Jonah

by Nikki Kelly

  I sensed another coming up behind me and sprang from the chest of the dead demon, landing atop the Vampire’s shoulders. He hissed, bringing his hands up above his head, but I’d already willed my light, and my red-hot hands seared his skin. I twisted and snapped his neck, ripping his head from his torso. Instantly, it disintegrated from the heat of my hands.

  A sudden, violent vibration shook the garden, and Darwin slipped as he scrambled to his feet. I knew what was coming.

  “Darwin!” I shouted. “Run!”

  Still in a daze, he mouthed, “Cessie?”

  And then the demons descended. A swarm came down from the hilltop. Darwin remained rooted in place as I willed golden globes to form in the palms of my hands. As the Vampires charged down the hillside, they momentarily disappeared from view as they passed through the foliage bordering the garden.

  I took a defensive stance next to Darwin. As the first Vampire broke through the tree line, I focused on the buttons below his collar and took aim, releasing my charged white light. The Vampire shrieked but his insides bursting through his rib cage drowned out the noise.

  I could tell where each demon was about to emerge by the break in the brambles as they careened over them. I shot out fireball after fireball, knocking the Vampires down like bowling pins. A large demon fought his way through the pack; he was only meters from my face when I struck him in the chest. He ricocheted off another demon, and with a deafening clatter, they both smashed to pieces.

  One at a time, I picked them off with ease. Some merely melted; others left this world more dramatically, exploding like fireworks.

  One thing they all did was cry.

  When all that was left was the smoking remains, I turned back to Darwin. He still lay on the ground, frozen in fear.

  “Are you hurt?” I asked quickly.

  “No,” he said nervously. He felt the grass around him until his palm landed on the crystal hairpin. It glowed beside him, flashing the same way Malachi’s pin had. Darwin must have found it and followed the signal it was emitting. His satchel had fallen open, and its contents—a silver dagger and the wooden box containing the crystal syringes—lay beyond his grasp. His eyes widened, staring at them.

  Suddenly, Ruadhan and Gabriel appeared.

  Ruadhan reached me first. “Lailah?”

  Darwin knew me as Cessie, and snapping his attention back to me, he repeated my real name under his breath. I would have to explain that later.…

  Just as Gabriel neared, a dark blur zoomed past. A blur that turned out to be Jonah.

  The rumble of a second swarm sounded, and I leaped through the air, putting distance between me and everyone else. This time, I willed my light in a white sheet. Pushing it out from my chest, I sent it cascading toward the boundary to the left of the garden, and it drew over the land slowly like sunlight on a dark winter’s morning. A roar rose up as my white light crashed between the tree trunks like a wave, meeting a mass of demons heading in our direction.

  Confident I had ended them all, I went to retrieve the satchel and its contents, fearing that if I didn’t return them to Darwin, he would risk coming back for them later. But then a half dozen more demons descended.

  I was starting to lose my patience.

  “Stay back,” I instructed Ruadhan, who was pulling Darwin to his feet behind me.

  All six demons charged. I anticipated the two who flanked me first. Extending my arms, I shot white lightning from my fingertips. Both jumped at the last second, and though I struck one of the demons, causing him to disintegrate in midair, I came just shy of hitting the other on my left. As the Vampire plummeted, I threw my hand above my face, and the demon stopped, suspended only inches above me. I opened my palm and thrust it against his forehead. A rush of current passed through him like volts. His veins bulged as I heated the dark matter circulating through his body, and he was set alight. His bones crumbled and his skin melted as his body fell and turned to mush at my feet.

  As the final four dove toward me, I leaped and willed my light. As they swiped for my legs and ankles, they met the golden glow, and below me they burst into flame.

  Vampire ash fell like a blizzard as I made my way to the satchel. But at the center of the dissipating smoke, another demon appeared. Stooped down, he faced away from me. I halted and readied myself to strike.

  Just before he turned around, I noticed two things: the silver blade in his hand and the familiar fabric of his checked shirt.

  The demon looked up.

