Legacy (27 page)

Zephal had managed to gain a slim advantage over Lucius and he wasted no time in delivering an incredibly hard punch to his opponent’s forehead which almost knocked Lucius unconscious.

But Lucius was not going to lie still and take what Zephal had to throw at him and from completely out of the blue, Lucius managed to connect his wrist with Zephal’s chin, causing Zephal to fall off him.

Lucius got up and attempted to lift Zephal from the ground, but his opponent had other ideas.

Zephal grabbed hold of Lucius around the waist and tried to get him to the ground while Lucius tried to counteract by continually punching Zephal on the back.

The noise as the two men fought was loud, but there was an eerie rumbling noise beginning to build around us.

And as the noise became louder, I could feel the ground beneath start to shudder, but Lucius and Zephal remained oblivious to what was happening.

But Lucius would be the first to realize how much danger they were in because the ground he was standing on was beginning to crumble away beneath his feet.

The only thing that could stop him from plunging down the cliff was by holding on to Zephal – and he was doing everything to make sure that Lucius failed in his attempt to remain on solid ground.

Zephal soon found that the ground he was standing on was beginning to break away too – and he desperately tried to loosen Lucius’s grip on him so that he could move back.

And the two men wrestled until there was only one winner – gravity.

I was frozen to the spot in the fear that the ground beneath me was going to crumble too and all I could do was watch on helplessly as both men disappeared over the edge.

CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE

I felt numb as it dawned to me that I had just witnessed the end of both Lucius and Zephal and the way that it happened could not have been any more dramatic.

It certainly does prove that when that time comes for your life to end, there is nothing you can possibly do to stop it – no matter how physically strong you are.

Death comes to us all.

As horrible as it may sound, a little part of me was relieved that my potential killer had just plummeted down the cliff in front of me, but another part of me felt upset that Lucius had been taken away from me after doing so much to protect me.

There will always be a place in my heart for Lucius and I am now standing alone in eerie silence after spending the last few days of my life going through hell.

Getting over all of this certainly won’t be easy and it’s all bound to have a strong lasting impact on me mentally. Would the nightmares and visions I have already had continue for the rest of my life?

But most of them were warnings of what was about to happen to me.

I had a premonition of the attack on me – I saw the church behind me in a dream I had days ago.

I even foresaw Lucius and Zephal disappearing over the cliff.

A part of me wanted to take a look over the cliff to confirm my fears of an unforeseen double death, but my phobia of heights wouldn’t let me do so.

And while I was trying to come to terms with what had just happened, I caught a glimpse of someone approaching from my left.

I turned to see who it was and all the hairs on my body stood on end as I realized that Harran had decided to come out of hiding at the most inappropriate moment.

I prepared myself for an immediate confrontation, but he chose to ignore me and he continued until he reached the cliff’s edge.

Harran looked over and spoke to me, without looking back.

              “The two of them fell a few moments ago, didn’t they?” he asked.

              “Yes,” I replied, not really wanting to enter into any kind of conversation with him, but he had me wondering why he would ask me that as it was blatantly obvious that he must have witnessed it himself as he wouldn’t have just walked past me to look down.

              “Then why can I only see one body?” Harran asked – and my jaw dropped.

              “What do you mean? They both fell.”

Harran turned around and looked directly at me.

              “I can only see one bloody body down there!”

              “Nobody could have survived such a fall!” I exclaimed.

              “Well,” Harran replied, “one of them obviously did because there is no sign of another body.”

So, whose body had Harran spotted?

And who had survived?

If Lucius was the body below us then I knew that Zephal would continue in his hunt to find me and my nightmare would continue until he finally did get to kill me.

But very soon Harran and I would know who had survived.

I thought it was my imagination at first, but Harran’s reaction confirmed that I did hear my voice being called out from below.

Harran peered over to see where it had come from and was shocked to see one of the men standing at the mouth of a cave, calling up to attract my attention.

Harran shouted down to him asking what he wanted, but whoever it was refused to answer to him.

Harran turned to me.

              “He wants you!”

              “I can’t look down!” I replied, shaking at the prospect of having to face one of my greatest fears.

Harran did not look impressed.

              “Look, you have to! If you’re that scared, then I’ll stay here and you can hold on to me.”

