“Okay, then. Let her go.”
“Oh, Lucy Higgins, I will let your friend go as soon as I have what I want.”
Lucy looked at Kat, who was standing with the reapers holding her in place. It was a moment before Kat realized what Lucy was doing, and then it hit her.
“Lucy, no, you can’t do this; Lucy don’t!” Her voice was pure panic as tears sprang from her eyes. Breaking free of the reapers she threw herself at Lucy and pled with her not to give up.
Lucy didn’t say anything and the two reapers again grabbed Kat.
“Lucy, don’t! No! No!” she screamed, fighting the reapers all the way to the door.
Dismissing the remaining reapers from the room, Sukabra approached Lucy. She looked one last time at Kat. Finally giving in to the sorrow of death, she felt a solitary warm tear glide down her cheek.
Kat pulled at the reaper’s arms, but they were too strong. She flailed her body and screamed for Lucy to fight, to do whatever she could.
Lucy shut her eyes as she felt Sukabra’s hands close around the sides of her face and she was standing on the bright warm beach of Sunset Bay.
Sitting in her fallen tree there was nothing more to do. There were so many things she regretted in that moment, but it was the only way to save all of them. She wondered if she was being naïve, but it didn’t matter. If there was a spark of hope that Sukabra would follow through on his promise, she would sacrifice herself to save Kat and the others.
The effects of the extraction were beginning to take her down into the abyss of despair. The winds started to pick up on the beach; her haven was changing. It was being destroyed and all she could do was think about Benjamin, and how she had failed him.
Looking toward the ocean she saw that it was churning harshly and the sand was whipping up along the shore. Those moments were her last few before the pain and torture would begin, and she looked down the beach one last time.
As the wind swept the sand into a frenzy, she saw something that made her stand up from her perch in spite of the drowning sorrow she was feeling. It was a person walking, no, running toward her. The whirlwinds of sand and water were too violent to make out an identity. Lucy held her hand in front of her to look through the tempest when she heard her name being carried on the wind. It was faint, but the person was yelling her name. She wanted to respond, but there was no way they could communicate, so she ran. She recalled seeing Kat in her haven and not being able to reach her. But, the person she was seeing couldn’t have been Kat. Lucy knew she hadn’t invited Kat at that moment. Kat was being held by reapers who were undoubtedly keeping her subdued by peeling off little bits of her light. The person she saw had to be someone else. She wondered if she was seeing what Sukabra was looking for: the new queen.
At that moment, Lucy decided she had to know who the queen was, and she pushed her feet harder. But the more she pushed, the worse her environment became, until the wind pushed her sideways into the water. She felt the force of the elements trying to slow her down. It was getting too difficult when suddenly she felt her body drained of all its energy. Collapsing to the ground was all she could do. As she rolled to her side, lying in the surf, she looked up at the figure trying to advance toward her. She still couldn’t tell who it was or whether it was a man or a woman, and no matter how she tried or how the figure tried, they were not getting any closer.
Lucy started to cry as the icy waves splashed over her, covering her with skin shredding blasts of sand and debris. There was no more strength left in her body and she sobbed as her body rose and fell with the white pummelings of the surf. It was then that she thought only of Benjamin. She thought of how much she loved him and how much she wished he were there with her as she died, but he wasn’t and he wouldn’t be.
As she closed her eyes, a final salty blast overtook her. She coughed violently as she felt the sting of water being inhaled through her nose. Having no choice but to give in to the extraction, she felt something grab her. It was pulling her onto the beach. Then she heard her name much closer. It was right in her face and she didn’t dare open her eyes, as she didn’t want the source of the voice to disappear.
“Lucy! Lucy, don’t give in. You can beat this, Lucy!”
The voice was Benjamin and he was there. Lucy opened her eyes and he was real. His wonderful face was there getting beaten by the wind and sand. He was pleading with her, a look of utter distress in his eyes.
“I have to,” she sobbed. “It’s the only way to keep you and Kat safe. He said he’d let her go.”
She cried still, and Benjamin grabbed her by her shoulders and pulled her up to a sitting position.
“You can beat him, Lucy; you can do it.”
“No, I can’t.”
“Yes, you can, I’ll help you. I’m here with you, but you have to decide to fight him or I can do nothing.”
“No, Benjamin. He’ll kill you, all of you.”
“Not if you fight him. You have more power than you think.”
Lucy felt nothing but hopelessness. She didn’t understand why Benjamin wanted her to fight so hard, and then it hit her. She was dying so he could live, but he wanted her to live so she could light his way home. Hopelessness turned to anger.
She looked him in the eyes, mustering all the strength she had left just to speak. “Why do you want me to live, Benjamin?”
He looked perfectly confused by the question. “I want you to live because I need you, Lucy.”
“You need me for what?”
Benjamin shook his head in confusion. “I don’t understand, Lucy. You need to fight this or you will die.”
“You don’t want me to die because I’m supposed to destroy all evil and make it easier for your queen to come back; that’s why you don’t want me to die!”
