Hope rose as I listened to her words. The souls would come back if the curse was broken... my husband would return… Melissa's mother would return… the infant's mothers."So, everyone will return once the curse is broken?" I inquired quickly. My voice was breathless with excitement. She nodded emphatically with a broad smile on her face. "What about the ones who have died?" I asked enthusiastically. Her face fell this time, and she looked away. "No, I'm sorry. If their body is alive, they have a place to return, but if not… their souls move on." A sense of urgency came over me. I had to get back and warn the others; I had to find a way to stop this curse before more people died and stayed that way. "When is the next full moon?" "In three weeks." Without hesitation, I jumped up and raced to the spot right before the pain started. I recalled how overwhelming it had been and practically skidded to a stop. I searched the empty space in front of me as if I could find a way around
Magic is real, whispered an odd voice inside my head. It was mine, but it wasn't. It was foreign, yet so familiar I found myself believing in it despite the alien quality. Once the last of the warmth rushed through me, I opened my eyes and gave Avamarie a small yet utterly grateful smile. "Thank you," I whispered and let my knees finally give away until I was once again sitting on the floor. "I know I've said this a lot since you first came into this… in-between. But, now what?" I asked. "That's up to you," she admitted. "You can stay here and be nowhere. You can go through the light and onto whatever comes next. Or you can go back through the door and live again." My options sounded vast, but they were truly limited. I couldn't stay in this in-between area, who in their right minds would want to be nowhere. I couldn't die, there's no way I could leave my children with no father and no mother. So, it meant sucking it up and brave the cloud of pain so I could make it through the
The minute I jumped inside the barrier I was immediately overwhelmed by the steady stream of pain. I was surprised that I was still whole since it felt as if I was being torn apart from the inside out. I screamed and screamed and screamed but it did nothing to lessen the pain. My knees fell out from underneath me, and I was curled up in a ball on the ground rocking back and forth. Tears were steadily streaming from my eyes and my limbs were out of my control. Just when I thought all was lost, there was no way I could move much less make it to the door a voice I recognized came drifted through to me. "Mommy," came a whimpering heart-wrenching cry. I looked up and through my blurry pain-filled eyes I searched for the source of it. "Mommy, please come back," came the whimper again. "John-Johnathan," I choked out hoarsely.My eyes finally connected with the door. I saw that, instead of it being closed all the way like I had initial thought, it was cracked a bit. The voices that I had
"Okay everyone's down for the night and I've got most of the unnecessary things shut down. Just checked on the babies and they are all doing well. I'm shocked at how well the preemie is doing. He's been getting better and better ever since Vicki did her thing with him," Louis said. I cringed remembering the weird light that had healed Tommy while I had held him. I had hoped, in vain obviously, that Louis would forget that moment. But he was proving to be a stubborn witness. I made a mental note to ask Avamarie about that damn stone she had given me. "Oh, Uncle Louis, are you still going on and on about Vicki healing the baby with her necklace? I told you it's nothing but a black stone," Julia said shaking her head at him. "I'm telling you it's the truth and when Vicki wakes up, I'll prove it to you," he said just as stubbornly. This must have become a normal argument because Julia just shook her head and let it go. "So, everything is shut off?" she repeated. Louis nodded. "All
"Oh, not again," I whined. It was now light outside, and I could see everything in the room. The monitors hooked up to my physical body were beeping steadily which was a good sign I guessed. As I got closer to the hospital bed, I saw that someone was keeping me cleaned up. I was sure that I had Julia to thank for that. A set of footsteps brought my attention to the door and saw Chandler coming in. He looked extremely haggard, and I wondered if he had been getting any sleep. When he got to the chair next to my bed, he slumped into it and scrubbed his face hard. He stared at me for a few as if he was trying to figure out what was happening. "Hey," he started out hesitantly. "Ummm, I'm not really sure what to say. Benjamin said I should just talk about anything and everything with you." He stopped talking for a few minutes and looked down at his folded hands that he had braced on his knees. He let out a sardonic chuckle that pierced the silence that was ensuing. "Julia swears up and
The light hit the back of my eyelids and I realized I had closed them as I had jumped. I opened them slowly and my first sight was my own face. I was floating above my body as it laid in the hospital bed. I was utterly shocked by how pale and sickly I looked. Even the white bandage that was wrapped around my forehead had more color than I did. I gave my body a once over to make sure I had only been shot once and that is when I saw a little bit of a brown curl poking out on the side of the bed. Johnathan was laying fast asleep right next to me curled up tight in a sweet sleepy little ball. On the other side laying with his head near my feet was Marcus lightly snoring. That was a silly little sound I would never take for granted again; in my mind, it meant that he was safe and healthy. I reached out to touch his cheek but was disappointed when my arms suddenly felt as if they had anchors lodged on them. I looked down and saw weird white strings connecting me to my body making it so I co
