The God & The Shadow

Chapter 26

VERONICA

It was dark. She couldn't breathe. She was shaking. She was crying. She was screaming.

I was dying.

"Veronica?" A voice called out.

I watched the girl hold her knees up to her chest as she shouts her mother's name, a plea for help to someone that had returned to dust.

"We want to help! Don't worry, child!" The voice continued shouting.

She cried even louder, the dark and withered thorns growing around her and the black smoke thickening.

I watched her look up at me, steady tears running down her face, the liquid pooling on her stained shirt.

Her face was devoid of color and her brown hair grew darker into a shade of darkness. Her eyes flickered violet for a second, then dissipated back to black.

"Breathe." I whispered.

Her crying stopped. She slowly stood up, her full height reaching my waist. She grabbed my hand, turning it over to touch my palm.

I watched her as she looked up at me.

"Kore." She said with trepidation in her eyes.

I blinked, then crouched to look at her eye-to-eye.

"What?" I asked her.

Her face was wan and her body swayed. "Kore."

"Elvira." A different voice called out.

The girl collapsed and turned into nothing more than dust. I cried out, running my hands through the ground, desperate for her return.

"Elvira." Lore shook me in my bed, waking me up.

I looked at him, then stood and ran to the bathroom to vomit into the toilet.

He followed me, gathering my long hair behind me to refrain it from getting in the way of my release. He ran a hand down my back as I continued, cringing inwardly at how he watched me doing such a vile thing.

I grabbed a towel from the rack above me and wiped my mouth with it. I flushed the fluids down the drain and turned to look at him.

He grabbed my hands, helping me up to wash my mouth with water from the sink, and walked me back to the bed.

I sat down and ran a hand through my hair. "What happened?" I asked with reluctance laced in my asking.

He sighed and sat down next to me. He had a white dress shirt on with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and his black curls were all over the place. I had interrupted his night, I realized, but I couldn't care less.

"You were screaming. Not out loud, but through whatever bond we have." He explained.

"Oh." I looked out the window to see the moon shining brightly, then to the watch I had taken off earlier on the bedside table. 2:45 it read.