“You must come back again, but now we are closed.” She ushered them out of the door quickly, turned her sign to closed and disappeared.
“What the heck just happened?” She looked at Paul.
“I have no idea. Maybe we offended her?”
“Offended her! Did you drink that tea? I thought she was trying to kill us.” There was the sound of laughter nearby, but it wasn’t pleasant.
“Did you hear that?” This time she looked at him hoping he would say no.
Shaking his head yes he looked around for the sound. There were three shapes in front of them and three behind. The street was still deserted and three of those shapes stood between them and the car.
“You think they are here for tea?” There was a cocky half smile on her face. So this was how it all ended, she thought, maintaining her smile even as she grieved for Paul’s life.
Stepping out of the shadows was the Demos from the other night. He looked just as scary as the night before. “Seems the Tea Room is closed, so we will settle for you. The time has come to permanently end you human.”
“Aren’t you tired of trying to kill me? You never succeed. I don’t even succeed when I try to take my own life.” This was really getting old, the wish to die combined with a never decreasing life force.
“You could just make it easy for me little human. Lay down and let me separate your head from your shoulders. That will work.”
Tara and Paul, were back to back as they watched the Demos inch closer to them. There was no way out and she knew it. Would they let Paul go free if she surrendered her life? Why did she even care about what happened to him? He was an innocent in all of this. She could feel his back pressing against hers, but could not get a sense of what he was thinking. She could die. That should be a relief. She could finally have the peace she sought, right? Yet for some reason, the thought of dying was no longer appealing. She sighed, it was awake and it refused to go peacefully to the grave. Although she hated to admit it she was in agreement with it.
Closing her eyes for a second she imagined a deadly weapon that would defeat them. Opening the door way she grabbed what was there. Closing it she gave one to Paul.
Looking down he sighed. “A sword?”
She looked in her hand and yes, there was a sword. It was not even a rapier, more like a broad sword. From the looks of the blade, it was a dull broad sword. “I called for a deadly weapon that would stop them.”
“Next time think kill them. Also think machine guns, AKA’S and other things with more ammo.”
“Aww a lovers quarrel. Too bad neither will be around to finish it.” They began to advance as one.
One came at Paul as the others stopped and waited, as if they were going to enjoy a good show. The Demos raised his hand and produced a lethal looking lightning bolt and flung it at Paul. He raise that sword and managed to knock it out of the way. Then not knowing what to do, he brought the sword around and caught the Demos on the arm, when it moved a little too close to him. It cursed up a storm and jumped back. The sword in his hand lit up as with fire. That’s when things got serious.
Tara and Paul, were charged. The bolts of lightning came in fast and furious. Paul seemed to be all over the place knocking them down while, she worked on getting small cuts on the Demos while they were focused on him. They kept this up for what felt like hours, but had to be only long minutes. Swords swinging, knocking bolts out of the air, while small cuts were being given. The more they fought, the more they realized no one was winning this battle.
“Looks like no one is dying tonight.” Her grim smiled screamed I don’t like you.
“You are dying tonight human.”
“Not if you can’t do any better than that.”
“You’re stronger than you should be. Were you by chance in the Tea Room?”
“This one with the closed sign on its door?”
They had stopped battling now. They were just circling one another. One by one the Demos seemed to take a doorway and disappear, until only the one from the hospital remained.
“Tara, once again you live. You say you pray for death, but you fight when it comes for you. Would that be you or what lives within you?”
“Raimel, you promise death yet you never deliver. Mayhap you have a soft spot for me?”
He growled like an enraged animal. “I will kill you yet and whoever has decided to help you.” With one look at her he disappeared and reappeared behind Paul’s car. I have a present for you. It’s more of a present for myself.” With one move he pulled the blonde hair perky nurse up by her arm. Her limp body showed that she was unconscious as well as tied up. “Wonder what I will do with her?” Then he simply disappeared.
“I bet you want to save her?” Tara was upset, all she had to do was stay away from the hospital. Why couldn’t she do that?
“Of course we have to save her.”
She just turned to look at him, her expression telling him that he was foolish.
“Don’t you want to save her?”
“No,” she limped off to the car not bothering to look to see if he was coming or not.
Chapter Five
It had been a tense night. They had driven back to the warehouse in silence. Once there, they had walked around each other on egg shells. One would open their mouth to say something, then just close it. There was nothing to do so, eventually they feigned sleep. Finally after much tossing and turning, sleep finally came for them.
Now they sat silently waiting for either Charon to come and break the silence or their own words of anger or helplessness to do it for them.
“I have had enough of this.” Tara had never excelled at the quiet game. Her mom had beaten her every time they played it. “Didn’t we tell her to leave the hospital and not come back for a while? Didn’t I already save her life once? Now you want me to do it again? Why should I be her savior when she can’t even follow simple directions? What part of me trying to die did you not understand?” Her voice had risen until she was now screaming.
