The Shattered Genesis (Eternity)

by Rudacille, T.

  “How could you have saved her? How could you have saved her from Earth? She doesn't deserve...”

  “Perhaps she does deserve life and perhaps she does not. I owed her a debt. If it were not for her, I would not have survived infancy. If she had not cared for me, I would not have grown up to care for you and Penny. You two would not exist, either.”

  “But it's so wrong!” I wanted to reach out and throw my arms around her. I needed her to comfort me when the situation called for the reverse.

  “Yes.” She replied vaguely. I got the feeling that she didn't know what else to say.

  “How can you not hate her? I hate her now! I hate them all for letting it happen and for blaming you for Lucien...”

  “Violet...” She whispered and warmth finally emerged in her words. I felt her hands on my face and her thumbs wiping my tears away. “I have carried great anger for many years. That rage plants the most insidious, detrimental thoughts in one's mind. I do not wish that for you. Everything that has happened to me is my own burden to carry, like I said. Do not add to that weight by embracing anger, rejection and despondency. It is useless now. It was useless then, as well.”

  “But it's not fair!”

  “You know exactly which cliché I am going to utilize so I will not even say it.”

  “I know. Life isn't fair.”

  “Indeed. We are safe now. We have created a new life. You were happy before this conversation, weren't you?”

  I nodded.

  “I love it here.” I told her honestly.

  “I know. If all of the things that happened on Earth were payment for the happiness we are currently experiencing, then it was worth it. It was worth this chance at something better than what we would have had. Okay?”

  I nodded and looked up at her. Then, I turned my gaze to James.

  “James, I know it's an uphill battle, but you better take care of her.”

  “I can take perfectly satisfactory care of myself, thank you so much.” Brynna told me with the usual sass in her voice. Her tone reassured me that she was returning to normal.

  “Fine. Then how about this? James, take care of her when she finds herself incapable of taking care of herself. Is that better?”

  “Indeed.”

  “I've learned to navigate these conversational minefields she sets up.” James told me, “You need to start watching your step. She'll get you.”

  “I know she will. But I'm serious.”

  “And I will do just that, Vi. You don't need to worry about that. It is my job to put her above myself, and I do. I always do.”

  I nodded, feeling genuinely relieved. I looked between the two of them for a moment. Though they fought, there was a durability to their relationship now that was far superior to anything that could be experienced in the early stages of a romance on Earth. It was odd to think that two people who had only met maybe four months earlier would be capable of possessing such deep feelings for one another. But the forces of the universe were strong and insistent that they meet and fall in love, never to part for the duration of their eternal lives. I wondered if they would have children together.

  “My stars, Violet Mae!” Brynna exclaimed, and she grasped her chest in shock.

  “What? What?” I asked as the panic pulled me from the depth of my thoughts. My thoughts... I gasped and covered my ears. “Stop doing that!”

  “Children!?” She repeated, “Are you daft?!”

  She grasped James's hands tightly to steady herself.

  “Oh, no...” James replied, shaking his head back and forth quickly. “We have more than our fair share with you and Penny. Actually, we have the best of both worlds with you two; we have the teenager to make us pull our hair out and the precious, angelic little girl to shower with love and gifts.”

  “What are you going to shower me with, then?” I put my hands on my hips in mock indignation.

  “Advice and stern warnings.” James answered immediately. Brynna and I both broke out into laughter. She stood on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek. I knew that she was comforted by his inclusion in our lives and how openly he discussed being present in the long run. It was consistency and stability that had never been given to her, for whatever reason.

  Everything should have looked up from there. But then, we had been saying that for far too long. It was while we were picking up Penny from the kitchen that we knew, beyond any doubt, that something terrible was brewing.

  An almost tangible rage and tension laid heavily over the house like a blanket of smog. People were shouting, running, and demanding blood for those we had lost. When Don passed us calmly, he listened to their demands but said nothing. I saw more white eyes and fangs than I should have been comfortable with. People were ready to go to war.

  “Brynn!” Penny ran to us, her ballerina flats pattering against the floor almost noiselessly. She jumped into Brynna's arms and squeezed her tightly.

  “Hey, baby,” Brynna greeted her soothingly in an attempt to pretend like nothing was wrong. “Did you have fun?”

  “Everyone is yelling and running! Everyone is mad!” Penny looked between the three of us. “I'm scared because they're loud and they have sharp teeth and their eyes are scary! I wanted to come find you!”

  “No.” Brynna replied firmly, “You do not ever leave the person that I ask to watch you, Penelope.”

  A genuine fear was in Brynna’s eyes, one that was there and gone in a matter of seconds. It had emerged at the thought of being unable to find Penny.

  “Don't be afraid, honey.” Brynna nuzzled Penny gently with her head. “No one's going to hurt you. We are just going to go upstairs and play until dinner, okay?”

  Penny nodded and reached her tiny arms out to James. Brynna handed her over and rubbed her back for a minute when Penny laid her head against his.

  “Alright, come on....”

  We opened the door to leave the kitchen only to find Adam and Don standing right in our path.

  “Can you two talk?” Don asked, “It's very important.”

