Immortal Light: Wide Awake (33 page)

Kat noticed her sudden change in
demeanor. “What’s the matter?” she asked, when she felt the dark
chill that had suddenly come over her friend.

Lucy held up her hand as if to silence her.
Her head jerked from side to side; she had never felt her senses so
keenly alert, when she instantly focused on a corner of darkness
across the quad in the shadows. Training her eyes on a single spot,
she saw what she was looking for, a pair of eyes reflecting light
back at her. Grabbing Kat by the arm, she dragged her to the door
of the gym.

“
Go get Benjamin.”

Kat reached out and grabbed Lucy’s arm. “Why?
What’s the matter?”

Kat was scared, the fear evident in her
eyes.

“
Go get him, Kat, now!”

Chapter
16

Kat’s eyes widened in terror, and
she ran into the gymnasium to find Benjamin. Lucy felt a dark
restraining force from behind, a sensation she had felt before. It
enveloped her in such darkness that she immediately felt all hope
leave her, to be replaced with fear and despair. She knew what was
coming, and she fought it with all her might. Mustering up what
physical strength she could, she reached down at her hip and felt
for what she knew wouldn’t be there.

Of course; it’s the only
thing that isn’t real
.

Of all the things Lucy
needed to be real in that moment, her sword was the one thing that
wasn’t. Her next instinct was to try and summon as much
light
as she could. She
didn’t know how, or if it was even possible outside the
haven
, but she focused
on it; she focused on drawing
light
from whatever would give it when suddenly she
felt it begin to seep into her from every direction. It felt as
though it came from the ground and the air. She sensed she was
drawing from nearby trees who shared it freely with her. She felt
strong, she felt like she could somehow defeat the evil that held
onto her, but it wasn’t enough. She tried to push away with
her
light
, but
the darkness that was slowly consuming her was too
strong.

Before accepting defeat, she
did the only other thing that she could think to do. She needed
more time to figure things out, so she concentrated as hard as she
could. The thing that held her wasn’t going to make it easy, but
she thought jumping to her
haven
would be possible as long as she stayed
conscious.

Closing her eyes, it took a
great deal of concentration, but it didn’t take much time for her
to arrive on the beach. She stood at the edge of the surf. It was
just as she had hoped, there was no evil presence, but she could
feel the fatigue of summoning up
light
and she knew she didn’t have a
lot of time. One minute might have been one minute too
long.

She paced in the sand, her dress blowing like
a cape in the breeze of the bay. As she reached down to hold still
the whipping satin she felt her sword at her side and, like a
miracle, she had an idea.

Running back through the doors of the gym, no
one seemed to notice the look of absolute fear and anxiety on Kat’s
face.

Find Benjamin, find
Benjamin, find him, you have to find him
.

The words were like a broken
record in her head as she scanned the expanse of the gymnasium. She
was heading for the dance floor when she saw him. He was walking
toward her already, but when he saw the look in her eyes, he took
off at a dead sprint for the door. Kat found courage in his
reaction and followed him. It was difficult to keep up, so she
kicked off her heals. Benjamin had crossed the entire length of the
gym floor in a matter of seconds, and he was through the black
curtains and out the door by the time Kat had gotten her shoes
off.

As she emerged from the gym doors, Benjamin
was standing facing the last place she had seen Lucy and the
horrifying thing that had grabbed her. But as she looked around,
she saw one of the most terrifying sights she had ever
seen.

In the quad, standing in a giant half-circle
just inside the lights of the parking area, she saw a dozen figures
that looked inhuman in so many ways; the one that had Lucy was
tall, his black hair long and stringy. His hollow black eyes stared
at Benjamin while his mouth gaped, showing a black tongue and
jagged yellow teeth that looked as though they had been sharpened
on rocks.

The creature looked like it had once been
human, but something had transformed it into a vile, evil shell of
what it used to be. The others in the quad looked much the same
with long, stringy black hair and black marble eyes that glared,
unblinking, as their voices more hissed than spoke.

“
Not another step, pretty boy,”
hissed the one holding Lucy.

Benjamin took off his jacket, tossed it toward
the building, and held his hands in front of him.

“
Let her go.” His voice was firm
as he trained his eyes on only that one creature.

Kat watched in stunned silence as Benjamin
faced off with it and, to her horror, she noticed the other
creatures moving slowly in to surround them. All she could do was
scream Benjamin’s name. He didn’t move; he just stayed trained on
Lucy.

Kat began to panic; she wanted to
help, but helplessness was all she felt. As terror began to reach
critical mass, she heard tires squealing at the end of the school’s
main drive. She could make out only the fast movement of a car with
its headlights off. She looked back at Benjamin, who was still
focused on the creature in front of him. As the sound of the car
got closer, Kat was blinded by the sudden burst of light from the
front end. As her eyes adjusted to the headlights, she saw a black
car collide with one of the creatures, sending it shrieking through
the air and exploding into a cloud of what looked like dust and
ash. As she watched where the creature had landed, she saw that
there was virtually nothing left of it in the darkness.

Turning back to Lucy and the disgusting
creature that restrained her, she noticed that the creature had
suddenly frozen and, though it still restrained her, it was
completely motionless, lacking any kind of animation
whatsoever.

***

Lucy pulled her sword from
its scabbard; the golden light gleamed off the blade.
Light
instantly filled
it and it was a part of her. Holding it steadily in front of her,
she began to concentrate. If she was going to have a chance at all,
she had to bring the fight to her. In her mind she thought only of
what was holding her. It had to be possible. Benjamin told her she
had brought something with her before, and she had brought Mark, so
she figured it was worth a shot to try it again.

