When Darkness Falls, page 6
"Do you have any idea where her bod-"
Katherine cut me off, yanking me toward her car, forcing me into the driver's seat.
"I'll tell you where to go. You just drive, okay?"
I nodded, watching her nibble on the pads of her fingers.
I placed a hand on her shoulder, squeezing it, as I started the car and drove whenever she told me to go.
She gripped the steering wheel so tightly her knuckles turned white, and I looked over at her. She had the tightest frown on her face, like she was holding in something. My heart sped at the realization that she was trying not to cry.
"It's okay, Kat. You know... It's okay to cry for her..." I found myself saying, as tears welled into my own eyes. I blinked them away, trying to not let her see me cry.
She would think I wasn't the strong one in this situation when she was barely holding it together, and I couldn't have that. I couldn't have her considering me to be the weakest link, chain, or tie in this tiny thread we were forging. All because of Sinclair. All due to her death.
I winced.
Maybe Katherine was fooling me, Maybe Sinclair was too. This could have been a cruel joke to get me to confess my undying love for her or something.
Yeah, that's it, I inwardly rationalized, as my heart raced even more.
I looked out the window, as the rain plummeted against the windows of her tiny Toyota Corolla. I was surprised the car was still running, as the engine hummed like it was on its last leg.
Finally, she pulled up to the woods, killed the engine and looked at me. Her eyes were red, and her irises were dim.
"She-... In t-there- '' she tried to say. She closed her eyes, exhaling a few times before meeting my gaze.
"She's in there?" I questioned, finishing her original statement.
"Yes..." her voice was a whisper, one that let me know she was scared. Hell, I was scared, too. The girl I had harbored feelings for could have been dead, and her best friend was in her car, directing me toward the place where her body might be laying. That was terrifying in and of itself, and as she slowly got out of her car, glancing over her shoulder at me, it didn't help quell the inner turmoil I was dealing with.
I was waiting on the dam to break; waiting for the floodgates to open and the tears to really stream down because I had lost Sinclair. But as we made it through the woods, the tears never came back and they never fell.
As we stopped next to a burning flame that seemingly appeared out of nowhere, Katherine placed her right hand on my left arm.
"Hush..." she hissed, glancing around the darkness, trying to listen closely. I could tell she was feeling, because she closed her eyes, inhaling and exhaling calmy.
What the hell was going on?
"She's this way..." she said, pulling me along. I would have watched my feet, but the darkness made that impossible. We sped up, walking at a brisk pace and almost out of breath.
Then, as the thunder rumbled around us, we broke into a run.
Finally, we reached a brook, a streaming river in the middle of the woods. That was when I saw her. And my heart stopped.
She looked like she was sleeping, peacefully, and my heart clenched tightly within my chest. My legs moved of their own accord, my feet carrying me to her. She looked... beautiful.
I blinked several times, occasionally glancing back at Katherine to make sure she was still there, and that I wasn't dreaming. I needed to know this was real and that Sinclair was inches away from me. I needed to know that she was in fact dead and I wasn't hallucinating because I hadn't heard from her in a few days.
Her body was still, as the simple, white gown she wore made her skin appear translucent. I didn't glance at all of her, just her face. Her face was still beautiful and I couldn't resist. I reached out and touched her face, gently sliding my left hand over her right cheek. When she didn't move, it was then the scream ripped from my throat, and my hand fell from her face. I draped my body over hers, feeling her cold skin against my cheek.
"Wake up, Sinclair..." I whispered it over and over, until my tears were no more and my hands were bloody.
I couldn't understand. And all the while Katherine just stood by and watched me mourn her death, watched me mourn her dead, best friend. Without so much as coming my way and comforting me. Sure, we weren't close and had only been around each other a handful of times, mainly in a group setting, but still.
I wanted to know I wasn't alone in this situation.
Damn did I feel by myself, and that hurt. I ripped myself away from Sinclair's cold body drenched in rain, and a lightning bolt struck a nearby tree. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Katherine flinch, still not making any moves to tell me everything was going to be okay and that this was some cruel, sick joke.
My mind had to be playing tricks on me, because Sinclair's body turned from cold to warm to blazing hot in a matter of seconds.
But her eyes never opened, and none of her body parts moved.
Her hands didn't twitch. The muscles in her eyelids of her cheeks or her legs didn't either. She didn't spasm once. She didn't even blink. She just laid there on the freezing ground. Maybe it was the warmth from the lightning striking the tree, but that would be stupid. Even if the ground was that respective to the hit, my hands would be warm, and my body shivered even more, long after the blood had frozen into the snow.
And poor Katherine just stood there, petrified. That had to be it.
"Katherine?" I asked, my teeth knocking against one another so fast.
"Y-ye-yes?" she stammered, finally looking at me.
"She's warm..." was all I said, as another lightning bolt struck.
Katherine jumped, then, and so did I. That loud crack splintered the three nearly a few feet away from where we were standing, and I moved to my left, gripping Sinclair's body by the shoulders, pulling her back toward the river with me.
