by Holly Martin
There were no more words needed my dreams gave me exactly what I wanted most, his body against mine, his lips pressing hungrily into mine.
Later, as I lay in his arms, Seth stroking my head, his fingers travelled down my arms, gently finding the scars that Adam had been so keen to make.
‘I know I’m dreaming Eve, I know that you’re not really here with me, but I would expect my dreams to preserve you better, what are these scars, these burns?’
‘Adam,’ I sighed. ‘He’s trying to torture me, but he’s already done that, he ripped my heart out when he killed you, the most painful thing he could have ever done to me. I don’t really feel the pain of these scars or the torture, I’m numb to all of it now.’
I closed my eyes. I really didn’t want to talk about Adam or Seth dying. I just wanted to lie here in Seth’s arms and pretend he was never taken from me. Time was short and I knew I would wake up soon.
Seth was silent, but his heart started racing.
‘Eve are you really here in my dreams?’
I sighed heavily.
‘Cain is sort of your dad and he can enter dreams, so can Adam. Do you have that power Eve?’
‘To enter the dreams of the dead, I doubt it.’
Seth sat up. ‘Eve I’m not dead. The monks, the Zekis and Donum, they found me, they healed me, though you’d already done most of the job for them.’
I heard the gate clang at the end of the corridor. Adam or one of the Guardians were on their way.
‘I’m going to wake up in a minute, Adam is coming to continue his torture. Would you stop talking and kiss me.’ I reached out for him.
‘Eve, this is important, where does he have you, where are you, I’ll come to get you.’
Of course my dream Seth would still be fighting for me.
‘Seth,’ I sighed.
I heard the door of my cell open and I felt my dream shift. My heart leapt with panic, I didn’t want to let Seth go, my dream ending would snatch him cruelly away from me again, and I couldn’t face it.
‘I love you Seth, I always will.’
Seth grabbed me by the shoulders. ‘Damn it Eve, will you listen to me.’
I felt a dull pain in my ribs and I looked down to see a fresh scar appearing. Seth paled, angrily.
‘Eve…’
But then I was awake. Grief riding through me at losing Seth all over again. Sobs tore from my throat, my body shaking with the pain of seeing Seth.
Adam grinned manically at the first sound he had heard me make since he’d brought me down to the cells a few days or weeks ago.
‘Ha, I knew I’d break you eventually,’ Adam laughed.
He dragged the hot prongs across my skin, it sizzled but I felt no pain. I was buried too deep in my grief to feel the pain on the outside of my body. I closed my eyes and sobbed. Even as I had kissed Seth in my dreams, I knew the pain of losing him would be fresh and new all over again. But I had willingly gone along with it, just to have one last moment with him. And now I was paying the price.
Spurred on by my tears, Adam stayed with me for a lot longer than normal, searing new scars onto my skin and then burning through old scars, making them weep. Eventually when he realised my cries of pain were not down to him, he grew bored and left me.
*
I had been lying in the cold cell for many hours, almost oblivious to what was going on around me, unable to move, to talk, just trapped in my body, when Austin came back. He shone a light into my eyes, and felt my pulse. Had I died, it certainly felt like I had. He spoke to me though I couldn’t hear it. But his familiarity in my endless darkness sparked something deep inside, curiosity, hope maybe. My body stirred and I took a deep breath as I emerged briefly from my deep hole that I had dug for myself
‘Austin?’
‘Hey, you’re awake.’
Barely.
He looked down at my wounds, with disgust and started to bathe them again.
‘Part of me thinks I shouldn’t bathe your wounds, shouldn’t keep healing you, that if you died, if I let you die, then at least the torture, the pain would be over,’ he said quietly.
‘You could slit my throat,’ I muttered quietly. ‘Then it would all be over very quickly.’
Austin’s jaw clenched angrily.
I shifted slightly to look at him. ‘Come on Austin, a week or so ago, you would have happily put a knife through my heart, you had been ordered to do so, and you would have done it. Now when I want you to, when I need you to do it, you shy away from it?’
