Copula Chronicles: The Complete Collection: Origin, Descend, Ascend, Legacy
Page 67
Why couldn’t she hear me? “Didn’t you hear me?”
She looks down, like she is thinking. “No, I guess it is this place trying to block our connection. What? Did you see something?”
How could she not see it? I whisper, “Ahead of you in the opening.”
She turns back to the opening and waits, watches, like a predator. I have never seen Anna like that.
Nate leans into me and whispers, “Something is off, Ezra.”
I look over at him. He shakes his head from side to side, looks at Anna, then back at me. No, Anna is fine. She is trying to protect us, get us to Jes. I shake my head and hiss barely above a whisper, not wanting Anna to hear, “No, don’t even go there, Nate. Nothing is off. She is fine.”
Nate looks away, runs his hand over his mouth, then looks ahead at Anna. “Fine.”
Anna looks back at us. “We need to move fast. I think the beings here are getting restless.”
That is all we need, to have the beings attacking us as well as Michael.
Anna looks at Nate. “Are you getting anything else from her?”
Nate looks down, like he is thinking, taking inventory, and then looks up at her, annoyed. “No, damn it, I can’t feel or hear anything. All I hear is random thoughts running through my head.”
Anna looks from Nate to me. “Stay close. Let’s go.”
CHAPTER 21: INFESTED
Sam
When the fog lifts from the hold Michael has on me, I take inventory of what is around me. I see lampposts ahead lining a suburban-like neighborhood. To my right is heavy brush and trees; the woods. It is beyond dusk now. I must have been under his complete control for a couple of hours. The sound of rustling within the trees makes my heart quicken. The beings here, what if they have discovered me? I quiet my deep breaths and listen. It could be Anna, Ezra and that kid Nate. I need to try to warn them.
Suddenly, my body acts on its own and moves swiftly, arms and legs pumping in an animal-like stride, low to the ground. When my body stops and I get my bearings, I see that I have sprinted a good two hundred feet down the street in a matter of seconds and am hunched behind the front end of a parked car. I look down at my hands, bloody from gripping the ground beneath them. They don’t even resemble human hands any more.
Michael’s thoughts violate my mind again, “They aren’t yours anymore, Sam. They belong to me and the beings here. With your tainted past, they couldn’t be more pleased with their acquisition.”
No, I’m still in here. I feel it. You are just trying to make me think they have taken my soul. I can still make things right. My body crumbles flat against the concrete, then jerks me backward and I am moving again, animal like, along the sidewalk, then up a driveway and into a nearby yard. I come to a stop, crouched next a cluster of trees. My vision is tunneled and focused on the front of the house. I hear foot movement coming from my right and I, the me inside, want to look, but I have no domain over myself. My body crouches lower and closer to the trunk of a tree, eyes still focused on the doorway of the house.
Three bodies come into my tunneled area of vision, to the doorway of this house. Whose house is this? They slowly climb the steps. The young kid, Nate, seems to lag behind Ezra hesitantly; he knows something is wrong. I try to use my mind to will my body to move, become my own again.
Michael’s thoughts break into my mind again, distracting my focus, “Not going to happen, Sam. Between me and these hungry, lost souls here, your soul is so appealing, you don’t stand a chance.”
The three, Anna, Ezra and Nate, open the door, cross the threshold, and close the door behind them. I think, what are you going to do to them?
Michael thinks, “Me?” His cackling laughter fills my head, “You and me.”
My eyes are still fixed on the front porch of the house, when I see a person running down the road toward the driveway. Anna? How can that be? She just went in there with Ezra and the kid.
Michael thinks, “So naïve, Sam. You make this so easy.”
Anna isn’t with them. I push against the ground to lunge out of the bushes, but I am held down, immobile. The numbing fog that has infested and oppressed me latches onto my mind again. I fight it, knowing that this is the last time Michael will enslave me, then I will be theirs to possess.
No. No. NO!
