Sorrow's Gift (Eternal Sorrows Book 2)

by Sarra Cannon

  It was over.

  Noah pushed Crash’s chair back and placed his hand on the guy’s forehead, but when she looked up at him from her spot under the desk, he was staring at her, tears in his deep brown eyes.

  “I’m so sorry, Parrish,” he said.

  She shook her head and sobbed, tears falling down her cheeks as she clutched the ruined phone against her chest. A few seconds later, the power went out.

  Something startled her from her dream and she sat up, her eyes wide open in fear.

  She’d pulled all the extra blankets from the closet and made a little nest for herself in the corner of the room farthest from the doors behind a chair. It felt good to hide in the soft blankets where she couldn’t hear her dad moving around in the next room.

  But something had woken her up.

  She huddled inside her cocoon and listened. It sounded like something was ringing. Was that her phone?

  It couldn’t be. Her phone had been dead for days now.

  With shaking hands, she pulled the cotton ball out of her left ear and listened again. Her heart raced. What if someone was out there? What if help had finally come?

  Another ring sounded across the room, and she jumped up from her spot on the floor. She tried to run around the side of the chair, but her feet tangled in the mess of blankets and she fell. Her knee banged against the metal frame and blood trickled from the scrape, but she didn’t stop to look at it. She heard the phone ring again as she pulled her feet from the blankets and finally made it to the other side of the room.

  She stopped and listened again, trying to ignore the way her father was scratching and bumping against the door of his room. The ringing had probably stirred him up, and she knew from experience that it would be hours before he calmed again and went back to pacing the floor like he usually did.

  She didn’t care. If someone was reaching out to her, maybe that meant she’d be safe. Maybe they were coming for her, and she’d be rescued from the hotel soon.

  Zoe couldn’t remember where she’d put her phone, though. Once it had run out of power, it was useless to her without a place to charge it. She’d put it somewhere, not even thinking.

  But her heart skipped a beat. If her phone was out of power, how was it ringing? Was she losing her mind?

  The phone rang again, and she sprinted through the darkness toward the couch. A slight glow emanated from that part of the room. It had to be her phone.

  She banged her leg on the side table and a lamp crashed to the floor. She stepped on some of the glass trying to climb on top of the arm of the couch and winced as it pierced the bottom of her foot.

  Dangit, she was tearing herself up trying to answer the phone in time. She didn’t even understand how it could possibly be ringing, but she didn’t care. All she cared about was answering it before whoever was on the other end of that call gave up on her.

  Zoe flopped onto the cushions and stretched her hand across to the other side. She could see it now, the phone’s light muffled by the pillow she must have placed on top of it earlier.

  As her hand closed over the plastic case, the light went out and the phone stopped ringing.

  “No,” she cried, shaking it up and down. She pressed the power button and waited, praying she would see some kind of light coming from the screen.

  Nothing happened. It was just as dead and out of power as it had been for the past few days.

  Zoe shook her head violently. What was going on?

  She could have sworn she’d heard it ringing. She saw the light. Someone had tried to call her.

  She turned the phone over in her hand, not understanding. Had she imagined it?

  Her breath came in uneven gasps as she tried to make sense of it. She’d been asleep. She’d heard the phone and gotten to it as fast as she could. She’d seen the light. She was sure of it. There was no other explanation. Her phone had been ringing.

  She pressed the power button again, this time holding it for a several seconds. She waited, praying for the light to come on and the phone to restart. It was so dark in the room now that she could barely see her own hands clutching the case, but the darkness was all she needed to see to know she was losing her mind.

  Her phone was dead. No one was calling her. It was impossible. Even if Parrish had tried to reach her, the call wouldn’t have gotten through. There was no battery left.

  Zoe leaned back against the soft cushions of the couch, her body shivering. In the next room, her father groaned and rammed against the door of his bedroom, trying to get out. She’d made too much noise, and now he was trying to get to her.

  The same thing had happened when she’d been stupid enough to play her violin the other night. Loud sounds agitated him, and she knew all he wanted to do was get through that door and tear her apart, the way she’d watched so many of those things kill in the streets.

  Someone else banged on the main door to the suite, and Zoe screamed.

  She clutched the phone tightly in her small hands and pushed her back as deep into the couch as she could.

  Who was that?

  She listened, hoping against reason that her sister’s voice would come through the door, saying they were here. They were safe. Instead, she heard the familiar scratching sounds of a zombie trying to get in. There was another one out there in the hall, and she’d drawn it toward her with all her banging around.

  Hot tears spilled from Zoe’s eyes as she listened to the two zombies trying to claw their way through the doors. No one was coming for her. No one was normal anymore. The whole world was dead, just like her father, and after weeks of being alone, she was losing her mind.

  She clutched the phone tighter in her hands, wishing she was strong enough to crush it to pieces. No one had called. This was just her mind playing some cruel trick. Somewhere in her subconscious she must have wanted this to happen so badly that she’d imagined it was real.

  Or maybe she was still dreaming, locked in some neverending nightmare.

