Tale 1: War of the Protector

Chapter 36

Cody was calling for me. I was searching for him, but I was in the middle of a battlefield.

Dirt flew up into the sky. Giant birds soared and then dove at the people around me. A girl stumbled past me, screaming and pressing her fingers to her ears as they bled.

“Cody!” I screamed to the wind. I turned, searching desperately.

“Lily!” It was a sharp cry. I turned towards it.

And suddenly he was there. He grabbed me and shoved me to the ground.

I cried out in pain and tumbled for a few feet, feeling scar tissue breaking open on my legs.

I came to a stop, dizzy and covered in mud. “Fuck.” I spat mud from my lips and sat up.

Then I froze.

Cody lay a few feet from me, convulsing. The flesh over his collarbone was ripped away. Specifically, in three long lines. Blood pumped steadily from the wound and mixed with the rain.

I screamed and crawled sloppily through the mud. I ran my muddied hands over his chest and through his hair, begging him to look at me.

Hands grabbed my waist. I screamed and twisted around, looking over my shoulder to see Ryan had grabbed me. He was saying something but the rush in my ears didn’t let me hear.

I squirmed from his grip and dropped into the mud. I scrambled away and to Cody’s side.

But by the time I reached him he was already dead.

……

I shot out of my bed with a start. “Cody! Cody!” I scrambled around the bed, searching around me in a blind panic. I fell off and smacked my head against the bedside table, but I didn’t stop moving. By the time the black cleared from my vision I had crawled to my bathroom.

I was convinced that Cody was still with me. I was convinced that we were at another motel, and he had to be around the room somewhere.

“Cody!” I called. I used the edge of the bathtub to push myself up. I stumbled drunkenly out of the bathroom and into the main part of the room.

I checked under the bed and in each dresser drawer. I looked through the curtains covering the window. I jogged back to the bathroom and checked under the sink. I double checked the bathtub and I moved the shower curtains around several times.

Breakfast. He must be getting breakfast.

I ran to the door. I was wearing decent-enough clothes: a tank top and pajama shorts.

I didn’t fully realize that the words scarred into my skin were open for the world to see.

I flung open the door and sprinted out and to the railing, looking down into the lobby. “Cody!” I called to all the hotel guests and staff. Everyone looked up. But no one had Cody’s face.

Breakfast… Where was there food? Cody liked buffets. Chef Gordon’s? Sounded too fancy. Charlotte’s Café? Worth a shot.

I ran towards the café on my right, past horror-stricken men, women, and children. A maid with black hair, one I felt I had talked to before, shrieked and dropped a couple bags of laundry.

I ran into the café. A rather attractive man stood up from a table for two, looking pretty concerned. “Lily,” he said. “Are you okay?”

“How do you know my name?” My eyebrows furrowed. “Wait, nevermind. I’m looking for my friend Cody.”