‘But it’s no joke when I say that, you guys are meant to be together,’ he continued. ‘You both deserve peace and normality to live your lives and raise your son. I hope you all fill the cabin with as much warmth and love as my wife and I did.’
Chris’s eyes misted, and tears gathered. It was a rare occasion that broke Chris’s tough exterior, and I reached out and squeezed his arm.
‘Did we finish writing our vows?’ Chris asked, and we both nodded.
Anna and I faced one another, and she smiled encouragingly. My heart thumped, I licked my lips and begged my mind to remember the words. I started, and staring into Anna’s eyes, the words flowed easily.
‘When I first met you I thought you were an angel,’ I said. ‘You were the angel that protected me in the darkness, the angel that put up with my whiny, terrified little boy act.’
Anna chuckled.
‘But you are. You are an angel, the person who’s had my back no matter what the situation was; someone compassionate, caring and strong.
‘Here, right now, I promise to return those things to you, to protect you, to be with you, and to care for you through thick and thin.
‘Forever.’
Anna swallowed and lightly brushed her eyes. She steeled herself, and spoke.
‘I’ve never thought of you as whiny. Never even considered the possibility that you’re weak, because you’re one of the strongest people I know,’ she said. ‘You were just a regular guy, a guy thrown into a situation no one should have been, and through all of it, you showed how brave and kind you are, how generous and powerful.’
She took a deep breath.
‘I promise you, Lucas, I will always be your angel. To always be that light you can rely on when you’re surrounded by dark. To keep you tethered to sanity when you yourself are at your darkest.
‘I will be here, by your side, always.’
Damn it…
I forced my eyes not to blink, not to close and send tears down my cheeks.
‘Do you, Lucas Bishop, take Anna Gordon, to be your lawfully wedded wife, to love and to cherish, through joy and sorrow, sickness and health, for as long as you both shall live?’ Chris asked.
‘I do,’ I replied, ‘I’ll follow you to wherever you go.’
‘And do you, Anna Gordon, take, Lucas Bishop, to be your partner in life, to share his path, equal in love, to honour and cherish, through the good and the bad, until death do you part?’ Chris said.
‘I do,’ Anna whispered before she spoke louder, ‘and not even death will part us.’
We smiled into each other’s eyes while Brian stepped up with Alex. In our son’s hands was a small box with two sparkling, but ordinary rings. We both took one, and slipped them with hands that shook onto each other’s finger.
‘By the power vested in me by Brian’s internet savvy,’ Chris beamed, ‘I pronounce you husband and wife!’
I clasped Anna’s hand in mine, entwined my fingers with hers and we laughed. Alex, Brian and Chris joined in with happy sounds that filled the clearing. It was perfect, it would always be perfect, and I would remember the day for the rest of my life.
‘Kiss her!’ Brian cried and looked happier than he had been for a while.
I grabbed Anna into my arms, tilted her and joined our lips. Tears rubbed on both of our cheeks until it was impossible to discern which one of us they had come from. We came up for air.
And our worlds shattered.
‘JESUS!’ Brian screamed, and Anna gasped.
Alex fell through the air as I turned my head, before I could react.
And landed on his feet.
We watched, awestruck and disorientated as my son’s skin rippled. It bunched and rolled like waves. He didn’t appear to be in pain, but a ripping noise filled the air as he grew. He grew taller, his arms and legs thickened, and instead of the two month old baby we had had seconds before, a child stood who looked around four-years-old. No one could move. No one could breathe as we stared at my son. No one moved a muscle until Chris grunted and collapsed.
My head snapped round as a cylindrical object soared through the arch where Chris had been upright, and exploded in a blinding white light. The force of its explosion knocked me from my feet and I crashed down the stairs to land in a heap on the dirt. I opened my eyes, and couldn’t see. Everything was white.
‘Anna!’ I shouted.
I tried to stand only to have someone barrel into me from the side. We smacked the table holding the CD player, and both sprawled to the ground, and the music restarted. My eyes were clearing, but my brain couldn’t make sense of the images it was trying to process. Things shifted and became echoes of solid objects. I managed to stand, only for my legs to be pulled from underneath. The air burst from my lungs as I hit the earth, and someone crawled on top.
‘Anna!’ I croaked.
It wasn’t Anna though on top of me. I couldn’t focus on the man’s face, but his black clothes blurred in my vision. The knife in his hand shifted into three separate glinting blades. He raised it and I brought my foot from behind, my toes straight at his skull. He yelped and the blade fell, my arms were pinned, but I lifted my legs, crossed them around his neck, and pushed him off.
My surroundings began to reform, splitting less and less. My attacker was on his feet at the same time as I was, and he had his knife. He swung and I shifted, I moved out of range and pushed his arching attack away. I bent the same arm I used to defend and crushed my elbow into his nose. The man staggered back and dropped the knife.
‘Alex!’ Anna’s scream pierced the air.
I panicked. Before I could contemplate anything, before I could align my future actions with their consequences, I snatched the blade from the ground and buried it into my attacker’s skull. The man jerked and stilled, then collapsed.
I let him fall with the blade still embedded and spun.
Anna was at the bottom stair of the platform. Chris still lay under the arch. But there was a new body standing there, a female I thought I’d never see again, someone who had given her life or so we thought to save us. And in her arms she held my son.
Jane McDonald was alive.
The raven haired, navy blue eyed, mid-thirties aged woman stood holding my son, and staring at Anna’s wide mouth.
She survived! Jane actually survived! And she’s came to save us! She’s-
My thoughts cut off, a gun appeared in Jane’s hand, and a new voice erupted in my head.
You’ve been betrayed!
‘No!’ I screamed and the word ripped my throat as it erupted.
But it was too late, the gun exploded and Anna’s head whipped back. She fell as if in slow motion. I stared unable to comprehend. It was as if I could hear the thud when she hit the floor. Jane trained her gun on me.
I dived towards the treeline and managed to avoid the shot. Another smacked the tree and grazed my arm, but I barely felt it.
Anna! Anna! Anna!
The gun’s explosions stopped, and I dared to peek round. Jane was gone, and from the front of the cabin I heard an engine roar, and then fade. My son had vanished with her. I flew from where I crouched, and raced to Anna. Brian lay close by, but I had no idea if he was alive. I dropped to my wife’s side and my hands hovered over her body.
What do I do!? What do I do!?
Her chest rose agonisingly slow. Blood leaked from the wound in her head. Soon those breaths would stop.
‘No, no, no, no, no, no,’ I gasped. ‘No, no, no, no, no, no! Come on! Please, Anna, please!’
Tears rolled down my face and replaced my earlier ecstatic ones. I grabbed Anna’s shoulders.
‘Pleeeease!’ I cried. ‘No, no, no, no.’
I stared helplessly. My eyes were wide. My eyes were wide…
‘Anna, I love you,’ I whispered and grabbed her in my arms. ‘I love you.’
That was the first time I’d said those three simple words I meant with all my heart to her. Why hadn’t I said it before? Why hadn’t I said
it before!?
‘I love you.’
And as I held my wife, as I cried anguish filled pleas, the world heard. The sky had darkened. Clouds rolled over the blue where the sun had been and ripped the light from around me, and as if on cue, rain dropped from the heavens.
All your questions will be answered in the finale:
Parents of Insanity (Coming 2015)
Child of Recklessness (Trials of Strength Book 2) Page 24