"Long is the day, take it away -
Hold it up and you don't let it fall
Cause devil's play was yesterday,
And I don't care about that at all.
I just smile, once in a while
Cause I don't want the lines on my face.
And I sit right here, holdin' the years
And I count all the stars in space…"
Fall Apart Again, Brandi Carlile
Aeron ran as fast as he could, but he was dizzy and nauseous and his legs felt like noodles. He fell twice, soiling his paper-thin hospital gown. He felt practically naked - no shoes, no pants, and no shirt. Whoever decided that these stupid gowns could pass for clothes was a complete idiot, in his opinion.
Luckily, it was too early for many people to be out. Aeron avoided the few who were - the last thing he needed was to have his location tipped off to the hospital. He'd already heard sirens several times as he crept through back alleys. He avoided streets that were usually heavily populated - getting caught was not an option. Aeron was terrified of what would happen to him if they caught him. Maybe he'd get locked in a hospital room under constant surveillance; maybe he would be assigned a constant guard. He shuddered. He'd rather die.
As he awkwardly clambered over a rickety fence, the city clock rang. Aeron stopped and counted, out of breath.
Bong. Bong. Bong. Bong. Bong. Bong. Bong. Bong-
Aeron took off, panic briefly stabilizing his body enough for him to book it.
MEET PARK TOMORROW EIGHT A.M.
He could not afford to be late for the most important meeting of his life. Yes - he'd decided not to find out any information about his aunt's apparently planned death. Just thinking the words sent a jolt of pain through him and he shook his head rapidly, redirecting his thoughts. No - he had not changed his mind. He wanted to know absolutely nothing that the old man had to say on that subject. But… if the stranger knew about something that important… couldn't he also know about Keala? If he'd been watching them (and he'd have to have been), he would have to know about the kidnapping. Aeron's gut instinct told him that there was more to this man than met the eye, and his sixth sense had yet to be wrong.
Aeron crossed a small side street and made for a thick cluster of trees. Once there, he peered through the branches at the park only thirty yards away. He'd made it, and as far as he knew, he hadn't been spotted. Mission accomplished… almost.
He looked around for the old man… there! On the other side of the park, sitting at a picnic table all alone, examining his ever-present newspaper, was the man, enveloped in the familiar too-large hat and coat.
How the heck was he supposed to get over there without being seen? Sure, there weren't many people in the park - but they were close enough to the guy to notice if a half-dressed teenager tried to approach him. Why - why hadn't he thought to dress in decent clothes before leaving the hospital? "I'm such a -"
But Aeron's train of thought took an abrupt turn as he noticed the same man who had been attacked by Phoenix, the German Shepherd, only yesterday. It seemed like ages ago…
The man seemed agitated as he paced the circumference of the park, head whipping from side to side as he scanned the crowd for something, or - Aeron's heart dropped to his feet - someone.
Him.
Aeron didn't know how he knew, but the man with the queer blue eyes was hunting him. As he came to this realization, the man suddenly looked up. Their eyes met for a brief second; Aeron backed away from his peephole into the secure embrace of the fir branches, his heart pounding wildly and erratically.
The next moment someone had grabbed him by the collar and was wrestling him out of his hiding place… Aeron kicked and screamed, trying to get a hold on something… a surprisingly small hand clapped over his mouth… the trees relinquished their hold on Aeron's body and he was suddenly face to face with the old man.
His eyes were a clear, vivid blue - somehow comforting as the man signalled frantically that Aeron should be silent. The eyes of this man and the eyes of the man that were hunting him were both blue; yet they were polar opposites. (It struck Aeron that yesterday the man's eyes had been brown; this was most likely a mistake in his memory, he reasoned). All this ran through his mind as he ran, pulled along by the man.
"Has anyone seen you?" was the first question he was asked when they were a few streets away. (The man's voice was strangely higher - almost feminine; nothing like the deep voice Aeron remembered).
Aeron gasped in a breath. "Yes. That man in the park…"
The man grasped his shoulders and looked at him intensely. "The man with the blue eyes?" he perceived.
