Children of the Apocalypse Complete Trilogy, page 51
part #1 of Children of the Apocalypse Series
I put the muffin down as bile rose in my throat. “Let’s just go.” I stood. “I don’t like being without my team at my back.”
“You’ve got us.” War stood and put his hand on the table. “We always have each other’s backs, even if we don’t see eye to eye.”
“You can trust us,” Pestilence echoed, but the other two stayed silent.
I met my dad’s gaze, and he nodded. “Then let’s go.”
I took a deep breath and took myself to the human world. The moment I opened my eyes I summoned my scythe and looked around the area. The Horsemen arrived at my back. My gaze swept over the empty field. A giant seal had been burnt into the ground already, and I knew what it needed to activate. A sacrifice.
I turned around and faced my father. His face remained blank. “It’s a trap for Lucile. Don’t panic,” he whispered, and War grabbed my arm. My scythe disappeared as I lost my grip on it.
I ripped my arm away from him. “What on earth.”
“Sammy,” my dad snapped. “Remember our conversation last night?”
I faced him and nodded.
“Then let War do what he needs to. I won’t let anything happen,” he promised and cupped my face between his hands.
I locked my jaw. “You’re talking about letting them sacrifice me.”
“They would never betray you,” he said again, and I tried to find some hope in his voice. How was this going to work? The seal wouldn’t activate without a death. I was the only thing that was strong enough to seal it.
War shoved me to my knees, and I kept my father’s gaze as I tried not fight against him.
“How cute, you’re going to kill your own daughter to seal me away?” Lucile appeared to my side. “Did you really think that this trap was going to work?”
Nothing was adding up. War let go of me and summoned his ax while the other Horsemen summoned their weapons. I stood and called my scythe.
“That’s not what’s needed to seal me. I thought that you would know that by now Death. All the years that you’ve studied this.” She held her hands up and from the burn marks damned souls, hellhounds, and one giant red demon crawled out. We were standing on top of a portal to hell, and the guardians just crawled out.
The demon ran straight towards me, and I dodged.
“Take care of it, Sammy,” Dad called, and I nodded. The spiky tale of the demon swept towards me, and I jumped over it, only to be hit by its massive clawed hand. I hit the ground in a crouch and shot back towards it.
It opened its large mouth and snarled at me. I swung my scythe and caught its leg, but the large limb needed more than one slice. Blood splattered, and the seal gave a dim pulse.
It wasn’t my blood that the seal needed. I was a diversion. Dad must have known the truth. I twirled the blade and went to slice the leg again to break the creature down, but it spun around me, and the tail caught me in the stomach. I grunted and flipped up from the ground. I thanked my lucky stars that a spike hadn’t pierced me.
I rushed forward again and sliced the demon’s tail as it tried to come towards me again. The tip fell off and blood soaked into the dirt, the seal pulsed again, and I smiled. All we needed was more demon blood.
The demon bent down, and I jumped, bringing my scythe down across its neck. The head rolled away, and the body disappeared. The seal didn’t pulse again. I turned to Lucile. We may not be able to kill her, but she would still bleed.
I didn’t know if her blood was the same as the demons, but I had to try.
She met my gaze and tilted her had to the side. “You’ve improved, Little Death.” She rushed me and tossed her weapon towards me. Chains with sickles attached came rattling through the air, I knocked them to the side with the handle of my scythe and then took a few steps forward until something wrapped around my ankles.
I looked down to see the chains. The links dug into my skin, and it brought me back to that night in her chamber. The way the chains dug into me and moved tighter with every breath that I took.
Basics.
I brought my scythe down in a basic spin and broke the links. To my surprise, it worked, and the chains disappeared. Lucile’s eyes widened, and she summoned two swords.
She rushed towards me, but my dad jumped in front of me and pushed her away from me. “Demon,” he growled over his shoulder.
