Death's Dilemma (DHAD #2)

by Candice Burnett

  “DAVE!” I screamed right before Mobrolantis whipped his blade through the air at Dave’s neck. “NOOO!” I shrieked as the blade connected with Dave and decapitated him in one clean sweep. His lifeless body fell to the ground as his head bounced off the grass. To my horror, Mobrolantis picked it up and brought it over to me.

  “Thought you’d want to say your goodbyes,” he said as he plopped it down next to me. Dave’s eyes were empty, cold, and open, staring at me, reminding me of my failure. I tried to get up again, but found I still couldn’t move.

  “This ends today. I have long awaited and calculated a punishment for you, but this will have to do. For taking what was mine, you will now die amongst your enemies. Sad really. You probably would have been a great Reaper, especially with all those powers you seem to be developing. You would have eventually even made it to my level, but you chose to work with the enemy, and now, that mistake will cost you, and any that follow, to die. At first, I found this all amusing, and you made it a challenge. But then, you had to go and ruin my prom plans, with that little trick you can do with your fingertips.” He smiled at his own sick joke. “Then, I had to go through all this business of trying to find you. Almost a years’ time wasted until the answer came looking for me. Funny what a little thing like jealously can do to a person.”

  “MOBROLANTIS you promised you wouldn’t hurt any Guardians,” Catherine screamed as she ran to where he stood.

  “Ungrateful little bitch,” he muttered. “Give me a second, would you?” he said to me with a laugh as he turned towards her.

  “I’ve done what you’ve wanted me to do, haven’t I?” he said, still hovering over me.

  “Yes, but you said you wouldn’t hurt them. Your minions are killing my friends,” she screeched.

  “Oh, sweetie, I said I wouldn’t hurt them, but I can’t be held accountable for what my minions do.”

  “You…” Her face lit up in horror as she started to back away slowly.

  “Before you go though, don’t you want to pay your respects?” he said as he nodded to where I lay under him. Her eyes lit up in hate as she stalked over.

  “I—”

  “You’ve already gone this far. Just finish it,” he whispered into her ear. She pulled out a blade and dug it into my stomach. I let out a scream that was cut short as blood began to pour out of my mouth.

  “Feels good, doesn’t it?” he asked as a smile hit her lips and she backed away from me.

  “I’d run along now. I wouldn’t want one of my minions to harm you since you’ve been such a valuable resource.” He snapped his head back in my direction.

  “It saddens me that I won’t get to watch you take your final breath, but nonetheless, I’m a busy Demon, and I’ve got things to do. Wouldn’t want some Angel to get lucky and ruin my plans as I’m sure the backup is well on their way now. Better hope your soul doesn’t end up in my realm, Reaper. I’ll be waiting though. By my calculations on that injury she just gave you, along with the damage that was done earlier, you’ve got about two minutes.” I watched him grab Lacie’s hair as he pulled her off the ground and dragged her away and into the wood line.

  Black circles started to appear, blocking my vision. The chaos of Guardians still battling Demons started to come to a low muffle. This was it. I closed my eyes; I needed to concentrate. Trevor had said my healing abilities were a mental thing, right? Well, why did it have to come from my hands if it was mental? I calmed my nerves and tried to take deep heavy breaths as the screams echoed in my ears from around me. It started off as a slow simmer, but I could feel my pulse begin to rise, as my body temperature increased. I concentrated harder, imagining that what I saw leave my fingertips so long ago, was covering my body. I opened my eyes as confirmation when I felt the heat engulf me completely. As the feeling began to come back in my limbs, my whole body sizzled with warm, orange energy, and I stood up on my two feet again. I looked around me at all the limbs and battles that were still raging on. Trevor was still fighting, but four more Demons were about to join the three he was already facing. To his left was Drake, who I watched decapitate a Demon as another one was about to jump him from behind. I felt the rage boil inside me, and I let out a deep bellow as I felt the blue energy leave my body in a massive wave that engulfed all that surrounded me. I watched it leave my body like a Tsunami rolling over a city, taking out all Demons in its path. When the screaming stopped, so did the wave, and I collapsed.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Here Pig, Pig, Pig

  “Cendall, get up,” Drake called as he shook me. I opened my eyes to see Drake standing over me. He grabbed my hand and forced me to my feet. I looked at the blood bath before me. There were no more Demons left, and Guardians were slowly getting up off the ground.