‘Yes I would have killed you, but now…’ he trailed off. ‘Well it’s becoming increasingly harder to continually follow Adam’s orders.’
I sighed angrily. Even my declared enemies wouldn’t help me to die. My torture would continue. But it wasn’t the torture from Adam that bothered me, it was the torture of breathing, of living without Seth that was agonizing.
Austin finished bathing my wounds, then looking nervously at the cell door, he fished out two more tablets from his pocket. He offered them to me.
I eyed them. They had helped me to sleep before. If I couldn’t die then sleep would be a welcome relief for a few hours.
I nodded and Austin unclipped the strap around my chest, helped me up into an awkward sitting position and helped me to take the tablets. I lay back down again and closed my eyes waiting for sleep to take me.
I heard the cell door close and I waited.
Just as I was standing on the edge of sleep, just before I fell into my dreams, I thought of Seth again, thought about my last dream where I had been able to kiss and touch and hold him. And with that same peculiar sucking sensation, of being ripped through a long tunnel, I was suddenly in the sunny woods again.
Seth was pacing nervously through the tiny clearing, almost as if he was waiting for me. I could get used to these dreams, even though the grief felt fresher, more raw when I woke up, even though I knew the pain in my heart would burn through me as it had this morning, I couldn’t help running to him now, wrapping my arms tightly round him, breathing in his glorious scent.
Seth pushed me away, his hands on my shoulders. I sighed with frustration. Was every one of my dreams with Seth going to start this way?
‘Eve, where are you?’ Seth asked angrily.
‘Here with you, where I belong,’ I said, reaching out for him, trying to pull myself tightly against him, but he held me away.
‘Eve, this is important, please tell me where Adam has you?’
I ignored him. I wasn’t going to talk about Adam again. I just wanted to hold him, to kiss him before I woke up again.
I leaned forward, reaching up to kiss him.
‘Damn it Eve, will you stop trying to kiss me.’
I stepped back as if he had physically punched me. I couldn’t stand the rejection washing through me. If Seth wasn’t going to kiss me, then I wasn’t going to hang around here being tormented by my own dreams. I turned away from him, tears filling my eyes as I walked through the trees.
I heard him follow me and it was his turn to swing me round to face him angrily. I flinched away from him but he caught hold of me again, holding me tight.
His face softened a bit, his eyes tender, as he brought his face closer to mine, so close I could smell his breath, feel it warm on my skin.
‘Evie, if you tell me what I want to know, I promise I’ll kiss you. I’ll do whatever you want me to do, just tell me where you are,’
Eager to please, I found the words blurting from my mouth. ‘The Oraculum’s castle, he’s taken over there now, the Oraculum are no longer there, he thinks himself as some kind of king. I’m in one of the cells underneath the castle, he has my powers blocked and there is some kind of electric field, like the Reapers had, stopping the Guardians from finding me.’ I leaned forward to claim my reward but Seth stepped back, anger clouding his face once more.
‘Damn it, I’ve been going the wrong way, I was heading for Aquil, for his castle. I thought he had taken you there. I didn’t thin
k he would take you to the Oraculum’s castle, they wouldn’t stand for him torturing you. I didn’t think about them not being there, they’ve always been there,’ he muttered angrily to himself. ‘I’m so far away from you now, maybe five days, maybe less if I run flat out and don’t rest,’ he said thoughtfully.
‘Seth damn it, will you get over here…’
Seth crossed the gap so quickly between us, kissed me fiercely but briefly then stepped back as I was hungrily reaching for more.
‘Eve I will find you, I’ll be there as soon as I can, don’t give up.’ Then he was gone, vanished from the woods, from my grasp, leaving me empty and cold once more.
And then I was back in my cell, grief pounding through every heartbeat. What had the dream meant? Seth was dead, I knew that. So what was my subconscious trying to tell me by making me think he was coming for me? I racked my brain, forcing the feeling of grief to the back of my mind so I could focus on the meaning of it. My subconscious was trying to give me hope, it could feel me giving up and it was trying to give me something to fight for, but in reality there was none, there was nothing left in me anymore.
