She whispered the single syllable of his name like a mantra as her hand struggled to hold the pencil. The words poured from her hand like blood from open wounds. She was too close to the edge, and she couldn’t turn back. If she died before he could reach her, she’d never rise again.
Tears raced down Zane’s cheeks as he screamed for her to hold on. They were so close. If she lived past midnight, she would break the curse on her own, and they’d beat the demon at his own game.
Somewhere in the distance, Eurynome laughed.
****
It hurt. Everything hurt. The words she wrote cut like knives stabbing into Vega’s flesh. The sight of Shelley lying on the floor, as still and as lifeless as an overgrown doll, burned like a hot iron in her brain. The story of how she’d killed Diana and Bill felt as like being gutted and having her innards pour out onto the floor. With every swoop of the pen, Vega died a little more. Every letter became drop of blood seeping from her veins.
In a whisper, she a line from her favorite poem, “And I bleed ink.” Insanity took over, and nothing but the pain of her guilt and the torment in her soul felt real. Even as she signed her name to the confession, her eyes darted around the room, searching for the man with the long white hair.
“You may not be here now, but you’ll come. You’re always there when I die. You’ll be here.”
The walk to her bedroom seemed to take forever, each step sapping what little strength she had left. Too weak to fight, and too afraid she’d hurt someone else, Vega knew what she had to do. She only wished she didn’t have to do it alone.
I’m dying. Zane. She looked at the straight razor as she took it from the stand by the bed. Please come.
Vega waited, hoping to feel his strong arms around her and wanting to hear his heartbeat as she leaned her head against his chest. When only the chill of the empty house caressed her skin, the tears returned, and she prepared to end the pain forever.
The bathroom seemed a foreign place, too brightly lit and quiet to exist in her world. Water dripping from the leaky faucet echoed loudly, making Vega want to cover her ears and scream. Instead, she turned on the small radio next to the sink and let the music flood around her, an unexpected comfort.
Hands trembling so hard she could barely hold the knife, she opened the blade and placed it on the side of the tub. Salty streams ran from Vega’s eyes as she turned on the faucet, and she idly thought about how she’d cried enough in the last few weeks to fill the bathtub with tears.
“I won’t have to cry anymore,” she promised as she peeled off her rumpled and vomit-stained clothes. Muscles stiff and sore, Vega stepped into the water and sank into its warmth. The heat made her skin tingle, and a sense of rightness gave her the strength to not flee.
Though no one would ever hear her words, Vega whispered a final goodbye. “This is it. I’m so sorry. To anyone and everyone I have hurt, let down, and disappointed. Zane, I am not strong enough. I’m sorry, but I must go.”
Shoulders slipping beneath the surface until the water touched her chin, Vega embraced the familiar vertigo as it spun the room around. Unconsciousness threatened her wakeful mind, but Vega secretly hoped she’d drown before she woke. To her, it seemed a simpler way to go.
****
The world looked huge and bright on the other side of the car window as they drove through the countryside. A happy couple chatted together in the front seat while a small child slept in the back. Tucked safely into the car seat, she held onto a small stuffed rabbit. The well-loved toy had one ear and one eye missing, but the child’s grip proved it was a favorite and treasured thing.
Vega smiled down at the child, before she realized she was seeing herself as a two-year-old. Panic filled her. She couldn’t watch the child get hurt. She didn’t have the strength.
Screaming, “Wake up! Damn it, wake up.” She struggled to resist the vision. But, no matter how hard she tried to stop it, the events unfolded in a slow procession before her eyes.
The car moved down the twisting road, the couple talked and smiled, and the child slept. Then a man came into view on the side of the road, walking as if he hadn’t a care in the world. His long, white hair hung in matted strands over his large backpack, and when he turned, his blue eyes burned into Vega’s soul.
The young couple didn’t take notice of him, but she knew.
