“Quit struggling, you’re only making this harder for me.” The voice was young, male and annoyed.
“Oh. Sorry,” she said even as she pushed harder at the power encasing her. She felt the energy release and then she thudded quite firmly to the ground. Standing in front of her was the boy she saw from her window. The girl she saw earlier was turned the other way toward the house. She was relieved to see that they weren’t dressed in robes or that they had claws. They didn’t seem to be trying to kill her either.
The girl said through gritted teeth, “We’d better get moving. I can’t hold this much longer. The cultist will be able break through my shield any minute.” The girl was standing with her legs widespread and her arms extended. Her hands looked like they were pushing against an invisible wall. Her teeth were clenched and sweat was rolling down her face and neck.
“Come on, we’ve got to go!” The boy said, pulling Brynn to a standing position.
She yanked her hand away from him, “Seriously? My parents are up there with whatever those things are and you expect me to just leave them? I don’t think so!” She looked back up to the window she had just come crashing through.
He grabbed her arms up near her shoulders and turned her around to face him. “Those things up there are demons, or almost demons.” He pointed to her window. “Their handler will break through my sister’s shield any second and then those things will be here,” he pointed to the ground at their feet, “with us. Your parents are dead. You know that. I’m sorry, I really am, but we’ll be dead too if we don’t get out of here.” He started pulling on her again and Brynn pulled back with equal force.
“You can’t know that! I’ve got to go back in there.” She struggled to get away but he was really strong. Brynn twisted and squirmed. The struggle and the humidity had left her slick and she managed to slide her wrist out of his grasp and get away from him, but then he reached around her from the back and encircled her in a crushing grip.
“They died protecting you,” he breathed the words right into her ear. “You’ll have time to grieve later, not now. You need to face reality. Right now. Your parents are gone and the only thing keeping you alive is my sister holding them back. Now look at her,” he threw his chin out toward his sister, “Miranda’s almost spent and then they’ll be on us. So I’m going to say this again. Come on, we’ve got to go.”
Brynn could hear the certainty in his tone. She wanted to believe him because then she wouldn’t have to face the demons in her room again. She felt relief at the thought that she couldn’t go back inside her house and hated herself at the same time for feeling that way.
“I don’t know who you are, but at least you appear to be human not like whatever those things are in my bedroom are. Demons? Is that what you said? I just…I can’t…” she said shaking her head at a loss for words. She relaxed her muscles to show that she would, for the time being, go with them.
Jerom released her slowly, ready to grab her again, and then he took her by the hand. They started running to the back of the yard and the woods that surrounded the property. Just as they reached the safety of the trees, Brynn turned around to take one last look. One last look at the only house she’d ever lived in, one last look at all her dreams and plans, one last look at the only life she’d ever known.
She started to shake with emotion. He squeezed her hand and pointed at her window. She saw a shadow in the window.
Miranda moved her hands in a sort of tying motion then turned and ran toward them. The shadow slammed its fist against the opening that used to be Brynn’s window. Angry at being trapped inside by the barrier Miranda left in place.
“That’s not going to hold them for long, Jerom” she panted out as she bent over trying to catch her breath.
“The car isn’t far, just through those trees and I know of a place we’ll be safe,” he told Brynn.
They took off through the woods. The woods where Brynn had always been safe, where she had spent her childhood playing. Suddenly the woods no longer seemed friendly, now she saw them in a totally different way. They felt creepy, overgrown with narrow trails. The kind of trails that animals make. Her foot caught on a vine and she was thrown to the ground just as she heard a keening, anguished cry from behind.
Jerom pulled her up as she tried to turn to see what was coming. Then she realized she didn’t really want to know what was coming and started running again. They stumbled and crashed through the woods with the branches and dangling vines scratching at their faces and arms.
“There’s the car,” he said as he pulled out his remote to unlock the doors and ran around to the driver’s side door. Miranda pulled open the passenger side door and motioned Brynn toward the back door on her side.
Brynn slid into the back seat and put on her seatbelt while he started the car and Miranda slid into the front seat.
They took off down the highway that ran along the front of the property. Brynn looked out the back window praying not to see the creatures that had just murdered her parents. Nothing seemed to be following them. Maybe Miranda really had locked them in the house somehow. Huh. Then she shook her head. I just don’t want to think about all this right now.
Brynn tried to sit quietly for a minute to clear her head. It didn’t work. Her mind filled up with question after question. Then it was like she had no control and the questions just came swirling out of her.
“Who are you and where are we going and what were those things anyway and why did they come after me and how did you hold me up like that when I fell from the window and why did my parents have to die and…”
Jerom interrupted her, “Whoa, wait a minute. Calm down, we’ll explain everything, but first, I’m Jerom and this is Miranda my sister and second we’re going to a friend’s house. Right now just isn’t the time to get into the rest.”
“Are you sure, because it seems like we have the time right now?” Brynn said her voice rising a little. She was trying not to shout even though she wanted to.
