Realm Wraith (31 page)

Apolleta began to shake, sitting on the ground and crying. “So many nightmares. I just want it to end. I can’t take much more of this!”

She screamed as Rayne tried to take her hand, a half-hearted attempt to reassure her. “Don’t you touch me! Don’t you make me a part of your hell! I want my life back! I want to go home!” She shoved him back into the mud. Dirty water splashed into the air as he fell, his limbs flailing to support himself.

“Wow, you sure showed him,” laughed Gabriel.

“You shut up!” she yelled. “I’ve had it with all of this. Every night we’ve been together you’ve been nothing but a pain in the ass. Between all the bitching, and acting like you’re better than everyone, telling me what to do, it’s a wonder nothing’s eaten you yet to make you shut the hell up!”

“Why, you little bitch!” Gabriel raised a hand to strike her, but she reached out to block him. His hand moved down, and it passed through her arms as if they were air.

“Wha—” he gasped.

Apolleta stared at her arms, now transparent. Her legs faded too, the translucency spreading through her body.

“She’s waking up,” Rayne remarked, still half buried in the mud. “She’s finally waking up.”

Apolleta gasped, a smile of disbelief on her face. “I’m waking up? I’m free?”

“Not free,” Gabriel smirked. “You’ll be back.”

She scowled at him, fading until her hand remained the last visible part of her, giving Gabriel the finger.

“Why, that—”

“Oh, come off it. If you hadn’t been such a twat, she wouldn’t have been so angry in the first place.” Rayne interjected.

“And you think you’re so innocent? That bleeding heart act isn’t fooling anybody. You really care what happens to any of us? You come and go whenever you want, and you leave some horned atrocity to stand guard.”

“That’s not true! I brought everyone together because there’s safety in numbers! I learned to move through this realm so I can find them!”

“And who put you in charge of that? You think just because you figured out how to get around, that makes you the leader? You’re not special at all! You’re just a coward who lords his tiny bit of power over the rest of us!”

“So what? I can move and you can’t! It’s not that hard! If you knew how to shift through the Abyss, I wouldn’t stop you. Hell, I’d be glad to have you out of my hair!”

Gabriel clasped Rayne’s arm, pulling him up to his feet with surprising strength. He leered, forcing Rayne to stare at his yellowed eyes decaying in their sockets.

“Then teach me,” he hissed. “Show me how to do what you do, and I won’t have anything more to complain about!”

“I like this idea,” laughed Darrigan. “If you teach him, he’ll probably wind up in the same trouble as you.”

“I won’t be stupid like Mercer. I won’t go to any place that has water.”

Rayne forced Gabriel’s hand off his arm. He felt loathe to teach this man anything after his behavior, but he figured now it didn’t really matter. He had little time left. What would teaching Gabriel do, get him killed faster?

“All right,” he said. “I’ll try to explain it the way it was explained to me.”

“Explained to you? Who—” Rayne held out a hand, telling Darrigan to be silent.

“You said the one time you shifted worlds on your own was when you found me right? I think that’s because you were pulled to me. You sensed me and it helped you draw yourself to me.”

“That’s right. I heard you yelling like a psycho.”

“When you sense other people, you can draw yourself towards them. But it’s not just limited to other people.”

Gabriel listened as Rayne explained everything just as Kaledris had told him.

“But, how will I know where I’m going? If I’m just seeking out myself.”

“You won’t, not at first. I think it may base itself on thoughts, feelings. The subconscious part of your brain directing you on impulse. At least that’s how it was for me. That’s how I ended up in Tomordred’s realm. Bad move on my part. If you imagine the other places, the ones Darrigan described, or just the neutral zone, you’ll end up there.”

“None of this makes any damn sense. Which makes perfect sense.”

“You do this at your own risk. I hold no responsibility if you get captured and eaten.”

