In Eden's Shadow

by Amanda Churi

  “Another challenger?” he pressed, spitting pockets of blood into the rank air. “My, my, you sure won’t let up! Eero, Mabel, Satan Himself… I took them all down!”

  I gritted my remaining teeth together with his admission. “Why…?”

  He scoffed with amusement. “Why?”

  “WHY DO YOU HAVE TO TAKE EVERYTHING AWAY?!” My knuckles twitched mindlessly, letting Mabel’s globed hair scathe my bone. It was getting harder to see; the blood was coagulating around my lashes and dyeing my field of vision red. I felt more veins erupt; either Death or Fate tapped my shoulder—they made me see stars, but I shimmied their touch away. “Why… Just why…? Why can’t the world just be peaceful…? Why do people have to kill…? So many of us just want to live, enjoy life, so why…?” I winced with burning eyes as I tipped my head back to Mabel’s stiff, cold face. “Why do you few have to ruin it for everyone?”

  “Looks like you could use a few classes in philosophy.” He motioned to the quivering red forest. “There are few of us that have minds of our own. You hate us like so because you’re all just sheep, mulling about and enjoying simpleton lives, never striving for better, so when we show up, you resist! Can’t stand the thought of something stepping into your comfort zone!”

  I gnashed my teeth at him. “I’ve never heard of a wolf being condoned as a hero.”

  “Of course, you haven’t. Your morals are products of your mindless society that I happily overturned to get us back to Eden—to a true world free of suffering that you sheep just turn the blind eye to. You would have been unfit to live in it, just as you are unfit to live now.”

  He leaped onto the rib cage and lashed Mabel’s spine. Wings of electricity broke his back; they crumbled his eyes and made them broken prisms—instead of emanating color, they pushed out a black next to nothing. “See?! This is what happens when we let emotions in! Things get messy! We make rash decisions! We mess things up! This is why logic will always win! If we didn’t feel such terrible things, no one would fight to be better than one another! No love, no hate, no greed, no sacrifice—we act as one to survive as one! Every person equal, the ultimate civil rights movement!”

  “But that’s not living! That’s existing! If we never feel happy, is there even a point?!”

  “All happiness eventually ends, so is there a point anyway?!” He gasped for air, clearing his throat—trying to calm down. “Apologies. I too am flawed, but I try my best to bar emotions… To think. That being said…”

  He pointed the whip my way, eyes exploding with twisting, zapping hands of light. “I’VE GLADLY REVOKED THE LIVES OF THOSE IN MY WAY! SO WHAT MAKES YOU THINK YOU ARE ANY DIFFERENT?!”

  Nothing. Nothing made me think that.

  The drawbridge of bone Gannon stood upon snapped open like a set of jaws. The surprised sorcerer hardly fell before the ribs clamped back shut and stabbed through him from both sides, holding him punctured at the chest.

  But I guess Satan clearly thought otherwise.

  Gannon gasped as his wings crumbled and the blood spurted out like pressurized hoses. The blocky whip tumbled into the ash below him, his hands sparking at the knuckles and curling around the massive ribs, trying to pry them open. The golden heart in the skeleton’s chest that had been reduced to the size of a nut suddenly exploded into life; the near quelled sandstorm of dark matter resurged and rushed up toward Gannon’s skewered body.

  The darkness yanked his energy from him, tearing apart his life and soul. Gannon roared and thrashed, squealed like a pig not quite dead. His soul streamed down his eyes, melting like white goo, while a second soul was ripped from his chest, hissing like a snake.

  “IT’S ALL A GONER ANYWAY!” he screamed, head back and skin peeling from bone with the downward suction. “WATCH! NOTHING CAN SAVE IT! NOTHING CAN SAVE YOU NOW! CONGRATULATIONS! YOU RUINED IT ALL! HUMANS RUINED IT ALL AGAIN—!”

  The last of him and Calla’s cursed Eyla shot down into the glowing pit, and with his soul went his voice. The drain of gold continued to spin, but it slowed; the black matter settled back toward the ground, and Gannon’s pierced corpse swayed like Spanish moss, empty and gone.

