Chapter Ninety Eight
I immediately jumped to my feet and ran faster than a rocket taking off from a launch pad. I don’t even think my feet touched the ground as I rushed from the garage out to the parking lot. The engine roared to life and the Chevy’s tires dug into the gravel. They left two deep trenches as they desperately tried to do my bidding. My thoughts were consumed with frantic terror. I drove like an uncontrolled psychotic as I turned onto the highway and headed toward a dark, unknown destiny.
Ember…Ember…Ember…
Her name echoed through the shadowed recesses of my mind. I floored the accelerator and pushed the truck to well over 90 miles per hour. It was still gaining speed as I careened around a sharp mountain curve and swerved all over the roadway. My cell phone rang and for one brief second I felt a little hope.
“What on earth happened??” Willow shouted in my ear.
My small sliver of hope shattered when I realized it wasn’t Ember on the other end of the phone. Then, my mind responded to this revelation by producing an unearthly shrieking.
One I hadn’t heard in years…
“Boo said, ‘Ember…shadow…fall’ and I don’t exactly know what it means, but something inside me is screaming. I can’t talk anymore!” I exclaimed and hung up the phone.
The insane wailing refused to stop as the memory of the day we left Big Whiskey Lane flooded through me. I couldn’t hear myself think as panic overwhelmed me. I tried to refocus and ignore the madness going on inside my head. I urgently needed to cross the great divide that separated me from Ember. I pressed the accelerator to the floor so hard that I heard something crack.
I have to get to my little girl right now…
I belatedly wished that I had taken the time to equip this truck with a nitrous oxide system because it seemed to be moving at the speed of a drunken snail. I pounded hard on the steering wheel out of sheer frustration. It warped from the first blow I issued to it, so I had to ‘fix’ it while simultaneously using it to steer the truck, traveling well beyond 100 miles per hour.
Turning into the school’s parking lot with my tires squealing, I didn’t bother to slow down. The Chevy slid sideways against the curb in the front of the school near the gym. It was still rocking violently from the sudden stop when I jumped out of it. My attention was fully focused on running to the detention classroom. I was sure that I looked like a dangerous lunatic as I ran down the hallway because I certainly felt like one.
Everyone gasped in complete surprise as I burst through the door into the small in-school suspension classroom. I shouted “I’m not here…” The obliteration felt like a thousand tiny daggers slicing through my brain. I ignored the resulting pain because I didn’t care about it in the least.
All I care about is finding Ember…
I looked around, but I didn’t see my little girl anywhere. The six detention students instantly returned to whatever they were doing before my chaotic entrance into their world. The teacher had also resumed reading his newspaper as he stirred his lukewarm coffee. I approached his desk and leaned down to whisper to him.
“Ember Pateman, has she been here today?” I questioned him.
He couldn’t actually see me anymore, so I had to channel another obliteration – an additional slicing dagger…
“No, Ember – sorry…” he replied casually.
Fighting the overwhelming urge to sling him across the classroom, I turned and ran back out into the hallway. I was seething with unspent rage, but I couldn’t do anything about it right then. My heart knew she wasn’t on school grounds anymore, although my mind refused to admit that truth. I rushed to her locker, bent on finding something – anything – that might somehow lead me to her. I ripped the lock off like it was made of silly putty, then I quickly opened it.
Her dusty Chemistry textbook was propped up against one side and her well stocked backpack was shoved inside the locker too. I discovered her regular clothes for the day were still neatly folded up in her backpack. I tried to shove the thoughts of madness away and think of something useful to do. Then, I suddenly remembered that her iPod had been confiscated. I looked in the side pocket where I knew she stored it and it was empty.
Maybe she’s still in the vice principal’s office…
I slammed the locker closed with enough force to vibrate the cinderblock wall behind it. I blindly ran towards the school’s administrative area and thundered into the vice principal’s office. I demanded to know where Ember Pateman was. He stated emphatically that he hadn’t seen her all day and that she’s in class to his knowledge. Then, I asked him about her iPod and he denied having it.
The entire conversation was spent with me channeling obliterations. I couldn’t risk him calling the police because they would try to haul me away. My obliterations cut and hacked away at my tormented brain, but I welcomed the pain.
It’s the only way I know I’m still alive…
I decided to retrace every single step Ember would have taken that morning after I dropped her off. I rushed through the side entrance of the school and ran down the breezeway. The door on my pickup was still wide open. So I slammed it shut as I ran by the gym. Then I continued to run up the hill to the tennis courts.
Coach Pressman was sitting on the bench watching the students’ practice tennis. She was shouting instructions and rules when I arrived. I persuaded her that I wasn’t there, but she could still hear my voice.