“No, Lucy,” he answered immediately. “That’s not true. I love you. I want you to live because I love you more than anything. I’ve loved you since the first time we touched. I felt a bond with you that defied anything I’ve ever felt in my lifetime. I want you to live because I’m madly in love with you and losing you would kill me from the inside out.”
Lucy looked stunned for a moment. From nowhere, all of the hopelessness of the extraction began to change. She suddenly wanted to live. She wanted to fight and she felt light from somewhere begin to seep back into her.
The two of them looked around as the wind began to die and the ocean calmed. Lucy felt the strength to stand so she did. Benjamin helped her up.
As the last violent whips of sand and wind blew past, Lucy remembered the person she had seen, the person she was fairly certain was the queen. When she looked again, the person was gone; Lucy had missed her chance to see who she was.
She looked at Benjamin then pulled herself into him; his familiar scent filled her with courage and hope and she knew she could defeat Sukabra.
Benjamin’s voice came suddenly. “You have to fight him now; he will overcome this.”
“How, how do I fight him?”
“You could fight him with your light and bring him here, but that would only slow him down, he will overcome it and kill you.” It was as though he were talking to himself, trying to come up with a solution. He stopped talking and looked to the ocean as if pondering something profound.
“What do I do, Benjamin? Help me.”
Benjamin looked her in the eyes. “You have to bridge the real world with your haven and kill him out there.”
She didn’t understand. “What do you mean?”
“You’ve done it before, I helped you do it. The dance; when we were in our havens, everyone saw us dancing because I bridged the two worlds. Our actions were the same in and out of the havens. I’m going to show you how to do that now.”
“Okay, do it; tell me how.”
“Usually we make reality mimic the haven, but we have to make the haven mimic reality the best we can this time. What are you doing out there; are you sitting, standing?”
“I’m sitting on a bed with my back t
o the wall.”
“Okay, sit down exactly how you remember sitting out there.”
Lucy sat down and crossed her legs. “Okay,” she signaled him to continue.
“You took my practice sword; is it anywhere near you at all that you can reach from a sitting position?”
Lucy looked up at him. “How do you know I have the practice sword?”
“Lucy, we don’t have time! Is it near you?”
She was surprised that he had already found it missing in only a few short hours.
“Yes, it’s on my back, in my bag.”
It was Benjamin’s turn to look intrigued. “How did he not see it?”
“Benjamin, we don’t have time! What do I do?”
“You need to simulate its position with your sword in here, can you do that?”
Lucy thought about it for a moment and pulled her sword from its scabbard. “We have to fold it in half,” she said, handing it to Benjamin.
He nodded approvingly, having figured out how she got the practice sword past Sukabra’s reapers. “How is it sitting in your bag?”
Lucy knew precisely where it sat as she could almost feel the sword’s guard still sticking in her back. She told him about the hole she had ripped and showed him where to put the sword. Bending down he held it in position.
“Okay, now I want you to—”
Without warning Lucy screamed and grabbed her head falling to her side. Searing pain shot through her and travelled down her spine. It was more painful than anything she could ever imagine and she writhed in the sand.
Benjamin dropped to his knees beside her. The winds began to pick up again. “You have to fight it Lucy. Focus your light, don’t let him take it.”
Lucy screamed again as physical pain ripped through her body.
“Focus, Lucy. Focus on something that makes life worth living. Think of something positive and push back with that.”
Between bolts of pain she thought of her father. She thought of him waking up and leaving the hospital. She thought of her mother standing by her, and she thought of Benjamin. She thought of being in his arms, walking hand in hand with him, growing old with him. She found strength again and the pain slowly subsided. The winds in the haven still ripped around them, which meant that Sukabra was still trying to gain control of her mind, but she would take that over the pain she had just felt.
Lucy sat up and patted her lower back signaling to Benjamin to put the sword back.
“Now I want you to do something that’s going to hurt because of what he’s doing to you, but it’s necessary. Are you ready?”
Whatever he wanted her to do couldn’t possibly be as painful as what she had just experienced. Taking a deep breath she nodded her head.
“You need to leave the haven, but only partially. It’s like stepping one foot out and keeping one foot in. Just focus on both places. It’s kind of tricky, but once you find yourself teetering between spaces, it’s easier to control, like catching your balance.”
“What do I do when I get there?”
“You need to grab the handle of your sword without him noticing. As soon as you have it, jump back. It’s going to hurt because he’s still trying to extract you, but you can do it.”
Lucy took a breath and closed her eyes. Slowly, she began to release herself from the haven and for a moment she could sense, smell, and feel both places at once, but pain started to flood her head so she jumped right back to the haven.
“I can’t; it hurts too much.” She was breathing deeply and she wanted to beg him not make her go back.
“I know it hurts. I’m sorry, but you have to do this.”
Lucy nodded again and slammed her eyes shut. She released herself from the haven and the searing pain was back. She wanted to scream, but she didn’t dare. As her whole body burned she had trouble finding her own extremities. The fire coursed its way through her body and she forced herself to move her right arm up. She couldn’t tell if it was working until she felt the smooth metal on her fingertips. In one swift movement she gripped the sword and jumped back to her haven, which was getting worse by the second. The sky was black and the wind blew sheets of sand and water all around them.
