Dark Creations: Hell on Earth (Part 5) (2 page)

“No!”
she screamed.

Her son cried out, and
the others in the pack attacked him.

Sarah’s legs gave out from beneath her, and she felt the woman’s grip on the back of her neck relax.  She collapsed to the floor in horror and disbelief.  She sobbed uncontrollably.  Her worst nightmares had never been as horrific as what she’d just witnessed
, as her evening had been.  She felt as though she’d been cast into hell and was enduring the worst suffering a person could bear.  She’d watched her children die, watched her husband die.  No pain could possibly be worse, no punishment more depraved. 

“Oh now, stop your crying,” she heard the woman say flatly.  She looked up and saw the woman watching her impassively, without the slightest trace of humanity. 
“Your time on Earth is over. 
Our
time has come.”

The woman raised her gun and aimed it at Sarah’s temple. 

The last sound Sarah Miller heard was the loud popping of the pistol firing as the woman pulled the trigger, then silence, blessed silence.  Her hell ended.

Chapter 2

Melissa gazed across a room filled with the people closest to her and rested
her eyes on the man she would marry.  Gabriel sat at a table beside her Great Aunt Lorrie who obsessively reapplied bright-orange lipstick in between pinching his cheeks.  He listened intently as she spoke, applied and pinched, leaning in and nodding, all the while maintaining a warm smile.  She had no idea how he did it, how he endured what promised to be wearisome chatter, as well as having his cheeks squeezed as if he were four.  But he did, and with a smile.

As if sensing her eyes on him, Gabriel looked up at her.  His cerulean
stare made her heart do a weird flutter, the same flutter it had done since the first time she’d laid eyes on him three years earlier.  Then, they had been high school juniors just getting to know each other, learning about love and relationships.  Now, they were engaged to be married and preparing for a future together.

Gabriel raked a hand through his short hair, whispered something in
Aunt Lorrie’s ear and stood.  He winked at Melissa and smiled and she had to remind herself to breathe.  He started to move toward her but was intercepted by her uncle.  Part of her wanted to elbow her way through friends and family and hip-check good old Uncle Steve so that she could have five minutes alone with her husband-to-be for the first time all day, but that would have been rude.  She had been raised better.

Thoughts of the person who’d raised her reminded her of the other man in her life.  Her eyes scanned each table for her father.  Face after smiling face meant everyone was enjoying
themselves, and happy for she and Gabriel, all except one.  In the far corner of the room, her father sat at a small round table sipping from a beer bottle and tugging at the knot of his tie uncomfortably.  With his brow furrowed and his mouth set in a hard line, Melissa could tell he was not happy.  She made her way to him immediately.

“Hey dad!”
she said and sidled up beside him.  “Why so glum, chum?” she joked.

“Oh hey Missy,” he said and smiled.  But his smile did not reach his eyes.  “You look pretty.  I guess engaged life is treating you good.”

His words were meant to be complimentary, but his tone was anything but.  Disapproval laced his every word, disapproval and disappointment. 

“What’s the matter?” Melissa asked, a bit afraid to hear his answer.  The last thing she wanted to hear was that she and Gabriel did not have his blessing to marry.  “You look miserable.  Aren’t you happy that Gabriel and I are getting married?”

Please say you’re happy!  Please say you’re happy,
she thought. 

“You know I am,” her father said and looked wounded.  “He’s a
great guy.  It’s just that, well, you know,” he fumbled.

“No, dad, I really don’t,” she said gently.  “Help me out here.”

“It’s just that, well, you’re my little girl,” he said and his voice faltered.  “And I’m losing you.”

Melissa’s father’s eyes were glassy with emotion.  She felt her own brim with tears.

“You’re not losing me, dad.  Everything is going to be the same.”

“No, no it won’t.  You’ll be living with him.  You won’t come home at night,” he said and looked at his lap dejectedly.

“I’m not really home that much as it is.  Most nights I’m at his place.”

“Yeah, but still,
some
nights you’re home.  I’m going to miss those nights, that’s all.”

