Darkness Fades

by Jessica Sorensen

  "You need to stay here," she tells me. I shake my head, worried it's the army or something, and then I begin to pull away. "Kayla, listen to me," Maci says. "You have to stay here. They're yelling because of you."

  I listen to the yells and suddenly I comprehend what she is telling me. They want to lock me away because they're afraid of me.

  "They don't hate you," she says sadly. "They just don't understand you. They don't know how important you are."

  "I hope you're right," I mutter, trying to block out the hateful words from the street, but it's hard.

  "I am," she says simply.

  The yelling continues for a while and then their voices suddenly fade. I hear Mathew speak, telling everyone to quiet down.

  "We can go out now," Maci whispers quietly, motioning me to go.

  I cautiously make my way back to the front of the building and find Mathew standing on top of the steps of the building. Sylas is standing beside him with his hood remaining over his head because there's still sunlight. The people in the crowd are all staring at Sylas as if he is some sort of a monster. I can tell by the look in their eyes what they're feeling. Fear. They want to kill Sylas. And possibly me.

  This is bad.

  Mathew is trying to calm them down, but the colony members are still uneasy. I take a deep breath and start to walk towards Mathew and Sylas. When I step out from the corner, many people turn in my direction and the crowd begins to murmur again. I ignore their angry looks and walk with my chin held high up the steps and beside Sylas. He glances at me and then discreetly moves his hand over and slips his fingers through mine.

  "Everyone needs to calm down. Sylas and Kayla are not responsible for what happened. I wasn't attacked by them." Mathew's voice echoes over the crowd. I wonder what the hell he's talking about. "Sylas is the one who saved me from Aiden. He went up against his own brother to protect me," Mathew explains and my eyes widen in shock.

  What did I miss?

  Sylas must sense my panic because he squeezes my hand, and even though I hate to admit it, it slightly calms me down. Mathew steps down to the bottom of the stairway and into the crowd of people. He immediately gets bombarded with questions about what happened; where the other one is, what he's going to do about the problem. They look at us every time they say problem and it irks me to my very core.

  "What is going on?" I whisper, leaning in towards Sylas.

  "I guess Aiden put thoughts into people's heads and made them do things," he whispers back. "He tried to get me to attack Mathew, but was surprised when I didn't respond. When his little gift didn't work on me, he tried to get me to tell him why. I honestly have no idea why it didn't work on me, but the next thing I knew, he bit me... He was able to see my thoughts." He swallows hard with his head bowed down. "He knows that you changed me back, Kayla."

  I notice there are a few drops of blood on his jacket; however the wound on his neck has started to heal, barely two specks.

  "And it gets worse," Sylas continues. "His bite made me black out for a few minutes and that's when he attacked Mathew. I managed to pull him off before he bit him and then he ran off... with the papers." He pauses, shaking his head at himself. "I don't get it... I used to be so much strong than him, but felt so helpless... he took out the guards, too..." He shakes his head again and tips his chin up, keeping his eyes angled from the sun. "He's different. Stronger than anything I've ever come across. I think he might really be working for the Highers."

  I swallow hard, wondering why I felt Monarch lying to Gabrielle when he clearly was telling the truth. The crowd starts to break up and Mathew walks back up the stairs towards us with a strange look on his face that makes me tense even more.

  "I think I know the reason he attacked me," Mathew says as he reaches the top of the stairway and stands in front of us.

  "Because of the papers," I say. "I think that the Highers have him brainwashed somehow."

  Mathew shakes his head. "Not brainwashed." He pauses, gazing out at the sun descending below the mountains. "Aiden's changing into a Higher."

  "What!" Sylas and I both cry simultaneously.

  Sylas inches closer, anger surfacing in his expression as he dares to look up from the ground just the slightest bit. "How can you be so sure?"

