Copula Chronicles: The Complete Collection: Origin, Descend, Ascend, Legacy

by Venessa Kimball

  I close my eyes, listening for the humming vibration deep inside my head, but it isn’t there. It’s completely gone, replaced by the people and foreign tongue. Japanese I think. The sound of their voices in the busy open market around me is cacophonous as I attempt to focus on their faces, but they are blurred and unrecognizable.

  This is the vision I’ve been having for weeks now, but it’s different suddenly. The surroundings, the details, the sensations I’m feeling are all more pronounced. Urgent, like the time is closing in for it to take place. Suddenly, my eye catches a flag; the Rising Sun. I’m in Japan.

  As I look into the sea of people seeming to shop among the street vendors, I catch a glimpse of red hair, just as I have before in this divination. Immediately I sense Corinna’s presence and start toward the head of copper hair in the sea of people. Catching up and seeing her in the open, I wait for her to turn expecting to see Corinna’s face, but it’s Siobhan! What’s she doing here?

  “Siobhan.”

  Wait, why has the vision changed? Siobhan wasn’t in it before. I try to yell her name, but it only comes out as a raspy whisper as she keeps walking with a girl close behind her. The girl, she’s younger than I am, but not by much. Siobhan leans back, whispering to her discreetly. The girl moves closer to Siobhan with apprehension written all over her face. She is frightened, like a new guardian might be. Who is she?

  The vision is transforming, giving me more details and with every new addition, I feel the intensity and urgency of it all crawling along my skin.

  All of a sudden, I feel the solidness of someone occupying space next to me and turn to see Corinna by my side looking out into the crowd. I try to reach out to touch her arm, but my hand won’t move from my side. Fucking sleep paralysis!

  Concentrating harder, I will my arm to move. It’s slow, but the movement takes hold as my hand finally reaches her shoulder. My touch is like a trigger, setting her into motion as she whips her head toward me revealing her cold, onyx filled eyes. Her distorted face lacks any human qualities as her mouth widens to meet the length of her face.

  I’ve seen this grotesque distortion before––in my nightmares and in the files of the abducted. But Corinna was on the ground clawing at my legs, not standing before me face to face. As I back away slowly, her cheekbones transition to an inhuman protrusion and her skin sallow’s to a milky gray. The tilt of her head is inquisitive but too extreme as the cracking of her neck sends the hair up on my neck and I take flight, not wanting to wait to see what she does next. My escape is no match––she’s too quick as she clutches my shoulder and whips me around to face her.

  Her grip feels like small knives digging into the flesh and her face carries no resemblance of Corinna any longer as the beast’s blackened eyes knit together.

  I attempt to look away, but it’s impossible as she tightens her grip on both my shoulders, crippling me with her hold.

  My instincts kick in and the humming that was once in the background of Corinna’s attack on me is at the forefront. Feeling the power behind it, I focus on collecting all of the energy building inside until her animalistic disguise blurs and disappears. Reappearing, she’s no longer near me, but on the other side of the street, the streak of red hair the only detectable feature.

  This vision isn’t the same. Where’s Nate, Xander, Ezra! Why aren’t they here? Has something happened to them? With her in my sight, I quickly scan for them but find Siobhan and the girl again. As if my spying them has triggered Corinna’s response, I see her step off the curb along with a partner that has suddenly manifested. Sam Crest.

  Corinna looks across the busy street at me once before refocusing on Siobhan and the girl as her and Sam follow them. Feeling the power of my life force still amped within me, I stalk after them, intent on projecting ahead of them when another flood of light blinds my sight. Tripping and stumbling to the ground, I fall into damp fallen leaves, uneven ground and twisted branches.

  When the light fades again, I’m on all fours in the middle of the woods. The same woods as my vision before. Whistling of the wind passing through the crippled tree branches above has replaced the humming vibration. Suddenly, the air grows thick with stillness and mist, making it hard to see more than a few feet in front of me as I rise. The star-infused sky and the bright moon are sparsely seen, only through the glints of glowing haze it has touched. A strike of orange light illuminates the expanse of trees and earth around me giving me a glimpse of how massive and illusive this timberland is.

