by Tara Brown
“Wow.”
Her face twists up, “Even worse, he didn’t care. He still wanted to you know, and I was like uhhhh, what? No. Hell no. He actually said, if it’s your first time you will bleed anyway. I was stunned, I think I still am. Boys are gross, even Fae boys.”
It makes me laugh. She laughs with me. My chest aches, “I’m so sorry I missed it.”
She shrugs, “Rayne, the fact I managed to fall in love quickly, while hell is breaking loose and the world is falling apart, is a miracle. My parents are dead. Your parents are evil. You have dueling daggers in your heart, fighting for the chance to be the most important man to you. Michelle is a skeezy bitch who has screwed us over. And we’re in England at a castle, with no proper female hygiene products, and the world is ending.”
I shudder, making her laugh again. “The world is ending, Rayne. Sneak out there and pick a guy and love him for all the time that’s left.”
I nod. If only she knew how hard that actually was. Childish and immature Rayne wants to pick Wyatt. She wants to be in that young, freshman love that is so passionate, it blinds everything around it. Romantic Rayne wants to love Count Dracula and be his and let him consume her entire being with his ancient love.
I wish it were the same as it is for her. I wish I just saw one and knew.
She takes my hand in hers, “Now go and kill everything you can. Me, Gill, and Michelle are going to stay here with Stella and start scavenging for food and stuff. We have to actually build a life here, I’m afraid.”
My eyes lower, “I think it’s actually hitting me. The future we wanted and worked for, it’s gone, isn’t it?”
She nods, “School doesn’t matter. The world is on fire and no one is going to survive it. Not even you and not even me. You need to fix the things you can and forget the rest. Save Wyatt, kill your dad, and come back here to us. We will plot the antichrist thingy together.”
“Okay.”
She smiles again, “He isn’t gay, right?”
I laugh, “He isn’t gay. Just like Michelle isn’t a guy, not really. He’s fae, they’re different. Maybe they’re like flexible and think sex is sex, like prisoners. Not like prisoners, I mean uhm. Well, he met Constantine and never batted an eyelash at him. I think he’s just a nice guy who the evil fae queen used to lure my mom and other women to the fae land and bargain their lives away.”
She frowns, “Like prisoners? What the hell was that? No. And Michelle is a bitch.”
I laugh, “Michelle is angry. Her soul is tarnished, and I don’t know if we will ever get her back.”
She hugs me, “Be safe, okay?”
“Okay.”
I get up abruptly and leave the room. If I hugged her any longer, I would stay there. My chicken-shit tendencies, as my father called them, are starting to act up. For whatever reason, I have made him bigger than Lillith in my mind.
Constantine was boarding his helicopter when I got in the yard, “We will fly to my jet; the pilot is waiting there for us now. He says the tarmac is alright, for now.”
I climb into the helicopter next to Gretel because there is a lack of seating. She scowls at me, “We’ve spent so much time researching. We can’t figure out where he would have taken him, but we know the horsemen are in Asia. They have been moving east. The only place the last one has to visit is America. From the sounds of things, one quarter of the world will be gone. That’s over two billion people dead.”
I can feel that number rolling around inside of me. “What can I do against them? How am I strong enough to fight them?”
“You have the light.”
“What?”
Her eyes glow; I can see something lurking in them that she doesn’t want me to see. “You have the light of the world, Rayne. I know you do. You killed Lillith, you have it. The light can kill the dark.”
I roll my eyes, “Great. That explains so much. Lucky thing you researched a ton.”
Constantine scoffs, “Stop being petulant. We have to end this the way it started. It started with the light.”
“Whatever.”
The ride is bumpy and the landscape is terrifying. Burned-out houses and destroyed farms. When we get to the city, I am stunned. London is on fire. Cars line the freeways, trying to leave, but they are not moving. People are walking, carrying everything they have left in the world. For most, it is children in their arms.