  A set of black eyes rose from the golden vortex—eyes I had looked into one too many times. They stared through me, and I stared back with slumped lids and broken will. “Satan… Please.”

  Like I want it. Do you know how much trouble you’ve caused me? Not just in this life, but in every form you’ve came in? At this point, I will personally fight God if He tries to pawn your soul off on me. Just keep it—keep your freedom, and leave me the Heaven alone. I never want to see your hideous face again, Eero.

  The eyes crumbled and fell away, and then the energy, the orb with my fledglings, my core, my friends—Mabel—it vanished, absorbed into the earth.

  Gone.

  The crawling steam whispered in the air around me; droplets of water fell, and fires still burned. I stayed on my knees, watching the skeleton first fade to dust and then from existence.

  Moving wasn’t even a thought. I don’t know how long I stayed there, looking at Gannon’s corpse bleeding into the already red forest. I couldn’t even find it in me to cry anymore; the ducts must have ruptured with everything else, and all I wanted to do was curl up… Sleep for good.

  I let myself fall onto my side. I didn’t know Mabel’s blood from mine now, but lying in it made me feel warm, like she was hugging me again… Saying that it was ok to let go…

  I shimmied closer and put my forehead against hers, still holding onto her like I had everything to lose. Of all the time we spent with each other, we had never acted like the couple my dreams had ached for… Never cuddled, just hugged and talked, kissed away our troubles and rubbed away the worries. All we were built on seemed to be explosive, emotional episodes that erupted when we were on the brink of insanity, making us fall on one another. In a peaceful world, it wouldn’t have been a normal relationship, probably not a healthy one either, but to us—me—it had been the only love I had felt in eight years. She had come so fast, brought life back into my dead body, but she was gone even faster.

  A white light shimmered in the collar of her armor. I lifted my bleeding eyes—and I bawled like a real man, a real person when I recognized the rose. The one that I gave her—the one she had taken to her death bed, knowing the truth that never burned more real than it did at this moment.

  But that was it. It didn’t matter anymore. She wouldn’t be waiting on the other side… Satan had consumed everyone but me. He knew what I was going to ask with that simple glance—that He put me out of my misery too, for good, and that was exactly why He told me to keep my soul.

  He still won the game I had never wanted to play.

  A shadow crossed my fixated, streaming eyes. I continued to stare at the shining rose, waited expectantly for Death, but the darkness continued to linger.

  I gave in and looked back to give the “ok,” ready to leave this physical world if nothing else, but I didn’t find who I expected.

  Pinion stood above me, shrouded in the blackness of the night. The only light came from her eyes, ones that were not the color of evergreens but infected, explosive puss. She leaned on her sword for support but said nothing, just stared, lips puckered and eyes slit.

  The harrowing scream that burst out of her jolted my heart in my chest. I only got a flash of her raised sword—the one she lifted high, the white rays strong and bright, forming a cross, before she brought it down on my head.

  ***

  “Sh-Shamu! Slow down!”

  The tail sank under the grass gracefully, a head taking its place. He turned his eyes to me, staring my way with his deep black gaze and tongue dropped before he ran at me full speed, slamming his weight into my stomach and pinning me to the ground.

  “Shamu!” I exclaimed, laughing as he licked my face uncontrollably. “Off boy, off!” I pushed him roughly away from me, sitting up and wiping the slobber off my face. Shamu sat at my side, wagging his tail like a propeller
as I rested my hand on his head, rubbing it roughly. “Good boy.”

  I looked up toward the sky at the sinking sun. The sky was streaked pink and orange on the horizon, casting its magnificent rays of light across the landscape. The trunks of the distant trees were glowing with a scarlet red light as if they were part of the heavens. The meadow which I sat in was a crisp gold from the shine of the star, which also showed its acknowledgment of the sun’s power.

  It all felt so familiar… As if I had been on this very run before, but something was different. A little sparkle of life fluttered in my chest, a twinge of happiness. Such a thing had eluded me for so long that I had to second guess if that was really what I felt.

  I sighed, stroking Shamu’s head lighter. “Why can’t it always be like this?”