"Just le-leave her, Eph-Ephraim..." Katherine advised, and I looked at her so sharply, I was shooting daggers. I wanted her to feel them, wanted her to understand how pointless and ludicrous she was. How ludicrous that sounded.
Leave her lying there to be smashed to bits by a giant tree?
"Are you crazy?" I yelled at her, shaking my head, pulling Sinclair's body over mine, holding her face to my chest. She was still warm, still so warm, and that gave me truly little comfort.
I just needed her to open her eyes, to wake up. To tell me I wasn't stupid, crazy, or insane. And that, again, she was playing a cruel, sick trick on me.
"If you want me to tell her I love her, I do. I really, truly do. And I've loved her since the first day I saw her in the hallway as a freshman. I wasn't that strong, brave guy you see now. I was scared, scrawny, and geekly. I was a nerd, but she was the only one who was nice to me. Even if it was a quick glance in the hallway, or a soft hello, she was nice to me. She got me. She understood me, and sure, it took some time. But I realized that she was the kind of girl... She was the girl that I wanted to be with. She was the kind of nice, caring, selfless girl I needed in my life. And I love her. I loved her then," I said, glancing down at Sinclair's body, "And I love her now."
I placed a soft kiss on the crown of her head, as the tears started up again. And I cried all over again, holding her body so close to me that I could feel my heart beat drumming some foreign rhythm against her lifeless body.
What seemed like hours later, Katherine came over to me, peeled me away from Sinclair's body, severing the tie I had with her friend.
"Ephraim..." she whispered, as my body jerked awake. "We should go..."
"Why did you bring me all the way out here and not tel;l me how she died?"
"I found her... in my bed, and her last wish was that I bring her here.. Somewhere private and secluded... So her body could rest. So, I brought her here- next to this river. In the middle of the woods."
"She was with you last night?"
She nodded.
"And you didn't CALL ME once you realized SHE WASN’T BREATHING?!"
Katherine jumped back as if I had stuck her. Good. I wanted her to hear and feel how stupid she sounded.
"You didn't tell me she died..." I muttered, shaking my head. I walked away from Katherine, who was holding Sinclair's body on her right side, close to her chest.
"You didn't even think enough of me. Her boyfriend, to let me know she had died...."
I scoffed. "Wow, Katherine. What a friend you are."
"I didn't... I'm-"
"Don't you dare say you're sorry! Don't you dare say you're sorry. You're not. If you were, you would have called me first thing!" I ran up on her, glaring down into her eyes.
She started crying, but I didn't care. I needed to get the heck away from her, and figure out how to get Sinclair... I paused. Sinclair wasn't coming back. She wasn't coming back. She wasn't coming back. In my brain, I knew that, I accepted that. I believed that.
But my heart told me there was another way.
I remembered my mother and all her talk of God and angels... and how angels can heal and God can resurrect.
As I made my way deeper into the woods, away from Katherine and Sinclair's body, I fell to the ground, my knees sinking into the snow. With a loud cry, I broke. The damn in me broke.
I wanted to understand why she was gone and why I was so in the dark about why she was gone. Why hadn't Katherine trusted me enough to know that I wouldn't say anything to anyone else? Why did she not believe in me enough to know that I loved her best friend? That her best friend meant so much to me. Meant the world to me?
My heart sank as my hands balled into fist. I hit the ground, as piles of snow met my fists, then blood started spewing from my hands, the harder I pounded. With each and every hit, more blood came. Tears came. Bitterness, anger, and disappointment showed up and wrapped me in an embrace so tight, I couldn't breathe. But I knew they were there. And I knew I was all alone. I knew that I would be the one to pick up the pieces and move on, or try to anyway.
I knew that my life would never be the same.
"Ephraim..." a still, small voice called out to me in a whisper.
I glanced around, hoping to find someone, but no one was there.
"Ephraim..." the voice called again, and I pushed myself up off the ground, wiping my sweaty hair from out of my eyes and over the back of my head with the rest of it.
"Ephraim..."
"Who- who's there?" I called out, my body trembling.
"Come closer," the voice beckoned, and I walked a few steps, trying to figure out where it was leading.
"She's not dead..."
My heart sped up within my chest, and I all but jumped for joy. But... she was dead. I had just seen her body some time ago. Sure, she was warm, but she wasn't moving.
She was out. Dead. Gone.
"You know the truth..."
I shook my head, still following the sound of the small, comforting voice. It led me to another brook, a smaller one, and I blinked several times.
Before me, there were giant men, dressed in white. No, not men. Giants. Robed giants. Dressed in white.
I shook my head, clearing my thoughts. A stream of white light poured over the brook, and the warmth from it warmed me, warmed my skin. Warmed my soul.
One of the men stepped forward. He had long, black hair, like mine, with brown skin and hazel eyes. He smiled at me, holding out his right hand.
"Come join us. Don't be afraid. We'll explain what's going on. We'll tell you where she is."
He had that same small, comforting voice as the first one.
"This is crazy," I muttered under my breath, hoping the giant didn't hear me.
A soft smile touched its face, and I could tell he found me amazing.
"You're not crazy, Ephraim. You're enlightened."
"What do you mean...enlightened?" I questioned my brows knitting together.
