Follow the Ashes: Book 1 of the Executioner Trilogy

by Kindra Sowder

  I was barely able to stand as I looked up at the menacing structure. As I took a deep breath I could hear her terrifyingly childlike laughter through the walls. It crossed the distance between me and her, and caressed my cheek with its cold hand.

  My legs barely wanted to hold me up anymore and I fought the urge to let my knees buckle beneath me. I was covered in salty sweat as I felt all of the fluid they had fed into me at the hospital start slowly pouring from every pore in my body. It was dehydrating me even further with every ounce lost. A bloody river was making its way from my eyes again. It had even started to dribble out of my mouth and down my chin, staining the front of my soaked hospital gown. I could feel the sweat dripping down every expanse of flesh.

  I stumbled my way to the door and turned the knob. It had almost taken everything I had to just pull the door open. The soft light of the bonfire burning within was casting shadows around me. My head was once again pounding and I felt like I had been run over by a freight train that wouldn’t stop until I was dead. It seemed to have run me over, backed up, and done it again. My throat felt raw like I had been crying for days on end.

  Then I heard Lilith whisper, “Executioner.” I could hear it echo down the dark, blood slick hallway and greet me with a slight breeze that came from an unknown origin as if it had created itself. I had no choice but to take my time down to the large room. I could barely take a step without leaning on the blood soaked wall, staining my gown even more of a crimson red. The smell of metal was enough to make me gag, and after making it halfway down without retching I vomited more blood to add to her collection. I had to take a few steadying breaths before I could push myself away from the wall and keep going.

  It seemed like an eternity until I was finally there, standing in the threshold once again. I was wishing so much that I could just lie down and go back to sleep. I wanted to fade away into the darkness of it all until I wasn’t suffering anymore, but Lilith couldn’t win. I was going to beat this even if it took everything I had to do so.

  I finally felt stable enough to push myself away from the wall and out into open space. The fire was broiling before me and it was so relentless in its pursuit of something to burn that it almost reached out to wrap me in its arms and burn me up. I felt warm again, almost like I was wrapped in Gordon’s arms. I could almost feel them like he was really there, but I knew he wasn’t. That didn’t stop me from wanting so much for it to be real. I could imagine him there, arms tightly around me with love and compassion. I was willing to bet his spirit was truly there.

  “Executioner,” Lilith voiced from right behind me. Her voice was taunting and extremely loud like she didn’t think I could hear her. I spun around, and I was looking directly into her crimson eyes. She was smiling like she knew exactly what I was there for and that I would be leaving without it. In that cunning voice she taunted me, “So glad you could grace me with your presence.”

  I was sent flying with a harsh slap to my face. My body felt like it had been hit by a semi truck as I slammed into the floor. I couldn’t fight the impulse to cough, and blood came spewing out of my mouth with it. It splattered out onto the stone floor with a sick wet sound. I could hear her bare feet making their way towards me. I rolled onto my back and a few more coughs escaped even though I was trying to hold them in.

  “You look a little run down these days. Let me lend you a hand.” She reached down and grabbed me by the throat, lifting me so I was looking directly in her eyes. I had to admit I was terrified, but I also felt extremely brazen - so this next move was only natural. I gathered as much saliva as I could and spit in her face, leaving a mixture of saliva and blood all over her perfect complexion. Some had even ended up in her perfectly blonde hair.

  I was strangely proud of myself as she glared at me. I could feel even more power pouring off of her in that instant as she threw me into a wall. I thought I could hear my bones crack, but it turned out only some of the bricks I had smashed into had crumbled around me as I fell back to the ground. I was like a ragdoll to her, only to be played with, but never taken seriously. Boy, would that be a hard lesson for her to learn. After what she had done to all of us, it didn’t matter how bad I felt. She was going to learn a lesson here tonight. Even she wasn’t invincible.

