Forsaken Dreamscape (Nevermor) (48 page)

“I
think we all know where he went, don’t you?”

They
guessed what Sly meant, and there was no choice to be made whether or not they
would go.  There was one question on all their minds, and it could never be
satisfied unless they went to meet him – Rifter.

The
question was:
why?

1

Rifter
– the
real
Rifter, with his missing eye and the long scar running down
his face, with the dark tattoos on his strong arms – took off the sleeveless
coat and tossed it to the wet ground with a sigh.

He’d
returned to the ruined Tribal camp, littered with the bodies of pirates, and
while he’d not been the one to ask the Pack here in the beginning, he thought
they would know to find him here now.  This was the place they were supposed to
get their answers.  If they wanted the truth – or if they wanted to fight him –
they would come.

He
had been traveling across the plains when he’d made the decision to turn back. 
The bout with his shadow – which stood beside him now, unscathed – had somehow
made him realize that he couldn’t go on as he had been.  How could he let
himself be forgotten, even though he’d thought that was what he wanted?  How
could he let the one he loved go off with another who would either harm her or
simply take his place?

In
the beginning, he’d kept his secret – among other reasons – because he thought
it would protect Wren.  But leaving her, he’d suddenly realized, was the worst
thing he could do.  He was upset with her for her ignorance, but that did not
make his feelings go away.  He’d thought he’d done well enough to hide them and
that his affection would not show as he followed her, but he’d found he was
wrong.  Accidentally, he’d made her care about his
Nix
persona even
though he’d vowed not to let it happen.

But
there was time to think of these things later.  He would have too many issues
to deal with soon.

In
an area where scorched tree stumps had been arranged as perches, Rifter made
himself comfortable.  The others would come.  In fact, he could already hear
their approach.

He
lifted his narrowed gaze to the hillock where they would emerge in his sight,
but as he looked on, there was only one figure that appeared.  A ripped gown,
blond curls…  She stepped around the slaughtered bodies, trying not to look. 
He could handle any one of them, he’d thought, but her alone?  His fingers
began to twitch, and he awaited the inevitable.

2

When
Wren caught sight of him, even though she was still standing amidst the bodies,
she stopped.  Was he the same as she’d once seen him?  He was still Nix in her
mind, but that was a lie.

“Are
you the only one?” he asked her.  His voice sounded exactly as it had just
before his secret had been revealed – a mild accent on the edge of it – and now
that her memory had been cleared, she knew it was the same as it had been years
ago.

“You
must have known they’d let me come first,” she answered.

Wren
approached, almost certain she could hear her own mind speaking words as it
told her to stay calm and not give in to tears.  Despite the attempted
consolation, she knew it wasn’t going to work.  Though she held a solid
expression, she could feel her chest hitching already.

“The
demon put on a good show, I imagine,” Rifter said, crossing his arms.  “It was
certainly enough to fool you, wasn’t it.”

Wren
gasped at his lack of care.  After all this, he must act like she was at
fault?  She couldn’t stop it.  Water flowed from her eyes then.

“Please,”
she sobbed quietly. “Please just tell me the truth!  How did all this become so
twisted?”

Rifter
looked back at her with little interest.

“Do
you really think you deserve to know?  You couldn’t figure it out for
yourself.”

She
shook her head in disbelief, feeling that there was a wall between them and she
had just run into it.

“Why
are you treating me this way?” she demanded.  “Why didn’t you just
tell me
?”

“I
tried to tell you once,” he countered.  “In the cave that night.  I didn’t get
the chance before I realized how blind you still were.  I suppose I was a
little angry.”

Wren
remembered that night.  He’d embraced her and she’d enjoyed his closeness. 
Come to think of it, he’d tried to say something to her, but she’d pushed away
from him.  She’d said something about Rifter and he’d gotten angry – for he’d
been standing in front of her all along.

“As
if you have any reason to think you can be angrier with me than I am with you!”

With
movements so swift that she could hardly register them, he moved to her.  He
did not touch her, but looked down into her eyes so firmly that she was locked
in place.

“You
looked right at my face, Wren!” Rifter growled at her.  “You’ve looked at it
many times since then, but not
once
did it cross your mind!  Yes, I’m a
bit
upset
.  It’s true that I’ve been living my life as Nix for the past
few years, but you, Wren, should have seen the truth.  When we met in the
woods, you looked straight at me and recognized me as
him
.”

She
stared up at him in silence, but did not lose her grip on this argument.

“I
wasn’t thinking of it!” she exclaimed.  “I thought I knew who Rifter was
because I had already met him.  I was then only looking for the boys, one of
which I assumed you were.  There was no reason for me to doubt it.”

“You
took it for granted!”

“How
could I have known any different?”

Was
there any sense to this yelling?  To this whole argument?  But of course there
was.  They were both the source of the other’s frustration.

“You
could have looked a little closer!”

“I
was too busy trying to convince myself that I loved
him
and not
you
!”

Finally
a stopping point – a place where thought revealed itself once again.  Rifter’s
thoughts could not be known.  Wren spoke hers.

“It… 
This is what you were trying to show me all along.”  Realization dawned.  Her
voice was much softer, apologetic.  She understood now what he’d been trying to
make her see ever since they had met.  Nearly everything fit.  The way he had
acted toward her – his feelings – had been there all along.  He’d encouraged
her to question what she’d been told because he’d wanted her to see the truth
for herself.

“I
was blind,” she admitted.

