Evelyn Earth Part 43

I turned back around and looked at the group of people I was left with. One of them I could kill right now, another I wouldn’t trust with my left shoe, three of them were useless and Sebastian was my only friend and I didn’t even trust him completely. I sighed.

                “Are we done fighting kids?” Sloan said sarcastically. I shot him a death stare and bared my teeth a little. Actually, make that two people I could kill right now.

                “Are we?” I looked at Audrey who had taken to twirling tendrils of her flame coloured hair around her finger.

                “For now” she cooed. I grimaced in annoyance. Who even spoke like that? It was a cross between the voice of a child and a whore.

                “Can I speak to you alone?” I said to Sebastian. He nodded in response, shot Sloan a reproachful look and followed me behind a slab of fallen concrete.

                “So she wasn’t what we were expecting” I said.

                “If you were expecting help then no not at all, that one’s like wild fire. She flares up and burns out unpredictably. When she first appeared your power outburst had already run its course through most of the city. She questioned me about it and before I could even reply she grabbed me and pulled out all my bloody memories. Everything she touches is instantly under the command of her power, and I mean instantly Evs.”

Evelyn Earth Part 42

As they approached us I was tempted to send out a slither of my darkness to brush up against hers, to see what she was thinking, what she was like, but I restrained myself. She would most likely see it as an intrusion on her psyche, and she would be right.

                “Evs you’re alright” Sebastian said smiling as he came up to me. He was about to embrace me until he saw Owen and Manoel standing behind me. Instead we stood facing each other awkwardly.

                “Not as alright as I wish I was” I replied, “but good enough.” My voice wasn’t as warm as it usually was, it was tinged with cold caution and Sebastian picked up on it instantly. After being connected so many times we seemed to be able to sense each other’s emotions without even delving into our darkness.’ He frowned and glanced behind me once again falsely assuming that my discomfort had something to do with my companions and not his.

Evelyn Earth Part 41

“You can’t compare our agenda to the Sun soldiers. We don’t even know what it is, we’re just speculating at the moment” I grumbled.

                “But you do know that they have the ability to teleport large numbers of people. To trap people in these flocks and to burn people from a distance” he re-capped.

                “If what the visions me and Snow saw from the other two warriors are anything to go by then these angels are leaving destruction in their wake. Not the clean destruction that I can create, but the fire and brimstone type. We saw charred bodies, burned fields and leaping walls of fire. Now what would you prefer? Being consumed by my darkness or being burned alive?”

                “Neither” he said firmly, “I’d like to continue on living thank you very much, but I see what you’re getting at. Have you considered that these Sun messengers might want to turn the Earth into a similar, what’s the word” he paused, “habitat, as the Sun?”

               

Evelyn Earth Part 40

Manoel cleared the way into the building, which turned out to be shoe store. No wonder it had been left intact, who wanted to loot shoes? Thankfully there was a line of leather ottomans against the back wall and we settled down on them.

                “Ah this feels like heaven” Owen sighed as he stretched out on his back, “I’ve missed cushioned surfaces.” I smiled faintly.

                “Do you remember all the trouble we went through getting my mattress down to your container?” I asked.

                “Mm seems like a life time ago.”

                “Everything happened so quickly” I whispered, “It all went by so fast. I don’t think I got a chance to process it all before it was gone.” Owen sat up and I felt his eyes on me. The torches were propped up in a shoe rack and spluttered with every passing minute.

                “I’m sorry about how I reacted to you that day” he said barely audibly, “you were right, I had known all along that something was happening, something big. I just didn’t want to believe it. You have to understand Evie, the world had ended I had lost my family, I was so far from home and I couldn’t go back and then there you were. You were a shining light in my life and I didn’t want to believe that you were a part of the darkness. I still don’t.”

Evelyn Earth Part 39

“Are they all as deluded as you?” he asked blandly as he stood up, “all of these people with these horrible powers. Do you all think that you can magically change the world?”

“You’re an idiot” I spat back at him, “it is people like you who have allowed our world to get to this point. This is not magic! This is nature, nature at its essence. It is tangible and it is real and it will be the thing that saves us all.”

