There was whispering around the room that had my gut tightening. Not only did they not believe me, but they were doubting my ability to continue leading. "Look." I clapped my hands to get their attention. Everyone's eyes snapped to me, and I could see the skepticism shining like little beacons of doubt haunting me. "I don't know how this is going to end. But I'd rather try and fail than sit around doing nothing. My husband is one of those creatures and I'll be damned if I let my boys get taken as well. If you don't believe me, then fine! I don't need you to believe me. I'm just asking you think twice before actually killing one of those things in hopes that we can change them back. That's all!" Silence blared through the room again and I didn't know if it was because I got through to them or if it was because they decided it was best not to argue with a crazy person. I didn't know and frankly, I didn't care. With all the excitement from earlier and then this little fun get-togethe
"Look," I started slowly thinking about each word carefully before I said it. "I don't think this is a good idea. It's a long and dangerous road and as you can tell it's not an easy trip. I don't want any more lives put in danger." "We know it's not gonna be easy. That's why we figured you could use two more sets of eyes and hands to help," Cynthia said being rational. I opened and closed my mouth trying to think of a different excuse. I could think of a million reasons why I didn't want her to come along. She was shady. She was rude. She was so arrogant, thinking she knew everything. She didn't believe that this journey was going to work. On and on the reasons went round and round in my head. But there was not a single reason that didn't apply to someone else in the group as well. "But… umm…" was all that ended up coming out of my mouth instead of a valid excuse. "You already know I'm a good shot. I could be useful. Not to mention if Erin's going then you have no choice. I'm goi
"So, what do you wanna do, boss?" Craig asked. I raised my eyes at the boss comment but didn't correct him. "Any ideas on a safe place to bed down tonight?" I asked them. Craig opened his mouth then snapped it shut again. He gave a sly look towards Cynthia before he answered. Cynthia looked deep in conversation with Erin and Benjamin, but from her body language I didn't believe for one second that she was ignorant to our conversation. Mouthing the word 'later' both men fell silent and didn't comment on it.Tossing around several ideas we ended up rejecting more than we considered. "What about that?" Gerald piped up in the conversation for the first time. His voice caused me to jump a foot in the air. Last, I had seen he was still sleeping. We had given him a pain pill for the wound on his arm and he had passed out shortly before we had hit the Four Corners. Like a beacon of safety, a large outcropping jutted skyward practically screaming that it was the perfect solution to the si
He was still too far away for my liking but a quick glance around showed no imminent danger. So, I forced my pent-up breath out and turned to Marcus who had yet to get out. He was sitting quietly looking out across the flat sandy landscape as if he could see something in the darkness that I did not. "What's up, Marcus?" I asked quietly. He didn't budge, didn't answer. It took me a moment to make sure he was still breathing. I reached over and gently shook his shoulder causing him to jump ten feet. If he had been a cat, he would have been on the roof. "Are you okay?" I asked him worriedly. The panic painting his gaze slowly melted. Too, slowly. But the uneasiness and fear did not. I looked over and caught Benny's attention then pointed to where Johnny was still using the brush. Benjamin nodded immediately. I slid in next to Marcus and wrapped my arm his tiny broad shoulders. Sometimes it was easy for me to forget his age. Seven was way too young to act as old as he did. He ha
A sense of hopelessness swept over me as we stood staring at the skewed line of cars blocking every open space on the road into Albuquerque. The day had dawned clear once again. The brilliant rays of the sun shining down sending a false promise of hope. But as those same joyful rays glistened on the car rooves, they revealed just how impossible the task ahead of us would be. "So now what, oh fearless leader?" Cynthia snarled at me in a hushed undertone. I turned my angry heated glare on her and gave her the same growl back. "Now... we walk." "Are you freaking kidding me?" she asked in horror. "No. But once again you are very much welcome to just leave," I informed her brightly with a hopeful smile. Once she had gone up for her watch last night, we'd all sat around the camp fire and, as quietly as possible, proceeded to have a heated debate as to whether or not she should be allowed to tag along. Sweet little Erin was her biggest supporter and with Benjamin trying his best to wi
The look in Johnny's eyes went for being serious to disturbed in an instant. "Don't do that." "Do what?" Craig asked. After a brief silent pause Johnny's already small voice came out tinier. "Hope to die."Stunned, none of us could say anything. We just stared at his miserable face that was frozen in horror as if he could see all our deaths happening right before his eyes. The drowning grief in his eyes was too much for me to bare. I pulled him close and buried my face in his soft curly hair."It's going to be fine, Johnny. I promise. Just go with Benny and be good, and I'll be back before you know it alright?" I whispered. He didn't say anything. He just threw his tiny little arms around my neck and held on tight. His grip made it hard to breath. It didn't matter though; my throat was so tight that I couldn't have breathed even if he were still hugging my legs. I held him just as hard wanting to keep him there forever. To swallow him back inside me and make sure he's safe. I cur
He let out a breath of relief then shook his head. "I swear by the time this whole thing is over, I'm going to either be hyper alert… or have died of a heart attack along the way." With my own heart obstinately refusing to stop pounding, I nodded in complete agreement.We trudged further inside the door and drew to a horrified halt once again. The room was a large morbid mural of death stretching out from wall to wall. The floor was not only littered with broken glass and bent metal; body parts were strewn across the floor. And as if the scene itself was not terrifying enough, I looked down and found a dismembered arm right where I would have put my foot down next. I knew I was about to be sick. I raced back out the door and bent over a bush, retching. The images in my head played over and over again like a movie on a loop. Even though I actually hadn't stepped on the arm my mind kept playing what it would have felt and sounded like.A bottle of water was shoved into my hand, and I ga
The curse sprung vehemently from Craig's mouth before he dragged me to the floor and behind the partially burned counter. "What?!" I hissed out painfully due to the unforgiving floor slamming into my hip."Eaters… a freaking herd of them," he whispered angrily. I leaned out cautiously to peak around the corner. "Are we calling them a herd?" I asked. "How many is in a herd?""Enough," he growled pulling me back into hiding."Enough?" I repeated taken aback by the way he admonished me. "Yes, enough. There are enough of them out there that we have to stay here for the moment," he snapped. "Oh," I replied.I curled myself behind the counter making sure not a single part of me could be seen. The Eaters had such excellent vision that it bordered on x-ray vision sometimes. Though I certainly hoped that wasn't in the abilities these things seemed to have acquired. Inhuman speed, strength and agility was enough. Glass crunching and shuffling footsteps let us know when they had entered the
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