  I notice a path cut in line with a set of trees. The sound of water running overturns the humming vibration inside of my head suddenly. This wasn’t in my vision before! As I walk through the canopy of trees, the small creek comes into view. This is new and even though it’s scaring the shit out of me, I have to follow it. It may take me to Ezra, Nate and Xander. Another flash soaks my vision, fading quicker to reveal the open meadow with a body of water dividing it from the base of a mountain. This can’t be Mount Fuji. There’s not any water that close to it. Where is this?

  “Jesca!”

  Ezra’s voice sounds like it’s coming from the water beyond the meadow, but suddenly my vision has blurred so badly, I can’t make out the images seeming to twist and dance in front of me. I stumble over rocks and branches as I move closer, hoping my sight will clear. The dull images ahead begin to clear and I watch the meadow come to life with a battle I’ve seen before. The coming war between the Dobrians, Sondians and creatures that have made their way into our world.

  In the midst of the battle, I see Ezra and Nate, but not Xander. I try to run to them, but I’m frozen even though I’m commanding it. Before I can force myself to react in some way, the meadow and all of those fighting blur again until all of the blood shedding warriors disappear, leaving a vacant expanse.

  Scanning over the empty meadow, my eyes trip upon a distortion in the cluster of trees. This perversion of space between two trees is swirling the darkened shadows and capturing fragments of the glowing light of the night sky just before it releases a woman carrying a small child crying into the meadow. I try to call to her but no sound departs my lips as she runs with intense speed into the opposite side of the forest.

  My throat tightens and goes dry as I focus my eyes at a grander scale. The gravitational pull from within this gateway among the trees is so strong that the nearby brush and trees are bending and bowing toward them. Shit. This is the wormhole. The one that must be closed to prevent this intersection! Who are the woman and the baby?

  The ground beneath me suddenly begins to shake, and I topple over, falling back to the ground. I scramble to my feet, but immediately fall again, unable to keep my balance on the quaking earth.

  When the shaking stops, I try to push myself away from the ground once more, but there’s a weight forcing me down. I roll away onto my back, ready to fight the attacker holding me, but no one is there.

  I push myself up on my elbows, and that is when I see the dark, familiar presence creeping up the length of my legs. I try to scramble away from the darkness, but can’t move my legs. It climbs onto my thighs, and then it’s on my stomach, pinning me to the dampened leaves on the ground. Its heavy weight radiates to my chest, forcing every ounce of air out of my lungs, suffocating me, taking my last breath.

  With my wits still about me, I close my eyes and center my mind on my life force. It’s slow to start, but kicks in hard and fast as I envision releasing it directly at the dark entity smothering me. As I open my eyes to the starburst above, I feel the buildup of energy jut from my body and into the darkness. The intense push of my force repels the heavy weight on my chest and throat and I eagerly gasp for the air my body has been deprived of.

  Without hesitation, I get to my feet and run deeper into the woods. The darkness isn’t far behind. I can feel it moving in on me again. Just like it had on that trail back in Marietta, Georgia. Every part of me knows it’s the same track
er. But who is it? Sam? Balthazar? This man Michael that has taken lead over the Sondian fellowship?

  Without any warning, my body is jolted from a dead run to a head-jerking halt. Someone or something has a death grip on my legs and arms, keeping me from getting the hell out of here. I crane my neck to look behind me and see the dark shadow take form. Human form, but with no face, no fears. Like a slingshot, the shadow releases me, making me fall forward into a tree trunk. I will my body to move away, but it’s no use. I can’t feel anything. It has me paralyzed in its grip again.

  “Shh, Jes. Just let go.”

  The words tickle my ear, but they ooze heavy and thick as the male voice hisses, “Don’t fight. Just let go.”

  I open my mouth to speak, but nothing comes out––not even air. I try to draw air into my lungs, but my body doesn’t respond––not by choice, but by command. The sound of my heart beat slowing and fading to almost nothing is like waiting for death’s door to open and pull me in––pure horror.

