Into The Light (The Fallen Shadows)

by Rebecca R. Cohen

  When Katharine’s eyes met the roof of the garden she saw Ash hiding in the shafts. He sat perched in between two large wooden beams directly above where Katharine was standing. One of his legs was buried underneath him and the other resting on the beam in front of him. He held the beam he sat on with his hand and waved with the other. Her heart leapt at the sight of him and that familiar feeling in the pit of her stomach returned.

  She felt nervous, but not for her ascension. In all his stubbornness, Ash had braved being caught by all the elders so he could be there for Katharine when she needed him most. Her heart was no longer scared just knowing he was there. She smiled and mouthed, thank you. He winked and nodded acknowledging her gratified gesture.

  Katharine turned her focus away from Ash just as Chance stood up so as not to make Chance or the rest of the elders suspicious.

  In his hand Chance was holding a chain that had a large pendant attached to the end of it. The chain was made up of pure gold and seemed to wrap around itself a few times as it buried into the pendant. The pendant formed the shape of the infinity symbol and been engraved with intricate designs along the edges of the symbol; among the symbols were Hebrew letterings.

  Katharine knew many languages from various classes at school, she figured it she were going to be a lawyer she would have to learn to speak multiple dialects so she could enhance her client base. More than just wanting to enhance her client base, Katharine loved learning new languages.

  She always found it fascinating to be able to have full-fledged conversations with foreigners, while everyone else simply looked in from the outside.

  As electives in school, Katharine often choose language classes including Spanish, French, Italian, German, Greek and even Arabic. The one language she never bothered to learn was Hebrew.

  No one ever said anything about gaudy jewelry. Katharine made light of the incredibly tense situation with humor only she and Molli could understand.

  “Katharine, are you ready for this?” Chance asked stepping forward opening the chain of the necklace.

  “Would it even matter if I said no?” Katharine smirked and snuck a glance at Ash who shook his head swiftly.

  Chance widened the chain waiting for Katharine to bow her head so he could place the chain on her. It was cold and heavy as it slid down her neck and settled onto her shoulders. She’d worn necklaces before, even multiple necklaces at a time but this one was heavier than ten necklaces at once. She lifted the pendant to take a closer look at it.

  Upon closer inspection Katharine noticed that the Hebrew lettering was glowing bright yellow. She stared intensely at the lettering as if looking at it with more concentration she would be able to understand it. The glow of the lettering was hypnotizing and she felt as if she could get lost in the glow of it if she stared for too long.

  “It’s time, let’s get started,” Chance said smiling gently. Katharine dropped her hands at her side allowing the pendant to touch her chest. She winced as the cold touched her bare skin.

  She wasn’t sure what to do. Chance had taught her to meditate when the process began but he didn’t tell her what to do beforehand. She stood awkwardly swinging her arms back and forth slowly and nervously. “What are you doing? Please stop moving.”

  Katharine froze in place and clasped her hands together in front of her stomach. She remained stiff awaiting further instruction.

  By this time Molli was standing behind Katharine, close enough that she could feel Molli’s cold breath on the back of her neck. Until then Katharine never believed in all the ghost lore about feeling cold on one’s neck or having the hairs on their arms stand up. However, with Molli standing behind her every single hair on Katharine’s neck and arms stood up on their ends, a constant reminder that her best friend was dead. The cold touch of Molli’s hand on her shoulder surprised Katharine. Another ice cold reminder of a terrible truth.

  “So how exactly does this work again? I know you told me that I need to meditate and concentrate on other things during the process but you never really told me much else,” Katharine inquired, looking at the necklace and then at the four elders in the room.

  Ash shifted in the rafters quietly, curious as to what Chance’s response would be. He had been in that room many times before as the Trackers would make their ascension and each time ended with a different result. Ash had gone through both a successful ascension and an incredibly bad one. His heart raced as he waited to see if Katharine would be able to handle hers.

  In the early 1700s after Serena had been cast out, Ash was assigned his first Tracker, MaryAnn Hommel. She showed the potential to be one of the best. The new Tracker had no family to speak of and therefore she focused all her efforts and attention on her ascension. MaryAnn studied with Ash everyday preparing for that moment her abilities would surface. The Tracker was ready.

  When the day came for MaryAnn to turn 18 and take in all her abilities they gathered in the east garden, everything was going exceptionally well in the beginning but once her abilities ascended her mind wasn’t ready for it. The smell of burning flesh, which came first, was difficult enough to handle however, when that was combined with painful visions of Descended all over the realms and the constant whispering of the Descended voices in the Tracker’s ears, it was all too much.

  MaryAnn began speaking in sentences that made no sense. She screamed for Ash to make the sound and visions stop. She ran in a counterclockwise circle around the garden and did not stop for days.

  The elders were left with a difficult decision; return her to earth and leave her with the insanity the abilities branded in her, or put her out of her misery. They choose the latter and Ash was devastated.

  After MaryAnn, Ash refused to take on any new Tracker’s until Angelina came along. She was his first successful Tracker ascension and that made her all the more important to him.