Rayne sensed himself fading. “Bollocks,” he muttered. He didn’t see Miranda, and wondered if she’d awakened too. Gabriel would be waking up soon as well.

“It’s fine, I think I got what you’re saying,” Gabriel said. “I’ll try it, and see where I wind up.”

“Just remember your promise. No more complaining.”

“Now hey, I never actually promised—” he backed down at Rayne’s smoldering glower. “Fine, fine, I getcha. You won’t hear a peep out of me.”

Rayne sighed as the world slipped away from him, his body pulling at him with a mad intensity. He did not like the unsettling smirk he saw on Gabriel’s face as he disappeared. It was the look of a child who had just been given his father’s gun.

* * *

In the weeks that followed, Rayne began to attend physical therapy. It was difficult work, not just strengthening his arm, but the testing and stimulation given to his legs, to keep their strength up and avoid further health complications. His impatient trainer berated him if he so much as hinted at giving up, even if it was just to take a moment’s break from the grueling exercise. The difficulty discouraged him. He wasn’t meant to walk again, and the unwanted attention given to his legs drove that point home. He was starting to get tired of the stares when he passed people on the street in his wheelchair, and found it easier to send David out and about to do his errands.

He returned to the Abyss at night, where his legs actually worked. He tried to spend time with the others, but he had to avoid the growing darkness of Tomordred’s attention now. The demon didn’t always find him, not every night. But some nights, more often than not, the portal appeared before him, seeking to snatch him up and take him away. Rayne always outmaneuvered it, pulling himself to other worlds before it found him, keeping himself safe, at least for a few more hours. Sometimes he barely made it.

He had seen less and less of Gabriel. He did not grasp moving as quickly as Rayne had, but after several nights of attempting it, he had managed to fling himself to another part of the neutral zone. His relentless determination made Rayne suspect he despised him for being able to do it first. One night, Gabriel wasn’t there, and Rayne could sense his soul elsewhere, only to find he had moved. After that, he stopped trying to find him, not caring if the other man did as he pleased now, for his fate was his own business.

At night he saw Miranda many times, whenever he wasn’t trying to evade Tomordred. He kept trying to reassure her, attempting even to teach her what he taught Gabriel, but she seemed less receptive, and while he sensed she was listening, she didn’t seem to care enough to follow his instructions. During the day, he’d tried to seek her out, to talk to her, but she evaded him. He wondered if he was being too persistent. In the Abyss her helplessness prevailed, giving her no real say when he sought her out. If she was avoiding him in the waking world, perhaps he’d done something wrong?

He had not seen Apolleta either, after her initial awakening. Being in another part of the world, likely bed-ridden, recovering from her injury, she seemed to keep different hours from him. For a time he did begin to hope that maybe she’d found a way to escape the predicament they all shared.

As for Darrigan, the reaper had not appeared before him since that night. Rayne wondered if he was avoiding Tomordred’s wrath, or if perhaps the demon had grown fond of him, and now kept his distance, knowing how little time he had left.

One morning Rayne woke up in his bed, and felt a warmth pressed against him. He looked down to find Levi snuggled under the covers, sleeping peacefully in his light green pajamas.

“Had another nightmare, did you?” Rayne murmured. He shook his son awake.

The boy blinked his eyes, and turned up to Rayne. “Hi Daddy,” he yawned.

“Aren’t you a little rascal? Didn’t even wake me up,” Rayne replied.

“I didn’t want you to get mad.” Levi curled up, eyes timid.

“I’m not mad. But you know, you’re getting to be a big boy. You can’t keep sleeping in my bed every time you have a bad dream.”

“I know.”

Rayne reached out and tickled the boy’s ribs, making him squish up giggling. “Come on, you should get ready for breakfast. David will be taking you to school soon.”

Levi didn’t object, and tottered off to wash up and change out of his pajamas. Rayne decided he might as well get up, and once he was dressed, he wheeled himself into the kitchen. His arm was much better now, as long as he didn’t try to lift too much weight with it. It made his life much easier, as he could now operate his chair without trouble, and the constant wheeling helped build upper body strength.