  Mathew shuts his eyes, puts his hand into his pockets and then takes a piece of paper out before opening his eyes. "I managed to read quite a bit before he stole the papers... I even had this one in my hand when he attacked me." He unfolds the paper. "Monarch says on this one that he messed up on subject 409, a boy named Aiden. That he broke the DNA... put too much of injection 7 in him..." He trails off as Sylas and I gape at him, having no idea what he's talking about. "Right." He stuffs the paper back into his pocket. "To make a long story short, Kayla is the only perfect soldier. As much as Monarch tried, he couldn't create anything like her. He had a few failed attempts where he created something else--something almost perfect--yet filled with one flaw, greed. A Higher; and Aiden was one of them he messed up on."

  Sylas lets go of my hand and turns away. As much as the brothers fought, I can tell this is affecting him. He stands there for a moment, and when he looks at me, there's a hint of sadness on his face, something I've never seen on him before. He erases it, though, and then shifts his attention back to Mathew.

  "So Aiden stole the papers to prevent you from finding the cure?" he asks, drawing his hood back as the last of the sunlight slips away and the sky turns grey. I can hear faint howling in the distance start. "Does that mean there is no hope for a cure?"

  "Not necessarily," Mathew says, glancing around at the people in the streets rushing inside. "I think I read enough information before the papers were taken. I might understand what needs to happen to establish a cure. I just need some time to process it all... think... put stuff together."

  I look over at Sylas; the worry in me matches his. Time. I'd almost forgotten. We probably don't have much time.

  Taking a breath, I turn back to Mathew. "When we were in the colony, we heard the Highers talking about the monsters they've created; the ones we call abominations. They're sending out an army of them out to find humans and bring them back."

  Mathew gapes at us, his wide eyes matching the full moon in the backdrop. "They're coming here? To our town?"

  "I think so," I tell him. "At least, that's what we've heard... although they said it could take days, even weeks to get the orders through."

  Mathew glances around at the streets winding in and out of the buildings, panicking, probably visualizing the madness and chaos that could happen. They're fairly empty now, but they were packed quite a while ago, and if the abominations were around, they'd have chased down every last one.

  He looks at both Sylas and me, pleading. "Can you help us?"

  This town was ready to lock us up, yet Mathew wants us to protect them--save them. Sylas glances at me, and I can tell he's thinking the same thing, waiting to see what I tell Mathew. Monarch told me I was here to help find a cure. That my purpose was to save humanity. To save the world.

  "That's what I was made for," I say, my thoughts sort of connect, forming an understanding.

  I understand. What I have to do. What I am. Why I was created.

  Mathew breathes a sigh of relief. "Thank you."

  "Don't thank us yet," Sylas says. "Just because we'll help you, doesn't mean we'll win," he states bluntly. When Mathew frowns, he adds, "Just gather everyone that can fight."

  He nods his head and walks away down the street, heading towards the guards near the closest building.

  "Do you think that I'm doing the right thing?" I ask Sylas. "Do you think I'm even strong enough to help?"

  "I think that you're doing what you are supposed to do." He takes my hand and offers me a smile. A real one, too, which he's rarely--if ever--done.

  I open my mouth to say more because I'm worried about if I can handle this, but he silences me by placing his lips on mine. His tongue slips between my lips. He tastes so good
that I open my mouth and willingly let him explore me. We don't notice when Maci walks up behind us until she taps me on the side.

  We break away from each other, startled. Or at least I am. Sylas looks momentarily content.

  "It's time," Maci announces with her hands on her hips.

  "Time for what?" I ask her, wondering if I'm going to get another one of her little riddles about the future.

  "Time for me to tell you how to save the world," she answers.

  Chapter 20

  What in the world? Sylas and I stare at her, stunned.

  The grey sky darkens with each second that goes by until it's jet black, but the glow of torches on the buildings lining the silent street radiates around us. The temperature has descended and more and more cries circle the town as more vampires awaken for the night.

  "What do you mean?" I finally ask Maci. Sylas glances at me, his face contorted in confusion. "I thought you weren't supposed to tell us anything like that?"

  "I told you when the time was right I would tell you," she says with a cheerful, small smile, her red hair blowing in the breeze. "And the time is finally right."

