"NO! I WILL DIE BEFORE I GO BACK! They can't do this to me!" At first I was yelling and screaming but then I started pleading and almost crying. Black smoke formed at the tips of my fingers. Not even Nash knew about my shadow-bending. He needn't find out now so I retracted them back in like an animal with its claws.
"I don't even know what to think or say or do. God... Why?" Nash just stumbled as he sat down on the edge of the bed. We really did need to sit down for this one.
"So the boy you helped along with Nathan..." started Vanessa.
"Joshua," Nathan added.
"Right, Joshua. He came to you saying that he had a message from the Red Brothers and then... he just dropped dead?"
"Well, he looked really sick and weak. I bet they poisoned him." Nathan spoke the words with apparent ease but I knew his heart was as heavy as mine. "God, I had just met the kid but—" Nathan drew a deep sign then continued. "He said that he was found by the Red brothers. They gave him the poison and told them that if he delivered the message on time, he would be able to come back to take the antidote. Of course, that was a lie. They knew he would never make it back. They wanted me to see him die just for the sake of emphasizing their point.
They believe in killing the messenger. Know why? Because it sends a message."
That's just how heartless they were. The boy was no older than 11 and yet they took his life as if he was trivial.
"And the message was...?" asked Nash who had been too stunned to talk for a while.
"That they knew what Dawn and I did," he said as he looked at me. The world was spinning and everything I saw was coming in and out of focus. I wondered why I hadn't caught fire or burst or got a heart attack. Or got completely isolated in a cage of shadows swarming around me driven by my rage. Yet.
"That's it?" Vanessa had anger, fear, and despondency written all over her face.
For the first time in a while, it was I who spoke to set forth the fact that no one wanted to address out loud. "They're smart, you know. And they just love the game of cat and mouse. I mean, I guess it would be fun if you're always the cat. They want us to know that they can catch us. They know where we are and they sure as hell know a thousand different ways how to erase us from the face of the Earth like we're nothing more than the insects they step on. " But why weren't they right in front of our door step breaking through every inch of the house to drag me back to hell? It was too much. I couldn't handle keeping still and holding my feet to the ground. Before I heard anymore, I sprinted out of the room, through the hall, then stumbled out of the house.
I welcomed the cold air and ice cold rain that sent a chill deep into my bones. I could hear them shouting my name. Telling me to come back. I couldn't stop running. I ran and ran and ran till my legs couldn't carry me any longer. Thunder rocked the ground just as I crashed under a soaking tree. Every inch of me was shaking so hard I feared my bones would shatter. Good. I wanted them to shatter. I wanted my heart to stop and my lungs to choke on air. I wanted to die right then and there. All the anger, all the fear, all of my emotions started rising from the bottom of my stomach and through my mouth into a scream. I wailed and screamed and yelled loud enough to shake both hell and heaven. My shadows finally flowed out with no containment or confinement. Darkness raged though every pore of my skin forming a swirl around me that hugged me tight like it was my only friend. Then my body gave away and I crouched my back against the tree trunk, the flow of black nothingness finally coming to a holt. I pulled my knees to my chest and buried my face into my palms and started sobbing silently.
A while later, I heard footsteps splashing swiftly through the mud and rain but I didn't care to look up. I guess they understood I needed to be alone for a while but they didn't give me enough time to process.
"Dawn... I'm so sorry. You had to know. You had the right to know." Nathan's voice was cracking as he fumbled for words. He knew that there were no words to ease my emotions right now.
"Just leave me alone. I need to be alone right now," I said without shifting a muscle. He ignored me and sat down anyway and rested his back on the bark, next to me.
"Do you still sing?" he asked.
"What?" Startled by his extremely irrelevant question, I lifted my head and shifted my gaze to look at him.
"I saw Nash watching one of the videos of you guys in a concert or something. You were the lead singer. It's amazing, you know. Your voice... So I was just wondering if you still sang."
I took in a wavering breath. "I lost both my desire and my ability to sing a long time ago."
"When you were taken?"
"When my parents died."
YOU ARE READING
107
FantasíaWe weren't born killers. We weren't meant to be assassins. We were good people. I was a good person. Until I was taken. I had no choice it was either Nash or me and I would never let the Red Brothers take the person I love most in the world. So muc...
