Hope (Other World Protection Agency Book 1) (9 page)

As if the puppet master no longer
cared about the puppets, their bodies sank to the ground and darkness overtook
them.

She tried to move and cried out
in pain. Why did she feel like someone had beat her up?

“Careful” A small voice said.
“Your back is very bad. I tried to clean it up, but you screamed when I touched
it.”

Everything that happened came
back in a flood of memory. The last thing she remembered was falling to the
ground, then nothing.

“Where am I?”

“I … I live here. It is
underground.”

“Underground? Where is the man I
was with?”

“He is there next to you. He was
too heavy for me to drag very far, so I stopped there. I just wanted to get you
off the street before any more of the aliens showed up. I see them everywhere.
I tried to tell others, but no one could see them. Can you see them?”

“Yes, I see them.” Paul was
starting to rouse. She could hear him making almost silent moves. He was trying
not to scare the voice, but looking for her also.

“When your friend wakes up, you
will have to leave to get medical help. You will have to leave. You cannot stay
here.” The voice was definitely young and female, although she was trying to
appear so much older.

“I understand. We will not hurt
you.” Lifting her head when it felt like spikes were being driven into it was
difficult, but she managed for a minute or two. Looking around she saw a soiled
mattress in one corner with a box of half eaten cereal on it, and lots of dirt.
Although there were no visible rodents, she knew the place was filled with
them.

In the corner, thinking she was
hiding in the shadows was a pathetically thin young girl. There was no telling
her age, but she couldn’t be older than sixteen. That was probably a generous
guess. She looked dirty, small and hungry. Tara’s head fell back down, she had
already run out of strength.

“Paul?”

“I’m up. Just wondering how we
get out of this situation.”

“Can you move?”

“Not even if my life depended on
it. And it does depend on it. If our backs get infected…”

She tried to move, only to feel
fire race up her back. “Well there’s a possibility mine is already infected. So
what now?”

“Cell phone.”

“Mine’s in my purse and that is
back at that club.”

“Mine’s in my pocket, if it
works. Getting to it will be tough. Unless our host would pull it out for me?”

The young girl tried to shrink
further back into the shadows, but Tara could still see her shaking body. Her
head was going side to side as she looked towards the door that they were
laying in front of.

“I won’t hurt you. She,” he tried
to nod towards Tara “would hurt me when we get well if I tried to.”

“He’s right.” She grimaced as her
pain kept increasing. “There’s no way I would let him hurt you. If you would
get his cell phone though, there is a chance we could find someone to come get
us. That way we would be gone.” There was no way she was leaving that child
here alone, but she was smart enough to keep that to herself.

The girl began to creep out of the
shadows, still hesitant.

“It’s ok. I promise.” Tara spoke
low and reassuringly.

Finally, she stepped all the way into
the light. Tara exhaled as if she had just been punched in the stomach. She understood
the girl’s caution.

“Paul, she is going to come and
get the phone, but I need you to close your eyes and keep them closed for me.”

“Understood.”

“He will keep them closed. You
can trust us.”

Nodding she walked over to him
and hurriedly felt his pockets for the phone. Feeling it she grabbed it and
backed up.

“Who should she call?”

“My phone is locked. The code is
8521. Look under the contacts for Charon. C, H, A,R,O,N. Call him. He will get
us help.”

“Hello, Paul?” They could hear
his voice through the phone.

“Hello.” She said in a soft
voice. “Your friends are here and they need help.”

One minute he was on the phone,
the next he was shimmering into the room.

“You two have been missing for three
days. Your mother is about to start a war to find you. Since you’re obviously
not well, I will never hear the end of it.”

“I would love to trade words with
you, but can you get us out of here?” Tara heard him sigh before everything
went black again.

She woke up feeling like she was
laying on a cloud. Opening her eyes, she looked around and let out a sigh of
relief. She was simply on her insanely soft mattress. Not a cloud in sight. She
moved and tried to prepare herself for the excruciating pain, but there was
none. She was sore, but she could handle that. Rolling over she saw Paul was
looking at her.

“How long have we been here?” She
smiled at him, thinking he looked so good just lying there.

“I’m not sure, but your back
looks like it has healed. That type of healing would take several months, but
we could not have been out that long.”

There was a tentative knock at
the door. Then Dora and Charon walked in.

“Try three weeks.” Dora came in
holding a container of salve.

“There’s no way her back could
heal that much in three weeks.” Paul’s Dr. voice was making itself known.

“Your right, if you were just
human. But to steal a phrase, you’re other. So you heal much faster. Of course
your young friend helped, doing her best to keep your backs clean while you
were out the first time.”

“Exactly what happened?” Tara
looked between Charon and her mom hoping to get an answer that made sense.

“Welcome to the universe.” Dora
said with a hiss as she looked at Charon.

“The universe respects strength.
If you go into a place without a plan or the power to come out alive, it will
eat you up and spit you out.”

“You sent us in there knowing
that our chances of leaving alive were slim to none?” She looked at him hoping
she was wrong, but knowing he knew.

“No, I sent you in there with a
guarantee you would walk out.”

“You bastard.” She flew at him, not
caring about her back or her lack of clothing. He wasn’t there when she got
there.

Paul caught her before she could
launch herself at Charon again. She kicked and called him names, but Paul held
her tight.
          “Either you’re strong or you’re weak. Either you’re respected or you’re
dead. This is the world you now live in.”