“What part of innocent bystander are you missing?” Paul’s voice was quiet. “What part of a doctor who saves lives are you missing?” His voice was even quieter. “She doesn’t deserve to die simply because she has been caught up in something she knows nothing about. No one deserves to die. You say you want to die, yet you still manage to live. Even in the hospital you defied the odds.”
Pushing his hands through his hair he stood and walked over to her, gently turning her around with a hand on her shoulder. “All I hear about is this mysterious something in you that won’t let you die. Well in the hospital I didn’t see that something. I saw you. I saw a miracle lying in that bed who refused to give up. That something was asleep and all there was, was you. You refused to die. So run it past me again how you want to die and leave this world of wonder.”
Closing her eyes she saw herself out there adrift on a tiny log that was barely big enough for one. She was close to the falls and she knew it. She had been aiming for them for a long time. If only she could reach them, she could go over. Simply sink into herself and never be heard from again. Everything had changed. Now there were two options. When had that happened? There he stood on the shore, which was much closer than it had been in a long time. It would be so simple to move her body on the now larger piece of drift wood and start to change her course. Still, that soft voice summoning her to turn around meant fighting for herself. She would also have to fight for him and to fight for those who needed protection from the things that went bump in her night. With a sigh she changed positions even as the falls finally came into view. Maybe it was time to woman up.
“Let’s say you’re right and for some reason I don’t really want to die. Why does that mean I have to save the perky blonde nurse?”
“She has a name you know.”
She held up her hand to stop him. “If you even want me to think about saving her, we will call her the perky blonde nurse. Mostly because it makes me smile.”
S
haking his head he laughed at her. “Alright, I am good with that. She was calling you Tiger, even after I told her your name.”
“Don’t get too happy. I am pretty sure the nurse is dead. The Demos are evil. Raimel did not even try to trade her life for mine. I am pretty sure he simply tortured her and killed her for fun.”
“I have seen evil, Tara and usually there is a reason for it. No one is wholly evil. He expects us to come after her. Why else would he take the time to show her to us? Definitely not because he thought you would be guilt ridden over her capture.”
“Maybe because he thought you would be guilt ridden. Or he might have thought to separate us because I wouldn’t want to go after her. Besides where would we go? Do you know how to get to his home world, because I sure don’t?”
Again he ran his hands through his hair. It was a definite sign of frustration. “I have no idea, but we have to try and save her.”
“Glad one of us is Polly positive.” With a deep sigh she joined him in thinking. “Hey we could go back to that Tea Room.”
“Or,” Charon said popping in the room. “You could come with me.”
They just stared at him. He had been gone when they came in last night and although they had tried to call him, albeit tentatively, he had been a no show. His popping in was not filled with feelings of glad tidings.
“Where were you last night?”
“Morning to you too, Tara.” Charon gave her a cocky smile.
“So are you interested in finding Raimel or not?”
“You know what happened?” Tara ignored his question. Maybe self-preservation was finally kicking in she thought holding back a cynical laugh.
“If you mean do I know he has the perky blonde nurse.” He stopped to smirk at Tara. “I do and I might even be able to find her for you, or not. That’s the risk you take. I can definitely find Raimel. Well?” He stood slowly spreading his wings looking more like an angel of death than a Good Samaritan.
“We want to go.” Paul was looking determined, they would be going.
Tara nodded her head knowing she was not going to win this one.
“Come on boys and girls its field trip time.”
Taking them both by the hand they disappeared. Not through a door, but simply gone one minute as if everything stopped, to reappear the next sitting in the back of a car. It was an older model four door car. The driver was a young man. He had to be early twenties Tara was thinking. The girl in the passenger seat was around his age.
“They can’t see us. And all we can do is see them. Which means there can be no interaction and no interfering with whatever happens.” There was a look on Charon’s face that was unreadable and hard.
“Why are we here?”
“Watch and see.”
“Everything is going to be alright. You’ll see.” The young woman had turned to face the driver giving Tara a good look at her face. She was definitely early twenties with a very pregnant belly. She had green eyes with very pale skin and a short mop of red curls. She was cute. She would never be a cover girl, but she could break a couple of hearts if she wanted to.
Stopping at the red light, he turned to face her. “We deserve some good baby. We have gone through a lot. It looks like junior here will be fine too.” His hair was dark, more of a black and he possessed nice brown eyes. They made a cute couple that seemed to be just starting out.
She held up her hand. “Soon I will be Mrs. Johnson.”
He smiled with such joy that Tara almost felt like a letch, watching something that was not meant for public consumption.
“I love you so much baby. I can’t wait.” They were already rolling again and the happiness in the car was overwhelming. Looking both ways he merged on the parkway taking them away from the city.
Tara cast Charon a puzzled look. He simply smiled and mouthed just wait.
They young mother- to- be placed her hand over her child. “Our bundle of joy. Our future. Our hope.” She rubbed her belly in soft circles before the car lurched for no reason. He jerked the steering wheel getting control of it again.
“I think we better have this thing checked out.” The future Mrs. Johnson said still smiling happily.
