Age of Demons

Chapter 18 - Emery

Bluewater Haven Safe House

Bluewater and Great Lakes weren't all they had known.

Em lay on her back in her bed, staring aimlessly at the pickled ceiling above her. She tallied off how many safe houses they had lived in.

The first one she didn't count. That had been seven years ago, the day she had lost her mom and the day their older brother had turned on them. She mentally shook her head, unwilling to go that far back.

After her and Felix had run, they'd ended up at the closest safe house they could find: one controlled by the Deliverance Faction, where she first learned about their beliefs. She glanced over at her nightstand, where the book rested quietly. Where she had gotten her own Reverence.

Unfortunately, spirits had gotten in only a year later, and the two fled with a small group, going north and making it to Lansing.

In Lansing, there were two safe houses. They'd lived in both. And both had collapsed. One from the floods in the summer and the too-early winter, destroying the crops, their major food source. The second was from spirits overwhelming the area, and like always, they found a way in, past the new machinery that kept safe houses safe. But she guessed not every time.

She and Felix had gotten lucky. Twice, they'd survived spirit invasions. And Em expected that the reason had been because of her. She was possessed. Spirits didn't care for bodies that were already taken. So, every time, they snuck away, on the run again to find shelter.

They'd stumbled upon the West Great Lakes safe house, in Muskegon. Someone that shouldn't have been in the kitchens burned the whole building down only seven months they'd been there.

After the west house, they'd spent almost a year wandering, just the two of them surviving.

They were good at it. They were used to it.

Until they found North Great Lakes, which most of the people there boasted they were only an hour away from Traverse City. Em didn't understand why they would; it wasn't like they could get into a car and go drive there just to see the views or walk downtown and shop.

Not anymore.

They'd lived in North Great Lakes safe house for the longest time, for three-and-a-half years.

But of course, before it marked their fourth year at the North location, a spirit got in. And it was only one, at first. It had been quickly subdued and forced out, but at that time, other spirits had flocked to the area, and when they saw their opening, they took it.

Emery and Felix had made it out with forty-five others. About a thousand people had lived in that safe house. And only forty-five had survived.

By the time they found this place, their numbers had dwindled to just cutting thirty.

It'd been a little over a week since they'd found this place, and already Em was sick of it. She preferred being on her own with Felix, just the two of them against the world. He was easily influenced by others, and every time they were at a different safe house, he'd coalesce with a new group of people, following their ideas and actions.

Just like he was doing now. Siding with Markus and all them. Even after what Thomas had said of her. Felix had done nothing.

I'm just so tired of this.

Em curled up on her side, having been stuck to her bed for half the day already. No one had come to see if she was okay. Outside the walls, she could hear hammers hitting nails, wood scraping against the ground, and men's voices. It was the day after they'd gotten all their supplies, and all the men were working on the walkways outside today.

Restless, Em turned on her side and snatched The Reverence from her nightstand. Although the book was thin and worn, there was a certain heaviness about it that she had to grip it with both hands.

Delicately, she opened it, revealing one of her dog-eared pages.

At the top, in bolded cursive, read "The Portal."

Em scanned down the page, her interest piqued. She always read this part over because it alluded to things impossible, things like her.

"The Deliverance Faction awakened based on the prophecy of The Portal. Followers of Deliverance's truth must place the importance of this prophecy above even themselves. For the self is only an illusion."

Em shook her head. While she held herself as a believer, she disliked much of the writings. But maybe it has a point, that the self is only an illusion. I am no more different than anybody else.

The spirit within her rose to her mind, its presence filling her awareness. Or maybe not.

Em bit her bottom lip and passed over the Deliverance dogma, instead focusing on the prophecy at the bottom of the page:

"Born as the gate between hell and Earth

She will awaken silent

Her disparities a sign at birth.

A conduit with the spirits of evil,

A girl created from rage and violence

Driven to unleash destruction upon her will.

Two paths to divulge before her:

Choose madness, Earth will never recover.

Only by those Taken will her judgment blur."