“What occurred between you and Ember this morning?” I asked in a quiet, sinister voice that didn’t sound like my own.
Although I channeled the obliteration with enough force to make my nose bleed, I no longer felt the resulting pain. I was over a new edge of insanity - absolutely lethal.
“Ember brought her iPod with her to the tennis courts. Electronic entertainment devices are prohibited on school grounds. So I gave her a disciplinary action form and sent her to see the vice principal. She’s currently in detention and will remain there for the rest of the day per school policy…” Coach Pressman stated softly while she stared blankly in front of her.
My blood boiled hotter than the center of a volcano situated near the core of the sun. The heat wave violently assaulted my body. My vision even clouded over with a red haze from the fury. I knew with absolute certainty that I would rip through every last person in this school to find Ember. I also knew without a doubt that those responsible for whatever had happened won’t live to explain their actions or apologize to her either. I had never felt so dark and dangerous. I swallowed hard and inhaled as I relished the feeling of the evil power rising.
I had to force myself to walk away from the gym teacher that had sent my little girl on a journey into the twisting netherworld of unknown evils. Coach Pressman continued to remain entirely stationary. It was as though she somehow knew if she made even the slightest twitch she would be gone forever…
My walk slowed to a stalking predator’s pace as I followed what would have been Ember’s final footsteps toward her “shadow fall”. I surveyed every inch of the ground as I passed by it and sniffed the air like a starving coyote in search of a meal. I needed to find a clue about what might have happened to her this morning. The world spun around me in a wild, insane frenzy. However, I was moving in slow motion because I couldn’t risk rushing around. I might miss something.
The unearthly wailing is still assaulting my mind…letting me know, I’m prepared to take deadly action…
Then my red tinted vision barely caught a glimpse of something shiny and hidden near the bushes beside the gym...
I realized in terror that it was my little girl’s iPod. The face of the player had been cracked, but it was definitely hers. I recognized the ear buds Willow had designed for her with Ay’sha runic beads. A smudge of what appeared to be blood was smeared across the screen. The screaming inside my brain intensified.
Blood smeared on her iPod means…
I couldn’t even thi
nk it! I was overwhelmed by homicidal psychosis. I bent over and prepared to pick up the iPod from the bushes. Then suddenly, I had another thought and ran back toward my truck. I needed to retrieve my cell phone.
In my insanity, I had forgotten that her cell phone is equipped with the latest in GPS technology. I could track Ember’s physical location just by touching the app on my own phone. My cell phone was still in the console where I tossed it. The GPS lit up and I realized she was still at school. I could barely see the indicator because my vision was still colored bloody red. I followed the signal and it led me right back to her locker. Her cell phone was tucked inside the outer pocket of her backpack. It still displayed my unread text message. I wanted to shriek from the revelation as I stood immobile, but my mouth refused to cooperate with my mind. The text message indicator flashed on her cell phone – a glaring reminder. The hideous reality of this situation swept through my body in sickening waves of relentless horror.
Torture and total agony consumed my heart and soul. Then suddenly, nothing was left in my world, but exposed pain. My thoughts raced in psychotic circles and assaulted me with gruesome torment after torment. Before the madness could overtake me though, I somehow remembered a vital piece of information that could end up being critical. This might be my salvation…
The dark clique must be holding Ember in the basement!
I retrieved my flashlight from the Chevy before I returned to the school’s main hallway. I stalked toward the staircase that led to the basement below and crept silently down each step until I reached the darkened landing. The steel fire door appeared to be locked. So I slammed through it with every ounce of force I had inside my body. I yelled Ember’s name insanely into the darkness. Although the flashlight was on, I still couldn’t see clearly. I looked around the basement and tried to find any signs of life.
I was prepared to strike and destroy…
No one was downstairs in this basement – no one, at all. This awareness shook me to the very core of my being. If the dark clique didn’t bring her down here to play a prank then she was…where…vanished…
The shrieking became unbearable inside my head as the thought intruded into my mental picture without my permission…
I instantly locked my head in a vice grip between my palms as I felt the resulting blood trickle from my eyes. I knew I wasn’t going to survive this…
No way to live without Ember…
No reason to breathe without her…
Tears of blood…
Ember…shadow…fall…
I had been tossed over the brink and into a world of total nothingness. The basement was dark, and I knew that no one was down here with me. The maddening chaos going on inside my head seemed to trick my eyes into seeing something hidden in the far, back corner. I ran over to the illusion and it turned out to be an old metal table with three purple goblets. I destroyed the goblets and then ripped the metal table to shreds. I didn’t have a clue what to do next.
