Adoration

N I N E : Feet Or Head.

There was a moment of silence between Zarall and I as the heavy fist started banging louder on the door. His voice was so loud, but I wasn't hearing anything he said. A crashing of glass shook me out of my daze.

Zarall was still frozen when I had come back to my senses. The window to the right of the big wooden door had been shattered. I stood.

"Zarall, we need a plan." My voice was hard, I grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her.

I watched a familiar bloody hand reach through the jagged glass, the hand was torn to shreds, yet he continued pushing bits of glass through the frame. Zarall came back to life, I watched her meet my eyes and grow rigid.

"Daria, in the cabinet 3 doors down from the one under the sink, there's a stun gun. Grab it now." She said this as she crossed the room. Would a stun gun do anything? I didn't know his limits, it seemed like he had none. I tore my eyes away from the hand poking through the shattered glass, crazed eyes behind it.

I moved quickly to the kitchen and went to the cabinet she specified. As my hands touched the stun gun, there was a pained yell in his voice and an immediate thud. I paused and stepped back to the living room to see the front door open, Zarall standing at the desk below the shattered window, closing a drawer.

"I don't need it anymore, come help me carry him downstairs." Her voice was withholding something.

Outside the door his body slumped, leaned against the house. I wondered what she'd done to him, but pushed it out of my head.

"Feet or head?" She asked.

"Feet." I walked to his boots and heaved them to the side, helping her twist him around so she could reach under his arms to hoist him up.

"I'll go down first, I don't think you can walk backwards at the moment." The authoritative tone was back in her voice and it comforted me.

We slowly went down the steep narrow stairs, I held tightly to his ankles, fearing he would fall head first onto the cement below. We reached the expansive room and she guided me to the same chair I sat in last night, or many nights ago, I still hadn't gotten an answer. For the first time I noticed straps hanging from the arms and legs of the chair.

"Daria, listen to my voice," She was suddenly in front of me. I looked at her, then back at the chair. He was in it, arms and legs strapped, dome lowered to his head. "Daria."

I had lost time again. I tried to shake myself.

"How long?"

"Only a few minutes. I need you to go back to the house," She was walking toward the large screen behind the chair, connecting wires to the monitor, it seemed like she was wasting time.

"No," I interjected before she could continue. I was terrified, these were the only two people I had a memory of interacting with.

"Daria, this isn't a question. I need you to go back and find someone in the house and bring them here." She was talking faster, he was stirring and I had a sense she didn't want me to see what was about to happen. "Please, I can't do this alone and I can't have you help me or..." She stopped herself. "Just go. Run."

His eyes were fluttering and I pushed my mind toward his. Nothing. Elias wasn't there. I panicked, though I barely knew this person, I felt like the feeling I had for him was love.

"Is he going to be him again?" I felt like a child asking if Santa was real.

"Only if you go, bring back anyone."

I turned to the stairs and took them two at a time, stepping into the kitchen and running out the front door. My lungs were screaming at me, and so were my legs. The ache in my back had become more intense, but I pushed myself to keep running. Right leg. Left leg. I thought of the times Elias had watched me writhe in pain, the times I knew of and the times that were buried. I thought of the dark curled strand hanging between his eyebrows, the way his hands shot electricity through me. I ran to the front door, ripping it open.