As the car passed him, the vagabond stepped into the road. Her father jerked the wheel and slammed on the brakes. Her mother’s screamed blended with the sound of the rubber squealing, and the sudden motion startled the child.
The car bumped and skidded off the road, sliding across the grass and kicking up clods of dirt as the tires dragged. A tree loomed in front of them, and suddenly, the sounds of the little girl’s wails and twisting metal filled the sunny afternoon with a dark cloud.
The impact threw Vega’s mother from the car, her body bending like a rag doll as it smashed through the windshield and disappeared. Her father was trapped, the steering wheel compressing his chest until he couldn’t move or breathe. Baby Vega continued to scream, her large blue eyes filled with tears, and her lower lip quivering in fear.
The real Vega, tossed and tumbled. But, being a ghost inside a memory, she could not be hurt. Instead, she desperately tried to comfort the baby. Reaching hands out that could not touch and whispering words that could not be heard, she cried for the family she had never known and the baby she had once been.
A shadow fell across the backseat, and Vega looked upward through the back window. To her horror, the man from her nightmares smiled down at her.
Frozen by the cold hate in his eyes, she watched in mute horror as he wrenched the car door open and leaned inside. She tried to strike him as he undid the car seat and lifted the baby into his arms, but her phantom hands passed through his face without effect.
Desperate for comfort and protection from all the things she could not understand, the little one buried her face against the drifter’s coat, whimpering softly.
****
Vega sucked in a deep breath, coughed, sputtered, and spewed hot water from her mouth as she shot up in the tub. Confused, her mind warped too many death scenes together, and her past lives blended. For an instant, she saw the child surrounded by dark waters, drowning as metal screeched from above.
Tears streamed down her face, and Vega accepted her fate. She’d learned from the onslaught of visions that she wasn’t meant to survive. No matter what she did, death would be waiting for her, his long white hair blowing in the wind.
With one final plea to Zane, Vega slipped her mother’s ring from her finger, sickened by the idea of tainting it with blood. Steam billowed up around her, clogging the air as she panted for breath—the thickness of it almost choking. Her hand reached out and closed around the handle of the blade, her thumb automatically positioning itself on the metal tab to hold it steady under pressure.
With her breath held, Vega stroked the razor’s edge up from the center of her wrist to the bend, letting it part her skin with stinging release. Blood welled and flowed, coursing down her arm in rivulets of crimson and dripping into the pristine water.
The next wrist. Do it now before you are too weak, her mind insisted. With shaking hands, she complied.
I wonder where he is. The man with the white hair. I wonder if he is somewhere near, watching and waiting. He had become so familiar to her through the visions that she no longer felt fear or hatred when she pictured his cold eyes. He would be near and awaiting her demise, she knew it down in her soul.
“What did I do to curse me with you,” Vega whispered as the blade slid out of her hand and drifted to the bottom of the tub to be hidden beneath the crimson swirls dancing through the water. Not like the movies at all, she thought. It bleeds, it blends, it spirals.
Sinking down into the pink-tinged water once more, she let it lap at the sides of her face as she watched the steam dance upward. More tired than she could ever remember, Vega relaxed farther down. Other than her
nose, her face sank below the surface, and she looked up through a watery reflection of nothingness.
Heartbeat pounding in her ears like a bass drum backdrop to the end, the pitiful rhythm became the only thing that mattered—other than the stinging pain and the imagined coppery smell of blood in the air.
Minutes ticked by, and Vega’s mind drifted. Images of her pitiful life and her sad death floated on the surface of her consciousness. One of her favorite songs played somewhere beyond the water and the weakening beat of her heart.
She sang along in a quiet murmur. The visions flashed again in her brain like blurry snapshots, there and then gone. Her victims’ faces circled around behind her closed lids, and Vega wished she could say she was sorry, But the beating of her heart weakened, becoming an uneven pitter, and she knew she’d never get the chance. Exhaustion swept over her body, bringing peace at last.
Hard to care now. Hard to remember why they were so important. I’m dying. When they find me dead, it will be my birthday. Is that irony?
