Time - Chapter 18
It had begun. For a decade, I tried to outrun my prophecy, but as I watched the fire consume my childhood home with my father’s charred body inside of it,
This is a portal fantasy series with mythological roots and action-adventure tendencies. You can search through all my work on my website.
In the ashes of her past, she will rise up, and her death will save us all.
Lizzie ran from her past for ten years, zigzagging across the United States every few months, trying to outlast the prophesy that an oracle gave to her when she was just sixteen years old.
But nobody can run from their destiny forever.
After watching her friend brutally gunned down by a group of ruthless demons, she had no choice but to protect the woman’s child, and there was only one place where Lizzie knew the girl would be safe.
Bronard, Missouri.
Home.
She stayed away to protect her parents, but the girl needed mystical protection.
Her parents had taken in magical strays their whole lives, including Lizzie. If anyone could save the poor child’s life, it would be her mother and father.
But will returning to her home doom Lizzie even as she works to save the child she has vowed to defend?
It had begun. For a decade, I tried to outrun my prophecy, but as I watched the fire consume my childhood home with my father’s charred body inside of it, I knew for a fact that the last decade of my life had been folly. I could have stayed put, in my cozy room, with my loving family. I didn’t have to abandon them. I didn’t have to run for ten years. I didn’t have to blow up my life—my prophecy came for me anyway.
I could have graduated high school, gone to college, worked the land with my parents while they were still young and healthy enough to do so, and taken the load off them when they grew enfeebled. If I had been home, maybe my mother would have fought harder, and my father wouldn’t have given up so much of himself to save her.
But I left to protect them and took on the burden of a hard, horrible life, to make sure they didn’t suffer…and yet, they did suffer. And in the end, my prophecy caught up with me.
“We have to go,” Kimberly said, pulling me through the fields.
“The fire,” I said, stunned. “We have to stop the fire.”
Even as I said it, I knew that was impossible. Flames had consumed the walls and the roof already. If a fire truck arrived right then, it still would have been hard to contain, and the nearest station was ten minutes away.
Kimberly was an expert at fighting monsters, but I saw the fear in her eyes as red flashes blinked all around the house, and more demons appeared to give chase. Despite all of that, my instinct was to run inside, back to my father.
“Don’t be an idiot,” Kimberly grumbled, stopping to catch her breath. “He’s dead. Mourn him, but don’t join him.”
“Fine,” I said, watching the demons charge toward us. “You’re right. Let’s go, then!”
“I need a minute. If I don’t focus perfectly, we could be lost in the ether, and I’m not in the best state right now.” Red lights flashed around us, and three more demons appeared in the cornfields. “Guess I don’t have a choice.”
Kimberly pulled me toward her and tossed a pinch of pixie dust from her pouch to the ground. We evaporated, and I fell through the inky blackness. It didn’t suck the hope from me this time because I had no hope left. I had only the knowledge that I was fate’s pawn. Everything I had ever heard about having agency and free will was a load of garbage.
My stomach sank and then expanded as we popped back into the universe, and I fell to the ground onto cold concrete. We were in an empty building. Plastic covered the exposed walls and the office equipment that speckled the floor.
“Catch your breath,” Kimberly said, rubbing my back. “If you want to cry—”
I threw off her hand and stood. “I don’t want to cry. I want to punch something!”
She shrugged. “Well, this place is being renovated, and all these walls are scheduled for demo, so go for it.”
I looked back at her, trying to judge if she was messing with me, but she just gave a small nod. I had spent a decade bottling up my emotions, and at that moment, I didn’t want to contain them anymore. They came out like a geyser.
I picked the closest wall to me and slammed my hand hard into it. The drywall buckled but didn’t cave, and the impact stung. It felt right. The ripples of pain that shot through my body when I punched the wall again masked the pain erupting from my broken heart. Everything I knew had been ripped away from me.
No mother. No father. No place to call home.
I beat my fists against the wall until the tears overtook me, and I crumbled to the floor, streaks of blood trailing from my knuckles.
“Are you done?”
“NO!” I shouted. I punched the wall again, but my strength had left me.
“Okay.” Kimberly crossed her legs and watched me. “Take your time.”
I turned from her gaze. “Stop looking at me.”
“I can’t do that, kid. I promised your parents I’d look out for you, and you’re in a fragile state. I have to make sure you don’t hurt yourself…well, hurt yourself more.” She stopped for a moment. “Did you break anything?”
I looked at the blood-stained wall. I had managed to knock a big hole in it, and a piece of drywall dangled above me. “Just the wall, I think.”
“Didn’t hit a stud, did you? Those things hurt like the dickens.”
“No.” I looked down at my hands, flexing them in alternating pulses. “Aside from being bruised and bloody, they don’t feel broken.”
“Good,” Kimberly replied. “Last thing we need is to take you to the hospital with a broken knuckle.”
“Yes. That would take this night to another level of suck.”
“I know that’s a joke,” Kimberly said. “But please trust me, there are so many additional levels of suck here that you couldn’t even imagine.”
“Name one.”
She slid closer. “Well, you’re not in Hell right now, so that’s one right there.” She scooted closer still. “You didn’t have an arm ripped off by a demon; there’s another one.”
“No, just everything I’ve ever known was taken from me. I guess that’s just a jolly stroll in the park to you.”
Kimberly slid next to me. “No, Lizzie, this sucks really bad. Almost nobody in the history of the world had had a crappier day than you, but it could always be worse.”
“Cheery,” I croaked through my tears. “You always were a ray of sunshine.”
She placed her hand on my leg. “Nobody has ever accused me of being chipper, just effective. Part of that includes being able to put terrible situations in context and keeping my head.” She sighed. “It’s a skill I don’t wish on my worst enemy.”
I rested my head against the wall behind me and looked at her. “Seems to be working out okay for you.”
She chuckled. “Yeah, people call me resilient. They say because I’ve seen so much, I can bounce back from anything, but no one…we shouldn’t have to be resilient. No one should have to see the things I’ve seen. I only hope that everyone I ever save can grow up to be soft. But that’s not the way of the world now, is it?”
“It’s a nice dream.”
She squeezed my shoulder. “Unfortunately, you’re going to have to be resilient today, Lizzie.”
“Why? Can’t I just crumble?”
“Two reasons. First, the prophecy said that once you have lost everything, you’ll rise, and I have faith that’s true, as much as I hate it. You may not believe this, but I was hoping that prophecy was garbage as much as you were—maybe more.”
I wiped the tears from my eyes. “And what’s the second reason.”
“There’s a little girl out there whose prophecy is intertwined with yours, and there’s no doubt in my mind they’re after her, too. If they haven’t found her already, they will soon.”
Veronica. She was in trouble. The moment the words crossed my mind, every bit of sadness crusted over, replaced by a determination to save her. The demons would not win. They would not get Veronica…even if it cost me everything, I would make sure that little girl was safe.
I pushed myself up. “Then we have to go…now.”
This is a portal fantasy series with mythological roots and action-adventure tendencies. You can search through all my work on my website.