  “How did you do that?”

  “No clue. I just—” I looked down at Dave’s head. “Dave is dead. Lacie is gone…what...” I wept as I threw myself into Drake’s arms. I heard a door open, and I snapped my head in its direction. It was Catherine; she was trying to limp away. I ported to the inside of the house just as she turned away from the door she just closed. I grabbed onto the back of her hair, and with a quick thrust, threw her to the ground with a large clump of her hair still tangled in my fingers. As she tried to get up, I balled my fist and put my entire body behind the first punch. I then jumped on top of her and straddled her worthless body between my knees. My firsts started taking turns pounding her face. With every hit, I could hear her skull thud against the floor.

  “You bitch,” came out in an unrecognizable voice as I continued to strike her. She squealed like a pig on the way to the slaughter house at first, but with every hit, her voice faded to a low whimper.

  “Cendall!” Trevor called out as he grabbed onto me from behind and pulled me off of her. I looked down; she wasn’t moving. Trevor sat on the ground and put his head in her chest, checking for a heartbeat.

  “Heal her, Cendall.”

  “NO!”

  “Don’t look at me like that. You’re better than this, Cendall. Heal her, please.”

  “You’re wrong,” I said as I turned away from him.

  “Cendall, she’ll have her day, but no one deserves to die like this,” he said as he pulled her onto his lap, trying to stop the bleeding from her head wound.

  The only favor I’d granted that bitch was giving her a few final moments with Trevor holding her in his arms again. That was why she did this. That was what she had wanted, right? To have him hold her in his arms once again? That had to be why she did this, because of what she saw yesterday. One should always be careful what they wish for.

  “She did this because of us, Trevor. You know that, right? I saw her break the wards to let them all in.” This, in no way made up for Dave, but nothing would. I walked away. Heal her? Was he fucking kidding?

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  So This is What That Feels Like?

  “I finally understand why humans hate us so much,” I said to Trevor as he entered my room in the morning.

  “Cendall,” Trevor said as he tried to wrap his arm around me, but I pulled away.

  “It doesn’t make me regret,” I paused as my voice cracked, “…but I finally understand why humans got so angry and thought we were so evil. What would his parents think? Because of me they’ve lost their only son.” Would they blame me? “At least he might be able to find peace whereas Lacie.” I began to sob. “The one thing she’d asked me to do, I failed. ‘Don’t let him take me,’” I quoted her as my chest felt tight, and I began to hyperventilate. “This is all MY FAULT. If we never, this would have never…FUCKKKK!!” I screamed as I stood up as my mind gave me the mental picture of Catherine stabbing me, and Mobrolantis electrocuting me with my own power. “I’m going to kill them all,” I muttered to myself. “I have to kill them or this was all for NOTHING.”

  “Cendall, you have to calm down. Please, you’re becoming hysterical. We’re going to get her back. I promise.”

  “FUCK
THAT FUCKING WORD!” I screamed at him. “THAT WORD IS NOTHING BUT A LIE!” He grabbed onto me and held me in a death grip as I screamed. “LET ME GO NOW.” I continued, but he didn’t let go.

  “Cendall, please, you’re losing it. Come back to me,” he whispered in my ear.

  “NO.”.

  “Cendall please. We’re going to have to more to another location soon, and I need you stable for that.”

  “Why bother moving, they won’t come again. THEY HAVE HER ALREADY TREVOR,” I began to wheeze as the tears flowed from my eyes before the blackness took me

  ***

  “You’re back,” Trevor said as my eyes opened and met his. A tear left my eye as I looked up at him.

  “Not until we get her back.” I took a deep breath and sat up.

  “And we will. I swear.” I cringed. I was close enough to the edge that if I’d heard that “promise” word I would have lost it again. “Look, the council is meeting right now, and as soon as they discuss it all, we will have a meeting with them and find her together.”

