The executed, p.33
The Executed, page 33
What would Eliseo have wanted for me? I scoffed beneath the water. Eliseo never saw himself apart from me.
It left my lips in a guilty whisper before I knew it happened.
His shadow immediately appeared behind me right before he stepped into the shower close enough to touch. I was scared to turn and he never touched me. The only thing connecting us were the splashes of water that jumped from his body to mine.
I slowly began washing myself, wanting to feel a semblance of normalcy. Raising an arm, I rubbed my skin, down my sides, letting my other arm bend at the elbow and touch Reed with the tip of my fingers. Slowly, he raised his own to wash the side of my hips, never straying from the area.
With a deep breath, I guided him around my body, instructing him to help me as I turned around and stared into the dark fathom of his eyes. He dropped to his knees and wrapped his arms around me, burying his face against my stomach and my heart broke.
We both stood there, under the spray of water for an indeterminate amount of time before I began to wash his hair, noticing its length.
I tapped his shoulder when I was done and he stood up, turning off the water and like deja vu, wrapped me in a towel and began drying me off. He quietly placed the towel back on the rack and carried me to bed, tucking me away before leaving the room and shutting the door behind him.
The next few days felt stranger, but I was finally up for leaving the house. I stood beside the kitchen building and watched everyone as they came through. Gunner walked out with his apron with a smile, heading my way.
“Hey,” I greeted him.
“Hey, you.” He kept space between us as he scanned me with worry. “Everything okay? Do you need anything from the kitchen?” he asked over the chatter of the residents who were beginning to stare as they walked by.
I shook my head, trying to keep my smile but knew I was failing because he gave me a look that didn’t need to be translated out loud.
“Reed, grab two bowls on your way back. Meet me in five minutes.”
I looked around, confused at Gunner’s instructions because Reed wasn’t here… until the man in question turned the corner from the opposite side of the building and followed behind Gunner without looking my way.
Remi was right. He was always watching me. Overwhelmed from the stimulation of being out, I turned on my heel and made my way back home.
Someone spat at my feet as I made it toward the residential areas and I stopped to look.
“I know you’re lying. You all are. Where there’s one bloodsucker, there’s more. I don’t know how you’re doing it, walking in the sun, but believe me, I made sure the Chieftain knows of my suspicion,” said an old woman with an ugly sneer.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I feigned and she let out a humorless laugh.
“We’ll get another fire show, soon enough.”
The hairs on the back of my neck stood and I quickened my steps home. Before I could pass the next two houses, a hot hand grabbed me and I threw a punch. Reed’s face snapped to the side and he took a few deep breaths, licking his lips, before turning back to me.
“What did she say,” he gritted out, rolling his neck around.
“She’s waiting for us to follow Eliseo,” I whispered angrily, my blood boiling.
Without another word, he moved faster than I could see. I ran and caught up with him just as her neck audibly snapped and she sagged onto the ground.
“What did you do?” I hissed.
He nonchalantly straightened and walked back toward the kitchen without another word. I stood there fuming, unsure of whether I should get rid of the body or walk away so no one sees me next to it. I chose the latter, needing more time to mull over what occurred.
Slamming the door I growled and kicked the couch. What was he trying to do out in the open like that? What the hell was he thinking?
The door opened the next few minutes as he brought in two bowls and set them on a smaller table we accumulated to replace the last one we broke. My chest heaved as I turned to face him. “Reed? What is wrong with you?”
“A lot of things. Sit down and let me feed you,” he replied calmly.
“You killed her! Anyone could have walked by!”
“I would have killed her regardless.”
“Why, Reed?” Why was he acting like this?
“Because I protect what’s mine!” he roared, the first time he let his temper out since… since… I shut out the world. It was as if our emotions were in sync and that kind of power terrified me. He grabbed the side of his head and growled, haunching over as if he was kicked. “What do you want from me, Fitri? Every time I’m with you…”
“I—Don’t turn this around on me, Reed!”
He grimaced and turned his back to me, tilting his head back and running his hands down his face. “What do I need to do? Tell me.”
“Stop trying to confuse me! What are you talking about?” I cried out, my pulse frantically trying to jump out of my skin.
He turned and lunged, grabbing my upper arms, forcing us to move until my back hit the wall that divided the living room and the bedroom. “Tell me what I need to do to make you forgive me!”
He punched a hole beside my head and my breath stuttered, the aura of his fury encompassing my senses.
“Tell me, Fitri. Tell me what I need to do. I’m dying a thousand deaths while I’m breathing in life only you can give me. Brought high… just to bury me alive.”
I blinked back tears as my lips trembled. When he lifted his face toward mine, his broken expression eviscerated my soul. I opened my mouth to say something but a loud pounding came at our door.
“Open up! I know you’re in there!” came an unfamiliar male voice.
Reed’s pupils dilated before he broke away from me and jerked the door open.
“There was a witness to a murder and you're the only suspect. You’re coming with us!” the guard threw out before grabbing Reed.
