The Eternal

by Bianca Hunter

  “He doesn’t want to get close to her,” Ravenna replied. “He’s—anxious.”

  “About the dream?”

  “Yes. He thinks she sees the past and he sees the future.”

  “Serena?”

  “You can bet your bottom dollar that that witch is behind this,” Ravenna spat.

  I glanced around as Tristan walked through the doors easily; somehow, I didn’t weigh anything in his arms.

  “Where is Blake?”

  “Waiting for Kate. He killed Lorenzo.”

  “Ravenna, why don’t you ever lead with the important details like, oh, I don’t know, Aurelius’s son is dead?”

  “Well, I wasn’t sure what to start with: Serena is alive after all, Lorenzo attacked Evelyn twice, we’re probably all going to die. So much news, so little time,” Ravenna exclaimed as we entered the entrance hall, which was a perfect circle and bigger than a house. The white marble floor and white walls were offset by the elaborate paintings hanging on them.

  “These are some of the best replicas I’ve ever seen,” I drawled as we passed them. Tristan’s chest heaved as if he was trying to keep from laughing.

  “What the hell are you doing to her?” he asked.

  “Trying to keep her calm.”

  “She sounds drunk, not calm.”

  “Yeah well, like you said, I haven’t had to do this for a while, okay?”

  We turned to the left and walked through one of the longest passageways I had ever seen. I closed my eyes for a moment and felt something hit my body so hard that the breath left my lungs. I opened my eyes just as it stopped and realized that we were at the end of the hallway, standing in front of a dark wooden door.

  “What just happened?” I asked, dazed as we walked into the room.

  I was suddenly distracted by the elegant Renaissance style room, which was the size of a small hockey field. An eight-foot fireplace stood on the far end of the wall, logs cracking placidly and warming the massive room. Frescos covered the walls, and the floor was a warm dark wood. The room seemed to be divided into a lounge section containing a scattering of leather armchairs and coffee tables, a bar on the right side of the room, and finally a reading area with shelves covered in leather-bound books.

  “Is Viktor here?” Ravenna asked as Tristan carried me to the black leather sofa and gently placed me down. She let go of my hand. Instantly, panic surged through me, my every nerve on edge. My body jerked, and I sat straight up, my chest heaving. I couldn’t inhale. I moved to get up, but before I could, Tristan took my hand. The serenity immediately flowed through my veins, and I smiled at him.

  “How are you doing this?” I asked. This time I felt calm, like someone had taken every emotion I had and boxed them up somewhere.

  “Doing what?” he asked, his eyes glistening.

  “You’re so pretty.” I grinned, losing concentration not a second later.

  “See, you can’t bloody do it either,” Ravenna cried.

  I realized I was still wearing the same dirty clothing that Lorenzo had dragged me around in this morning. Now he was dead, lying on the gray slate floor, missing his heart.

  Evelyn, something isn’t right. Can’t you feel that everything you’re feeling is wrong?

  “Mmm,” I moaned at the voice in my head.

  “Are you okay?” Tristan asked now, draping his arm around my shoulder. Another marvelous sensation of peacefulness passed through me.

  Evelyn, they are doing something to you, please, get out of here.

  “No, I don’t think so,” I mumbled, shaking my head as the doors to the room opened. Two men dressed in black came through them. One remained where he was, and the other approached Tristan and handed him a note. He unfolded it with his free hand and scanned the contents. The men left soon afterward as discreetly as they had entered, but as they did, Blake walked in looking like a mirage from the desert.

  “Okay, you have to compel her, neither of us remember how to do it properly,” Ravenna admitted in his direction, sounding stung.

  “I’m doing a better job than you did,” Tristan replied indignantly.

  “Look at her, you’ve practically turned her into a zombie.”

  “It’s so good to have you back here again, Ravenna. When are you leaving?” Tristan said, grimacing at her.

  Why can’t I do anything? I want to get up. Get up! Come on, just get up.

  Blake came into my view, and my heart pounded.

  You killed Lorenzo.

  “I need you both to help the guard look for Serena. Lorenzo didn’t do this out of his own accord. She’s somewhere here, and we need to find her. I’ll stay with the girl,” he said in a level tone.

  “You mean you’ll stay with Evelyn,” Ravenna corrected.

  Blake ignored her and bent down on his knees to face me. As soon as I inhaled his scent of pine trees and cherry blossoms, I suddenly didn’t care that he had killed Lorenzo. The absolute need to be close to him, to reach out to him and touch his warmth felt insatiable. I started reaching out my free hand to touch his chest, but before I could, he spoke.

  “Evelyn, Tristan is going to let go of your hand now, and when he does, you’re not going to panic,” I heard Blake’s voice say.

  I felt myself nod. Tristan let go of my hand, and everything came into focus once again. My eyes darted around the room. Tristan and Ravenna were both looking down at me, seemingly holding their breaths to see if I would have another panic attack.

  “Where are we?” I asked, my voice suddenly level.

  “You’re in my house, and you’re safe,” Blake said gently, calmly.

  “At least one of us can still do it,” Ravenna muttered as she and Tristan walked toward the door.

