by K. Anne
My teeth chattered as I slowly turned around. A cloaked figure stood only inches away from me. I let out a shriek as I stumbled back against the wall, desperate to escape. The figure moved closer until we were nearly touching. The craziest thing was that I couldn’t see it clearly even though it was practically on top of me. All I could see was a dark shape covered by a black cloak. It was as if I were looking through water. The image was distorted and lacked any real detail.
“Oriskany.” A distorted voice filled the room.
It reminded me of water as well. The sound was like I was hearing something while under water.
“What?” I stuttered.
The figure remained in front of me for a moment longer before it gradually faded away right before my eyes. As soon as it disappeared, the temperature in the room returned to normal. I stared at the spot it had stood in, willing it to come back to explain who or what it was while also willing it to never show itself to me again.
I started to take a step forward, but the room suddenly started to dissolve around me. The walls started to melt slowly to the floor, leaving nothing but darkness in their place.
I gasped and sat straight up in bed. My lungs burned as I tried to suck in enough oxygen. I couldn’t. I felt like I was drowning. I pulled my knees up to my chest and rested my head against them. I closed my eyes as my body started to shake uncontrollably.
It took a while, but I was finally calm enough to open my eyes again. I looked around my room, expecting to see melting walls and shadowy figures. Not a single thing was out of place.
“It was just a dream,” I whispered.
It didn’t feel like a dream. It felt real, far too real for comfort.
I remembered Cain’s appearance and instantly jumped out of bed to run to the window. When I reached it, the window was firmly locked. I quickly unlocked it and lifted it. A cold breeze filled my room, causing me to start shivering again.
I looked down to the yard below my window. I half-expected Cain to be lying there, broken. There was nothing. I sighed and rested my forehead against the glass.
“I’m going crazy. There’s no other option,” I muttered.
I stood like that until the cold air became too much. I moved my head away from the glass and reached up to pull the window back down. Once it was closed, I locked it. Still wondering if I was going crazy, I took one last look outside. I stilled when I saw Cain standing in his own window, staring right at me. His body was shaking. I could tell that from even this far away.
He silently watched me, never once smirking. He looked as shaken up as I felt. I backed away from the window, my eyes never leaving his.
When I was far enough away, I turned and ran to my bed. I climbed in and pulled the covers over my head, hoping to shut out the world.
I knew one thing for sure. If he was as unnerved as I was, then it wasn’t just a dream.
The next morning, I was up and dressed as soon as the sun rose.
I’d tried in vain to sleep after Cain and the cloaked figure had paid their visits, but I hadn’t been able to close my eyes for more than a few minutes. I’d kept replaying my conversation with Cain over and over, wondering if I really was going crazy and imagining things. Somehow, I didn’t think so. Whatever had happened last night, it was real. I’d really watched Cain’s eyes glow. I’d seen an invisible…something toss him across the room before he went through a solid wall. That same something had spoken to me. It had said just one word, but I’d heard it clearly.
“Oriskany.”
For some reason, that word sounded familiar, but I couldn’t figure out why. I knew that I’d heard it before. The memory teased me, hiding just out of my grasp. Annoyed with myself, I did the only thing I could do. I grabbed my laptop and searched for the word online.
When the search results loaded, I stared at the screen, completely surprised. At least I knew where I’d heard the word before—history class. Oriskany wasn’t the name of a person, like I’d expected. Instead, it was the name of a battle, one fought over two hundred years ago in the state of New York. I skimmed through the information on the battle, wincing at some of the facts.
“One of the bloodiest battles of the Revolutionary War,” I read out loud. That was cheerful—not.
I opened link after link, trying to understand why that…thing would want me to look up a battle that had taken place so long ago. It made absolutely no sense. Still, I continued to click on article after article, hoping that something would stand out.
After almost forty-five minutes of rereading the same information over and over, I was about to give up. I groaned as I clicked on one more article. I scrolled down the page, ignoring the information I’d already seen. When I reached the bottom of the page, there was a link to a list of the soldiers who had died in the battle. I clicked on it, more out of morbid curiosity than anything.
A plain white page appeared with a list of names. I read through them. About halfway down the list of Patriots, I stopped. My mouth hung open in shock.
Cain Collins, Johnstown.
I blinked and rubbed my eyes, almost expecting the name to disappear. It didn’t.
My heart started beating faster as I continued to read down the list of deceased Patriots, looking for Asher. I let out a sigh of relief when I reached the end. He wasn’t on there.
I scrolled further down the page, skimming over the list of Indians who had died before reaching the list of Loyalists. It was much shorter than the list of Patriots. I carefully read each name, not wanting to miss one. When I read the last name, my hands clenched into fists.
Asher Collins, Johnstown.
I scrolled back up the page and found Cain’s name again. I reread it twice before going back to Asher’s.
“This can’t be possible,” I whispered. “The battle of Oriskany was fought in 1777.”
I tried to tell myself that these men were Cain and Asher’s ancestors. Under any other circumstances, I could have believed it, but I knew that wasn’t the case. The cloaked figure wouldn’t have given me the name if these two men were nothing more than long forgotten family members.