She
moved past him without another word, sitting herself down on one of the
stumps.  Wren did not look at him, only at the ground.  She felt a tear’s wet
trail passing down her cheek.

Rifter
crossed his tattooed arms over the dark vest of rhino skin.

“I
tried to tell myself – more than once – that I was being too harsh in my
thoughts toward you,” he confessed, his voice gentle.  “Especially since it was
all my fault in the first place.  I’d claimed that my bond with the world was
broken, but I don’t think that’s true.  I wanted to forget myself by becoming
someone else, and maybe that’s why no one could see me – even you.”

With
a sigh, he sat down near her and reached for her hand.  Wren soon found herself
looking up at him as he wiped the tears from her face.

“It
seems we are both at fault,” she said, and he gave her a short nod.

“Things
have become so confused,” he began as a light mist of rain came on again, “so
I’ll start over and tell you everything like it truly happened.  Whether you
believe it or not, yes, it’s your choice.”

Wren
was ready.  He looked over to her, and she stared back at him.  She saw it now
fully.  In that face, there was the boy she had been so fond of.  How could she
not have seen it before?  It was in the curve of his eyes, the corner of his
mouth, the slope of his nose.  She felt sad then, as if she’d broken a promise
– as if she’d forgotten something she said she wouldn’t.  He had every right to
be angry with her for that.

Wren
wanted to throw her arms around him, but she did not.  Rifter looked away and began
his story.

“Four
years ago, the darkness came slithering over the land like a great snake, and
though we didn’t know what it was at the time, or what to call it, we knew that
the land was dying.  But we were as good as
children,
” – He said this
angrily. – “and though we tried our best to understand what was happening, we
could not.

 “I
suppose, for a time, I did forget you.  I had never meant to, but time slipped
by me, and in my darkest hour, you came back to me.  I knew I was supposed to
go back into the other world, but I wasn’t aware of how much time had passed.  Finally
I set myself to returning and I made it known that I was going to go after you,
and everyone seemed pleased with that – except
her
.

“For
some reason, the wisps seemed especially susceptible to the corruption. 
Whisper was no different from the rest.  I truly believe she tried to fight it,
but in the end she didn’t even know herself.  She became entirely possessive of
me, hardly even allowing the others to come near without a fuss.  And when she
heard that I was bringing you back....  That was when she went completely off.

“I
wasn’t prepared to come after you yet.  I was unsure how safe you would be with
the lot of us going about so frequently for our investigations.  What Whisper
did – I didn’t even know to stop her.”

Rifter
and Wren paused in silence for the memory of the murdered children.

So
young
,
Rifter thought, not for the first time.

They
will be avenged
,
thought Wren, not for the last time.

“I
felt terrible about it,” Rifter went on. “If I could have taken it back, I
would have.  Hell, I would have taken it
all
back.  Every last bit.  The
least I could do was escort them to fate.  I went with them on that journey,
traveled numerous times in the past.  But on the way, just before we’d made it,
we came upon something that I’d never seen before.  It was…”  Wren watched his
eyes narrow as he struggled to remember.  “It was some large serpentine
creature.  It was no mere nightmare.  It had powers.  It could speak.  But I
wasn’t going to let it stand in my way.  It was larger than me, but you know
how I was.  So full of confidence and deprived of thought.  I attempted to
battle it, but it was much too strong – nigh invincible.  Its voice was inside
my head, ripping my thoughts apart.”

Rifter
clenched his eyes shut as he recalled the agony and failure of the event.  Wren
clasped his hand then, gripping his fingers in her own.  It was as if she lent
him strength by this.  It was encouragement and care.  Perhaps she would need
time to forgive him, but that did not mean she didn’t love him.  He took a deep
breath.  He spoke on.

“That
demon creature told me that if the children were to pass, I would have to agree
to take it into my body and carry it back into Nevermor.  Because I saw no
other choice, and because I was not going to fail you once more, I agreed.  The
demon merged into me – into my blood, wrapping itself around my soul.  The
children passed on to that better life, and I returned.

“What
I had done didn’t impact me fully until I’d come back here.  I prepared to
release the thing inside me, for it burned every pore and made my body feel
numb, but I couldn’t let such a thing free here, even among the nightmares.  We
already had the corruption.  If I thought I might have defeated the demon, I
would have released it without thinking.  But I wasn’t feeling especially
confident.  The demon was angry that I did not keep my promise, but I refused
to let it go.  I went home to the others.

“The
demon continually troubled me.  At times, perhaps it even took me over.  I
tried to hide it from the Pack, but they were growing older.  They were smarter
than that.  Eventually, they wore me down, and I was forced to tell them the
truth.  I told them what I have just told you, for I had kept even the matter
with Whisper quiet.  I’m not sure what they all thought of it then, but I know
it worried them.  Still, they did not desert me.

“I
feel that if, perhaps, I had gone to you then and brought you back here, they
may have been more content.  You could have made things better.  But more than
that, I wanted you here.  I wanted you to calm me and tell me it was going to
be all right.  I’d already been trying to deal with the thought that I loved
you in a way that I couldn’t understand before.  It was a companion need.  You
were my equal.  You balanced me.  But no matter how much I yearned to have you
at my side, I couldn’t find you.  Still so young and foolish, I went on, trying
to seem normal with each of the boys watching me with a wary eye.”

All
of this seemed familiar to Wren.  It was exactly what the demon had told her in
the beginning – leeching from Rifter’s memories to make his lie seem real to
her.

Here
begins the part that has become so twisted.