by Jay T
We park the car at the head of our trail just below the clearing.
“Are you ready for this?” I ask Naomi.
She looks up from her fingernails with tears in her eyes. “I love him, Evan. I love his smile, I love his heart, I love every fiber of that man.” She chokes up and stops talking. I think about how deeply I love Eva and I couldn’t imagine being in her position.
“Focus on what you’ll have to do after. Focus on bringing him back. You’re not trying to kill him and keep him dead, you’re just trying to get the dark out.”
That seems to help as she shakes her head, wipes her tears, and says, “Yeah, you’re right. I just pray it works.”
“I do too. I appreciate everything you’ve done for us. I might not have found my way to her if you hadn’t helped.”
She smiles, “Yes, you would have. Now let’s go kick some butt.”
3 Eva
My ears ring louder and louder. I feel like I’m getting farther and farther away. I want to talk to my family, but my head is throbbing. I feel so confused, almost like my memories are being erased. I shake my head to try to make the noise go away, but it won’t stop.
I vaguely hear someone, possibly my mom, yell, “EVAN!”
My vision is blurring. I grab my head and scream.
“I don’t think she has much time,” someone says. My dad? I can hardly hear him, I feel miles away.
Something warms me and the ringing dies down to a tolerable level. Evan’s with me and I’m standing in the clearing as my vision clears. There’s grass under my bare feet. I look up at the sun, close my eyes, and enjoy the feel of it on my skin. I take a deep breath and feel more like myself as Evan releases me. His eyes glow a deep purple as he turns off his light. He looks deep into my eyes to make sure I made it back to him. “Stay right here, ok?” he asks.
I nod. Evan is gone in a flash.
Moments tick by as I begin to remember this clearing and the memories that were made here. I open my eyes as Naomi comes out of the trees behind me and I briefly consider running from her. Evan’s following close behind. Naomi comes up to stand to my left as Evan stands on my right. Together we look out into the woods as the sky dims and the sun retreats behind clouds that have appeared out of nowhere.
The wind picks up and the beautiful day I was enjoying moments before turns to a dreary overcast one. The sky looks unnatural, moving too fast to be real. I turn back around as Chad, Christey, Uncle Mitch, my mom, dad, Bryant, and Micah all walk in from the trees. They stand behind Evan and Naomi and join us.
“Chad, Christey,” I whisper, but I’m unable to keep talking because I’m overwhelmed. I have missed everyone so much!
“They’re coming. You guys ready?” Naomi asks, pulling me back.
This all feels familiar, like I’ve seen this before.
I stand there dumbfounded, not entirely sure of how I got there or what I’m doing. I have seen this before!
Lightning touches down in the clearing in front of Naomi and thunder crashes, shaking the ground under my feet. I expect her to startle, but she doesn’t. She takes a wider stance, like she’s bracing for the next one and never takes her eyes off the horizon. A hissing sound begins in the trees as black waves emerge, seeping closer and closer. My legs start shaking and I want to turn and run but I’m too scared to move. The darkness moves like a tidal wave coming to drown us.
As the waves get closer, I get a clearer view. It looks like a large cloud in the shape of snakes, but constantly changing. The darkness has almost reached Naomi. From those same trees, people emerge, but they don’t look right. Something’s wrong with them, but from here I can’t tell what it is.
As the first wave of darkness circles Naomi, I scream, “Naomi!” Just when it looks like she’s been overtaken, a bright light emerges from within her, blinding me and making me jump. Only this time, I don’t wake up. I’m reminded of my other dreams. The dreams where Naomi brings the darkness and tells me to turn my own light on, which I’ve never successfully done. Maybe mine is broken. Maybe I don’t have a light within me.
Naomi stretches her arms out and pulls her fist down as thunder strikes down the darkness. A small screech follows but the darkness creeps closer. Evan runs out to meet it as it approaches him and he tackles the first snake he meets, wrestling it to the ground.
