Time - Chapter 21
I swirled in the darkness, enveloped by it, drifting in the nothingness.
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?
I swirled in the darkness, enveloped by it, drifting in the nothingness. When I entered the void previously, I had felt cold, hopeless, and desolate, but this was nothing like those times. Now, the darkness enveloped me like an old friend, and in it, I found the comfort I had been seeking for almost half my life.
It is not your time, yet, a soft voice said, and then a sudden jerk pulled me back into the light. I opened my eyes with a moan, and when I tried to move, a piteous whine followed a deep whimper.
“Don’t move,” Kimberly’s voice said, and so, of course, like a petulant child, I moved a second time, and it hurt even worse.
“Take these,” Zachary whispered, placing some pills in my hand.
I popped the pills into my mouth. My eyes focused on the glass of water he held toward me, and I downed it all before sitting up. My head was bandaged, and I felt dried blood still on my cheek.
“What ha—” I started, but then it hit me all at once: the attack, the escape, the crash, Veronica being ripped from my arms, and the demons—they have her. I bolted upright like a rocket, my face immediately contorting in a painful grimace. A pained sob escaped my lips.
“You’re going to hurt yourself—more,” Kimberly said.
“We have to find her.”
We were in the office building where Kimberly had shepherded me after the attack on my parent’s house. They had taken the plastic off one of the couches and used it as a makeshift bed.
“We’re going to, honey,” Zachary said. “Don’t you worry about that.”
“He’s right,” Kimberly replied. “I already made contact with a source in the demon world. Once you’re feeling up to it—”
“I’m fine,” I snapped, cutting her off. “Let’s go, right now.” She had something to say, but she stopped herself. “I know I’m in no condition to fight, Kimberly, but this is happening one way or another, and that little girl is not dying while I still draw breath. Do you understand?”
Kimberly nodded solemnly. She knew it meant sending me to my death. We both knew that, but that was always how it was going to end. We both knew that, too. She wrapped me up in a hug.
“I promised your parents I would look out for you, but even before that, when I brought you to them, do you remember what I told you?”
“I haven’t thought about it in a long time.” I looked at her while I probed my memory. “You told me that you were bringing me somewhere I would be safe—that I could be happy.”
“I wish you were happier longer, Lizzie. I feel like I failed you.”
I placed my hand on her shoulder. “You didn’t fail me, Kimberly. You saved me. You’ve always tried to save me. It’s okay. Really, if this is the way I’m going to go, then…well, at least I’ll go out in a blaze of glory, and maybe even take some of those demon nut sacks with me.”
“Heck yeah, honey,” Zachary said. “And you know what to do when you find out where they are, cuz I want a piece of those sum bitches, too.”
“You’ll have your chance,” Kimberly said. “Something tells me we’ll need all the help we can get.”
She swallowed the rest of her tears, then grabbed my hands, and together, the three of us vanished into the abyss. I had always seen it as a scary place, devoid of hope, but now, I knew that it was also a place of peace, of quiet, and of comfort, where you could be alone in your sadness without judgment.
We appeared again in the lobby of a beautiful hotel. I felt completely out of place. It didn’t help that several of the guests, each dressed in their finest, turned up their noses at us when we passed. Kimberly was unfazed, and I was too pained to care.
She led us toward an oak bar in the lobby, where a single figure, dressed in a red sequin dress with flowing, silky, black hair, sat, swirling an olive in a martini glass.
“Darling,” she said, without turning to us. “You must think highly of my skills to think I would have an answer already.”
Kimberly sat down next to her. “Cut the shit, Lilith. You already knew where they were when you sent me away. I saw it in your eyes.”
“Ooh, girl,” Zachary growled. “If that’s too—”
“Quiet, mutt.” She ate the olive from the toothpick before carefully turning to address Kimberly. “Another of your strays? I expect no less from your mannerless urchins.”
“Enough!” I hissed. “Where is Veronica?”
She furrowed her brows. “Excuse me now, little girl, it’s rude to interrup—”
Kimberly sighed. “Do you know where she is, Lilith?”
Lilith nodded. “I do. I’m afraid I don’t have good news for you. The girl…well, she is destined to end the Apocalypse, to be the last death in a great battle between Heaven and Hell. The demons in Hell—one, specifically—don’t want that to happen, obviously, and so, they want her to die now.”
“If she’s destined to end the Apocalypse,” I asked, threats be damned, “then how can they stop it? I mean, isn’t destiny, destiny?”
Lilith scoffed. “You know so little of the universe. It has its machinations, but we, each of us, have ours. If we couldn’t fight against our destiny, then your friend here would be dead a hundred times over.”
“So, it is possible to change your fate?” I asked excitedly.
Lilith looked me over, staring for a long moment. “Tough, but possible. Not for you, I’m afraid. Not this time, at least.”
“Says you,” I replied. The idea that I could change my fate brought a smile to my face and a shudder of exhilaration through my body. “If there’s a way to save Veronica, I’m going to do it.”
“We’re running out of time, Lilith,” Kimberly said. “Give me an address.”
Lilith reached into her bra and pulled out a card with an address written on it in beautiful calligraphy. “Be careful. There are dangerous games afoot.”
Kimberly snatched the card out of her hand. “There always are.”
This is a portal fantasy series with mythological roots and action-adventure tendencies. You can search through all my work on my website.