Fated

by T. L. McDonald

  "What underground tunnels? And which factory?" Eric asks.

  "I don't know. I've only ever heard Blondie talk about them. But Rain," She gazes at me. "Rain Rivers from school, she's been to the tunnels, maybe she can tell you how to get to them," Zoe answers.

  "What else?" Eric prods. "What specifically does Blondie want from Jared?"

  "I don't know," She mumbles.

  "Don't lie to me Zoe." Eric touches the tip of the knife to his hand.

  "I'm not, I swear. The only thing Jasper ever said about Jared was that he's the key to changing the world." Her eyes linger on the knife in his hand. "Please Eric," She scoots herself into the corner. "I've told you everything I know."

  Eric studies her a moment then motions for Owen to let him out.

  "Please don't hurt Jasper. He's only following orders and I love him," Zoe pleads.

  Eric stops at the threshold of the cell door. He turns to face her. "Following orders from whom?"

  "I don't know. I've never met him." She watches Eric like a hawk, flinching every time he moves half an inch. "I'm telling the truth, I swear, so please put the knife away." I can't tell if she’s being genuine and honest or if she's just a really talented actress, which is entirely possible considering how she fooled so many for who knows how long with her duplicity. But if she is telling the truth than the idea of someone else out there who’s possibly worse than Blondie is down right frightening.

  I wonder if that's who gave Blondie the scars down the side of his face when he failed to find Jared the first time? I think to myself.

  "Everything I know, you now know, so please, please Eric put the knife away," Zoe pleads once again.

  Eric regards her with uncertain eyes. "For your sake, I hope you're telling me the truth." He slices his palm open then covers the wound with his other hand.

  "What are you doing?" Zoe's back hits the wall so hard it's like she's trying to push her body straight through it. "I told you everything I know!"

  Closing his eyes, Eric whispers over his hands. Pulling them apart a small purple orb blooms into existence. Shoving it away it zooms across the room, hitting Zoe square in the chest. Momentarily stunned, she blinks a few times before slumping onto the narrow cot with her head hanging over the side. Eric watches her for a moment then re-arranges her into a more comfortable position. "Sleep well little sister," he mumbles so low it's possible he didn't say it at all.

  Owen glances down at his watch. "If I'm going to get you guys out undetected before the next rounds, then we need to go."

  "Aren't you coming with us?" I ask.

  "Can't. I'm supposed to meet with Thomas and Cassidy in the morning for some more secret undercover agent work." He winks playfully. I think he likes playing spy. Good thing he's on our side. He sticks his head out the door for a quick glance up and down the hall. "All clear." Ushering us out, he locks the door behind him. Heading up the group, he leads us back towards the stairs with me bringing up the rear.

  A scuffing sound brings me to a stop. I turn, catching a glimpse of something reddish in color before it disappears around the corner at the end of the hallway. Leaving the guys, I inch my way cautiously down the hall. I peek around the corner but there's nothing there that shouldn't be.

  "What are you doing?"

  Hand over my heart; I clutch my chest while simultaneously doing a jump spin. "Geez, Will, you scared the crap out of me." I take a moment to allow my heart to slow back down to a normal speed.

  "Sorry," he says with a grin. "So what's up?"

  "I thought I saw something."

  He moves around me to look down the hall. "I don't see anything."

  "Yeah, me either, but I thought...you know what it doesn't matter. It was probably nothing. Come on," I tug on his shirt. "We should get out of here."

  I may have told Will it was nothing, but suddenly I can't shake the feeling that it was definitely something. I glance over my shoulder looking down the hall one last time before following the guys up the stairs.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  No one talks much on the trek back through the woods to the old abandoned church where we left the SUV parked other than a few inquiring questions about Rain Rivers from Eric and Luca. And truth be told, there wasn't much to tell. I don't know Rain well and for the hand full of times I've interacted with her I never got a bad vibe from her. Although, there was that one time when it was just the two of us in art class and she'd made a remark about my dark angel painting that sort of gave me the heebie jeebies and I'd chalked it up to my own irrational paranoia. Now I'm thinking maybe I shouldn't have.