The roads are burned and bombed. The buildings are in ruin. One day the people in the future who survive this will look back and hate us for what we have done. We wrecked everything. For what? So my father could rule the world? It doesn’t even make sense. Why did God even build the world? What is the point?
I am taken by the dead on the jet, my sisters claim me. I wake in a room somewhere. It’s cold and there is no power. I am alone. The room is dirty and gross, like a seedy motel. When I leave, I realize that’s exactly what it is. I am standing in a parking lot of a deserted motel. The sign is laying on the ground. It’s cold and damp.
“Constantine?” I don’t shout. I’m scared of what is in the grey air around me.
He’s there instantly, “My love. We have to go. They found a trail.”
I shake my head, ”How long was I out?”
“Five days.”
I close my eyes, “Why do they take me when you need me?”
He winks at me, “You aren’t eating, Rayne. You need rest.”
I look at him, “Let’s go. I’m sure I can find food along the way.” He smiles, “They are this way.” We walk a block, and I find the thing I need. I follow it, the smell. It cramps my stomach. I’ve been too many weeks without food.
When I find the source of the smell, I am surprised. He’s young. He smiles at me, and I can see the evil in his eyes.
“What are you looking at?” he asks with serious attitude. He is alone on the side of the road, outside of a destroyed gas station.
I smile back at him, “Have you been bad?”
He shakes his head, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Get lost.”
“I only come to those who have been evil, but you’re what—fifteen?”
He laughs but doesn’t answer me. He pulls a knife, “Let me show you just how old I am.”
I grab him by the collar. He sinks his knife into my side. I grab his face, planting my lips on his and sucking greedily. The taste is divine. It’s coconut cream pie and fries and gravy. It’s food I snuck, all the while pretending to love the roasted seaweed Willow made me eat. He tastes like a cheat day. When he drops, I pull the dirty blade from my side and drop it to the ground, next to his dead body. I need more.
Constantine calls me, “You can eat more later, come on.”
I shake my head, “I’m starving.”
“I know. Let’s go. Wyatt is waiting.”
I stumble after him, not happy about not eating more. It’s addictive. Once I start eating again, I can’t stop. Constantine mutters at me, “You always do this. You go long periods without food and then you eat everyone in sight.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Yes, you do. You did it as Ellie all the time. I would find you face deep in the embrace of dead people after you had starved yourself for months.”
I bite my lip. I know he’s right. I can vaguely recall it.
“Where are we going?”
He points at the hotel district we are heading for, “Wyatt was down here. They caught his scent, his real scent.” He looks at me, “You should be able to feel him when we get close enough.”
I nod, “It worked that way last time. He could track me, and I could sense him tracking me.”
He smirks, “Lucky you got handfasted again.”
I sigh, “The dead wanted me to do it so I could bring the dagger into the garden, I know it. They wanted me to sacrifice his love in the garden and kill Lillith. They never wanted it to be you.”
He gives me a sideways look, “Yeah, but you did.”
“I didn’t know I had to pull a dagger fr
om your heart to kill my mom.”
He doesn’t say anything for a minute. I don’t know what to say. I feel awful about loving two men. Awful!
He gives me a pained glance, “But you were happy it was me and not him.”
I can’t lie to him. I nod, “I don’t know that I love him more than you, but I know I love him differently. I know I love you and him. I wish I could change that.”
“You wish you could just love him?” The tone in his voice stabs at my heart.
I shake my head, “No. I wish I could love you both as friends. I wish I didn’t love anyone romantically. It will make it easier in the end.”
“The end of what?”
I feel sick, “Me.” He doesn’t get a chance to respond. I feel it instantly, “He’s here.”
“Here?”
I nod, walking to the right, away from Gretel and Sarah. I point at the building at the end of the road, “There.”
We pass by people, homeless-looking people. They look exhausted and scared. They clutch to their loved ones and walk, maybe aimlessly or maybe to leave the city. I would if I were them. The country seems less impacted by the horsemen.
