The Divine Fallen

by Lorena Beaver

  “Olivia?” I questioned.

  She laughed, crossing her arms. I felt betrayed and exposed. I could feel the tears welling up. I took a deep breath, clenching my fists together.

  “All this time?”

  “What about it?” She shrugged her shoulders.

  I didn’t want to say it but I knew that my thoughts were right. “All this time, I thought that I had a best friend but you’re really just a spy, aren’t you? For Limbo.”

  “You’re smarter than I thought you to be,” she nodded.

  “So, you were just watching me the whole time?”

  “I guess you could say that.”

  “Why did you leave your mother?” Ryan asked. “You were destined for so much more.”

  “Ha! That old woman doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”

  I could see the hurt flash in Ryan’s eyes. He may not have known Jo for long, but it was enough to grow a bond with her.

  “Wait a minute,” I paused looking back to Olivia. “I know why you’re really here now.”

  “Oh please, do tell.”

  “You messed up.”

  “What?”

  “You’re trying to redeem yourself in Aaron’s eyes, aren’t you? I bet you just thought about killing me and not even making yourself known. But clearly, your pride couldn’t handle that. You wanted to look me in the eye when you killed me didn’t you?”

  “Abigail, what are you talking about?” Chase asked.

  “Oh, come on Chase, think about it. You’ve told me before that Limbo was trying to get to me as well,” My anger had completely taken over. I turned back to her, pointing a finger at her. “She was the one that was supposed to do it. Get close to me. Make me come to their side. And when she was starting to fail that’s when Aaron was trying to get into my head,” I paused taking a few steps closer to her. “But then Chase came along and you knew that you were too late. So I bet you have been ordered to follow us ever since Chase got out. You’re supposed to return with my head, aren’t you?”

  She leaned back from me, I was nose to nose with her. “I—I don’t know what you mean.”

  “Oh, so now you’re scared?”

  “This isn’t the Abigail I remember you to be.”

  “Well, you’re not the Rachel I remember you to be.”

  She lowered her gaze.

  “Well do it then.”

  “What?” Chase and Ryan yelled.

  “Come on. One chance. Are you going to kill me or not?”

  She hesitated, then in one movement pulled a knife from her belt behind her back swinging for my throat. In the same moment, I pulled two of my knives out, one from each thigh strap. I swung my right hand up knocking her knife from her hand. With the knife in my left hand, I let the tip of the blade break the skin on her cheek. She stepped back holding her face with both of her hands. She looked around at all of us before dropping her hands to her sides. She had blood smeared all over the left side of her face.

  “That was your chance. Now go back to whatever hole you crawled out of.”

  She glanced from Ryan to Chase before quickly running past me. I turned and watched until I was certain that I couldn’t see her anymore. I turned back, Chase and Ryan were standing together now.

  “Are you okay, Abigail?” Ryan asked he carefully reached for my hand prying the knife from it. I hadn’t realized how tight I was holding onto them. I looked down at the other one. At the tip of the blade had a drop of her blood. I held it in my open palm so that he could take it.

  “Why did you let her do that?” Chase asked.

  I thought about his question for a moment. “She doesn’t have her powers.”

  “What?”

  “She was supposed to be the next Alpha Witch,” Ryan explained.

  “What?!” Chase was shocked. “What do you mean? The Alpha Witch is going to die?”

  “Well, that’s what it sounded it like. She was supposed to be the replacement. The next one. That’s what Jo told me when I was down in the cave.”

  “Ryan told me about her once we got Jo’s letter. I knew she looked familiar to me. Didn’t I say that Ryan?”

  He nodded.

  “But she didn’t have her powers. That’s why I challenged her. Someone that powerful wouldn’t have become that frightened nor would have they came at someone with a knife.” I bent over, picking her knife up. “A crappy one at that. You think Aaron would at least give her better weapons.”

  “So does that mean that Aaron has all that power?”

  “I mean, maybe. It’s hard to say. Can he do that?” I asked.

  “I don’t know what he is capable of anymore,” Chase shrugged.