  Her mind had created hope when there was no hope left.

  Anger surged through her. It wasn’t fair. She was supposed to be in Europe right now having the experience of a lifetime. She should have been safe in Paris with her mom and dad at her side, and Parrish safely back home with their aunt. None of this should have ever happened.

  Zoe wished the virus had taken her, too. Why leave her alive to watch all this death and horror? At least her father had gone quickly.

  She was going to die slowly. She had enough food and water to last a while, but it wouldn’t last forever. If her father didn’t manage to break through his door and kill her, she would die of starvation. One way or another, she would join the rest of them.

  It wasn’t fair.

  It had been hard enough to handle just being alone and listening to the groans of those things in the streets. But this? She stared down at her phone. This was the worst of it all.

  She couldn’t even trust her own eyes and ears anymore.

  Zoe pushed herself off the couch and fell to the floor. Screaming, she banged the phone against the floor over and over as hard as she could until it came to pieces in her hand. She smashed the pieces with her hand until she felt the warm trickle of blood on her palm.

  Sobbing, she leaned back against the couch and placed her wounded hand against her shirt.

  No one was ever coming for her.

  Zoe Sorrows was going to die alone.

  Noah held his fingertips to Crash’s neck and felt for his heartbeat. It was weak, but there.

  “Can someone find a flashlight, please,” he said. “I need some light.”

  Behind him, someone tripped over something and cursed. Karmen. A few seconds later, she turned on a light and shone it toward him.

  “Thanks,” he said. He glanced down at Parrish. She was still sitting on the floor beneath the desk, rocking back and forth, tears streaming down her face. He wanted to comfort her, but he also needed to make sure Crash was okay.

  “What’s wrong wit
h him?” Karmen asked. She moved beside him and shone the light toward Crash.

  “I don’t know. I guess the strain of trying to keep all this going was too much for him,” he said. “He’s probably going to need to rest for a while. I’m going to move him to the couch so we can keep an eye on him.”

  “Do you need help?” the other girl said. They still didn’t know her name, so in his head, Noah had just been calling her the girl. He didn’t know what else to call her.

  “Would you mind clearing those backpacks off the couch?” he asked. “Karmen, just shine the light on the floor from here to the couch so I don’t trip over anything.”

  Noah put one arm under Crash’s legs and lifted him from the chair. He was thankful for his extra strength, because even though Crash wasn’t a huge guy, he still had to weigh at least a hundred and seventy pounds. Noah lifted him like it was nothing, and carried him to the couch.

  The girl grabbed a blanket and spread it across Crash’s legs and chest.

  “What do we do now?” Karmen asked. “We won’t have any power until he wakes up.”

  “We don’t really need power,” Noah said. “Not right now. We just need to sit tight and make sure everyone is okay.”

  “This place feels weird in the dark,” Karmen said. “I don’t like it. And listen. Do you hear that?”

  “Hear what?” he asked.

  Karmen pointed toward the ceiling. “Someone’s walking around upstairs. One of them.”

  Noah grew still and listened. She was right. Now that the power was off and the loud computer fans weren’t running, he could hear the sound of footsteps shuffling against the floor above them.

  “We’re safe down here,” he said.

  “For how long?” Karmen asked. “You heard what he said earlier. There’s some kind of witch or assassin looking for us right now. What if they find us down here? What happens then? We’re like sitting ducks in this place.”

  “All you ever think about is yourself,” Parrish said, finally crawling out from the under the desk.

  Karmen swung the light toward her and Parrish held up a hand to shield her eyes.

  “I do not,” Karmen said.

  “Yes, you do,” Parrish shouted back. “Ever since that first night we got attacked, all you’ve ever talked about or cared about is what’s going to happen to you. You don’t even seem to care that your parents never came home. Did you even stop to think that maybe they’re still alive out in California? Just because they couldn’t catch a flight home doesn’t mean they’re dead. Does that even matter to you? Or is getting to a safe place where you can feel like you’re being watched out for the only thing that matters anymore?”

  Noah stood and walked over to her, but she held up her hand to keep him away.

  “Stop,” she said. “I know what you’re going to say, but I don’t want to hear it. I’m tired of walking on eggshells around here, trying not to upset anyone. Life sucks, okay? We are in danger and you know what? There’s nothing we can do about. There’s nowhere else to go that’s going to be safe. The safe zones the government set up are all destroyed. There’s no one left to help us. We’re probably all going to die, just like your dad. Just like all our parents. Just like my sister.”

  Tears streamed down her face, and Noah just wanted to pull her into his arms. She was angry. She had every right to be, but lashing out at Karmen and the rest of them wasn’t going to do any good.

  He stepped toward her again, but she shook her head.

  “I can’t do this right now,” she said.

  She grabbed her backpack off the chair and rummaged through it until she found her flashlight. She switched it on and walked toward the front door.

  “Wait a second,” he said. “Where are you going?”

  “To the roof,” she said. “I have to get out of here.”

  “Parrish, wait,” he said, but she had already unlocked all the deadbolts and yanked the heavy door open. Before he could stop her, she was gone.