  “Cameron,” I whispered. The freckles that had once dusted his nose had disappeared below milky skin, and his rounded cheeks had given way to far sharper angles. Still, I saw the childlike expression of the young boy staring back at me.

  Though a snarl reverberated in his throat as he slunk toward me with Darwin’s dagger raised, all I heard was the wistful sigh of the timid fourteen-year-old lad who had clutched his weapon with inexperience and fear.

  And though his fangs hung over his lower lip and his eyes were filled with crimson, all I saw was the flush of his skin after he’d pecked me sweetly, thanking me for the advice that I believed resulted in his death.

  “Stop,” I commanded, and he listened, halting three feet away. “Cameron,” I said, calling him by his name softly. His lips pulled in a tight and tentative line. For a flicker of a second, I thought he recognized me. “It’s me, Lailah.”

  “Lailah,” he rasped.

  “Yes.” I extended my hand. “Come with me, please, Cameron.”

  I thought he was lifting his heel to step toward me.

  I thought the curve of his lip was a smile.

  I thought his grip shifted around the dagger to drop it.

  I was wrong.

  His step was a leap.

  His smile was a snarl.

  His drop was deadly.

  I had to fight my instinct to light up. I had killed Cameron once; I couldn’t do it again.

  Suddenly, everything moved in slow motion.

  A glint from the sun hit the curve of the knife’s edge, causing a white star to blindingly stretch across my vision.

  Ruadhan’s trench coat eclipsed the light as he vaulted between Cameron and me.

  The dirt below the grass bounced higher than my makeshift father as he pulled Cameron down to the ground with him.

  Cameron bounced back up. Ruadhan did not.

  With a shrill hiss, Cameron took off.

  “Ruadhan, no,” I whispered, helping him to his knees.

  Ruadhan swallowed hard, his hand pressing just below the silver blade that stuck out from his chest. As he tipped his face to me, black ink blotted his fair skin. But he didn’t flinch as his skin began to sizzle.

  There was nothing I could do to stop the black lashes growing up his neck. Ruadhan struggled to keep his stare fixed on my own as he burned. Shaking, I gripped the handle of the blade and considered pulling it out, but it had pierced his heart. If I removed it, he would only die more quickly.

  I clasped my hands in a prayer shape at the tip of my nose, my mind tumbling trying to take in what was happening while simultaneously looking for a way out, a way to stop this.

  There was nothing.

  “I don’t know how to save you,” I said. “Someone help me!” I twisted around, watching as Gabriel approached with a pained expression on his face.

  “Sweetheart…” Reaching forward, Ruadhan placed his hand to my cheek and said, “Save me with your light. Let me find peace in your glow.”

  I was winded.

  A bloodied tear formed at the corner of Ruadhan’s eye as the deadly light from the silver spread out from his heart through his veins. As his insides lit up, it was as though the rising heat spread over me, stifling and paralyzing me.

  Gabriel had promised Ruadhan’s final moment would be one filled with light, but Gabriel was fallen now. He wasn’t able to grace Ruadhan with what Ruadhan thought to be a gift. The enormity of what he asked of me was too much; Ruadhan didn’t want his final moment to belo
ng to the darkness or the devil; he wanted me to end him with my light.

  “I can’t,” I said weakly.

  I cupped my hand on top of his at my cheek and pressed down in silent desperation.

  “Sweet—”

  As his plea, his last word, broke apart, I met the eyes of the man who had become my father. A single, bloodied tear fell, hitting the grass between us as his form dissolved in front of me.

  Particles of ash replaced his body, and as they hung in the air, for a moment the shape of his face remaining, his lips formed the word “—heart.” Horrified, I tipped my weight forward, but the ash broke apart and he scattered with the breeze before I could reach him.

  The silver blade fell through thin air.

  It was so quiet.

  It was so still.

  My eyelashes fluttered uncontrollably, but the rest of my body was stiff, a cold numbness filled me.

  I sat there, waiting.

  Slowly, I lifted my palm away from my cheek, but Ruadhan’s hand was no longer beneath my own. Like sand through an hourglass, the last of his remains had slipped through my fingers.

