Beyond the Void

Chapter 38, I need my thoughts

of Sin 646 part II - With the end of the war, the Silence of the Alyar began, as they cut contact with all others, including the other trueborn races of this world. The Humans struggle to clean up their demon mess.

An excerpt from the diary of Pia...

ANDREW

One moon and three tens since the Mark of the Other One blossomed.

For days, Andrew and Anna ran through the wilderness like madmen. They barely slept. The only time they stopped for a longer period was when they had happened across a small flock of birds. They had white feathers with a necklace of blues and greens around their neck, and they reminded Andrew of very large pigeons. They tasted great with the honey.

Andrew and Anna had shared no words after he had shown Anna the way to her source. She was struggling, but she had learned how to draw strength whenever she needed it. Andrew was constantly letting the flow fill his body. Without it, he would have long passed out from the exhaustion and fever. 

But how had he learned to consciously draw from his source without using the power to blow stuff up? When had it happened? Did he find the trick by observing Anna? Did something else teach him? Was it instinct? Everything was a haze.

Running. Snow. Running. Trees. Walking. Rocks. Jogging. Clouds. Running. The sun. Running. He persisted.

Andrew would not give in to the other side forcing itself on his mind. He would take everything to keep himself going, but not enough that the haze would erase his thoughts completely. There was a wedge in his mind and the Him today was not the same as it had been yesterday.

He needed his thoughts. They were his own and no one else's. It did not matter that his thoughts had shifted to worse. To thinking of murder and carnage. Many people were like that. Normal people like him. Presidents and such.

They not only thought about murder, they actually told other people to carry out their twisted will. As long as the others did not hear those thoughts, everything would be fine.

If they did not reach the others, then thinking those thoughts would not even be a problem. But they had to reach them. He needed the others to take care of Anna. Andrew tasted blood in his mouth, blood in his throat, and at times his sight was failing. They had to reach the others.

They had to be close by now. They could not miss the river, they were running straight towards it. Becca had to have felt it when he first interacted with the voidstone. She would tell the others and they would slow down. For the first days every once in a while Andrew had taken off the earring and he let his presence pour out into the world. Becca had to have noticed something.

They had to be close by now. The past two days they had run alongside silence and terror. Time after time Andrew caught himself on the edge of oblivion. He was drawing more and more to step forward and not lose himself to fear.

Was now the time? Was this the time to end their suffering? It seemed appropriate. His eyes wandered all over the figure of Anna. She was right there, just ahead of him.

"I can see the river!" Anna slowed down suddenly and stopped.

Andrew had to bump into a tree to slow down. Finally, he could take it easy for a moment.

On their right, the forest suddenly ended and appeared in sight again, much lower than expected. The river was down in a small canyon. Andrew had no time to think about what to do next. As he was leaning against a tree to catch his breath, it wandered out from behind a large boulder sitting near the canyon edge.