“Gordon? What is it?” He looked completely out of it and was looking past me like there was something behind me. I didn’t feel anything but I took a chance glance behind me anyways. Nothing. There was absolutely nothing there. The darkness was empty as far as I could tell, and I sighed in relief, letting my shoulders go slack and I was finally able to relax. I walked back out of the forest and stood in front of him. He was still looking past me and into the trees like I didn’t exist. “Gordon!”
He seemed to snap out of it at that moment and his eyes finally met mine. There was something there that I couldn’t put my finger on, and as I took his hand I noticed they were shaky and clammy. He shook his head like he was trying to rid himself of a bad memory, opened his mouth, and finally said something.
“I’m fine. Let’s get going.” He stalked past me and crossed the line of trees without looking back. What was going on in that brain of his?
I followed suit and Escara followed closely. I concentrated my energies on Gordon in that moment and watched his movement as closely as I could. As I watched his back I could feel the anxiety rolling throughout his body and I could see it in the movement of his muscles. They were tense and bulging as he was trying to hold it all in and put up a strong front, but I knew better. I was too tired though to try to dissect what he felt and why. I was already feeling out for another Executioner I wasn’t even sure was actually there. It was just a theory, but even I had to admit it was a highly possible one. There was just no other way I could think of. This Executioner was around here somewhere and I was going to find him or her. It may be hard, but I was going to do it no matter what it took. If anything there was a small part of me that knew that no sane person would be walking around I the forest with the most dangerous of evil in Hell. That led me to believe that it was possible that we missed them entirely and we had already passed them.
“It never gets easier to come in here,” Gordon broke the silence.
“How so?” I asked. I really wanted to know why it was so hard for him to come in here. Well, besides it being extremely dangerous.
“Well, I was trapped here for a long time and once you come into the forest, if you don’t know your way around you have a tendency to get lost.”
“What did you see?” He probably didn’t want to talk about it, but he really didn’t have much of a choice. We were stuck here together and I needed to be forewarned about what he could possibly see in here again.
“A lot of things. My brother mostly. This place likes to grab and hold onto the things that matter to you the most. For me, at the time, it was him. Now that’s a different story.” He glanced back at me. The look was so quick and so sudden I couldn’t see the expression on his face, but I knew exactly what he was talking about. This place would hone in on me and our little bean now and it would use us against him to make him give up and feel like all hope was lost.
I completely understood how he felt though. I felt the same way. This place would use him and our child against me and I would have to remember none of it was real. We continued to walk and every now and then we would hear a creature wailing in the distance. Nothing came too close for some reason, and I really wasn’t sure why. Normally the things that go bump in the night were drawn to me, but it was the exact opposite in the forest it seemed.
“I thought the forest was the most dangerous part. Why have we not run into anything yet?” The question was greeted with silence. It was either they didn’t know the answer, or they knew and didn’t want to tell me. “Escara, please answer me.”
She sighed, rolled her eyes, and began to speak. “These creatures only strike when they know they can win. They attack when you’re at your most vulnerable. Right now, the three of us aren’t, but they will find a way in.”
I still had my mind reaching out into the distance, and could still only detect the evil skulking around in the dark. Why in Hell could I not find this person? There had to be something else going on.
As soon as that thought crossed my mind a knife flew past my head, barely missing the tip of my nose, and lodged itself into the tree to my immediate right. A scream made its way out of my throat and mouth before I could stop it. We all stopped and looked around, trying to find the source of the blade. I took mine out and held it up in a defense position. Gordon’s eyes were darting around the darkness and we still couldn’t see a damn thing. The darkness swallowed everything in it. We could see slight shapes and a little bit of light bounding off of the trees, but that was it and the farther away you tried to look the more you couldn’t see.
Out of nowhere I was tackled to the ground and someone was on me within seconds, the knife went skidding away into the ash. They were straddling me and they had a hand firmly placed on my injured shoulder, digging in with their thumb as hard and deep as they could. I screamed out in pain and launched a punch that landed square in their jaw, causing that person to fall off of me and onto the ground. I was up within seconds and Gordon was right there. Escara was there too and I could tell she was as surprised as Gordon and I. Her talons seemed to grow out farther in the dim light and I wasn’t sure if it was just an illusion or not, but I liked it. She was at the ready and we were surrounding my assailant.
In the near dark what I could see told me it was a human being we were looking at. She had short dark hair and was covered in tattoos. She was built small like I was, and was hunched in a defensive crouch, another blade gripped firmly in her hand. She sprung at me again and I grabbed her arm and bent it backwards as far as I could. It was only enough to feel like it was on the verge to breaking. I didn’t want to break her arm, but I’d do what I had to. I squeezed her wrist hard enough to make her drop the knife, which Gordon grabbed up as soon as it hit the ground. I was so happy he was fast. She yelled out, and I still couldn’t feel anything else but the darkness and the evil. There was a person, a human being, right here and I still couldn’t feel her.
