Shattered Skies: Beginning's End

by Heather Linn

  “Well, well, well what have we here?” Akia’s voice cut through the air, tearing me away from the pictures slicing through my head and when I saw who he was talking to.I had never been happier to be distracted.

  I felt my knees begin to shake and I needed to steady myself without drawing too much attention. Akia was the only solid thing close enough to grab so I quickly put my arm around his waist, getting a disgusted tsk sound from Drake who was still behind me in the doorway. There, chained to the wall, was Dr. Walker. I felt like the air had been squeezed out of me, in fact, I was sure that I was turning blue. Nothing I could do could get the air back into my body. Seeing him there made me forget how to breathe. I couldn’t handle this; there was no way in hell that I could handle this.

  “So tell me old man, is it true? Are you one of the ancestors? One of the few forgotten ones that were left here for dead after the crash? I sure hope not because that would make you a sad specimen of my father’s people.”

  What Dr. Walker did next made my heart break in two. He hissed, and I don’t mean like a fake hiss, I mean an angry wild cat hiss; a hiss that sent shivers up and down my spine. It was the sound so easily escaping his lips that made me realize that my entire life had been a lie, that this man that I considered my father was no more than a filthy monster. I could tell by the look in his eyes when he saw me that my face was showing exactly what I felt and I made no move to hide it. He had lied to me; to all of us, and almost everybody was dead because of him and something inside of me wanted him to suffer.

  He was trying to make me understand with his eyes; trying to tell me something but I wasn’t ready to hear it so I looked down at the floor. I felt the tears that were ready to spill from my eyes and I knew if I didn’t look away I was going to get myself killed and that wouldn’t save Jewel from the slow painful death that these freaks would give her. As far as I was concerned, this man I thought I knew was on his own.

  “Well, maybe looks are deceiving. Tell me old man, if you are one of us what you have done to yourself? You look like you have seen hell and then came back to share your nightmares.” That earned Akia a laugh from the other guards.

  I did what I did so well and mentally took myself out of the situation. My life depended upon how I acted and how distant I could keep myself from my emotions. Being a mess now would not only kill me, but anyone else that got away. Right now, I had to focus on getting out of there and seeing who and what was left of us. I needed to know just how much these monsters knew about the three of us that were still alive. I would worry about Dr. Walker later if there was time, but not now. In my opinion, he didn’t deserve a second thought.

  “Maybe he will talk if we bring his worthless human slave in here and show him what happens if he doesn’t corporate.”

  “Well Drake I must admit I like how you think.”

  Akia was pleased with the idea. I remembered then and there that he was a bad guy. How could my heart be so stupid? He was dirt; lower than dirt really, he was death personified. I knew what had to be done and I had to do it before he brought Jewel into the room. She wasn’t trained to be tortured; she wouldn’t last a minute. I had to get in her cell with her, get the guards to leave and kill her. As soon as I thought it I felt dizzy. Out of old habit I guess, I looked to Dr. Walker, who I could tell knew what I was thinking. He met my gaze and offered a quick unnoticed nod. At that very moment, I hated that man more than I have ever hated anyone else.

  “Akia,” I purred into his ear “let me get her and bring her in. I have never been involved in anything as exciting as this before.”

  Drake was quick to throw his opinion into the situation once again “Sir, she can’t be allowed. She has no right being here, let alone interfering with a hostage.”

  Apparently I was not the only one that was tiring of Drake’s interference and questions. Akia’s voice sent shivers down my spine and the anger wasn’t even directed at me so I can only imagine what it would have felt like to be on the other end of the threat.

  “Drake, if I have to remind you one more time that I will run my kingdom as I see fit and that I will not let my orders to be questioned, you will be publicly disciplined and I can promise it will not be a pleasant experience for you.”

  I needed to keep Akia’s train of thought on my own goals so I softly whispered in his ear again, “Please Akia? Let me get her. Let me do this for you.” Good girl, I thought to myself, my voice held no hint of devastation, instead I sounded excited and hopeful.

