Death, and the Girl He Loves

Malak disentangled himself from the other demon and straightened to his full height. Though he looked exactly like the other three, I knew he was the victor, because I knew him. Had for a long time. He’d been living inside me, and we now thought very much alike, so when I said to him, “Get Dyson!” I knew he’d know what to do.

He turned and looked across the land from his imperial vantage point. Then he took off. A mass of flesh and fog, muscle and sinew, he sped over the land and through the trees until he disappeared. I called after him, “And bring me the book!”

I didn’t get a reply. Malak wasn’t the talkative type, but I was certain he would hear me.

Jared had almost downed the third demon. It fell to one giant knee, and he brought his sword at the ready, a fine sheen of sweat on his skin glimmering in what little light filtered through the storm.

Another thunderous crash sounded in the distance. That made five. Two down. One on the way out. Two left. How many more would come through before we could get the gate closed?

“Lorelei!”

I turned to see Glitch trying to get back to me. He was waving his hand about, trying to show me something.

“I got one!”

One? A picture? Had he caught one of the pictures Kenya brought out? Why? I thought, as despair so deep and desperate tried to get a foothold on my emotions. I’d lost sight of Brooke and could no longer see Kenya’s body.

I turned back to Glitch. A tree behind him started to wobble. Not just bend to the wind’s will, but wobble as though it were going to topple over. As Glitch struggled to get to me, it tipped sideways and I realized it would fall right in his path. I screamed to him and pointed, but he didn’t see me through the maelstrom. He ran, holding the photograph above his head as the tree descended far faster than I thought possible. As though it were aiming for him. Targeting him.

I pointed again and again, screaming louder and louder. The second I thought to summon Malak—surely he could stop it, surely he could get here in time—the tree crashed to the ground. Even more dirt and debris rose until visibility was all but gone. I lost sight of Glitch completely.

Though I could see almost nothing, I ran forward, stumbling over the uneven ground. I heard Cameron call my name, then Brooklyn, but I couldn’t see them either. Their voices grew distant, but I continued forward until a branch stabbed my shoulder.

I’d found the tree, and I called out to Glitch. Again and again as I searched blindly through sharp, protruding limbs. They scratched and scraped as I fought them. I fell to my hands and knees and crawled until my hands found something soft and warm. I held back the attacking branches and looked down. It was the back of Glitch’s head.

“Glitch!” I scurried around, angling for a better look, then regretted it.

His eyes were open, his stare blank, lifeless. Fresh blood flowed from a wound on his head, down until it dripped onto his eyelashes, over the bridge of his nose, and across his cheek.

I gaped in disbelief. It wasn’t real. None of this was real.

The wind seemed to be dying down and I caught sight of Brooklyn. She’d tried to follow me and lay barely fifteen feet away. Lay. I watched, waiting for her to move. Her head rested on an arm. It was the exact same position she slept in. One arm below her head, her hand hanging over the side of the bed. I waited for her to wake as I’d done so many times before, but she didn’t move. The entire time I looked on, she didn’t move.

Then I saw Cameron rush to her. He slid to a stop beside her, lifted her into his arms. Her limp body looked like a rag doll as he wrapped his arms around her. Brushed her hair out of her face.

I turned and watched as one demon fell to Jared’s sword and another appeared. Jared had turned to search for me, and in a lightning quick move, the demon raked his claws across Jared’s back. He stumbled to his knees, fought for balance, and brought his sword up again. That was when I realized he was covered in blood. The rain was washing it off almost as fast as it flowed out of him. Another gust blocked my sight of him just as he prepared to attack.

Farther south, Malak reappeared. He was fighting two more demons. The earth rumbled with another thunderous crash, but it wasn’t the fall of one of the demons. It was the fall of Malak. They’d downed him, this beast who’d switched sides. Who’d tried to protect me.

I looked at Glitch’s hand beside me. It held the picture he’d been trying so desperately to get to me. I took it from his grasp but couldn’t make it out through the blur of tears and rain. The colors were running anyway, so I had no clue what the picture had captured. Why would a photograph be so damned important that he risked his life to get it? That he gave his life trying to get it back to me?

My muscles were seizing, and I realized I was sobbing outright. This wasn’t real. Things like this didn’t happen. Not really. I crumpled the picture, closed my eyes, and crumbled to the dirt.

“Lorelei.”

I heard my name, but it was soft, melodic, unhurried.

“You’re going to be late.”

Late? What on earth could be so important that I had to worry about being late during the apocalypse? Shouldn’t all appointments be canceled in times of earth’s total devastation? During the annihilation of humanity?

I couldn’t bring myself to open my eyes again. Ever. I couldn’t see the lifeless bodies of my best friends. The image was already branded in my mind, cauterized in my brain. Just let me die, I thought over and over. Just take me now.

“I’d hate to be you if you’re late for Ms. Mullins’s class one more time. She threatened to hang you by your toes the last time.”