CHAPTER 22: PAPER HOUSE
Jesca
I hear Xander and Sebastian close behind me. I try to use my ability to ‘jump’ but I can’t. Has Michael or the beings affected our abilities or is it an illusion? I know it is wrong on so many levels to make them bend to my will like this, but it was the only way I was going to get them to follow.
I pick up my pace, pumping my legs harder, but my lightning speed doesn’t ever kick in. If Xander gets his chance, he will tackle me to the ground and hold me there until I listen to reason. The thing is, the faith in what I am doing, who I am doing it for, is the only reasoning I need right now. Ahead I see the break in the woods, a light. I hit the pavement without a hiccup in my footing.
Immediately I hear two sets of feet close behind me, they caught up quickly. The streetlight ahead comes upon us quickly with the speed we have taken. It has an intimate familiarity, one that is not pleasant. I look to my left and right quickly. The houses, I have passed them many times in my childhood. The gray one story with the bright-red shutters and door, the lime-green VW Beatle that always parked on the road, old Ms. McDermott watering her flowers, and the—Whoa! What? I do a double take, but Ms. McDermott and her watering hose are gone.
I don’t acknowledge Xander grabbing my arm and whipping around to face him. I keep my eyes on the yard that displayed Ms. M, waiting for her to reappear, for it to reappear. “It wasn’t her. It was him. He knows we are coming.”
My words must take Xander off guard, because his hands loosen around my arm. In his moment of weakness, I pull away and start running again.
Xander calls after me, “Jesca, our abilities are weakened; we can’t go up against him, not like this.” Suddenly, the road takes on an illusory quality, stretching in distance and rising in elevation. I feel the burning in my legs and my lungs catch fire as I keep running up the growing hill. I turn to see how far behind Xander and Sebastian are when I notice a thin, slinking fog trailing behind them. The fog quickly thickens and rolls along the glossy elevated pavement, climbing with Xander, Sebastian and me. Through my panting, I manage to holler, “Keep running!”
I look ahead of me and concentrate on the climb, but it is hard to ignore what could be within the fog gaining on us. I turn once more to see outlines of beings, human beings, within the fog; no faces only silhouettes and blackened sockets where eyes would normally reside.
Xander and Sebastian both look back to see what has my attention. The visible fear on their faces when they turn back is what gives me that extra push I need to fight the illusion of the impossible climb ahead of us. I turn back and pump my arms hard, swinging them in time with the pounding of my feet and my racing heart.
Up ahead, another street light.
Fifty yards away.
The way the mist gathers and swims in the atmosphere around the lamppost.
Twenty-five yards.
I look at the ground; wet, glossy asphalt shimmering in the light.
Fifteen yards.
I feel Xander and Sebastian at either side of me as I slow to a walk.
My nightmare, the one about my adoptive parents, Roan and Delilah. I turn in a circle, taking in the precision these beings, Michael, recreating an intimate terror that plagued me for years. If they thought it would spark that initial fear I felt again, they are mistaken. All this has done is piss me off.
Xander’s voice warns, “Move faster, Jes! They are on us!”
I turn to see the human-shaped shadows moving rigidly and unnaturally as they writhe in fast motion closer and closer.
Sebastian and Xander have stopped behind me. Out of breath, Sebastian says, “They aren’t advancing.”
I turn to see that the phantasmal figures are standing motionless, like sentinels, about a half a block from us rather than attacking.
I turn back to this displaced house, meant to be the embodiment of my childhood home. Among the graying, warped wood panels, I try to find some reminder that this was once where I lived with Roan, Delilah and Bethany. I approach the front door and glance at the front lawn, well, the lack of a lawn. Not a blade of grass to be found, just dirt. I step up onto the creaking wooden porch. The siding on the house is cracked and rotting and the two front windows have been broken out. The front door is no longer deep blue in hue, but rather corroded and peeled back to reveal the decaying wood beneath. I reach out to touch the specks of blue paint that have managed to cling to the door. That is my confirmation. This withered, shattered, and desecrated edifice is an illusion of the place I had called home as a child. I close my eyes and let my mind travel beyond the door, testing the murky waters of the illusion I’m about to leap into. I see nothing though.
