Evanescent (3 page)

Misplaced grief gripped me, threatening to ball me over. Who did he think he was? He was no better than the people hiding behind the Council. Creating beings he could control. I never believed that the Council were our saviors from the facility back on Earth. All of what I had seen proved that to me. This was too much like the horrors in my mom’s journals. The more I thought about the situation, the angrier and darker things were turning inside me. But, I used human emotion to keep my shifts at bay. I pulled up shame, and relied on it to settle my anger – it was a feeling I had grown accustomed to. What I had seen in that room – the creatures – they were no different from me. And it was no different from what my mother had described in her journals, either. Her nightmares had been real, or they were becoming so. I had to get out and return with help, save those beings from a fate no one deserved. Then it hit me. Letters and symbols from my mom’s journals swirled before me, as if I was projecting them through my very eyes onto the stone wall beside me. I stood in the dark while my fingers quickly pulled the broken puzzle pieces together.
Shadow army
. I gasped. A nervous twitch animating my hand. I wasn’t sure what it meant, but I knew the army could not be released. I turned back, feeling like I had left something behind.
Does he have any idea what he has done?
The thought ripped and racked through me. I turned back in the direction I was heading and took off, willing myself to leave it all behind, guided only by the blue glow of the tubes lining the walls. My mind raced in a million different directions at once, and I could not turn it off. It was like a plug within me had been pulled and everything I had ever seen, heard or experienced started to file itself inside my head, turning and twisting the very information constantly moving, and shifting it into place, trying to make sense of everything that was and everything that is, so I could know what was to come. Whatever was transpiring, was certain to be a dark place. Taking every single motive behind Enoch’s actions into consideration, I wanted to know why. That seemed to be the number one question throughout my life – why? I came up with nothing more, other than the fact that he was a twisted freak. I would not give him a second thought. My feet catapulted me forward, through one dimly-lit, stone tunnel into the next. My hands grasping stone to hold my body upright, to keep moving forward, to not kill myself over the whys. To get to Maya and Arriana, to come back and destroy the Shadow army my mother wrote about. I drilled it into my head that no matter how many times my body wanted to turn back, I had to move forward. Something, or someone, was pulling me the other way, telling me to go and kill the army, now, but I kept at it, trusting my gut instead. At some point, I became aware that I had gone down a very steep, narrow tunnel, lit by the tube of a single, indigo light high above my head. First, I had smelled it; blood, my blood. I stopped, hardly able to move as the tunnel tapered in. I looked down at my clothes. No blood stains. I frowned, pulling the strange white, cotton dress this way and that. “What the…” I whispered to myself, on finding that I had been disrobed of my gravity suit, instead wearing an old, white frock. My voice carried a small distance ahead. It was then that I discovered I had walked so far down the narrow corridor and for so long, I had scraped the very skin from my shoulders – and I had not, and did not feel a single thing. I scratched my arm with my nail, watched the skin turn white, but there was no feeling. A hollow sensation crept into my chest. I bent my finger back, back and further back until the nail almost touched my wrist. I slapped myself. Pulled my hair. Bit down on my lip until I tore skin. Then I punched the wall so hard, I heard skin pop on knuckles. I stared into white bone beneath mutilated skin. If anyone had seen me assaulting myself in the dim narrow tunnel, I was sure they would think I had gone insane after my change; even I wasn’t sure of myself. Bending my shoulders inward, I twisted my body, gliding sideways toward the other end of the deep, gray, stone trench to avoid scrapping any more skin from my already grated arms. I needed to get to the power source, to shut his entire operation down, and pretend really hard to not to feel ashamed that I was part of it all. But all I really wanted to do after everything that had happened, was to just lie down. The hole inside my being had grown denser, and I wanted to climb inside that hole, never to surface again. For the longest time, I wondered why my instinct was not able to heal feelings of despair. Was
it
trying to tell me, show me, or teach me something? I looked down, rubbed the crusty blood from my shoulders. My wounds had healed, this was a new power for me. If you are able to remember correctly, this was the one thing I could not do; heal myself and others – up until what seemed to be that very moment when I was trying so hard to get away from past mistakes which seemed to haunt me. A deluded narcissistic, psychopath of an ex-boyfriend, bent on ruining everything I was lucky enough to hold dear. Running away from a Shadow army I had helped create through allowing their leader to take control of me by shifting out of anger. And now I knew that the blood-shift connected me to him. I should have known, the signs had been there all along! The tunnel eventually opened up, but I was much deeper inside the walls of the fortress, and breathing had become incredibly hard. There was a wall blocking me. I could go no further. I looked up, my eyes taking a few seconds to adjust and see past the beaming light. That’s when I felt the rhythm again. His beat was unmistakable – Troy was near. I had to jump, grab on to the thin, metal railing holding the tubed light, which ran the length of the tunnel, to pull myself up. I smelled my skin singe, but this was one time I was pleased that I couldn’t feel it. As I propelled my body upward, my arms and legs locked onto the sides, I shimmied up the narrow, conduit tunnel running vertically up the entire building. I passed a few more horizontal tunnels and with each crossing, another blue, tubed light joined into the other; I was running out of space as the tubes grew thicker with each level I surpassed. I climbed and the further up I got, the stronger his beat became, like a drum calling for me. My feet matching the rhythm of his heartbeat. It droned into my head, burrowed itself into my chest until my beat matched his and I felt lifted from the very anxiety adding to my claustrophobia inside those vertical tunnels. Grabbing the walls with my arms and legs became more difficult as it thinned even more with each joining tube of light from yet another vertical crossover. I counted about twelve crossings and joints. I was twelve stories up. The energy tube ran up beside me, almost the width of my entire body. I swore. I didn’t want to have to go all the way down again and risk losing Troy’s beat completely. Closing my eyes, I listened carefully for the rhythm of his heart, a rhythm I was so familiar with I could probably find it anywhere, in any time. His beat became audible, we were separated by the stone wall between us. I touched my finger to the very spot where it was vibrating, like he was inside the wall itself. I looked up, not much further to go. I was in the conduit tunnel for sure. What I had thought was a light, was most definitely what was powering up the entire fortress and those tubed beings. I wanted to find a way to destroy the energy lines, but I couldn’t. I mean, I really couldn’t bring myself to do it. I wanted to, badly, but something was stopping me. Almost like a mind block. I couldn’t kill anything – ever again. It was a guilt that destroyed. I climbed up one more story, positive I wouldn’t make it to the very top at the rate the energy tube was thickening out, almost squashing me to the wall. So, I went vertically with that tunnel and out the nearest metal, air grate above me. I shoved the heavy, iron grate, and moved it so I could lift myself out. I crouched down on the stone floor once I was out. I then moved the golden, patterned grate back over the air vent and closed my eyes, listening for the slightest movement. I found myself alone in a warmly lit, circular, stone room. An orange fire emitted from a black fireplace molded out of onyx stone, the yellow glow spilled into the night air outside. I stared into the fire, a familiar scent, and the familiar green tint in its sting – witchcraft. My lips pressed into a thin line and I turned away from my reflection in the black, glossy surface of the fireplace. I would never be associated with that kind of craft ever again. It had ruined lives. With every kind of magic there is balance. With the dark kind it was a life for power. I walked to a huge, arched window and as I looked down, I wondered what happened to our connection. I was stunned to see Troy looking back up at me.