  I still don't understand her role in all this though and it's frustrating. What is her connection to the Fallen and to Blondie? Why would she want to help them? How is she helping them? Did they promise her something in return for her help or did she promise them something?

  Once I find Jared I'm going to make it my mission to find out.

  "What are you thinking about so hard over there?" Will asks. He shines his flashlight in my eyes momentarily blinding me and I stumble over a rock in the path. He catches me by the arm before I fall. "Sorry. I didn't mean to shine the light in your face like that. Are you okay?"

  "I'm fine." I look at his hand still around my arm. Noticing, he let's go mumbling sorry once more. "So what's the plan?" I ask over the sudden awkwardness filling the space between us. "Are we going to head straight for the factory because I think I know which one Zoe was referring to?"

  "You do?"

  "Yeah, I think it's the same one we found Eric in. When we were there I could feel a darkness permeating everything and when I astral projected to Jared I felt the same kind of darkness right before Blondie stabbed me in the gut."

  "I'll run it by Eric and we'll make a plan to hit the factory later tonight."

  I grab his arm pulling him to a stop. "What do you mean later tonight? It's already 3am and we only have until midnight. Meaning we only have twenty-one hours to find him and convince him to switch sides and stand against The Fallen, not with them. We don't have time to wait until tonight."

  "I know you want to find him Hanna, and I get we may have our work cut out for us in convincing him to side with us, but we have to do this right. And that means we can't just go barreling in all gung-ho because if we do, we're going to be screwed from the get-go. We need a solid plan and that going to take time. Not to mention we need to take a moment to eat and rest."

  "I guess that makes sense and I want to do this right, but there's just so little time left and I'm afraid that if we don't do something right now, we're going to be too late."

  "We won't be too late."

  "How do you know?"

  "Because it's not an option."

  "You know saying ‘it's not an option’ really does nothing to make me feel any better, right?"

  He smiles. "I know, but it's all I got."

  "Then I guess it will have to do."

  "That's the spirit." He gives me a friendly wink and I smile in return.

  We spend the rest of our walk in silence and once we reach the SUV, Will opens the back door for me to get in after Eric slides in behind the wheel and Luca claims shotgun. Shutting my door, he walks swiftly around to the other side to get in.

  The ride back to Eric's isn't a long one, but it is long enough for exhaustion to finally catch up with me now that I'm sitting still. Looks like Will was right about the needing sleep thing after all.

  Leaning the side of my head against the window I stare out at the shadowed trees rushing by in a blur. In a few short hours the world will wake up just like it always does with the promise of a new day completely unaware that it may be its last. Because if the fate of the world resting in our hands slips between our fingers, if we're too late, if we fail, there may never be another tomorrow.

  "You're doing it again aren't you?" Will says softly.

  "Doing what?" I glance over at him. His eyes are closed, his head resting against the back of the seat, a slight smile hint
ing at his mouth.

  "Psyching yourself out."

  "How do you know that's what I'm doing?"

  "Because I do." His eyes open just a little so he's looking at me through his lashes. "But let me ask you this. Do you ever think about the bright side of things? Because you should. You're a lot stronger than you give yourself credit for. We can win this fight Hanna. All you have to do is believe in yourself and in what you’re fighting for."

  "It's that simple huh?"

  "It's that simple."

  ***

  Somewhere in the back of my mind I know I'm dreaming but it's such a perfect dream I don't want to let go. I don't want to wake up because in it things are the way they should be. There are no fallen angels hell bent on taking over the world and Jared and I are together and happy as we lie on my bedroom floor hand in hand staring up at the night sky painted on my ceiling in glow in the dark colors.

  Jared rolls onto his side and I do the same so we're now face to face. He rubs his thumb over my cheek, a smile lifting one side of his mouth. "I love you Hanna," He whispers before leaning in to softly kiss me. The feel of his lips pressed against mine makes my heart race and the world spins in dizzying circles. I pull him closer, feeling his mouth curve into a smile.