My heart leaped to my throat as I ran after him. A crowd was already forming and old trauma stress slammed into me, the sound of screams, Eliseo’s roar and my mother jumping into the flames. No, no, no, not again!
A fight ensued as Reed flipped the guard onto his back, straddled him and began to pound his skull in. The force of each hit vibrated the ground until the nearby women screamed and the other guards tackled him.
“He’s just like the other one!”
“I fucking knew it!”
“Where are the rest of them?”
Hands, hands all over me, pulling me away from where I needed to go. I felt Gunner before he appeared, shouldering his way through the crowd, pulling some of the men off Reed. The heat of bodies burned me as I pulled away from some of the hands and made a few steps before someone tripped me, slamming my face on the ground. Clawing forth, dirt broke under my nails as I made my way toward Reed.
“Grab him!”
“Get the wood!”
“NO!” was all I heard before my ears closed up and the world spun. It was his blood that burned my nares, his blood that called to a deeper part of me. The hands that pulled, slipped as everything around us turned red. The scent of metal, the scent of flames, the scent of released bowels mixed in the air as the screams became a low vibration hum beneath my skin with every step I took.
My own hand slipped as I threw the corpses aside on top of each other, my eyes trained on the last guard standing, his gun rattling in his hands. I wasn’t sure if my lungs were pulling in air, not until I saw Reed’s body, also covered in blood, contorting and convulsing. He spewed blood from his mouth all over the dead bodies beneath him right before he roared in anguish.
Gunner wiped his own mouth with the back of his hand before he twisted the last guard’s neck from behind, dropping him to the ground. The Chieftain, who stood a few yards away, froze in place, his hands on the shoulder of one of their robed men from beyond the inner wall.
As clouds began to gather, the smell of impending rain filtered through the thick atmosphere as I dropped to my knees beside Reed who was still shaking.
“Reed…?” I wanted to sob, rebuking myself for my part in whatever happened between us. “Please.”
I didn’t know what I was asking for and I didn’t wait for an answer as I covered his shaking, bloody form with my own tightly. He cried out again and shoved me aside. His arms were wrapped around himself as he fell forward right as the skin of his back began to peel.
I reacted without thought, biting my wrist and hands, slapping it all over him, trying to rub my life with his… the same way he’d been begging me to do when I spurned him.
It was the broken groan that had me grab his face and kiss him through his pain. I sat down and pulled him over me, wrapping my arms around his shoulder, pressing his head against the crook of my neck, offering him to drink.
He latched on immediately, pulling at my essence. The only footsteps that came behind me were Gunners, his own scent permeating the air around me as he crouched down and ran his hand through Reed’s hair while his other hand landed on my shoulder.
We both gasped when bone emerged from his back and then plumes of black feathers. Reed’s body shook violently until the rest of his wings finally emerged, spreading widely in all its dark glory.
“Fuck,” Gunner whispered and I gently cupped Reed’s bloodstained face to mine, peppering him with kisses, silently asking if he was okay.
A shuddering sigh was his only response. And that was when I realized… the entire community was deathly quiet.
26
“W-What are you?” the Chieftain whispered in horror.
I stood, bringing Reed to his feet beside me while Gunner stood on the opposite side. Staring at the man who most likely sentenced Eliseo to his grave, something inside of me broke free. The woman I was afraid of evolving into had found her place among her men.
“The harbinger of your death if you touch any one of mine,” I hissed, still hungry for vengeance and retribution.
The Chieftain took a step back, caught himself and attempted to stand tall. No longer did he hold his false smiles. He stank of deceit. “You dare bring your wickedness here?”
With the massacre of his most loyal followers at my feet, I took a confident step over their bodies toward him. His eyes widened as mine sharpened.
It was his religious man who bravely spoke next. “I-I never—He emerged like a—like an angel of death come to life, right before our eyes. Is this our divine punishment for past transgressions or is this… our new beginning?”
I didn’t know who he was speaking to and at the moment, I didn’t rightfully care. The only thing on my mind was protecting my men and making sure what happened to Eliseo never happened again— not while I was here. The sky darkened as additional storm clouds rolled in as if the world was finally angry on our behalf for all the shit we had been put through. My skin prickled as electricity began to weave its way through the air around us, a sign of the intensity of what was coming.
My men followed behind me, Reed to my right and Gunner to my left—the way it was almost meant to be. Denial was my human weakness and it had no place here. I finally understood why they all claimed themselves to be the elite in this existence.
“Have you come to save us from ourselves?” The religious man continued, standing his ground in what looked like humbleness while the Chieftain tensed, his body ready to flee at any moment.
“It’s time to stop the madness and the pires,” I said as I ran at inhuman speed, grasping the chieftain around the neck and lifting him right as the skies roared and rumbled.
My fragmented past, reflected against the lightning as if for all to see though I knew it was only in my mind. Flashes of my mother’s face coming toward me as the crowd cursed her name for trying to save a bloodsucker. These very walls and perhaps with some of these very people. My childhood home no longer stood, but the scars this place carried never left with it. Beyond the farm lay a piece of me, the one Maverick tried to exploit in my youth, only to be warned of again back at Ashborne. How blind was I to not see everyone around me using me as a pawn in their wicked schemes? From the innocent farm boy in Silverforge to Queen Isabella of Clan Cirse. And yet without fully knowing it, I played my hand and won in the end.