  “I don’t understand, what is going on?” I asked, looking into Blake’s black eyes. “Why are your eyes black, how did you—how did you kill Lorenzo like that?” My voice quivered.

  Blake’s cold eyes softened for a moment. “Everything is going to be okay. My eyes aren’t black, and you didn’t see anything tonight. Kate is coming to get you, and as soon as you get into her car, you’re going to forget all of this. You’re going to forget what happened this morning, you’re going to forget the entire day. You arrived at school and fell down a flight of stairs. Kate took you to the hospital for treatment. She needed to stop here to drop something off before taking you home. That’s all.”

  “Okay.” The entire room was a blur; only Blake was clear.

  I cannot believe I fell down a flight of stairs on my second day of school. But why am I here with Blake? Where is here?

  “Where am I? Why are you here with me?” I asked. The last time I saw Blake was in Eden, and he was telling me to leave town. I took a deep breath and inhaled his smell.

  “Kate’s just arriving. Let’s meet her at the entrance hall,” he suggested, ignoring my questions.

  I nodded and found myself standing up to follow him, he held out his hand to me and I felt a frown etch on my forehead.

  “Take my hand, Evelyn, you’ll feel better for it,” he said quietly. I nodded and reached for his hand. As our skin touched, I could have sworn he took a deep, steadying breath. There was something about the touch of his skin that washed calm through me. Wait, I shouldn’t feel like this. Why am I holding Blake’s hand? Why do I want to hold his hand? Yet another wave of tranquility hit my veins as we walked in silence through a long hallway, hand in hand, and I grinned when I noticed Kate in the entrance hall.

  “You’ve come to drop something off,” I said to her as she turned to Blake.

  Her left eyebrow raised.

  “Evelyn,” Blake said, and I turned toward him. “There’s one more thing before you go.” He looked directly into my eyes, still holding my hand.

  I nodded still feeling the absolute calmness from his hand radiate into mine.


  “Forget you ever met me. You’ve never seen me. I don’t feel like someone who you know from a dream, and if you ever see me again, I’ll just be a complete stranger to you. Forget that you ever met Ravenna, and the only thing that you know of Tristan is that he saved your life that day in the moors, and that you do not want to speak to him again.”

  I immediately felt the panic of forgetting Blake rise in my chest, but as he took a step closer, calm washed over me again.

  “Know that this is for your own good. Close your eyes Evelyn.”

  I nodded and shut my eyes as I felt someone let go of my hands. I felt a rush of wind against my face. Wait, why are you standing here with your eyes closed? I blinked, and narrowed my eyes at the staircase I was facing.

  “Kate?” I mumbled, turning around.

  “Right here.” She smiled.

  “What was I looking at?” I asked, shrugging.

  “Oh, you just heard something on the stairs. It was nothing.”

  “Did you get what you needed?” I asked, remembering that she was here to pick something up.

  “Yes, and now we can go home,” Kate said, taking my arm and leading me out of the massive entrance hall.

  I followed her to the car that was parked right in front of the house. She opened the door for me and helped me in. I had almost forgotten about my injuries. She shut the door, and I leaned back in the seat and closed my eyes. We were already on the road to the house when I opened them again.

  “That hospital journey took much longer on the way back than it did getting there,” I mumbled to her.

  “Traffic.” She smiled. “I have some news for you.”

  “Okay?”

  “I think I made a mistake asking you to come here. You were right all along. I’m taking you back home. We’ll fly tomorrow.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  My bare feet were wet as they sunk into the pine needles that covered the forested earth. I looked up at the moon so full of milky white light that it brought shame to the sun. In the distance, an owl hooted several times, setting off the creatures who scurried around me, scattering among the dry foliage on the ground.

  A white cottage stood out among the browns and greens of the surrounding trees; it looked familiar. There was a sense of serenity, and for the first time, I didn’t feel terrified of waking up.

  My white cotton dress danced in the breeze. I took a deep breath, filling my lungs with crisp, fresh air, inhaling the scents of pine and wet earth. My scowl faded, replaced with a smile.

  There was something so wonderfully peaceful about this place; I never wanted to leave. I turned around to the forest behind and noticed out of the corner of my eye something move. A beautiful woman wearing a dress like mine stood in the clearing next to the house. She had a crimson flower in her long silver-blond hair, which glimmered in the moonlight. She seemed to be laughing.

  She was the most beautiful person I had ever seen, and her laugh must have been what angels sounded like. I knew she was the woman I had seen before, but she seemed different somehow, free. My legs moved to take me closer to her, attracted to her beautiful joy. Her top-heavy lips broke out in a smile that reached her almond-shaped eyes. She beckoned for me to follow her.

  She entered the forest and weaved through the trees with the grace of a dancer, compelling me to follow. With each step, it was becoming harder to keep up with her lithe movements as she maneuvered the uneven ground, easily avoiding the trees and fallen branches and rocks.

  I pulled up the hem of my dress, which was damp with mud and sticking to my ankles. I was falling farther back from her, my hands shaking, my chest heavy. With every step, the forest became darker and the trees denser until I couldn’t see her white dress or her light hair anymore. Struggling to take full breaths, I scanned my surroundings, wildly desperate to find her. Where was she?