I thought of Seth, thought of how I would never see him again and I found myself struggling to breathe. How could I fight for a world without him in? I thought about how furious he was in the dream, how angry he would be with me if he knew I was giving up. If I died now, then his death, the death of all the others, the lifelong pledge the Guardians had made for me would be for nothing. I had to honour Seth’s death, he had died for me and I couldn’t just give up now. I would fight for my life, and when the saving of the world was done with, I could give up then. I was good at compartmentalising my feelings, I would push the grief away and deal with it later. Adam was not going to win this fight. A cold furious anger replaced my grief. A long suppressed vengeful wrath, the kind I had only felt once before, when the Reapers killed Clementine. I would destroy Adam for what he had done to Seth. I would get out of here and kill him.
I looked down at the restraints binding me tightly to the table. I wiggled my wrist trying to free it of the binds, but the straps were done up very tightly. But I wasn’t going to give up that easily. I pulled, I twisted, I wriggled my wrist until it was bleeding. With the new wetness surrounding it, it made it slippery. I pulled at it and I grunted as the strap tore at my skin. Blood poured from the wound as I yanked viciously at it and eventually it slipped free of the restraints.
With one hand free I quickly managed to undo the strap on my other wrist, the one across my chest, then sat up and undid the straps around my ankles. I yanked out the drip in my arm, which bled as well, but I couldn’t care about the pain, not yet. I pulled off all the cables and swung my legs over the side of the table. I hopped down onto the floor, but my legs buckled beneath me as they weren’t used to being used. I scrambled up off the floor but the scuffle had alerted the attention of the Guardians positioned outside my door as they both suddenly burst through in to the room. Austin and another I didn’t know. I fell into the cat stance, I didn’t relish fighting against Austin, but I had to get out, had to kill Adam, I would fight them for my freedom. The other Guardian suddenly lunged for me, but Austin pulled him back.
‘No Damien,’ Austin said eyeing me warily. Confused I kept my fists raised.
The Guardian called Damien looked equally confused. ‘Austin our orders…’
‘This is not right, you know that. Damien, we can’t let her die, we can’t let Adam torture her like this.’
Damien shook his head, angrily. ‘What are you saying, that we help her to escape?’
Austin shook his head. ‘ I’m not saying that we help her, that would be against the orders. I’m saying that we turn a blind eye, I’m saying that she got this far on her own, what if we opened the door to stop her and she managed to get past us and…’
Damien shook his head fiercely and lunged for me. I raised my fists watching his hands carefully, but out the corner of my eye, behind Damien I saw Austin close his eyes, sighing heavily as he lunged forward at Damien’s side. A two pronged attack, I was going to have to fight them both at the same time. I was ready. But the next moment Austin had grabbed Damien by the head and in a quick violent movement he had brutally snapped Damien’s neck, killing him instantly. My mouth was dry as Damien crumpled to the floor.
I looked up at Austin in confusion. ‘What are you doing?’ I whispered.
‘The right thing Eve, now go.’
I raced for the door, almost smelling the freedom and ran straight into Adam who was lurking in the shadows of the corridor. I didn’t even hesitate, with the cold anger still coursing through me, I punched him hard in the face, breaking his nose with a satisfying crunch. He staggered back and I went to punch him again, but my hand just hit a solid wall surrounding him.
Adam raised one hand and I was pushed back into the cell with his powers, until I was standing next to Austin. Adam followed me in, his face stony. His eyes flittered to Austin and I knew what was going to happen next. Austin was going to die. I reached for my powers, stretched and pushed against the restraints as hard as I could, visualizing a thick impenetrable shield around him, but it was hopeless.
‘Adam this isn’t right, she’s the saviour of the world and you’re killing her…’ Austin protested.
I closed my eyes, knowing instinctively that this was the wrong thing to say and I was right.
‘I am the Sentinel, I am the saviour of the world. The Oraculum have chosen me now. She is nothing, NOTHING!’ Adam roared and I braced myself for the moment of Austin’s death.
But there was silence. I opened my eyes and Adam was looking at Austin in confusion. He walked slowly towards Austin and raised his hand, as he got close it was evident that his hand could not go anywhere near Austin, that there was a solid wall blocking him from harm.