Melissa swallowed hard against the lump that had gathered in her throat and blinked
back tears.

“Oh dad,” she said and clasped his hand in hers.  His hand was rough and calloused, exactly as she’d always known it to be.  He gave hers a gentle squeeze.  “We will have to make a point of getting together once a week or something, just you and me, okay?  We can get a movie, or takeout, whatever you want.”

She’d expected his face to brighten at her suggestion, but, instead, his eyes welled with tears.

“The last thing I want is for you to feel obligated to hang around with your old man.  I don’t want to hold you back from, you know, living your life.  I want you to be happy. 
Not feel guilty because I’m having trouble with the whole you being a woman thing.”  Her father smiled and a single tear slipped from his eye.  He brushed it with the back of his hand.  “Turns out, you’re good at this growing up business, really good at it.  I’m so proud of you, Missy.  Your mother would be, too.”

Tears streamed from Melissa’s eyes unapologetically.  “Thanks dad.”

“What’s all this about,” a familiar voice bellowed.  “This does not look like a party over here.  This looks like a depressing-ass made-for-T.V. moment,” Alexandra said as she swept over to them with Yoshi in tow.

Her father arched a brow at Alexandra.  “Must you always curse?”

“Sorry Mr. Martin,” Alexandra apologized.  “Things just look a bit depressing over here.  I wanted to lighten the mood.”

“Well thanks for that,” her father said.  Then to Yoshi, he said, “How’s it going?’

“Great!” Yoshi said and nodded toward Alexandra.  “Couldn’t be better.”

Melissa watched as Alexandra smirked and reached a hand around and patted Yoshi’s backside playfully.  “Yep, things are going good with the Y man.  He’s a feisty little package.”

She cringed and wondered whether Yoshi liked being both objectified publicly, and being called “little” all the time by his girlfriend.  Judging from the enormous smile on his face, she guessed he didn’t mind either.

“You’re too much!”
she said to Alexandra.

“You bet your ass I am,” Alexandra smiled proudly then changed the subject.  “Hey, did you see Daniella?  She’s here.  And she brought her
special friend.”

“Wait, you mean she brought Ryan, the guy she met when she was doing Habitat for Humanity in the Appalachians?”

“That’s the one.”

“I thought they were just in a
casual
relationship,” she said and glanced nervously at her father.

“Don’t look at me like I’m
Aunt Lorrie.  I get what you’re saying, you know,” her father grumbled.

“Sorry, dad,” she said and patted him on the shoulder.
Then to Alexandra, she asked, “What happened, things got serious?”

“Looks like it has,” Alexandra replied and they both glanced over their shoulder as Daniella approached hand-in-hand with Ryan.

“Hi everyone!” Daniella exclaimed.  “Congratulations Melissa!” 

Daniella hugged Melissa tightly.

“Thanks!” Melissa said and stepped back to look at her friend.  “Whoa!  Daniella, you look incredible,” she said commenting on the nearly twenty pounds she’d lost. 

“Thank you,” Daniella blushed.  “Oh, you remember Ryan, right?”
she said and placed a hand on Ryan’s chest. 

“Hi Ryan.  Good to see you again.”

Melissa and Alexandra had met Ryan once. It had been over a year ago, when Daniella had returned from college, briefly.  She’d told them that she’d been volunteering during summers and holidays and that she’d met someone, Ryan.  Ryan, a mountain of a man whose height and heft dwarfed Daniella, and pretty much anyone else he stood beside, had come with her to Harbingers Falls.  Melissa had spent time with them then, but hadn’t invested much energy in getting to know or like him because Daniella had insisted that theirs was just a temporary relationship.  She wasn’t sure at the time whether Ryan had known that key piece of information, but had made certain to note it for her own use.  Watching the two of them together now, how one couldn’t keep from touching the other for more than ten seconds, made plain that temporary had transitioned into constant somewhere along the way. 

“Congrats,” Ryan said to Melissa.  To her father he said, “You must be Mr. Martin.  It’s good to meet you, sir.  I’ve heard a lot of
nice things about you.  And congratulations, too.”