  I ran in the direction she had disappeared in and entered another clearing, leaving the tormented trees behind. Now there were neither stars nor moon to shed a ray of light on the ground. My eyes adjusted to the darkness. The roar of thunder made me jump and spin simultaneously. Panicked, I pushed back my hair that seemed intent on blinding me as the wind turned into a howling gale. Even in the darkness, I recognized the familiar skyline of the church and the rectangular tombstones protruding from the ground a few feet away.

  I kept moving through the graveyard, avoiding stepping on the graves, trying desperately to find the woman. Why did she lead me here? A massive tombstone with an angel carved out of white marble and holding a sword stood imposingly before me. My heart pounded, and I hesitated a moment before finally leaning forward to read the inscription on the flat marble slab. In the darkness, it was difficult to make out the smaller inscription. The only words that were big enough to read were Astara, vacate et scire.

  “Astara, the wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit,” I mumbled to myself.

  I was looking up at the angel when I felt an icy hand grab my shoulder, spinning me around. I screamed, and when I did, the beautiful woman screamed too. She had completely transformed: her eyes were white, her mouth black, and her skin the color of a gray sky before a storm. Her hair seemed to be moving, as if there was something scratching at it from underneath.

  I tried to pull away from her iron grip, my jaw clenched with all the force, but it was no use. Her scream began to die down but was replaced by a single cockroach, which crept out of her open mouth. Suddenly there were hundreds of them. Insects fell, cockroaches crawled out of her mouth and all over her face before dying and dropping at her feet.

  I pushed and shoved, trying to release myself from her, biting my tongue so hard that I felt hot blood form in my mouth. I opened my mouth to scream again when I realized that her hair was moving because of hundreds of white maggots were slipping down onto her skin. Her black eyes stared at me for a second before they became pools of blood. Thick red liquid ran down her cheeks, its coppery scent sending my stomach into a series of lurches.

  “Help me,” she screamed, digging her nails into my arms.

  She began sinking into the ground. I tried to struggle out of her grip, but her broken nails pierced deeper into my skin. We both began to crumble into the graveyard ground.

  “Save me,” she shrieked as she began to violently scratch my arms open.

  “I don’t know how,” I gasped.

  I collapsed onto the cold grave, my hands scraping the small stones beneath the grass. My arms burned from the deep scratches.

  -

  I opened my eyes.

  I’m in my pajamas. How did I get here?

  My bare feet were almost blue with cold. I had walked to the cemetery in my sleep.

  I got up slowly and examined the tombstone I was standing in front of. The statue of the angel was about my height, standing on a massive slab of stone.

  Why is this so familiar?

  The word Astara was carved in the stone.

  “Who are you?” I mumbled, looking down at my arms. They were deeply scratched, and blood streamed out of the fresh cuts. The wind howled across a gray sky.

  Shivering, I wrapped my arms around my chest and walked to the rusty cemetery gate. The last thing I remembered was Kate telling me that we were going back home. How had I ended up here?

  I walked through the green field as fast as I could, following the tracks from a car that would surely lead me back home. I was so cold, I could barely think of anything. When I finally reached the road, it began to snow. The stone road was slippery with ice, and I could barely feel my feet anymore. I tried to speed up in the direction of Kate’s house, but every inch of my body convulsed from the cold wind and the snow now dancing around me, lifting my hair and lashing it around my face. The blood from my arms seeped into my white cotton pajamas, and
the snow melted against the only heat my body had left.

  I can’t do this. I can’t keep walking.

  “You have to.” I shivered through gritted teeth.

  Five more minutes, you can do this.

  What felt like an eternity later, I reached the black iron gate and pushed the side door open, my fingers numb. Tears blurred my vision when I realized that the house was still about half a mile away from the gate.

  “Come on,” I cried. “Just do it.” I slowly forced my way to the house. My feet were so cold they felt hot. I could barely take a normal breath as my chest heaved.

  The snow fell so heavily that I could barely see anything in front of me, and I lowered my eyes to the gravel driveway to make sure I was still walking in the right direction. The gravel pierced the soles of my feet, and I was pretty sure the blood from my arms and feet would leave a distinct crimson trail behind me.

  The cars were barely visible under all the snow. I rapped on the door and waited for a minute. Was Kate asleep? I prayed that the front door was unlocked as I reached out to push the handle. The door creaked open. I mouthed a Thank God with my shivering lips as I pushed it open completely and then closed it, cutting off the bitter cold. My eyes immediately met with a spot on the wooden floor near the gossip chair that made me stop in my tracks.

  Something happened here last night. But what? Just get upstairs, you’re freezing to death.

  My shoulders slumped as I glanced at the stairs, every nerve in my body screaming in agony. It felt like I had been thrown into a barrel of smoldering hot tar.

  Bath, take a bath.

  I turned to the staircase and made my way up the stairs, unable to feel the soft carpet under my feet. My body convulsed all the way to the bathroom. I turned the tap on and waited for the hot water and then made sure it was warm.

  Why can’t I remember anything? I got to school. Fell down the stairs. Kate took me to the hospital. We dropped something off at a stranger’s house. We drove back home?