  “I see no problem with it. Go right ahead and bring her to us Cat. Let’s have a little fun with this rodent.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Walking to the cell that held Jewel, I think I relived a lifetime of memories with her. She didn’t deserve what was coming to her. She was better than all of this. She belonged in a world that we could only dream about. I could never tell her I was there to kill her. I knew she deserved the truth, but I couldn’t look her in the eye and tell her that I was there to end her life. I was a coward, but if being a coward would spare my sanity, then so be it.

  Jewel saw me walk into the room and for a second her eyes brightened, and then just like she had been taught, she forgot right then and there that she even knew me. The fact that she was calm enough to remember how important it was to not recognize me made the horror of what I was there to do crash over me like a furious wave.

  “Hey, Heckle and Jeckle, get the hell out of here! Akia needs you. Now move!” I knew that it was imperative for me to sound important. I had to establish that I held the power and I had to believe it or no one else would.

  “And just who the hell do you think you are? How did you even get in here?” the dumbest looking of the two threw back. Well, that gained him a little respect. At least he didn’t follow orders blindly.

  “I am the King’s new bitch solder, and he sent me here, you low life braincase, to tell you that he needed you. Why else would I be down here with these swine?”

  Big, dumb, and stupid thought about it for a second, then I guess something clicked in the empty space between his ears, and he mumbled something sexually vulgar that in any other situation I would have kicked his ass for, and then both guards left the room. I waited until I was sure that they were gone before I backed up and surveyed the hall, just to make sure they believed that they were needed elsewhere and gone.

  I quickly put my finger up to my lips to silence Jewel until I was sure the guards were out of hearing range. “I am going to get you out of here Jewel, but first I need you to whisper to me as fast and as quietly as you can. Tell me everything that happened quickly, understand?”

  Jewel rapidly nodded her head and began to tell me her story. “Right after you ran out, Darien and Jaden started out after you. Doctor Walker begged them not to go. He told them that you would calm down and come to your senses, but Darien said something about not giving you the chance to disappear, and then they left together. It was less than two minutes later when a group of six thugs burst through the door. I thought for a second that it was Darien coming back, but when I turned around they grabbed me by the neck. I couldn’t even scream out a warning because they covered my mouth and silenced me. By the time everyone else noticed what was going on; there wasn’t any time to hide. No one had expected them to come. I stood there trapped by one of them. He held me up and made me watch as they killed the other girls. There was nothing I could do Cat,” she said sobbing. “The guys tried to fight, but they were too surprised; there just wasn’t time. They killed everyone except me and Dr. Walker. But before they could get to him, he set his office on fire. Dr. Walker put up a hell of a fight; it was like he was one of them! But that ended when he was knocked out. They dragged him out ahead of me. They threw us in a black van. That is all I remember and then I woke up here.”

  “Oh my God Jewel! I am so sorry. This is all my fault. If I hadn’t left, Darien and Jaden wouldn’t have run after me and the monsters would never have discovered us. Everyone would still be safe ins
tead of dead.” I wanted to break down right then and there. I was responsible for the deaths of people that I loved. I knew if the monsters had broken in so soon after Darien and Jaden had left, then Darien and Jaden must be gone too. If it wouldn’t have been for what I must do to Jewel, I would have walked right up to Akia and told him that I was one of the missing vermin that he was so intent on exterminating. I was going to do what I had to do with Jewel and then I was done. I couldn’t live alone. I couldn’t and I wasn’t going to.

  “You listen to me Catalina and you listen to me now. You had every right to behave the way you did. What Dr. Walker and Darien did to you was not only dangerous, but it was senseless too. You took their abuse more graciously than I would have. But none of that matters now. Right now, you are the only one that has any chance of getting me out of here. I don’t want to die today Cat, not by their hands. I don’t want them to touch me anymore. I can’t take it Cat. Please don’t let them touch me anymore...”