  I looked back down at the knife. That’s when the truth came flooding in.

  “Abigail, are you okay?”

  I looked up at them. Somehow there were tears in my eyes now. “Has my whole life been a lie?”

  ***Aaron***

  I stood in the middle of the massive entry room, alone. I stood thinking about all of the events that have taken place and what it was I was going to do next. They had me confused with their plans.

  Why aren’t they coming for their people? What is it that they are hoping to find in this other world? Surely it’s nothing important. What are three stupid people and a bird going to do anyway?

  I was stolen from my thoughts when I heard the doors from Earth open. I turned, my robe catching the wind as I did. As they walked in they made sure that the doors closed quietly. They waited a moment before turning and walking towards me. Anger rose when I saw who it was.

  “I thought I told you not to come back here.”

  “I had no choice. What else was I supposed to do?” She tilted her head back trying to keep the tears from escaping.

  “Look at me, Olivia.”

  She sighed, lowering her head.

  “I told you never to come back here,” I stepped closer to her wiping some of her blood on her face with my finger. “You failed me once and it looks like you have done so again.”

  “Well I would have been able to kill her long ago if I had my powers,” She mumbled.

  “Oh, my dear, you don’t deserve something you’re just going to waste,” I raised my hand striking her across the cheek with the open wound. She dropped to her knees, holding her face.

  “They were trying to find the fourth world. I think they were close. They found the marker.”

  I looked down at her. “I will let you live today. But if you fail me a third time there won’t be any more chances.”

  I stomped my foot on the ground. Thunder shook the ground. From the doors leading into Limbo came two guards. I turned to wave my hand towards her as I started towards my throne.

  “Thank you, Master,” She cried. “I will not fail you again.”

  ***Abigail***

  “Abigail, not everything has been a lie.”

  “How do you know? It seems like more and more of my life is a lie. Hell, I’m not even from Earth! You think someone would have told me that a long time ago.”

  “Your parents were just trying to protect you.”

  “But if Mom had this book before me and she knew that I was supposed to be this special person why wouldn’t she have prepared me?”

  “She was protecting you,” Ryan said.

  “Maybe she wanted to believe that the prophecies weren’t true. Why would she give up everything otherwise?”

  “Good point,” Ryan nodded. “They had everything in Ether. They ran the show. And then just one day gave it all up.”

  “Just out of the blue?”

  “That’s what we were always told anyway.”

  “This all is so confusing,” I said shaking my head as if to try and make some sense out of it all.

  “Come on, why don’t we go back and try to find some more answers.”

  I stood in silence. I needed to think for a minute. “No, no. There are more important things to do right now. I can’t be selfish. Let’s try to find the ent
rance.”

  “Are you sure?”

  I nodded.

  “It’s not like the entrance is going to go anywhere. We can come back later and look for it,” Ryan added.

  “But then we run the risk of Limbo finding it first. Who’s not to say that they already have? We have no idea what Aaron knows. He’s definitely going to know that we’re trying to find it though. I can’t see her not telling him that.”

  They both nodded.

  “Be careful when looking. Make sure you’re looking at everything. The entrance isn’t obvious… obviously.” I said waving my hand around to make my point. “But we found the marker which means we are close.”

  Again, they nodded before turned and beginning to inspect everything.

  I took a look around to see the boys were very concentrated on trying to find anything that would give us any type of clue. I searched for Owl to see that he had found a new tree to have a nap in. I smiled, wishing that I could be as peaceful as he was. As I turned away from him something caught my eye. I turned back taking a closer look at where Owl was sitting. Taking a step back I realized that Owl had decided to sit right on the top of the entrance. Two large, ancient trees stood ten feet apart with their branches intertwining together to make a perfect archway. And Owl just happened to be sitting right in the middle of it.

  “OWL!” My sudden excitement made everyone jump. Owl was startled awake with a small jump almost making him fall from the tree. He regained his balance before hooting angrily at me. “You found it! Did you know that it was there the whole time?”

  He puffed out his chest.

  “He said that he doesn’t know what you’re talking about. But he wasn’t that nice about it,” Ryan said as both of them came to join me.

