Undeterred, she slid around and kicked the window, until at last the glass shattered into a million prisms. She watched as the spider web slowly gave up and caved in.
She worked her way out the window, pulled fresh air into her searing lungs and crawled into the darkness.
* * *
Harmon plunged through the burning brush toward the car.
His once pristine vehicle was completely engulfed in fire, but he didn’t care. The flames crackled and popped, taking with them the branches of trees above. The smell of burning wood and motor oil coated the air, mixing into the winds from the ocean and urging them to greater heights.
“Help me!” Heaven cried from the distance.
He followed her cries to a thicket, and gazed through the crackling glow. A flash of silvery white moved in the distance. He burst through the last stand of trees.
She stood in the sea, pale shades of moonlight played across her face. Unbelievably, she appeared not to feel any pain, though her gown was still burning. A dagger of lightening hit the waves in the distance, lighting a path ahead of her.
The car had crashed only yards from the lapping shoreline. Her hand was bleeding profusely, but she was alive. The look on her face was one of anger. Her night had been ruined, and it showed.
He leapt into the waves, pulled her from the sea and beat the last of the flames out. But she was hopelessly burned. His mind suddenly flew into overdrive, nearly sucking the very wind from him. Atop a fiery stage he stood once again, saving an orphan of the sea from certain demise, not once, not twice, but thrice. It all made sense now. He couldn’t save his sister that day, so a greater force had sent him Heaven.
A girl no one wanted, no one loved, no one knew existed. She’d been sent for him to save, so she in turn could go on and save others. And save her, he did. The day he found her on the beach. The day he’d risked his life to pull her from the island in the face of a hurricane, where she’d have been blown to oblivion. And now once again, as he pulled her from the sea yet again, fighting the smoldering flames as they inched up her gown.
Now he knew why she’d come to him in his dreams for so many years. It was a chain reaction. His life was already planned before he’d ever set foot on his beach that day. Before he’d ever bought the mansion. His sister’s legacy would live on in Heaven. The restored photo on his desk was living proof it was meant to be.
There was no other reason they looked almost exactly alike. The link was forever closed, the connection complete. Her name even made sense now. Each time he saved her, she’d gone on to save someone else. The boy at the orphanage, the boy at the hospital. And now, she had to save Bice. Que Sera, sera.
His hands shook as he ripped his shirt off, and pressed it against her bleeding palm.
“Take me to Bice. Quickly, I’m out of time…”
“You’re hurt. I can’t move you.” He gazed into her eyes, but this time she looked different. The bond he’d shared with his sister was alive in Heaven. He knew he had no choice. He understood now. He wouldn’t let the connection break again. History would repeat itself over, and over still as he plucked her from the seas again and again, and she would then go on to save another soul.
“Take me now…”
He glanced up the hill. Hawk was making his way toward them, snaking his way down the steep cliff along the canyon. He carefully lifted her, and began making his way toward the bodyguard.
He burst from the flaming trees and screamed. “Help me get her to the car. Take her to Bice, run!”
The bodyguard asked no questions. The look on the musician’s face said all he needed to know. He grabbed Heaven, and raced up the hill to the waiting car.
* * *
Hawk gently eased Bice’s cold body back onto the seat. He sat Heaven beside the dead man, and stood back. He had no idea what the hell was going on, and the way things were going tonight, he didn’t want to know. He slammed the door shut, and gazed at his haggard reflection in the tinted windows.
In the distance, Harmon’s car exploded. Flames burst and mushroomed into the sky. Embers drifted in the ocean winds, while nearby branches burned and fell into the wreckage. A dull roar drifted up the hill toward him. In the distance, sirens wailed.
Harmon caught up to him, wild-eyed and gasping for breath. “Let’s go. Get us back to the estate.”
Hawk leapt into the front seat, and slammed down the accelerator.
* * *
Bice, I am finally here. I am weak and hurt terribly, but I will give my all to you. You must help me, my friend, for I am now too weak to do this alone…
She moved her hands slowly across his broken chest. Her fingertips quickly found the cold lead, buried deep inside his body. The bullet had pierced his heart, killing him instantly. She shuddered in horror and fell back against the seat.
It would take everything she had to save him. If she failed, she too would be no more.
* * *
Tommy screeched to a stop only inches from the departing Limo.
He leapt from his car and gave chase to the long vehicle. Wheezing for air, he managed to catch up to it. He pounded on the window. “Stop! What is going on?”
Hawk slid the window down, and gazed at him. “We have to get out of here, there is no time to explain.”
“Where is my dad?”
Hawk gazed down the hill at the molten steel smoldering in the distance. “Down there, Tommy. We couldn’t find him, but help is on the way. We can’t stay here, Heaven is hurt. “
Tommy staggered backward from the car, trying to wake from what he knew must be a nightmare. He finally turned away, and stared at the smoldering remains of what had once been a car.
He plunged down the hill into the burning madness.
* * *
A whippoorwill cried out to her in the distance. It was time.
She inhaled deeply, taking into her lungs the sickening smell of engine fuel, of burning trees and of gunpowder. She gazed into Bice’s dead eyes, as she slowly ran her hands from his chest to his head and carefully pulled him into her lap.
