Evelyn Earth Part 29

The strain of holding time in place was beginning to take its toll. The darkness itched to destroy that which it was wrapped around. By merely swathing Marla in it I was tantalizing the Mother’s vengeance. She wanted Marla to be consumed.

                “I won’t be able to hold onto her much longer, what do you suggest I do?” I asked Sebastian through gritted teeth.

                “Everyone up on the ridge!” he yelled. Gerard, Travis and Sloan all moved to follow him. Their actions vaguely reminded me of soldiers shifting to the position given to them by their commanding officer, and I guess that was what Sebastian was. What did that make me? Another soldier? I sure as hell couldn’t command my people, I had already lost two and the others were on the brink of walking out on me. Toya was probably scared out of her mind, watching over Owen who was tied up like a prisoner and Marla…well Marla had balls, for all the good they would do her.

                “Okay Evs release her” Sebastian called out to me, “she’ll end up shooting empty air and then we’ll deal with her like…natural people” his voice dripped with sarcasm at the last part. I pulled the power back into myself slowly, careful not to snag Marla in any way. Just as I was about to finish the process a high pitched scream jolted me. I lost control.

                “Nooooo!” Toya came hurtling down towards me, but it was too late. The darkness had flared up at the sudden shock that my body experienced and instantaneously lashed out at the thing closest to it—Marla.

The next few seconds were chaos.

Toya slammed into me with full force, sending us both to the ground. My power whiplashed in the air around us and I screamed in frustration. I didn’t want to hurt her, but she was making it extremely hard. The darkness snapped around us, trying to re-enter my body, but if it did it would have to go through hers. As I struggled to get her off me her nails dug into my skin and her voice almost punctured my eardrums. She was manic. Thankfully someone appeared over us and pulled her off me, leaving me panting on the ground.

                In the meantime I could hear exclamations of disgust coming from the ridge and a low animal-like whine. I sat up. Marla lay with her head hanging upside down on the low incline. Her mouth opened and closed emitting the eerie whine that seemed to echo all around me. One of her arms flailed feebly against the ground making smacking sounds that added to the cacophony.

                “Oh fuck that’s…oh man” Travis moaned. Izwan was bent over double throwing up what little food he had left in his stomach while Sloan patted his back. Gerard had simply walked away from the scene and stood off to the side looking out over the city. Sebastian was pinning the hysterical Toya to the ground with his knees and I could her struggling as if she were under water. The air around me took on a thick quality, masking all sound.

                Marla’s left leg was completely gone. Her left arm was an image of deconstruction; blood dripped down from her elbow bone which was jutted out and visible to all. Her hand and forearm was lying around her in various pieces. Her shoulder muscles were sliding off her with every periodic moan and flap of her right hand and the smell, the smell was sickening.

                I stared in fascinated horror. It was like road kill; you knew that it was bad to keep looking, that it would upset you and disgust you, but you simply couldn’t look away. It was a morbid curiosity that gripped me. I stood up and took a few steps towards her. Her feverish eyes registered my movements and her flailing became more intense. She really was like a slug, something that I had begun to squash, but left mutilated and alive.

                “You need to kill the bloody thing” Sebastian said, “put it out of its misery.”

                “No! You can’t. MARLA! MARLA!” Toya screamed before Sebastian pressed her head into the ground, muffling her voice.

                That’s when I noticed Owen standing fairly far away, up on a metal frame. His body was very still, even his eyes did not move; staying focussed on Marla. I felt slightly ashamed, that he had to see this—my handy work.

Without any preamble I walked over to Marla’s body and laid my hand over her forehead. A sliver of darkness passed from my palm into her brain quieting whatever nerve impulses remained and stilling her body. I placed my other hand over her chest and breathed out, letting my power wash over her. Her corpse was there one moment and then it was gone. Consumed by the Mother—its purpose fulfilled.  

Everyone was silent, except for Toya who had given up struggling and taken up sobbing instead. We all seemed shell shocked, as if we had just got out of a battle. Blood still stained the spot where Marla used to be and that added to the crushing atmosphere.

“That didn’t go according to plan” Sebastian huffed as he stood up, letting Toya roll over onto her back and continue sobbing, “If you hadn’t of come out here screaming your sister would still be alive.”

“Don’t” I said quietly, “there’s no use in making her feel worse.”

