Resurrection

by Zed Amadeo

  As I chased him, his spells growing stronger as his energy grew weaker, he somehow found the breath to yell threats at me, which softened as he became increasingly fatigued and frustrated until the only noise he made was panicked breathing. When I cornered him in a bedroom upstairs, I found him lying on the ground, his eyes brimming with fear, panting and bleeding profusely.

  “You’re a lot harder to kill than Joe was,” I said. He couldn’t have hid the surprise in eyes if he tried.

  “You killed Joe?” he asked, before suddenly switching gears.

  “What Joe and I did was wrong,” he began. “Sick and terrible. But what you’re about to do to me is also terrible.” I did not believe his sincerity for even a moment. When I looked at his face, all I saw were more lies.

  “I don’t believe you Seymour,” I said, my voice far more demanding in this form than it could have ever been in my previous life. “You tried to force yourself onto me again, and now you’re here begging for your life. You’re not sorry about what you did. You’re just sorry that I lived.”

  “Maybe you’re right,” he said, dropping the masquerade. “I don’t feel the least bit bad about what I did. I enjoyed it. We made you, Dina. You wouldn’t be what you are now without us.” I lunged toward Seymour and grabbed his chest with my clawed fist.

  “You didn’t make me into anything,” I said. “You tried to crush me. But that’s all in the past. You no longer have any control over me. You want to know who helped me become this? Alejandra. The same woman who took everything away from you. But you, Seymour, don’t have control over anything. Not even yourself.” I squeezed into his chest a little, letting his blood flow like raindrops.

  “Your time has come,” I said. I threw him onto the floor. He did not move. I started chanting the sacred words, using one of my claws to carve the symbol into his flesh. He tried to be strong and stubborn at the beginning, not revealing any of his pain. By the time, I had finished the proper rites, he was screaming just as much as I had. When the circle was cast, I stepped away to admire my work.

  In his last moments, Seymour seemed to accept his fate as his body released the last drops of blood within him. When his arms dropped down to his sides, I was able to catch another glimpse of the branded mark of exile that he and Joe shared. I reveled in his blood, much like I had with Joe, feeling my strength grow with each passing moment, waiting for his body to dissolve. Nothing could match my rush. I was the most powerful being in the world, perhaps even in the universe. I had defeated the last of the two warlocks who had brought on the darkest days of my life. Not even returning to my old body could bring me down. It was just a shell. No matter what form I took, the fact still remained that I had taken on my attackers, against all odds, and emerged victorious.

  I had fulfilled my purpose.

  All I had to do now was return home.

  Before I could make my final trip to Alejandra’s, I needed to make one last stop to see my sister. I couldn’t be sure of what her reaction would be. I hoped that her joy at seeing me again would be enough to eclipse whatever she felt regarding my disappearance and sudden reappearance. I knocked on the door with slight hesitation.

  When she opened the door, we both stood motionless and silent. After a couple of excruciatingly awkward moments, she threw her arms around me, crying on my shoulder. Soon I was crying too.

  “Dina,” she said, “You’ve finally come home.”

  We sat across from each other in the dining room. Though the place was familiar, the emotions that I felt were not. I didn’t understand my presence there anymore. I felt too much like I was trying to force myself into a home where I had never really belonged. I had no need for this place anymore.

  “We were so worried about you,” she told me. “All of us.”

  “But the letter I sent you,” I said. “Didn’t you get that?”

  “Of course I did,” she said. “But we were still so worried! Don’t you understand that Dina? You had that horrible thing happen to you and then you suddenly went missing! Where were you all this time? How could you just send us a letter without even telling us where you had gone?”

  “I’m sorry Kayla,” I said, “But I just couldn’t stay here anymore. Do you really want to know the truth?”

  “Yes, Dina,” she said. “After months of worrying, of course I do.” I forced myself to continue.

  “I was training,” I began. “To become a witch. I was in this city this entire time. This wonderful woman, Alejandra, helped me with everything.” She seemed to take all of this surprisingly well. I cut myself off without bothering to further explain my forays into blood magic or revenge, unsure of how she would handle those topics. After I took a pause from telling my story, Kayla launched into her own.

  “This town is going downhill,” she said. “There’s been so much crime lately. You’re not safe in the streets. You’re not even safe in your own home. Murders are happening left and right. Someone’s house got burned down. People keep getting robbed. You remember what happened when our home was attacked. They don’t seem to ever catch the criminals, either. It’s like no one is safe here anymore.” It was if she hadn’t heard a single word that I had said.

  “Dina, I don’t know where you went, and at this point, I’m not going to ask,” she said. “Mom and dad know all about your evening wanderings and how you used to talk to yourself at night. They agreed with me when I told them that you needed more help than we could give you.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “You’re not well,” she said. “It’s been several months, and you’re still not well. We’re all really worried about you. We really want you to get better.”