A few more seconds ticked by.
I’m dying! Panic finally breached the numbness and shock that had carried her through to the moment, and Vega forced her lids to rise. A face crumpled with suffering hung above her in the mist.
Zane! Oh, God help me. I am dying.
****
As Vega’s life faded, and her eyes closed, the chains binding Zane broke. In a roar of anguish and pain, he fell to his knees and cried out her name. The fires of hell burned beyond the void, but none blazed hotter than his rage.
Her heart stuttered out a beat like shotgun blast in the dark, and the void closed in around him as if he were being swallowed by its inky blackness. Struggling against the suction trying to pull him into the depths of hell, fighting to reach the crack in the veil, Zane ran. Shadows pulled at his limbs, tearing at his flesh, but he fought. The only chance he’d ever had to save her was shrinking away with the tiny spark of life faltering within Vega’s dying body.
In the distance, the glimmer of grayness flickered. He would be too late, she’d be gone, and the monster would take control. The lives of those who had wronged her had already been taken, and without the need for revenge, he was unsure what would become of him. A death eater without a mission could destroy a city full of innocents, its gluttony building with every life it took.
Legs pumping hard, he tore through the distance, nearing ever closer and fearing he wouldn’t make it in time. The beast felt its opportunity, and its desire to feed awakened a new power within Zane. With a final push, he shoved forward through the descending veil and into her world.
Vega laid in the tub, the water cold and red with time and blood. A film of crimson clung to her floating limbs, and he fell to his knees. Shoving his arms into the bloodied water, Zane grabbed her naked and ungiving flesh, pulling her to him. Tears streaked his face as he bellowed a cry of pain so full of sorrow it could’ve broken an angel’s heart.
“Vega, baby. Vega, please, don’t go. We were so close. I’m here, now. Please, stay with me,” he coaxed as he laid her down on the cold floor.
His mind scattered in a million directions, the thousand things he must do whirling until they were a jumble of panic. In a desperate act, he stopped moving, and shut his eyes to her death. A deep breath filled his chest, and a calming memory of her smiles and laughs over a dozen lifetimes bloomed in his mind. Stillness and calm fell over Zane like a blanket of warmth.
Moving quickly, but with precision, he opened his eyes and began his attempt to save Vega’s life. The wounds were bad. They could be healed, but only if she were alive. The ring was his only hope. It would save them both.
Chapter Eight
Zane grabbed her hand, desperate to place the ring over her heart and speak the words he had learned long ago. But, to his horror, the ring was gone. For a moment, he nearly let the terror take him over once again.
The void tugged at him, wanting what it had been promised, and something far more menacing stirred up through the gateway between their worlds.
Eurynome is coming.
The lights flickered, and the floor rumbled beneath them as Zane covered Vega’s stiffening body with his own. The defining clink of something metal striking the floor drew his attention as the ring jittered off the side of the tub and rolled away from his grasping hand. Scrambling over her as carefully as he could, his fingers closed around the small token of all they had hoped for.
The world around him changed. Gone was the bathroom, cold and desolate in its flickering and unnatural light. Gone was the dirty tile floor, wet with blood and water. Gone was all the human world could know and understand. In its place, the void shot up around them, an eternal mass of nothingness.
Zane forced himself to focus. Vega had been gone for so long, he didn’t know if he could even bring her back. Minutes might as well be hours when it came to the failure of the vital organs. The blood had stopped flowing from the large ugly wounds, and her lips were blue, even her closed eyelids were a shade of lilac purple.
The presence building behind him pushed Zane into action. Eurynome was close to breaching the veil, and if he waited, it would be too late. When Zane pressed the ring into Vega’s chest with his palm, a zing of electricity passed through him. A good sign, he hoped. If she were too far-gone, surely, there would not be the feeling as if her soul had just touched his.
Tears of desperation dripped from his eyes. “Eternity bound and eternity released. A soul for a soul in the eyes of the Almighty.”