“So you thought you would hurry
our deaths along?” Paul looked him in the eye waiting for a response.

“No. You are now one of the most
respected pair of others on the planet. They whisper how you survived the
master assassin Dix. He did not let you live. You simply refused to die. I
couldn’t teach you that ever. Your beating earned you street cred you could
have never garnered on your own.”

Poof. Once again he simply
disappeared, no shimmering out this time. He was one pissed being.

“What now?”

“You bathe, dress and come down
to eat.” Dora walked out the door with a stiff back.

“What did we do to piss her off?”

“Why are you asking me? Dibs on
the shower.” She said hurrying to it.

She looked at her back in the
mirror. The skin had definitely healed, but there were major scars. Not the
kind there should have been. She wouldn’t scare small children or anything. Still,
she wouldn’t be winning a swimsuit contest or being asked to do any skin
commercials. She had been out for three weeks and never realized it. This was
so different from when she had been trying to die. Then she was aware of what
was happening to her body. She knew who had been around. Not this time. She had
simply been out.

How did surviving a beating, even
a severe beating, give you street cred? Yeah she had felt like she could have died
every minute of the beating, but they weren’t the only ones who had ever
survived a flogging. It really didn’t matter in the end. She needed to make
sure it never happened again. Pulling her thoughts in, she concentrated on
getting clean.

They walked down stairs to the
smell of breakfast.

“That smells good mom.”

“It’s done. Come and get it.”

They entered a door that hadn’t
been there before to find a modern kitchen. “Mom?”

“Charon. Need I say more?”

“If he keeps this up I will have
to buy this place.” The kitchen was amazing. There was a double oven and an
island in the center of the room. It could have been the featured article in
home and garden. “Seriously, he could make a mint with his talents.”

“Why don’t you tell him that the
next time you see him?” She winked at her and then started putting the food on
the table.

“What happened to the young girl
who helped us?”

Tara looked up at Paul’s comment
she had been wondering that also.

“She’s here.”

“Where?” Tara wanted another look
at her, not sure that her eyes weren’t playing tricks on her.

“She’s hiding, but she’s here.
Give her some time. She will come out on her own.”

Nodding ok, she caught Paul’s
eyes. She would have to explain it to him later. Looking down at her plate she
realized she was starving. All conversation halted as they attacked their food.

“So all we have left to do is
save Amanda.” Paul said as he started clearing the table. Tara and Dora were
staring at him, one with a look of amazement and the other with pride. “Then
after that everything goes back to normal, right?”

“What’s your definition of
normal?” Dora had gone over to stare out a window that shouldn’t be there, much
like the rest of the kitchen.

“What’s happening out there?”
Tara walked over to look out and then simply stared. “Really mom. I don’t see
anything.”

“Well come with me and you will.”

They left the kitchen and moved
into the living room area. She was really starting to like this big old
warehouse. Of course when you have a demon wanna be who magically cleans the
place and provides much needed furniture and rooms, who wouldn’t love it. The
question was did she get to keep it after everything returned to normal.

Taking a seat, her mother turned
on the television. The local news was on and the newscasters were laughing.

“Although we think that’s funny,
the stories have spread far and wide the last three weeks.” Kelly was one of
her favorite newscasters because she liked to tell the truth. “Roll the tape of
the new interviews.”

A mother sat holding her small
child who looked to be about seven. The child and the mother were obviously
spooked.

“Mrs. Johnson can you describe to
me what you and your child saw two days ago?” She didn’t know this reporter. He
must be new. He was seated on the porch next to them and he was being very
kind.

The woman nodded, yet she was
still visibly shaken and looked like she didn’t really want to give the report.
“Jenny was playing in the living room with her dolls. I had just gone to the
kitchen to check on lunch when she cried out. Mom it’s going to hurt me.”

Looking down she clutched the
child closer and kissed the top of her head. “I had a pan in my hand. I yelled
to her Jenny no one is in there with you. Then a scream of pure terror and MAMA
please. I dropped the pan and ran to the living room. I saw it. It looked like
a demon with black wings and red eyes and it was coming towards her.”

The woman was visibly shaking
now. “I didn’t know what to do. I jumped in front of her. It laughed. Not like
you’re so funny, but a deep evil belly laugh. Then it said I will kill you
first. Two for one.”

The cameraman caught the woman’s
face at that moment. She was not crazy. Thea could see that immediately. Her
eyes reflected the knowledge of having met evil in a personal way. Her
innocence would be gone forever.

“That’s when the angel appeared.
Call her what you want and yes it was a woman. She had wings whiter than pure
snow and she stopped the evil. She promised Jenny would be ok. She would watch
over her.”

The cameraman did a quick pan of
the surroundings. Out front stood a moving van. Sighing Thea shook her head. Moving
wouldn’t help and she knew that from experience.

Snapping off the television, Paul
looked at Dora. “Explain.”

“In every generation there is a
shield and a doorway born. Look for them in times of great change. They usher
in change and keep it from getting as bloody as it could be. As long as they
are here, just living, things go more or less smoothly. The human race
continues to thrive.”

Getting up she walked to Tara and
sat back down. Taking her hands she squeezed. Feeling the stiffness, she ignored
it, she simply held them tighter.

“Eventually on every planet, a
gateway is born. Someone who has the power to not only travel off the planet,
but to go anywhere in the universe. Of course with that gateway, a shield is
born. The two act as one unit. The better they work together the safer the
planet is.