  Shamu turned his gaze to me as if he could understand what I said.

  “I mean, a time of peace would be just too much to ask for, wouldn’t it?” I met Shamu’s gaze. “All of this war and bloodshed… Why can’t it just—?” I stopped myself; a smile pulled on my lips, and I chuckled, rustling his fur harder. “No, it is over, isn’t it?” I looked back to the sun and then to my side. “It’s all over.”

  Mabel smiled in agreement, the freckles of sunset bursting through her blowing hair and shining eyes. She rested her hand on mine, pushing it down harder so that the daisies beneath my palm sunk into the ground. “Yes… Now you can finally rest.”

  Her answer strung my smile higher. I reached farther with my neck to catch sight of Tah next to her, who reached toward the sinking sun with newfound energy. Laelia sat silently beside Tah, but she too managed a small grin, especially watching Ryze and Aponi tussle in the fields and joust with sticks, though, of course, Aponi won every time, giving Ryze a quick, encouraging peck on the cheek to refuel him with enough will to fight—and lose—again.

  “He never was the best at fighting.”

  My hand was no longer on Shamu’s head but Kevin’s shoulder as he watched his old Resistance members with amusement. Griffin watched too, his chin in his knees with both arms holding him together. He tilted his head to me and grinned with his teeth. “I should have taught him how to thieve a bit.”

  “How many times will you boast about that?!” Laelia spat, slamming her claws into the soil and stabbing Griffin with her sharp leer. “You’re such an idiot!”

  The familiar squabble began, but I drowned them out, looking back at the sun with Mabel following my gaze. “This future… I’m happy I got to see it, especially with you.”

  I was thankful the burning sun hid my blush. Griffin stood up, storming over to Laelia with arms spinning irritably as she rose to meet his challenge, both practically spitting curses in the other’s face. Ryze almost managed to swipe Aponi’s ankle before she whammed him in the gut with the butt of the stick and sent him doubling over in the grass. Tah and Kevin did not speak, just watching, reminiscing.

  I lifted my arm in a storm of jitters and put it around Mabel’s waist, tugging her in. Her head fit perfectly in the crook of my neck, one she did not pull away from. A deep exhale left her lungs and mine next. I felt so calm and relaxed that my eyes slipped down, shutters to this perfect day.

  The watch on my wrist rang, warning me of sunset, but nothing jolted me. There was no need to be afraid of night anymore.

  Because finally, the war was won, and I was home.

  Thirty-six

  Children of Time

  Why does he still have that shit-eating grin on his face?!

  Pinion hurled her sword out of his heart—the last place that she had stabbed that bastard after his skull, neck, thighs, even balls. The first strike was all it really took; Eero was such a smear of a person when she arrived that she probably could have poked him with her toe and he would have combusted into cardiac arrest.

  But that was too gentle. And she had to make sure that it was over. Besides, eight hundred years of pent up emotions had to get out somehow, and there was never a more deserving outlet.

  Guttural, wrenching heaves for air barreled down Pinion’s throat; she could hardly establish balance even leaning on her crystallized wing, lost somewhere between this world and the next, but still, a wedge of teeth managed to push aside her lips. A rusty laugh jostled her war-flogged bones. Every one of them was finally gone, dealt with, never to tamper with her ever again. God, how that prophecy could go fuck itself. The war was won, and with that, they weren’t needed. Yes, she, the “gear,” had been watching over them all along, busting up the last words of whatever God-chosen stale fart had tagged such legendary roles to their unworthy skins. Finally seeing Eero at her feet… It was the greatest rush of satisfaction she had ever experienced.

  But even looking at his hideous excuse of a being, her insides continued to ferment. To think it never centered around Mabel as all thought because of the sword’s presence… To think it wasn’t even about Tah and Mabel. Three was a magical number. Pinion knew that she was somehow intertwined with the end, but the three gears with a bolt… She first thought of the legendary trio: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But then, after piecing more things together, she rested on it meaning Tah, Mabel, and Eero, with her at the center of it all.

  But no.