"I mean... you're well on your way to becoming one of us. One of the beings who not only knows much but knows the secret truths hidden within your heart.”
Suddenly, I was wrapped in warmth. Without so much as a second thought, everything around me faded to black. I don't know what happened between the span of time in which I blacked out and the moment I awoke...
But I knew something was different. A massive weight pressed against my back- my shoulder blades. As I tried to stand, my footing faltered forward, and I fell forward. I reached out in front of me, preparing for the impact of the fall, only to be suspended in mid-air, a pair of large, white wings holding me up.
I gasped, standing straight up, as the wings expanded fully. With each passing second, the white giants, the white-robed beings met my gaze.
Why in the world was I...?
The one who originally greeted me smiled, and I wasn't afraid of me. Or of me and the truth that I was now walking in.
"What am I?"
"You already know the answer to that."
An angel...
But how... and more importantly... why?
"Why me?"
A frown appeared on the angel's face, and he touched my right shoulder. It felt like a boulder against my shoulder, but I didn't move.
"Ephraim, you're the one He's been waiting on. You're the one."
Maybe this 'Enlightenment' thing had a lapse time to it, because what he was saying made no sense.
"The one for... whom... and to do what?"
"God.... Heaven's been waiting on you to get here for centuries. You and Sinclair."
At the mention of her name, my heart pounded within my chest so strongly, I just knew it was going to explode.
A chuckle filled my eardrums.
"So... she's not..." I trailed off, already knowing the answer to that question.
"No, she's not. She's your mate. Your chosen. The one He designed for you to have, even in our reality."
"Where is she?"
A soft smile passed over his lips.
"You aren't going to like the answer to that one, Ephraim."
I had a feeling wherever she was... was dark, cold, and full of fire.
I pray to God I was wrong.
IN HEAVEN
The room hushed, the chattering stopped, once The Almighty sat on its Throne. The flapping wings, the hushed whispers, ceased immediately, once the silent gust of wind washed under and over every moving thing in the room. That was the signal to let them know it was time. Time to bow in reverence and collapse on the floor. Time to give praise and honor for the One who created them.
It was time.
It didn't take long for The Almighty to be seated comfortably. But as the time ticked by, one angel grew antsy. One angel who had been antsy since arriving in Heaven.
Alexander.
His piercing ice, blue eyes were dim, and his long, red hair was not the vibrant cherry it once was. The Almighty glanced at him from its Throne.
He's fading.... Dying… It spoke to no one.
"Father...." Another angel broke the silence, a cherub, shielding its face with its two, front wings. "Why have You summoned us here.. Right now?"
It almost laughed; a humorless chuckle. Then it remembered. Even the angels weren't all-knowing.
"Before Hell gets wind of this... We must do everything in our power to help Ephraim remember Sinclair and find her again."
The whispers ensued, and The Almighty continued to watch Alexander.
"Alexander," It said, so quietly that only the young, weary angel acknowledged him, "I need you for this mission. I need you to talk to Ephraim. I know the dark, evil one has mandated you to destroy Mona, but leave her to Me. I'll take care of her."
With a simple nod, Alexander ascended into the air on white wings, leaving the Throne Room.
EPHRAIM
Something was off. Wrong. Gravely wrong. That’s when it hit me. I needed to find Sinclair’s body. I was stupid, foolish to just abandon her body in a fit of rage. I knew Katherine would never let me know where it was… Where she was.
“Ephraim?” my father’s voice boomed from somewhere down the hall, and then the sound of his footsteps followed.
“Yes, Dad?” I called out, stretching my limbs, groaning.
Pain and soreness crept through my arm muscles, down to the tips of my toes, so much for feeling alive, ready to take on my day.
“Your mother’s in the hospital, son. Another episode.”
I knew what that meant. Another psychotic breakdown. She was in a mental hospital.
As the door swung open, my father looked at me. His gray eyes met mine; eyes rimmed with fresh tears.
I rushed out of bed, wrapping my arms around him as he sobbed.
My mother would be gone within a matter of days; welcomed by the angels she used to tell me about every night before I fell asleep.
My mission had now shifted: take care of my father and Heaven, then find Sinclair and get the hell away from this planet.
END OF PART ONE
PART II
Darkness Falls.
CENTURIES AGO...
The Earth and all the Heavens stood still the day Sinclair and her other half came together as one.
It was the most beautiful sight ever beheld. Glorious. Beautiful. Tender.
They changed the very direction of the universe.
Alexander tucked his wings within his shoulder blades, wincing. The slight pain, he never got used to, even as an angel-born. The constant reminder that there was something he used, weighing him down never went away. He hated that; absentmindedly wondered if that was how Paul felt concerning his thorn in the flesh. But he shook off the feeling as quickly as it came. He had a mission to do. One that would take some time to see through to completion, but he wouldn’t fail The Almighty.
From what The Almighty and the other angels had told him about Ephraim, he pushed through the doors of the local library, waiting. After the loss of his beloved to Heaven’s call, Ephraim housed himself in the local library, researching night and day about angels and Heaven… and other forms of death. About causes of death and how to bring someone back to life.