Miranda turned around from the front seat to look at her and explained with a bit of contempt in her voice, “We aren’t just driving. Jerom and I are feeling all around us to make sure we aren’t being followed and we can’t do that and talk at the same time.”
“Feeling? How do you feel someone following us?”
Miranda’s jaw tightened and her lips squeezed tightly together. She said with exaggerated patience through clenched teeth, “The powers I used to hold the barrier on the window and the powers Jerom used to catch you when you fell are the same powers we can use to sense what is around us. Now if you don’t mind, we need to concentrate,”
Stunned and offended by the way that she’d just been talked to, Brynn sank slowly back into the seat. Her mind started to churn, reliving the attack, trying to think of some way she could have saved her parents and realizing all over again that it was just too late. Her body squirmed around on the seat from the dark thoughts pursuing her.
“Are you okay back there?” Jerom asked watching her in the rear view mirror. Brynn didn't respond. She could hear him, but his words were just noise without meaning. The sound of his voice only made her angrier. She wanted to feel angry. Anger could blot out reality. She didn’t want to face reality. Not now, not yet.
Miranda turned and looked back at her. “I think she’s in shock.” Of course I’m in shock, Brynn wanted to shriek but didn’t. She knew if she tried to open her mouth all that would come out would be sobs. She swallowed the sobs back, but couldn’t stop the tears that formed from coursing down her cheeks. She couldn’t seem to even move her hand up to wipe the tears from her face.
“Is she going to be okay?” Jerom asked.
“I guess so, she’s crying at least.”
“Is that a good sign?”
“How would I know?”
Their voices continued to rise and fall sporadically from the front seat, in turns irritating and comforting to Brynn. As hard as she tried to push it away, the final scene in her bedr
oom played itself out in front of her eyes. She closed them but then she could see the demons or whatever they were even more clearly. She threw her head from side to side trying to shake loose the memory, but it stubbornly held firm. She lost her battle with grief and fell over onto the backseat choking from the sobs which refused to stay buried.
Chapter 6
“What kind of crazy retreat have you forced us into?” asked Todd, Jerom and Miranda’s father as he and their mom, Julia, walked back to their cabin. “Miranda warned me not to come. She’s smarter that I give her credit for sometimes.”
Julia looked over at Todd her husband of nineteen years and wondered again why she married a pagan. Then the same thoughts surfaced yet again. He was the one. As infuriating as he was he was the only one for her. It didn’t hurt that he was such an amazing witch. She had been trying to convert him to Christianity since they met. It hadn’t taken yet and probably never would.
“Miranda told you not to come? Why would she do that?” she asked.
“She knows there is nothing wrong with our marriage just like I do. This is just another one of your ploys to get me interested in organized religion. You know its never going to work,” Todd laughed as he grabbed her in a rough bear hug and kissed her soundly. “I do love how you feel the need to try and “save” me anyway.”
They way he kissed her, that was another reason why he was the one. He dropped his arm from around her shoulders and took her hand in his as they started walking down the path again.
“Yeah, well maybe this retreat was kind of a setup. Maybe, just maybe, I thought if you got to spend a few days with my pastor you might want to come to church with me more,” Julia explained. “I see this was not my best idea.”
Todd glanced sideways at his wife and decided to throw her a bone. Just a very small one. “So, I guess it’s not sooooo bad. It’s kind of pretty here, in a middle of nowhere I have no internet connection kind of way. You have to admit though, the food is horrible.”
“Okay, okay. I know that the food’s a little weird…”
“A little weird! That wasn’t even food,” he started in on a rant his voice rising.
Uh, oh, here we go thought Julia. Todd’s rants were infamous. He was going to get himself all worked up again, just when she thought she had him calmed down.
“Birds can’t even survive on whatever that was,” continued Todd. “It was like seeds and dried bits of fruits and seaweed or something. Please tell me you have something in your pack we can eat,” he pleaded dramatically as they made their way along an overgrown dirt path in the middle of the Maine wilderness.
“Um, well, we kind of ate everything I brought for the backpacking part of the trip in. If we eat the rest now we won’t have anything for backpacking out, honey,” Julia said.
“That was another reason Miranda told me not to come. I hate backpacking!”
“You’re a pagan. You’re supposed to love trees and be one with nature you know,” said Julia.
Todd tripped on a tree root and Julia reached out to steady him.
“That right there,” he said pointing at the offending tree root, “that is why I hate the great outdoors. I have my little grove of trees in the backyard to worship in. I like nature manicured and perfect and totally within my control.” He waved his hand around him, “This chaos people call nature, it’s just wrong if you ask me. I like paved roads and grocery stores.”
Todd’s stomached rumbled loud enough for Julia to hear, “I’m going to starve and you know how unreasonable I get when I’m hungry. I may just kill that pastor guy who keeps talking about reimagining our marriage. Our marriage doesn’t need any imagination it just needs a proper meal. Preferably in a nice restaurant in the middle of a city!”
“Shh, they’ll hear us. Noises travel at night. Here’s our cabin. Let’s go on in and maybe I can find you something to snack on.”
