Chapter 10

An old friend returns to the lives of our Heroes.

The night rolled in quickly. We walked until the darkness had completely taken over. I placed Zachary’s sleeping body down into the grass as I had the night before. Tori lay next to him with her arms wrapped around his shoulders. Abigail had taken off her shoes revealing bruise upon bruise and blister upon blister. She stuck her bare feet into the stream that was now slowly turning into the river that I had seen. I sat next to her, “Those look painful.”

“Its fine,” she dipped her feet in and hissed in pain. My hands grabbed her feet and shifted them onto my knees. I took each one separately and started to massage them. “I know it’s against the rules, but you need it.”

“Thank you,” she whispered humbly. 

I mumbled under my breath, “Anything for you, princess.”

I knew she heard, but did nothing about it. “Thanks for putting up with me.”

“It actually wasn’t that hard.”

When she spoke it was as if an angel were speaking to me. With each word came a glitter of beautiful chimes. A soft symphony started to play a lullaby. It wasn’t a famous lullaby considering I had written it. As her eyes flicked back and forth from her feet to my eyes I began to feel like as Jell-O. She spoke about something of her life, but my attention was elsewhere. The music played loudly within me and I began to fly away it seemed like. Every sense was heightened and I felt free. This was true euphoria, being with her was utterly the most sought after thing, Nirvana.

Suddenly I heard a crack of something behind me. My neck snapped to see a shadowy figure in the bushes. My head turned again to see Zachary and Tori lying perfectly still next to us. Abigail tensed up also after seeing my reaction. “What?” She asked loudly.

“Shh.” I hissed as quiet as I could. Slowly I placed her feet onto the ground. My head turned again only to see some more movements in the shadows. “Do you trust me?” She looked into my eyes with great fear, “D o you trust me?” I said again. Slowly and stiffly she nodded. She was closer to the kids, “In as little movement as possible hand me Tori,” Abigail bent at the waist carefully and picked up Tori’s. Tori’s little silver eyes opened up to look at me. “Hold onto me Tori and be silent.” She may be young but she knew when there was danger in the air. She held onto my neck and wrapped her legs as best she could around my chest. I looked at Zachary and Abigail was already on it. She handed him to me, “Zachary,” I whispered, “hold onto my neck as tight as you can.” He nodded and slid onto my back.

Next I grabbed Abigail’s hand, “On the count of three, Run.” Her hand shook in between mine. The shadowy figure was closer now, I could hear him. Loud drums and thunderous basses pounded inside my head in a deafening roar. They played dark fear filled music over their strings. “Ready?” I asked carefully. She nodded and the younger ones did the same…

“One…”

“Two…”

“Three…”

In a flash we were gone. This was the fastest I had ever run. Abigail barely kept up. We passed by branch and branch, each one whacking at our bare bodies.  I knew that behind us the shadowy figure was on our heels. I could smell him, I could taste him, I could hear him. Zachary looked up at me and gasped. In that moment I lost my focus.  A branch sliced across my face. Blood oozed from the wound painfully. We ran and ran. The moon shined brightly in the river next to us. The rapids grew larger and larger. Behind us I could hear the snapping of twigs and branches. I listened carefully to the breathing of everyone around me. Abigail searched for air as we ran. The kids lost their breath from fear. Then there was the shadow behind us. His breathing stayed centered and controlled and I knew that even if we ran all night he would catch us.

There was only one thing for me to do, try to out maneuver him. Suddenly I took a hard right away from the river knowing I would regret that soon. The branches slapped against us painfully. At one point Abigail let out a loud roar in pain. My mind shot to her, the pain was in her foot. How did I know that? The music still pounded in my head loudly, over and over again the drums beat. They pushed me on harder and harder. We ran through the trees turning right, left, right, left. My ears and mind searched for the person following us. The twigs were still snapping close behind us. I pulled Abigail’s hand into my chest and urged her pained body on. The kids began to cry. First it was Tori in my right arm. She hung on as best she could, but I knew she wouldn’t be able to much longer.

Zachary was next. His wails were loud in my ears. Each one was louder and louder. Surely if we lost the shadow behind us he would be able to find anyone with these crying children. I needed to find strength to move faster. I searched deep inside of me for anything at all. Two days with hardly any food and endless walking didn’t help this situation at all. Abigail began to fall behind. With all my strength I pulled her along, but she was failing I could feel it. Pain was radiating through her body and she was giving up. “Let me go, keep running, save yourselves.” She cried out to me. “I can’t go any further.