I nodded and spun to find two other demons in the seal. War rushed towards one while Pestilence continued to work his way through the hellhounds and damned souls. Famine stepped up to my father’s back, and I knew that I had to cover the other demon.
I rushed towards the green scaly creature. The long thin body slithered as it moved towards me, and when it opened its mouth, two big fangs showed, dripping with something green.
It looked like a failed science experiment, but I had a feeling it was still a very venomous bite. I continued forward and studied the way it moved. It slithered up onto two feet and hissed at me. Its whole body tensed before the head struck down.
I jumped out of the way, the fangs piercing the ground and leaving holes the size of my fist. I swallowed and swung my scythe. The creature reared back before my blade even got close to its head.
I rolled out of the way when it struck again. I knew that I could bring it down. I rushed under the belly and sliced through the front two legs. It tumbled to the ground, but then it’s front started to slither. I let out a strangled cry of fear as I realized I had just made it more mobile.
The back legs folded down so that now it moved exactly like a snake. The tail came towards me and knocked my feet out from underneath me. I hadn’t been paying attention to the tail, just the mouth that could kill me with a mere nick. Oh yes, the snake demon was much better for me than facing Lucile.
“Oh look at that, Death.” I heard Lucile say, “My little pet has your daughter.”
Like hell the snake did. I flipped back up and turned toward the head. I could hear the sounds of the others fighting. Howls of dying hellhounds and hisses of damned souls as the Horsemen sent them back to hell. The whole team was doing their part, and I needed to take care of the demon. I ran along the snake demon, dragging my blade against the scales.
It let out a noise that was something between a hiss and a cry. Blood poured from the wound and onto the ground, but the seal didn’t pulse. I turned around and watched as the demon disappeared, but there was still no pulsing of the seal.
Lucile laughed, and I turned around to face her. She had her blade against my dad’s neck. “Your father is easily distracted when it comes to his daughter.”
The others stepped up to my side. I widened my stance and tightened my grip on my handle. “Let him go.”
“Or what? You’re going to kill me? Seal me away when no one is strong enough to do such? You can’t just build a seal like this. None of you know how to control it.”
All I knew was that it took all four Horsemen and it was only going to happen if my dad was alive.
“Remember what I have to offer, Sammy.” She smiled as she drew both blades over my dad’s throat.
His head rolled forward, and his body dropped to the ground. Something in me shattered. I raced forward with all my rage and blindly attacked. I swung my scythe, and she met every strike with her sword. I shoved her away, and she fell to the ground.
I brought my arms over my head and struck down, but my blade met dirt. She flipped up from the ground and twirled her swords. “Come on, Little Death.”
I raced towards her, but War caught me around the waist. “You can’t win. Not like this. Sammy. Think.”
I could hear his voice; I could hear Ruthie and my mother. I could hear my father’s in my ears, all of them urging me to calm down. All of them telling me that I had to think through this. I needed to go back to where I could safely embrace my rage.
I took myself to Death’s Realm. I found myself in the middle of a forest that I’d never seen, but the world wrapped around me like I belonged there. The darkness took over the sky as thunder clapped.
War stood next to me, and I realized that I had forgotten that he had been touching me when I came here. I turned to him. “Leave.”
“Sammy.” He reached out to me, and I swiped at him.
“I grieve alone in this. You will not take my rage; you will not take my anger.” I snarled and struck a tree. “GO!”
He bowed his head and disappeared. I let out a cry that pierced the air, and I struck every tree that I could. I poured all my rage into my attacks, forgetting the basics and just going for damage. The last thing I had, and she’d taken it. Just like they thought.
I recalled his words about family. He wanted to make sure that I still had family. He knew that it was going to happen.
I stopped in my destruction and looked at all the tree bark and branches I’d managed to take down. My father knew it was going to happen. He’d seen it, somehow. I shook my head and started swinging again. But I couldn’t bring myself to strike another tree. I threw the scythe and fell to my knees, and the rains started. The night before hadn’t been my dad; it had been me. The world knew too, and that’s why it had started to accept me. I would become Death, but I didn’t feel any different.