“How can a power that kills, destroys and disintegrates things save us? That’s like saying a nuclear bomb is a good thing for fucks sake. When has force ever brought about peace? You should know about history Evelyn, tell me that please, when has war or global destruction, ever brought about world peace?”

“If a nuclear bomb targeted everything that was wrong on this planet and left no traces of its presence then it would be a fair comparison to our power, and it would be a good thing. A GREAT thing!” I threw my hands up above my head, “I’m done talking, we’re leaving, Manoel lets go.”

“You’re just going to walk away from me again?” he said in angry disbelief.

Evelyn Earth Part 38

“Evie I don’t know what to do, what do I do? Tell me what to do goddammit!”

“I don’t…arghh!” The searing pain ripped through my shoulder and I tasted blood as I bit my tongue.

“Hold on okay, just hold on. Hey you! Yeah you mate, get water. WATER!” Owen yelled at someone behind me. A familiar voice yelled back in panic and Manoel’s face appeared above Owens. His eyes widened in horror before he stepped out of my line of vision. All I could see now were the orange and ochre spots. They were multiplying all around me as if they wanted to smother me in their warmth.

                “You’re on fire, you’re on fire Evie and I don’t know what to do, its burning two holes right through you and I don’t know how to stop it” he said frantically. I felt his hands touch my face and I tried desperately to focus on his yellow eyes, but everything was so blinding.

Evelyn Earth Part 37

The Earth shook, one thunderous boom after another sent seismic waves throughout the area. My eyes would focus on one falling building before losing sight only to regain the vision of crumbling walls. Sounds swam in and out of my consciousness, voices, screams and gentle whispers. I couldn’t feel the sun on my skin anymore. The darkness churned inside me, restless, but unable to break free.

                My throat felt dry. I tried to swallow, but my tonsils were so swollen that only a rasp of air made it through. I summoned up as much saliva as I could and gulped it down only to choke. A coughing fit took hold of me and I clutched at my neck in pain.

                I felt a hand on my back and instinctively shied away from it. Where was I? It was dark and the ground I was lying on was freezing. I barked out the last remnants of air left within my lungs and inhaled deeply through my nose. The hand returned to stroke my back and I shrugged it off before rolling over. I was expecting to see stars, or feel a breeze on my skin, but a decaying ceiling stared back at me sending wafts of mould to overwhelm my senses.

               

Evelyn Earth Part 36

As the last remnants of his flesh evaporated into the wind my mind caught up with my body and I realised that there were still two guns trained on all of us. In that moment I knew that my reaction would have to be faster than the scavenger scum’s and for that I had to let go. So I did.

Two gunshots boomed mere metres away from me, but they sounded oceans away. I felt time stand still as my black dragon burst its way free out of my chest, thrusting my arms outwards and snapping my neck back almost to breaking point.

 Everything became still and quiet. I tried to open my eyes, but my lashes fluttered freely—it was simply pitch black.

“Is this death?” I whispered to myself. My voice broke the silence and I could hear Luiz’s wailing, diminished to a scared whimper, overshadowed by the rapid voices of frightened boys.

Five more gunshots fired off in quick succession. They sounded muffled and delayed, but there was no mistaking them for what they were. I felt each of them hit me, one after the other after the other. They entered the embodiment of my darkness and were swallowed up by it.  

Evelyn Earth Part 35

I needed to get back to Sebastian and tell him everything that I had learned. I knew that he would feel the same way about this as I did because as much power as we had within us and as much reverence as we held for the Earth we weren’t willing to begin a genocide of the human race. There were no two ways about it, if we started on the slippery slope of killing whoever was in our way then we would end up not caring about killing everyone. The fact that this was not only a possibility, but a probability made me shiver.

I relished the idea of being an Earth Warrior, but I didn’t want to lose my humanity in the process. I couldn’t just become a mindless destruction machine because the Mother had found me compatible with her ideals. It wasn’t who I was.

I stood up and brushed the chalk-like remnants of the rock from my fingers. All the boys were looking at me expectantly and I realised that they were counting on me to help them.

“I have to go and find my friends” I said pointlessly, they all stared back at me blank faced, waiting for me to do something, but it was bloody impossible to mime that out so I just turned and started walking away.

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.