by Tom Mohan
“Tobias is right,” Eoin said. “If we give up, we die this day, and the world we have known will end. If we fight, we might see tomorrow. I’m fighting.”
Marcas nodded. Fallon observed determination in his face that she had not seen in a long time. It was good to see her brother back to something of his old self.
“I’m fighting, too,” Marcas said.
Nidawi turned to Fallon.
“Oh, hey, what’s a little end-of-world chaos to the Embodiment of Love? I’m down.”
“I’ll take that to be a yes,” Tobias said. “Then we’re done talking. Dawn is almost upon us, and we’ve got a lot to do. Let’s get on with it.”
Brianna sat still, afraid to move. Darkness and silence surrounded her like a tomb.
She had no idea how long it had been since she’d been left there. Hours? Days? So long that her body had grown stiff with lack of movement and cold.
The fae had untied her before leaving her alone, but still she sat, unable to move from the hard chair because she was so afraid. In all the time she had sat, nothing had moved—there had been not a single sound—yet she was not alone. This she knew. That was why she was afraid, why she sat as still as possible in the hard chair. Something was in here with her, something she feared more than anything, though she did not know what it was.
Brianna closed her eyes, and nothing about the scene around her changed. The dark was still dark. She thought of Paulie and the lost look on his face when she had been dragged away from him.
“Brianna! Don’t leave me, Brianna!”
There had been no confidence in him then, none of the strength she had witnessed on the journey through the Great Nothing. He had been the same Paulie she had known for so many years, and he had been terrified. The image of his pleading face, of the way he’d pulled against his captors to be near her, floated before her.
Oh, Paulie, how we’ve failed you. How I’ve failed you.
She could not get that thought out of her head—how she had failed those who had relied on her, even if they did not know it. Her family had been given a sacred task, and, somehow, they had failed. Had it been her fault? Should she have seen what was to come? Yes, she should have. That was her task as the Seer.
She should have known.
Shadows danced in the darkness around her. Brianna wrapped her arms around herself as the feeling of another presence grew stronger. Her breathing came in gasps as she fought off panic. She saw nothing, heard nothing, but knew it was there, knew it could see her. She squeezed her eyes closed as a child might when confronted with something they did not want to see, hoping it would go away on its own.
Instead, the darkness behind her eyelids swirled like the shadows beyond, pulsing with colors and shapes. The shapes coalesced into images that slipped through her consciousness faster than she could latch onto them. She saw blood and violence, death and chaos.
Faster and faster the images came. She was helpless to stop them, helpless to escape them. She saw the mangled bodies of people she knew and of complete strangers. It was not only Halden’s Mill she was seeing. The visions raced through humanity like an unquenchable fire. War and destruction, death and hate—these were the ways of the world into which she was seeing.
“Silly Brianna, the end was inevitable.”
The visions faded, and Brianna found herself curled on the hard ground, her face damp with sweat and tears. She opened her eyes, but the darkness had not changed. She sat up, her wide eyes scanning the blackness.
“Paulie?”
Footsteps shuffled nearby, and a form materialized from the darkness. “I’m here, silly Brianna. You left me with the bad guys.”
“No, Paulie. I’d never leave you.”
“You left me.”
Though the darkness remained, Brianna clearly saw Paulie standing before her. His face was swollen and bruised, his Batman costume torn and bloody. Blood oozed from a gaping wound in the center of his chest. Brianna gasped and tried to kick away, but her back hit the chair on which she had been sitting.
“They hurt me, Brianna. They hurt me, and they killed me. Pretty soon they will hurt you, too.”
Hot tears rolled down her face. “You’re not Paulie,” she whispered.
“What was that, silly Brianna? I didn’t hear you.”
“I said, you’re not Paulie!”
The thing that looked like Paulie shifted, and Fallon stood where Paulie had been a moment ago. “They hurt me too, Bri. They raped me before they killed me.” Fallon was almost naked, her clothes torn from her bloodied body.
“They killed us, too.” Brianna spun her head to the left where her parents emerged from the darkness. Both of them were covered in blood, blood that still flowed from their slit throats. “You weren’t there to help us,” her mother said. “We were all alone.”
“We always took care of you,” her father said, his voice wet with blood. “Where were you when we needed you?”
“I needed you, too, Brianna.” This time from her right. She did not want to look, did not want to see more, but she did look. Conall—or the beast he’d become—glared at her with his wild eyes and scratch-covered face.
Brianna’s mind screamed at her to flee, but there was nowhere to go, no escape. She knew Conall was dead. Did that mean that the other images she was seeing were real as well? Were her parents and Fallon really casualties in this war that had taken them by such surprise? No, she refused to accept such a thing.
She closed her eyes and buried her face in her hands, but the visions assailed her still. Her family vanished, only to be replaced by images of Halden’s Mill. In these visions, the town was not the peaceful place she had known all her life. She watched as flames danced from rooftop to rooftop. Cars and trucks crashed into storefronts, leaving a trail of fiery debris in their wake. Bodies of those she had loved and cared for littered the streets. Screams and curses echoed as hatred, lust, and a multitude of carnal emotions drove them to insanity.
