Sovereign (Realmwalker Book 3)

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Sovereign (Realmwalker Book 3) Page 17

by Jonathan Franks


  “You’re from the human world?” Honey was amazed. “And now nothing can hurt you?”

  Gen shrugged. “I get hurt. But, no, not the way you mean. No. Pretty much nothing hurts me.”

  “That’s incredible! And you brought those Realms back from The Void? Nobody’s ever returned from The Void!”

  “Yeah. We all did.”

  “But it sounds like you did most of the work.”

  Gen chuckled. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

  “How’d you know they were here?” Honey asked.

  Gen was getting tired of all of the questions. “They left me a note. But they didn’t say exactly where they’d be.” She slumped in her chair and laid her forehead on the table. She clasped her heads over the back of her head. Back when she was home, she could count on her mom to notice any time she sat like this and rub her back. She chuckled at the memory, then took a shaky breath as the tears came. She’d never feel that again.

  “Aw,” Honey sighed. She stood behind Gen and started to rub her shoulders.

  Gen sat up and wiped her eyes. “Thanks. I appreciate it. If you don’t mind, I’d like to try to get some sleep and I’ll try again in the morning.”

  Honey nodded. “Okay. I’ll get you a blanket and a pillow.” She flew upstairs and rustled around, and several minutes later, she returned with a fluffy pillow and a rough, thick blanket.

  Gen took her boots off and tucked herself in on the sofa. “Hey, Honey, thanks for letting me stay. I really appreciate it.”

  “Oh, absolutely.”

  Something about the way Honey said that unsettled Gen slightly, but she wasn’t sure why. Gen pulled the blanket up to her chin. The house was disturbingly quiet compared to sleeping outdoors. The air had a slightly dusty taste to it, and the smell of dinner still hung in the air. Gen felt exhausted, but resigned herself to a night of staring at the ceiling until she managed to drift off for a few minutes. Instead, to her surprise, Gen’s fatigue felt immediate and heavy and she fell quickly into a deep, dreamless sleep.

  An intense, piercing pain lanced through Gen’s chest and woke her instantly. She couldn’t breathe. She tried to sit up but there was a heavy weight on her chest. Panic spread over her body as she tried to pull air into her lungs and couldn’t. Something wet and rough was in her mouth. She reached up to clear her face but she couldn’t move her arms. They felt like they were tied down. The weight lifted abruptly from her chest along with a pulling, ripping kind of sensation that brought waves of fresh pain, then there was another sharp stab in her chest. Gen’s screams were muffled. She realized that a pillow was being forcefully held over her face. Her lungs were screaming for air but she couldn’t breathe. There was another stab and she blacked out.

  The burning in her lungs brought Gen’s senses back. The pillow was still heavy on her face. Her entire body was in intense pain. She struggled against the ropes that lashed her to the sofa, and then cried out in pain when she felt her skin being cut deeply short lines across her legs. She thrashed around but she still couldn’t move or see. There were more long moments of agony, more cutting, and she passed out again.

  When Gen opened her eyes, she could see again. The pillow was gone, replaced with some sort of gag. She couldn’t move her head, so all she could see was the ceiling above her. It was spattered with blood, which dripped slowly down onto her. She struggled again and tried yelling, but she was bound tight and she couldn’t get any sort of volume with the gag in her mouth.

  “You’re right, Gen,” Honey purred from somewhere to Gen’s left. “You really can’t get hurt. How delightful.”

  Gen saw a blur of motion out of the corner of her eye and screamed into the gag again as Honey plunged a knife into Gen’s side. She felt her flesh being sliced open and then an unbearable pain as Honey groped roughly into Gen’s body through the gash. The world spun and her stomach tightened as something vital was yanked out of her body. Blackness took Gen once again, and when she came back, she was still in horrible pain.

  Honey leaned over her, smiling. Smears of blood smudged her face. “That’s really amazing. How much do you remember?”

  Gen tried to speak, to call out, to make some sort of noise, but the gag prevented her.

