Evelyn Earth Part 34

After a moment’s pause though I realised that it would be useless to track down Sebastian and the others as they could be anywhere. Frankly it would take too long. My best option was to follow the group of men and find out what they were doing. It was my job after all. If they had ill intentions towards the Earth then I would need to neutralize them. How did you even determine such a thing though? It was all so confusing.

                I grumbled to myself as I paced up and down the roof of the shop. I really didn’t want to get into a fight, but my inner instincts were telling me to run after the men.

                “Dammit” I whispered before taking a step towards the edge. I concentrated a small mass of darkness in my legs and the balls of my feet and stepped off the barrier. I landed with a thud on the sidewalk and a rim of concrete dust billowed out around me. I left two size seven foot imprints behind me as I launched into a run.

                

Evelyn Earth Part 33

“It’s people like him that we can’t rely on” Sebastian seethed, “I don’t even know if I can rely on myself. We are all human after all. Our emotions could change what we believe in in a split second” he spun around to face me “we aren’t reliable Evelyn, how could She have trusted us with so much power?”

“Calm down” I put a hand on his chest and a flicker of my power transferred to him. I felt the fear and indecision that was broiling inside him. We weren’t much different after all, not on the inside. We were both caught up in something so tremendously huge that our tiny human minds couldn’t full comprehend everything that was going on.

“I think we’ve talked enough for today—too much actually. The other warrior will be here by nightfall, all we have to do now is wait, wait and not worry about all of this.”

He nodded in agreement, but his face was still creased with concern.

Travis, Gerard and Izwan came into the clearing led by Sloan and Sebastian’s features instantly resumed their previous hardness.

Evelyn Earth Part 32

           

“Why did you disconnect?” Sebastian growled as he himself extracted his consciousness from the Earth’s web.

           “There’s no point in standing around now playing Pictionary when the other soldier can make his way to us and we can speak in person” I replied.

           “You can be a real piece of work sometimes. You bloody well know that we could have continued searching for more warriors. We could have seen the full potential of this glowing map She’s made for us.”

          “Do it yourself if you fucking want! You speak as if you’re so sure about everything. Why do you think the second warrior tapped into our connection at precisely the time when we were connected? And for only a split second for that matter! They knew we were there somehow, and I for one can’t feel the web if I’m not connected. What if it was a false cry for help?”

         “You can’t know that. It could have just been a coincidence.”

         “Why does our Mother’s web glow Sebastian? Why does it fucking glow? What I saw in the vision she sent us was silver, it was fucking silver and hard like ore trapped within a rock” I exploded with irritation. He refused to analyze the information that was in front of him. Maybe he did just see things clearer than I did, he saw what he thought he was meant to see whereas I was bombarded with contradictions and confusing flashes of facts.

          I watched his face as he worked through what I had just said.

         

Evelyn Earth Part 31

“Wait, I have one more thing I wanted to ask you” he looked at me intently, “when you think of killing thousands of people do you feel as if it’s the right thing to do?”

                “When I’m in tune with the Mother I think my own beliefs get hijacked by her. I feel like I should do anything, anything at all for her benefit and that includes killing.”

                “But when you are just you, just Evelyn…”

                “I don’t know” I shook my head from side to side, “when I think about my friends, your friends, people I actually know I don’t want to kill them, but what happened with Marla that was just wrong, but here I am the next day and I can already feel the memory of her fading.”

                “It’s the same with me. I can’t help but want to protect my friends and if I had family I think it would be a completely different story.”

                “What do you mean?”

                “Are you close with your parents? Brothers? Sisters?”

                “No.”

                “Maybe that’s why we were chosen by the Mother, because we had no real familial connections of our own. No real long lasting friendships.”

               

Evelyn Earth Part 30

“It really pisses me off when you say shit like that” I growled.

“Sorry love, just an instinctive reaction of my surprise” he shrugged, “I just assumed that you were more…well informed. Or that you had at least seen something.”

“Clearly not” I looked down at my hands. Why had I stayed cooped up for so long? Was I that afraid of the outside world?”

“After the first few chaotic days everyone was out robbing each other blind. Power had been cut off everywhere and there was no sign of aid, until the angels arrived. At least that’s what the people started calling them.”
                “Angels?” I whispered.

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.

Evelyn Earth Part 28

Even I was surprised at my tone of voice. It felt surreal, as if the Earth Mother’s pent up rage that I had absorbed was speaking through me.