****
In a fury, Eurynome appeared at Zane’s back. The features of the modern gentleman gone, a monster with long black hair, blazing black eyes, and hulking muscle of their past loomed over the lovers.
“You are mine!”
****
Eurynome had waited for over two hundred years to end this game, his masterpiece of design. The cowering humans had tried hard to trick him, but he was a greater demon, far more powerful and wise. An unequivocal glee filled him. He liked to win, but even more so, he would enjoy the taste of their deaths for a century to come.
The more tragic the death, the tastier the soul.
****
Zane spun around to face his enemy, fear palpitating in his heart. The ring had failed, Vega was dead, and Eurynome had come to collect his payment for the win. They would spend eternity as the demon’s soulless slaves, death eaters of the lowest kind.
“Eurynome, you bastard. You may have won, but you will not touch her. Not without a price.” Zane sneered, baring gritted teeth.
The demon looked nonplussed by the threats as he drew a long talon across his squared jaw and laughed. “What do you think you can do? I am great and powerful. A mighty demon. You are small and weak.”
“For two centuries, you have marred this body, mind, and soul. But your power could do nothing to destroy my love. I have a gift you can never have, vile demon. I have the strength of a heart that has known another.” As the last of his words fell from Zane’s lips, he leaped toward his enemy. The crack of his fist pummeling into the demon’s meaty face echoed like thunder.
Eurynome roared and stumbled, the love of a challenge gleaming in his eye. “I’m going to break you, boy, and then you can watch as I take her.”
He pointed to Vega, and Zane struck again. Two-hundred years of watching the girl he loved suffer and die welled up, giving his blows a fierceness beyond measure. His own torment had been nothing compared to what she had been put through, and the demon had to pay.
Eurynome dodged left and swung right, striking Zane’s ribs and making the bones crack. As his opponent bent at the waist, gasping for air, he cackled and strutted.
The death eater inside Zane growled with hunger. The desire to taste the final breath of its own master drove it to push outward and take control. For the first time, the man relinquished his body to the monster without a struggle.
The dark, snake-like tendril whipped outward, lashing against the greater demon’s leathery flesh and beg
ging to find entrance. Zane and Eurynome circled each other, jabbing left and right. Through his other sense, Zane felt Eurynome’s excitement and lust for death, but something else lingered in the air—fear.
As a fist crashed into his jaw, Eurynome recognized what he had created in Zane. His game had twisted the boy into something sick and wrong on the inside, and a hint of worry ate at the back of his mind even as instinct told him to strike. For a moment, as Zane’s body flew through the void and landed in a crumpled heap, the demon puffed out his chest. But his reprieve was a short-lived thing.
Zane, determined to fight until he took his final breath, stumbled to his feet. A cocky grin spread across his mouth as he raised his hand and beckoned the demon to try again.
Eurynome ran at him, intending to stomp Zane under its mighty feet, but the boy recovered too quickly. He kicked out, landing the heel of his boot to the demon’s knee. Eurynome faltered, his leg giving in under the pain. The weight of his massive form brought him down—head drooping.
Zane struck again. The tentacle of power dug into the back of the Eurynome’s neck with a hard snap, nearly cracking his skull as it ripped through the outer layers of greasy, filth-covered membranes. Zane drove his mind to seek out the thing that would destroy the beast, desperation and hate causing him to tear and rip the creature’s brain as if it were not a fragile organism.
Eurynome struggled, trying to force Zane from his inner barriers as he parried and struck at his body. Like called to like, and the death eater inside of Zane wailed as the demon’s stronger spirit crushed into the deep recesses of where it hid.
Mind-to-mind and body-to-body, they fought and struggled. The fierce battle raged, leaving them both bloody and panting as they struggled to end the other, though neither knew how. In the void, no knowledge of time or space existed. And all things came to a halt until only the death eater and the demon’s battle for a fallen girl stirred the currents of life within the abyss.
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