Cain and Asher were alive in 1777. That realization was enough for me to let my laptop slide off my lap. Then, I realized something even worse. Not only had they been alive then, but according to this article, they had died in 1777 as well.
Cain and Asher had died. Yet, here they were, over two hundred years later, living next door to me.
I knocked on Cain and Asher’s door an hour later. I had printed off the list of names, and I now tightly gripped it in my shaking hands. I kept waiting for the shock to wear off, but it didn’t seem to be going anywhere. I was knocking on the door of two dead men. That wasn’t normal. Nothing about my life had been normal since they moved in. It had only been a week since they stormed into my life, but it felt like years.
The door swung open. I took a step back when I saw one of them standing there. I studied him for a moment, deciding that it was Asher.
“Ella? What are you doing here?” Asher asked, obviously surprised to see me standing on his doorstep so early in the morning.
“We need to talk,” I said, hoping that he couldn’t hear the fear in my voice.
“Okay…” He moved aside and motioned for me to come in.
I moved past him, careful not to let an inch of my skin touch his. He seemed to notice that.
He frowned as he closed the door. “What’s going on?” he asked.
“Where’s Cain?”
“Upstairs, I think.”
I walked to the bottom of the staircase. “Cain! Get down here!” I shouted loud enough to wake the dead—pun intended.
“Ella? What’s wrong?” Asher asked.
I ignored him. I wanted both of them in the same room for this. I wasn’t going to let them lie their way out of this. I was going to learn the truth even if a part of me didn’t want to know.
“What’s with all the shouting?” Cain grumbled as he appeared at the top of the s
tairs.
He slowly started walking down. His hair was messy, as if he’d just awoken. Judging by the sweatpants and T-shirt he was wearing, I guessed I really had forced him to crawl out of bed.
“Some people actually like to sleep in,” he said when he reached the bottom of the staircase.
“You can sleep later,” I said.
I wanted to tell him he would’ve had more sleep if he wasn’t creeping into my room in the middle of the night, but I kept silent.
Instead, I turned and walked over to the living room. I stood awkwardly in the center of the room, unsure of what to say now that I had their attention. Both of them moved in closer. I almost took a step back to get away from them, but I caught myself at the last second.
“I want the truth—all of it,” I finally said.
Cain rolled his eyes. “Are you seriously still going on about this? Whatever you think you saw wasn’t real. It was a dream, Ella. That’s all. You fell asleep when you were studying, and you had a nightmare.”
“Stop lying!” I growled as I held up the papers I’d printed off. “We all know that I’m not crazy, and I wasn’t dreaming.” I paused to glare at Cain. “I wasn’t dreaming that night, and I definitely wasn’t dreaming last night.”
“Last night?” Asher’s voice was guarded.
“Yeah, last night, when Cain paid me a visit in the middle of the night. Only his visit was cut short when someone else decided to join the party.”
“What on earth are you talking about?” Cain asked.
I laughed, but it sounded crazy. “You’re such a good liar, Cain, but I’m not buying it.”
“Who else was there?” Asher asked. He wasn’t looking at me any longer. Instead, his eyes were glued on Cain.
“No one was there, not me and definitely not anyone else!” Cain said angrily.
“I don’t know who it was. He was in a black cloak. I watched him throw Cain through a solid wall, a wall that he passed right through.”
“A cloaked figure?” Asher whispered. His tan skin had visibly paled. “And you saw him?”
I nodded. “I not only saw him, but he spoke to me.”
It was Cain’s turn to go pale.
“Aren’t you guys curious about what he said?” I asked.
Neither of them said a word.
I took that as my cue to continue speaking, “He said only one word—Oriskany. Does that mean anything to either of you?”
Asher was changing from pale to green. “Ella—”
I shook my head. “Don’t try to talk your way out of this. I did some research this morning. You’ll never believe what I found.”
I held out the papers so that Cain could read them. Asher moved closer so that he could see what was on them as well. I waited as they read down through the names.
“That’s a list of all the men who lost their lives in the Battle of Oriskany. You’re both on it,” I said.
Asher peeled his eyes away from the papers to look at me. He started to move closer, but I held up my hand to stop him.
“No. This ends now. I want to know what or who you really are.” I glanced at Cain. “I want to know who both of you are.”
The brothers briefly glanced at each other. Asher looked worried, but Cain only smirked.
“Tell her, brother. She deserves to know,” Cain said as he sat down in one of the living room chairs. “I can’t wait to hear your version.”
Asher’s eyes darted back and forth between Cain and me. He was no longer green, but his skin was still pale. “I can’t. They gave me rules. Telling her the truth isn’t allowed. There will be consequences.”
“Screw the consequences! I’m tired of being lied to. Tell me everything!” I shouted.
“If you won’t do it, I will, brother,” Cain said, his cocky nature returning.
Asher sighed. “As you wish. Ella, I think you need to sit down. What I have to say isn’t something a person should ever hear while standing up.”
I snorted but backed up and sat down on the couch. “I’m sitting. Talk.”