I felt like someone had ripped out my heart and stomped on it a few times. Tears finally joined the rain, and my body shook. I had to figure out how to pay the bitch back for everything she had done in the last year. She would be mine.
A twig snapped behind me, and I spun to face who was there.
Pete, Aeron, and Kaleb all stood there. I snarled. “I said I grieve alone in this.”
“No.” Pete held his hand out. “We grieve together. We’re a team, and you won’t face this alone. We will not make that mistake again.”
I looked at his hand and then I looked to the others. This was my family, and they would not let me go through this alone. I needed to accept what they had to offer. Had War sent them?
I took Pete’s hand, and he pulled me into his arms. I crumbled again, and he came down with me. The others wrapped their arms around me, and I wept.
I felt them weep with me. Their bodies shook and rattled with every breath that they took. I let my heart break, and the thunder cracked over our head as the rain soaked us.
After a while, we pulled apart, and I sat there in the mud, looking up at the full moon peeking out of the clouds. My father always had a full moon in the world as well.
“So now what? He’s gone, and I haven’t magically turned into a bad ass. We failed. Things went wrong.” I wiped my eyes, but it was no use with the rain.
Pete gave a sad laugh. “What do we do in normal times like this?”
“We regroup.”
Kaleb nodded. “We do that, but this time we take it one step further. We study. Your dad had a study full of books. It’s now yours. We figure out where and how to seal the Devil, and we do it together. As a team.”
“As a big team. We all have to work together. We need the other three Horsemen,” Aeron stated.
“I’m not a Horseman.”
He nodded. “Not yet, but you will be soon. As soon as you accept it.”
Once I worked through the grief and came through to reality. I clenched my fists and remembered my words from Hell. “I am Sammy Zadkiel, and I am the daughter of Death. I am the Horseman Death. I am the Pale Rider!” I screamed, and the world shook with thunder. “I belong here. My team has my back, and they will always have me. I am meant to save the earth. We will do this. She will not have her victory.”
Pete smiled. “That’s my girl.”
“Let’s get back to the house and dried off.” Aeron stood and looked at me. “Do you know how to get back to the house.”
I gave a wicked grin. “Watch.” I waved a hand, and we stood in front of the house and out of the forest. “This world is mine to command.”
They looked at me and then to the house. The other Horsemen were sitting at the table. We could see their shadows through the window. I watched as the rain beaded down. I didn’t know what to say, they had lost a teammate, but we needed to figure this out. I had lost my mind when Lucile killed dad…
I could see his head rolling away from his body again, and I tried not gag at the image in my head. I could feel the panic crawling into my mind making me light headed. I couldn’t just dance past this, but I couldn’t let it cripple me. I’d learned that lesson with Ruthie. I had to face this fear and this grief head-on, and that meant going in there and talking to the Horsemen. I took a deep breath and walked into the house.
They all looked at me, and War stood up. “We didn’t expect you back tonight.”
“I’m not running from this. We take a couple days to grieve, and then we find another way to do this. We will not let Lucile control us.”
Famine stood. “I don’t think you get a say in that.”
“I think you need to sit down and accept that I will soon be your partner, not someone else to boss around,” I snapped back, and he slowly sat back in his chair. “Do you understand me, Famine?”
War widened his eyes in surprise. “I think everyone should sit down, and we’ll talk through this.”
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “I’m sorry.”
“You’re grief-stricken.” Famine lowered his voice. “We all are, and you’re right, we’ll have to accept that you will become a Horseman to replace Death.”
Pestilence leaned back against the wall. “Which should happen soon, the world can’t go that long without Death.” He glanced at me. “Soon, you’ll have to reap souls, and you’ll come in to all of your power. I think we give it a couple weeks, maybe a month or two before we go after Lucile. To give you time to get used to your abilities.”