I wouldn’t do that, I couldn’t do that.  “Get in front of me.” I yelled to her. With all the strength in my arm I pulled her forward. When she got in front of me I noticed her pain, we had left her shoes by the river. She was running barefoot through a forest. Blood was spewing from her feet, her left one the most. We slowed for a moment to Abigail’s pace as I shifted everyone around. Zachary went into my left arm and I picked up speed so that I was running side by side Abigail. “Get on.”

“It’s too much weight,” she cried through the rushing wind in our ears.

“Get on!” I screamed at her. She understood that. She had gotten one arm around me when she was pulled away.

“Zander help me!” She screamed. My feet went to a sudden halt sliding me in the dirt below. I caught myself before falling and turned around. I ran through the trees where she was pulled off. Suddenly something hard hit my back. I fell forward towards the ground. Mid air I shifted my body so that I would land on my shoulder. I tucked my head so that the kids wouldn’t feel any of the impact. Gravel, dirt, sticks, twigs slid along the side of my face as my shoulder went deeper and deeper into the ground. When we had completely stopped I tried to pick myself up only to have my head smashed into the ground by a rubber boot. “Run kids.” I let my arms loose and they took off. The boot left my face and I watched as the shadowy figure caught them. “No!” I screeched.

“Zander!” They both screamed. I picked myself up and ran for the figure. I jumped straight onto his back. He dropped the younger ones and dealt with me. The younger ones ran.

“Zachary, Tori!” Abigail was behind me running for them. That’s my girl. The shadowy figure below me spun around again and again trying to claw at me anyways. Through the spins I saw Abigail and the kids watching. Suddenly the Shadow shrugged his shoulder and with all of his strength flipped me over. My back slammed into the dirt with great pain. My lungs shot out all the air in them. That was it, I couldn’t fight anymore. The shadow was on top of me in less than a second. His body straddled me and covered my mouth. Abigail and the kids started running toward him, “Get off of him.”

I searched for strength inside of me. If the three got here first he would kill them. I kicked and clawed at anything I could. When Abigail and the kids ran up the shadow put up his hand. He quickly went for his throat and pulled off the mask. Abigail and the kids stopped dead in their tracks. Each of their eyes got huge and hope filled. The shadow’s face wasn’t a monster, no he was a man. His brown hair was stuck up from the chase. A few beads of sweat hovered over his dark brown brow. Silver eyes gleamed brightly in the night looking over the four of us. His chest heaved with deep breaths of exhaustion. A long nose sat in the middle of his face which led to two plump lips. The face was very familiar in the group I had met a few days ago.

“Tex?” Abigail gasped

“Daddy?!” Zachary shouted loudly and leapt for him. His little arms wrapped around his waist. The man’s hands pushed Zach away.

“No.”

Abigail gasped again and stiffened, “Zane.” She whispered with great seriousness.

Zachary backed up with the rest of them. His hand was still over my mouth, “Who?” I said muffled.

Fear was now in Abigail’s eyes. All hope was now lost for her and I could tell she still needed my saving. My arms grabbed at his wrist and pulled it off of my mouth. I connected a punch right to his jaw which sent him off of me. He rolled in the dirt for a minute letting me get up. He grabbed my ankle tripping me. My hand barely caught me inches from the ground. “Wait.” The man said loudly.

Abigail did as he asked, “Look.” I did this, he was pointing towards his eyes, and “I can’t fake this. It’s real. I’m alright.”

Abigail tentatively took a step toward him. “Uncle Zane, how’d you…”

“There will be more time for explaining, I just have to take care of this a*s.” His hand pulled me closer to him. I clawed at the rocks and dirt below.

“Wait, he’s with us.”

I was now underneath the shadow man’s body. His gleaming silver eyes looked down on me. “Who is he?”

“Zander Khorry,” Abigail said as if he would know immediately.  

The man sighed, “That would explain it, you persistent b*****d.” Finally his grip was let loose and I slipped away. Quickly I was next to Abigail and the kids, “Khorry’s boy, huh?” He grabbed my chin and looked over me carefully, “You’re gene’s are split?”

“What?” I asked confused.

“Ask your daddies.” His demeaning tone was not something I was admiring. I looked up at him, “It means your both of your dads.” The man looked at Abigail, “That jaw can’t belong to Collin.”

Hate filled me and suddenly a Beethoven song filled my head. Abigail gasped, “Zander?”

“What?”

Without a hint of a single question in her words she said, “You can use your powers.”

Author's Note

:D. Love you!