  “I don’t want to go to a freaking meeting, Trevor. Lacie has been captured. My best friend is dead, and I don’t even know if any of this was worth it. I’ve lost and betrayed too many people I’ve loved in the past month because of this. I need to go find her now,” I snapped.

  “We can right after this, I prom—... um... swear. We’ll figure this all out together. Things will get better.” How the hell was he going to make this better? Could he go get Lacie back? No.

  “THAT IS IMPOSSIBLE. I’m not going to any meeting. If I’m doing anything, it’s going to finish the job I started on your ex. I will kill her,” I said calmly.

  “Cendall, I know it’s hard but be rational, please,” he asked.

  “Excuse me? Oh, wait, I forgot you’re the one who stopped me from killing her in the first place. It was her fault he knew we were even there. All to get back at me for screwing you. She deserves to die for Dave, but Dave was a Reaper so why would you care or be upset by any of this.”

  “I lost several of my men out there. That was an extremely low blow, Cendall. You know I care.”

  “The low blow was to Dave’s neck when the Demon’s blade went through it before he separated his body into two pieces. What I said to you is a guarantee of what will be coming. You will not stop me this time,” I said in a breathless tone I wasn’t familiar with.

  “Cendall, you know you can’t kill her. She’ll have her day in court. You’re verging on crazy again. You need to rest. I’m going to go talk to Alicia. She’s here in our house now.” Great, and I was supposed to care why? She’d shown up late like always. She hadn’t talked to me in months, and I was supposed to be happy that she was here?

  “Why would I care if she is here or not?”

  “She may have some insight on where they might have taken Lacie. Or something about your mom.”

  “I don’t care about learning my heritage at the moment. Screw your meeting. We need to go find her NOW.”

  “No Cendall, we go now and we die. Listen, I’m trying to rationalize this with you, but you’re being unreasonable. I feel it, I really do. I want to get her back just as bad, but we have to go in with a plan or we’re all dead, do you understand that?!”

  “Screw you and your meeting.”

  “I’ll be back in an hour.” He closed the door, and I let out a frustrated scream as I threw my scythe at the door he exited through.

  ***

  “Cendall, Cendall!” Was I having déjà vu? Maybe this all had been a dream. I creaked open my eyes to see Abram looking down at me.

  “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know him, but I know he meant a lot to you.”

  “Funny how you have so much to say now.”

  “Cendall, listen, I...”

  “Screw you. Screw this place, and I don’t want to talk about it,” I grumbled at him and rolled out of bed.

  “Really, I’m so sorry. I wish I could have been…”

  “Stop!” I screamed. Dave’s lifeless eyes flashed in my mind again, and I could see Mobrolantis dragging Lacie’s body out of the fight. .

  “Please, can we just talk about it? We’re worried about you,” he pleaded.

  “Just STOP” I grabbed a towel off the dresser and went into the bathroom, slamming the door behind me. I knew one of these Guardians would try to come and talk to me, but I didn’t want to talk about last night. I never wanted to talk about it ever again. I had lost two of my best friends in a matter of hours. Poor Dave, he should have never been there. I shouldn’t have been so stupid. I should have seen that coming. I would stick my scythe in that cold bitch’s heart. I could feel my head starting to spin. If I only would have ignored my feelings for Trevor, none of this would have happened. Dave wouldn’t be dead, and Lacie wouldn’t have been captured. Everything and everyone I cared about and loved around me was now forever damaged. Even my own father was missing because of my actions. No one had heard from him for months. For all I knew, he was dead too. Everything I had known for the past eighteen years of my life was different. Because of the paths I had chosen, I was no longer a Reaper. I’d lost touch with dad, Lacie was captured, and Dave was... UGGGGGGH! I threw up, making only half of my bile to the toilet. I couldn’t even throw up without messing something up.

  “Cendall, are you okay?” Abram asked through the door.

  “NO, I’m not okay, and I NEVER WILL BE! Dave is dead, and it’s entirely my fault. And Lacie has been captured, just leave me alone!” UGGGG at least this time I made the bile into the bowl. What would I tell Dave’s parents and Chloe?