I can feel him. He is pulling me.
We turn again and I gasp—it’s the church. The one Michelle went to, the one with the escape tunnel. I shudder, thinking about it and the spider webs. I break into a run before I can chicken out. Constantine does his weird smoke thing and opens the door ahead of me.
When we get inside of the side door, we are instantly bombarded with people. The church is full. Bostonians are there, praying for their souls as the world ends in fire, like we always guessed it would.
I squeeze my way through the masses of people standing and praying because the sitting room is gone.
When I get to the office that I feel like this whole thing started out in, I am stunned. The office has been ransacked but it is empty.
I point to the stairs, “That way.”
Constantine takes my hand in his, pulling me through the crowd. We get to the top of the stairs, and I feel it stronger. He is here. I think I can even feel pain.
I run down the hallway to the door I took last time. I open it, uncertain, and yet, completely confident he is there. What kind of coincidence is this?
I open the door and run down the stairs. My eyes do their thing. I can see perfectly. Across the dark room, I see him. I finally can breathe again. He is unconscious, tied to the wall. His arms are above his head, and I can smell his filth in the air.
I run to him, wrapping my arms around him and whispering, “Wyatt. Can you hear me?”
Constantine bites his wrist and shoves it in Wyatt’s mouth. I almost argue, but I untie him instead.
“That assaults the senses.”
I laugh nervously, “He’s going to be okay, right?”
He nods, “I think so. Depends on what Lucifer has done to him.”
“This is hallowed ground, how could he come here?”
He shakes his head. Gretel speaks softly, “He can’t. He can’t come here. Someone else took Wyatt and brought him here.”
I look back at her, “Did you do this?”
She laughs bitterly, “I know I haven’t been mother of the year, but I would never do this to my own child.”
I scoff, “No, but you would do it to me, wouldn’t you?”
She nods, “In a heartbeat. I would save the world with your blood if I thought it would help. I hate that he loves you, and I hate that you love them both. You are naturally evil and selfish, and it has cost my son dearly. Can you not smell the taint upon him?” She takes a step towards us, I can see from her look that her heart is breaking. She shakes her head, “Just tell me if he will recover, I can’t see down here like you. I can only sense him.” She whispers, “I wish he never met you!”
I don’t fight her on this. I don’t need to. I know what a mess this is and how much of it is my fault. I never should have loved him, him or Constantine. I have no right to love, not anyone. Not even Mona. I’m a freak. I look at Constantine, who nods, “He will be fine. I am giving him something to help him.
“NO! NOT YOUR BLOOD, BASARAB!”
Constantine ignores her and continues until Wyatt starts to move. When I finish untying him, Wyatt grabs onto Constantine who lifts him up and carries him towards the stairs.
“This way.” I point towards the door I know leads to the edge of the church grounds.
The smell of his filth and the feeling of his clammy, cold skin is disturbing. Constantine throws him over his shoulder, “You owe me for this.”
I can’t imagine having his sense of smell and being that close to Wyatt’s filthy pants.
I go to the metal door, prying it open. The dank and stinky air greets me, just like last time.
I can hear Sarah, she is scared when we slip into the tunnel. I look back, “I can see, it’s not scary down here. It’s just an old tunnel.”
She shakes her head, “I’m claustrophobic.”
I wince, “I’ll hurry.” I break into a jog and run for the gate. I swear it takes longer than last time. When I finally make it to the gate, I smile at the subtle hint of lip gloss still shining on the hinge.
I pull it in, shouting back at them, “This way.”
The grey day has not changed while we were inside.
We leave from the mound of earth that still looks like a hobbit hole and run for the woods. When we get to the walking trail to the water, I look at Constantine, “I’ll take him with me to the ocean; the nixie will help us.”
Gretel scowls, “Wyatt is coming with me.”