“Who and what the fuck are you?” I yelled. I was beginning to get quite the potty mouth, but I really didn’t care. When she didn’t answer I pressed a little bit harder, causing her to cry out again. She was just as resilient as I was and a part of me was okay with that, but there was an even larger part of me that wasn’t.
“I’m an Executioner,” she cried. I didn’t believe her.. If she was I’d be able to feel her and I didn’t feel a thing. “My name is Sam.”
It hit me like a tsunami. A strong wave of energy that confirmed it. I had to drop her arm and take a step back. My head was throbbing now and I couldn’t help but put my hand to my forehead like it was going to stop the barrage of pain. As she stretched her shoulder out from the hold I had her in the pain was beginning to fade and I was finally able to take a good look at her. Gordon was at the ready to strike. I stepped in front of him and threw my hands up.
“Stop! Gordon, stop. She’s telling the truth.” I put my hand on the hand of his that was holding the other blade she had and lowered it so the blade looked less menacing.
“Then why couldn’t you sense her?” He was right. Why couldn’t I feel her?
I turned to her and stated, “That’s a very good question.”
“My powers have grown the longer I’ve been here. That’s all I know. I can do things now that I never used to be able to, but I’m suffering in other areas since.” She shrugged. I knew exactly what she meant.
As I looked at her there in the near darkness I knew with absolutely certainty that she was just like me in every way. I could sense it. The only difference might just be the powers we possessed. I had the power of Hellfire, maybe hers was of brimstone.
Chapter 27: Revenge
I was watching her closely while we continued our trek. Sam was following Escara while Gordon and I trailed behind. I wasn’t going to take my eyes off of her until I was sure I could trust her. You’d figure since she was an Executioner as well that the trust would already be there. Anyone can betray you, and it doesn’t matter what title they have. Lilith was the daughter of God
, his creation, but she betrayed him as soon as she couldn’t get what she wanted out of Adam. In light of that I wasn’t taking any chances. I had been burned way too many times before to implicitly trust someone now.
“So, how have you been surviving here?” It was the only thing I could think of to ask to get the ball rolling. I cringed as soon as I heard it. She looked back at me, a quizzical look on her face as she slowed down enough to walk next to me.
“I’m sure the same way you have. By killing everything,” she said.
I couldn’t help but utter my agreeance, and I heard her give a slight chuckle. You could practically hear the smile in her voice, and when I looked over at her she was grinning from ear to ear. Now, I would go in with the even harder question.
“Did you meet anyone down here? Anyone else like us?” I could sense her thinking and then her heart began to race. Bingo. This was the answer I was looking for, and she knew I’d be able to tell if she was lying to me.
“Well, there was one person. Really pretty, blonde.” She paused for a second, and then looked me square in the eyes while we were walking. “She was evil. In the purest form.”
I was sure I couldn’t keep the recognition out of my face. Evil in the purest form. I looked her directly in the eyes and reached deep down; trying to get as much information I could about her. She looked a little fuzzy for a moment and then shook her head and I was kicked out of her mind before I had even a tiny chance of getting anything. I don’t think she realized anything had happened. She probably thought she was just tired.
“Did she ask you to do anything for her?” I was getting closer and closer to figuring it out, and I would press as hard as I needed to for answers.
“Yes, actually she did. Of course, I don’t know if ask is the word you can use for it.” A pained look crossed her features, and it almost made me stop.
“What would you call it?” I asked.
“I’d call it violent persuasion. I ended up with this,” she said as she held her arm up. She has been sliced from wrist to elbow, leaving a long and jagged scar. It was almost crude. I grabbed her arm.
“You didn’t…” I began to say.
She interrupted me saying, “I wasn’t really given much of a choice. It was either that or let her kill me by slicing my throat.”
“She took you to the pit.” It was more of a statement than a question. She began to pull her arm away from me and I let it go.
“Uh, yeah. She did, and then she sliced my arm open. She’s a crazy bitch and I’d love nothing more than to take her down.”
“You may get your wish,” I said as I began to follow Escara again, walking at an even faster pace. I needed back up to the surface and fast, before she had the whole world in the palm of her hand. I may already be too late as it is. Lilith worked fast. I could feel Sam and Gordon following as quickly as they could.
“What do you mean?” Sam asked. Did I really want to tell her that the pit was her way back up to the surface and Lilith had used her to get through it? I might as well. It may fuel her fire even more. I stopped again mid-stride and turned around.
“The pit was her way to the surface.” The shocked look on her face and the wave of emotions that I sensed told me that Sam was unaware of it, and sadness overwhelmed her. “Sam, she is up there and she’s not going to stop until everyone is either dead, turned, or bowing down to her. She’s how Gordon and I ended up here.”
“Who is she?”
What could I say? The devil incarnate? The creator of what we hunted? When I opened my mouth and said one name I could only hope that she knew as much about her as we did. I was wishing it so hard I could practically feel a headache coming on and my hands were clenched so hard I was sure my nails had cut into the palms of my hands.
Sam was looking at the ground and I could feel the terror and sadness coming off of her in waves. The sheer force of them was almost enough to knock me over, and I had to fight to keep standing.