She momentarily thought back over her time at the estate. She remembered his kindness, and his honest apology after he’d called her a freak. She in turn had stomped his toe and run away, causing him even more grief. She’d pulled his hair, and had thrown a large book at him, nearly knocking him unconscious. A lone tear shimmered across her eye, and fell to his cheek. She knew there would be only one chance to save the man she cared for so much, but had never told.
His body lay cold and still in her lap, as she gazed down upon him sniffing away her tears. She lovingly brushed aside his long dark hair, and stroked his still cheek. She took a deep breath, and slowly exhaled. She gently placed her palms on each side of his head, and closed her eyes.
The darkness in her mind began to whirl and spin. Soon, tiny pinpricks of light sparkled through the onyx in brilliant beams of glittering stars. The tiny stars churned and spun, until her dizzying mind could no longer keep pace with their rapid movement.
Her hands soon began to warm, gradually glowing into amber hues and finally into a golden beam. Soon, the stale air in the car warmed with the scent of flowers and meadows and of the salty seas.
The air churned around them, whispering through the car, mixing into the scent of blood and death. It soon overtook them, until the vehicle smelled of a grassy hill dotted with wildflowers in the springtime. The smell of death was gone. She smiled.
She pressed her hands tightly against his head, urging his blood to warm. Soon, her mind spiraled downward and fell into the depths of his soul, a place no man would ever see. She coursed through his cold veins with silent speed, reaching out with burning stars of light, igniting his silent blood and bringing cells back to life.
She traveled to his frozen heart, and gasped when she felt the wreckage it had become.
Tiny pieces of silvered lead were seared into its muscle, forever entombed in the once life giving organ.
She blinked
in confusion. She did not know how to rid his body of this foreign substance.
There had to be a way. She would not give up.
* * *
Tommy raced down the hill toward Harmon’s smoldering car.
The car he was sick in only a short time before, was now a twisted mass of molten steel and fiberglass. It was a far cry from the gleaming racing machine it had once been. He peered through the shattered windshield. To his amazement, his father was not inside.
The sirens were closer now, red and blue lights flashed against the canyon walls. He raced to the other side of the car, searching through the smoldering brush for his father’s body.
* * *
One at a time, she grasped the tiny pieces of lead, gently willing each away from his heart.
On and on she worked as beads of sweat poured down her. But she could not feel it, for she was no longer one with her body. She could sense Bice’s body tremble and quiver, shaking like a puppet on a string.
Soon, each fragment of the lead was dislodged, and began drifting through his arteries toward his other organs. She must stop them.
Bice, she whispered, you must help me. You must stop the pieces of lead from reaching your organs, until I can get to them, there are so many.
She felt him smile at her, as a wave of reassurance drifted into the starry universe of her mind. The many fragments of lead came to a sudden halt within his arteries.
Frozen in time, waiting on her magic to find them.
She wept with joy, as she began retrieving them.
* * *
Hawk raced toward the estate, carefully navigating the tricky curves along the narrow road.
In the horizon, the sun was gently warming the sky as the remnant of the stars slowly retreated into the breaking dawn. The air in the car suddenly smelled odd. It was a floral smell, a smell which reminded him of his mother’s perfume from long ago.
Lavender, or orchids, or maybe both. It was also the scent of the sun and the sea and the stars, if that was possible. It seemed to churn around him, moving across his skin and prickling the hair on his arms with its breeze.
He reached to the dash and flipped the air conditioner off. But it wasn’t on. Puzzled, he glanced into the rearview mirror.
He gasped in shock at the sight which beheld him. An amber glow radiated from the backseat of the long car. A gentle, serene glow, one which reminded him of angels. Angels who’d come to comfort him when his father had suddenly died. Angels with a glowing sort of peace, as hypnotic as the ocean waves.
He shook his head clear, struggling to tear his eyes away from the mirror. He gazed into the distance, down the quiet canyon road in front of him.
Ahead, he could see the unmistakable flashes of lights coming toward him. He whipped the car into the nearest driveway, and flipped the headlights off. His heart beat in anticipation while he waited for the road to clear again.
He smiled proudly as he checked the rearview mirror once more. A parade of lights quickly passed, heading in the direction from which he’d come. He’d be sure to ask for a raise for this, not to mention being out all hours of the night.
He glanced into the back seat once more. The strange glowing continued.
* * *
One at a time, again and again, she touched each piece of suspended bullet fragment with her golden light, enveloping them with searing heat until they finally vaporized into oblivion.
She coursed back to his heart, and carefully touched the hole in the muscle, willing it to come back together, willing it to fuse. Glistening fingers of gold soon spun around it, and swirled across the scattered tissue. Finally, his heart was whole again.
She felt her body growing weaker, and weaker still. She must hurry.
With her last ounce of strength, she touched his heart with an electric jolt of fiery heat. It quivered, hung momentarily in suspended animation and weakly began to beat once more.
It was time to go.
She opened her eyes, and gazed at him. His skin was beginning to glow a pale pink, his blue lips were warming into the color of the rising sun. She leaned across his mouth, and blew silvery wisps of air through his dried lips. He gasped, caught his breath, and settled into a quiet slumber.