              “Do you think I’m stupid enough to even attempt to do that after what you have done to me already? You made it blatantly clear what your feelings were towards me. The first chance you get, you would quite happily throw me off that cliff! You handcuffed me and pointed a gun in my face – do you think I’m mad?” I shouted towards Harran.

              “Then you will never know which one survived! He’s so far away, I can’t tell which one is shouting up.” Harran replied.

There was only one way that I could find out – and as much as it scared the living daylights out of me, I knew that I had to tackle my phobia of heights head on.

And if Harran thinks he would be anywhere near me when I did, he can think again and I warned him to keep his distance.

I gingerly made my way as close to the edge as possible, keeping one eye on Harran in case he made a run at me. My legs began to wobble and I had to stop for a moment to catch my breath.

I was about two feet from the edge and I attempted to look over, but it was obvious that I needed to move a lot closer in order to see below.

I closed my eyes for a second and took a few deep breaths before slowly edging my feet further and further until I opened my eyes again to see a sandy beach below me.

Every part of me shook and I feared that the wind could suddenly get stronger and blow me off the cliff.

The sea looked strangely calm and the sight before me was quite a pleasant one, but as I looked to my left, I caught a glimpse of a contorted body lying against some rocks.

I suddenly heard my voice and I looked to my right.

And the sight that greeted me immediately put a smile on my face.

Lucius had been the survivor and I didn’t care what miracle had happened for him to do so for I knew that the body was Zephal’s and all the fear that he had driven into me was now gone.

I waved to Lucius and I started to cry for no apparent reason, but even though I was experiencing so much emotion right now, I didn’t let my guard down for one second just in case Harran tried to do anything stupid.

I took my attention away from Lucius for a few moments as my paranoia of being pushed over the cliff by Harran once again set in, but when I realized that nothing was going to happen, I once again looked towards Lucius.

But he was not there.

I looked all over the beach to catch a glimpse of him, but all I saw was sand, sea and Zephal’s dead body in the exact position I saw it in a couple of minutes ago.

Where had he gone?

The only place I thought he could have gone was into the mouth of the cave that he was standing by – but why would he do such a thing when he was making contact with me?

Harran laughed.

              “It looks like lover boy has done a runner!” He taunted.

I ignored the sarcastic remark and continued wondering why Lucius would disappear just like that.

And then it was all revealed.

Without any warning, Lucius had suddenly appeared behind Harran as if out of thin air, and he grabbed Harran by the back of the throat and dragged him towards the cliff’s edge.

              “You tried to take Naomi away from me!” he snarled into Harran’s face, “You nearly got her and me killed through your stupidity!”

The fear on Harran’s face right now was off the scale as he knew that his life was truly in someone else’s hands – and that person was definitely not on Harran’s side.

              “You are going to pay, mark my words!” Lucius warned and within seconds, Harran was flying through the air plummeting to the ground below us.

CHAPTER THIRTY SIX

After sending Harran to his death over the cliff, Lucius just nonchalantly turned to me and just smiled as if nothing had even happened.

He could see the shock on my face and he immediately explained himself.

              “I promised that I would protect you, no matter what, Naomi. I killed the man who attacked you outside your flat because he wanted to harm you – and the same goes for the man I just dealt with – he nearly made me lose you and I don’t want that to happen.”

Lucius may be saying the right words, but something inside me was making me a little cautious of him – even though he had never once tried to harm me.

I became confused as my heart and head battled to win the emotional fight inside me towards Lucius.

But Lucius didn’t seem to be too concerned by my present episode and he radiated excitement and happiness at the fact that he had finally managed to defeat his old enemy, Zephal.

Without any warning, he suddenly grabbed hold of my right hand and pulled me towards him.

              “I’ve got something really great to show you!” he said to me and he walked towards to the location where he had suddenly appeared moments ago.

As we both reached it, the strangest sensation shot through my body and I felt like the ground beneath me had given way and I feared that I was about to share the same fate as Zephal and Harran.

But within a second, Lucius and I were standing at the spot where I had seen Lucius earlier – at the mouth of a cave on the sandy beach.

A few yards in front of us lay the lifeless body of Harran and it was immediately clear that I would never have to worry about him bothering me again.

I was about to ask Lucius for an explanation for what had just happened to the two of us as to how we could move from the top of the cliff onto the beach in seconds.