Fated

by T. L. McDonald

  ***

  I’ve only ever been to this part of town once. It was during freshman year and Luke Campbell had decided to throw a rave in one of the scattered abandoned factories to establish himself as the cool kid—which worked. Wanting to prove we were cool too, Kat and I went and that became the moment she fell in love with the party scene. After that she was constantly dragging me to every party, rave, or club that looked appealing. I always kind of hated it, but now that we’re fighting, I sort of miss being dragged along.

  Will pulls off to the side of the road parking behind some bushes down the street from Eric’s SUV. He takes off his helmet looking calm and ready for anything. I am anything but. In fact, I am the complete opposite of calm and ready as panic bubbles in my gut igniting my fight or flight instinct which is leaning more toward flight if I’m being honest.

  He holds his hand out for me to take. “Come on, we’ll get a better look at the buildings from over there.” Will nods in the direction of Eric’s vehicle. For better or worse I take his hand and let him lead me into who knows what.

  We duck down, crouching behind the SUV for cover. Blood pumps in rushing speeds through my veins with every beat of my erratic heart until the sound of it is pounding in my ears. After a quick glance at me, Will then peers around the side of the SUV as he pulls out a knife from the back of his shirt. Stepping out from the safety of our hiding spot, he motions for me to follow with a wave of his hand.

  Shadows creep across the brown grass at the front of the building we’re heading toward with the setting sun. Aside from Will and I the surrounding area is eerie and vacant. It just had to be the last building tucked away all by itself didn’t it? I think to myself. Why couldn’t The Fallen have picked someplace less murdery to congregate? Will and I may as well have signs on our backs that say ‘Here I am. Come kill me now’.

  My stomach rolls, overcome with nausea and something else I can’t quite describe causing me to stop halfway there. “Will,” I reach for his arm. “Something’s wrong.” The symbol on my wrist glows faintly, further confirming my suspicions.

  “What is it?”

  “I don’t know. I just have this really bad feeling.”

  Will surveys the area looking for anything imminently threatening. Finding nothing, he moves forward. Stupidly, I follow him.

  Adjusting the knife in his hand so the blade is flush with his arm, he takes careful steps towards one of the broken windows at the front of the building. Crouching low, he peers inside. Beside him I do the same. With the setting sun and no lights to speak of inside the building, it’s hard to make out anything other than indistinguishable shapes. They could be boxes, they could be random junk left over from when this place used to be a functioning factory, or they could be something far, far more sinister. Like a group of Fallen just waiting for us to be dumb enough to come inside so they can slaughter us where we stand.

  A cold shiver runs down my back and as the sun continues to set, plunging us further into darkness, my imagination comes up with the worst possible things for what's lurking inside.

  “Let’s look for a way in,” Will whispers.

  The cold hands of fear wrap around my throat making each breath harder and harder to take, yet like a crazy person I follow Will around to the side of the building ignoring the increasingly bad feeling gnawing at my gut. Towards the back corner a door hangs slightly ajar, the dark shadows within slithering out over the decaying grass. Instinctively, I take a step back not wanting the shadows to touch me.

  I don’t want to go in there. There’s something really, really bad in there. I can feel it pressing against me as if it were just as tangible as the knife gripped in my hand.

  “I don’t think we should go in there,” I mumble.

  “We have to. Eric’s in there and Zoe could be too.”

  “I know, but don’t you feel it?”

  “Feel what?”

  “The darkness.”

  Will’s face softens, his eyes searching my own as he takes my hand in his. “I know you’re scared. I am too, but we have to do this. Or at least I do. My brother and possibly my sister are in there. They could be in trouble. If you’re not ready for this and you want to wait out here, I’ll understand.”

  Swallowing the lump in my throat, I strain to achieve as much courage as I can. “I can’t let you go in alone.”

  “Does that mean you’re coming?”

  “Yes.”

  “You sure?”

  “Yes,” is what I say, Hell No, is what I want to shout. Can he really not feel the darkness seeping out of there? It’s suffocating.