  “You have already begun to develop your abilities when you began smelling burning flesh this morning. This necklace,” Chance said lifting the heavy pendant and holding it in the palm of his hand, “will keep them from overwhelming you. They can be overpowering and come in waves or all at once. The wording on this is a protection spell that will keep you calm and ensure that your abilities do not flood you.”

  Ash clenched his fist and quietly pounded the rafter underneath him. They had allowed many of their past Trackers to be consumed by their abilities for hundreds of years without so much as attempting to find a way to prevent the tragic events of what happened to MaryAnn from repeating themselves but he was relieved that Katharine would be protected.

  “So this necklace is going to keep me from going One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest?” Katharine smiled proudly at her famous movie reference. Unfortunately her joke fell on deaf ears.

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Chance said giving Katharine a fairly disappointed sneer.

  “It’s a movie starring Jack Nicholson about a man…” Katharine began explaining but her voice faded realizing that no matter how in depth of an explanation she gave Chance he’d never understand or care.

  The celestial sun moved directly overhead breaking through the roof of the garden. The light formed a thin spear that pierced through the opening among the flower clusters providing the pure white flowers with an orange radiance within the very center of the clusters.

  The breeze picked up speed and began sending the burning flesh scent forcefully into Katharine’s nose. As the smell intensified Katharine began to feel a warm sensation running through her body. At first she thought it was the celestial sun shining on her but she realized that she was standing just out of the sun’s reach.

  Katharine began to feel as if she were standing under a warm shower, without getting wet. The Tracker heard rumblings in her ears, as if someone were standing next to her whispering gibberish to her. Hard as she tried, Katharine couldn’t make out a single thing that was being said but the whispers kept coming. The sound of hundreds of nonsensical voices rode through her eardrums at
a rapid pace.

  Katharine raised her hands to her ears covering them the way she used to when her parents would discuss politics during a long car ride. It was a gut reaction that she’d often use when she didn’t want to hear something, as if the palms of her hands were some kind of barrier protecting her ears from noise. The whispering grew more intense causing pressure on her eardrums.

  The pain was almost too much to bear and she kept waiting for her ears to begin bleeding or her head to explode from the pressure.

  Ash, looking on from the shafts, knelt on both his knees and leaned over trying to get a better look. His heart was pounding as Katharine fell to her knees still palming her ears tightly, the weight of the necklace bared down on her. She screamed in agony, the same shrill cries Ash had heard MaryAnn scream all those years ago.

  “I thought the necklace was supposed to prevent this,” Molli’s face wore a thousand expressions of concern as she looked to Chance for assurance that Katharine would be okay. Above her, Ash was stirring, also finding Katharine’s screams suspicious since the necklace was meant to protect her. He was one scream away from leaping from his perch and falling to Katharine’s aid.

  “She will be fine, just give her time.” Chance circled Katharine who was balled up on the flowerbed in the fetal position, her hands still clasped over her ears. “Have the visions begun?”

  Katharine opened her eyes widely forming two perfect circles. She was looking directly in front of but was not looking at anything or anyone in particular. Chance had been given his answer.

  The visions taking over Katharine’s eyes looked like scenes out of the most terrifying horror movies she could think of, bodies lying lifeless in piles lining fields as wide and long as football fields, blood literally raining down from the sky with knives of fire riding the ends of them and the terrifying soulless faces of the Descended racing through her mind.

  Vast images of worldly landmarks scurried across the backs of her eyes like flashes of light from oncoming traffic on a highway. The images came so quickly she could hardly make heads or tails of any of them. They appeared as fuzzy pictures much like a painting set out to dry during a rainstorm, mixtures of colors blending together in one brief portrait of bright hues.

  Among the unrecognizable images, a flash of the Golden Gate Bridge made its way through the chaos to become a clear and obvious picture. With the clarified image the whispering in Katharine’s ear grew louder. She could still barely make out what was being said but one word came through clearly but it was spoken in a language Katharine didn’t understand, ulaz.

  Her head was pounding on information overload. She had experienced migraines in the past but none quite as intense as the one that came with the visions. She placed the palm of her hand over her forehead and pushed as hard as her weakened body would allow her too.

  She felt her stomach turning and then she felt it, the worst feeling one could feel in a room full of mystical beings, that urge to show them all the food she had eaten in the last 48-hours. The idea of this happening horrified her more than the devilish voices in her ear. Worse yet, being sick in front of Ash was just unthinkable, besides he’d never let her live it down.

  Just as Katharine could feel the bile building up in her mouth the migraine subsided as the visions, smells and sounds began to fade into a vivid dream. The ascension was complete and Katharine had both survived and kept her sanity.

  Once the world returned to normal, as normal as a world where angels existed and Katharine was in one of Heaven’s garden could, she remained on the ground unable and unwilling to move. Her stomach still felt a hint of unease and she feared moving too much would force her food to regurgitate itself.