“Come on then. We still have to find a place to stay and some food before the sun sets.” He looked so pragmatic in that moment. He stood up, brushed his palms against his pants and motioned with his head to move forward. One by one his soldiers fell in behind him until only Toya and I were left in the crater. Owen still stood stock still on the metal frame. His eyes though were firmly trained on me. We stood and looked at each other for a moment before I turned and walked after Sebastian.

That night we found shelter in a walled in Chinese mini-mart. Sebastian opened up a section of the rubble to allow us access. Inside we gorged ourselves on weird looking snacks and bottled milk teas. After everyone was finished eating they scattered around the aisles to sleep. No one spoke.

I was woken up by a soft touch to my arm. It felt like I had slept for only a second, but as I stood up to follow Sebastian outside I saw that the first rays of dawn had broken through the night sky.

“We haven’t had a chance to speak properly” he began, “I thought that before we continued on our…mission, I guess you could call it? That we needed to talk, for example, about things like not running into huge masses of darkness.” I nodded in response. My head was still groggy and images of Marla’s amputated body kept surfacing in my mind’s eye.

“How did you obtain your power?” I asked.

“Straight to the point, I like that” he smiled, trying to lift the mood, “the same way as you I presume. I was drawn in by the Mother’s call as I was camping next to a mass of darkness. I was with Sloan at the time. We had been raiding the surrounding area together since the vengeance began. After I walked into the power and it settled within me he became very bitter. He believed that it should have been him, seeing as he was the more ruthless one, the stronger one.”

“How long after the vengeance?”

“Only two weeks or so.”

“Mine was almost two months” I sighed.

“How is that possible? The Mother’s call drove me crazy for those two weeks. I couldn’t figure out what it was and I almost lost my mind before I found the darkness. How in the world did you stay sane for two months?”

“I didn’t really hear the call until my patch of darkness appeared next to my apartment building” I said matter-of-factly.

“What do you mean appeared” his eye brows creased.

“It must have been just over a month after the first explosions began when Harbour Town was consumed by the darkness…”

“So wait, you absorbed a delayed expulsion of the Mother’s power?” he interrupted me.

“Is that significant?”

“I can’t really say” he looked confused, “it could be the reason why our powers are so different. If you think about it, the initial explosions were Her pent up anger; a slow build-up of hate that moved at a slow pace, but was heavy with eons of suffering. Any secondary explosions could have been after effects of Her awakened state; a faster more aggressive hatred. Does that make sense?”

“Hmm”

“I didn’t even realise there were any secondary explosions to be honest. What if there were third or fourth waves?”

“If there were I’m sure I would feel it.”

“I didn’t feel the second wave.”

“Like you said, we’re different.”

“Talking about feeling, have you tried sensing the others through the web that the Mother weaved?”

I shook my head, I had completely forgotten about the dream which contained the Mother’s message. I needed to look for the other warriors immediately. As if he could sense what I was about to do Sebastian reached out and gripped my shoulder.

                “Before you jump into action I want to finish this conversation. There are still a few things I want to straighten out.” I squirmed under his grip, as far as I was concerned talking was at the bottom of my list of things to do right now. At the very top was testing out the new connection system that She had put in place. We needed unite so that we may destroy together and on a large scale.

                “So far we’ve established that our powers are different, but we can still do some things that are the same right?”

                “Right” I agreed, “we can disintegrate man-made materials, we have the far-sight in common and the ability to stop breathing.”

                “As long as we are fully energised” he added.   

                “Yes. We can also sense each other’s thoughts when our powers come in contact with each other, oh and we can float in our own little cocoons of darkness. Is that enough?” I was getting annoyed, “how about you tell me something that I don’t know.”

                “Some things are private love, I can’t go ruining my mysteriousness” he smiled at me with his sly half smile. I snorted. There was no way he would reveal to me the full extent of his abilities, not after the stunt I pulled at the subway. He needed to have something on me, and knowledge of our powers was one of those things. He had spent two months out here in the real world practising his abilities whilst I was sitting in my concrete tower.

                “Let’s change the subject then Mr Mysterious. What I really want to know is what was going on out here while we were camped out at the docks. Did you come into contact with any people? Do you know where everyone’s gone?”

                “Are you joking?” he looked incredulous, “you really don’t know?”