  Keeping my hand in his, we walk slowly toward the open door. Once there he lets go to remove a small flashlight from his pocket. What little light it gives fights to survive against the heavy darkness inside. Staying close to Will, we inch our way across the open floor. There's no sign of anyone else around, yet I can't shake this feeling that we're surrounded.

  "Did you hear that?" I stop in my tracks, all my senses sharpening. My eyesight becomes sharper than it should be in the dark, my hearing more attuned, my sense of awareness more alive with the feel of this place weighing on me as if it were a living, breathing thing.

  "Hear what?" Will whispers.

  "Listen." The symbol on my wrist hums with power just below the skin. A soft glow flares to life along the lines, intensifying everything I'm sensing. In the distance, somewhere in front of us, someone faintly moans in pain. "There," I say pointing ahead. "It's coming from somewhere around that corner up ahead."

  Will stares at me. "I still don't hear anything."

  "Trust me. Someone's there."

  Gripping the blade in his hand tighter, Will leads the way in the direction of the voice apparently only I can hear. Once we're a few feet from rounding the corner Will stops, stiffens.

  "I hear him." Panic and fear ripple across his face. "It's Eric."

  Will races around the corner throwing all attempts at stealth out the window. Having no idea what I'm walking into, I follow and immediately wish I hadn't. Strung up by chains, Eric hangs from his wrists. His clothes are torn; his head bent forward, a dark puddle of crimson on the ground beneath him. Will hesitates only for a moment before running toward him.

  Suddenly, a hand covers my mouth as another grabs me around the waist. Terror seizes me and like a fool I drop my only weapon. Screams shoot up my throat only to come to a sudden halt against the hand at my mouth leaving no sounds to escape as I'm dragged away.

  I claw at the hands holding me captive leaving bloody gashes behind. Still, the hands don't let go. Laughter surrounds me as I'm dragged into a room off the main floor. Paralyzed by the sound of it my hands fall to my sides. That laughter haunts my dreams. I'd recognize it anywhere.

  "Miss me?" Blondie whispers against my ear. "I was thinking you and I could play while your friend out there enjoys the present we left him." He said we left him, not I left him, but we left him, meaning that Blondie isn’t alone. The bad feeling I've been having since I got here intensifies exponentially.

  "So glad you didn't die in the lake Hanna. I really enjoy our moments together. And we're going to have so many more wonderful moments together you and I, while I watch you suffer as I turn your precious Jared against you." I jerk in a futile effort to escape his grip. Grasping me tighter, he leans in until his lips are against my ear. "That's right, even the comatose have secrets to tell."

  CHAPTER SIX

  He has Zoe.

  He has Zoe and he knows.

  Oh, God. He knows.

  Hovering on the brink of a full-blown panic attack, I struggle against his hold while he laughs. Frustrated, terrified, and overwhelmed with a need to protect Jared at all costs I scream; the sound muffled under his hand. Blondie laughs harder.

  Shoving my panic down, I replace it with anger, my screams turning into shouted words worthy of the most profane.

  "What's that Hanna? Have something to say do you?" Blondie lifts his fingers from my mouth one
by one. The iron grip of his arm held tightly around my torso, keeping me pinned to his chest loosens. I shove away as violently as I can.

  Turning around to face him, he looks at me with icy blue eyes I insanely once thought were beautiful. Now they make me sick. Rows of faint white scars cover the side of his face in place of the gouges that were there the last time we met. "You'll never find him," I spit.

  "Oh, but Hanna," He trails a finger down the side of my face, making my skin crawl. "I already know where he is. And it's only a matter of time before I take him from you."

  "I'll stop you."

  He sizes me up in one look. "Doubtful." He smiles, a playful look on his face. It's all fun and games to him and it makes me sick. "But I can't wait to see you try."

  He's so cocky, so full of himself, so sure he's going to win, but I'm not going down without a fight, no matter how much he might terrify me. Blondie's eyes shift to my wrist as the symbol there ignites sending electric currents coursing through my body.

  The corners of his mouth tilt upwards, the blue of his eyes disappearing into blackness. "If only I could stay and play, but sadly there's somewhere I've got to be."