Never had Brianna experienced visions with such clarity and detail. Could this be real?
“That’s the question, isn’t it? Is what you are seeing real or illusion?”
Brianna looked up. Liza McCarthy stood over her, arms folded across her chest and a slight smile on her lips. She was dressed in a shimmering gown that clung to her body as though custom made for her. Brianna knew that she had never seen a woman so beautiful—a true fairy princess. Simply being in her presence made Brianna feel small and worthless.
“You have always been so certain of your visions, haven’t you?” Liza walked a slow circle around Brianna. “You thought you knew everything, were prepared for anything. You weren’t prepared for me, though, were you?”
“You aren’t Liza.”
Liza completed her circle and dropped her gaze to where Brianna sat. “Oh? You are certain of that, are you? You are a fool from a family of fools. Your lives have been for nothing. You have failed. We have won.”
“It isn’t over yet.” Brianna’s words carried much more confidence than she felt. She watched in horror as the thing that had been Liza shifted again, the beautiful image melting away and forming once again a vision of Paulie.
“Silly Brianna. It’s time for you to die.” Paulie’s right arm lifted, but it was no human arm. A long, curved appendage with a sharp stinger at the tip rose before Brianna, looking much like a scorpion’s tail. The stinger twitched once before flashing out faster than Brianna’s eye could follow. It struck her in the thigh, just above the knee. She cried out and rolled away as the arm pulled back for another strike.
“It would be so easy to finish you now,” the Paulie-thing said. “But that wouldn’t be any fun, would it? There is more than enough poison in you to kill three of your kind, but it will be slow and painful. Just as you deserve.” He turned away and then paused. Brianna heard him laugh. “I’d like to tell you to enjoy your last few hours of life, but you won’t. I, however, will enjoy your screams very much. Goodbye, silly Brianna.”
Brianna lay on the cold ground clutching her stricken leg. She could feel the poison as it began its steady flow through her body. The pain was not yet intense, but it increased with each heartbeat. She could feel the poison as it moved up her leg. It began like the heat of infection but quickly turned white-hot as if scalding each nerve.
Another minute and she found herself shaking uncontrollably as fever and chills washed over her. Her mouth was dry and had a vile taste that seemed to rise up from her bowels. She cried out, not only from pain but also the hopeless unfairness of it all.
Her mind flashed back, seeking anything she might have missed, any clue in her visions that could have prepared her for the fae attack. Nothing came to her. It was getting too hard to think, anyway. The pain had grown so intense that it demanded her full attention. She heard screams and dimly realized they were her own.
I am a Finn. I’m not dead yet. There is hope as long as there is breath.
Brianna forced her mind away from the pain, away from her circumstances, and focused on the one thing that had protected her throughout her long life. Her thoughts turned to prayers and her prayers to inner calm. The pain was still there, but it was distant, unimportant.
She sharpened her focus and let her mind pull away from her physical self. She was aware of a presence flowing along with her, a being of love and power. It said nothing, did nothing, but its simple existence was enough. Her mind sped away from the darkness and pain toward the one place she knew so well.
Home.
Fallon was all but blind as she slipped through the fog. The rest of her senses were on high alert. She already regretted agreeing to go back into town by herself. What did she think she could do?
I’m blind as the proverbial bat in this crap and all but lost in the tiny town I’ve spent my entire life in. And I’m going to save the world?
She looked around for anything that would tell her where she was. Twice already, she’d had to walk up to a house to see enough of it to get her bearings.
She had made her way to Church Street, aptly named for the four churches that lay along the oak-shaded way. Church Street would take her one block from the town square. That had been her intended target when she’d first left the mill.
Along the way, though, she found herself aiming for a different destination. She needed to see Brianna’s house for herself. That made her trek through town a bit more difficult. Brianna’s house and the old mill were on opposite sides of town, and Fallon had no way of knowing what she might come across over that distance. She could only hope that whoever and whatever might be out there with her was as blind as she was.
Fallon’s nerves were stretched so taut that she thought she might either fly apart or crumble in a ball on the ground. She stopped once more to listen for anything moving in the fog. Compared to their earlier adventure, the place was unnaturally quiet. Nothing moved. The soft patter of moisture dripping from the trees was the only sound. The heavy fog had soaked everything. She felt damp and sticky.
She crossed the street and cut across the grounds of the high school, keeping close to the buildings to make herself as invisible as possible. That should not have been a problem in such conditions but, even in the dense fog, she felt exposed.
A shadow moved through the mist in the school’s small parking lot. Fallon froze where she was and watched as it glided across her path. She did not feel the malevolence from earlier, but that didn’t make her feel any better. Every unknown had to be considered deadly.
Her gaze followed the shadow until it faded into the mist. She waited a full two minutes before starting off again. The crunch of gravel as she crossed the parking lot sounded explosive in her ears. Whatever had crossed here minutes ago had been deathly silent. She almost panicked then. She knew she had no power against anything she might run into, no protection against fae or human. They said she had the power of love, but what had that gotten her? Almost raped by a cop, that’s what.
For a moment, she considered finding a place to hide until everything settled down. The Crawfords had moved out of their house only a week ago. It sat empty less than a block from where she was. No one would even know she was there.