  When we pull apart we're no longer in my room. Somehow we're now seated side by side at a table near the bay windows in Lola's Cafe and Bakery with our closest friends. At my other side, Kat sits on Luca's lap with her arm wrapped around his shoulders. And across the table, Will is holding hands with a pretty girl with long dark hair and big bright hazel eyes. He kisses her hand causing her to blush and I smile in knowing he's found someone who makes him happy.

  The bell above the door chimes and I look over to see Owen strutting in with Adam and Eric in tow. They're all laughing and goofing around without a care in the world the way they should be.

  For the smallest of moments the world is perfect. Absolutely perfect, just like it's meant to be, until the sound of shattering glass echoes throughout the cafe and my perfect dream world comes crashing down.

  I open my eyes to Will rushing into the room. Dropping to his knees, he half slides to the bed where he's already reaching under it to pull out his knife case. Unlatching it in a matter of seconds, he begins pulling out knife after knife.

  "What's going on?"

  "The Fallen." He hands me several knives and my Converse. "They're here. They can't get past the wards to get into the house but it hasn't stopped them from surrounding us."

  "Are we in danger? Can they still hurt us?" I slip my shoes on, not bothering to untie them first. "Adam and Kat, are they okay?"

  Before Will has a chance to answer any of my questions, Luca bursts into the room. There's a fresh wound at the edge of his left eyebrow, the blood leaving a trail of bright red down the side of his face. He heads straight for the weapons case.

  "We're way outnumbered out there. Eric is taking out as many of The Fallen as he can, but the bastards just keep coming. I don't know if the wards are going to hold. They keep getting closer and closer to the house." Luca straps several long blades to a harness on his back. "We need to come up with a game plan."

  Something crashes.

  "What was that? What exactly is going on out there?" I ask, panic rising to the surface. "Where's my brother? Where's Kat? Are they safe?"

  "The Fallen are busting out the windows. They can't physically get in—yet, so they're trying to flush us out. Adam and Kat are trying to put out the fires," Luca answers. He hovers in the doorway waiting for Will and I to join him in the fight.

  Will grabs one last blade—a sword, and then races out the door with Luca, leaving me standing in a stupor in the middle of his bedroom.

  "Fires?" I mumble to myself. The smell of smoke slips into the room, and my level of panic shoots up a few notches. The Fallen are trying to burn us alive or lure us out to slaughter us where we stand and there's only six of us to defend against untold numbers of them. How are we supposed to defeat them? How are we supposed to make it out alive? And then the obvious answer hits me. We're not supposed to survive this. Blondie wants us out of the way and this is how he's going to do it. Well I don't think so. I'm not going out this way and there's no way in hell I'm going to let Blondie win.

  The symbol on my wrist ignites sharpening my senses, focusing my fear and my anger into weapons all there own as I tighten my grip on the knives Will handed me. If Blondie wants war, I'll give him war and I'll show him he can't take us out so easily.

  In the kitchen flames are licking their way up the cabinets as Kat desperately tries to put them out with the fire extinguisher held in her hands. Other than being terrified she looks physically okay and I move onto the living room where I find my brother putting out yet another fire covering the sofa. The Fallen have broken every window at the front of the house and glass crunches under my shoes as I make my way to him. Unlike Kat, he's injured. I reach him just as he's putting out the last bit of fire.

  "What happened? You're hurt." I reach out for his shoulder, examining the wound there. "You've been stabbed."

  "Fire bombs aren't the only things The Fallen have been throwing in here. But I'm okay. It didn't go in deep." He's totally full of it. From the looks of the wound it went in way past deep.

  "Will you and Kat be okay in here?" I don't want to leave him...or her, but I can't stay in here and do nothing when Will, Eric, and Luca are out there fighting for their lives. For our lives.