Benjamin, still holding the sword in place, yelled over the roaring wind, “Do you have it?”
Lucy nodded emphatically.
“Do you know where he is standing?”
She nodded again.
“What you have to do is go halfway between worlds and build up all of your light; draw as much of it as you can from all around you. Draw it into your body, into your whole existence. It’s not going to be easy, but you have to. It's almost like building it into your totem, only on a much larger scale.”
Lucy shook her head. "I can't do that; it's too much."
A loud blast of thunder cracked directly overhead. Lightning struck the southern cliff at the mouth of the bay, and it started to crumble into the ocean.
"Yes you can, Lucy; you can do this. Now listen to me."
She looked up at him, the stress of the entire experience apparent on her face, and nodded.
“When you're ready to strike, push all of that light that you've built up as hard as you can out of your body like a bomb; it's going to create a blast and separate you from Sukabra, giving you the opportunity you need to stab your sword straight into his heart. As soon as you do, the pain of the extraction will stop and you will be able to get away.”
Lucy looked up at him. “What if I can’t?”
“You will.” Benjamin smiled at her and winked.
Lucy closed her eyes one last time. She felt Benjamin’s hand on her shoulder and she squeezed it with her free hand. She could feel his light going into it, and she hoped it would be enough to get her through.
Reaching behind her, she gripped her sword and started to release her hold on her haven.
The pain was her signal that it was time to act. Feeling both swords simultaneously as one, she squeezed the handle and started to focus all of her energy on drawing as much light as she could from whatever would give it. Her own light was weak; it didn't feel like much of anything at first.
The pain was beginning to overpower her. I can't do this, she thought.
She tried again, this time focusing on what she knew was around her: the hotel, the furniture; none of those seemed to be helping. The forest? She exclaimed in her mind. The forest outside was full of light; she had to get to it.
The extent of her reach wasn't enough; she had to stretch out even more. She took a breath and grasped further with her own light. At first, there was nothing; her heart sank. She was ready to give up. The despair that accompanies failure started to sting her as insult to the pain that had already consumed her.
Then she felt it. It was just a trickle at first, like a pump being primed. She pulled with her light on that trickle until it started to flow more abundantly. It was light and it was pouring into her. She could only assume it was coming from the forest, but it didn't matter. Like pure life, she gathered it up and filled her entire being with it. She felt like a pulsing reactor of light, a nucleus ready to fuse. It was the most powerful sensation she had ever felt. At any time, she knew she could simply let go and all of the light would explode out of her. That time was now.
In a brief moment of deaf silence and slow motion, she let it go and opened her eyes. She saw both the motel room and the beach. The blast of her light was immense. It didn't affect her; rather, she felt the sword in her hand unfold itself, slicing straight through the backpack. As she was about to stand up, she felt Sukabra's hold on her light release, and he jolted backward away from her.
In an instant, time sped back up, and she jumped to her feet. Spinning a pirouette, she reversed her hold on the handle of the sword and plunged it like a giant dagger directly into Sukabra's heart. He screamed in the tormented pain of a demon being sucked back into Hell.
He fell to the floor, grabbing at the sword. The pain in Lucy’s head had stopped, and she used all of her
physical strength to drive him to the ground, both hands gripping the handle of the sword. She could feel all the anger and hatred she had stored up expel itself. Sukabra’s eyes went dead, and black, tar-like blood poured out of his chest.
Lucy stood in near-shock for a moment, until she heard a sound from over by the doorway. Releasing herself completely from the haven, she jumped over the bed as the two reapers that were holding Kat dropped her to the floor and charged Lucy. With a simple attack strike she dispatched the first reaper, sending him into a cloud of dust.
The reaper called Simon pulled out a long, jagged weapon and brandished it in front of her. Lucy struck at him and he knocked her blow to one side as if just playing with her. She struck again with the same result.
The two just looked at each other. Lucy was trying to anticipate his move, and Simon was done playing. He leapt at her and forced her against the far wall. She heard Kat scream her name, and she was relieved that Kat was still alive.
Lucy tried to strike at him, but he pinned her up against the wall and held her fighting hand down with his free hand, pushing his weapon up to her chin. His breath in her face smelled like decomposition, and she gagged.
“You could never take my place, girl,” Simon hissed in her face.
She turned her head in a failed attempt to get away from his reek.
His look of seething hatred slowly turned to wanton desire. He licked his lips and pushed them right up against her cheek and worked his way to her ear.
“You smell just like them, you know?” he breathed.
Lucy stopped trying to avoid him, she felt hatred course through her as she anticipated his meaning.
“Your dad, he put up a fight. I love it when they do that. Then I get to be more physical.”
He breathed in a satisfying breath through his teeth. Lucy tried to push him away.
“But your mother, she was weak. She gave up way too quickly, but she felt so good going in.”
Lucy’s hands started to shake from the absolute wrath flowing through her.
Immortal Light: Wide Awake Page 32