part0025

I looked up at whose head his hand was on. I wanted to say something, wanted to do something, but couldn’t. I couldn’t form sentences or words. Nothing would come out. All I could do was watch what was about to happen.

“Everyone has to watch this. If anyone looks away or blinks, I will kill you all,” he said as he stepped back and put his second glove back on.

I had to watch as he lifted the pickaxe over his head and brought it down, striking Thomas’ head. Thomas fell to the ground, quivering, blood pouring out of the wound. He continued to strike his lifeless corpse, over and over again, the blood spraying all over us.

“Well now, that was a workout,” he laughed, prying the axe out of Thomas. “Now I hope you got the message here, Mark; you half-breeds are not welcome anymore.

“We understand,” Jack said.

It took everything in me not to do something. Every muscle in my body wanted to stand up, wanted to attack him. But I couldn’t put any more of us in danger. I couldn’t risk Autumn getting hurt.

“Now that’s done, you guys are free to go,” Flint said, handing the axe to Hector.

Frozen, I looked over at Thomas’ lifeless body. He’d wanted to come along to prove himself to me and now he was dead because I failed at protecting him.

We stood up, grabbed our weapons and walked toward the hill. The rage in me was building, everything in me wanting to turn and fight.

“I’ll see you soon, Mark,” Flint yelled after me.

Autumn grabbed my hand as I was tensing up. “Mark, don’t do it. ”

I turned around and yelled over to Flint. “One day, I will kill you for what you did here.”

“Well shit, I thought I was being the nice guy letting you guys go,” he laughed. “Now we’re going to have to teach you all a lesson.”

“Run, kids!” Jack demanded.

In the blink of an eye, Jack had transformed into a lion. Autumn pulled me up the hill as I watched him jumping into the group.

“Help me Mark, run!” she begged as I snapped out of it.

We ran through the woods as fast as we could. I could hear loud roaring in the distance followed by the shot of a gun.

I stopped in my tracks. “We have to help Jack.”

“He’s gone, Mark, come on!” she screamed, tears pouring down her face. “Please, Mark, we have to go!”

We ran until it was pitch black outside, never seeing the group again. We were still a few hours from the sanctuary as Autumn found a cave to hide in. We walked inside and I sat up against the damp wall in disbelief.

“How am I going to explain to Cheryl how I got her father killed?” I asked.

“We need to make a fire; we won’t last the night in these conditions without it,” she said, scrambling to find dry wood.

“Everyone around me dies. I’m like some kind of disease infecting everyone who gets near me.”

“Mark, shut the hell up and help me!” she demanded, slapping my face.

I quickly scrambled to help her find as much dry wood as we could. The forest was soaked, cold, filled with sponge-like, sodden moss. I gathered as much as I could before returning to the cave .

Autumn struck flint against a blade into a pile of soft tinder.

“Come on, light!” she yelped, striking it again and again.

Finally, out of the darkness was light, a flame growing, giving us heat. The small dark cave was now lit as she fed it wood. Sitting back against the wall, I noticed I was covered in Thomas’ blood. I tried wiping it off but it just smeared, staining my clothes.

“It’s not your fault, Mark,” Autumn said, sitting next to me.

“Who were those people?” I questioned. “What is the reckoning ? What is this Armageddon he spoke of?”

“It’s like the Great War all over again,” she uttered, leaning her head on me.

She was right, angels, demons, and humans were all fighting to extinguish the others.

“We can’t worry about them right now, we need to take care of Aurora,” she whispered.

“Why did Flint say it was my judgment day?”

“I don’t know; the whole point of this trip was to clear your mind before we go to Rockport.”

“He knew my name, and he knew about my mother.”

“Do you miss her at all?”

“My mom?” I questioned. “It’s tough. I never really felt a connection with her and now that I know the truth, it just makes sense why I never really trusted her. I’ve learned so much about my family while I’ve been here. Dexter is my father’s brother. Their dad, William, was a member of the Order. McGinty was my mother’s father. Her sister is Joyce. McGinty is the one that killed William. I’m pretty sure my mother killed McGinty. Family killing family, everything is just so intertwined in horror. ”

“I’m sorry you have to go through all of this, Mark, but we’re here for you.”

“One thing I don’t understand, is I spent time with McGinty, and he left me a box of clues and a letter before he died. Why is it he never told me the truth, that he was my grandfather?”

“Maybe he lost his mind after he moved to Rockport, he didn’t know what the truth was anymore.”

“I wish I knew what everyone was up to in Rockport. Charles, Ryan, Russell, Jimmie, Rachel, Katherine, Lexi, Richards... Did my brother ever find out the truth, that he was part of the Syreni?”

“You’ll have your answers when we go there, Mark, now get some sleep.”

