"You never did tell me what happened to your sister?" I said after yet another stop for Benjamin to raid a car. He had just jumped back into the driver's side and paused in the process of shutting the door. The deer in the headlights look crossed his face seconds before a distressed look then he obviously tried hard to erase the other looks off his face. "Oh, I didn't?" he responded trying to sound nonchalant. "No, no, you didn't." "Oh, well… um… she lived," he added in a 'helpful' tone. "That's good. Where is she?" I asked slowly trying hard not to let too much of my suspicion thread its way into my voice. "Where is she? Oh, well…" He cleared his throat uncomfortably, "she's… Ummm... backatthehospital." His answer came out so fast it sounded like one word. "I'm sorry, what was that?" I said mainly just to torture him. "Huh, what?" "Benjamin, where… is… your… sister?" I demanded using my mom's voice to make sure he understood that I was serious. He groaned knowing he
She gave me a suspicious look but dropped the subject when Chandler walked up to us. "Julie, can I speak to you?" he asked softly. Julie? I thought to myself as I slowly melted away feeling distinctly uncomfortable suddenly. Julia looked like she would melt for a second before stiffening her spine and giving him a cool look. "I really don't think we have anything to say to each other," she retorted haughtily. Instantly his face clouded with anger, and I knew he had finally had enough of the heartless way she had been treating him. "I've had just about enough of your cold shoulder, Julia! I know I'll never be able to fix what happened between us, but you should know me-""Know you?" she snarled turning on him. "I don't know you at all! The man that went to prison for selling drugs was not the man I married. The man that got tweaked out and beat the shit out of me was not the man I married. The man who forced my uncle into stealing drugs from hospitals was not the man I married. I d
Benjamin looked at me and I nodded knowing if anyone would understand it would be a doctor like Louis. Benjamin stepped aside and let his sister come forward. Like I predicted Louis took one look at her and then threw a disbelieving look at the crowd. "Are you guys for real?! That girl is not a zombie! She's mentally handicapped, you dumb asses. To start off look at her she hasn't once tried to take a bite out of anyone who's standing next to her and then look at her eyes. I can see the whites from here, the zombies are pure black, you idiots!" Everyone looked dutifully ashamed and wouldn't meet anyone's eyes as they continued to step back. The lady that had tried to help originally turned her back to them and addressed Benjamin who had a startled look on his face. "What's her name?" she asked. "Bianca.""Hello, Bianca. My name is Ms. Suzy," she said kindly to Bianca. Bianca's roaming sweet chocolate eyes settled on her for a moment as if she was reading into her soul, then sm
-A feeling of foreboding… that was putting it lightly. If I had known what was happening, then I would have realized how bad things were coming to be. Because at that moment a dark shadowy figure was blocking out the moon and swooping in for whatever souls remained. - My dreams were jumbled, chaotic, and violent. Blood, sex, and darkness circled and swooped all around me. Faces sailed by swiftly on an unseen blast of wind that swept my hair into my face almost blinding me. A few of the faces that I saw I recognized immediately. My husband, granny, the woman that Melissa had called her mother. But several others I didn't, and those were the ones that scared the hell out of me. A whisper floated on the wind, I couldn't understand the words or recognize the voice. "Animo repetere tenebris. Habeo, inquit, tenebrae Ut id ipsum mihi voluntarie, Tenebris est dicere animam tuam Meum erit lumen ab rutilans Sumam eam: et propinabis de illo Nunc te mea omnia Tenebris est dicere a
The fear that had just been relieved resurfaced when I realized that they might not be all right any longer. I didn't hesitate; I ran full bore into the building and raced up the stairs. I burst through the door on the second landing and came face to face with Julia as she raced out of a room. We both talked at the same time. "Where's Louis?" "Where are they?" "Who?" "He's downstairs. The people who are sick." She pointed to the room she had just come from, and I practically shoved her out of the way to get towards it. "Vicki! Don't go in there you could catch it!" she shouted trying to stop me. That sent a warning bell off in my head and I stopped in my tracks realizing that she had been in there. "You're right!" I said as I turned and grabbed her restraining hand. "What are you doing?" she asked confused. I didn't answer her instead I reached inside my shirt and whipped the necklace off my head before pressing it against her hand. The stone heated up and began glowi
"What?" I asked her confused. "Ba! Ba!" she demanded again more urgently indicating the stone. I looked down at it and with great concern noted that the little crack was getting bigger. I made a distressed noise in the back of my throat and quickly put it back on trying hard not to dwell on it. Though the feeling of dread kept growing until it was gnawing at my gut. "I'm so sorry, Bianca. I can't make it come back, it only comes when someone is sick like you were," I informed her gently. She seemed to understand because she nodded and stopped asking, still she looked so sad that I gave her a tight hug to erase some of the sting of disappointment. She accepted the hug with a tiny smile pointed at me."Tha… ooh," she mumbled shyly. I took a moment to realize she was saying 'thank you'. "You are very welcome, sweetie," I replied softly enjoying her sweetness. I got up and stepped out into the hall to see if I could find Benjamin or Ms. Suzy hoping to help her before it became too
I stood frozen. I stared at the carnage in front of me.It was all so surreal I couldn't believe what had happened. There was no way, in my mind, that I could have just killed someone. A person, a human, was dead, by my hand. That was impossible. The door next to me opened and Ms. Suzy edged out followed shortly by a babbling Bianca. I still couldn't move; I was stuck in the same position staring down at the bloodshed in front of me that my own hand caused. Suddenly a hand came around in front of my vision and set on the top of my gun. "It's okay, Vicki," said a voice softly repeated in my ear. I let out a shaky breath slowly and willed my tremble hand to let go of the gun. Once my frozen hand finally thawed the gun was pried out of it and I heard Ms. Suzy give a huge sigh of relief. My knees collapsed out from underneath me as if the gun had been the only thing holding me upright and without its weight, I could not stay on my feet. Vaguely I could hear conversations, but I coul
My attempts, though terrible, did work much to my surprise. "What the hell just happened?" Craig said being the first to speak. "Seriously?" Benjamin spouted off turning to him in disbelief. "That's your question?" "What? Like you have a better idea!" Craig defended. "Better than you apparently," he came back. "Oh, shut up," Craig stated. "Boys! Don't make me send you to your rooms," I popped off. This very odd exchange seemed to have worked to calm everyone, but I still felt as if someone was staring daggers at my back. I turned to face the culprit only to find the last person in the world I would have thought I would see today. She looked pissed; very, very pissed. "Avamarie," I breathed. Everyone turned to see what I was looking at. "Who is that?" Craig asked. "That is Avamarie. She's the woman that is helping me," I told him. "She's a ghost," Benjamin chimed in. "The one I saw the other day.""Well, you were right she is very good looking," Craig said in appreciation. "
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