A snake almost gets me but Chad tackles it. A second snake approaches but Christey jumps in to stop that one. I turn around see that I’m completely surrounded by snakes but my family is guarding my back. Micah is taking on two snakes; Bryant has the biggest one I’ve seen so far, and my dad is battling the dark with his light. My mom, my sweet, loving, caring mom is screaming, her hair going wild as she reaches into the snakes’ mouth and yanks the tongue free as blood covers her face. She yanks the top and bottom jaw of the snake and it rips apart. She holds the bottom jaw bone up in the air as her trophy. Uncle Mitch yells for my mom as he reaches into his snake’s mouth and does the same. Blood covers the ground under him and sprays his face. I turn back around as Evan pulls a knife from his belt and cuts his snake’s throat. Another snake tackles Evan and flattens him to the ground, but Evan has managed to stick his knife in the snake’s side and as it slid forward, it gutted itself on top of him. Evan stands back up covered in blood and gore from head to toe like Chad was after the bear attack. His back is to me as he rolls his shoulders and glances at me, like he wants to make sure I’m still safe but not badly enough to turn to see me.
I look at Chad. Big white wings emerge from his back. Hidden there is a sword. He takes flight and flies over the top of me and cuts the head off the snake sneaking up behind me. My mom’s next; her wings emerge and she takes a stand next to my dad, her sword in hand.
Naomi is swarmed by five or more snakes, slithering around her, burning her. I can see her light but it’s not stopping them. There are too many, too much dark for the light to win. Naomi drops lightning hit after lightning hit and gets the snakes to back off just enough.
Bryant is getting swarmed.
“Mom,” I say pointing at him.
She doesn’t need me to say more. She flaps her wings and my hair flies out of my face just in time for me to see a hand with a knife headed straight for the back of Chad’s head. I can’t let anything more happen to him. I shove Chad from behind and he stumbles forward as the knife plunges deep into my shoulder.
I’m mostly shocked as I turn to see Jacob, or Nickolas as he likes to be called now.
“I’m sorry, Eva, that was for Chad. I wasn’t trying to hurt you,” he says too calmly.
The ringing is back in my ears. Only now its ten times worse.
I grab my head as drop to my knee and look up. My dad’s flying, Micah is flying, my mom, Uncle Mitch, they’re all in the sky, all with swords, fighting other dark things in the sky. They’re not snake-like, more like small gargoyles or monsters. There are more than just my family. There are people I don’t know, people with white wings and swords. Everywhere I look, there are battles. Where did they come from? Why are they fighting? Lighting fills the sky over and over and thunder crashes as my vision gets darker and darker. Jacob’s hands are in my hair; it’s cold but nice. I look into his eyes as he pulls me closer to him. Is it Jacob? But you said Jacob’s dea-
“Ready sweetie?” he asks. I can’t think straight. My vision is so blurry and I feel, I feel, who is he? He reminds me of Chad. I feel my guard slip and I lift my hand for him.
“Eva don’t go!” It’s the last thing I hear. It sounds like Evan’s voice. Who’s Evan?
I’m spiraling down, down, down.
I feel a burning starting at the tips of my toes. It’s uncomfortable but not unbearable. I’m seeing through a tunnel. The only thing here now is me and Jacob. I can’t believe how much he looks like Chad. He’s holding my hand.
“He’s been waiting to meet you,” Jacob says. He kisses the back of my hand and begins to walk me to a door.
This isn’t so bad, right?
&
nbsp; There’s so little light that I can’t see anything. Under my feet feels like hot, damp bricks. I close my eyes and when I do, all the terrible things that have ever happened to me flash before me. I’m completely alone in my apartment; the loneliness makes me want to cry.
Then I flash to a time before that, in the facility where they kept me; I’m screaming and begging for them to let me die. I’m banging on the walls, on the door, screaming for mercy.
I flash to the hospital, where they tell me my best friend since kindergarten and the love of my life has died and it feels like my heart has been ripped out of my chest and stabbed to the wall.
I flash to when I overdosed and died in the hospital.
Then to Uncle Mitch dying and the sounds coming from Aunt Kami as she holds his body, screaming at the universe.
Then to after the car accident, when I lay in bed for weeks as Uncle Mitch would bring me food in the morning and leave with it in the afternoon.