  “No.” Brynna and James replied simultaneously as they pushed past them.

  “We're going after the Bachums. We're going to need all the able-bodied people we can find.”

  “Funny, baby, I thought we told them that we couldn't talk?” James told Brynna.

  “Yes, that's quite humorous. I remember saying that, as well.” Brynna replied.

  “They have crossed over onto our land, killed our people senselessly and unfairly...”

  “They threaten your very place on Purissimus.” Adam added convincingly. I knew that his eyes were only on Brynna. “You will fight them sooner or later, if you wish to stay.”

  “No, I will not. Coincidentally, Adam, you have some rogue civilians joined up with the other team. Either that or you are playing Don for a fool, which I am sure is none too difficult.”

  “To what are you referring?”

  “Oh, just the people clearly from this planet that we saw fighting with the Bachums people. No big deal.” James replied airily.

  “Those were not my people.” Adam informed him with a soft chuckle of derision. “They are the Old Spirits, far removed from my city. Their allegiance with the others is not surprising. They favor ruthless, pious action to appease the one God. Both the Bachums and the Old Spirits remain rooted firmly in the past that simply cannot exist nowadays. It is unsurprising.”

  “Maybe it is evidence, though, that you have no handle on the people of your world so you should stop trying to have a handle on the people from ours. Just a thought...” James continued.

  “We are going down to question those we took.” Don interrupted them. I noted that he looked even tinier in Adam's shadow. “James, Brynna, I'd like for you to accompany me.”

  “Yes.” Brynna replied, “And I would like five minutes of peace and a unicorn but those are simply not options, are they?”

  “There is no other option for the two of you right now. You will either join us or suffer the co
nsequences.” Adam informed them dryly.

  “And what, dare I ask, are the consequences? I thought there were no laws here, Don. I thought that nothing was required.”

  “It's not.” Don replied timidly. He shrunk even more under Brynna's harsh stare. “It's not required by me, at least. But he has final say.”

  “Whatever fear I had of you has officially been pacified.” James told Don sarcastically. Don scowled at him.

  “I wield power you cannot possibly imagine, James. If you're not afraid of me, you certainly should be.”

  “You're just the sidekick. If I'm not afraid of the boss, why would I be afraid of his right-hand man?”

  “You're making me very angry.”

  “And what? I won't like you when you're angry?” James pressed him tauntingly.

  “No, you won't. We have been gifted with powers, James. Do you want to know what mine is? I can harness emotional energy. With it, I can...” He closed his eyes for a moment and the floor beneath our feet began to shake. At first, it was only a slight rumble, similar to what is felt when a car is turned on. But then, the very foundation of the house began to tremble; people were running and screaming past us, trying to get out before the whole structure crumpled to the ground. Penny was crying and James was holding her close with both hands. I held onto Brynna, screaming with the others, as the torches lighting the hallway flickered and went out. Throughout the duration of that man-made earthquake, Adam merely smiled and leaned against the wall, observing the dust that fell from the ceiling.

  “Stop it!” Brynna screamed at him after finally stepping forward. She glared into his eyes when he opened them again. He lurched forward, stumbling several steps, looking alarmed. The shaking ceased.

  “All you had to do, Don, was ask nicely.” Brynna hissed at him as he crumpled to his knees, holding his temples. “Do you want to know what my power is? I can see and understand things that you know nothing of. I can see every thought in your mind, all sadness that you have held in your heart and every fear you have ever run from. If that demonstration of strength was meant to make us succumb to your will, then know this: I can make that very power you harness destroy you from the inside out. James can rip you apart without stopping for breath. Now, what was it that you wanted from us?”

  It all made sense now; we were predestined for these powers we now wielded. Brynna had always been unthinkably intelligent but now she could read our minds and hearts while sensing future events by instinct alone. She understood the forces of the universe, how they shifted and contorted to warn us of impending danger. I had always been prone to violent rages, petrifying anxiety and crippling depression. There had been times when I was sure those storms of feeling would be the end of me. Once, they were the end of someone I held very dear to me. Miranda had paid the price for my burgeoning, adaptive power.

  “Violet!”

  I looked at Brynna and James. Penny was still in James's arms, crying into his neck, her tiny body trembling in fear. It had been Brynna that had shouted.

  “Take Penny back to mine and James's room. Lock the door. Do not let anyone in unless it is Alice, Quinn, or Elijah.”

  “Why do I have to lock the door?” James handed Penny to me.

  Brynna watched as a man went running by, shouting to Don that it was time to go to war. She looked back at me, raised an eyebrow and pursed her lips.

  “Right.” I replied, “Be quick, you two. Okay?”

  She nodded. Then she did something she hadn't done in almost five years. She grasped my face and pressed her lips to my forehead. I was stunned and moved so deeply by the gesture that tears rushed into my eyes by their own will. She nodded to me again and I hurried off with Penny, looking over my shoulder just before I rounded the corner.

  The people of our house were stomping and shouting like hungry animals in a deadly herd. A stampede would soon be heading into the north after the Bachums. Their attack on us had proven that they were ready to fight until they erased us from existence. Now, we had to show that we desired the very same course of action.