From prisoner to the fissure in her plans of ruling as a deity, the world had a bigger role for me, one that may topple all she ever knew. I destroyed the boy who selfishly desired to defile the outcast and now it was time to destroy the very thing that threatened to haunt me here—because I was no longer the frightened girl, but reborn into something beyond any of their understanding.
“The cycles of history have taught us nothing, despite the constant wheel of death that continues to spin in an endless loop of insanity. Do you not all see the pointlessness of it all?” I gritted out with a hint of sorrow.
The Chieftain gasped for breath but I didn’t wait for his answer as I tossed him aside with a flick of my wrist. Reed picked up where I left off and looked to me for my next order. His eagerness in showing me his support made me weak in the knees but I couldn’t let the people here see that he had become one of my biggest vulnerabilities.
How often have our fears been the beacon to those who wish to exploit us? How often have we begged to be left alone in the name of peace, only to bring more predators in our wake? To have war brought to our doorsteps—the very thing we had been trying to avoid.
Thunder boomed in response and the skies lit up as if to show me the way.
Never again. Never again will I let them destroy everything I had, only to be brought back to life in pieces. I looked at the rest of the faces around us as the skies began to cry for our injustice. “Well? Is there anyone else here that needs to say something? I’m all ears and frankly, I’m about fucking tired, so speak your peace now because I’m not leaving. No longer will anyone have the power to make me do anything I don’t wish to do.”
The rain pelted down on us with increasing speeds as lighting ran across the skies, illuminating unsure faces laced with a hint of fear before concealing them again.
“Are-Are you going to kill us?”
My eyes darted toward the voice. It was the nurse who took care of Samuel so long ago, the girl Daniel flirted with by the kitchen. The human part of me reminded myself that they were not all this way—experience had taught me that alongside my traumas and no longer was I going to be played the fool.
“I don’t want to. I never intended to. But I cannot be blamed for my self-defense. I want to live like everyone else… I just want to live.” My voice softened at the end as my body vibrated with such hatred for all that had happened and with such awareness of what I was capable of. Looking at her face now, I wavered. Did Silverforge deserve mercy?
Light illuminated the sky again as if responding to my internal cries for clarity.
“Don’t believe her! They’re all the same! Just like those damn Lekim’s that betrayed us!” the Chieftain accused, and we all turned to look at him. My anger twisted but Eliseo’s face cut my rage before it could escalate. He was the one who made me believe that not everyone was out there to see my demise. He brought back hope when I had lost it.
I shook my head slowly, understanding dawning as another vein of lightning ran and struck a tree in the distance with a loud crackle of sparks. It was why Eliseo never could put his guard down here, no matter how calm our lives had been during that time. He had alway been my guide, even when I never asked him to be—even now. I sadly looked at Reed with my decision who responded accordingly to my request by ripping his head off his shoulders, pulling out his spine with it. Blood bubbled from the wound as he dropped his body, and began making his way toward me.
I studied Reed’s expression, taken by surprise when he got on one knee, presenting the chieftain’s head like a gift. My heart skipped a beat at his actions, knowing we were both still walking on eggshells around each other in many ways. How much more did I need to make him suffer when he had done nothing but steadily stand beside me?
I took his offering and stared into the epitome of what ignorance and fear created. Tossing it aside, I stared at the robed man and thought of Gunner. Necessity fueled my every move before I tore his body in half, the long fabrics of his robes making him fall awkwardly to the ground.
I would make sure religion never hurt him again. No one heard his sigh but me and I held onto it like a treasure, burying it inside my heart.
The crowd skittered back and as a couple of the residents ran wildly toward us with their pitchforks only to have Gunner rip their limbs apart and drop them on the ground screaming in pain as their hearts continued to pulse blood out of their wounds. I watched with growing admiration as he casually grabbed their weapons and impaled their necks, ending their incessant noise. When he looked over at me, my heart skipped a beat as I let out a resounding sigh.
“I’m tired of lies,” I whispered as the rain continued to pour down on us, washing away the evidence of all our sins for none of us were saints here. None of us could afford to be in order to survive. With the Chieftains' admission, it didn’t escape my notice that not one of the residents balked at the admission as if it was something new—once again telling me, Eliseo had always been right. As these people needlessly added to the blood-soaked ground, I wondered if there truly was any hope for civilization and humanity in the future.
Perhaps, my former executioners were correct in their war toward making this world one dominated by vampires.
“He doesn’t represent us all,” the nurse spoke again, albeit a little shaky. Her courage in the moment shone like the lightning that continued to accompany nature’s wrath. “We didn’t all agree with his ways but had no other choice. This is our home.”
Her words hit and my eyes burned with unshed tears. This was supposed to be our home… with Eliseo, and now he was gone.