  My entire body was on fire and my throat was so scratchy that I didn’t think I’d be able to form words to give her the remark she had deserved. I wanted to tell her how much pleasure I was going to take in killing her, but I couldn’t form the words or catch enough of a breath to speak them. It was just going to have to become one of those things that remained unsaid.

  As she walked up to me, wiping my blood and spit off her face with the back of her hand, I saw Chase walking up behind her. He was motioning for me to be quiet. No one could hear me, but I was almost soundlessly saying, “No.” I was hoping by some miracle he could hear me for some reason. He had followed me here and he would surely die here because he just couldn’t keep away. I had no idea why he felt the need to be around me and to save me when he hardly knew me, but he did. I would have been thankful for it if it weren’t for the fact that his compulsion was going to get him killed.

  Lilith had apparently been able to hear me and she turned to stare him down. Once their eyes met, he stopped in his tracks. I wouldn’t be surprised if he could feel the evil coming off of her too. He saw it in her eyes and knew he had to stop where he was. She turned all the way around and began to walk towards him, the need to strike apparent in the way her body moved towards his still figure. He was frozen in fear. I could feel it rolling off of him like smoke that was threatening to fill the whole room. I could feel it touching my skin, making the hairs on my arms stand on end. I couldn’t let her hurt him. I rolled on my side.

  “No!” I screamed, “Not him.”

  She turned back to me with a smirk on her delicate face that definitely didn’t seem to fit there. I wasn’t going to let her hurt him. Not like I had let her hurt Beth and Gordon.

  I slowly sat and tried to work my way to standing, but I fell right back down onto the ground. I could feel little grains of dirt on the floor beneath my fingers and the tiny rocks were cutting into my legs and my palms.

  She walked back over to where I sat and kneeled down in front of me. I could smell the blood on her breath that was leftover from her last victim who I was betting she had turned.

  “Now why not, Executioner? He looks like he’ll be much more fun to rip apart than that demon of yours was. He had no fight in him.” She looked at Chase and then back to me, that smile still on her face like someone had plastered it on. All I wanted to do was scrape it off. “I love it when they struggle.”

  When she began to giggle at her own little joke something took over my body. I gave in to the desire to grab her by the throat and squeeze with all of my might. Her eyes widened in fear and she tried to claw my hands away from her throat to no avail. It was like the illness Lilith had gifted me with was fighting back against her. Like it had been plunged into my body without approval, and that it was truly meant for the body of evil.

  I could see the golden light that haunted my dreams branching out through my veins, up through my feet then to my torso. It began to collect at the base of my throat, almost choking me with its energy. I felt its chills as it passed my vocal cords and then flowed out of my mouth and slowly into Lilith’s gaping mouth like she was letting out a silent scream. I remember thinking it would never be heard. Not ever again. As the last bit of the snake of light passed from me to her, I could feel my body returning to normal. My temperature was equalizing, I had stopped sweating, and the pain began to fade away and transfer itself into her. I could feel her skin break out in a cold sweat, and as I dropped her to the floor and backed away, she began to scream in pain. She was holding her head in her hands like I had been doing not even one day ago.

  That’s when I leaned down to her and said in the most sadistic way possible, “Hurts doesn’t it?”

  The look of shock was register
ed on her face as her painful screams continued to flow out of her and into the atmosphere, almost chilling it. Blood began to spill from her eyes and mouth, and the spasms of coughs overtook her. It was making her body jerk in tight spasms. Was this what it looked like to watch me like this?

  As much as I wanted to be afraid of the display, I couldn’t be. I took too much joy in watching her suffer as the light made its way through her body and gathered right where her dead heart was. She stood on shaky legs as the light in the center of her chest began to become brighter and brighter, nearly blinding us with its intensity. I had to shield my eyes from it.

  I fell to my knees as I watched in awe, and Chase ran towards me. He wrapped his strong arms around my shoulders and pulled me to him as a strong wind started to blow. You’d swear it would sweep up the whole building in its wake and sweep us away to Oz. The fire started to spiral up into the sky through the hole in the ceiling and my hair was whipping my face with painful bites.