I leaned my head back against the cold, hard ground, and stared at the opening to the cave. There was no way I was going to get any sleep tonight.

The flames dimmed as my eyes got heavier. The smoke from the fire was irritating my eyes, forcing me to close them. I could feel myself slipping away.

All I could see was black. Black seats, black tinted windows, black interior. I was in the backseat of a car, a tinted window between me and whoever was driving. I tried to open the door handle, but it wouldn’t budge. I tried to roll down the windows, finding the button was locked.

I turned and looked out the windows. We were in the middle of nowhere, a barren desert. Dry rocks and sand covered the area, nothing for as far as the eye could see. In the distance were dark red skies. Something was terribly wrong here. I looked out the side window to see if I could see where we were heading, but my eyes could only see a massive, shiny black wall that must have been several hundred feet high. Just peeking above that were the tops of skyscrapers.

“Where am I?” I said aloud .

“In a vision, I presume,” a voice came from beside me.

I nearly jumped through the roof in fear at the familiar voice. The mysterious man leaned forward, out of the shadows of the tinted windows. And that mysterious man was me; a future version of myself was sitting opposite.

“This has never happened before,” I said.

He was older, maybe by three or five years, with a beard growing, longer hair. He looked like an adult.

“Something must be very wrong if you are seeing this,” he spoke again.

“What is going on?” I asked.

“The tree, it shows us things,” he said. “Things that have happened, things that could happen. But they are all important things.”

“Is this the future?” I questioned.

“You have much to learn, Mark,” he laughed. “Wow, I remember being sixteen. You look so young.”

“I don’t understand what is going on.”

“This must be a possible future, Mark,” he answered. “The tree wants to show you what will happen if you fail. I failed on Mermaid Cliff that night, over three years ago. Listen to me very carefully, Mark. We don’t have much time, but you need to know that the world in which you live is so much bigger. I can’t explain it all here. If you fail as I did, and this vision comes true, you need to appeal to Flint’s need to put on a show. Beg him for trial by combat! It’s the only way you will survive this outcome.”

It got pitch black for a few seconds as we drove through the wall. I looked out of the window at a thriving city, people and creatures walking amongst each other. Guards in black armor stood at the entrance .

The car made several turns before coming to a stop. I glanced out across the street at a coliseum, an ancient-looking structure made of the same shiny black material as the wall.

The door suddenly opened and the bright light shone in. I looked over at the future Mark and noticed he was in handcuffs. As he was pulled from the car, I noticed a small device attached to the back of his neck. I quickly followed him out of the car as the men forced him into a building.

“Don’t worry, young Mark; they can’t see you.”

“What do I do here?” I asked him.

“Watch and learn from my mistakes,” he answered. “You can change the future.”

I followed them into an elevator made of all glass. We ascended through the building. I stared out over the desert around the city, mountains visible in the distance, while sandstorms were swirling out in the desert.

“This has been a long time coming, chosen one,” the guard laughed.

The elevator came to a stop as the door in front of us opened. We stepped off into a large room, glass on every wall revealing a full view of the city and desert. There were several artifacts and paintings throughout the room, and a familiar sword hanging on the wall.

“Take a seat,” the guard ordered.

Future Mark sat down across from a desk. Behind it stood a chair facing the outside.

“I’m impressed, Mark,” the man said from behind the turned chair. “Three years in hiding from the Federation. I never gave up hope that one day we would meet again.”

“I trust you will honor our deal,” Future Mark said .

“Your life for the 6,000 people held under Armageddon Coliseum,” Flint said. “Sounds like a fair deal.”

“I want to see them freed!” Future Mark demanded.

“Oh, calm down kid, the show will begin shortly,” Flint answered.

The guards picked up the chair holding Future Mark and place it up against the window facing the Coliseum. They took straps and tied his hands and feet to the chair. I walked over and stood next to them, staring Flint in the face. He had the same slicked-back hair and stupid look on his face. I wanted to kill him even more after seeing this.

“I am a man of my word, kid,” Flint said, standing up behind Future Mark.

He pointed to the center of the Coliseum. I could just make out several doors opening as thousands of people flooded into the arena.

“What are you doing?” Future Mark asked.

“Freeing them,” Flint laughed as the guards followed.

I watched as a large door opened, revealing a monster. A massive beast walked out of the door and sprayed fire from its mouth. The dragon torched every last person in the Coliseum.

“No!” Future Mark screeched. “My friends are in there!”

Flint grabbed something off the wall and walked back over behind Future Mark.

“I told you your judgement day was coming,” Flint whispered to him. “And I am a man of my word.”

Flint took the knife under future Mark’s neck and cut across it. Blood poured down his chest as I watched. I quickly ran over to him and could tell he was trying to speak. I leaned into him and the only words I could make out were, “blood over cliff.”