I let out a laugh and Adam’s furious eyes flicked to me.
‘You?’ he hissed. ‘You’re doing this?’
Austin turned to face me. ‘Eve kill him, destroy him,’ he yelled.
I looked down at my hand in shock, and it glowed with a white hot heat. I looked up at Adam, his eyes bulging furiously. But then something hit me with the force of a train and I was thrown so hard into the wall that the wall cracked. I crumpled to the floor, banging my head painfully. Agony coursed through me, the first time I had felt any real pain since Adam had caught me. I struggled to breathe, all the air knocked out of me. The room span, wildly. I blindly reached for my powers, but I could feel nothing now.
Adam was suddenly standing over me, fastening his hands round my throat, squeezing my wind pipe, choking me. Austin grabbed Adam by the waist and threw him into the wall, smacking his head. Blood poured from his wound. I heard footsteps running towards us, as Austin punched Adam hard in the face and in the stomach. But the small hope I had that this was help, more Guardians come to rescue me, was quashed when the first Guardian in the room grabbed Austin and broke his neck, savagely. Letting the body crumple to the floor, the Guardian turned on Adam.
‘Your Majesty, you’re hurt, let me take you to the infirmary.’
Adam staggered to his feet, holding his head. I smiled at the amount of blood pouring down his face, at the swollen bruises already forming on his cheeks.
Two more Guardians entered the room.
Adam looked at me furiously. ‘Tie her up. And sedate her. I want to know why the hell she was able to use her powers, someone is going to pay for this. I was assured that she wouldn’t be able to. I nearly died,’ he muttered as he walked up the corridor.
The two Guardians, dressed smartly in the green uniform of the Royal Guard, advanced on me. Their faces were half hidden by their shiny peaked caps.
‘I’ll deal with this,’ said one of them. ‘You should tend to our King.’
My eyes rolled back in my head as I struggled to get up.
‘Are you sure, if she can use her powers…’
‘Then our King would be dead by now, she’s defenceless,
pathetic, she won’t put up a fight.’
The other Guardian must have agreed with this assessment because he left. The first Guardian closed the door behind him and walked slowly towards me. My chance of freedom was looking smaller and smaller by the second. I had one last hope, to fight this Guardian and win. I coughed, tasting blood in my mouth where I had evidently bitten my tongue when I was thrown into the wall. Finding the anger still in my veins, I forced myself onto my knees, and pulled myself up using the wall for leverage. I looked at my attacker, tried to focus on him, on his weak points but he swam out of focus and then split into two. The room danced in front of my eyes, moving him away from me and closer without him actually moving. When he got closer I took a swing for him, but my fist only made contact with air as I staggered back against the wall. The darkness of unconsciousness bled into my eyes, but I shook it off. I had to fight, for Seth. I kicked out at the figure that was no more than a shadow now looming towards me. I lost my balance and fell forwards and the strong arms of the Guardian were around me before I hit the floor.
‘That’s it Eve, keep fighting, don’t give up,’ he whispered, rolling me over in his arms.
I looked up into his face, but the room was already spinning out of control. The face was one I knew, but one that certainly didn’t belong in this green uniform.
But my body, as shocked as my mind was at seeing his face again, closed down, protecting me against his treachery. As he scooped me up into his arms, the room went black.
Chapter 12
When I woke I was back on the bed, tied firmly in place. I instinctively reached out for my powers but they were blocked again, hiding in the corners of my mind. I looked round the cell, the bodies of Austin and Damien, the Guardians that had died for me or because of me were gone. But I was pleased to see the splatter of blood, which marked Adam’s wounds, still on the wall. The wound on my wrist hurt. I looked down. It looked bruised, sore and swollen. But strangely this wasn’t a fresh wound, it looked old, maybe a few days old. How long had I been out for? Had I been sedated as Adam had instructed or was I just waking up from unconsciousness. The drip had been reattached. I felt groggy, exhausted, weak and hot. I tried to remember the last minutes before I blacked out. Something important. Something familiar.