  Lilith became a brighter and brighter beacon of light by the second. As we sat silently and observed the horrid show, her heart exploded. It sent flecks of ash everywhere, and we had to shield our faces from any of the solid pieces that came our way. The fire burning in the center of the room began to fade as Lilith’s body turned into a pile of ash. She crumbled limb by limb, and she turned into nothing but dust with one final demonic scream. Then there was silence.

  Chase put his hands on either side of my face and looked me in the eyes, pushing my hair out of my face as ashes began to settle around us. “Are you okay?”

  All I could do was nod an answer. I was speechless and it would take a little while for me to be able to say anything. From what I could feel, the evil in the place had ceased to exist. She was gone, and I could finally grieve and begin to move on from this insanity in peace. And as calm I had never felt before fell over me, I couldn’t help but realize that this was a new beginning. With this new beginning came the tears I had been trying to hold in.

  Chapter 28: Even In Death

  After Lilith’s death, Chase had decided the hospital wasn’t where I needed to be. Home was. I had made such a quick recovery after my exchange, the hospital wouldn’t be any help. He carried me to his car, which was parked outside of the labyrinth of warehouses and the cool air pouring out of the air conditioning was welcome. Very welcome indeed. The ride to my house was slow, and I felt like no matter how fast we went we were just creeping along at a snail’s pace. We would never make it there. As we pulled up to it, the house was the most beautiful sight I had seen in what felt like days.

  I jumped out of the car, not even bothering to shut the door, and ran to my jasmine covered trellis that was my sanctuary. I felt my mother’s presence in every flower, and the scent hung in the air all around me. It was like my mother was there and wearing her jasmine fragranced perfume she loved so much. As I sat there and stared at the tiny white flowers in wonder I could hear Chase’s footsteps through the grass as he made his way to me, kneeling down beside me.

  He let out a deep sigh and said, “Why don’t we get you inside?”

  I turned to him and nodded saying, “Yeah.” He helped me to my feet even though I wasn’t nearly as weak anymore. All the help I could get was firmly appreciated. All nausea and pain was gone, and I had finally gotten rid of the tiny gnome men in my head that were pounding away with hammers and chisels. I was so happy to see them leave, I couldn’t help but smile.

  When we had gotten up to the porch I noticed the door had been replaced, but there was caution tape crossing over it in an X shape. There was a sign saying not to enter, but it was my home and I wasn’t going to be told I couldn’t go in. Not by anyone. I was in desperate need of a shower, some good food, and a restful night’s sleep. When we went through the door we made a division of labor. He would cook and I would go get cleaned up. I felt like Lilith’s evil stench was still all over me. I wanted to be rid of it as soon as possible, and I have to tell anyone that there is nothing better than a scalding shower in your own home after something like this. The slick feel of soap over my skin was like heaven. It was pure heaven that would cleanse me of the darkness and, leave only light. Only much less light then I wanted. Gordon, my brightest light of all, was gone.

  The scent of some kind of meat cut through the smell of my jasmine soap mixed with steam that was coming off of my body. All of my troubles were melting away as the water ran down my body, but the grief of Gordon’s loss was still there. My heart burned for him, and I let myself have another moment of weakness since his death. I cried like I had never cried before, letting all of the sorrow and pain pour out of me. I let my tears go down the drain with the filth of it all. By the time I got out of the warm spray, every tear that I could cry for Gordon was gone. Every last one of them.

  After towel-drying my hair and putting on some clothes, I made my way down the stairs. When I made it to the doorway leading to the kitchen, I saw Gordon standing at the stove and I was ecstatic. He was then replaced with Chase’s form, which was sautéing what looked like cut up steak with some onions and bell peppers. Fajitas. I absolutely loved fajitas and I couldn’t help but think he had read my mind.

