Chapter 20

I haven't slept all night… I've been tossing and turning, breathing unevenly, shivering when I'm warm… All I can do is sigh to my helplessness.

"You okay?" Verl asked. He's been awake with me the entire night. Not saying anything, hoping I'll finally fall asleep. He's tried rocking me to sleep also. Nothing will work. Anxiety has officially taken over.

"I just can't sleep. I don't know why. I guess I'm just kind of nervous for everyone that's going to do some reconnaissance…" That wasn't true at all. I was still grieving over not only the fact that Gavin was Navarog, but he and Nafia had… children…

"You don't have to worry," he assured me, "everything is going to be fine. They are professionals, they'll handle themselves." Weird how in that first sentence it sounded like he was reassuring me about my real problem…

"(sigh) I hope you're right…"

"I'd say that we don't have to do this, but we do."

"No really, it's fine. I wouldn't want them to procrastinate something this important…"

Then I fell asleep in his arms.

*

I was running. Running in red darkness. Something is chasing me. Something evil. But what is it? I heard the roar and felt the ground shaking beneath me. I turned and saw millions of demons, all of them taller than Burj Khalifa, surrounding me.

All of them were crazed with hunger, they'd already eaten my family. They've already eaten humanity. I was the only girl, the only human left on this destroyed planet.

I was so scared I started hyperventilating. I turned to run away, but when I turned I couldn't go any farther. There was a giant wall blocking passage. I started pounding on it.

It eventually fell. But I paused when it did. There, right in front of me, were the dead bodies of my family. Drained of their blood as if a vampire had gotten to them.

I screamed but it was too late. They've trapped me. Fire surrounded me, burned me, and distracted me from the monsters behind me. I didn't feel any pain though. And that's when it occurred to me. This was a nightmare.

As soon as I realized that, everything disappeared in a flash. I was standing alone in pitch black darkness. No light but the dimness illuminating off me. Suddenly, a girl that looked exactly like me when I was fifteen started walking toward me.

"Kendra…" She said.

"Who are you?" My voice was barely a whisper.

"You have to stop him. He'll succeed! He'll open those gates. It's impossible to stop him. He's already furious for not having all the keys! Please! Don't let him get to them!" She started crying.

"I won't." I didn't know what she was talking about, but I didn't feel like asking. Something told me not to.

"It's too late." She sat cross-legged.

"What do you mean?"

"What you just saw is the future. It's going to happen inevitably…"

"I don't…"

And then she was gone with one last sound of a chocked sob.

*

I awoke with a sudden gasp.

"Whoa, are-are you okay?" Verl was concerned.

"Um, yeah, I-I'm fine." I breathed heavily.

"Okay, that's it, I'm going to talk to Warren, Tanu and Trask, you just can't handle this." He started getting up.

"No!" I grabbed his arm. "Don't. I'm fine. Really."

"No. You're not. Your eyes are giving you away…" That's when I realized I had tears going down my cheeks.

"Verl… I know what's going to happen."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, it wasn't a nightmare. It was a vision."

"How… How do you know?"

"Do you remember when you first met me? I was fifteen…"

"Yeah, I do. Why?"

"That fifteen year old Kendra came and told me… He's going to get the keys…"

"Who?"

"(sob) The Sphinx."

*