Aeron nodded wordlessly - this man had noticed too, then. An almost angry expression overcame his shadowed face; he stepped in front of Aeron protectively, blocking Aeron's view of the street.
But when the dark fog appeared, the identity of their pursuers was unmistakable.
And suddenly the creatures - those eyeless, blank beings - were everywhere, and the fog was covering the houses; coating the stones beneath Aeron's feet; permeating the very air he consumed in quick, panicked breaths as the visions that had infected his mind overtook him again and he was falling through thin air, screaming for his parents -
The visions sharpened and he saw his mother in front of him, frowning with displeasure and reaching out a hand to strike him -
Invalid.
Burden.
Unlovable.
The words pierced his consciousness; the holes in his mind sucked him deeper into oblivion and into pain as his fears rose up from the depths -
Then, shattering the deafening silence, came a woman's yell. The one piercing sound carried a million emotions - defiance and anger prominent among them, sharpened by acute fear… but above all, it was the protectiveness in the woman's voice that drew Aeron from his poisoned unconsciousness.
He opened his eyes.
He was lying in the corner of the stone paved alley, covered in heavy material - the man's coat.
Over him stood the woman whose voice had awakened him. She was dressed in man's clothes; fiery red-gold curls tumbling over her shoulders and down her back betrayed her disguise. The man - was not a man at all. With the morning sun framing her body, she looked just like a redeeming angel, coming to Aeron's aid.
Fire poured from her fingers like blood from a deep wound. With leaping flames, she held the poisonous fog that surrounded them at bay. The noise of the crackling flames sang through the air and the heat cleansed the air everyplace it touched.
But it wouldn't be enough. Aeron's heart sank as he saw more and more creatures appear through the fog. The fire couldn't fight them all at once; slowly, with harsh and guttural cries of pain, the ape-like things extinguished the flames with their heavy bodies, one by one.
Then the man with the unearthly blue eyes appeared, walking out of the smoke and stopping only feet away from the woman. The fire flickered uneasily in his presence; then died. "Give it up, rebel," he said, smiling pleasantly as if he'd just made a joke. The man's calm demeanor in the midst of the chaos was the most unnerving thing of all.
The girl snarled at him, raising her hands to send fire spiraling onto him; he simply raised his hands as the red-gold heat waves rushed at him, absorbing the fire into himself.
He raised his eyebrows, still smiling. The woman froze as he rotated his palms toward her almost casually.
What the heck -
But Aeron didn't have time to finish the thought because at that moment, the woman grabbed a loose brick from the ground and swung it toward the man's face. A spurt of blood was followed by a wet grunt from the man; the woman scrabbled frantically for something in her pocket only to be seized by the man again. He held her by the wrist, using her leverage to drag himself off the ground. Aeron could see his intent burning in his eyes; he was one second away from broiling her alive when, with one smooth motion, she snapped something out of the inside of her sleeve, held it to his head and took him down with one smooth blast of blue energy.
The creatures went insane, rushing the two in one massive group.
Aeron could feel himself slipping away again as she ran to him, picked him up and held some shiny thing up to the light of the sun…
The last thing he remembered was the brief feeling of floating, of nothingness - like he was pure light; then he was lying on a cold floor with people in strange clothes shouting and running around him, their voices echoing in the huge circular space. Amidst the chaos, a voice reassured him, "You're safe now."
Then he blacked out.
END OF PART ONE
Bookshipper13: I'm so sorry but I can't answer any of those questions! No spoilers allowed! But I promise that Aeron will try as hard as he possibly can to save Keala, even if it means his own life. FYI - I will be continuing the story on this document! The plot is just divided up into sections; this is the end of part one. I am not ending the story here! loll that would be awful
iliveinalibrary: Thanks! Sorry that the update was so late - just so you know I am going to continue this story on this document! I just have divided the plot into sections and this is the end of part one :) Updates should still be about once a week; or as often as I have been updating already. I cannot thank you enough for all your encouragement on this story - thank you so much for taking the time to comment. Sorry about the cliffhangers :#
- Your friend, RJ Cadigan