Running on Empty

GINGERBREAD | 21

 Frost slowly crept its way up the windows of the car, the book sprawled open on my lap as Eon drove. He had never explicitly said I shouldn't open it, but he did send me a warning look as I absently flipped through the crinkled pages that were yellow with age. Definitely older than I was.

Most of it I couldn't read, save for a few handwritten titles and annotations, the rest didn't even look like any sort of language I had ever seen.

Then again, we weren't dealing with the known world. At least not my known world.

The warm stream of air from the car vent gently pulled the pages from my fingers and flipped them open to a random page. 

Weird. 

I squinted my eyes down to try and strain and read the page, inwardly cursing the inconsistency of the street lamps that illuminated our way.

The words were scrawled in red ink on the top of the page, the rest transcribed in the unfamiliar characters and set in thick blocks of text that wound carefully around the pages.

"What's 'Unity of the Souls' ?" My head knocked against the window beside me with a solid thud as the car swerved violently.

"What did you just say?" Eon gripped the steering wheel so tight I thought it might snap beneath his fingers, his tongue darted out to wet his lips, a tick I had noticed when he got nervous, which wasn't very often. Eon made others nervous – he was good at that. I could count on one hand the number of times I'd seen him truly panic.

Right now he looked borderline panicked.

"The book, this page says 'Unity of the Souls', what's that?" The tension ever so slightly left his body and I looked down at the page wishing I could read it.

"Just some bullshit belief in a happily ever after," I frowned.

"What's wrong with believing in a happily ever after?" Eon responded with a dry laugh.

"They don't exist, and holding out hope for one just makes you weak. The Council pushes it as propaganda to keep people compliant with the vague notion they will get something that completes them, that 'unifies their soul', and makes them whole and happy," I traced my fingers over the foreign words.

"And what's so wrong with that?" I was pushing it, I knew I was, but Eon couldn't just push me around and expect me to do whatever he wanted anymore, this had all gotten so real. We had killed people. He had tried to kill one tonight to get this book. I had saved them, thank the gods, but he didn't need to know that.

"Because not everyone gets the privilege of that happiness," I opened my mouth to argue, only for him to slam his hand on the steering wheel. My fingers froze where they had been trailing along on the page. "At least not without some force and warped promises."

"So, what is this page about then?" Eon was quiet for a moment, I figured maybe he wouldn't answer, I mean, I had kind of pissed him off.

"It's about the connected souls, what we need is there," He reached over without taking his eyes off of the road and tapped the bottom of the page "Neuam, how to break the bond between them."

Neuam. That's definitely not English. 

"You seem to know a lot about it," Eon flashed his sharp teeth at me.

"It's why we're going to visit an old friend of mine," the spine of the book crinkled as I forced myself to close the book, sending a bizarre sense of finality through the car.

"To do what?"

"To test it out."

—

"Please stop-"

"No," Leaflet forced more of the bitter liquid into my mouth despite my tear-fueled protests. My head was aching as the world tilted sickeningly around me. My breath hitched as I felt my limbs grow heavier, it felt like I was filled with T.V. static.

"I don't want to see anymore, please," I begged, pleaded, continue to pant my protests even as my words slurred together pitifully. "Please, please no-" Leaflet just pressed the palm of her hand to my forehead.

"But you must," the light of the fire flickered. "Remember."

—

"This is the place?" I wrapped Eon's jacket tighter around me as we stood in front of the cliche picket fence suburban home. Warm Christmas lights hung in the windows all around the brick walls, and plastic icicles were nearly imperceptible among crystalline ice ones on the edges of the roof.

This house looked like it belonged on a Christmas card, there was even the faintest hint of gingerbread wafting through the air while a light dusting of snow fell like powdered sugar.

"Reggie and Belle Lemont," Eon confirmed and eyes the empty street around us with slick confidence.

"You know them?" He raised a shoulder.

"I did when I was young, back when Reggie was involved with things far bigger than he could appreciate," Cryptic.

"It smells like gingerbread," Eon flashed me a smile.

"If all goes well I'll let you take a few of their cookies for the road," I managed a small smile in return. I suppose they wouldn't need or miss them after we were finished here anyway.

"How do we get in?" Eon's dagger mockingly caught the light as he waved it in front of me.

"You're a decent actress, yes?" Before I could say that no, I absolutely wasn't, he dug the tip of the dagger into my cheek and dragged it downwards towards my jaw. It stung, but was nothing I wasn't used to, so I just curled my toes and bore it. I was lucky it wasn't a dull blade, those hurt bad.

His bright eyes deepened to a crimson and his tongue dragged over his teeth before bringing the blade up to his lips, his tongue dragging slowly over the edge of the blade. My cheeks burned and I fought the urge to break eye contact and wipe the thin trickle of blood from my cheek.

"They're bound by oath to assist beings in turmoil," his thumb stroked over my cheek, smearing red over my skin before nudging me towards the paved pathway that led up to the front door.

"You distract the two of them while I sneak in through the back."

"And then what?"

"We rip them apart."