  “That much, huh?” Honey giggled. “I could just go on killing you all day!” She grinned wickedly and Gen felt the point of the knife pressed hard against her throat. Then her eyes widened and gently closed as Honey sliced deeply across Gen’s neck. She felt a long wave of warmth washing down her chest, immediately followed by a deep chill that shuddered from toe to head, and she died again.

  She felt air in her lungs again but she kept her eyes shut. She heard something frying in a pan from the kitchen. She pulled with her arms and felt the slick, sticky ropes biting into her wrists. She pulled as hard as she could and she felt something give near her left wrist.

  “Oh, you’re awake again,” Honey said. “Breakfast isn’t ready yet.”

  A hard, clanging whack sent Gen into darkness again.

  When she opened her eyes again, her head had been propped up on a pillow so she could see her body. Her clothing had been cut away and she lay bloody and naked on the sofa. Her ankles were lashed together, her left arm hanging down and tied off to something underneath her. Her right arm had been pulled above her head and tied off to something.

  Honey sat on the arm of the sofa, facing her, eating. “Mmm,” she said. “I love liver and onions. How about you?”

  Gen was still gagged.

  Honey took a bit bite as Gen yanked again with her left arm. She felt some give in the rope so she pulled harder.

  “You stop that right now,” Honey said. She put her plate on Gen’s legs and picked up a long dagger, then jabbed it upward into Gen’s ribcage. Gen’s body twitched and the world faded away once again.

  Gen woke up and Honey was standing over her again. “Wonderful,” she cooed. She licked blood from Gen’s face and neck and moaned. “Mmmm.” She leaned over Gen to lick the other side of her face and Gen strained her arm and pushed as hard as she could with her feet against the arm of the sofa. There was a cracking sound as the leg that the rope was tied to broke off the bottom of the sofa.

  The far right corner of the sofa collapsed and Gen’s wrist came free. She shot her hand up to Honey’s throat and she jabbed savagely upward. Honey’s eyes bugged out and she choked when Gen’s fingers crunched into her throat. She staggered backward and fell. Gen ripped the dagger from her gut and sliced at the rope around her wrist. She gashed her own wrist deeply but she cut through the rope. The ropes binding her ankles seemed to have used the same leg of the sofa, and they were loose enough that Gen could pull them free. She rolled off the sofa and crashed to the floor just as Honey got to her feet.

  Honey kicked fiercely at Gen’s jaw and Gen collapsed onto her stomach. She rolled over onto her side as quickly as she could and held the knife up as Honey approached. Honey made another kick at Gen and Gen slashed at her leg. She missed, but Honey took a step back. Gen stood unsteadily. The floor was slippery with blood. Gen backed up and Honey advanced on her. Gen held the knife up, then reversed her grip and raised her arm defensively. Honey grinned and picked another knife up off the table behind her.

  Gen started trying to say something but remembered she was still gagged and Honey wouldn’t be able to hear her anyway.

  Honey sprang at Gen and feinted to the right, then whirled to the left and sank the knife into Gen’s stomach. Gen had feinted, too. She wasn’t trying to dodge out of the way. She was trying to make sure she would get stabbed somewhere non-vital so that she wouldn’t go down again. She swung the pommel of the knife viciously at Honey’s temple. It connected with a wicked crunch and Honey staggered and fell to her knees. Gen reeled back and punched her in the face, feeling Honey’s nose break under her knuckles. She saw the heavy, cast-iron frying pan on the table, so she dropped the knife, grabbed the pan, and clocked Honey across the face with it. Honey collapsed in a heap on the floor. Ge
n grabbed the knife and ran for the door. It was locked.

  Honey stood up, shaking her head. She touched her face and her hand came away covered with blood. Then her eyes focused and the pain receded. She felt her nose again and was surprised to find that it felt whole and uninjured. A wicked grin curled over her lips and she took a step toward Gen.

  Gen’s eyes widened. She whirled around and kicked the door open and she ran outside, naked, pan and knife both at the ready.

  It was dark outside. Gen looked desperately from side to side, looking up and down the street. She saw a large moth gliding silently down the street, and then heard a piercing scream from one of the houses down the street. Gen’s eyes widened. She knew that scream. It was Shae.

