walke
d from the cell, sparing only a brief glance at Jarod, before climbing the crates to the roof above.
“Go with them Maya, you don’t need to stay here for this.”
Standing beside him, she refused, “No, I will stay. I am a part of this now and everything that comes with it.”
She had expected him to argue, but he didn’t, he simply nodded. Slowly he walked into the cell and knelt beside the body. He paused, heaved a deep breath, then in one quick motion snapped Loras’ neck and ended the life of a man that had once been both a father and a son. Jarod then bowed his head in silence, offering a man he had never known one last moment of respect. Once he was finished, he slowly rose to his feet, lifted the lifeless form, and joined Maya outside the cell.
Together they climbed to the roof above, then jumped down to the street below. The Full-bloods had already scattered back to their homes or wherever it was they had decided to go. Only Henrik and Gretta remained, and upon seeing Jarod, they bowed their heads. “Thank you, my lord.”
“Don’t, I have done nothing to deserve your thanks.” Jarod placed Loras on the ground at their feet.
“Oh but you have.” wiping the tears from her eyes, Gretta lifted her head in order to face him. “Most of us here do not have the honor of a quick death, you have done him a great service, and for that I am grateful.”
“What will you do now?” Maya asked quietly.
“We will lay him to rest and then we will start over.” She smiled weakly at her grandfather as he lovingly wrapped an arm over her shoulder. “I want to leave here. My father had dreamed of trying to find the Oasis everyone keeps talking about. For months we have hoarded our rations, waiting for the right time to try. And with the town currently without a chief, I can’t think of a better opportunity.” She paused, gazing down at her father. “So I will follow his dream and pray to the stars that Oasis truly exists.”
“It does.” The words were spoken so softly that Maya questioned whether she actually had heard them.
Jarod’s gaze fixed on Gretta and her grandfather. “Travel to the borderlands, to the dark forest on its edge. You will see a narrow trail leading inside, follow it. It will be frightening, but don’t give up and keep pushing forward. Once you are far enough inside, they will find you.”
Excitement and hope glowed in Gretta’s eyes. “Truly? It is really there?”
Jarod nodded. “The travel is hard and the road is dangerous. But if you make it, you will find the peace you are searching for.”
“Did you hear, Grandfather? It is there, the place Dad dreamed about, it really exists!”
Henrik smiled at her gently. “I did. Let us go and tend to your father. It seems we have a long journey to prepare for.” Reaching down, he picked up his son, and with a slight nod of his head the two of them headed into the setting sun.
“Do you think they will make it?” Maya asked, watching as they disappeared into the distance.
“Together they have a chance,” he spoke the words as he cradled her face with his hand, “just as we do.”
Maya smiled, but before she could respond, a movement in the distance caught her attention. Jarod, seeing it as well, disappeared from her side and returned moments later with a trembling patrol in his grasp. Maya couldn’t help but laugh.
“Well, well, look who it is.” Jarod grinned holding on to the shaking young officer. “Forget your sword this time?”
“P-p-please, s-sir,” Micah stammered, “I really d-didn’t know it was you before. I have l-lived my entire life in this town and I-I’m not as smart as some of the others.”
“Where is your chief?” Jarod snapped, aggravated by his cowardice.
“I don’t know.”
“Wrong answer,” Jarod growled, grasping Micah’s throat in his massive hand, “try again.”
Micah struggled to catch a breath, his face contorting in pain. “It’s no lie, sir,” he gasped. “I just came back from the fields to find the station empty and no one around. The only patrols I can find are the ones like me who were guarding the fields. All the high ranking officers seem to be missing.”
“Cowards,” Jarod grunted, letting Micah fall to the ground. He struggled to his feet and was fixing to take off when Jarod grabbed his shirt. “Who is the next in line with all the others gone?”
“M-m-me.”
Jarod smiled and slapped him on the back. “Well congratulations … Chief.”
The officer’s eyes grew as big around as saucers. “I can’t be chief, I don’t know anything about it. I … I just guard the fields.”
“Oh don’t worry, it’s simple really. Just keep doing what you’ve been doing,” Jarod said, narrowing his eyes, “with a few adjustments.”
“Adjustments, sir?”
“Adjustments. For starters, people have a tendency to work better when they aren’t starving. Return rations to a bottle a day, give them a day off a week to rest, and keep the young out of the fields; they just get in the way.” Jarod glowered at Micah. “Healthy workers meet quotas much better than the starved and depraved. Do I make myself clear?”
