by Kim Cormack
“You have to run faster! Kayn run faster!” her sister’s voice screeched inside Kayn’s terror driven mind. The ground was crunching directly behind her. He was so close that she could feel his breath on her hair and neck as he panted. He was almost touching her. He was fast, inhumanly fast. A rush of adrenaline edged her ahead. She could see lights from the neighbor’s house peeking through the trees. She was going to make it! She was almost there! The darkness that pursued her was keeping pace. Almost to safety! Just over the creek! Her bare feet hit the small wooden bridge. Almost there! She was going to make it! Kayn felt the elation of victory, she was about to burst through the bushes when something hot was driven into her back. Her eyes widened in terror as the knife plunged into her again. The blade seared a molten trail of excruciating pain through her body. A sweaty hand muffled her gasp of shock, as she sunk to her knees in disbelief. Her captor’s arms, slick with perspiration, constricted around her neck crushing her larynx with the strength of a python. Screaming and pleading for her life was now impossible. He continuously brought her to the brink of strangulation and then harshly revived her. Each time her eyes slipped shut she felt the slicing, searing pain of his blade as he brutalized her stomach and chest until her eyes remained open in terror. Blood sputtered from between her parted lips as she attempted to speak. She could see a shadow on the patio through the trees in the luminescence of the porch lights. Someone was out there having a cigarette. They were so close! Help me! Oh God! Please help me! See me please! I’m right here! Kayn’s mind screamed as he continued to plunge the knife into her. He’s killing me… Please! Her soul pleaded as her vision blurred from her tears. She gurgled as she choked and sputtered out blood. Why? Why are you doing this to me?
She felt the competing rhythms of their hearts, as his hot sweaty torso pressed intimately against hers. Her stomach churned with revulsion as she felt the warmth of his rapid excited breathing against her neck. His quiet laughter echoed in her mind as a raspy male voice began whispering things she couldn’t understand. Her blood had soaked through her clothes, it was trickling down her arms. She was going to die. He released her. She slumped forward and tried to grasp the ground with her fingertips, but no matter how hard she struggled from within the confines of her mind, she couldn’t move. Her breath came in short labored attempts as a soothing voice whispered, Sleep, it’s time to go to sleep. As she closed her eyes she heard Grandma Winnie’s final words to her, ‘You survive. You fight hard.’ She screamed from within, clawing at the soil and forcing herself up to her knees. Suddenly, there was a blinding explosion of pain across her head and face. The lights flickered and went out…
In the woods lay a bleeding angel in all her glory. Her arms posed gracefully above her head, her hair soaked in the mud, blood and feces in which she lay. Dying, fading into the other realm, her form was christened by the rain, as the trees had begun to weep upon her for the brutality she had endured.
Kayn awoke in frigid darkness to the fragrance of damp moss, tree sap and the sweet metallic taste of her own blood in her mouth. Images from her childhood flickered through her mind as the pain recycled in waves until it began to slowly dull and become a tolerable numbness. She was so cold. Where was she? Her body gave an involuntary shudder as her mind fed her slivers, flashes of the inhuman savagery she’d endured until she understood where she was and how she’d come to be dying in the forest all alone. If she kept her eyes closed, he might believe her to be gone. She could slip away peacefully and become one with the forest. She could hear the soothing sound of raindrops as they tapped on the branches above her. Maybe, he was gone? She opened her eyes and imagined the lush green branches of the cedar trees above as giant arms, capable of offering her protection from the elements. At first the image was nurturing and beautiful, but then the trees came to life. They cackled and mocked her, “You’re going to die, you silly bitch,” as they waved their branches to the haunting sound of rattling raindrops and the howling of the wind.
Kayn’s consciousness snapped back to reality. She’d lost a lot of blood…None of this was real.
The forest floor was alive with a dancing mist that seemed to add a thickness to the tapping sound of the rain drops. Writhing in the mud as her essence moistened the ground beneath her, Kayn willed her body to move; her fingers clawed at the soil until she was spent. For a moment she lay still, feeling like a half dead animal waiting to be finished off by its hunter. With her eyes gazing towards the heavens, she’d been watching a stream of light from the moon that had made it through the cover of rain clouds and branches. It felt like she was breathing through a pinched straw. She concentrated on each breath…In and out…A little air. The glimmer of the ray vanished, leaving only cold isolating darkness and the flickering of blurry confusing images. Help me. The only answer to her soul’s plea was the crackling quiet sound of the rain. What little vision she had clouded with tears. She screamed from the confines of her mind as the blindingly excruciating pain abruptly returned. As the wave of agony passed she sensed his presence. She tried to focus her vision through the glossy film of tears. His dark shadow ominously loomed as it had in the hallway. Please, please… No more. Now only a few feet away, he was watching her. She willed herself to grasp at the moist cold earth with her fingers, but she was unable to move. Her body was now nothing more than a broken shell. How cruel for her mind to still see; to still desire life at this point. As his form loomed above her, Kayn looked into his eyes with a desperate plea, why are you doing this? Her body gave an involuntary shudder. Kayn realized she was naked, completely exposed to the elements. Why was she naked? Her eyes filled with tears again. She felt instant, overwhelming shame.