  In the eyes of both Brynna and James, I saw that they understood that terrible truth as well as I did, if not better. They were ready to fight. They wanted nothing more than to live the peaceful life they had promised Penny and me, but they knew that wasn't an option now.

  The darkness was closing in.

  Brynna

  “I am going to speak with the boy from the cave. His father and I do not see eye-to-eye.”

  I stared at Adam, wondering why he was justifying his actions only to me. I did not care about the war he wished to start nor the one that had raged for years before our arrival on the planet. I looked up when dust fell from the ceiling; the people we had been living with were no better than animals. They were running through the house, gathering any blunt instruments that could be used as weapons. Their rage knew no bounds.

  I understood that completely. It had been a truce made behind closed doors: The Bachums would not set foot on our land. We would abide by the same courtesy. The bodies in the trees had simply been a final warning. I could not justify such senseless violence but I did understand, if only somewhat.

  “I do not wish for you to see me speak to him.”

  “Why is that, Adam?” I asked with my arms crossed over my chest.

  “Because I know that you already think very little of me.”

  I was confused, a state of being that was as alien to me as the man I was looking at.

  “And the feelings of an Earthean woman are important to you?”

  There was a trace of a smile on his lips.

  “Only yours, my dear Brynna.”

  “Why is that?”

  Now, he was openly smiling.

  “Another time.”

  He turned and sauntered away. The torches flickered as he passed, cowering in his growing ire. I returned to James who had been watching my conversation with Adam closely.

  “He does not want me to watch him interrogate the boy from the cave.”

  “Why?” James asked.

  “Well, it certainly does not matter. Don wants us to interrogate the other boy. I do not believe that Adam will harm Jonathon. He is the other leader's son. He is much too important to be dispatched so quickly.”

  “He is. I think you're right. I hope so, at least.” He turned his gaze to me. “I'm starting to think we were wrong.”

  “Wrong in the side we chose or wrong in our capture of Jonathon?”

  “Both. But in regards to the former, we certainly weren't going to go sing to the heavens with the Bachums.”

  “Definitely not.” I chuckled, “Or be forced into a loveless marriage where we had to bear ten children.”

  “I can't say I wouldn't enjoy that.”

  “Oh, no?”

  “Nope.”

  We laughed only slightly. I kissed him and buried my face in his neck.

  “You are no longer a canine. You are officially swine.”

  I felt his warm breath on my neck when he laughed now.

  “I know. I'm a sick man.”

  “No.” I shook my head and looked up at him. “James, I don't want to do this.”

  “I know.” My inner storm was calmed for the duration of time that his lips were on mine. “I don't want you to do this, either. Just wait out here for me, okay? Anything that you could gather from him with your power, I can easily gather with mine. Maybe you can convince Adam to leave Jonathon alone. He seems to value your opinion.”

  I shook my head.

  “No. I won't leave you to face doing this alone. And Adam will not listen; his fury was too great.”

  “So, he'll kill him? Could you see that?” James asked me, somewhat more intensely than I expected. “We'll never be able to right this, if he does. It will be our fault if he dies. He's a kid. He's probably Violet's age.”

  I nodded and stood on my tiptoes to rest my forehead against his. In a trembling voice, I whispered:

  “We made a terrible mistake.
”

  Those words were weighted with such stinging regret, with such terrifying implications. If that boy died, it would be our fault. We had acted rashly, thinking that he would be able to offer some useful information to us. We had thought that handing him over to Adam would be easy; we had thought that it would guarantee our safety. Yet there we were, still stuck on the front-lines of the storm that was coming to pass.

  “Don wants him alive. He wants them both alive. We have no choice but to do this.” My eyes met his again. “With what we were talking about earlier...”

  “About our two choices?”

  “Indeed. What about in regards to the latter?”

  He was quiet for a long moment. That pause was enough of an answer but still, he spoke.

  “You're right. That was a mistake. We could have left. It was egotistical of me to take him...”

  “You? Egotistical? No.” I smiled up at him.

  “A cliché about rocks and glass houses comes to mind, my dear.” He told me calmly, “I thought it was a smart move. But now, I feel guilty about it. Do you feel guilty about it?”

  “Of course I do. He is very young, like you said. He looks that way, anyway. Now, if he dies, his blood is on our hands.”

  “You know what that means, don't you?”

  “I am sure I do.”

  He raised his eyebrow at me, calling me silently on my own ego once again. I grinned at him innocently.

  “We need to rectify the error.”

  “By breaking him out of here?” I asked, stunned.

  “Imagine that, you didn't know what it meant. We need to try to convince Adam to let him go first. If that doesn't work, then yes. We need to let him go ourselves.”

  I nodded in response.

  “I agree.”

  We were stalling out of fear of admitting exactly what we had been asked to do. We were meant to interrogate the boy from the Bachum camp; we were meant to get answers through whatever means were necessary. Were our hearts truly cold enough to commit such an act?

  “Remember that they killed three of our people.” James told me. “We were completely outnumbered and outgunned. We're lucky to still be here. To still be alive, I mean.”