“Jesca! No!”
Anna’s blood-curdling scream sets me into action. I rear back and kick the door, expecting it to splinter upon my contact, but it doesn’t. “Ouch, shit!”
Xander comes to my side. “Stop, Jes! You are going to hurt yourself!”
The pain quickly turns to anger. Ignoring Xander, I lunge at the door and make contact with my body; the door doesn’t budge. “I’m not going to let him stop me!”
I rear back and lunge once more with all my strength at the door. This time it gives and I stumble into the house blindly with Sebastian and Xander close behind and right into a hard chest and grabbing arms. “Ah, ah, ah, where do you think you are going little guardian?”
Sam’s voice is not like I remember: smooth and sly. It is coarse and clipped, like he is crazed, insane.
Xander reacts quickly and tries to grab hold of my outstretched hand, but the sound of a blade being unsheathed and the feel of cold steel on my neck steal my chance of a quick escape.
Xander is swaying from side to side, anger building within him as he thinks. I know what he is thinking.
Sebastian does too; he grips one of Xander’s arms. “Don’t, Xander.”
He growls in response to Sebastian’s plea and tries to pull away from him. I feel the burn that follows when the blade of Sam’s knife slides slowly. “Her life is teetering on your sanity, Xander. Don’t push a man that is fighting for his.”
I widen my eyes to send Xander the message loud and clear. “Back the hell off! He won’t hurt me unless you make him!”
Xander steps back and uncoils his fisted hands to show his surrender, and then he shakes his head. “I will surrender for her. Never again will I surrender to you.”
Sam loosens the tension on the blade resting on my neck. I feel a cold tickle running along my neck that can only be blood from the small cut Sam had inflicted. Xander’s eyes narrow on my neck and his mouth drops open slightly, releasing a groan. He obviously has seen the blood I feel sliding down my neck.
Sam puts his mouth close to my ear and snarls harshly, “Upstairs.”
It’s what I hear beneath the harsh snarl that catches my attention; a hushed thought, “Trying to hold on—hold back. Don’t want to hurt you.”
Sam’s hold on me has slackened and so has the fear he commanded when he took me in his arms at the door. He is fighting Michael. He is trying to keep from hurting me!
Another tenuous thought comes from a fractured Sam, “Trying. Make right.”
Within moments, Sam’s body is tensing with the blade pushing against my neck and he is wielding the commanding insidious energy he had moments earlier.
Michael is trying to take hold of Sam’s mind and possess him permanently. Suddenly, Sam pulls me backward and I try to steady my feet so I don’t stumble and slit my own throat. Each move Sam and I make, Xander and Sebastian follow. As I walk backward up the weak stairs sinking and giving beneath our weight, I keep my eyes fixed on Xander and Sebastian, hoping they don’t try to rescue me from my captive’s arms. If a sliver of Sam is still in control, he could help us fight Michael, save Ezra and Nate, and get us back home. Yet, if Michael takes complete possession and Xander or Sebastian make a move, we all will die. Call it what you will, but I choose to believe that Sam Crest is still in control of his body fighting dauntlessly for his redemption and our salvation.
CHAPTER 23: LOST SOULS
Jesca
We reach the last step on the stairs, Sam walks me backward a few steps, then stops in front of a closed door. I feel his hot breath on my neck as he pants laboriously. I can hear the fight he is putting up in there with every breath he takes. I need to try to reach him. I open my mouth, but hesitate. I look at Xander clutching the rail of the staircase, ready to pounce if Sam makes the wrong move. Sebastian’s eyes are fixed on Sam while his hand braces Xander’s shoulder in warning. I shake my head at Xander, telling him to back down. I try to pass my thoughts to him. “If you can hear me, please don’t hate me for what I’m about to say, Xander.”
I release the breath I am holding and deliver the words that might give Sam the absolution he seeks and the fortitude to not let go of himself. “Sam, whatever happens, I forgive you. For everything.”