“Oh, there you are,” David said. “I noticed Levi wasn’t in his bed this morning. It’s been what, three months since the last time?”

“Give or take. I wish he wouldn’t have so many awful nightmares.”

“I’ve tried to talk to him, but it may not be so simple. Maybe we should consider counseling.”

“I do not want to deal with that right now.”

David laid out plates for the morning meal. “So, have any plans today?”

“Yeah, I was hoping you might give me a ride. I need to stop by the office.”

“Really? Are you sure you’re ready to go back to work?”

“Not yet, but I want to pick up some papers so I can catch up. Can you give me a lift?”

“What time?”

“Doesn’t matter really, as long as I get it today. This afternoon would be fine.”

“How does four o’clock sound? I’m not on call until later tonight, and it’ll give me time to fetch Levi from school and bring him home.”

“Four? That’s—yes, that’ll do fine.” Rayne didn’t want to protest, but he didn’t know what to do all day while waiting to get his papers. He rolled over to the tea kettle his friend had left on the stove.

Levi came out fully dressed for the day, and they all ate breakfast together, before David took the boy to school and left Rayne alone in the house. He poured himself another cup of tea and sipped it down. It was far too uncomfortable inside the flat that morning. Spring had brought warmer weather, and the sunlight streaming through the kitchen window bothered him. He pulled the window open to let colder air in. As he did, he noticed David had left the gas stove on, and watched the flickering blue flame beneath. It made him uneasy, reminding him of that fiery hell where he’d experienced so much pain. He didn’t need that right now, and nudged the dial to shut the burner off. The lingering sensation of heat remained for a while, but he felt relieved to see the flame vanish.

Once he finished his tea, he started to wheel back to his bedroom, but paused in the hallway to look at the mirror still leaning against the wall. Ever since that night, he’d avoided looking into it, afraid of what he might see. But, now that he stared, he saw nothing to fear. It was just his reflection: his normal, human reflection. Nothing about his physical appearance had truly changed after the accident. No monsters in the mirror taunted him, reminding him of his strange nightly adventures, and he took slight comfort in that.

* * *

Rayne idled through the day, as David came home and spent some time chatting, helping Rayne with his exercises before leaving to pick Levi up from school. At a quarter to four, they left Levi in the apartment and went outside, with the neighbor’s promise to watch over the child in their absence.

“Well, we won’t be long anyways,” Rayne said as they went outside, and he transferred himself from his chair into David’s car.

They drove down to the building where Rayne worked, with David stopping long enough to help Rayne back out.

“I’ll find a place to park, and meet you in the lobby when you’re done,” he said.

“Sure, I’ll be back before you know it.”

Rayne’s wheels clacked against the pavement, ringing out in repeated fashion as he drifted his way through the front door. In the lobby sat that same receptionist, and she gave him a fake smile as he entered.

“Oi, Mr. Mercer, fancy seeing you ‘ere!”

“I’m just picking up a few things, don’t mind me.”

He took the elevator up to his office, and paused in the hallway, fumbling with his keys.

“Hello, Mercer. Fine day today.”

Rayne glanced up at the familiar coworker that he’d snapped at so many months ago.

“Oh, hey there, Hawkins. Fancy meeting you in this here hallway.” He shoved the key into the lock and pushed the door open.

“You back with us now?”

“Eh? Oh no, I wanted to look over the contracts for the Endleton company. I’ll read it over at home, make sure it’s up to speed.”

“Oh. Well, all right then. I’ll leave you to it. Call me if you need any assistance.”

Rayne noticed that his coworker had lost that disrespectful attitude since he’d returned to work, changing his tone and no longer looking down his nose at Rayne. He wondered if it was out of respect, what with his injuries, or in response to Rayne’s former outburst. He’d never been so considerate before then.