At Death's Gate (on hold)

Chapter 4

An older form of Liv crouches on the ground in the darkness. Her petite form is clad in black clothes and she watches four figures standing around a fire.

"We will not attack at dusk", one of the four says. "Dawn is the right time."

"I don't agree", another voice says. "We should attack at lunchtime."

That doesn't seem to agree with the third one because he yells something about attacking at brunch time.

The fourth seems to be fed up with the conversation because he unsheathes his sword and beheads two of the three bickering figures with one quick motion.

Liv muffles her cry of shock with her hands.

"Now", the fourth voice says. "It seems to be dawn is the right time to attack."

"Yes!", the last one alive says. "Of course!"

Liv can see the fourth with the sword smiling viciously, his black hair shining in the light of the fire. "Good. Now do me a favor. Kill that piece of Hermes trash before it can go and tittle-tattle."

The tip of the sword points directly at her and Liv gets up to run away. She makes it halfway down the woods when something big pulls her back with more force a human should be able to have.

Liv's head slams on the ground with a loud thud, right onto the sharp edge of a rock.

I blinked but couldn't get rid of the colorful pictures of death. But it wasn't Liv's anymore I noticed as I felt multiple hands on my arms pulling me back.

With a cry I managed to break free and I fled into the one corner of the room that wasn't occupied by a single human being.

I saw Coach, Heath, Preston and a girl panting while looking at me. I didn't move a muscle. I didn't know what they thought of me now (or if they knew what just happened) but they looked exhausted.

"What did you do?", Heath asked.

"She won't die", I answered while I deliberately ignored his question. "Liv won't die."

"How do you know?", Preston asked. "Because we tried to get you away from Liv when you started shaking violently."

"I just know", I answered. "Liv will be fine."

Almost as if on command Liv started coughing. Heath ran to her side and handed her a glass of water that she eagerly gulped down.

"What happened?", Liv asked with a sore voice and looked around. "And why am I in the infirmary?"

"Can you remember your claiming?", Coach asked and stepped up to Liv's bed.

Liv closed her eyes and seemed to think. "I am from the lineage of Hermes, right?"

Coach nodded.

"He said something to me. About facing death."

Coach and Heath shared a long and meaningful glance.

"He talked to me." Liv sounded more surprised than shocked. "He actually talked to me!" Now she just sounded excited.

"The Hermes talked to me!"

I had no idea why this was so shocking (Hermes had a mouth after all) but she seemed to be genuinely happy about him talking to her. Liv didn't seem to care that Hermes told her about facing death in the future, but I couldn't judge. I faced death every time I decided to hit a seasonal sale at the clothing store.

"Can you remember anything that happening while you were unconscious?", Coach asked, crossing his massive arms over his even more massive chest.

Liv shook her head. "I don't remember anything, just this warm feeling. It tingled in my fingers."