Bice was a good man. He would go on to do great things. He would not be a doctor, no, nor a president. Instead, he would go on to study weather patterns, and find a way to annihilate hurricanes, ultimately saving the lives of millions of people in third world countries and across the globe.
She knew what was coming next. She suddenly felt dizzy, and as always, collapsed to the floor of the car in exhaustion. One day, maybe she would learn to heal others and still retain her dignity afterward.
For now, she must rest.
* * *
Harmon gaped in awe, as he witnessed the phenomenon of the girl he’d plucked from his lonely beach seven years ago. Bice had been dead close to two hours, his chest ripped into many pieces.
He gently lifted her onto the seat next to him, knowing already she would be fine, and would only need a few days rest.
He turned his attention to Bice. He lay comfortably on the seat, sleeping in the darkness of the car. The blood on his tattered chest was no more, the ugly stench of death which had surrounded him was gone. She’d filled the entire car with the scent of flowers. The air moved around him, until he was enveloped within the swirling fragrance.
He watched as her hands began to unbelievably glow from within. Then she was gone, or at least, she seemed gone. Her body was right in front of him, but she was no longer one with it. He watched Bice’s body jerk and twitch, as she desperately worked her gift of magic on the stricken man.
“Bice, you’re going to be all right now.” He grabbed his friend’s hand, and gave it a gentle squeeze.
He smiled with joy and tears filled his eyes, for Bice’s hand was warm again.
* * *
Chapter Twenty Three
Tommy stumbled through the brushy thicket in search of his father.
Brambles and thorns tore at his skin, leaving behind zigzags of blood. The sirens were directly behind him. now He stopped and gazed at the canyon wall. Many paramedics and firefighters were screeching to a stop on top of the cliff. A dozen or more men were plunging down the hillside toward the smoldering wreckage.
He was now many yards in front of the burning car, searching desperately as waves of exhaustion slowly overcame him.
Hell night. The Prom from Hell. Everything had started out like a fairy tale, so perfect, so beautiful. Now here he was, in the middle of nowhere, searching for his father’s burned body. To make matters worse, Bice was dead, and he had a sickening feeling his father was behind it.
He thought of the beautiful girl. His life had turned to hell the moment he’d met her.
During the short time he knew her, he finally understood why Harmon and Bice protected her so fiercely. There was something much, much more about her than either had let on.
His father had told him she could heal people. For his dad to temporarily loose his mind and steal her away not once, but twice in a single night, there must be something phenomenal about her. His father was a level-headed medical professional, and well respected within their community.
Her eyes were like magic whenever he stared into them, taking him to places he’d never been. As if he could see his own future in the churning aquamarine waters of her soul.
Shuddering, he remembered seeing the reflection of a fiery wreck within her eyes. Perhaps, his father had seen something too when he’d set eyes upon Heaven.
He sighed. He knew he would never have a future with her, other than as a dear friend.
She was too pure, too perfect and too innocent. She would always be vulnerable to a madman acting on a whim. But a friend she would be forever. He’d rather have her as a friend anyway. He couldn’t bear it if a real relationship with her failed. A friend would be a friend forever, no matter what.
He suddenly heard a moan from behind a
thicket. He rushed to investigate, hoping beyond hope it was not a wild animals. Bears often littered the outskirts of town in search of morsels left behind by campers or hikers.
He ran toward a stand of trees, and found his father face down in the leaves. The man had apparently crawled away from the searing heat, after having been thrown clear of the wreckage.
He rushed to his fallen father. He gently turned him over, searching for a sign of life. He pressed his shaking fingers against the man’s wrist, and thankfully, found a weak and fluttery heartbeat. “Hang on Dad, help is coming.” He whispered.
He raced through the stand of trees and out into the open field, and screamed.
* * *
Hawk pulled the Limo into the circular drive, and carefully parked it in front of the entrance.
He glanced into the rearview mirror once more. All was quiet in the back of the car., the golden light was gone. The lovely scent of flowers had drifted away into the rising dawn. He pressed the intercom button and gazed into the mirror. “Is everything all right back there?”
“Yes.” Harmon replied. “I’ll carry Heaven upstairs. Would you mind bringing Bice inside?”
Hawk moaned. “Have you lost your mind? Shouldn’t we be taking him to the morgue?”
Harmon was at a loss for words. He knew he could never explain to Hawk the miracle he’d witnessed in the back seat. Not that he didn’t trust the burly man, but more so Hawk would never be able to absorb it, or comprehend it or even believe it. But there was no choice. He must try, he couldn’t possibly carry them both upstairs.
He gazed at Hawk’s bloodshot eyes in the mirror. “Come back here, I want to show you something.”
Hawk grumbled as he walked to the back of the car. He was tired, damned tired. There was never a dull moment in the musician’s life. Each and every day he found himself in the middle of some hell-bent drama, or a carnival ride of chaos. Today was no exception.
He should be taking their friend’s body to the morgue, not upstairs. The odd musician had certainly lost his mind this time. He sighed as he jerked open the last door of the long car, and hesitantly peered in.
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