Xander’s hand falls from the railing and he backs down one step, not just mentally, but physically thrown by what I have just said. Sebastian rests both of his hands on Xander’s shoulders to support him, but he shrugs them off and starts moving toward Sam and me. I feel Sam tense up and the door behind us open. Sam backs me through the doorway swiftly and spins me around to face the heart of the room. My heart drops when I see Ezra and Anna standing side by side looking at me with anguish in their eyes and Nate writhing in Michael’s arms with a knife at his throat, mirror image of Sam and me.
I cry out, “Nate!”
I try to wiggle against Sam’s hold, but he tightens his arm and presses the blade firmer against my throat. I’m no good dead, so I still under him. I take in the room around me and recognize the scene from my dream instantly; Roan and Delilah fighting against the ominous aura and possession. Yes, that nightmare is from a distant past that easily feels like a lifetime ago for me. Seeing things now, it was not a nightmare. It was a premonition of this, right now, saving Ezra and Anna. The possession? Sam. Will I be able to save him?
Anna whimpers her plea, “Please, Sam. Don’t do this.”
Michael sadistically mimics her plea, “Please, Sam, don’t do this. Shut the hell up!”
Anna’s entire body shakes as she tries to contain her sobs and hiccups.
Ezra is shaking his head, eyes glassy and mouth tortured with sadness.
Michael shifts his nefarious glare back to Sam and me and smiles. “He can’t hear you. His decayed, lost soul will never find its way back to his body.” He looks down at Nate and tightens his hold around his neck, making Nate gasp. Michael says, “You know, you remind me of Sam in a way, Nathaniel, addicted to a woman that you will never have. Yes, yes, you found me out! Realized I wasn’t your precious mother. Touché. ”
Nate’s eyes pinch closed, using all of his strength to hold Michael’s arm. Michael looks back at me now. “She is a very beautiful woman. She has a wandering eye though.”
I wiggle in Sam’s arms and kick my legs out at Michael. He knows nothing about what I feel for either of them. I can’t take much more of this bastard. “Son of bitch.”
Ignoring me, Michael takes his free hand and points beyond Sam and me. “Alexander Crest.”
Noticeably,
I feel Sam’s arm loosen around my waist, and the blade of the knife relent.
Michael quickly puts his hand up to correct his slip of the tongue. “Sorry. I mean Alexander Sera.”
I hear a scuffle behind us. I can’t see, but I can imagine Sebastian is having to hold Xander back. Xander bellows, “Don’t even speak my name, Michael!”
Nate squirms in Michael’s arms, but he is stronger and pins him tighter. He continues, “Both of you have found something special in the one and only Jesca Sera. She doesn’t realize how special she is to me though.”
That is when I feel the humming vibration within me; it’s faint, but it is there. I take hold of that vibration and try to gather every ounce of energy within me, trying to build it within me. I grip Sam’s forearm tighter and I whisper, “Let me go, Sam.”
Michael’s deep-brown eyes move back to me and he shakes his head. His eyes seek mine to intimidate, and sure as hell, it does stir the fear he desires enough to make me lose my grip on the energy I have built. At that moment, there is a pounding above us and all around us on the walls and ceiling. Michael is just as shocked as we are as he looks all around him.
Sam’s thoughts invade my head, “They are coming for all of us.”
It is the clearest his thoughts have been, making me see that Michael’s hold on him has weakened, but for how long? I don’t have much time. I start to fidget, but Sam’s arm doesn’t loosen.
He whispers, “Not yet.”
Michael’s head snaps back to Sam and me. He heard him. Damn it! The humming vibration is faint, but I hold on to every surge of energy stirring within me.
Ezra’s words pull Michael’s attention from me. “Did you really think that these beings would leave you unscathed, Michael? You did. You thought they would protect you.”
The pounding shakes the walls and the door behind me. Cracks begin to stretch across the ceiling above us. Michael tightens his hold on a still-struggling Nate.
Ezra pushes more, “They are going to come in here and take all of us. You think you will leave this place, but you won’t. They will never let you leave!”