  He was out of time.

  The person who had always picked me up was no longer here to do so, and so even though I wasn’t ready, I stood on my own.

  “Lailah.” Gabriel’s tone was low.

  He was gone.

  Ruadhan was gone.

  I gasped. “He died in darkness.” I realized what I’d done, because of what I’d been unable to do. I grabbed fistfuls of air, trying to catch a single ember that was still fizzing.

  Gabriel’s hand pressed down on my shoulder. “Lailah,” he repeated.

  “No!” I snapped, and pushed him away.

  My grief transitioned to anger. “No!”

  Rage rose through my body, and I itched underneath my skin. Like a snake, ink wrapped over my wrists, traveling up my hands, arms, and neck. Bringing my forearms out in front of me, I saw that the markings the girl in shadow had worn stained my skin. Though she was gone, expelled on the mountaintop, the darkness she represented still resided in the makeup of my soul. But it was mine to control.

  Looking at each of them with watering eyes, I held my hands up, begging Gabriel, begging Jonah, and begging Darwin to keep back.

  The wind picked up, howling in my ears. I smashed my balled fists into the hard ground. Massive cracks formed, traveling down to the edge of the garden, and the land began to break apart.

  I was the earthquake.

  My fangs cracked, and as I looked back up, Gabriel, Jonah, and Darwin were painted red as my eyes bled. I roared like an animal, and taking a breath, I blew down the trees that separated the garden and the orchard.

  I was the cyclone.

  I spun, and looked beyond the graveyard to the back of the church, where I fixed my attention on the depiction of Jesus nailed to the cross on the tall stained-glass window. Ruadhan was a man of faith. He’d believed in such stories, and where had it gotten him? He died a demon. He deserved everything, but death afforded him nothing.

  With my focus zoomed in on the central red plane, I smacked my hands into a prayer shape. I clapped, slowly at first, and the glass vibrated.

  Once.

  Twice.

  Three times.

  The stained-glass window cracked as I clapped over and over.

  I dissolved into madness.

  I looked to the heavens and I screamed.

  The image of Jesus on the cross erupted, exploding through the nave, from which, even at this distance, the cry of the congregation could be heard. The world would mourn for my Ruadhan.

  I was the volcano.

  It was as though the world responded to my inner rage—the final curtain had fallen on Ruadhan’s life, and with it day turned to night.

  Above me the stars and planets lit up, dressing the dark veil like sequins.

  I grew more incensed, and Gabriel fought to penetrate the protective globe I had projected around myself. Meanwhile, Jonah ran round my side, coming into my line of sight. Though his mouth moved, from within my bubble, I couldn’t hear what he was shouting.

  The moon appeared, spinning like a ten-pence piece.

  I didn’t have a lasso to tether the moon, but I didn’t need one. Using all my will, I dragged it toward me. And as it came closer, growing larger, the whole world trembled. The land suddenly tipped by ninety degrees, sending everything and everyone sliding.

  As the moon drew closer, it became a mirror, and the girl in the shadow stared back at me.

  Her image shocked me and my shield fell.

  Jonah immediately grabbed my elbows, trying to restrain me against his chest. “Lailah, stop,” he pleaded.

  I shoved him away, and over his shoulder, the moon increased in size, emulating my widening eyes. The black spots in the blue of my irises spilled into my pupils, creating big black holes. Just as I thought about swallowing the world up inside them, everything froze.

  The moon stopped moving.

  The ground stopped shaking.

  The screams stopped sounding.

  A voice cut through the absolute silence.

  I willed my limbs to move, but they refused me. My breath caught in the back of my throat as a figure appeared beside me, beaming so brightly that I was forced to squint. After a moment, the being, ghostlike in his transparency, floated toward me. His figure rippled as though he were a reflection in water.

  He wore a dark-navy jacket that shone as though it were covered entirely with glass. Polished buttons, captivating in their eclectic designs, fastened the fabric. A derby hat sat crooked on his head, revealing his white hair, and a crystal topped the staff in his hand, showing his age.