Then to the accident as I touched my mom’s cheek and said good-bye to my dad. I talked with Micah about getting him and Bryant out only to send the truck right into them and killing them too.
By the end of the vision, my ears are no longer ringing but there’s screaming inside my head. I fall to the hot bricks and weep for the life I’ve lost. For the life I never should have had. I’m out of control. There’s nothing left to live for and I think I’m ready to surrender. All those pieces I worked so hard to put back together are shattered at my feet again.
“We can take that all away. With us, you won’t hurt like that anymore.” Jacob reaches down for my hand.
This could be the end of my pain.
I take his hand. It’s cold. The ringing in my ears quiets but my mind remains hazy.
4 Evan
I turn just as Nickolas is making his move. Eva pushes Chad out of harm’s way and the knife goes right into her. The snake I’d been fighting turns slightly and I’m able to free my hand. I jab my knife into its side and pull down as hard as I can as cold blood sprays from the wound. The snake screeches and jumps backward but I jump on top of it and stab my knife into its brain as we fall back to the ground. I look back up at Eva as Nickolas pulls her to him and circles them in darkness as if wrapping them in a blanket.
“Eva, don’t go!” I yell to her as I run toward them. Heaven has opened up and all the angels have come to join the fight. But when heaven opens, so does hell and all the creatures escape and take to the sky. As heaven and hell battle it out in the sky and on the ground around me, my only focus is Eva and the darkness surrounding her.
She didn’t fight him. I feel a pit of sick dread in my stomach. I’ve never been this scared in my entire life. I feel my sanity slipping away.
I hear Naomi yell, “Nickolas!”
Hope from Naomi pulls me back. “He’s here!” I yell to her.
She quickly joins me as we try to figure out a way to get in there to help, but they’re wrapped so tightly in a cloak of darkness, there’s no way in. I turn on my light and try to blast through, but it’s useless.
“Let’s do it together,” Naomi says. She stands on the other side of the darkness, opposite me and we both shine our lights on it. Chad joins us, then Susan, Harold, Micah, Bryant, Christey and Uncle Mitch forming a circle around the darkness that’s holding Eva. We shine our lights on them. The darkness shifts and moves, but remains unchanged. Eva is there willingly.
My world is ending. “Come back, Eva,” I whisper. “You don’t belong with them in the dark. Come back to us. Please, come back to me.” Quietly, as if speaking only to her, I say, “I’ll do better. Please, just give me a chance.”
As if they can feel my desperation, Eva’s family joins in, “Come back, Eva,” they plead.
5 Eva
Jacob’s hand is cold in mine as he guides us through an open door. I can’t see very much until we pass through.
“We’ve been waiting for you, Eva. You sure are a prize.” A tall skeletal man with pale skin and sunken in features speaks in a scratchy voice. He’s dressed from head to toe in black and he’s sitting on a grey throne.
He looks at Jacob and says, “This is a little dreary for our guest. Can we lighten this up a little bit please?”
Jacob, looking rigid beside me, snaps his fingers and our dark creepy dungeon turns into a beautiful ocean side beach.
Something tickles my mind and I feel like I can hear a small voice somewhere whispering, “Come back.”
“Are you ready for me to take all your pain away?” the man asks. The scene changes, but my toes still feel warm. I don’t feel sand but instead I feel sticky, slime on hot bricks. I feel nauseous. Skeleton man is still sitting on his throne in the sand in front of me, the ocean behind him.
Come back, Eva.
Jacob turns from the man and looks back at me and smiles. He pulls my hand to his lips again. He is a good-looking guy, I could almost melt. Almost.
A thought occurs to me and I want to know the answer.
“If I say I want the pain to go away, I get to stay here? On this beach? With Jacob?”
“Of course you can stay. We have many different scenes to choose from. Pick which ever makes you happiest.”
I look back and forth between Jacob and the man as my toes grow warmer on the sticky sand.
“Anyway, you’re here. It’s a done deal.” The man snaps his fingers and as he does, I remember the visions I had of the things that have happened to me.
