Haunting Shadows (Book 2)

Chapter 16

My body felt like lead, the ground looking more and more appealing the further I went along. It felt as if knives were cutting away at my feet, a slow, painful process that I had no means of ending unless I wanted to succumb to the fatigue threatening to overwhelm me, clinging to me like a second skin. Perhaps I had been too rash, too impulsive. There was no doubt that I needed to get out of that house, but maybe I should’ve waited until my energy had been fully restored. I was under the pretense of energy. One good night’s sleep fooled me into thinking I was fine, when in reality I was far from it.

I had to keep going. My destination was unclear but I couldn’t stop now. The sun was hanging low in the sky, its light tired and dim. I wasn’t much different from that sun… bright and energetic, earlier the day, low and waning now. But I would not give up and let the stars take my place in the sky. My feet kept treading forward. I would keep going no matter how little there was left in me.

My path seemed to be heading nowhere, and soon I was lost. The last house I had seen had been hours ago. Rows upon rows of trees surrounded me, each looking identical to the other. I forced down the rising panic in my blood. You will be fine, you will be fine, I thought to myself as I took a series of deep breaths. My feet didn’t want to carry me further, my body past its breaking point.

I relented to my body’s loud pleas for rest. As soon as I stood still, my legs gave out from beneath me.  I gasped from the impact as my body hit the ground in a loud thud. For some reason this reopened the wound I had tried to close after my first night with Raphael and Eric.

I guess he entered my thoughts again now because I found myself wishing he’d save me once more. Now that I was lost and afraid, I was still wishing for him to make me feel safe. Here in the woods, utterly defeated, it was so easy to imagine that he was just around the corner grabbing us food like in those first few days I knew him – even if he probably just went out of sight so he could manifest the food. Any second now and he would walk by one of those trees, an apple or banana in each hand with a look of self-satisfaction on his face. He would hand me one and tell me to eat up and then there would be a lull in the conversation, his history still a mystery to me. Except now I knew him, or at least I thought I did.

I crawled over to the nearest trees with the last bit of strength I had left and rested my back against the trunk, drawing my knees into myself. I couldn’t fight the sob that shook itself free from my body.

How could he just leave me? After everything we had been through together in such a sort time? After everything he told me, everything I told him? How could he just let me die when we met because he had saved my life? When I saved his? How could he write me off like I didn’t matter and that I was better off dead after claiming me as his?

You are mine. The ghost of his voice haunted me.

How could he just leave me?

Why wouldn’t he fight for me?

My tears flowed freely, but quickly turned to ash as anger killed my sorrow. Everything he had told me had to have been a lie. He played me to the bitter end, some sick, twisted game he got a kick out of. He was constantly trying to convince m he was a bad man, and as the darkness accented the sky, I realized that perhaps he had been right. All this time I kept trying to see the good in people and what had that gotten me? Nothing but hurt and disappointment. I should’ve known! He warned me himself!

Thunder cracked across the sky and in that same moment, the angels wet, showering the earth with the angelic waters. I lifted my head to the clouds, the cold water burning my skin, distracting me from my own mind

My body was vibrating with energy as the heavens roared.

I gazed up through the canopy and realized with a start that the weather was a direct mirror of my feelings. I searched for the nearest puddle, one not too far from where I was sitting and stared at my reflection.  

I was the storm. It was all me. Just like that night I found out I was a witch.

I was a storm,

                One everyone should look out for.

Because when I look at my reflection, my eyes were no longer brown.