The officer, still in shock, nodded.
“Good, I will return here in a month to check on you. I expect things to be much improved over what they currently are, or I will deal with you myself.”
“Y-yes, sir.”
Jarod released the officer and watched as he disappeared in the distance. Maya waited until he was out of sight then burst into laughter. “Do you really think he is capable of running an entire town?”
Jarod smiled down at her. “He can’t be worse than his predecessor. Besides, he can be molded and shaped to fit our needs. And who knows, he may prove to be useful someday.”
“Speaking of his predecessor,” Maya began, arching her eyebrow, “do you still have the piece of paper?”
Reaching inside his jacket, Jarod pulled out the troublesome scrap and handed it to her. It took her only a moment for Maya to gather the info she sought. “He’s heading east, probably in a car as fast as he’s moving away.” With a huge grin plastered on her face, she handed the paper back to him. “He’s going to Vicaris.”
Chapter 11
The sun was just beginning to set in the distance when Citera awakened. The sounds of crickets chirping filled the tall grass and served as a warning that darkness would soon be descending. Furrowing her brow, Citera sat up and stretched the stiffness from her joints as a chill descended upon her. “K?” she called into the darkening emptiness that surrounded her. But much to her dismay, no reply came. Once again another chill swept down her spine and covered her body in goose pimples. Someone was watching her. Panicked, she spun her head around several times, but couldn’t locate the source of her anxiety. Where could they have gone?
“K! Dirik!” she yelled, crawling to her feet.
Pins and needles radiated up and down her left leg, which had grown numb from lying on the rocky stream bank for so long. Her hip, however, was a different story. She grimaced as she attempted to rest her full weight upon it, but as soon as she did a sharp pain shot from the joint all the way up her back. What the…? Trying to rub some of the pain from her aching hip, she locked her gaze on what now seemed like an unfathomable distance between her and the tree line. Knowing she had no other choice, Citera whimpered loudly as she limped slowly toward the edge of the forest in the direction she had last seen Dirik. Unfortunately, with each step she took the pain only seemed to worsen. Doing her best to ignore it and fight back the tears that threatened, Citera trudged forward.
“Please you two, answer me!” she called into the darkness of the trees. And by the time she reached the other side of the field, her fear had morphed into anger as she entertained the idea that the two of them had actually gone home and left her all alone in the woods. “Come on, you guys, this isn’t funny!”
A flock of frightened birds scattering into the darkening sky above was the only response that came. Oh, he is so going to pay for this when I find him, Citera thought as she
continued to massage her aching leg. It seemed no matter how much she rubbed, the numbness and pain just wouldn’t go away. Turning back to look over her shoulder across the clearing, she realized just how much farther the sun had worked its way below the horizon. Peering back into the depths of the forest, Citera shouted angrily, “Fine, be that way, I’m leaving!”
She limped her way back to the path and began the journey back home, a million thoughts churning in her mind. What could have made Dirik and K both leave her behind? K she possibly could understand, her impulsive behavior made her prone to disappearances, Jaron had said so many times himself. But Dirik she would have never imagined him leaving her alone like this. Though impulsive in his own right, he had always been by her side when she needed him the most. And she found herself upset, hurt even, by the fact that he would have wandered back to camp and left her.
Maybe he awoke from that sleep K had put him in confused and disoriented. She thought, desperately wanting to rationalize her best friend’s abandonment.
As she continued to advance farther into the forest, it was becoming increasingly more difficult to see, and she cursed herself for not having the foresight to bring a lantern. Then again, she had not planned on being out here this long; only an hour or two to go swimming then back home before dad got there. Dad, she groaned, hitting herself in the forehead with her palm. By the stars, he was going to kill her. This made twice in less than a few weeks that she had disappeared and left him waiting for her back at the tent. Picking up the pace the best she could with her bad leg still sending radiating pain up her back, Citera wound her way down the forest path as quickly as she could.
A low growl emanating from the trees a few feet away from her stopped her in her tracks as she scanned the darkness for the source. But it was an impossible task. Anything hiding in those woods could and would remain unseen until it chose to reveal itself. While she stood contemplating what could possibly be out there, another sound—this one closer than the last—caught her attention, and was swiftly followed up by the sound of a twig snapping in the distance. “K?” she pleaded, praying a familiar voice would call back. But once again, nothing but silence answered her.
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