  Although she remained motionless, she was very much alive but from Ash’s vantage point Katharine looked like she had the life drained right out of her. Ash grew increasingly anxious and could no longer sit back and wait. The Guide grabbed a hold of the beam in front of him and used it to launch himself from the rafters onto the ground below. Ash landed perfectly with only his knees slightly bent to bear the brunt of the weight. The moment his feet planted on the ground he took off to Katharine’s side.

  “Katharine, are you okay?” He slid his arm under her back and lifted her from the ground and she once again found herself in his arms.

  “Ash!” Chance was not entirely surprised to see him. He saw the way his rebellious Guide looked at the Tracker, there was a light in his eyes when he looked at her that Chance hadn’t seen since Angelina. It was a look that if not contained would cause a great deal of trouble.

  Molli followed Ash’s lead and rushed to Katharine’s side as Ash was brushing strands of hair away from her face. He face was pale and full of fear. Molli’s face tilted allowing one side of her lips to cock to the side. Ash didn’t have the same look of fear that Chance and the rest of the Elders had, that look of whether or not their last Tracker was okay, Ash’s fear was that of losing Katharine. It was the same terrified reaction he had just before the Descended attacked them at Murphy’s.

  Katharine opened her mouth to respond to Ash but before she had a chance to form a single word Chance charged Ash and threw him off his feet.

  “I believe I was perfectly clear about your presence not being permitted during her ascension.” His hands drew around Ash’s neck pulling tightly. Ash remained calm and focused on Katharine, never allowing his strength to falter.

  Katharine struggled to pull herself off the ground and with Molli’s help she was able to get to her feet, but kept herself propped up using Molli’s shoulder as a crutch. Her legs were shaky and unable to hold the weight of the rest of her body.

  The ascension had taken more out of her than she expected. She felt as if she hadn’t slept in days and had been stricken with some terrible virus. She hadn’t felt that awful since she had the flu a year earlier. Except this time she didn’t have uncontrollable coughing or sneezing fits, which in that moment she missed.

  She tried to bring her eyes back into focus but she felt like she was on an amusement park ride where the entire room spins and the floor drops out from underneath the thrill seekers. She blinked as if that would help focus her eyes. With each blink the orange structure of the Golden Gate Bridge flashed in front of her like a camera taking rapid-fire photographs. Something about the way the image lingered in her mind made her feel the need to say the words out loud.

  “Golden Gate Bridge,” Katharine said.

  Ash looked abruptly past Chance’s arm that was now pressed against his chest holding him against the walls of the garden. He held a look of surprise upon his face.

  “What?” Chance wore a similar look of surprise as he shifted his attention on the Tracker that stood a few feet from him.

  “The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, I saw a vision of it. I still see it,” Katharine explained weakly shifting so that she could get a better grip on Molli’s shoulder.

  Chance released his grip on Ash who grabbed his neck almost as if he wanted to make sure it was still there. He looked half as puzzled as Chance as his eyebrows formed all too familiar arches.

  The elders, who had been standing in the corners of the room, now stood inches from Katharine hovering above her like ghostly figures haunting their victims. Their expressions were that of ones preparing for battle. Their wings, still fully extended, began to dance on their backs. The females stood beautiful and tall staring at Katharine as if she had just stolen their boyfriends. Their resentful eyes pierced through her stinging her with their unwavering intensity.

  “Why is everyone looking at me like that?” Katharine was utterly confused by the puzzled and vicious look on their faces. “I thought visions were a good thing. You know, part of the whole ascension experience. The purpose behind the Tracker.”

  Ash pushed his way through the crowd of angels gathered around Katharine just as Molli backed away, burying herself among the angels.

  “Was this the only image you saw?” Chance asked somewhat demandingly.


  “No. I saw flashes of various images but this one was predominantly clear and once all of the other images disappeared from my mind, this one remained.” Katharine matched Chance’s forceful tone. She didn’t appreciate his unwelcomed attitude, as she was the one who had just gone through an incredibly painful transformation. One that he didn’t tell her would be so painful.

  Chance and the elders shared a look that made Katharine believe they were communicating telepathically. Each elder looked to one another and nodded, all coming to the same agreement that Katharine was not yet privy to.

  “This image, is it still clear in your mind?” Chance asked swiftly.

  “As clear as I am seeing you,” Katharine blinked realizing that the image was actually far clearer than the blurry image of Chance’s face in front of her.

  “Fascinating,” Chance said rubbing his chin with his hand the way evil villains often would in over the top adventure comedies. “You may be a more powerful Tracker than we anticipated.”

  Katharine shot Ash a look. Now there are different levels of Tracker statuses? Ash shrugged. He’d had no idea that a Tracker could be more powerful than others. He had seen many Trackers go through their ascension and once the ascension was complete the abilities would subside for a few days and return once the Tracker was returned to their home. In all his experience Ash had never seen a Tracker maintain their visions after all their other abilities subsided.

  The ascension worked the way a bruise would. It would be incredibly painful at first but then subside quickly until the pain and bruising resurfaced. Once the ascension was complete the Tracker would have their abilities full force but they would not surface unless the Descended were nearby. Katharine’s ability to see where the Descended were after her ascension and while she was still at the Anchorage was apparently previously unheard of.