Killed Killers (NaNoWriMo 2015)

Chapter Forty Three

    Ere followed Gem through the halls of the castle until she found herself in the cave. As she looked around, she noticed that the fountain had been fixed and everything had been put back in its place since she had been there last. She braced herself for the vague feeling of disgust that she had come to associate with the cave, but to her surprise, it never came. This place had changed for her. It was no longer the room where she was being tested like a lab rat, but instead the place where people who didn't even know her worked to save her life. As she thought about it, the castle had become more and more like home as well. She never expected it to become home for her, but it had. She found herself filled with a heavy sadness when she thought about leaving and going back home. Leaving behind the place that she finally felt like she fit in, where she had friends, that she could call home, hurt her almost physically.

    She shook her head to clear her thoughts and walked to the middle of the cave's floor. Gem joined her and took her hands, looking into her eyes and squeezing her hands reassuringly.

    "Uh, isn't there supposed to be like a ceremony thing?" Ere asked, looking around the empty room.

    "Well..." Gem trailed off and let go of her hands. He began to scratch the back of his neck with a sheepish look on his face and Ere noticed a blush creeping up his neck. "I like saying that it is because it makes it sound more official."

    Ere failed miserably at hiding her laughter. She doubled over and allowed herself to laugh. Laughter would cleanse her soul, and help her to get past the horrors that she had seen, and she accepted its soothing presence with open arms. When she finally looked up again, Gem was looking down at her with a frown painted across his face.

    "Okay, so how does this work?" Ere asked between giggles.

    "I think I just have to ask you to be my partner as a Koinonía and you have to accept or deny my request for it to be official." Gem said, his frown disappearing as he took her hands in his again.

    "Okay." Ere managed, taking a shaky breath in.

    Gem looked down and coughed, and when his eyes returned to hers, she saw a determination in them that she had never seen before in anyone. "Ere, would you lead the Koinonía with me?"

    Ere didn't hesitate before answering: "I would be happy to."

    As soon as the final word left her tongue, an incredible energy began to fill the room. The skin of her hands where she was holding Gem's suddenly exploded with energy, and Ere pulled her hands away with a strangled yell. The energy in the chamber exploded as soon as their hands were separated, the weight of it pushed Ere to the floor. She looked over to where Gem was and found that he was encased in a column of pulsing light. He was on the ground just like she was, but his face was calm and his eyes were shut. She couldn't tell if he was even awake, or if he had passed out. She was still straining to see him when she was encased in her own bubble of the pure energy. It washed up her body like a tidal wave, and as soon as it closed over her head she felt an incredible sense of peace. The world went silent around her, like someone had suddenly shut the door on a loud party. Ere squinted against the light, trying desperately to see out of the light surrounding her. The pressure increased again, getting to a point that was almost unbearable for her.

    That was when Ere blacked out.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Ere opened her eyes to find herself in the middle of a white universe.

    Am I blind? She thought to herself, straining to see something on the horizon. She turned in a circle, squinting to try and find something that could assure her that she hadn't been sucked into an empty void, but was disappointed. Her shoulders dropped from their tense position and she looked down at her hands, confused. She found that she could still see herself clearly, and when she looked back up, Gem was standing in front of her, his eyes blazing in the light that was coming from everywhere around them. She started, moving back a step, but found that for every step that she moved backwards he moved forwards, almost as if he couldn't help himself. She caught a glimpse of movement behind him, and peeked around his wide frame to find a crowd of grey eyed people staring back at her. Closest to her and Gem she saw everyone she had met in her short time at the Koinonía; Rian and Cara and even some of the people that she recognized either from the raid or from the horrible events that had followed. Farther back in the crowd were people that were both faceless and nameless to her. She assumed that they were the members of her new home that she had yet to meet. They were all staring at a point right above her head, with no expression on their faces but the same intensity that she'd seen in Gem's eyes mirrored in their own.

    She straightened back up and looked back at Gem, who hadn't moved an inch since she had looked away from him. Her eyes met his and she was filled with a sensation not unlike what she imagined being burned alive would be if you didn't know how to feel pain, and her vision began to swirl. Gem's eyes remained still while the rest of her vision spun, and she found herself clinging to their sight for dear life. Slowly, she felt herself being pulled towards him by an invisible hand, like something deep within her core was being pulled towards something deep within him. She brought her face closer to his, and before she knew what she was doing, she lifted her face and kissed him. She closed her eyes as their lips met, but even behind her eyelids she could see Gem's beautiful gray eyes staring back at her. After their lips met, his eyes widened, and for a second she could swear she spotted panic amongst his constant mask of calm. Then his eyes flashed an unmistakable shade of red and she felt herself plunged back into darkness for a second time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Regaining conscience was never one of Ere's favorite sensations, but this time was especially rough. She was brought back to reality this time by what was not unlike an inner hurricane. She opened her eyes and sat bolt upright, panic following her mind like a dark haze. She looked down at herself for a moment to find that she was sitting on the ground with her dress in shreds around her. Whatever had torn her dress had not harmed her though, since she was completely fine as far as she could tell. She remembered Gem and looked around the room in a panic, finding his hunched form in the corner of the room farthest from her. She scrambled to her feet and ran to him, tripping constantly over her ruined gown. She reached him and fell to her knees at his side, and was relieved to find that he was as unharmed as she was, although his clothing looked to be in the same state as her own. She reached out to touch his shoulder, but he began to stir before she had the chance to touch him. His eyes blinked open and she was relieved to find that they were still the same shade of gray that they had always been. They looked around for a second before settling on her face, and the panic that had begun to grip at his composed mask melted away, relief showing freely on his face. He sat up and reached for her with both of his hands, pulling her into a fierce hug. Her breathing hitched for a second before she melted into his arms and let herself breathe for the first time in what felt like forever.

When Gem finally pulled away, it took Ere a second to sit back up and look him in the eyes. When she did, she was hit by a wave of emotion. She had been through so much with him in the short time that they'd known each other, and those eyes told the entire story to anyone who was paying attention and knew what to look for. Gem's eyes really were the windows to his soul, but you had to know what you were looking at in order to understand him. Ere knew that she was still a long ways from understanding him as a person, and she knew that she had known him only for a very short period of time, but she believed that with more time she could grow close enough to him to understand him. At least, she hoped.

Hey guys! So it's that season again! NaNoWriMo is here, and since this book isn't done yet and I don't feel like I'm ready to move on from this story yet I'm going to finish this one for Nano this year! I know that I'm really really behind right now, but I have had a lot going on for the past week. I hope to catch up. I may have to set back my word count goal from 50,000 like I want it to be, but for now we're going to set our sights at the highest possible point. Yay for Nano!!

Word count: 1,638

Words remaining: 48, 362