Through some miracle, the steel fire door had remained intact after my assault against it. I tore it off its hinges in some psychotic need for physical retaliation. Then, I threw it into the boiler room without breaking a sweat. The door slammed, full force against the concrete wall and folded like an accordion. It looked like the fire door had been made out of cardboard. I desperately tried to contain the fury long enough to figure out something to do.
I need a plan. I need a reason to continue to breathe for another minute. Nothing came to mind though…
I need my little girl…where is my little girl...
The heat of my unreleased vengeance made my body temperature spike, so I ripped my outer shirt away. Uncontrollable anger shook through me. I fully understood if I saw any breathing human being they wouldn’t remain that way for much longer. Although that knowledge didn’t freak me out like it should, I still had enough presence of mind to realize that wouldn’t be a good thing.
In an effort to expend some of the rage, I punched the cinderblock wall over and over again. It looked like the tail end of destruction by the time I forced myself to stop. The building would crumble though, if I continued to deliver it blows. At least it helped the madness to subside a little. A dark tide was still overwhelming my spirit even though I had released some of my wrath. I crouched down and tried to regain…perspective…reason…
Something sinister had been awakened inside me though and I didn’t know how to make it go back to sleep. The thoughts that flooded through my awareness were ominous. Then, the darkness moved aside briefly, as a crazy idea popped into my head. It was more than an urge, it was a dire compulsion. Ember’s iPod – I need to go get her iPod…
In the very worst times of devastating grief and loss nothing anyone thinks or does, makes much sense at all…
The ridiculous impulse to go back outside and pick up her iPod became irresistible. It was almost like some unseen source was using coercion – I had to follow it. The all-consuming NEED to return to the place where my little girl had vanished from my world forced me to stand upright. I couldn’t seem to stop myself. My body suddenly had its own ideas about what was going to happen and where I was definitely going to go.
The only way I managed to keep myself from obeying that insane impulse was to grab a metal support beam and hold on tight. I had already searched every square inch of that ground, and all that was left of her was the broken iPod I had given to her for Christmas. I shouldn’t care about who sees it or picks it up – they’ll probably just toss it in the trash anyway. I tried to convince myself as I struggled against following the impulse.
If I go back to that ‘place’ I’ll lose myself to the darkness…there’s no return from it…
It was an unexplainable obsession. My grasp on the support beam renewed, as I fought the psychotic impulse to run back outside. It was a place of consuming darkness – an evil void of life. I couldn’t tolerate the thought of standing in the last place that Ember had been. It would be an unbearable torture and the shadows would sweep me into total madness if I gave into this desire.
I couldn’t figure out how to keep the wicked darkness from taking control over me – especially if I stood in that void. As the metal support beam bent close to the point of snapping, I finally realized that this was a losing battle. I had no desire to live without Ember. It was as simple as that. I’m her parent, her Guardian, her protector – that’s my job, my reason to breathe. So whatever was waiting outside could have me, because I was an empty shell of nothing, but pain.
The support beam looked like an upper case ‘C’ when I finally released it and surrendered to fate. I walked back toward the black hole of my existence, for the second time that day. Every step moved me closer to the rising darkness that would likely devour my soul. Every inhalation of air was an awful reminder that my lungs were betraying me by functioning too. I no longer had any command over my body though.
The final steps toward the darkness were marked by unparalleled agony. It’s something that can only be understood by a few select people in this world. It’s the devastation that’s felt when someone loses everything in their lives and the realization that they have somehow survived it. No words can describe that space in time…it’s an experience I wouldn’t wish on anyone.
I closed my eyes because I didn’t care to see the world anymore. Since I couldn’t get my lungs to cooperate with me, I willed my own heart to stop beating. As usual though, fate would have another plan in store for me, entirely.
It never seems to care about my desires…
I felt compelled to stop walking after another thirty paces. My eyes opened, although I didn’t want them to. I was standing in front of the bush where her iPod had been laying earlier. When I reached down to pick it up though, I would end up getting a shock. It wasn’t there anymore!
A rock with a folded note underneath it had replaced Ember’s iPod on the ground. I slowly reached down and tosse
d the rock aside as I picked up the paper. The folded note had only my first name written on the outside. I traced the outline of each letter. I needed to prove to myself that what I was currently seeing wasn’t another illusion created by my mind. The note I held in my hand was definitely real. I unfolded it and read the two line cryptic message: Old quarry @ 4 – alone. Silence is golden, don’t you agree?
My hand started to shake as I read the message repeatedly. I felt my eyes narrow into two sinister slits and my hazy red vision seemed to turn into a blazing fire. The dangerous evil overtook me fully – just as I knew it would.
Yes, silence is golden, my friends…
Only after your screams…
Ember Rising Light (Book One) Page 102