Using no particular
identifying name, Lucy just focused on the power that bound her. It
took what felt like an eternity, but suddenly she didn’t feel alone
in her
haven
. She
had done it. It was there, but she didn’t see it. Spinning around,
she looked for a person, a monster, a creature, something. But, she
didn’t see anything until she looked farther down the beach and saw
a black, shadowy figure hunched over, looking at her. The image
caused her heart to race, and she charged it at full speed, her
sword slicing through the air with every step.

Noticing her, the figure
walked directly at her, nothing but a three-dimensional silhouette,
more slithering than walking. Lucy gained ground faster than she
could have imagined while the creature kept coming at her. She knew
with every ounce of her soul that she could kill whatever it was in
the
haven
, but
she had no idea what that would do out there. At the very least,
she hoped it would buy some extra time for Kat and
Benjamin.

The sand felt solid beneath
her feet as she got closer and closer to the shadowy figure until
finally a collision was imminent. Holding her sword in front of
her, she felt a scream come from within; all of her
light
was focused on
striking however she could. She had no idea how she was going to
use her sword. Up to that point instinct had been driving her, so
she would rely as much as possible on that.

When she was within five yards of the shadow,
she saw it reach out with a sword or a weapon of some sort. It
raised it over its head as if to bring it down to attack, and
Lucy’s body reacted.

Gripping her sword in her right
hand as she sprinted at the creature, she swung it backhand upward
and to the right like a tennis racket, connecting with the
creature’s weapon, knocking it out of the way. As her arm continued
its follow-through around the right side of her body, she reached
around with her left hand and gripped the hilt of her sword with
both hands in order to swiftly reverse the direction of the swing.
With the sword up near her right ear, she gripped it like a
baseball bat and swung, the force of her spin slicing the blade
through the neck of her enemy. As she severed the head of the
creature, it burst into dust, leaving only a cloud. Lucy arrested
her spin in a bent stance, her sword slashing the air in her left
hand as she stopped, both arms spread apart, her right pointing to
where the dust cloud was dissipating, her left holding the sword
away from the scene, pointing outward like a wing.

When it was all over, Lucy
relaxed her arms and stood up in absolute amazement at what had
just happened. Her body had responded to the situation and she had
no idea where it had come from. Somewhere deep inside her she knew
exactly what to do. For every second of the incident from the time
she reached her
haven
to the moment it was over, there was a calculated response to
everything the creature could have done, and Lucy was able to
analyze and react accordingly without even thinking about it. She
wanted to jump and scream for joy, when she realized she was still
out there in the real world. She was unsure of what, if anything,
her victory in the
haven
had done for her.

***

Kat watched as the car slammed on its brakes
and spun hard, leaving a trail of black rubber on the pavement. As
the tail led the car into a one-hundred-eighty degree turn, Kat saw
red taillights plow through another of the creatures, turning it to
a pile of lumps and dust.

Before the black car was even done
rotating, the passenger door flew open and a tall man with dark
hair and a black jacket stepped out, holding what appeared to be
two handfuls of long sticks. Benjamin, taking his eyes off of Lucy
for only a second, reached out his hand as the man from the car
threw over one of the sticks and then, in utter disbelief, Kat saw
what it was.

Benjamin unsheathed a
military-style sword with a slightly curved blade and a handle
almost identical to one she had seen her grandfather wear in his
Marine Corps pictures. The blade gleamed gold in the lamp light and
he walked completely upright, every muscle in his body seemingly
flexed toward where Lucy was being held. Suddenly the creature that
held Lucy screamed a terrible hissing screech and dropped Lucy to
the pavement as it stumbled backwards, grabbing at its
neck.

Kat noticed the driver exit from
the car. He was wearing a similar black jacket to the other, but
his had multiple small sheathes on the front and one longer one on
the back, each with a black handle sticking out of it. The
passenger was charging one of the creatures, spinning a long
handled sword. Without any hesitation, he swung and stepped right
through the creature, in spite of the giant club-like weapon it
wielded, slicing it in two from the top of its left shoulder
diagonally to its waist line. The two halves fell to the ground and
the man continued onto the next, kicking the fallen pieces into
dust.

Benjamin approached the shrieking
creature that had let Lucy go. It suddenly stopped, noticing
Benjamin’s approach. Reaching behind it, it pulled from a sheath on
its back a thick, large weapon that looked like a double wide
baseball bat with thin, blade-like pieces of metal jutting out on
three sides. It readied itself as Benjamin raised his sword to meet
it. With lightning fast action Benjamin stepped into the creature’s
space, holding his sword with the handle up and the blade pointing
directly at the ground, parrying the creature’s weapon right, then
left, as it swung from side to side. When the creature saw it was
getting nowhere by swinging, it stepped back and raised its club
above its head. Before it could realize its fatal mistake, Benjamin
reached up with one hand and held its two hands that gripped the
weapon above its head, preventing it from bringing the club down,
and ran his sword up to the hilt into the creature’s abdomen. The
creature stumbled backward, dropping its weapon behind it, and
Benjamin followed, both hands on the handle of his sword. As the
creature stopped, Benjamin sliced upward, spinning his body to gain
more force, cutting straight through the creature’s torso and
bisecting its head.

Kat ran to Lucy’s side and placed her hands on
Lucy’s cheeks.