What’s wrong with you, Fallon? When did you become such a crybaby? You’re a Finn. Get your act together and get with it.
Fallon knew the thought was her own, though she heard it in Conall’s voice. She smiled as memories of his teasing flooded her mind. I miss you already, Conall. Oh, how I miss you.
The mental chiding did little to calm her nerves, but it was enough to get her moving.
She started off in the same direction the shadow had gone, but where she was pretty certain it had continued down the street, she cut between two houses to a grass-topped alleyway. The damp turf silenced her steps.
She hastened her pace while continuing to be cautious of anything that might be lurking among the houses on either side of her. She crossed two more streets without meeting another living soul. It was as though the town had ceased to exist and she was left wandering an abandoned movie set of nothing but empty props. She hadn’t thought of where the alley let out until she crossed a street and found herself in a wide-open space. Fog swirled around her as she took a few cautious steps. When the first marker came into view, she knew she had entered the cemetery.
Cemeteries had never bothered Fallon. She’d always found them peaceful and beautiful. The Mill cemetery had always felt a place of refuge. Like her, it seemed to have always been there, always been a part of her. She felt no threat among the dead. Their presence was a comforting assurance that she was not alone. She moved through the headstones while keeping away from the gravel road that encircled and dissected the place. She soon had her bearings and cut off in the direction that would bring her out almost at Brianna’s front door.
Fallon inhaled a deep breath that smelled of damp, fresh-cut grass. She loved the cemetery in the spring and summer when it was constantly mowed and always had that special scent. She took another breath, but this time something else lingered in the air, a rotten scent that she had encountered earlier that night.
“Did you miss me, girl?” The words seeped out of the mist, carried on a breath that stank of putrid meat. “I missed you, and I’m still very hungry.”
Fallon spun in a circle. She didn’t know where to go. Which way to flee.
“You should have run while you had the chance, girl. There is nothing you can do here except die.” Black Annis’s laughter came from all around her.
Fallon thought she saw something move through the fog to her right. Without thought, she took off in the other direction. Headstones, large and small, created a macabre obstacle course that threatened to end her flight in a bone-jarring collision. She dodged around a knee-high marker only to catch her toe on a much smaller one that sent her crashing to the ground. She missed cracking her skull against another stone by inches.
The fall drove the air from her lungs and sent dots of light dancing across her vision. It crossed her mind to stay down, to give up and surrender herself to the inevitable.
That’s not my thought. That’s Annis and her tricks.
Fallon rolled onto her back and pushed herself up on her elbows. Her head spun with the movement. She took a few deep breaths and forced herself to settle down. I beat her once. I can do it again. The thought inspired little confidence. She used a headstone to pull herself to her feet. The stench was all around her, but the crone had gone silent.
Love is my power. That’s what everyone keeps telling me. Fallon closed her eyes and concentrated on love. At first, she could not get ahold of such a nebulous concept. What is love, anyway?
Finally, she pushed her thoughts away and let her feelings flow free. There was terror, loneliness, and pain but hidden within she also found compassion, empathy, and a deep sense of meaning. Around her, she sensed the world with a clarity she’d never known. It was filled with darkness and shadow, but there was also goodness and light.
Darknes
s moved behind her, so complete that the light could not penetrate it. Hatred radiated from it, but Fallon kept her mind in the light. She moved away from the darkness that she knew to be Black Annis and slipped through the grave markers with more confidence. As long as she kept her mind calm, she knew where the enemy stalked.
Fallon stumbled through a narrow ditch and found herself on a blacktop road. She was only a block from Brianna’s house. Lightning flashed above, igniting the mist in blue-white light. The crash of thunder followed. She had hoped the storm had passed, but apparently it had only taken a breather. Wind pushed against her, and the mist swirled as though a huge hand swept through it. Another bolt splintered the sky, and Fallon realized she had lost track of Annis.
She crossed the road and sprinted through the knee-high grass that covered the two empty lots that separated the road from Brianna’s house. The wind grew stronger. It blew against her as she ran, as though trying to stop her from reaching her destination. Only the hope of safety kept her moving. Just when she was sure she could go no further, the barn behind Brianna’s house loomed out of the darkness. She stumbled around it and started toward the front of the house when she saw something that froze her where she was.
The back door was open.
The image was so alien to her that it took a moment to set in. In all her life, she had never seen the back door open. No one had.
She moved toward it as if approaching a strange dog, unsure if she would be welcomed or bitten. The door was a dark hole in the dull gray of the early morning. Fallon peered inside, but it was too dark to see anything other than the dim outlines of the kitchen. She listened for a moment and, after hearing nothing but silence, stepped inside. The house that had always been a place of warmth and contentment now felt empty and dead.
Fallon’s foot hit something that slid across the tile floor. She took out the flashlight that she’d crammed into the back of her jeans before leaving the mill, not daring to use it outside. She clicked it. For a moment, she thought she must have been in the wrong house. Food was scattered everywhere, plates and glasses smashed. The small television that Brianna had kept on the counter to watch while baking lay on its side in the sink. Her gaze swept over the mess a second time.