  “But I am better, Kayla!” I said. “I know it’s hard for you to understand, but-“

  “-You’re right,” Kayla said. “I understand that this…fantasy of yours might be a coping mechanism, but-“

  “No!” I yelled. “This isn’t a fantasy. This is real! It’s the only reason why I’m still here now!”

  “Like I said before,” she said, “We all want you to get better.”

  “You really don’t understand,” I said. “I am better. Much better than I’ve ever been.” I got up to go. I didn’t see the point in staying any longer.

  “Dina,” Kayla said, following behind me, “Where are you going?”

  “I only came to say goodbye,” I told her. “You won’t have to worry about me anymore.”

  Kayla followed me outside for a bit, pleading with me not to go. I ignored her and kept walking forward. She stopped following me once I reached the road.

  I should have known that going back “home” would be a mistake. All my family wanted was to hide me away in an institution and watch Kayla pursue her dreams. I used to wonder why our parents had even bothered having me after they had already created the flawless being that was my sister. You couldn’t create perfection twice. Even at my best, all that I was ever capable of being was second fiddle. They would be better off without the blemish of my existence, and I was on to bigger and better things.

  I approached Alejandra’s house full of anticipation. My previous decision felt so real. I needed to see her and tell her everything, and then all would finally be right with my life. But as I walked the path to her house, it became increasingly obvious that something wasn’t right. Even from afar, I could see the hints of destruction that awaited me, not fully revealed until I stood in front of the carnage. I thought back to my sister’s comment about someone’s house being burned down recently, and everything hit me with a force that almost knocked me over.

  The grand estate that I had come to see as home no longer existed.

  What stood before me now was a shell of a house, burned to a jagged crisp, the outer walls scorched with the remnants of fire. Her once secure home had become available for anyone to enter. I could have stood there for days staring into the devastation, trying to make some sense of it, but my mind refused to believe wha
t my eyes were seeing. But even if her house had been burned down, that didn’t mean that anything had happened to Alejandra, right? She could be somewhere else right now, being as potent as she had always been. I was not given much time to continue creating this fantasy. My illusion fell to pieces when I caught sight of a message scrawled across one of the walls:

  We are the force of justice.

  Those who do not follow will be punished

  No matter the transgression.

  Alejandra has fallen.

  You must change your ways.

  You have received your warning.

  Alejandra. Alejandra has fallen. Her house burned down. She was gone. I dropped down to my knees as the news rolled over me. My throat closed up, and the tears rushed into my eyes.

  Alejandra was gone.

  “Well the short of it is that she was murdered,” the woman told me. A neighbor from nearby, who had found me in fetal position in front of the burnt shell of the house. She had taken me inside and offered me some tea and cookies, though I couldn’t bring myself to ingest any of it.

  “About a day ago,” she explained, “This crowd swarmed outside of her house. Burned it right down, destroyed everything in it. Lots of people around this neighborhood are magical folk. We handle our own messes. We never bother with the mundane police or anything like that. This group, they killed Alejandra, paraded her body around here as an example before they destroyed what was left of her. Took the daughter and ran.”

  “Who did this?” I asked. The woman shrugged her shoulders.

  “No one knows who they really are,” she said. “They seem to think of themselves as vigilantes of a sort.”

  “Why Alejandra then?” I asked. “She was a leader here. Why would anyone want to do this to her?”

  “They claimed that she had committed ‘transgressions of magic,’” she said. “I think that whatever you do with your spells and potions is your business. Who am I to judge? But when you’re in the kind of business that Alejandra is in, you make as many enemies as you do friends. Who knows if she really committed any kind of ‘transgression?’ Someone probably just wanted her power is all. Something like this was bound to happen sooner or later.”

  Transgressions of magic? I thought again about the strange and unexplained sounds I had heard while in Alejandra’s house. Her cryptic conversations. The strange behavior of her daughter. My mind was swimming with confusion. The tears left my eyes in big, heaving globs. I refused to believe that she was dead. She had always seemed too powerful to be brought down by something as ordinary and human as death.

  “Are you okay honey?” the woman asked me. I shook my head.

  “Take your time,” she told me. “You’re free to stay until morning.” I accepted her offer.

  Alejandra was dead. Even though I replayed the thought repeatedly within my mind, it still refused to sink in. I was never going to be able to tell her about my success or have her teach me more of her ways. I was truly alone, and even more uncertain and fearful for my future.

  ***

  I left the woman’s house the following morning without any plan for what I was going to do next. Despite my previous confidence with my decisions, as I walked alone through the city, I suddenly found myself veering from one place to the next. For the first time, I began to feel the exhaustion from my adventures pressing down upon every inch of my body. The pain within me grew until I was barely able to stand. I sought refuge on a bench, laying my face into my hands. Everything had been going so much better than I could ever have imagined before life hit me with the ultimate whammy. I couldn’t see a path for what I was supposed to do next. Without a home, and without Alejandra, I was lost. In my fatigued state, I didn’t know if it would be possible to go on. When my exhaustion had lifted a little, I got up and continued to wander from one spot to another, hoping to find the answer that would help me guide my future.