  So fast, before I have a chance to react, he grabs the back of my hair and slams my head into the concrete wall. All the energy I've built fizzles out as the world around me fades into darkness. The last thing I see is his awful smiling face as I hit the floor.

  ***

  "Hanna." The sound of Will's voice calls out to me from what seems like miles and miles away. Seconds later I feel the sensation of fingers lightly tapping my face. "Hanna." Much closer now, his voice pleads.

  Opening my eyes is like trying to pry something apart that's been glued shut, slow and painful. And as I sit up a deep ache fills my head, pounding like a jackhammer with every beat of my heart. My hand shakes, my vision blurry, as I tenderly touch the side of my forehead. My stomach churns, bile rising up my throat at the feel of torn flesh, flowing blood, and cracked bone.

  "Thank God, you're awake." Hooking a finger under my chin, Will tilts my face to get a better look at the wound slowly healing at an agonizing pace on my forehead. "What happened to you? One minute you were right behind me and the next you were gone." Blood covers the front of his shirt and jeans, his face and hands smeared with it as well. He looks down at himself then back at me. "It's not mine."

  An image of Eric hanging lifelessly from his wrists flashes through my mind. "Eric? Is he...?" With all the blood covering Will, I'm afraid to finish my question.

  "He's alive—in pretty bad shape—but alive. The Fallen, they..." He pauses, taking a deep breath. "I've never seen so many blades broken off in one person before." His hand goes to his own scar where he too once had a Fallen's blade lodged inside. That was one of the scariest nights of my life watching Will drift in and out of consciousness as dark red lines spider-webbed from his wound, his breaths slow and shallow, the life literally being sucked away with every passing moment the blade remained in his body. I can't even begin to imagine what Eric must have felt—is still feeling, or how Will felt seeing his brother like that.

  "I think I got them all out," Will says bringing me out of my thoughts. "But with that many and all the blood loss," He stares down at his hands. "I could only do so much to heal him. And it wasn't enough. It will take awhile before he's fully recovered."

  I take his hand in mine not knowing what else to do to comfort him. He squeezes my fingers in response then settles his eyes at the wound on my forehead.

  "I'll be fine," I say. "I can feel it healing and the dizziness is starting to fade. I just need a few more minutes."

  "Let me." Warmth radiates from the touch of his fingers sending pleasant tingles into my skin. The dizziness subsides just as the last lingering bits of pain I have left fades away. With his fingers still against my forehead, a small smile emerges on his face. "There, good as new." He rubs his thumb over the nearly healed wound then shrugs. "Well, mostly good as new anyway."

  Leaning in he kisses my forehead with a soft brush of lips to skin. Pulling back, he looks at me with eyes that are so blue, so open and vast, it's like staring out into the ocean. "Hanna," He pauses, eyes moving downward stopping at my mouth. My heart picks up speed knowing what he wants to do, what he's about to do, even though it shouldn't.

  So why is it?

  Why does some small part of me respond to him when I know deep down to the very bottom of my soul Jared is the only one for me.

  Jared.

  Oh God, Jared.

  "We have to go," I blurt out. "Jared,"

  "Right, Jared." Will's jaw slightly clenches as he stands.

  "No, you don't understand," I say, panic rising. "Blondie knows. He has Zoe and he knows Jared's still alive."

  Will's eyes flick to my now completely healed head. "Is that who attacked you?" His hands ball into fists at his side.

  "Yes, and we have to get to Jared before Blondie does." Thoughts of Blondie ripping his way through The Compound in his relentless pursuit of Jared are all I can think about. And each thought gets progressively more terrifying than the one before it.

  Full on panic—no scratch that, I am way, way past panic—something far, far worse than panic takes ahold of me. My lungs grow tight and I can't breathe. I keep pulling in air without ever really being able to catch my breath no matter how hard I try. After everything that's happened: my slightly dying, my coming back with a new symbol so I can protect Jared from exactly what's happening now, Jared faking his death—it's all been for nothing, because now Blondie knows, and he will stop at nothing to get what he wants.