The dark mass of her violator knelt beside her and leaned in. She could smell his putrid breath as it moistened her face. There was an electrical current between Kayn and the man in the dark, it was like a charge. Every hair on her body stood on end as he ran a finger over her exposed breast and said, “You were never to be born. This situation had to be corrected.”
His knife glinted in the light from the moon as it was raised above her chest. Yes, she thought. Let it be over now. She closed her eyes as he sliced into her flesh and opened them with acceptance. She felt no more pain. She stared deeply into his eyes as hers filled with tears.
With a voice thick with emotion he said, “From this life unto the next.” He slowly carved a symbol into the flesh above her heart.
She lay limp in his arms, still conscious of what was happening, as he pulled her close and cradled her naked body like a baby, rocking her broken violated flesh in his arms, stroking her blood-soaked hair. He began to sob as if he were repentant in some way for how he had tortured her.
As her vision flickered one last time, the man was gone; it was her mother looking into her eyes. Her mother’s eyes were filled with so much love that it seemed to release her from pain and fear as it had when she was a small child. Her mother cradled her as a baby, rocking her back and forth. She was safe now in her mother’s arms. She was at peace.
Mommy, her heart sang, you’re here to save me. The warmth of her mother’s love enveloped her tortured soul. She looked into her mother’s eyes. Her mother lovingly touched her face and started to sing a song that she had sung to her every night when she was very small.
Sleep, sweet sleep till the morning
Just dream away and close your eyes
My love you’ll be safe until the morning
Sleeping in my heart, all through the night
Although bad dreams come to scare you
My love will scare them all away
My heart…
The lights flickered, the pain went away and her mother was holding her, singing: “Sleep, sweet sleep.”
They sat in silence... all of them with no words. Kayn Brighton’s redo began without even a pause to catch their breath.
Kayn found herself standing in the shower at her old highschool with water pleasurably beating down on her. Covered in suds and s
lightly confused, she rinsed herself off. She found her clothes, put them on and stopped to look at her reflection in the mirror. She noticed a bobby pin on the counter, tried to move it with her mind and couldn’t. She glanced down at her hand, there was no scar. Interesting…This must be her redo. Lovely…She was in this day. She shoved on the change room door and there Kevin was with his mouth open wide, looking up at the sky. Her heart felt like it was about to explode. She wanted to say, catching flies as she had in the past but instead, she decided to change things up a bit. She’d always wondered what would have happened if she had just walked up and broke their friendship façade while he was still the dorky, incredibly stubborn yet endearing version of himself.
He gave her a strange look as he asked, “Is something wrong?”
“No,” she replied. “I didn’t ever realize how perfect everything was until this second.”
Kevin looked a little concerned as he grinned and teased, “Meaning me, of course. I know my perfection has always been utterly overwhelming.”
“That it has,” Kayn replied as she looked down at her feet instead of into his eyes. She wanted to stay with him but she couldn’t go lay in the grass and watch the clouds knowing her family was being slaughtered. She’d felt it when her twin was being stabbed…She knew that’s what that sharp pain in her stomach had been. Maybe there was still time to change it. Kayn stopped midstride and gave him a partial truth, “I can’t come for dinner tonight. I need to go home, it’s a Chloe emergency.” Everything inside of her screamed, kiss him! Kiss him just one time! As tempted as she was, she stopped herself. No, he will follow you home. Just tell him you’ll see him tomorrow.
“Alright, you’ll be missing out,” Kevin teased as they strolled away from the school together.
This was one of her last moments of peace. It was hard to know that and enjoy it. Kayn took a last look at her best friend, wanting to remember him like this. How had she not seen him clearly? Under her breath, she gave him a response, “Not this time.” She was about to walk away when she realized that it didn’t matter what she did because everything had already happened. Unable to help herself, she gave him a quick kiss on the lips before walking away. When she looked back at Kevin, he was still standing there with a shocked expression on his face. She hoped he wasn’t going to follow her home like a confused puppy in search of an explanation as to why she’d kissed him but there was no time to worry about that and it didn’t matter anyway. She took off, sprinting through the trails towards her house, slowing her pace for only for a minute to text her sister four very important words, lock the bathroom door. She pressed send. Maybe she’d have the chance to see her twin one last time. Kayn had to have a plan or she’d just be showing up in the middle of the slaughter. Brains before brawn. She grabbed a sturdy stick from the forest floor and then chucked it while shaking her head at herself. That would never work. Think Kayn…Think… Chloe was killed in the bathroom, her mother in the doorway and her father in the carport. She suspected by only one man. Winded from running and almost at her house, she slowed her pace. What was she capable of changing? She doubled over in agony and knew it was too late. The Correction of her family had begun. For a moment, the nervous energy paralyzed her and she fought to see through the fog of her mortal emotions. She was going to be sick. She felt dizzy as she crouched behind the bushes to conceal herself. Just breathe, she told herself. Just breathe. She heard her mother’s car pull up out front. She wanted to see her mother again so badly. Her emotions were all over the place and they couldn’t be. Her mother would be killed two seconds after she walked in that front door. It had already happened. This was a test. The