  I was going to grant her wish; she wouldn’t die by their hands; she would die by mine. “I promise no one else will hurt you Jewel. I won’t let them touch you again.” I walked up to her and gave her a kiss on her forehead “Now all we need is a plan.”

  I raised my hand to her forehead like I was going to wipe away the remnants of my kiss. I had convinced her that she was safe because she never even moved. With all my strength I smashed her head against the stone wall behind her. I heard a sickening wet thud. Her eyes clouded over and she slipped away without a sound.

  Something was wrong. I just stood there and waited; I waited for the tears or the shakes or anything to come to let me know that I was human, but nothing came; not a single tear fell. I was cold, not the kind of cold that a blanket can fix, but cold from the inside out and I knew that nothing could fix that. I would never again feel warm. From this point on; I knew that I would live only to get back at the monsters that had done this to my family. I took one last look at Jewel as she slumped down the blood stained wall of her cell and I fled. I died when I murdered her; she had killed me in return. It was pure justice for both of us.

  Chapter Twenty

  “Akia we have a problem. The psychotic bitch killed herself. I didn’t even get a chance to touch her and bring her to you.” At first, Akia was taken aback and for a half a second, I thought maybe there might be trouble. It was Drake that actually spoke first and for the first time since I had met him I was glad that he was there.

  “We had no use for her anyway. She wouldn’t have taken much torture before her mind broke and she would have been useless to us. This one, on the other hand, even though he is a sad specimen, he is one of us. He will be able to withstand whatever we do to him. He will be fun.”

  I was too mad to worry about what would become of Dr. Walker. He had lied to us from day one. He taught us how bad the monsters were and how they didn’t deserve to live and the entire time he was one of them.

  “What are you going to do with this one?” I asked, my voice sounding icier than I had ever heard it. Dr. Walker actually winced at my tone and then he quickly recovered.

  “Well we can’t just kill an Elder, at least not before torturing the identities of his friends that got away out of him. Once we get what we need, it will be up to the ruling Elders to decide his fate. I am sure they are not going to be pleased and that anything that we do to get information out of him is going to seem like a day in the park compared to what they will do when they get hold of him.”

  “You can do whatever you want to me. I won’t tell you a damn thing. You should kill me now and save yourself the trouble. I swear that you will get nothing from me. I am not afraid of anything that you can do to me. You have already taken my life away. You will never learn who the others are. I can fucking promise you that.” I knew that above all else that speech was intended for me. He was trying to tell me that no matter what happened to him, that me and whoever else was still alive would be safe. I know that it should have made me feel better; that it should have made me reconnect with him and my heart should have cried out for him, but that didn’t happen. I didn’t care if he was painfully chained to the wall and sad but true, I didn’t care if they killed him. What I had to do in that room to my sister Jewel was enough to make him dead to me already. The look on his face mixed with the conviction in his voice was all it took to repulse me. I couldn't stand there and hear anymore.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  I don’t remember how I got out of the basement. All I knew was that the screams of pain escaping Dr. Walker’s lips were enough to drive me insane. Outside I could think a little better and this was a bad thing. I was all alone for the first time in my life. I truly felt like an alien. How ironic was that? All I wanted to do was sit down and cry, but I knew enough to know that sitting and crying might get me noticed and killed. Everyone was on high alert, looking for humans and... Oh God, who else had made it? Was it possible that Darien and Jaden got away? I didn’t see how they could have, but I knew that if they did, their continued survival was up to me. I had to find them and stop them from going back to the vault. If anyone saw them anywhere near it, the questions would start flying. I wasn’t sure how I would react if I snuck home and saw that it was gone, I knew even less how Darien and Jaden would react…. I didn’t have time to put the rest of my thoughts together because someone’s hand went around my mouth and someone else grabbed me. It was in that moment that I decided no matter what, living in this hell was better than not living at all. I bit into the hand covering my mouth and tasted fresh human blood. The fucking asshole had just fed. It might be one of the monsters that had killed my family! Rage filled me and I knew that I was going to kill this bastard or die trying.