  Standing before me, Will grips my shoulders. "Hanna, I need you to calm down before you bring the whole building down around us. I promise you, Jared is okay. Where he's at Blondie can't go."

  A shelving unit to my left crashes down banging against the floor causing me to jump as plaster from the ceiling above us drifts down like dirty snow.

  I nod. Attempting to calm myself, I focus on the deep blue of his eyes in the darkness of the room. I take one deep breath, then two, then three. My heart rate begins to slow, the panic tearing me apart being reigned in little by little and shoved someplace deep below.

  Finding my voice I ask, "You're sure Jared's safe?"

  "One hundred percent. And I swear I will take you to him just as soon as we get Eric home."

  "I'll be fine." Eric leans against the doorframe at the edge of the room. From the looks of him—sweat drenched hair, red-black lines still faintly showing on his pale skin—the doorframe is the only thing holding him up. He's far from okay. "The Fallen are gone now so you two get to Jared, make sure he's truly safe. I can make it home on my own. You don't have to worry about me." The words barely leave his mouth before his knees buckle and gravity reaches up to pull him down.

  Will catches him before he hit's the hard concrete floor. "There's no way you can make it home on your own Eric." Will looks to me, eyes pleading. "Hanna,"

  "I know." As much as it's killing me to not be able to rush off to Jared right this second, Will's right, Eric can barely stand. And besides, even if all of The Fallen are gone the darkness permeating this place isn't. It's in the shadows. It's in the air. It's everywhere. This whole place is alive with it. I would never leave Eric alone here.

  ***

  The sound of gears grinding fill my ears. I've never driven a stick shift before but given the choice between driving Eric's standard or Will's motorcycle, this was the safer choice. Of course all of the gears might be stripped by the time we reach Eric's house, but that's beside the point.

  Slouched in the seat beside me, Eric drifts in and out of consciousness mumbling incoherent things that are so far out there I can't even begin to try and figure it out. Sweat beads all around his hairline, some running in tiny streams down the side of his face. Red/black lines that are still fading peek out above the neck of his shirt. Maybe he needs some of that gross smelling green stuff Zoe used on Will when he was in this situation, I think
to myself. Whatever that stuff was it seemed to help Will at the time and judging by the way Eric looks right now, he could definitely use some of that help.

  At a red light the driver beside me talks adamantly on a cell phone that I would kill for right now. I'm so worried about Jared I can barely concentrate on what gear I'm supposed to shift into next. If I could just call him, hear his voice, really know that he's okay, then maybe I could put to rest this uneasy feeling in my gut that at any moment something is going to go terribly wrong.

  The light turns green. I stall the engine three times. Forced back into consciousness by all the jerking, Eric tries to explain to me again what to do. Finally, with the fourth attempt being the charm the SUV moves forward just as the light switches to yellow. Behind me, Will zooms through the now red light. We go through several more lights and a few stop signs where naturally, I either peel out or stall.

  Catching a glimpse of Will in the rearview mirror I see him shake his head side to side as I peel out again at the final stop sign before turning onto Eric's road. I imagine he’s probably laughing at my lack of skill right about now. Thankfully—and I know it's horrible to give thanks for Eric being passed out given the reasons for why he is—but I am because if he were anywhere near coherent he definitely would not be laughing at my current driving abilities. After this I doubt he'll ever let me near his vehicle again. I wouldn't blame him. I just hope I haven't caused too much damage.

  In the driveway Will pulls in beside me just as I'm getting out of the SUV. Taking off his helmet he swings his leg over the bike. "Remind me sometime to teach you how to drive a standard," he says with a grin.

  Before I can come up with something witty to say back, Eric opens his door then falls flat on his face when he tries to get out. Will rushes to his side helping him to his feet. Hooking Eric's arm around his shoulder, Will leads him up the walkway toward the house. Motion lights kick on slicing through the darkness as they near the porch. Not wanting to be left out in the dark I quickly shut the passenger door of the SUV before sprinting to catch up with them.