“You can’t get ahead of yourself love, self-destructing wouldn’t have done any of us any good, not just me” he replied casually. He pushed himself off the ground and looked down at me with a placid expression.

“The urge must be stronger in you, but I haven’t forgotten my humanity just yet. I still remember my friends.” He gestured behind him, as if on cue Travis exclaimed anxiously; “Self-destruct? What the fuck do you mean self-destruct?” He was standing a few steps behind Sloan who I assumed had been arguing with Sebastian whilst I was in the throes of my power overload. I searched behind them for the rest of the group; Gerard was leaning up against a fallen piece of concrete rubble, but the rest were nowhere in sight. That’s when I realized that I was in the open air.

Sunlight beat down on my head and I craned my neck backwards, closing my eyes to get the full force of the heat on my face. I exhaled slowly and then breathed in the warm air that danced and writhed in languid currents around me.

Evelyn Earth Part 27

It wasn’t at all like the first time. The first time I had fallen into the thick mass of pitch black, I had been embraced by it like a long lost daughter. This time it felt as if I were forcing myself into its heart. As I ran, my steps began to take on a lethargic quality until I was wading through the mist, exerting more and more energy until I felt drained. I decided I had come far enough and so I stopped.

Everything around me moved and shifted, but it didn’t induce dizziness, but rather made me feel at peace. I was in a dark cocoon, which I had to now figure out how to absorb. I spread my arms out to my sides and let my fingers feel the almost liquid mass at it slipped in an out of my reach. I took a deep breath and watched as tendrils of the darkness were inhaled into my mouth. This wasn’t the way though, I couldn’t stand here and try to breathe in such a large force of power, I needed it to rush into my body quickly and surely.

Sebastian would know what to do, I thought to myself, maybe he was already in here with me trying to steal the power out from under me. I creased my brow and concentrated, there was no way in hell that I would let him beat me to it.

Evelyn Earth Part 26

Everyone was looking at us. It could have been simply because we were the only thing to look at in a 3km radius, but I gathered that it was most likely because of me—me and my reckless actions. I straightened up, but let Sebastian’s hands rest on my forearms. I was still too unsteady to stand on my own and I felt like the slightest breeze could send me sideways, spilling me into the water and washing me away.

“I’m sorry” I said slowly. I didn’t know what else to say. Not only had I destroyed the docks, but I had put an end to the camp that Old Mal had started, the camp where we all had a safe slice of private safety, until now.

Sebastian’s men didn’t seem the least bit fazed. After all, this place had meant nothing to them, just a one night stop over on their journey to wherever it is they’re heading. They had probably already seen Sebastian in action before and known what all this meant. I doubted that my tiny group of survivors would even be able to comprehend what had just happened.

Marla looked furious, her whole body was visibly tensed and if it weren’t for Toya’s desperate grabbing at her arm I’m sure she would have lunged at me, for all the good it would have done her. Even in my disoriented state I could have sent out a bolt of darkness that would have devoured her whole.

 Mal was still slumped on the ground and looked the most traumatised. A silent dejected trauma always seemed worse to me than the hysterical trauma that Toya was exhibiting. Old Mal had lived around this area most of his life and in one glorious moment his home went up in black flames leaving nothing behind.

Evelyn Earth Part 25

She was waiting by the water-side. Small droplets of rain hit the ground sending out arks of dry specks. They fanned out in one glorious motion before falling and in turn creating smaller arks, which also fanned out and fell.

She looked out over the horizon summing up all that lay before her. Things had changed since she last set foot here, many years had passed and she could sense that more change was on the way. Change that she could not control since Fate was not under her command. Her distant brother had seen the plan she had put in motion. He had seen the hatred she bore towards the beings that were slowly eating away at her flesh and he had sent his own power into chosen messengers to slow her vengeance.

She saw them created on the rays of the first light only days after she had initiated her destruction. As he rose majestically over the horizon she realised that he would never allow her to rid her body of all life, he valued the humans much more than she did. So be it. Next time she would not let things get so out of hand before she acted.

Her warriors had been spread out all over her heavy body by now, but they were unfocussed, some stronger than others. Some were completely unaware of their purpose. She looked down into the depths of the ocean. She had been lying dormant and content for too long, so long in fact that she had forgotten what it meant to be awake. She shook herself, sending out ripples of seismic activity. Even that took too much concentration. If she didn’t act fast, act now all her soldiers would have turned to dust and all this effort would have been wasted.