  "You can't go out there Hanna. There's way too many and I—”

  "Don't want to see me get hurt?" I finish for him. "I don't want to see you or Kat get hurt either and that's exactly why I have to go out there. I've got Heavens blessing backing me up remember?" I hold up my wrist showing the symbol softly glowing on my skin. "I'll be fine out there." Now who's full of it? There's a good chance I'll definitely not be fine out there.

  "Be careful sis." Adam hugs me quickly and I leave with a promise to be the very definition of careful.

  Outside everything is in chaos. Eric defends the front of the house while Luca and Will take the sides, each one of them holding their own against an absurd amount of Fallen coming at them. Without another moments hesitation I join the fight.

  I take out the first Fallen I see by surprise and sheer luck. I pull the knife out of his chest just as another Fallen descends on me. This one's not so easy to get rid of. He grins in that malicious way they're all so good at and I grin right back to prove to the both of us that I'm not afraid, even though I am.

  He takes a swing that narrowly misses the side of my face. Thank goodness for the fast reflexes I now have. Dropping down, I jut forward burying my knife into his upper thigh and am met with a hard punch to the jaw. I fall to the side, stars bursting before my eyes. Kneeling over me, he grabs ahold of the front of my shirt and I jab my knee between his legs. He falls forward and I push him off while pulling out the knife still protruding from his leg. He moves so fast, I stab the ground. He grabs me by the hair, yanking me up and I kick the back of my foot into his shin while jamming my thumb into the closing wound on his thigh. He lets go and I grab a second knife from the waist of my pants. Swiveling around, I jab it between his ribs a little to low to hit the heart. He starts to laugh and I yank the handle hard downward shifting the blade upward. His smile falters as the skin on his face begins to peel away.

  The sight of it makes me sick and I have to turn away, abandoning the knife stuck in his heart. In the back of my mind I know the person I was looking at is gone and probably has been for a long time, but it's still hard for me to see past the human face to the evil monster that's wearing it.

  A fiery pain burns, spreading across my shoulder blade at the swipe of a knife across my back. A scream I can't hold in escapes past my lips. I fumble for another knife tucked into the back of my jeans. The Fallen’s blade whooshes over my head as I fall to my knees. I whip my blade out, shoving it upward just as he's plunging his down. He gets me in the shoulder and I get him in t
he heart. He falls forward landing on top of me, chunks of flesh peeling and falling off his decomposing body. Shoving him aside, I gag and dry heave. I crawl away on my hands and knees, getting only a few feet away before another Fallen kicks me in the ribs flinging me onto my back.

  A surge of energy rushes through me, blasting out of my hands, flinging him into three other approaching Fallen. They fall into a heap several yards away and I scramble to my feet. Everything is pandemonium. There's so many Fallen and so few of us to fight them off. I can see the strain to keep going despite the fatigue in the faces of my friends and I know there's no way we can keep going the way we are. We won't make it.

  Blondie's going to win.

  And my friends and I are probably all going to die right here with the rest of the world following behind once Jared turns eighteen and the prophecy comes to pass.

  To add to the misery dark clouds blot out the sun and the heavens decide to open up with a sudden downpour of freezing cold rain making it that much harder to pull myself out of my negative thoughts.

  "Hanna, look out behind you!" Luca screams from across the front lawn.

  I turn just in time to see the smiling face of a Fallen right before she drives her knife into my chest a little too far to the right to pierce the heart. Realizing her mistake she rips the knife out, leaving my lungs feeling like they're on fire while simultaneously drowning, as the wound starts to heal. Gasping for breath I fall to the ground. Bloody knife in hand she angles her arm, preparing for a second attack. With no time to spare I sweep her legs out from under her. But she's fast, so, so, fast, and has me pinned to the ground with the weight of her body sitting on top of mine. I grip her hand keeping the blade from once again entering my chest, but she's strong and I'm getting so tired.

  Suddenly she stiffens, the tip of a blade sticking out from the front of her chest where her severed heart pours blood down the front of her shirt. Strong hands pull her away, tossing her decomposing body aside before reaching down to help me up.