The vision still has me thinking, my mind is clearing, and there’s a heat rising from my toes to my ankles. All the times I’ve cried, every tear, every heartbreak, every loss, and the heat rises a little more and my clarity comes back a bit at a time. I think about every single urn I’ve had to pick out and the heat rises to the top of my legs as I get angrier and angrier. I think about where I’ve came from and how hard I’ve worked to pick up the shattered pieces of my broken self and put them back together. My body begins to shake.
“Let’s welcome our newest addition!” The skeletal man bellows to the other creatures I hadn’t seen until now. The ugly gargoyle creatures that were flying in the air moments ago before I arrived here surround us.
I decide that I’m proud of every shard of glass I’ve put back, of every ounce of glue it took to be able to stand alone in that empty apartment and say, “There, I’m here, I’m alive, take that, darkness.” And I realize, it’s the darkness’ fault. I almost can’t control the anger boiling out of me. It’s this man sitting on this throne in front of me who put me through hell. I’m going to explode. This is the man who took my family and killed them before my eyes. The man who’s taken my uncle, my best friend, and the love of my life. There’s a deep burn all the way to the tips of my fingers. My breathing becomes labored. This man took Chad. My eyes narrow as the furry builds inside me until I see nothing but red.
I focus all of my hate and my rage exactly where it should be, on this man sitting on his throne of death. I charge him as heat and anger explode out of me. My hands are hot, like they’re on fire and I jump at him. He is completely shocked and I grab hold of his throat and squeeze as I dig my fingernails deep into him, hoping to draw blood. I want this skeleton dead. I want him dead. I want him dead! I want him to die like he’s taken everything from me.
“How dare you take them from me! How dare you talk to me like you aren’t the reason they die like flies around me! This is your fault! I want you dead!”
He pulls my hands free of his throat but I go back again and again. I want his skin under my nails! I want his blood outside of his body. I want his flesh lying like rags on the ground. I want him dead! Someone’s behind me pulling me, hitting me, but I don’t care. I’m hit hard where I was stabbed in the shoulder, but it doesn’t faze me.
Creatures rush out from hiding and race towards us. I don’t care if I die. I don’t care if they take me apart piece by piece, as long as I take this thing, this monster, down with me. Cold blood is seeping from his throat as I scratch and cla
w over and over. His face, his throat, his arms everything I can reach begins to bleed cold red blood everywhere. I’m screaming and kicking and clawing before I’m hit hard in the back of the head, my vision swimming.
“Finish her!” the skeleton man screams. His voice drives me on. I know what he is; he’s the Devil. I dig my bloody red fingers into his face again. I’m reminded of the last time my fingers were red and bloody as I dug into the snow for Chad and I lose my sanity all over again.
“Die! You need to die! You don’t deserve to breathe!” I scream. A sharp stab at my waist and I’m finally pulled free from the bloody Devil.
I grab ahold of my side where I’ve been stabbed again and Jacob is holding the bloody knife. His name is not Jacob. It’s Nikolas. He played on my emotions for Chad because of how similar they look. He disgusts me. I spit in his face. Nikolas punches me in the jaw so hard I spin around and fall to the ground.
We’re in hell. There’s hot sticky blood under my feet. The Devil is sitting on bones and skulls of his lost victims held together by darkness. They took my mind and changed everything.
My body is hot and humming and I feel like I need to explode. I smirk at the Devil, the Skeleton man I’ve bloodied and say, “I will never work for you! I belong with the light and you CAN NOT HAVE MY SOUL! I know I belong with my family, not here. My family is with the light and I don’t care how much pain I’ll have to endure, my soul is my own and I will not give it over to you. If I have to die a million times, if I have to lose everyone I’ve ever loved, as long as I get to come home to them at the end of this life, I will always choose life. I choose light!”
A fire within me stirs so strongly, I can’t contain it. I’m going to explode.
I feel a smile cross my face and I watch as the Devil’s face changes from snarky to uncomfortable. I want to explode and I want to take him down with me! I race towards him as I erupt like a volcano, channeling all my anger directly at him.