  “Cendall, you should eat something. It might help calm your nerves,” Abram spoke from behind the door.

  “No, just please leave me alone,” I begged. I didn’t need someone listening to me puking any longer. “Every time you talk about it, they just flash again before my eyes. Please stop”

  “I’m sorry I don’t want to bring you more pain.” I heard him slowly move away from the door, and with a click of what had to be the bedroom door closing, he was gone. What was I going to do? Why couldn’t this all have been just a bad dream? And I wonder how Trevor was handling all of this. Lacie was his assignment too, and he almost died last night, again because of me. If he, I couldn’t even image it.

  “UG!” At least that one was a dry heave. I no longer had anything left in me to puke up. I slowly stumbled up and headed for the bedroom door. I could definitely use some more sleep. At least in sleep I could get away from this reality I had created. I looked down at my arms; they had bile and blood from last night’s battle still on them. Blood of that stupid bitch I almost destroyed. I needed to get this off of me immediately. I stripped my clothes, turned the shower all the way to the hot, and stepped in. I grabbed the sponge, put shower gel on it, and started tearing at my skin. Maybe if I scrubbed hard enough, I could get the remains of what happened last night off of me. I could feel my arms beginning to burn; no matter how hard I scrubbed, this wasn’t going to work. I could still feel it all over me. Nothing could ever make my mind dispose of what happened last night. I could feel the tears starting to flow out of my eyes, and not wanting to stand any longer, my body collapsed. I shriveled into a ball. I attempted to move my legs to get back up, but the weight of my thoughts paralyzed my body. All I could feel now was the hot water pouring over my body while the cool tears flowed from my face.

  ***

  “I DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU WANT FROM ME!” I screamed as Mobrolantis had his man hit me again. I could feel the blood running down my cheeks.

  “You know what I want, dear girl. Are you really going to die for them? They don’t even really know what you are. They just want you because I do. You have no idea of the gifts you have and the change you can bring on this world. You are the one who will finally tip the scale. You’ve seen the horrors humans do when given free will. Imagine a world where they are punished for those actions. You see, I’m not really that bad. I just don’t believe humans should be given t
hat right so freely.

  “I am a human—” I cried out strangely, and he back handed me before I even finished the sentence. I tried to move my neck, but the kink in it let me know he’d hit me hard enough to give me whip lash. So, I just let it fall. Blood began to pool in my mouth, and when I opened it, a piece of one of my teeth hit the floor.

  “I’ll have to give it to you. I never thought you’d be this tough to crack, but they all crack in the end. Most of them mentally, but I’ve had to crack a few physically in their refusal. That’s not near as much fun though, no information is given then.” I let out a yelp as he grabbed the bottom of my chin, forcing me to look into his skeletal face. He smiled, exposing the teeth he’d bitten me with yesterday. I’d imagined the bite to resemble what surfers faced in the open waters as his jagged rows of razor sharp daggers were similar those of sharks.

  “This just isn’t working. Let’s try something else.” He picked me up and threw me over his shoulder. He smelled of road kill that had been sitting on the side of the highway for days. The only plus side of all of this was he hadn’t made me walk. The nails were still dug deep into my feet from yesterday night’s session. He thought I was strong, but in reality, I had no idea what he wanted from me. If I did, would I have given it up already? Who knows? He walked me past a mirror, and I looked at my blood stained hair. The blonde was gone, replaced with dirt, grime, and dried blood from his beatings. He brought me over to a large glass fish tank. The water was completely clear, allowing me to see that nothing else was inside.

  “Ice NOW!” he shouted to one of his minions, and they emptied six buckets into the water.

  “Would you like a glass of water?” he asked me, still draped over his shoulder. I hadn’t had one since I got here, but I had a feeling there was no correct answer to this question, so I stayed silent. “Fine.” He threw me into the tank, and the frigid water felt like a bed of needles against my skin. I tried to crawl out, but he pushed me under again.

  “Ready to show me what you can do now?”