  I flashed a dirty glare at him before turning back to Owl. “Rude.”

  “Abigail, what is it that you see?” Chase asked.

  “Look at where he’s sitting. The tree’s branches come together to make an archway. Do you see it? Owl is sitting at the very top,” I drew out the shape with my hands to help them see it.

  Owl cooed, flying over to Ryan. He gently landed on his shoulder. They all looked on as I waited anxiously for someone to notice. Owl hooted, he saw it.

  “Owl sees it. He can’t believe that he was sitting on it all that time.”

  “Do you see it, Ryan?”

  I could tell that Ryan and Chase were still having trouble. I sighed. I ran over to the trees, I was only a few feet away now. “Okay, look. See the trees?” I waved my hands up and down to show them.

  They nodded.

  “Okay now look way about my head. See that? The arch?” I waved my hand in an arc above my head.

  Both of their eyes widen. I ran back over to them. “Do you see it?”

  They nodded. “Yeah, I do.”

  “Me too,” Chase looked down at his feet to see that something was glowing under his feet. He stepped back to see that it was the marker that was glowing with the dull orange light. Owl started to flap his wings, hitting Ryan in the head. We all looked up to see that the archway looked as if there was water ripping inside of it.

  “Did we just do something we weren’t supposed to do?” Ryan asked.

  “I don’t know,” I said my words slowly.

  For a few minutes, we all just stood there, not sure what it was we were supposed to do. Finally, just out of curiosity I ran over to the arch and walked around back. I could see them perfectly, there was no ocean effect at all. I came back around, the effect was back. I turned to them pointing to the entrance. “Could you guys see me when I went around?”

  “No, could you see us?”

  “Yeah, this wasn’t happening at all.”

  They closed the distances between us. “Weird.”

  Ryan continued round coming to join us from the opposite side. “Yeah, she’s right.”

  Inspecting the portal again I looked up. “Guys, guys, look!”

  Looking up we all witnessed the tree branches start to twist and move from the tree. Slowly they grew into each other until they came to make the symbol of The Divine at the top of the arc.

  “What the hell is this place?” Ryan questioned.

  “That’s a good question,” Chase nodded.

  “Should we go in?” I turn to my left looking at both of them.

  Owl hooted.

  “What’s going to happen if we go in?”

  “Did the book say anything Chase?”

  He shook his head. “No.”

  “Great.”

  “Let’s just go. What’s the worst that can happen?” I questioned.

  “We can’t get back.”

  “It’s a trap.”

  “It’s a portal to Limbo and were trapped again.”

  “We die.”

  Ryan smiled. “Would you like us to continue?”

  “The only one that we would have a hard time getting out of is death. And even then I did that once already so let’s go,” I waved my hand towards the entrance.

  They both looked at each other considering my logic. “Okay.”

  “It is your decision to make,” Chase added.

  “Alright,” I took a deep breath. Suddenly I was nervous. “Here we go.”

  They both nodded. Ryan took Owl from his shoulder holding him in his arms before we walked through. I thought that I would feel something but there was no feeling at all. I had to squint as we walked through the invisible wall, a bright white light temporarily blinded me.

  “Are you guys here?” I looked left and right, they were all still with me.

  “I’m good.”

  “Me too.”

  Everything around was white as if a spotlight was being shone in on us.

  “I can’t see anything,”

  “Maybe, give it a minute,” It was my best guess.

  After a moment the light dimmed and it was as if we were standing in a white room.

  “What’s that in front of us?”

  We all took a few cautious steps forward. I kept my left hand at my side in case I needed to attack. Slowly things began to come into focus.

  “I think they’re people,” Chase whispered.

  I looked behind me again. Ryan was on my right with Owl and his arms and Chase on my left. I couldn’t see an exit anymore. I swallowed back my fear as we got closer.

  When they finally came into sight we all froze.

  “Michael?”

  “Carson?”

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Lorena Beaver was born and raised in Nova Scotia. She published her first book, The Heart of Worlds, at the age of 22.