  He lifted his chin.

  Black roman numerals drew around his pupils, detailing a clockface.

  He came forward, observing me as though he were waiting for me to speak. He then shook his head, and said, “Of course. Pardon me.” With a twirl of his cane, my muscles relaxed and I was once again able to move.

  “Who are you?” I asked. Reining in my emotions, I observed the devastation I had caused. Jonah, Gabriel, even Darwin, who cowered twenty feet away, were motionless—paralyzed as I had been.

  The world was standing still.

  The man’s smile dazzled as diamonds dotted his lips. “My name is Emit.” He paused, and then, carefully adjusting his blazer, said, “The man wearing the jacket.”

  God?

  Up until recently, with the appearance of the signs I’d been seeing, the only time I had really considered that God might exist was when Darwin, a man of science, had used the “man in the jacket” image to explain his belief system. Perhaps that was why God was choosing to present himself to me in this way. But now that I was face-to-face with such an entity, the most important questions escaped me.

  “How are you doing this?” I demanded.

  “I am not doing anything. I am this.”

  “You’ve stopped time?”

  “I am time,” he replied.

  He tapped his pocket and then, raising his staff, directed me to the moon that I had pulled out of the sky. He did not look amused.

  “You took him away from me,” I both explained and accused.

  He pointed the crystal handle of his cane at me. “You took him from yourself. You made a choice.”

  “My choice was Cameron over me. Not Cameron over Ruadhan,” I growled.

  “You made your choice, as did he. Action and reaction—it is the nature of free will.” He shrugged. “Your choices become the lines of chalk you travel on, and they cross over, travel next to, and join up with one another. Some lines are long, some are short, but you are all connected. You are all part of the same design.”

  “He’s in the nowhere.”

  “There’s no such thing as nowhere. Until your pattern is ready to be stitched, I keep a watchful eye.” He blinked, and when his eyes opened, numbers appeared around his irises, and at the center of his pupils was the image of me, jumping from t
he ledge of the grandfather clock.

  Like a chameleon’s, Emit’s skin shifted: His cheeks glowed blue and a sprinkle of white crystals freckled his nose, creating a nebula.

  “My free will was taken when I bartered away my existence,” I said, “so I shouldn’t have had a choice. Take it back. Bring him back. And claim what you’re owed.”

  “The fabric of the universe is being torn apart,” he replied. “You will fasten it back together. That will be your payment.”

  With a fleeting glance, he assessed the moon. “Some things, however, are more easily fixed than others.” A mirrored button hung loose from his pocket, dangling from a frayed seam. He pinched it between his fingers, and as he tugged the thread from the inside of the lining, the moon retracted and wobbled at the same time as he tied a small knot. “That should do for now.”

  As the Earth righted itself back into place, Emit brought his hand to my left cheek. Without a word, he brushed my mask. Touched by time, one by one the 3-D butterflies came to life. I was dizzy as I watched them fly away, my mind whirling, trying to comprehend.

  The nebula on Emit’s skin rose and fell with his quick smile, and above us, three shooting stars streaked.

  I whispered, “Why?”

  He stopped abruptly, and the sparkle from his jacket was blinding. “There will come a moment when you will know, and I look forward to it, Lailah, because the one that follows will see you become the most exquisite button upon my jacket.” He looked me in the eye, and hidden in his pupils, Ruadhan was sleeping. “I will keep him for you until then.”

  TWENTY-ONE

  GREEN TRIANGULAR EYES FLASHED.

  I woke abruptly and sat up. Daylight streamed through the small window above my head as though it were growing the freesias on the wallpaper. I took a deep breath, inhaling the smell of the bed linen, just as fresh as the flowers looked. Gabriel was hunched over a chair beside the bed, asleep, with his head in his arms.

  “Gabriel?” I said, nudging him with my elbow.

  He lifted his chin. “Lailah.”

  He stared at me, his blue eyes wide and weary, and it took me a moment to realize why they were sad.