  She turns her attention to Sylas, tipping her head back so she can look at him. "You need to go and get the other Day Takers and bring them here. It's the only way things will work."

  He's not looking at her, but at me, gaping incredulously. "What's she talking about?"

  "I'm talking about saving the world," Maci answers. "So please just get going."

  Sylas gradually turns in her direction, his eyelids lowering as he glares at her. "And how the hell do you know anything?"

  "Sylas," I warn, taking his arm, slightly worried at what he might do. "Maci's usually right about these things."

  He studies her with wariness. "But she's just a little kid."

  "A little kid that knows more than you." Maci glares at him, crossing her arms. "And you need to go now before it's too late."

  Sylas is shocked because he isn't used to taking orders. "Are you telling me what to do?" He points at himself, flabbergasted.

  "Yeah," Maci answers with attitude. "And if you know what's good for you, then you'll listen."

  Sylas rolls his eyes. "I won't take orders from a little kid."

  "Will you take them from me then?" I ask because I know Maci has to be right. If she says the Day Takers need to be here, then they need to be here.

  Sylas turns to face me, pushing up the sleeves of his jacket, his lean muscles flexing as he crosses them. "Have I ever taken orders from anyone?"

  "I'm not giving you orders," I sigh. "I'm asking you to go."

  He continues to keeps his attention focused on me, and it's hard not to look away, yet at the same time, not impossible. I maintain his gaze, hoping he'll cave and realize this isn't about who gets to give orders.

  "Fine," he relents and then surprises me when he leans over and gives me a quick, though passionate, kiss; stealing the breath right out of my lungs and making my lips swell. When he pulls away, he looks dazed, but I'm not sure if it's because of the kiss or because he's taking orders from a child. "I'll hurry back as fast as I can... but it's going to take me a while to gather them and bring them back."

  "Do you have to go back to the city?"

  "I'm not sure," he says with a simple shrug as he shuffles towards the stairway. "If they followed the orders I gave Emmy, then they'll be at the Grates... but you never know with Day Takers since they hate taking orders." He flashes me a cocky smile.

  "Be safe," I tell him. He gives me a look as if to say 'no duh'.

  "Of course, Juniper," he says, winking at me when he uses my nickname. "I always am."

  He starts to step down the stairway towards the street, but pauses at the bottom to glance up at me one last time. For a brief second, he looks afraid, and for a fleeting moment, I feel the same way. Then he turns, and I watch him race off at inhuman speed until he vanishes out of the glow of the torches.

  I turn my attention back to Maci, feeling my stomach burn, knowing the last time we split that terrible things happened. "So, what do I need to do?"

  She points to our right to where the street curves up a shallow hill. "You need to protect Mathew."

  "Just Mathew?" I ask. "What about the rest of the people?"

  "Kayla, go find Mathew and talk to him," she says. "Then you will understand."

  I want to question her more, however I know better than to do so. She's pretty much been correct with everything that she has told me previously, so after I drop her off at the building, with the woman teaching the children, I hurry off down the street to find Mathew. I make it past the fifth building on the street when I run into Nichelle. There's a small group of people with her, wearing all black, and they all are armed with a knives, sticks, spears and even a few swords. They look like average people dressed up in fighting gear only creating the illusion that they can fight. I know it's not real because beneath their armor I can hear their hearts racing with fear.

  We're doomed.

  They're doomed.

  When does they're become a we?

  "Mathew said that we were supposed to find you," Nichelle tells me. Her hair is pulled up in a bun and she has boots on that go up to her knees. There's this strange black band around her neck with a small metal pouch hooked to it. "Poison," she says.

  I'm confused. "What?"

  She points at her neck at the collar and the pouch. "I saw you looking at it and I can tell you're wondering what it is." She lifts up a hook on the pouch and beneath it is a pin-size button. "If I get bit, I push this and it injects my veins with poison that will kill me before the virus takes over my body."

  "So you'd rather die than change?" I've heard Sylas say this, but it's surprising to hear humans are the same way, too; that we both feel the same way.