  Noah sighed and looked over at the other two girls. He felt responsible for all of them, but everything was going to fall apart if they started arguing now.

  He went to his own bag and got his flashlight, too.

  Karmen put a hand on his arm. “Don’t go after her,” she said. “She’s just upset about Zoe. Give her some time to cool off. She’ll come back in a little while feeling better, I promise.”

  “I can’t just let her roam around out there by herself. She didn’t even take her weapon.”

  “Crash secured all those doors, remember?” she said. “The rotters can’t get into the stairwell unless they suddenly learned to open locks.”

  Noah sighed and looked over at Crash. He was sleeping soundly and there was no telling how long he might be out. He hated to leave the girls down here by themselves, but there was just no way he was letting Parrish go up to the roof alone.

  “I have to go,” he said. “Lock the door behind me and don’t open it for anything or anyone except us.”

  “Noah—” Karmen started, but he was out the door before he could hear her finish whatever it was she was going to say.

  He shut the door behind him and waited until he heard the sound of the locks clicking into place before he rushed up the stairs after Parrish. He took them two at a time, his flashlight beam jumping up and down as he moved.

  He paused at the top of the fifth flight of stairs and leaned over the metal railing, trying to catch sight of Parrish’s light in the dark stairwell. She was at least six floors ahead of him and moving fast.

  Noah had only been up to the roof once, the day after they arrived. Crash had shown them the path as an emergency escape route, just in case the apartment got overrun.

  He’d somehow managed to get ahold of the building manager’s keys and had locked all the main doors to the stairwell after most of the survivors had fled the building. He’d told them he’d had to kill a few rotters to clear the place out, but that as long as those doors held up, the stairwell should be free and clear.

  So far, so good. Noah was thankful for Crash’s plan, because otherwise they’d likely have a swarm of those things down on the basement floor trying to get into the apartment. Noah wasn’t sure how they knew where the living were, but there was no doubt they seemed to smell or sense someone who was still alive.

  They see us as food.

  The zombies were predators now, all their humanity stripped from them when they died. All they cared about was spreading infection and eating the flesh of anyone who had survived the virus.

  As he passed another floor, he wondered how many of the dead were still walking around in this building? They’d heard at least one in the apartment above them, but it was possible that some of these apartments held several of them each. Entire families, maybe.

  He shuddered and sped up his pace, grabbing the railing to help hoist himself up.

  He was winded by the time he reached the last floor and pushed out onto the roof. Cool wind slapped him in the face and made the door slam loudly behind him.

  Parrish stood at the very edge of the roof, looking out over the city. She didn’t even turn when the door slammed.

  Noah took a second to catch his breath and walked over to stand beside her.

  “Hey,” he said softly.

  She glanced at him. “I thought I told you I didn’t want to talk to you right now.”

  “Who said anything about talking? I just came up here to get some exercise,” he said. He lifted his arms above his head and stretched. “Nothing like a frantic jog up ten flights of stairs to get the blood flowing.”

  She shook her head and wiped some of the tears from her cheek, but he could have sworn he saw the start of a small smile on her lips.

  “I guess Karmen’s probably pretty mad at me right now,” she said.

  “Karmen’s fine,” he said. “She’s probably more upset about the fact that she can’t watch TV with the power out.”

  Parrish rolled her eyes and laughed, but the
moment the happy sound left her lips, her face crumpled again and the tears were back.

  She bent over, her hands covering her face as her shoulders began to shake.

  Noah’s heart tightened, and he put his arm around her as she cried.

  Parrish had cried around him before, but he’d never heard her sob like this. Like there was no hope left in the world. She sank down to her knees on the tarred roof, and he went with her, pulling her close to his chest and stroking her hair.

  She leaned into him, her face pressed into his shirt and her shoulders shaking. He wasn’t sure how long they stayed that way, but it didn’t matter. He would stay up on that roof all night if she needed him to.

  He didn’t say anything or ask if she was going to be okay. He knew it would never be okay again. They might someday find safety or answers to the questions about why this had all started or why they had been given these special abilities, but nothing would ever erase the pain of these first weeks when they’d lost everything and everyone they loved.

  When her sobs had quieted and the flow of her tears had stopped, she pulled away and looked up at him.

  “Thank you for coming up here with me,” she said. Her voice was raspy and weak. “I thought I wanted to be alone, but I didn’t realize how much I needed someone right now.”

  “Parrish, I’d do anything for you,” he said. And he meant it. It wasn’t just because they were two of the only people left in their group of friends or maybe even this part of the world. There was more to it than that. “I know we’ve always hung out with different crowds at school and kind of gone our own way, but I’ve always felt drawn to you. I never understood it until now.”

  She wiped her face on the sleeve of her t-shirt and looked at him questioningly. “What do you mean?”

  “I think we were always destined for this,” he said. He motioned to the darkness around them. “As messed up as it sounds, and as much as I wish this wasn’t our fate, it somehow feels like it was always meant to be this way. The two of us together at the end of the world. Does that sound crazy?”