  Every fucking gear… Every driving, moving piece… It was all him. The boy who couldn’t exist in Heaven, Hell, or even Earth. The prophet to live the lives of all three, angel, demon, and human, cursed through it all, destined to fall to set it right.

  His stuck-on smile taunted her. What the hell could have possibly made him happy as Pinion tore him to ribbons?

  “Fuck. You.” She spat on his fixed face, on the lips ajar in a whimsical grin with blooming red clots winding out. “It’s about time you ticked your last tock. You went on too long as is.”

  She gave him a few seconds, just in case that sack of shit tried to talk back, but he stayed locked in death.

  Pinion grunted and slashed his face one last time, slicing his nose and smile clean off. She looked at Gannon’s draining body as Eero’s nose plopped into the lake. Now that he was gone, she had to secure control fast before Seek did, gather new followers, kill new enemies, all before reign slipped away again.

  She taunted Gannon with a growl. “How does it feel to have it all ripped away? Look at that. In the end, Satan still did you in; the only thing more satisfying would have been if I did it myself—”

  Her spine violently arched, a bullet splitting beneath her shoulder. A sharp gasp broke her lips; surprised, pained eyes rushed behind her, the sight stopping her body from twisting farther.

  The white string was finishing its transition to red, tight and stretched to its limit. Sage clenched the spool in their knitted hand; in the other was their needle, glinting in the amber firelight.

  Pinion found it hard to get air in. She was hesitant to move; all it would take was a simple swing to lose it all. “Sage—”

  They tugged harshly to turn her words into wails. Their fleshy eye and stitched on lips creased, anger and hostility brimming in the head that Pinion always thought was filled with air. “It’s my turn to talk. Yourrrs to listen.”

  Pinion groaned but kept her choice words to herself.

  Sage stepped onto the stone path, reeling in the spool with each fall of the foot. “Why? Tell me whyyy you killed our brother.”

  That noun nearly cut her jaw off her face. “Brother?! You call him a bro—?!”

  “Daddy thought of him as a son, riiight? He adopted Eero, just like you.”

  Sage placed the needle on the thread, softly pushing down. Pinion squealed; knives of static uppercut her gut and slashed open her veins. Her heart began its sprint with the weight of Death teetering on that thin line—a violin bow about to string its finale. How did they even know this stuff?! Sage had just found out they were siblings for God’s sake! “Sage! Please!”

  “If you ask meee, I’m the only authentic child here!”

  “I had to kill him!” she explained frantically. “He killed Mabel—!�
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  “LIAR!”

  “I am not! You didn’t see it, so don’t tell me what’s—!”

  Sage yanked the spool so hard that they tugged Pinion toward them, making her squeal. “I may have not seeen it, but do you think I’m that stupid? I can feel your pulse in my body; I can feeel how fast it is.”

  “You flatass! That’s because I’m terrified!”

  Sage’s eyes shrunk. “There’s a difference between frightened beats and desperate ones. I’ve held enough hearts to know.”

  Her swallow echoed through her body. She had never seen Sage so serious—it was startling. Calm down, think. Play it where it hurts. Her fingers snaked around the hilt of her sword, tightening. They’re just another puppet, and more so than anyone else.

  “Come on, Sage…” she tried with steadying, leveling words. “Yes, I killed him, but I did it for vengeance—not just for me, but you too.”

  “Me?” Their pitch was a bit higher. The seed of doubt was planted.

  “He left us both in Phantome. He let Reeve take over. He let our father be killed because he was too scared to stay and fight. He fled into the future so that he didn’t have to suffer with us and battle to save a world that he changed.”

  Sage’s hold slightly slacked, as did the string. Their contorting, confused eye stumbled over to Eero’s corpse, one so torn and bloody that he looked like a scavenged hunk of meat rather than a body.

  “He did it before, and he would have done it again, Sage,” Pinion pressed. “There is not a thing he touches that isn’t destroyed. I’m sorry that I let my rage overcome me, but I was sick and tired of hurting. I’m sure you are too.”

  Sage was quiet. The blistery, blustery air birthed from the flames tugged at their rags and sanity. “…I understand,” they finally said.

  A scalding sigh crawled out of Pinion’s mouth. “Thank goodness—”