  She nods. "Wouldn't you?"

  I nod. "I would."

  There's a pause where we realize we're not so different. Then Nichelle clears her throat.

  "Anyway, Mathew said you'd show us where each of us needs to be so we can protect the town," she says with an eye roll. "He thinks you're going to save the town somehow--that you're a better fighter than me--but he's wrong."

  She'd think differently if she ever saw me in action.

  "You know the town better than me." I glance around at the unfamiliar structures and alleys around me; I don't even know where any of them lead to. "You should be in charge of getting everyone into position."

  She nods, satisfied, and then starts to walk away when I snag her by the jacket sleeve and pull her back to me. "Sylas will be coming back sometime... please make sure that people are aware of this. Make sure that nobody attacks him or the people with him."

  "Sylas?" she questions, her brows dipping together. "Who the heck is that?"

  "That guy I showed up with earlier," I answer. "Aiden's brother."

  "Oh." She seems hesitant, but then gives in and nods. "All right, I'll see what I can do... but what are you going to do?"

  "I need to find Mathew." I let go of her sleeve and fetch my knife out of my pocket as vampire cries grow louder around the colony. "Do you know where he is?"

  "He went back to his lab." She points to the left, towards where the street slopes down to a cluster of buildings around a sandy hill.

  "Thanks." I spin around and jog back down the street, hoping that Mathew will be in his lab when I get there. Hoping that I can find out why Maci wants me to talk to him; protect him. Why it has to be me.

  When I reach the small square building, I notice there are no longer guards posted in front of the doorway. Everyone in town has been put on high alert and many of them have stepped up to the wall around the colony that was built out of cars. In fact, the wall of broken-down vehicles looks more like a wall of people as they line the top. I wonder how long they'll have to wait there. How long it'll be until the abominations will show up. Maybe we'll end up getting lucky and they won't show up at all. I doubt it, though, and I know that thinking that way
can be dangerous.

  It's eerily quiet when I open the door and step inside the building where I make my way down the dusty hallway with my knife poised out in front of me; always ready, always on guard, focusing one step ahead, focusing on fighting. I have to be. I don't know when anything's going to show up.

  I hear some movement and rustling towards the back of the hallway, and as I get closer, I see Mathew through the doorway to his lab. He's wearing a white coat and is holding some vials filled with various colors of liquid, carefully measuring as he pours each one into a large, silver flask.

  He glances up from the flask as I enter and startles back with a concerned look on his face. At the same time that he ends up spilling a drop or two of the liquid onto the silver table in front of him.

  "Is everything okay?" he asks, setting the empty vials down, his fingers trembling. "Have the Highers' army arrived already?"

  "Not yet." I cross the room and glace at the jars on the counter filled with an array of liquids. I wonder what is in them. "Sylas went to get the other Day Takers to help us." I wonder if I should tell him about Maci and her gift. "And Nichelle's setting up around town, but honestly it could be days before the Highers' army shows up. Or even weeks, depending on how hard it is for the Highers to reach a decision."

  He sets the flask down onto the table beside the vials. "Well, at least we'll be ready for them when they get here. And Nichelle is a very good fighter... I'd trust her completely with my life, but she isn't you, Kayla. I'd feel better if you were the one in charge of the others."

  "That isn't what I'm supposed to do be doing." It sort of slips out of me and there's no taking it back.

  "What do you mean by that?" he wonders, resting his weight against the table, his skin dripping with sweat.

  I dither, deciding if I should tell him about Maci. He seems trustworthy, yet at the same time, a lot of people do. Then again, Maci said I should talk to him. "Maci told me that I'm supposed to protect you and that I need to talk to you about why I do."

  "Why would Maci tell you that?" he asks.

  "Because..." I sit up on the countertop, letting my legs hang over the edge of the corner, and put my knife in my lap. "She can see things before they happen... she told me that I was going to save the world."

  Mathew crosses his arms and his pale eyes flood with curiosity. "I wonder if that was from the experiments."