Daniella beamed while Ryan spoke.  Alexandra put a finger near her mouth and pretended to gag.  Daniella, seeing her make the face, promptly smacked her arm and Melissa felt as if they were back in high school again. 

“Ouch!  What the fuck?  I was just playing around,” Alexandra snapped.

“You were being rude,” Daniella said smiling tightly
, but talking through her teeth.  “I needed to remind you to not act like an ass.”

“Ooh!  She’s grown a pair away at college!” Alexandra cheered.  “Nice to hear you finally curse.  Only took you, what, twenty years?”

“Ahem!” her father cleared his throat.  “Enough.”

“We’re sorry,” Alexandra and Daniella said in unison like
naughty school children. 

“Good to meet you, too, Ryan,” her father said and stood to shake Ryan’s hand.  “And thanks.  This is a happy day for my little girl.  And me, too,” he said and winked at Melissa.  “But I see my idiot brother over there boring the
snot out of my future son-in-law.  I’d better get over there and rescue him.”

Melissa’s father moved past Ryan and paused to kiss Daniella on the cheek.  “Glad you’re home for this,” he said then continued across the party room to where her uncle Steve had Gabriel cornered.

“Isn’t her dad awesome?” Daniella said to Ryan.  “He raised Missy here pretty much by himself.”  She sighed then turned her attention on Melissa.  “So do you have a dress picked out yet?  What about the flowers?  Did you decide where you’re getting them?  Have you decided on a reception hall?  Gosh!  There are so many things I can’t wait to hear about!”

“So why don’t you shut up and let h
er answer one of your questions?” Alexandra mumbled.

“I heard that!” Daniella said. 

No matter how much time Daniella and Alexandra spent apart, when they got together, it felt as though no time had passed at all.  They would immediately pick up where they’d left off and fall into their familiar banter.  To some, they would appear to be constantly arguing.  But to Melissa, they were like the sisters she’d never had.  They bickered often, but lightheartedly, and they always watched out for each other. 

“Well,” Daniella asked.
“Let’s start with the dress.  Did any stand out to you in the bridal magazines I sent you?”

“I looked through them and saw a few that were
nice, but I had so much studying to do.  What with finals coming up, I’m lucky I was able to pull off this party.”

“I know!  It’s been awful!  I can’t believe the
semester is over already.  It’s crazy,” Daniella added.

“One more year of college and
right after graduation, Melissa is getting hitched,” Alexandra added, a hint of sadness creeping into her tone.  “It’s wild.  Everything’s going to change.”

“What do you mean?  Nothing’s changing.  I’m just going to be wearing a ring on my left finger, that’s all.  We’ll still have
girl’s night once a month, and I’m sure you and Yoshi will be over twice a week like you are now,” she said to Alexandra.  “And depending where you go for your master’s degree, you might be hanging at our house, too,” she said to Daniella.  “Nothing is going to change.”

“Except your last name,” Gabriel breathed in her ear as he wrapped his arms around her waist.  “Mrs. James.”

His lips brushed her earlobe and sent a shiver across her skin.  She turned her head and was greeted by his full lips pressing against hers.

“Oh get a room, you two!” Alexandra squawked
and they all chuckled.

“Gabriel!”
Daniella said and Gabriel let go of Melissa to hug her. 

“Wow, you look great,” he told her.  Color touched Daniella’s cheeks
and she thanked him and mentioned her new workout schedule. 

“You remember Ryan, right?” Daniella said and entwined her arm with Ryan’s.

“Of course, how could I forget?  How’s it going, man?”

“Good, man.  How about you?  Congratulations.”

“Thanks.  Everything’s going great,” Gabriel said and took Melissa’s hand in his.  He stroked the soft skin on the top of her hand with his thumb, sliding it slowly, gently.  Melissa wanted to yank his hand that held hers toward her and kiss him passionately, right then and there, but knew she’d have to wait several hours, until they were alone.  “Did you ask them yet?” Gabriel asked her and snapped her from her fantasizing about spending time alone with him.