past had already happened. It couldn’t be stopped. What did she need to move on? And then it came to her…She needed to see the face of the man that had destroyed her life. She needed to look into the eyes of the man responsible for her family’s excessively brutal Correction. She snuck through the backyard along the side of the house and noticed a slightly open window. That must have been how he got inside the house. She slid the window aside and stealthily climbed through it without making a sound. She heard her mother’s voice as she announced that she was home and everything inside of her began screaming for her to save her. Brains before brawn, use logic Kayn. She heard the struggle at the front door and then eerie silence, followed by the creaking of the assailant’s footsteps on the stairs. He was going to finish her sister off. Kayn tiptoed against the wall down the hallway towards the kitchen, knowing exactly where the floor didn’t creak. She slid a medium sized knife silently out of the holder and crept back down the hallway. She couldn’t stop anything that was meant to happen this day but she could use this opportunity for some good old fashioned vengeance on the being that had murdered her family and cruelly tortured her without reprieve before violently ending her mortal life. She was not going to pocket dial Kevin this time. As she entered the living room, she dialed 911 on her cell phone and whispered, “3131 Falls Rd... He’s killing everyone... Help us.” She ended the call, cranked her dad’s eighty’s metal on stereo and tried to harness her inner Lexy. She’d make him come to her. Kayn clutched the knife in her hand as her heart pounded vigorously. She allowed the rage to well up inside of her until she could feel the energy of her fury crackling beneath the surface of her skin. He’d appeared to her the first time as a shadow in the darkened hallway. This time there was no lurking in the shadows. He walked into the room with an intrigued smile on his face. She heard Chloe’s voice whisper in her mind, “Let’s kill him Kayn.”
“What do you think you can do to me child?” He chuckled as he leaned up against the china cabinet, with eyes as black as night. There was no visible white at all. Her Correction had not been done by clan. The Legion of Abaddon had done her Correction and this revelation changed everything. She wasn’t strong enough to fight this being. She hadn’t been Enlightened. She was going to be brutally slaughtered all over again. Crap! She was going to have to run, but that hadn’t worked the last time… Had it? She needed a second to contemplate her next move. She couldn’t beat him. He had the strength of ten of her. In her mind, she heard the words, brains before brawn. She needed to make it past him to the kitchen so she amped herself up. He killed your family. Think about your mother, your father, your sister, your brother. Jenkins, Kevin’s family, Grandma Winnie and Kevin...Think about Kevin. Kayn took a deep breath and proclaimed, “Someday I’m going to kill you.” She began to throw everything in the room at him. The devious being was laughing at her show of strength. He didn’t even make an attempt to stop her as she darted past him, down the hall and into the kitchen. He casually strolled after her. Brains before brawn. She grabbed the heavy bag of salt from beside the sundeck door. Its purpose had been to keep the doorways from getting icy but today it had a different one. Kayn slit it open with the knife in her hand knowing many more creative uses for salt now. She spun around, while tearing the bag the rest of the way with her hands, spraying salt all over the Abaddon. He shrieked as it scalded his flesh. Kayn plunged the knife into his liver, booted him in the stomach and sent him flying backwards. Buying herself nothing but a few precious moments, her shaking hands fumbled with the lock, managing to unlock it just as the demonic entity in mortal disguise struggled to his feet. He was losing a lot of blood; she could smell it in the air. Kayn shoved open the door, raced across the sundeck and sprinted across the back lawn, tossing the last piece of the white bag of salt in her hand at the mouth of the trail. He staggered after her to the sound of approaching sirens. She kept her eyes glued on the mortally wounded murderer as he slowly pursued her. She smirked as she kept her eyes on her snail-paced assailant while pressing redial. She quietly gasped, “Help… I’m in the trails behind my house.” He paused for a second and started shaking while hunched over. She’d beaten him. He straightened up and she realized he was laughing. Well, shit! She’d stabbed him in the damn liver, how was he still alive? He grinned at her and began to chase her at full speed. Crap! She sprinted away from hi
m through the trails and across the bridge, this time with shoes on. Her heart was pounding wildly with the knowledge of how this played out. Kayn saw the light of the man’s porch. As she was about to break through the bushes, she braced herself for the inevitable burning explosion of pain. The knife plunged into her back. She saw the flashlights flickering through the trees and heard voices. He had her in his arms, brutally squeezing the breath from her chest. She could feel her ribs snapping. How was this asshole still alive? She’d stabbed him in the liver. His shell should have died before he made it off the damn sundeck.
The dark being whispered in her ear, “Until we meet again,” as he released her, yanking the blade from her back.
The fire that lit a path through her core ceased. She harnessed her rage, kicked back and booted him in his shin. His knife dropped as she swung around and kicked him in the groin with everything she had. He doubled over in agony and staggered backwards. She fell to her knees with a giant grin on her face and as he ran away, she whispered, “You can count on it.” She felt the warmth of her blood as it soaked through her shirt. He’d made that one wound count. Kayn knew what he was now and she would count the seconds until the next time he crossed her path. She would be Enlightened and they would be fighting on even ground. The lights flickered and went out.