"Kill me then!" Harper said. "Kill an innocent person!"
"You're crazy," Chloe said. "Don't kill her! She doesn't know what she's talking about!"
"I know exactly what I'm saying!" Harper screamed. "I'm saying that she's a killer of the innocent!"
The woman's hand filled with blue fire, and she threw it at Harper. Harper braced herself, but nothing hit her. She blinked, and realized that Sarah had appeared directly in front of her. She was just as demonic looking as before. The fire struck her in the chest, but it did nothing to her.
"You kill the innocent?" Sarah asked, tilting her head. "You take the lives of those who have done nothing?"
The woman's voice was silky smooth again when she spoke. "I have no quarrel with you, fury. Go on your way and leave these to me."
"No," Sarah said, and she launched herself forward at the woman. Harper fully expected the woman to vanish, and she wasn't surprised when she did, appearing right next to the passed out bodies of Conner and Alec.
Sarah didn't seem fazed at all. She rose a few feet off the ground, and the air seemed to swirl around her, creating a mini tornado of dirt and rocks from the road. She flew straight at the masked woman, and this time, the woman didn't have enough time to vanish. Sarah connected and they began to fight.
It was like nothing that Harper had ever seen before. They both fought as though they were feral beasts, trying to rip each other apart.
"You planned this?" Chloe whispered to Harper.
"Not until just now," Harper admitted. "I wasn't even sure it would work."
"Nice one," Brittney said. "Look, she can't vanish on Sarah. I wonder why."
"Sarah's too powerful," Harper said. "It was something I noticed last time we saw her. She was stronger than she was at Lewis's house. I knew that she'd be stronger tonight, too. Look, the masked woman doesn't stand a chance!"
She was right; Sarah was winning. She landed punch after punch, and her talons ripped through her dress, exposing white, almost translucent skin. Meanwhile, the masked woman couldn't seem to land a single blow. Several times, she started to form more blue fire, but before she could fully use it, Sarah had knocked her hands down, or distracted her.
"This was smart," Chloe said. "Now, if only she could see Conner and Alec lying there... it might bring her back to herself."
"Tell her," Harper said.
Chloe hesitated.
"You're her best friend. If you can't get through to her, then none of us can," Harper said.
Chloe nodded and stepped forward. "Sarah!" she shouted, "Look! Look what she did to Conner and Alec!"
Sarah turned her head briefly, saw the bodies, and began to fight with a renewed vigor.
"She killed them!" Chloe screamed. "She murdered them!"
"No!" the exclamation seemed to almost rip through Sarah's throat; it was a guttural, roaring cry. "No! You can't have! No! No! No!"
And with a cry of fury, she knocked the woman's mask away. Everyone gasped; beneath the mask were lacerations, and bruises, and bleeding sores. She didn't look demonic at all. In fact, Harper thought she looked a lot like Monica did when they'd found her laying in bed.
Sarah came to a stop, as she looked at her face.
"Do you think I'm beautiful?" the woman said. She sounded like she might cry. "Do you think I'm beautiful?"
Sarah whispered, "What happened to you? Who did this?"
"I was at a party," the woman said slowly. "I was killed there."
"By who?"
"My husband," she said. "He thought I was flirting with someone. He killed me for it. But first, he told me that I wasn't pretty enough, that I'd never been beautiful."
"It's not true," Sarah said. "You are beautiful."
"I'm not," she screamed. "I'm not beautiful!"
Sarah reached out to her, and Harper saw an amazing thing; her talons were receding, turning back into nails. Her hair was slowly shortening, and her canines had returned to human teeth. Instead of punching her, she drew her into an embrace. "You are beautiful," she said. "And you didn't deserve this. Nobody deserves this. But the men you kill, they aren't all like that. They aren't all abusive."
The woman was crying freely now, her tears mingling with the translucent blood on her face. "Do you really think I'm beautiful?"
"Yes, I do," Sarah said.
She bent down and picked up the woman's mask. "You don't need this. You don't need to hide what happened to you. It was wrong. But you can't take your anger out on everyone you meet. You can't kill those who don't deserve it. And even those that do, it isn't fair to kill them. Don't let them make you into a monster."
The woman took the mask, holding it in her hands. She stared at Sarah for a long moment, and then held the mask high above her head. She threw it on the ground, and it shattered into a thousand pieces. Suddenly, the woman began to fade and to rise into the air.
"Thank you," she said, as she ascended. Then she disappeared into nothingness. Harper stared at where she'd been standing; there was only a pile of dust there now, similar to those left by vampires. The woman was gone, if she'd ever really been there to begin with.
Alec and Conner began to wake up, and Sarah went to them, kneeling down beside them both. "Are you alright?"
"Sarah?" Alec asked.
"Yes, it's me," she replied.
"You came back to us," Alec said. His voice sounded a little constricted. "You came back."
"I was so consumed by rage," Sarah said. "I let it control me. I did things, unspeakable things. Can you ever forgive me?"
Alec pulled her into a hug, and then kissed her forehead. "Yes, I can. We can. What you did, you did because you had no control. Nobody blames you for that. Right, guys?"
Everyone nodded.
Sarah approached Harper. "You called for me. You knew I could kill that woman."
"Yes," Harper said.
"Did you know what was behind her mask?"
Harper shook her head.
"Don't call on me to kill someone again," Sarah said. "Not even a demon. I'll do it when I need to, but don't ever treat me like an assassin."
"I'm sorry," Harper said. "I didn't think of it like that. I just wanted your help, and you proved to yourself that you could help us without your rage. And you did. It wasn't your anger that killed the demon, Sarah. It was your compassion that saved her."
Sarah nodded, and stepped back. She was crying now, but silently. Her tears tracked down her cheeks in quiet, wet rivers. "I killed two men," she said.
"Don't worry about that now," Chloe said, stepping up beside her. She put an arm around her. "For now, let's just go home."
"Home, that sounds nice," Sarah said. "But we can't ignore what I did."
Brittney stepped forward and joined them. "That can wait until tomorrow," she said. "Tonight, let's just be happy we survived."
They all turned to Conner. He nodded back towards his car. "Let's go back," he said, "I think we're all in need of a drink, and then we can camp out on Alec's floor. I think tonight, we should be together. What do you think, Harper?"
"Yes, tonight, it's all about us," Harper said. "Tomorrow, we'll worry about the police, and the men, and everything else. Tonight, though, we're celebrating. Sarah came back to us, and we defeated the masked woman. I couldn't ask for a better night than that."
About the Author
Kaitlyn Meyers lives in the western United States near Lake Tahoe, CA. You can find her on the shores of the lake anytime of the year.
A Message from Kaitlyn Meyers
I hope you enjoyed reading my book! If you did, please leave a review and let me know!
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- Kaitlyn
Join Afterlife in the next book! Book 4: Kinda Like Van Helsing.
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Kaitlyn Meyers, Only a Mother Could Love (Afterlife Book 3)
Only a Mother Could Love (Afterlife Book 3) Page 12