  I sat down and he filled my plate with the mixture, and handed me a few tortillas from out of the oven. The food was warm as I took a bite, and I ate it a lot faster than I should have. My stomach was beginning to ache. Then again, I hadn’t been able to eat anything solid in days. I was just too happy to see steak fajitas being prepared in my kitchen. My stomach was even beginning to protest with tiny twinges of pain, but I didn’t care. I couldn’t put it down.

  As if he already knew the answer as I was sopping up any remaining juices with a leftover tortilla he asked, “Was it good?”

  I looked up at him and we were able to laugh together as I wiped the little bit of it that had managed to make its way down my chin away with a napkin. There was finally something running down my chin that wasn’t my own blood. It was a relief.

  “How can you tell?” I asked, still a little bit of a chuckle escaping me. His amber eyes seemed to not be able to leave my face. There was a moment of awkward silence where I just stared into those eyes before I could answer his question with an actual answer instead of just another question. “It’s very good. You’re very talented in the kitchen.” And that wasn’t a lie.

  He nodded and said, “I try.”

  I couldn’t help but smile at him. After all, he was attractive and kind, and somewhat reminded me of Gordon in the way he looked at me and the way he spoke. It was like he was still here. I guess that was why I clung to Chase.

  He let me know he checked up on Beth. She was still in the hospital, but awake and lucid. He told me that if I wanted to, we could go see her in the morning. She had a broken collarbone like I had sensed, but also a severe concussion so they wanted to keep her for another few nights. That was okay by me. The more time they needed to make sure she’d walk away okay, the better. I also needed a few more days to settle back into this place so I didn’t see death everywhere I turned like I was now.

  He also let me know that I could go see Gordon’s body whenever I liked to say goodbye and then I could make arrangements for the funeral. I didn’t want to plan a funeral. I didn’t want any part of it, but who else was there?

  I decided I was going to go ahead and try to go to bed, trying to get in as many hours of sleep as possible before I absolutely had to get up and start living my life. I couldn’t stop doing what I did. There were too many vampires out there to just stop for a week maybe, even though my body really needed the recovery time and I needed the time to grieve. As I fell into a deep slumber, I saw Gordon behind my closed eyes and I knew he was truly there with me.

  Chapter 29: Presence

  I was certain I was dreaming. No. I knew I was dreaming. Things were too bright and white for it to be real. As I walked, running my hands through white fluffy clouds, all I could feel through them were droplets of water, and it was refreshing.

&n
bsp; As I made my way through the white mist, Gordon came out of the vapor in front of me. I almost nearly ran right into him, since he had literally come out of nowhere. He caught my hands and held onto them tight, like he was too afraid to let go of me. It was like he thought I would leave and never come back again. When I looked into his black eyes I was frightened at what I saw there. Fear. Total and absolute. This was an even greater fear that was overtaking him now than when he was dying right before my eyes. That terrified me to no end. It was like his fear was pouring into me from his hands which were wrapped around my own.

  His hands were squeezing so hard my hands were beginning to hurt, and the pain was overwhelming me. It was grabbing onto my heart like a vise that absolutely refused to loosen. As we stood there, I kept telling him how much he was hurting me. Flames started licking at our feet, and I could feel the heat of it as it was trying to devour us.

  The fluffy clouds had been replaced by smoke and flames. As I looked Gordon in the eyes I could see the fire reflected in them and his body was beginning to catch fire. His skin was sizzling, but he still refused to let go even though the flames were licking my arms. They were threatening to overpower me as well. The fear of being engulfed in flames and the expression on Gordon’s face was overwhelming.

  Screams took over, and I couldn’t keep the fear away as we both burned together in our own personal hell meant for the two of us. There was no end to this. I had let him die at the hands of an animal and this was my punishment; to burn and to have him burn with me just for loving me. I was jarred awake by my own screams. I sat straight up in my bed that I had shared for such a short while with Gordon. My breath was coming fast and hard, and I could barely catch my breath without feeling as if I was going to explode. My heart was beating so hard it threatened to jump into my throat and out of my mouth.