Two steps and she was in his arms, physically for the first time, and if possible, more connected than even in their shared dream. He raised his hand and touched the back of it to her flushed cheek, before lifting her mouth up to touch his. Their kiss was brief and blissfully tender, managing to momentarily satisfy their yearning for each other.
“Hello, you,” breathed Derren, his voice heavy with emotion. As he looked into those emerald pools, his soul leapt. So many years of searching, so many times finding the wrong one and almost dying, but now she was here in his arms. It was like the hope and love he had held for each of these others was gathered together now in what he finally felt.
Katheryne contented herself with gazing into eyes dark as the night’s sky, but illuminated with inner light from a billion stars. She couldn’t speak, but she didn’t need to. She leant her head back for him to kiss her again.
“Jeesh, get a room you two,” muttered Perri, grinning widely.
“Hmmm, quite,” agreed Krista reprovingly, with a faint smile on her face. “Now if you’re quite done embarrassing us all, can we please have breakfast?”
The intensity decreased a notch, but they were still spellbound as Perri put plates of bacon, eggs, and hash browns on the table. She sat down as Krista grabbed the coffee jug and poured.
Derren sat down beside Katheryne, unable to take his eyes off her. Their hands crept towards each other’s on the surface of the table.
Krista snorted. “You know, I’m not sure I can eat this with these two like this; frankly, I feel quite ill.”
This had the desired effect, and everyone laughed as the atmosphere became less furnace-like. They sat in silence for a few minutes as the meal was eaten. Katheryne was famished, and she had one of Derren’s hash browns halfway to her mouth before she realized what she’d done.
“Oh my God, I’m so sorry,” she blurted quickly as she started to return it to his plate, but he laughed warmly.
“No, you keep it; we’ll discuss payment later,” he said, grinning again. Katheryne smiled back brazenly.
Perri looked upwards in exasperation. “Better get used to it, Derren; she’s notorious for stealing food. She does it to me all the time.”
Katheryne snorted, “Ha! Pot meets kettle I think.”
“Hate you,” laughed Perri.
“Hate you more,” said Katheryne, smiling as she stuck her tongue out.
They giggled, but realized Derren and Krista looked at them in confusion. Unfortunately this simply caused more giggling.
Derren and Krista looked at them and then at each other, but ended up laughing themselves, if for no other reason than it seemed like the right thing to do.
Derren watched Katheryne as she laughed. He delighted in the sound. He still struggled to come to terms with the fact he’d found her after all these years and disappointments. He’d been worried that if he ever found her, she wouldn’t live up to the image in his mind.
But as he laughed along, he realized she surpassed his wildest dreams. She was perfection personified in his eyes and heart. He knew he loved her, but the power and intensity of what he felt for her made the word seem insignificant.
Last night on the Island he had opened his heart, leaving himself more vulnerable than he’d ever been, but she had taken him and joined her soul to his, strengthening them both, adding her love, so what resulted was greater than the two of them had been before.
He longed to be alone with her, to consummate what had happened, in the physical world; to touch her with his own hands and mouth.
As she looked back at him, he felt her love and desire flow across the short distance between them, almost tangible in its intensity.
Krista watched them closely. She knew he’d been lying when he said he wasn’t in love with her back on the park bench. She knew it was his self-defence mechanism, in case the Katheryne in this reality had turned out to be like the others. She’d seen his heart break nearly a dozen times now when he’d met the wrong one.
Now, as she observed the bond growing between them, she smiled, and her heart soared along with her brother’s. That they’d finally found the Foundation didn’t matter right now. It could wait. For a short time, at least.
Belfast—Perri’s Concern
Katheryne waited for Perri to say something...anything. She knew her friend was aware something had happened on the island, but she’d needed to tell her the whole truth. Perri was still unclear about the whole Island thing, as she called it, so she sat quietly trying to sort it in her mind.
Derren and Krista had gone to update the leadership back at Sanctuary.
Katheryne knew this was one of the reasons for their departure, but she had a feeling that Krista at least, was aware she and Perri needed some time, and an opportunity to talk. Katheryne used it for her and Perri to have a heart-to-heart.
As Derren left the apartment, she’d almost cried, and they’d clung to each other until Krista forcibly pulled her brother after her, tutting and muttering something about lovesick puppies.
It was like they desperately needed to cram all the love they had missed out on, the experiences which had been denied to them, into every second they now had together. And if he wasn’t here with her, she felt robbed somehow. Even now, with him gone less than an hour, her heart ached.
She’d sat and poured her heart out to Perri, as she had so many times before about boys, her mom, her dad, everything in fact.
Perri listened patiently, providing just the right amount of comfort at just the right time, as Katheryne went over the events of the night before, holding nothing back as she described how all her fears were swept away in the hours of blissful ecstasy.
As she sat waiting, Katheryne grew concerned her friend might disapprove of how she’d behaved. She knew what she’d done was so out of character for her that Perri might think something unnatural had happened to her; like something was controlling her somehow.
She was the first to admit what had happened, what she’d done, was so totally alien to her normal behaviour. But to deny it now would be a betrayal of how she felt about Derren.
