The Battle of Our Minds: Flesh and Blood

Wounded

Everly looked into the mirror of the community bathroom, running her fingers over the red scar left behind on her face. It was a thin scar, not incredibly noticeable, but it extended about two inches and stretched under her eye. Everly had gotten several nicks and cuts over the course of her life, but nothing like this before. Over the past twenty-four hours, it had gotten less and less gruesome. Wyatt had told her the cut initially reached the bone. Everly was still, even almost a day later, in shock that someone slashed her across the face with a knife, all for a car. She'd understood what the Darkness was – a force from the heavenly realms that used demons and humans to do its bidding. She knew that the central principal of the Darkness was to do what you wanted to get what you wanted – no matter the cost. But when she was on the receiving end of the knife, the ugliness of the Darkness cut deeper.

Looking at her scar, Everly promised herself that every time she saw it, she would remember why she made her vow to serve the Light and why she refused to give in to the Darkness of this world.

Everly heard the bathroom door swing open with a creak and saw Brianna's head emerge from around the edge of the door reflected in the mirror.

"Finally. I've been looking everywhere for you. Ev, Ruth's missing. Campus police just came by to let us all know. They're organizing a search party, and I'm not naïve enough to think that this doesn't have anything to do with Jezebel and the advocates."

Everly dropped her toothbrush in the sink and ran out of the bathroom. She sprinted to her room and grabbed her phone.

No messages.

Brianna had followed her. "Any word from Ruth?"

"No, nothing," replied Everly. Her face was gray and ill looking. "She normally goes on a run each morning. She runs on the same trail I do. Sometimes we go together, but I didn't meet her there this morning. We need to look out there."

"Let's go."

Everly and Brianna ran out to the trail loop where Ruth ran every morning, stopping short of the woods.

"Everly, we don't know what we're going to find in here. Would you rather me go without you?"

"No, Bri. Thank you, but we'll have a better chance of finding her if we split up and both look."

"Okay. Meet back halfway through the loop in about thirty minutes?"

"Sounds good."

The two girls split, Everly heading towards the right, Brianna headed towards the left. The morning was cool, the chill of fall began to descend on the trail and dry, brown leaves cracked beneath her feet. Everly couldn't help but feel an eerie sense of premonition as she walked along the path, keeping her eyes wide open for any hint of foul play. Growing up, she loved to solve mysteries. The case of the missing earring. The lost chicken. The cow that lost her moo. At this point in her life, it came in handy, but the mystery of Ruth's disappearance wasn't one she was afraid of solving. She was scared of what she'd find because she knew it was her fault. If she'd never said yes to that study session in the coffee shop, the advocates – Jezebel – never would have targeted her. Jezebel wanted to prove her power. There was no real benefit to killing Ruth, just the satisfaction of knowing she could derail Everly.

Everly was about one mile deep in the woods when she stumbled upon the sight she could never un-see.

Ruth's body lay on the ground, a few fallen leaves barely disguising her unmoving form.