It wasn't until Julia and Louis had checked on me and declared me healed to their satisfaction that everyone relaxed. I had found out that I had been in a coma for four days and a lot apparently had gone on. The other men had been going out every day and rounding up extra food and supplies for everyone in the hospital. The few survivors they had found were resting well downstairs, but several of them had ended up in what Julia had called "the dungeon". Apparently, there was a mental ward in this hospital or had been at one time and several of the people they had found was the type we would want to be locked up. "They should have known that they weren't the greatest of all people," Julia quipped. "Even the zombies wanted nothing to do with them." That made me pause for a second and wonder why the soul eaters hadn't taken them when they seemed to take everyone else. I didn't have a chance to dwell long on it as my eyes drooped and my words trailed off. My last sight was one of Julia
"Hi," Benjamin said in a false gruff tone. A snort accidentally popped out of my mouth and earned me a glare from him. The fact that it was completely obvious that he was flirting with her was not supposed to be funny. In his own way, he had just reprimanded me for the sound. Avamarie just giggled at us both and stuck out her hand to shake his. "Hi, Benny. I'm Avamarie," she greeted him. Benjamin's hand froze in her grasp so all that she was shaking was a limp noodle. "You're-you're- Avamarie? The Avamarie that Johnny and Melissa have been talking about?" he stuttered out. She gave one of her laughs again and let go of his hand. His head whipped between the both of us in disbelief. It was whipping back and forth so hard I was sure it would pop off at any moment. Suddenly she slowly faded out and it must not have been in her plans because she got an extremely disappointed look on her face. "Darn, I was hoping to have a moment longer," she said sadly, her voice held an eerie
The sunlight shined through the gossamer curtains and hit my face. I awoke gently, blinking several times as my eyes tried to adjust to the light. As the window became clearer and clearer, I couldn't place it. I sat up trying to remember where I was. "Vicki?" said a deep voice from behind me. I turned and behind me were the sleep hazed eyes of my husband. Everything hit me at once and I began to shake. He wrapped me in his arms as he had done every morning since our return. We got back to that tiny shore side town to find Craig, Erin and Marcus had been waiting for us at the edge of the pier. They had greeted us like heroes, and I hadn't been able to stop holding Marcus or checking him over to make sure he was okay. Other than the rope burns he seemed physically okay. There was a haunting look in his eyes, but he refused to talk about what had happened while he had been an Eater. I had been forced to let it go after a while, but not before I made him promise to talk to me when
I laid the ruby on the ground and brought the solid rock down on it as hard as I could. The ruby shattered instantly and the shockwave from the power being released hurled me back to the ground again. A bolt of light shot to the sky and little lights sped out of it so fast that it looked like one light if you weren't as close to it as I was. Souls. I thought. Souls were being freed. They streamed at light speed towards the sky and as soon as they touched the storm they shot off in all directions. So many souls that the sky began to light up like it was noon instead of almost midnight. The roar of the souls leaving their prison was so loud you could hear it for miles. A loud scream from the circle snapped me out of the hypnotic state that the light show had put me in. She was beating against the field still, but this time it wasn't it anger it was in fear. "Let me out! Let me out! She's gonna kill me! Help! Help!" she screamed frantically. I jumped up to go help her, but Jenevive
Avamarie gradually stood up and wiped the blood off her mouth as she chuckled weakly. "You're right, Mother. You did teach me to duel, and I never did defeat you," she said softly. I watched her closely my gut telling me she was up to something. My gaze flew between the two women trying to figure out what was happening. Avamarie couldn't be giving up that easily. Jenevive was indeed enormously powerful, but it was becoming obvious that Avamarie was truly quite powerful in her own right. Movement behind Jenevive caught my eye. A large boulder that had come out of the ground began to quiver then slowly float up. I glanced over at Avamarie trying to see how she was doing it. One finger was lifting, but the hand was pressed so tightly to her side that from where Jenevive stood she wouldn't be able to see. "Look out!" I screamed. Jenevive spun around just in time to be plowed over by this boulder. She flew across the clearing until she landed brutally on the ground, bouncing once