She had no regrets, could not be more certain that what she had done, what she was going to keep on doing, was real and true to her heart’s desire.
“Wow,” gasped Perri.
“Wow?” asked Katheryne in return.
“Yeah. Wow,” sighed Perri, looking vacantly into thin air.
“Is that it? Wow?” Katheryne wanted, needed more from her friend, but as she watched, Perri sat up with an amazed expression.
“You know, up until right this moment I didn’t think it existed,” Perri said. She had tears in her eyes, but Katheryne knew her friend wasn’t sad, but overjoyed.
“I know, true love. Who knew?” said Kat. She felt the same as Perri. True love was something from movies and fairy tales, not for an ordinary girl from Belfast. But then true love was insignificant when compared to what they had.
“God, he’s fit,” breathed Perri, gazing vacantly out the window. She looked up, worried Kat might take her comment as inappropriate. “Sorry.”
“Hey, I’m not arguing,” said Katheryne, smiling. “He is so hot, isn’t he?”
Both of them laughed, any uneasiness immediately banished.
With the ice broken, they relaxed and lay back onto the bed, both of them silent for a moment.
“So, how serious is this?” asked Perri, “I mean, does Amanda need to get a hat?” Perri seemed totally nonchalant, but Katheryne knew she was faking it.
“Yeah, Perri, it is that serious,” she replied, “and I wish you would call your mom ‘Mom’, and not Amanda.” She smirked, but Perri sensed an undercurrent of sadness in her tone. It seemed strange after the rapturous events she’d just finished describing.
“It’s the rest of it, isn’t it? You’re this Foundation thing they’ve been looking for forever, and it’s freaking you out.”
She watched as Katheryne struggled to make sense of what she felt.
Katheryne sighed and sat up, a melancholy look on her face.
“And there’s another part of me that’s totally pissed off. I mean I’ve just found him, Perri. It’s like I had an emptiness inside me I never realized was there, but he’s filled it. And I’ve done the same for him. We’re complete now for the first time in our lives.” Katheryne’s voice was full of bittersweet emotion.
“I’m sorry if that sounds corny, Perri, but that’s what this is.” She watched as her friend nodded.
“I suppose I’m being selfish,” said Katheryne, “but I want some time to...you know, just be together, to make our own memories. Just be Katheryne and Derren, at least for a little while.” Her eyes were moist with tears now, but behind them Perri sensed a resolve, a determination to do what was right.
“Don’t you think you have the right to be a little selfish?” exclaimed Perri, “Jeeze, Kat, this is major star-crossed lover material here. But that’s not what’s wrong, is it?”
Katheryne got up and walked to the window and looked out, pulling her arms around herself as if she needed to reassure herself.
“No,” said Katheryne. “No, it’s not. I don’t have a choice in any of this Perri. On one hand I don’t have a choice about how I feel about Derren.” As she said his name her eyes lit up and Perri saw the warmth of her love in them. “I couldn’t leave him, ever. It’s like we’re part of the same soul now.”
“But I know I don’t have a choice about being who and what I am, and I know that without me...without just little me, Perri,” she looked across desperately at her friend, “that without me it all ends.”
Perri was conflicted. She could see how happy Katheryne was that they had finally found each other; indeed she herself was overjoyed for her friend; and also for Derren, if she was totally honest. There was no doubting what he felt for Katheryne. What she’d just said about them being two parts of the same soul could not have been mistaken when you saw them together, and even now, she knew her friend was suffering because he wasn’t here with her.
But then there was the pressure to follow this path to who knew what...to be this Foundation. She hoped her friend would be able to endure it, but as she watched, she perceived how Katheryne drew strength from her bond with Derren, and she was certain she would. She was just scared that what would remain after it was all over wouldn’t be her friend any more.
It was like Katheryne read her thoughts as she nudged across and embraced Perri. They lay there together for a minute before Katheryne broke the silence.
“I’m scared, Perri,” she whispered, “not so much about what’s ahead; there’s nothing I can do to alter that now. I’m afraid about what might happen to me, to us. I can already feel I’m...different than I was, somehow.”
After a moment Perri said, “You are, but you’re not,” looking cryptically at her friend. Katheryne seemed baffled by this, so Perri continued.
“It’s like all the bravery, all the strength you’ve always denied you had is coming out. You’re finally realising how strong you are, Kat. I’ve known you had it for years, ever since you came out from behind those lockers to help a little girl escape a horrible life. And the little girl wasn’t Grace, Kat...It was me.”
They clung to each other, crying, and Katheryne knew Perri would remain her anchor, her rock. And like her namesake, Perri would keep her grounded and safe, preventing her from becoming lost in the storm to come.
“I love you, Perri,” cried Katheryne.
“I love you more,” sobbed Perri, although they both smiled.
They lay there for a while, taking comfort in each other’s presence in silence.
The calm broke as the apartment door flew open with a bang.
“Katheryne, Perri, where are you?!” Katheryne had only known Krista a very short time, but she knew the panic in her voice was totally out of character. A ball of ice formed in the pit of her stomach as she opened the door to see an ashen-faced Krista standing there, alone.