  “Cat stop it!!” a voice hissed in my ear… shit he knew my name. I was as good as dead anyway, so using every ounce of anger I was feeling, I threw my body sideways and kicked up, striking the person that had me around the waist right in his nose. The last thing I saw before everything went black was scattered blood flying from the beast’s face.

  “Cat wake up! You have to wake up now.” Darien’s voice drifted through my consciousness. After the initial confusion wore off, I realized that it had all been a dream. Everyone was safe and Dr. Walker was no more a monster than I was. I hadn’t hurt Jewel. We were still hidden and safe. It was all just a bad dream; a very, very bad dream.

  I forced my eyes open, hardly being able to wait to fill Darien in on the nightmare so we could sit and have a laugh about it. If my bet it was all a dream was right then Darien was probably waking me up with pizza and a movie. I loved him. Akia the monster was nothing more than a fragment of my imagination. Darien would call me a loser; we would laugh, and snuggle under a blanket all night and that would be it. Maybe I would ask Dr. Walker to pull me from the front line for a while. Maybe I could settle down and help Jewel with the baby. That would be great. Aunt Cat sounds so awesome. I was smiling when I opened my eyes. Much to my surprise when I looked around I wasn’t home or safe in my room. I was lying on the hard ground in the dark and damp with Darien’s bruised worried face staring down into my own.

  “What happened to your face?” my voice sounded unfamiliar to me, like the words were coming out of someone else’s lips.

  “Cat you kicked his ass don’t you remember? I had to knock you out to save his sorry butt ‘cause he wouldn’t fight you back.” Jaden was standing on the other side of me, looking down at me with the same look as Darien.

  “Guys, what is going on here? Where is everyone else?” As soon as I said the words, the memories flooded into my head. I saw Dr. Walker chained to the wall, just standing there while they accused him of being one of the monsters, just standing there instead of defending himself and telling them they were wrong. Quickly, I flashed to another picture; a picture that would never leave my mind as long as I lived. Jewel was facing me, the trust in her eyes boring guilty holes through my soul. I was her savior. I was going to make everything right. I was going to free her from the
evil monsters and take her home.

  “Oh my God………. I killed her…… I promised her that I was going to save her from them and she believed me. She looked at me like I was her hero, and I killed her.”

  It was me talking but it didn't seem like me. I wasn't babbling and I wasn't screaming; I was using the cold disconnected voice that seemed to have made itself at home in my body. It was my voice that made me feel the coldest, I think. I was talking about murder. I had killed her and she wasn't a monster, she was a sister, or the closest thing that I would ever have to one and I had killed her with my own hands. I was talking about it like I had seen it in a movie. Even I knew enough to know this wasn’t good. Once again, there was a hand covering my mouth. It wasn’t Darien’s but instead Jaden’s. I gripped onto his arm like it was the last real thing left in my life. We may not have been the closest, but right now, he was the only thing that made sense. I was still not sure where Darien and I stood, and right now I couldn’t deal with it. Jaden hugged me back and it felt good; there was no drama, no hurt feelings, and no lust, just one person reaching out to help another.

  “Cat you listen to me and you listen good. You were inside there; we guessed that you were going to go come to the Palace so we have been waiting here for you to come out. Then we heard them dragging a screaming woman inside. We thought it was you. I had to sit on him,” he jerked his finger toward Darien, “to stop him from going in. I had to tell him that he couldn’t go to you, that Jewel needed him at home. I told him that she was pregnant with their first child. That calmed him down for a minute, but he refused to leave until he was sure that you were finished. So we sat here even longer. I knew that you had been caught. The screams sounded so familiar, I knew they were yours. I didn’t know when, but I knew I had heard them before. Darien was almost ready to go home when you came walking out here, paler then I have ever seen anyone in my life. We don't know what the hell went on in there. If there is something that we can do to help, we are never going to be able to do it until you explain what went on in there. You have to pull yourself together and tell us Cat. You tell us now damn it.”