"You had everything inside you to make it here. And look you did," she finished with glee.Her reasoning's were horrifyingly simple, terrifyingly easy. She used me plain and true, and I had made it so easy for her to manipulate me."If you hadn't meant for me to save the world, then why did you give me this stone that would save me and keep me safe?" I asked angrily throwing the shards from the stone at her feet.She bent over slowly and picked them up petting them tenderly as if they were the sweetest flower, she had ever seen. She looked down at them with a strange curiosity that held a tinge of regret in her eyes."I gave it to you so that you could bring it back here. I knew Mother would never give me this stone and it was the last piece I needed to complete the spell. A pure soul for sacrifice," she said softly. Then fury boiled up as she turned it on me. "But you! You, selfish bitch! You couldn't help yourself. You had to use it on every bleeding soul that you came across, didn'
In anger and disbelief, I confronted her. "NO! You're lying! It is you! You killed your own daughter! You sacrificed her to seal your pact with the Daemon!" I yelled at her. She dropped her head and I nodded at the acknowledgement of her guilt. "You're right. I killed my own daughter," she admitted despondently. I straighten my shoulders feeling justified in my anger. She was trying to mess with me to keep me from my goals. Well, she would have to try harder than that. By the end of the night, I was going to have my children back. "But not for the reason you think," she interrupted my thoughts. "And you have no reason to trust me, but I sacrificed her in hopes that I could save her before she finalized the pact with the Daemon. What I didn't know was that in doing so I, myself finished it. Because I took the last piece of good that was in her and sealed it in a stone known as the Black Star Sapphire." She pulled a necklace from under her dress and showed me a stone that was
The dusk was approaching harsh and rapidly when I dropped in front of a tree wasted. Panting, thirsty and starving. I was lost and had long ago ran out of will power to keep going. My body itself was refusing to keep walking. I had been coaching the exhausted lump of skin for the last few hours just trying to keep going and now my feet finally gave out on me leaving me sitting against the tree. The little nudge inside of me had grown into a constant tightness of the gut. I knew I was getting close and didn't want to give up. Looking around I tried to spot something anything that looked familiar to me. I pulled up the image that Avamarie had given me in my dream trying to find a clue. The cabin was desolate and run down. The area looked like a million other areas that were in the forest. The only thing that stood out was a few odd wooden wind chimes.Wait… wind chimes. Immediately I closed my eyes and tried to slow my breath so that my pounding heart didn't override every other soun
We waited until we were far away from the shore before beginning to bombard Gerard with questions. "How did you find us?" Was mine. "Why did you come back?" Benny asked viciously. Gerard raised an eyebrow at him. "You're welcome," he replied sarcastically. "Something told me that you guys needed me. So, I found the nearest non-crushed rig and following the carnage. You guys left a lot of banged up rigs behind." He gave a short chuckle as if he could see the image of the wreckage in his head. "Where is everyone else?" he asked changing the subject abruptly. Benjamin and I looked at each other hoping the other would tell the story not wanting to verbally rehash it. I couldn't think of Marcus laying tied to that bed thrashing around reaching for someone to try an ease the hunger inside of him. Just the thought of not wanting to think of it brought the image to mind and my breath left my body in a whoosh as if I had been struck in the gut. "I left him," I whispered heartbrokenl
The Eaters let out a scream rocking the walls then went straight for Craig and me. I tucked my head down around Marcus' shoulder waiting for the hands to grab me. Two loud thuds then nothing. My ears were ringing making it hard to hear anything more than the pounding of my heart over them. An eerie silence reached me when my ears finally opened again. Glancing over my shoulder into the room I found Benny standing there staring at us with a smoking gun in his hand. Erin stood next to him gripping his arm tightly and horror darkened both of their gazes. Marcus was making clicking noises in my ear and then I heard a response in my other ear. Panic consumed me as I struggled to get free realizing that Craig had been turned as well. Something slammed into the front door before any of us could make a move to free me. It slammed over and over again until we could all hear the wood on the door splintering. "Get him off her," Benjamin order Erin before booking it out of the room. Erin
"Let me take Marcus," Craig offered. I gave him a grateful look and traded him. Johnny jumped on me wrapping his little arms around my neck with a strangled grip and I felt the wet rain of his tears. My own silent answer fell from my face as I walked behind Craig watching him carry my screeching Soul Eater son in his arms. I felt like a failure, worse than I had when I thought I had lost the world to this epidemic. I had failed to keep my son's safe and now one had been turned. Benjamin opened the door as he saw us approaching. "Oh shit," he whispered. Erin popped out the door with a smile of greeting until she saw Marcus. "Oh, God! No!" she cried racing towards us. "Stop!" Benjamin demanded grabbing her to keep her away from us. She spun in his arms and hid her face against his chest sobbing. Craig pushed passed them and took Marcus to a little room in the back of the house. "What happened?" Benny demanded. I had to swallow several times before I could speak and even