“They’ve taken him, Kat,” gasped Krista, “they’ve taken Derren.”
The Never—The Beast’s Hunger
The creature regarded the scene before it. The inferno was everywhere now, and triumph was within its grasp. Soon it hoped to take the soul of the girl, and rip it from her body, to deliver its innocence to its master. It longed to be given the gratification of consuming the sweet essence, but knew Tenybris treasured the moment of corruption above all else. The girl’s soul would become Tenybris’s puppet, as its own had years before.
The creature wondered briefly at the silence of the spark of soul left trapped within its ruined consciousness. The violent, hopelessly futile struggles to gain precedence had ceased weeks ago, but it was unusually dormant, and the creature was concerned it may have gone mad. Master would fix that, it knew. He would not allow a victim to escape the torment decreed by him.
So it continued its observation, laughing in cruel glee as the girl screamed in torment, burning over and over as she dreamt. Soon she would demand release, and soon it would be there to grant it.
Belfast—Derren’s Hope
The ball of ice became lead as Katheryne felt a chasm open up below her soul and all her hope disappear into it.
“Who’s taken him, Krista?” It was Perri. She’d managed to regain a bit of her equilibrium, and she grabbed Katheryne as she slumped sideways.
“The Leadership,” Krista began to explain, “Derren and I travelled to Sanctuary to report, to tell them we’d found you, Katheryne; that we’d finally found the Foundation.”
At the mention of the Foundation, Kat sobered, before snapping back to awareness, instantly exerting a level of discipline which managed to scare Perri for a second. She was alert, her attention focussed on what Krista was saying.
“He told them, didn’t he?” said Katheryne in a whisper, “he told them about us.”
Krista nodded, “Yes, he did,” she looked puzzled at Katheryne as she continued, “I tried to tell him to take it easy, to sound them out first. None of them ever had an inkling Derren was in love... had been in love with you from the start.”
“But you knew.” It was a simple statement, a fact, and Krista nodded again.
“I’ve known for years there was something he was hiding from me, but he only told me the truth shortly after he’d arrived on Sanctuary,” explained Krista. “Katheryne...Kat, you need to understand what this was doing to him. He kept meeting you time and time again, and every time he did, he denied he was in love with you. But each and every time he hoped beyond hope the next one would be you, and each and every time he got his heart broken in half when it wasn’t.”
Katheryne blanched as her heart both leapt and quailed. She’d known Derren had been searching for her for years, but he hadn’t told her about his feelings for the other Katherynes, the dread this must have instilled in him toward every new encounter. She almost wept as she imagined his pain.
“So he was determined to tell them everything,” Krista went on, “He said he’d spent too long denying it, and wasn’t about to waste any more time refusing to acknowledge his love for you. When he told the gathering it...it was as if a bomb went off. Derren has...upset a few of them over the years.” A grim smile ghosted over her features briefly, and she bared her teeth. “There was one of them there, B’ran, who despises him, and he had quite a few supporters with him, enough to persuade the rest to take Derren away for questioning.”
Perri looked across at Katheryne’s face to see a mask of pain mixed with anger and determination. Krista was looking at Katheryne too, concern on her face, but concern for herself this time as if her next admission would make Katheryne hate her.
“I couldn’t get to him, Katheryne,” she cried, “there were too many of them for us. We tried, we took out score
s of guards, but for each one we did, two more appeared. He shouted for me to run, and for a second I hesitated and they almost had me. But I ran, Kat. I opened a portal to here and ran away. I’m sorry, Katheryne, I’m so sorry.” Krista slumped to her knees and put her hands to her face to try and hide the tears, but in an instant Katheryne was there, pulling Krista close, hugging her fiercely.
“It wasn’t your fault, Krista,” hissed Katheryne, her voice colder than Perri had ever heard it. “I don’t know what their problem with us is, but they’ve made a big mistake.” She gently pushed Krista back so she could look her in the eyes. “I’ll need your help to fix it.”
Katheryne helped Krista to her feet. She didn’t know how she was so calm, when inside her chest her heart was shattering, but she knew if she lost control they would lose any chance of helping Derren.
“So, what do we do?” This came from Perri, and Katheryne and Krista turned to her as she stood there with her hands on her hips, and a determined look on her face. Katheryne smiled and opened her arms, inviting Perri to join in the huddle, embracing both of them tightly.
“I don’t know, Perri,” she admitted, “but I think I might know someone who does.”
Krista looked back, confused as Katheryne grinned at them both. “Who?” she asked.
Katheryne’s smile deepened. “I’ll explain later. Krista, can you get us back to Sanctuary?”
Krista and Perri looked at each other and simultaneously back at Katheryne, as if she’d just lost her mind.
Krista shook her head. “I can’t get back. I tried, but they’ve put some sort of block in the way, something I’ve never experienced before.”
This interrupted Katheryne’s train of thought.
“But why would they do that?” Katheryne asked, almost to herself. She looked at both her friends. “If I’m the Foundation, why do they want me kept here? I thought the whole idea was for me to travel to Sanctuary with you to carry on the battle from there.”
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