Tara had stopped listening. Standing on the hood of the car was Raimel. He could see her, just like she could see him. With slow deliberate movements he brought his sword out and over his head.
Tara and Paul tried to move. They were frozen, unable to move anything besides their mouths.
“What the hell is he about to do?” She roared the question at Charon.
“Stop him!” Paul screamed still unable to move.
“I told you there was nothing we could do, but watch.”
“Watch? Are you crazy? We have to do something. We have to stop this. What good is being some almighty door, if there’s nothing I can do?”
Tara watched him smirk as the car continued to pick up speed until he looked at the young mother to be. His smirk disappeared and hatred blacker than any she had ever seen crossed his face. With one swift downward swing the sword entered the car’s engine causing it to halt.
Faster than Tara would have thought, there was a major accident on the parkway. Cars were swerving and hitting each other. The car they were in was hit at 70 miles an hour from behind and shoved into the car in front of it. The man was unconscious and the woman was screaming. Raimel stepped down off of the car, much like a kid at the amusement park getting off of a favorite roller coaster with a look of let’s do that again. He gave Tara a mocking bow and then disappeared.
“Let me help them. At least until the paramedics come.”
“I can’t. It will change how the time line should be.”
“I don’t give a damn about the time line. I am a doctor and I am here. That means I was supposed to help them, so let me go.”
Paul was outside of the car as if he had just walked up. Tearing off the car door, he started working on the young mother first.
“How could you?” She still sat in the back seat, an invisible spectator to this very real scene of horror. “How could you let that happen?”
“The better question is why couldn’t I stop it? It’s called free will. You humans know all about that, right? There was no stopping what happened today and my hands were tied. I broke the rule by letting your man help the woman. So don’t give me that “you’re so bad look” as if I got a kick out of what happened.”
“He’s evil. He tried to kill them for no reason.” She was just talking now. If I can just talk, I can be calm. This over whelming horror will not take over. Desperately she wanted to cling to that placed she had discovered years ago where nothing bothered her and she felt nothing. Every day it seemed to retreat further away, as she woke up more to the horrors of the world.
“Forget him being evil.” She screamed at Charon. “You’re a monster. You knew this was going to happen and you let me see it any way. You knew he was going to try and kill them. Try and kill that unborn child and you brought me, us here. Why would you do that?’
“To wake you up. You’re on your high horse, so intent on ending your life, that you couldn’t take the time to look around at anyone else’s life. You who thinks so little of yourself that you cannot acknowledge what you may mean to this world or even to that man who is fighting for the life of that child. I needed to get you out of your selfish funk and give you a reason to live, to fight. Maybe the real monster here is you. The person who refuses to fight for what life has given her.”
Just like that, she was gone. She had no idea if it was seconds, minutes or hours before she realized that she was absolutely still. There was no movement and no sound. she was totally alone. No one and nothing surrounded her. There was just, total light. She shuddered acknowledging that this light was not a blessing, it blinded her as much as the darkness would have and she could see nothing.
Was this death? The absence of all life? She couldn’t even feel herself. She wasn’t sure she possessed a body anymore. She could hear no
sound, so it was possible she wasn’t breathing. Where was the peace? There was no peace here, only a long laundry list of what she hadn’t accomplished. That wasn’t the worse part. She now yearned for food, even bad food, to fill her nonexistent belly. She wanted to see Paul’s face one more time. She wanted the kiss she so rightly deserved. She wanted to yell at Charon and tell the perky blonde nurse “I told you to stay away.”
She finally got what she wanted and now all she wanted was what she had. How ironic was that? She tried to stop doing that only thing she could do, which was think. Her mind stalled on one thought. She had let Raimel win. Finally, she understood what hell really was.
Tara’s body collapsed on the warehouse floor as she choked, greedily gasping for air.
“Welcome back.” Charon said, as he made a production of stepping over her limp body.
“Tara, are you alright?” Paul ran to her side kneeling down and running his hands over her as he checked her out. “You’re breathing to fast, Tara. Look at me! Slow down. You don’t want to pass out.” He smiled at her as she forced her breathing to match his exaggerated slow breath. “Good job” he murmured as he stroked her hair.
“Come on, let’s get you up.” He led her over to the couch that had been doubling as their bed.
“I am so happy to see you.” Tara said laying her head on his chest and wrapping her arms around him. She had been so sure that it was over. No more chances for her. Now she was faced with the prospect of life again. She wasn’t sure what she was going to do, but she was going to do something. Grow a backbone, maybe, as long as she never ended up where she had been again.
“Where were you? What happened to you?” Paul’s questions made her smile as she listened to the concern in his voice.
“I don’t know. I have no answers for you. I simply know you don’t want to go there.” In the very end, she had understood that she was not alone. There had been a shadow or maybe more than one shadow slowly moving towards her. The hideous torturous things they promised to do to her was driving her mad. Even now she knew she would never be the same.
Hope (Other World Protection Agency Book 1) Page 4