  My eyes search the crippled branches of the trees above. Is this it? Is this how I will die?

  Just then, my body begins to convulse and shake. I close my eyes, not wanting my last impression of this word to be the dark shadow that had snuffed out my life. The spasm is startling as my shaking becomes uncontrollable. Over the slow pound of my slowing heart and the absence of consciousness, I hear a shaky deep voice is yelling at me. “Jesca! Wake up!”

  ***

  My eyes snap open, and I gasp for the air that has been withheld in my sleep. Someone is holding me close. I breathe in the mild scent of Xander’s cologne and surrender to his hold.

  Quickly, the room begins to spin and my head feels like it’s splitting open. He lifts me into his arms and holds me to him as he whispers shakily into my hair. “Jesca, it’s me. I’ve got you.”

  His whisper is hastily replaced with a bellowing yell. “Nate! Ezra! I need help!”

  His arms are trembling as he carries me to the bed and lays me down gently. Seeing his face full on now, the fear he has for what he’s seeing is evident. His eyes are wide, red, and searching mine as his hand quakes along the side of my face. “You couldn’t breathe! Ezra! Nate!”

  Just then, Nate pushes open the door and rushes to my side pushing Xander aside with blinding speed and power. Sitting me back up and pulling me to him, his whole body trembles as he buries his head between my neck and shoulders. I try to pull my head back to look at him, but he doesn’t release me.

  My ability to function slowly returns, starting with my voice. “I’m fine.”

  Nate doesn’t respond or attempt letting me go. Every part of him is telling me he’s afraid.

  I look over Nate’s shoulder at Xander as he stands at the foot of the bed in shock at what he’s witnessed.

  Ezra appears at the door breathless and holding on to the doorframe with both hands then he rushes across the room to kneel next to me and take my hand in his. He rushes to kneel in front of me. “Jesus, what the hell happened?”

  As he glares accusingly from Nate to Xander, I squeeze Ezra’s hand. “It was a vision. I’m fine.”

  Xander starts to pace in front of my bed as Nate gently lowers me back onto my pillow. “A fucking vision! I heard banging on your wall! When I came in here you were in the corner of the room digging at the floor boards!”

  He’s looking between me, Nate and Xander as he continues to explain the unexplainable.

  “I grabbed a hold of you, and then something pulled you from me, and threw you to the ground!” Xander runs his hand over his brow, looks at a spot on the floor, then at Ezra. “I flipped on the light to see if there was someone else in here with her, but it was only us!”

  Xander looks back at me now. “I rushed to you just as you rolled onto your back and gasped one time. Your eyes Jes, they were wide open! You were awake and you weren’t fucking breathing! You were dying!”

  His words work him up again as his breathing quickens and his pacing starts again.

  “I wasn’t awake.”

  Xander stops pacing long enough to tell me a piece of his mind. “Yeah, no shit! Is this the thing Sam did to me? The Astral projection?”

  Ezra lifts at my eyelids, checking my pupils I suspect, as he answers Xander. “Yes. Lucid dream.”

  Nate rises from the bed, giving Ezra room to sit with me and walks to the chair in the corner to sit as Xander walks to the other side of the bed to be closer to me.

  “Someone was in there with us Ezra.”

  Nate’s words don’t make sense.

  “In there? Wait. You were in the dream with me?”

  From the chair in the corner, Nate painfully looks at me. “I couldn’t move. All I could do was watch this fucking dark thing hold you down, trying to kill you. I was fucking worthless to you Jes.”

  Nate looks at Ezra. “How the hell am I supposed to keep her safe when I can’t fucking move to help her Ezra?”

  Ezra has no answer as he rises from the bed and walks the room.

  I attempt an explanation of who this could be. “I’ve seen the dark shadow in my dreams before—back in Georgia and then when we left the facility. Ezra thought it might be a Sondian tracker sent to kill me then. It was the same presence as the one in Georgia.”

  Ezra turns back to me. “It was Sam, I know it!”

  “What if it wasn’t? What if it was that Michael guy?”