  I shouldn’t have been surprised when my wandering eventually led me back to Alejandra’s house. I waded through the rubble, re-tracing those familiar paths that I had taken so many mornings before. What little was left of the walls and floors was covered with soot, as if this vigilante group had been trying to cleanse the house of something, perhaps Alejandra’s presence. I picked up whatever scraps I could find: burnt corners of books, a piece of her charred dining room table, and singed bits of unknown material. I needed to collect all of the pieces of her that I could.

  I carefully descended through a hole in the floor into the dark basement, the site of so many important events for me, illuminated only by the light that shone through that hole. I lay down and mourned Alejandra’s loss. I sprawled out in all directions, searching for another piece of her presence. One of my fingers felt a lump of something unknown lying on the ground. I lunged out until I could grasp all of it and I heaved myself up into the floor above. Now standing in daylight, I held out the object in my hands toward the sun.

  The item that I had discovered was a heart-shaped locket, with an “A” carved into the front and an “E” carved into the back. A small cursive inscription dated it to 1901.

  The locket opened with minimal effort. One side held a tiny black and white photograph of a couple whom I had never seen. The other side held a few tightly coiled blonde, almost white, hairs. I closed the locket and clasped it around my neck. A small, personal trinket to remember my mentor. With the locket around my neck, I gave the house one last look before walking out into the early morning.

  As I walked, my sadness over the loss of my mentor became anger. I began to truly understand that I was nowhere close to being done with magic or revenge. I didn’t care how powerful these vigilantes thought they were. They had no idea what they had coming for them.

  When I used to look upon this city, I had only felt jealousy. So many beautiful people trying make it in show business, living lives that I could not. Good fortune that I had been so close to having but was perhaps never meant to possess. Now I looked at all of these people and saw only the fantastic possibilities that their bodies could hold for my own life. I was free to leave this old body in pursuit of something better.

  All I had to do was wait until the right tall blonde passed me, tear myself out of my body for the final time and leave my old useless self behind in a crumpled heap. I allowed the sudden stream of memories into my mind, processing them and gaining the knowledge of the life of whoever this woman used to be. Whoever she had been, she was me now.

  I am the newest addition to your community of magic.

  I am a student who has lost her teacher.

  To the group that killed Alejandra: wherever you are, I will find you and make you pay for your “transgressions.” You have my word.

  You have received your warning.

  About The Author

  Zed Amadeo, indie author of fantasy and horror, has always held a curiosity for the unexplained. Especially that of the most elusive mystery of them all: the human psyche. After gobbling up works of speculative fiction and the paranormal and experiencing adventures across the globe, Zed pursued the study of the world's greatest enigma with an undergraduate degree in Psychology. Today, Zed continues to be inspired by the strange happenings in the world, serving as fuel for Zed's latest dark urban fantasy series "Kindred." Zed currently resides in the edge of your imagination, located in the place where wakefulness blends into dreams.

  To keep up with Zed's latest adventures into the strangeness of the universe, subscribe to Zed's newsletter at www.zedamadeo.com/subscribe, or find Zed on Twitter @ZedAmadeo

  Dear Reader,

  Thank you for reading Resurrection, the first book in the “Kindred” series! I hope you enjoyed the story.

  As a new author, getting reviews for my first published story can be a bit difficult. I would greatly appreciate it if you could leave a brief review of my story on the book's page.

  Thanks again for reading Resurrection! Best of luck in all of your reading adventures.


  Cheers!

  Zed

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  “What are you doing here?” Shay asked the blonde who was now standing in her doorway. The same woman from before. Dina.

  “She told me,” Dina said. “She told me to come find you.”

  “What are you talking about?” Shay asked.

  “The dreams,” Dina said. “Surely you’ve been having them, too? I can’t even sleep at night anymore. She’s trying to tell me something, but it’s not coming through all the way.” She suddenly burst into tears.

  “I can’t do this anymore,” Dina said. “I need someone else who understands.”

  “Why don’t you come in?” Shay asked. She stood aside for the blonde to enter. After she closed the door, she pointed Dina in the direction of the sofa in the living room, where they were both soon seated.

  “I don’t feel safe anywhere,” Dina continued. “And I’ve been on the run this whole time.”

  “What exactly are you looking for?” Shay asked.

  “Any trace of the people who murdered my teacher,” Dina said. “But I don’t have a guide anymore. I don’t have anyone or anything to hold onto. It’s like my life has gone right back to the way it was after the attacks. I’m stuck.” Shay placed a hand on Dina’s shoulder.