I nodded. “That would be smart. I didn’t think about what abilities I would gain from this.”
“Of course not.” Famine crossed his arms. “You’re blinded by the idea that sealing Lucile away would ease your grief.”
I wasn’t going to respond to him. “If that’s the case, I’d like to grieve alone for a little while.”
Scraping of chairs and the shuffling of feet sounded as the Horsemen stood. One by one they disappeared while Kaleb, Aeron, and Pete remained.
I sat down at the table, and they joined me. I don’t know how they knew I didn’t mean them when I said alone. Maybe it was because they saw how I was in the woods and thought better of leaving me alone.
No one spoke. We all sat with our heads held down and our hands folded on the table. Almost as if we were in prayer. Finally, Aeron looked up. “We’re still your team.”
“I know.” I nodded. “I can’t imagine doing this without you guys, and I don’t plan on leaving you here when we do go after Lucile again.”
Aeron rapped his knuckles on the table. “Good. If you want us to leave you alone…”
I shook my head. “Please, stay as long as you want.” I motioned to the house. “The world already knows that you’re staying here.”
Aeron and Kaleb stood and headed toward their rooms. Pete put his hand over mine.
“You aren’t alone in this. I just want you to remember that.” He squeezed my hands and then stood.
I looked up at him. “I won’t let this tear me apart. Not again. He knew this was going to happen, Pete. He wanted to make sure that I had family and that I knew the Horsemen wouldn’t betray me.”
“He’s Death; maybe his biggest burden was knowing when his time was up.” He sighed. “We won’t know. Until you get your powers, we won’t know what Death was capable of.”
Maybe all the answers would come by then. I nodded. “I’ll turn in here in just a few minutes. I’m going to go visit the horse.”
“She’ll be grieving too. She’ll know what he’s not coming back.” Pete looked over his shoulder. “Be careful because she may not be very friendly with you anymore.”
I glanced out of the house at the black sky. “I know she probably won’t be, but I have to try.”
“Do you want me to come? You said you didn’t want to be alone.”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
He spun around and marched to the door and opened it for me. “Then after you.”
I walked out into the fresh scent of rain in the air. The wind had calmed down and turned to a mild breeze moving through the weeds. I could hear the horse from the house.
She carried on snorting and whinnying, and I could almost see her in my mind bucking around the grounds. Pete and I waded through the weeds in silence, over the hill and then down the damp earth. The horse saw me and froze in her stomping and snorting.
I picked up an apple from the wet haystack and held it out to her. She didn’t move, she locked gazes with me and stomped on the ground.
“You know something?” I told her. “I’m angry too. I’m furious that he’s gone and that I’m left here. The choices we all made could have led to either his or my death, and he chose his death.”
The horse bucked and turned away from me. “You and me, horse, we’re going to learn to get along, as soon as we’re both done denying that he’s gone.” I wrapped my hand around the apple.
“Sammy?” Pete put a hand on my shoulder.
I tossed the apple to the horse and watched her bend down to eat it. “I’m okay.”
The horse trotted to the pastures, and I followed her. I hoisted myself up on the fence, and Pete climbed up next to me. The wood creaked underneath us. She moved through the pasture and occasionally she’d look up towards the hill that dad would come over.
I never had the experience of him coming home so it wasn’t something that I would miss. What I’d have to live with was knowing that the man who didn’t know I existed, who regretted not knowing me, who introduced me to pizza made by a fallen angel, had sacrificed himself for me. Twice.
I closed my eyes and sucked in a breath to keep me from crying again. Pete’s fingers entwined with mine, but he remained silent.
I squeezed his hand and then returned to watching the horse. She looked at me and snorted before trotting to the far side of the pasture. I knew that part of me becoming Death meant that I could ride the Pale Horse.
Looking over the pasture, I knew that I’d be spending most of the month working with her. Eventually, I’d be Death, and a Horseman needed a horse.