  She half-ran, half-flew down the street as quickly as she could to the house the scream came from and pounded on the door with the frying pan. She looked up the street to see if she was being pursued and frantically beat on the door. A tall man with gray, feathery wings opened the door and Gen fell against him. She swung at him with the pan and David dodged out of the way. He ducked and spun quickly, knocking Gen’s legs out from underneath her. She collapsed on the porch and David kicked the knife and the pan away from her.

  “Gen!” Slynn called from stairs. “David! Stop!”

  David backed up a few steps, still in a defensive posture.

  Hope and Shae ran down the stairs. As soon as she saw Gen, Hope dashed to the porch. “Gen!”

  Gen tried to scramble away from her. She was disoriented and her eyes were wide with terror.

  “Sssh, sssh,” Hope whispered, “Calm down. It’s me. It’s okay. Hang on, just let me take the gag off.” She couldn’t get it untied. “I’m going to need to cut it off. I’m not going to hurt you, okay?” She slowly reached for the knife. “Just look at me. Keep looking at me. Look in my eyes. Gen, look at me!”

  The terror was still visible in Gen’s eyes as Hope gently raised the knife to the back of Gen’s head and sliced through the gag. She gently pulled it from Gen’s mouth. As soon as it was free, Gen howled in wordless anguish.

  “Gen! It’s me! Are you okay? Skies above, what happened?”

  “Hope?” Gen’s voice was slurred and distant.

  Hope nodded. Gen launched herself into Hope’s arms. “She’s coming! Help me, please! She’s coming!”

  “Who’s coming? What happened?”

  “Honey! She healed! She healed because she… Because she ate…” Wrapped tightly in Hope’s arms, Gen fainted.

  -

  Gen shivered while Hope washed her in Jewel’s bathtub. The water was crimson from all of the blood. They’d already drained and refilled the tub twice, and Hope pulled the drain again. Once it was empty, Hope made sure the heatstone was still active and she pumped the handle to fill the tub with hot water again. When the tub was full of steaming water again, Hope washed Gen one more time. She color of the water only changed slightly this time.

  Gen stared blankly at the bathroom wall. There was a knock on the door and Gen jumped. Hope put her arms around Gen and kissed her head. “Yeah?”

  Shae opened the door. “How is she?”

  Hope shrugged slightly.

  “Well,” Shae said, “we checked the house. There was blood everywhere, just like she said, but nobody else was there. There was another set of footprints but, of course, they stopped at the porch. We have no idea where she went.” Shae knelt next to the tub. “Gen? Are you okay?”

  It took Gen a minute to focus her eyes on Shae’s face. Tears fell from her eyes.

  “Can I touch you?” Shae asked.

  Gen closed her eyes and nodded.

  Shae reached out and touched Gen’s jaw, right under her ear. “It’s okay, sweet. You’re okay. I know it’s scary. But we’re here and we won’t let anything happen to you.” Shae leaned forward and kissed Gen’s forehead. Then she left the bathroom, closing the door quietly behind her.

  Gen took a deep breath and opened her eyes. She looked at Hope. “What did she do? I feel a little better.”

  Hope shrugged. “I have no idea. Did you hear her talk, though? I don’t think she’s ever sounded so assertive in her life!”

  Chapter 22

  There was another bad storm on the day of Wes and Anne’s wake and only a handful of people came. Since it was the holiday season, there were delays in processing the life insurance policies and getting funeral arrangements made. With the weather and the extra cost for storage of the bodies until the snow could be removed and the ground thawed enough to bury them, Laura and Michelle agreed to have their parents cremated. Laura remembered that, at one point, her mother said that it would be so romantic to mix their ashes so they would be together forever, so that’s what they did.

  Laura and Michelle each had a small urn with their parents’ ashes mixed together. Gabrielle suggested that the girls put their urns on opposite ends of the mantle over the fireplace. Not knowing what else to do, they placed their urns over the fireplace and went up to Michelle’s room together, just the two of them. Laura put on the Carpenters CD that she’d brought to the service. It was her mother’s favorite.