He sat down on the opposite side of the couch, leaving me directly between the brothers. It seemed like that was where I always was.
“What do you know of Heaven and Hell?” Asher asked.
I snorted again. “Really? You want to know if I’m religious?”
“Just answer the question.”
“I know that Heaven is where God is. People who are good go to Heaven when they die. It’s filled with clouds and angels and happiness. The Devil controls Hell. When someone is evil, that’s where they end up. The Devil and his demons torture them for eternity.”
Cain chuckled, earning a glare from Asher.
“I want you to listen to me very carefully, Ella. Everything you just told me? I want you to wipe it from your mind. What I’m about to tell you will change everything for you,” Asher said.
“All right,” I said slowly, wondering where on earth he was going with all of this.
“Heaven and Hell do exist, but it’s not like the Bible says. Instead of…clouds and fire, they’re simply alternate realms. Both look much like Earth. Each place is ruled by a council of five—one Leader and four lessers who help the leader keep control. The leader’s vote holds more power than the lessers, but they can overrule the Leader if it comes to that. I can’t think of a time when they’ve ever fought their leader,” Asher said.
“Are you kidding me right now? You really expect me to believe this?” I asked.
“He’s telling the truth. Just let him explain everything before you start calling us liars—again,” Cain said from the chair.
I opened my mouth to tell him off, but I closed it and nodded. “Fine. Continue, Asher.”
“Thank you. Anyway, the leaders are what I suppose you would consider God and the Devil, but they don’t go by those names. The leader of Heaven has many names, but lately, she goes by Charmeine.”
Cain snorted, and Asher glared at him.
“What?” I asked.
“In angel lore, Charmeine is a name of an angel who brings harmony, but I can assure you that Charmeine doesn’t want harmony,” Cain said.
Asher continued to glare at him for a moment before continuing, “The leader of Hell currently goes by the name of Joseph. Long ago, before your Bible was written, before man overran the Earth, Heaven and Hell were the same place. Charmeine and Joseph ruled together over the souls of mankind. I don’t know exactly what happened, but they turned bitter toward each other. They fought. In the end, they split Heaven and Hell into two realms instead of one. Joseph took souls that were damaged, and Charmeine took the souls of those who were pure.
“As mankind’s population grew, the leaders could no longer handle the realms on their own. This was when the lessers were created. Both Charmeine and Joseph took the four oldest souls in their worlds and gave them powers similar to their own, only less of them—hence the name, lessers. That worked for a long time, but once again, mankind’s population grew to the point where the leaders and lessers could no longer handle them.
“Charmeine and Joseph created armies from the souls they watched over. These souls became what you call angels and demons. They too have powers, but they’re not as strong as the leaders or even the lessers. They are tasked with the job of watching over and commanding the souls as the councils and leaders see fit. It is also their responsibility to lead souls to Heaven and Hell once they leave Earth.”
“I’m actually impressed with you, Asher. You know your history,” Cain teased. “Except for one very important fact that you haven’t mentioned. As time went on and the Earth changed, the souls changed. No longer were there strictly pure and strictly evil souls. Yes, there are still some who are truly pure and truly evil, but most of the souls now are tainted. The pure souls have some evil in them, and the evil souls often have purity buried deep inside.”
“I was getting to that, Cain.” Asher glared over my head at him.
“My bad. Continue,” Cain said as h
e grinned.
Asher rolled his eyes. “Once the souls became tainted, the angels’ and demons’ jobs became trickier. Before, they knew exactly which souls to bring back to their respective realms, but now, it is the soul’s choice in most cases. If a rare soul is still completely pure or completely evil, then it’s easy. But the reality is, the armies are tasked with the job of bringing back pure or evil souls along with trying to convince tainted souls to come with them as well.”
“But why?” I asked, unable to stop myself.
They were both full of poo, but their story was entertaining.
“Because Heaven and Hell are at war. Charmeine and Joseph each want to control both realms. The souls they collect are their soldiers in battles. The angels and demons are like their generals.”
“I don’t understand,” I said.
“It’s simple. Charmeine and Joseph are the original souls. They are the beginning of everything. But they are also both tainted souls. They are both good, yes, but they also have unsavory qualities as well. Neither is willing to give up their realm, but they both want more. The war they’re fighting has been raging on for thousands of years. Sometimes, Hell has the upper hand, and other times, Heaven does. But that’s all about to change,” Cain said quietly.
Asher looked like he wanted to argue with Cain’s statement, but he didn’t.
“What’s going to change?”
“Do you know what prophecies are?” Asher asked.
“Um, yeah. They’re things that are supposed to happen in the future, right? Like when someone has a vision of what is to come.”
“You’re exactly right. A prophecy now says a soul will join the battle soon. This soul will be the one who changes everything. Whichever side this soul chooses, that side will win. Once Heaven or Hell wins, either Joseph or Charmeine and their council of lessers will be stripped of their powers. They will become just a normal soul, controlled by the winning side.” Cain explained.
“Why will this soul change everything?” I asked.