  Ezra clarifies. “Michael Sanderson?”

  Nate tries to find an answer. “Yeah, Balthazar showed us that vision in the plane. What if he used that transfiguration shifting shit to pose as Sam?”

  Xander suddenly blows up at Nate for what he’s saying. “Are you really making excuses for Sam Crest?”

  Nate shoots back, “No. I’m trying to fucking come up with answers.”

  Ezra sees the tension and ends it. “Enough! Nate, that’s all we want, is answers. You were in the dream with her. How did you do that?”

  Yeah, I wanted to know how he got in. How many times has he done this? Was this the first?

  Nate leans back in the chair. “This is only the second one. I know her dreams have been getting bad. So, I wanted to try and see if I could help her in them rather than comforting her after.”

  I look down from the small embarrassment of Ezra wondering what “comforting” means exactly. Then I consider him not coming to my room last night at the villa might have been because of his new found way of comforting me––being in my nightmares with me. He knew we couldn’t keep doing what we were and decided to watch over me in my dreams since he couldn’t comfort me in my bed after I woke. He knew things needed to be different between us and he still found a way to watch over me.

  Ezra rubs the back of his neck. “You couldn’t move because you don’t have the tools to participate in a shared dream. Now that you know how to get in, you need to learn how to maneuver within them.”

  Nate stands and approaches the edge of the bed and addresses Ezra. “When I saw her limp, motionless body in this shadow’s hold, I made myself wake from the dream, so I could come to her. But when I woke, I couldn’t move. It was like I was paralyzed in real life like I had been in my dream.”

  “It’s sleep paralysis,” I tell him.

  Nate looks at me utterly confused as Ezra speaks as if he’s onto something. “You were so deep into her dream, experiencing her symptoms. When you woke, you were still feeling the effects. What pulled you from it?”

  Nate searches for an answer. “I’m not sure. Xander called my name and...”

  Ezra looks over at Xander, standing on the other side of me. “You just called his name. That was all.”

  Xander nods not sure what he’s supposed to say. “Yeah. I mean, I was upset so I yelled for both you and him.”

  Ezra looks down at me, and then runs his hand over his jaw as he thinks. He glances up at Xander briefly
as he gives us an idea of what he’s thinking. “You were upset, fueled by energy inside of you. An energy that could have been passed from you to him.”

  He looks over his shoulder at Nate.

  I begin to realize what Ezra is thinking. “You think that Xander gave him the energy he needed to get up here?”

  Ezra nods, and then looks up at Xander. “How did you wake her?”

  Xander folds his arms over his chest. “I shook her to try to wake her, and then I pulled her to me. I held her head to my chest and kept calling her.” Xander looks at me briefly, and then he gazes down to the ground. “I told her to come back.”

  Ezra glances between Xander and me. “Somehow, you were able to pull her out of the dream, away from the tracker.”

  Xander responds, “When I was holding her, I felt—”

  Nate interrupts Xander and speaks urgently. “We need to stop talking and work on this, Ezra. She is vulnerable in there without any help. And my not being able to get to her—she could have fucking died!”

  Xander jumps in and directs his frustration at Nate. “I had her! Ezra just said that I brought her out of it!”

  I can feel the tension gaining momentum between them and I’m about to say something when Ezra speaks over them. “Fighting about it is doing no good! Nate, Xander had her. He also might have given you the bit of energy you needed to get up here! In the morning, we will figure this out. I can tell we have our work cut out for us between the two of you. Right now, we need to try to rest, if not sleep. All of us need to be at our best with someone tracking her again.”

  Nate looks between Ezra and me, and then heads to the door. As Ezra talks to me about trying to rest rather than sleep, I watch Xander follow Nate. He gets to him before Nate reaches the door, but Nate ignores him calling his name and walks out the door. If Ezra weren’t sitting in front of me, I would go after him. I want to go after him and tell him it wasn’t his fault he couldn’t get to me fast enough. I know that’s what’s bothering him.

  Ezra grabs my hand to get my attention. “Hey, I’ll talk with Nate.”