Constantine shakes his head, “He isn’t riding on my jet, smelling like that. No. I don’t care if it is the apocalypse, he stinks. He will be awake soon and he won’t appreciate the smell on himself either. We will meet you at the castle. We need to go to the place where the Garden of Eden once was. That’s where the horsemen will go.”
I look at Gretel, but she doesn’t say anything else. “Won’t the horsemen come here?”
He shakes his head, “They don’t need much time, Rayne. They move with deadly speed. Stella has Michelle working round the clock. They just discovered the horsemen will meet the antichrist where life began.”
I sigh, “Of course. It can’t be California or Montana, has to be somewhere in the Middle East where God first created life?”
He walks towards the sea. The nixie meet him at the shore. They growl. There is no love lost between them and him.
I wave at the redhead, “I’m sorry. I need you to bring me back to Constantine’s castle. Is that okay?”
She jerks up the shore. Sarah screams but Gretel cups her hand over her mouth. The nixie make sounds I’m sure I have never heard them make when they see Gretel. I look back at her, “You are popular everywhere we go.”
She scoffs, “The nixie will not help Wyatt.”
I ignore her, “Can you carry him? I give you my permission to touch him.”
The redhead holds her arms out for Wyatt.
“He will drown, this is a terrible idea.”
The jerky movements of the nixie are horrifying on their own, but the look they give Gretel will haunt me the rest of my days. The redhead scowls, “He is one of us, not one of you.” She takes him, and just for show and to prove her point, she vanishes below the water.
Gretel gasps. I look at Constantine, “Hurry.”
He nods, “You’ll need the extra time to clean him up.”
I laugh nervously and dip into the freezing-cold ocean. The nixie are there, a hundred lights below the water. The redhead holds Wyatt but a blonde hovers over him. She looks back at me, “They have filled him with evil.”
I open my mouth, but I remember I ate. I shouldn’t have. I shake my head “It was me. I ate and we are handfasted.”
She gives me a disapproving look. They swim hard, dragging me through the ocean. I can sense the disappointment in the way they treat me.
Four
“He smells like shit,
like actual shit.”
I scowl at Michelle, “Just help me get him up the stairs. He’s sick with the evil I ate.”
He moans, “Sarah, I’m sorry.”
Michelle gives me a look, “Did he just say…?”
I nod. She grimaces, “And yet, it’s you dragging his poop-covered ass up these stairs.”
“Of course it is, God hates me.” It’s my penance for kissing Constantine.
She nods, “I actually think he does. I swear dude, Hitler had better juju than you.”
She drops him in the shower, “This is where I end my duties as a friend.” She turns and leaves. I laugh, “You used to be a guy. You can’t help me?”
“No, hell no.”
I look down at him. His eyes flutter. I undo his pants and drag them down with his underwear. I don’t look, I can’t. This is beyond the things you are supposed to do for anyone.
I drag his shirt off, noticing suddenly the cuts and old blood in the back of it. I feel sick as I start the hot water flowing and take the clothes to the garbage in the kitchen. I tie the bag off and go back to the shower. He looks up at me as I round the corner of the huge shower.
“Rayne, how did you…?”
I help him stand, “You need to scrub with this soap everywhere and then we can talk.” I swear I am never going to get that smell out of my nose.
He nods, “Okay.” He takes the soap and starts the lather. I look the other way for the first time. I can’t imagine how humiliated he is.
“How did you get me?”
“Constantine. He brought us to Boston and your mom caught your scent. When I got close enough to you, I could feel you, like the handfast thing.”
“What happened?”
I shake my head, “My father must have gotten you. He took you to the church where you chased me and Mona that day and we got away. He tortured you or had someone else do it. We found you and brought you here.”
“I feel like hell.”
“I ate. I’m sorry. I know it makes you a bit sick from the evil you take on too.”
He sighs, “No, that hasn’t ever really affected me much. I feel like death. Something else.”