  Downstairs, the Summers sat quietly around the kitchen table together.

  “That was so sad,” Gabby said. “I can’t believe nobody came.”

  “It’s pretty awful out there,” Geoff said. “Honestly, I’m surprised the girls were even willing to go out in this weather.” He glanced out the patio door and watched as it snowed.

  “I guess so,” Gabby said. “Maybe we should try to have another wake, like a post-wake wake, when it’s nicer.”

  “Do people do that?” Geoff asked.

  “I don’t see why not. They had a lot of friends. They should be remembered.”

  George went to the refrigerator and got a beer. He used the bottle opener to pop the cap off, then he said down heavily into his chair and drank it in large swallows.

  “George,” Gabby chided, “It’s one thirty in the afternoon.”

  “It’s one thirty on this particular shitty afternoon,” George said. “And look at it out there. We’re not going anywhere.”

  “Watch your mouth,” Gabby snapped.

  George didn’t respond. He drank the rest of the beer and got two more bottles. While he was at the refrigerator, he opened the freezer and picked out a pint of ice cream and put it and a spoon in front of Gabby. He put one bottle in front of his dad and sat down and sipped at his.

  Geoff nodded his thanks and drank. “They’re in a tough spot. I’m not sure what we should do.”

  “Well, they have to stay here,” Gabby said. “They have nowhere else to go!”

  “Laura can always come back with me to Champaign,” George suggested.

  “Or they could stay here,” Gabby shot back. “They’ve just lost both of their parents. There’s no aunts or uncles. What are they supposed to do? Michelle’s a minor and Laura’s the only next of kin. Unless we want her to become a ward of the state, they need to stay together until Michelle’s eighteen.”

  “That’s like two, two and a half years!”

  “I’m aware of that, George,” Gabby said patiently. “But would you rather she go into the foster system and be placed who knows where, with who knows who?”

  “No.”

  “And what about you, Geoffrey?”

  Geoff shook his head. “Absolutely not. They can stay here.”

  “Laura will need to contact DCFS and fill out some papers and get guardianship,” Gabby explained. “And we’ll need to register Michelle for school here. And we need to figure out what to do with their house. Laura says she isn’t sure whether they have a will. We’ll need to go through the house and find it, and we’ll need to find out who their lawyer is.”

  Geoff and George were silent.

  “We’ll do it after Christmas,” Gabby said. “We can still have a good Christmas.”

  “You think you can rally the girls into Christmas spirit two days after they lost their parents?” Geoff as
ked. “That seems like a tall order. We don’t even have presents for them, aside from the couple we bought for Laura.”

  “There’s presents at their house,” George said. “I guess I can go out there and get them tomorrow.”

  “Okay,” Gabby nodded. “Yes. That’s what we’ll do. In the meantime, give them their space today and we’ll see how they’re doing tomorrow.” She took a big spoonful of ice cream. “So much has happened, I think we’re going to put Ben and Jerry both out of business and I’m going to be a giant whale.”

  “You look fantastic, dear,” Geoff said. “And Ben and Jerry will both be fine. Besides, it’s Christmas.”

  “Calories only count half at Christmas,” Gabby laughed. Then she realized she was laughing loudly and she cleared her throat and quieted down. “That’s not appropriate. I’m sorry.”

  George looked at his dad and shrugged.

  “On your way home tomorrow,” Gabby said, “Stop and pick up some new presents. I think it’ll be a little overwhelming if all of their presents come from their parents. They’ll need other things, too.”

  “Okay, mom.”

  -

  Michelle and Laura just finished crying again. Michelle got up and went to the window. She cracked it open for some fresh air.

  “Look.” She looked out the window. “That boy from across the street is staring at me again.”

  “That’s that kid Jim. He used to date Genevieve.”

  “Really? Well, he can’t think I’m her, can he? I don’t look anything like her, and she’s not coming back until school’s over.”

  “They’ve been able to see each other in their rooms like this since they were kids,” Laura said. “I’m sure he just sees activity in here and sees the light on, and he’s curious about what’s happening.”

  “He’s cute.”

  “He’s got a girlfriend.”

 

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