Todd looked up and realized his rant had lasted all way back to the cabin. Now that he had lashed out he was feeling much better. At times like these he really appreciated his wife. She listened patiently as he released all his pent-up emotions and never took it personally. She was quite amazing he realized yet again and decided to try to apologize for his bad temper by saying something nice. Hmmmm, what could he do he asked himself. Oh yeah, the cabin. He could say something nice about the cabin.
“You know this is not a bad cabin. I mean for being in the woods and all,” he said.
He hadn’t really paid much attention when they had first arrived. His feet had hurt because he refused to buy hiking boots in an act of rebellion against coming to this retreat. He should have bought the boots but he’d never admit to that now.
“It’s kind of nice with that A-frame kind of look and the porch out front. The flowers in the window boxes are pretty too,” he added when he didn’t get much of a response from Julia.
“Um, hmmm. I like the flowers too,” she said with a knowing kind of smile.
He opened the door with a flourish and a sweep of his arm to indicate to her to go in first. Julia walked though the door with a nod of her head while she patted his chest. She moved over to the table and set down the notebook she had taken with her to the group counseling session.
Todd walked across the floor to the big windows overlooking the creek and sighed, “Yep, this is one nice cabin.” He wondered if he had overdone the praise when he didn’t hear Julia respond so he decided he had probably apologized enough for now.
He backed up a couple steps from the windows and sat down on the double bed kicking off his tennis shoes and proceeded to rub his feet. “My feet are still killing me. I’m starving and my feet hurt.”
“I told you to get hiking boots…” Julia reminded him over her shoulder while she walked over to the corner where they had stowed their packs.
“Yeah, I know. You find that food yet?”
“Working on it,” Julia had her whole arm in the backpack fishing around when it hit. A huge wave of energy that almost knocked her off her feet. She dropped the pack and turned to Todd who had jumped to his feet after regaining his senses.
“What the heck was that!” he exclaimed all thoughts of aching feet and an empty stomach forgotten.
The color had drained out of Julia’s face. Todd worried she might faint so he rushed over and led her to one of the chairs at the table to sit down. “Was that what I think it was?” she asked.
“The Bringer?” Todd added bringing her a glass of water from the sink in the small kitchenette.
“Could it really be?” she asked after taking a sip. “Us in the middle of nowhere when the Bringer is announced?” Her hands started shaking enough to splash water out of the glass. She set the glass down and gripped her hands together to try to calm them.
Todd, standing behind her, rubbed her neck and shoulders rather absentmindedly,“We’ve got to get back. It’s going to take us at least two days to backpack out of here again. We can’t even get a phone signal here,” he squeezed her shoulders and then let go walking over to the small dresser on the wall opposite the bed. He started opening the drawers and throwing the contents onto the bed behind him.
Julia took several deep breaths and stood up heading over to grab their packs. “What about the kids? Jerom and Miranda are by themselves. We have to get to them. Who knows what might happen,” she said.
“Come on. The kids are fine. They’re at home playing video games,” he said as he took the packs from her and laid them on the bed.
She walked to the bathroom and then turned, “You’re right,” she said pressing her hand to her face. “I’m sure you’re right.”
It didn’t take them long to stuff their packs after she brought the items from the bathroom. Julia looked around the cabin to make sure they hadn’t forgotten anything.
“It’s okay, sweetheart. We can replace anything we’ve forgotten,” Todd said as he threw Julia’s pack to her which she threw over her shoulders and adjusted into place.
“Okay, you r
eady?” he asked.
Julia looked around one last time ending up at Todd’s bare feet.
“Yeah, looks like we got everything, except for one thing,” she said.
“What’s that?” he asked, pulling on a strap near his waist to cinch in his pack tighter.
“We won’t get far if you aren’t wearing shoes.”
Todd looked down and wiggled his toes.
Chapter 7
Jessica turned off the water at the sink in the bathroom and grabbed a towel to dry her hands. She didn’t bother wiping the blood off the porcelain. Just like she didn’t bother cleaning up the blood splashed over just about every surface in the girl’s bedroom. She pulled off the robe she had covering her clothes and dropped it onto the floor along with the towel. She always wore a robe when things had the potential of getting messy.
The sounds of feeding coming from down the hall had slowed. She usually let her constructs feed after a kill, unless of course, her client was trying to send a message and wanted the bodies to be found. Before she would leave the property, she would go from room to room casting a short spell to remove any trace of her biologicals from the house. The constructs DNA had been so altered by the serums and the demon/human fusion that there was no way to trace them.
She stepped through the front door and reached out with her senses. Ah, there it is, she thought to herself, and walked around to the backyard. The pull of the object led her directly under the window the girl had fallen through.
She stooped down and picked up a necklace. Pretty, she thought, if you liked this kind of thing. She didn’t. The pendant was vaguely in the shape of an angel’s wings. She ran her hand over the links of the chain and picked up the sensation of the girl. Why would she take off her only protection, she wondered. Maybe she didn’t know what it was for.
The Bringer Page 3