“It looks like I have some things to teach you,” I said as I looked back at her. “Once I do we’ll both get our revenge.”
She looked up at me and smiled, and that smile was filled with rage. Oh man, was I about to unleash a monster? It didn’t really matter to me as long as all of it was directed at the one person we were both after.
“We have to keep moving,” I said as I turned back in the direction of the pit. Escara was very good at leading the way. I hadn’t noticed but she had stopped moving when we did as not to lose us. Well, that was nice of her. She has shown so much impatience with our humanity I wouldn’t expect her to wait up while we had a little chat. Maybe she was finally beginning to understand it after so long of not really caring what happened to people.
I could hear Gordon calling me and his hustled steps through the dead grass at our feet. He was pushing low hanging limbs out of his path as he walked. I could hear it all. My senses were in overdrive and the beast was rolling inside of me once again. Sam had let Lilith up to the surface, but she was forced, right? I didn’t sense anything to hint that she was lying. If anything, her emotions confirmed her whole story. I knew exactly which I would choose if I was in the same situation, but why didn’t Sam follow her? Did she not know how to access it or was she desperately trying to stop the bleeding from the deep gauge Lilith had ripped into her?
I stopped when I heard Gordon call my name, fear in his voice. I could feel it coming out of him. It was so strong I could feel my own heart race in response and the adrenaline was beginning to pump through my blood stream. It seemed like there was no stopping it. I dropped to my knees and felt the beast move within me. I was not going to let it get away from me. I was in control. I just had to keep reminding myself of that. Deep breathe in, and exhale. I could feel Gordon getting closer, his fear growing. I was concentrating too much on controlling the beast to call out to him to ease him, but my heart went out to him anyways.
I felt him come around a tree and heard his sigh of relief as he continued to walk towards me. He kneeled down in front of me and took one of my hands in his, and I could feel his sweat sting the tiny cuts on my hands. I cringed, but didn’t pull away. He turned my hand over and saw the small amount of blood smeared in our hands and sighed. He thought I had just gotten these from trying to control myself. I’d just let him think what he wanted. He ripped off the bottom corner of his shirt and held it into the palm of my hand, trying to stop the bleeding. To be honest the ash on the ground around us or my own power would work better, but I’d let him help while he thought he could. That was the least I could do at the time, and I needed him around.
With his skin touching my own I could feel the beast hiding away to its special place within me that only it had access to.
We sat there together in the darkness. He was looking at my hand and all I could do was stare at him as he lifted the cloth to see if my hand had stopped bleeding. It had, but I felt him run his thumb over the sores. As I watched him he lifted my hand and kissed the palm of it. I felt like I was ten and he was giving my wounds a magic kiss to stop the pain. They didn’t hurt but it’s the thought that counts, right? Yes that was it, but even though it was a completely useless action I still smiled. It was a weak smile nonetheless, but still a smile. It let him know that I was okay despite everything, and I was. Really.
Now I had to pull myself together and we had to start moving again. I was in pain, but we couldn’t stop. I could feel the energies of both Escara and Sam round the same tree and they were standing there watching us like a feature film. Sympathy was coming from both of them and I was surprised Escara was able to feel anything besides annoyance. Our humanity had seemed to sicken her before, but now she was finally beginning to understand it.
Gordon stood up and held his hand out to me. I felt like I was ten again and I couldn’t get up on my own without a helping hand, but I would not disappoint. I took his hand, and it was warm and slightly sweaty but I took it anyways. We were going to make it out of here and the first step for me at t
hat moment was to get up off of the ground, brush myself off, and take that single step in the right direction. He pulled me to my feet and I couldn’t help but groan from the effort. My bones seemed to crack with every movement and my muscles screamed. It was almost like I had never moved or stood a day in my life, and all of this from sitting here for at most five minutes. I turned around and looked at both Sam and Escara, and knew I had the best army of people with me to get to the pit and back to the surface. I just wouldn’t be taking one of them with me and an overwhelming sadness took over as soon as the thought crossed my mind.
Chapter 28: Closer
I could feel a humming energy within me, like we were getting even closer to the pit and it was calling out to me. I was buzzing and it caused the hairs on the back of my neck to stand up. I squinted through the trees and the bleak darkness, trying to see something that hinted that the pit was near. It was definitely calling out to me the closer we got and my heart was singing along with it, but there was an unwelcome presence. The beast was inside of me rolling in ecstasy at the power of it. I sighed and continued walking, and then Gordon spoke up.
“Do you guys feel that?” he asked. The power was like nothing I had ever felt before. Escara looked at me then, and I knew what it was.
“We must be close,” I said with a grin plastered on my face. I could feel goose bumps roll over my skin and the fine hairs on my arms began to stand up. We were so much closer to home and I was too impatient to wait. Would everyone look at me weird if I ran the rest of the way? I was beginning to think that was highly possible so I resisted the urge.
Follow the Screams (The Executioner Trilogy Book 2) Page 15