“Troy,” I said, my tongue suddenly heavy with surprise.

In the glow of the fire lay the answers of exactly what had temporarily blocked his vitals from me. The very thing that powered the entire fortress had blocked my abilities. It was only then I realized what lay in the remnants of the coals. The essence of the Zulu king.

“Oh goodness, Troy!” I called out again. He was climbing the steep, stone tower. I grabbed on to his forearm and helped him up. His lean muscles pulled in his arms and shoulders as his upper body strength easily lifted the rest of him onto the ledge, his legs swung under him, and he was suddenly wrapped around me. I had almost forgotten how gorgeous he was. I felt my breath catch as I pushed my face deep into the crevice of his soft, warm neck. It was then that I realized I could
feel
him. I pushed my face deeper, feeling everything of him, all over me. His warmth, the smooth skin of his arms over mine. His gentle fingers working through my hair. I came
alive
at his touch. He kissed my temple, stroking my hair from my face vigorously. “Are you okay?” he asked, speaking into my hair.

I nodded, staring into his eyes, his forehead pressed against mine.

“Don’t just say that for my sake. If he has done anything to you…”

I swallowed the tight pull in my throat in order to push the words out. “I just want to get the heck out of here, okay?”

He nodded and brushed his lips over my forehead, pulling me into his chest. His scent wrapped around me and lifted the dark cloud from my mood. I pushed him from me suddenly, remembering why it was that we were there in the first place.

“Please tell me you found them,” I asked with desperation.

“Maya is waiting for us, but…” His face fell. The laugh lines around his gorgeous eyes suddenly becoming folds of worry and deep sorrow.

My eyes searched his. “What?”

I need not have asked, the answer was evident in his tortured midnight glare as his eyes found mine. I covered my face with my hands, not sure what emotion I was experiencing at that very moment. It was too much, too many, and my
instinct
tore them away from me before I had a chance to feel the weight of it all.

“Come, let’s get out of here, your sister needs you right now,” he said, obviously seeing the change in me. I was not only losing the sensation of any feeling on my skin, but my instinct was so tuned on survival, it was determined to shut out any human emotion. I fought it, not wanting to go back to that lonely place.

“No, wait!” I pulled my hand out of his.

He turned. “There is nothing you can do – it’s done, I’m sorry, but you can’t fix this right now.”

“I… I…” I, what? I was blank. Arriana could not be dead.

He tied a rope around my waist and as he pulled it tighter around my hips, I lost my balance and fell into his embrace. He held me close to his chest once again, exhaling a deep, hurtful sigh. “Everything is going to be alright. I promise.”

He pulled us to the arch. “You first,” he said, motioning for me to go out the window.

I hesitated. “Now, Ava!” His face motionless.

I climbed through feet first, holding on to the stone frame beside me, one foot at a time, balancing on the ledge, staring down into the blackness. I couldn’t believe we were leaving Arriana behind. The star-speckled night air and the faint, yellow glow of the sand surrounding the entire stone fortress reminded me of where we were, but for a moment I didn’t remember getting there. I just remember being there.

“You better go, before I push you,” Troy’s voice brought me back.

“You wouldn…” But before I had a chance to finish my sentence, he pushed me from the window. I smiled as I went down, the rush of wind filling my lungs, pins and needles erupting from my chest all the way out. I screamed just before the ground came too close, but was yanked back by the rope. Troy was walking down the wall with a rope assisting his decent, along with a measure of extraordinary control. He gave me that gorgeous smirk as he reached my side, walking along casually.

“You could have killed me!” I yelled, while my body spun vertically above the fine, dusty, golden sand just inches away from my face. Troy used his feet to push himself from the side of the stone building and released the rope to drop down to the ground. The faint glow from the small fires burning against the outside of the building reflected in his black boots. He stared up at me with a naughty grin.