Bloodlines (32 page)

“He is a demon,” Tyler said. “Maybe he enjoys torturing things.”

Nobody said anything to that. We all tried to pick ourselves up off the floor and eventually succeeded. The women weren’t hurt – none of them had even a scratch on their bodies. But the guys, our dads and I weren’t in good shape. Corey evidently had a broken arm. Jake’s nose looked as though it had been broken, too. Tyler and Danny had gashes all over their arms and faces. My dad and Jason were badly bruised and were having difficulties standing up straight. The skin around David’s eyes was starting to go black from when he had been punched and his shirt was ripped. It looked like something had clawed at him, tearing through the fabric and then through his skin. I was bruised and cut. My nose had been bleeding; my chest hurt; I felt like I’d been run over. The women held on to us all to help us stand.

“What now?” Tyler asked. “Is it over?”

“Will we ever see Keira again?” Danny asked.

“I don’t know,” David said, “But I guess it’s over – for now at least.”

“What else could there be? This was the attack and the bad guys were defeated,” Melanie said. “That Argyle was the one who was after you all and now he’s gone.”

“Don’t you think it was a little easy though,” Jason said. “He couldn’t even hurt Keira - at all. Surely if he was so powerful he would have been able to hurt her like she hurt him.”

“What are you saying?” Sofia asked. “Are you saying he wasn’t the one who was after you?”

“No, obviously he was. He just didn’t seem that powerful. Not compared to Keira.”

“But she couldn’t kill him, she admitted that herself,” Danny added.

“Do you remember what Keira said to us?” I said. “When we’d been possessed and she called out to it in rage”

“When it shows its face I swear to God I will deliver it to Hell’s door personally,” Lily said. “And she has.”

All of us went quiet – she had done exactly what she said she would do. Even after her death. I looked up at the sky. It was dark now and all the stars were out.

“If you can hear me,” I began, “I want to thank you – you saved us all…again.”

“I wish you would come back,” Lily sobbed.

“We all do. We miss you. Please find your way back to us,” Tyler said.

“I think we all know she won’t be coming back again,” my dad said sadly.

“Don’t say that!” Lilly almost screamed at him. “You don’t know that.”

“I’m sorry, Lily.”

“Lily, he’s right,” I said as a tear rolled down my cheek. “If she could have come back to us, don’t you think she would have done it by now? It’s been almost three weeks.”

She didn’t say anything – she didn’t have too. She knew what I was saying was right; she just didn’t want to believe it.

“We need to get everyone home and cleaned up,” my mom said to us all. “I think a few of you may need to go to the hospital and get yourselves checked out. Everyone else can come with me; I’ve got a first-aid kit at home. I’ll patch you all up.”

All the women continued to support us as we very slowly started to walk. Suddenly the church doors burst open and a white fog came pouring in near the entrance.

“Oh God!” Lily said, panicking. “What now? We can’t deal with anything else!”

A dark figure became visible as it walked through the mist. As it got closer to the doorway it took shape. It was definitely human. It wasn’t until it was a few feet inside the church, and out of the thicker part of the mist, that we could see it clearly.

“…Keira…” I managed to say.

Chapter 32

Reunion

I made my way down the aisle. I was nervous because I’d been gone so long. I wasn’t sure how they were going to react when they saw me. I walked slowly, looking at them all in turn. Lily was in tears, as were Danny, Tyler, Sofia and Evelyn. Lucian, Jake and Michael were all staring at me with wide eyes. None of them blinked. Michelle and Melanie were smiling, both with tears running down their faces. David, Corey and Jason had looks on their faces that showed shock and bewilderment all at the same time. When I was only a few feet away from them Lily ran up to me and flung her arms round me.

“Keira, are you real?” She asked me.

“Yeah.”

She hugged me so tight I thought she was going to snap me. But I didn’t say anything; I knew she was upset, so I just cuddled her back for a few minutes. Once she finally let go everyone except Sofia, Tyler and Lucian came over to me. All of them hugging me and kissing my cheeks. Danny actually picked me up and spun me round. Then Sofia came over and cupped my face in her hands.

“Why?” she asked

“Because I would rather die myself than see any of you die.”

She hugged me tight and told me from now on she was classing me as her own personal angel. I looked over at Lucian – he was still glaring at me. I walked over to him slowly and took his hand in mine.

“It’s ok,” I told him, “It’s ok.”

He wrapped his arms around my waist tightly.

“Did you really die?” he asked.

“I did,” I answered; he buried his head in my neck as I wrapped my arms around his shoulders.

“I can’t believe you’re here,” he whispered.

I hugged him for a few minutes, before letting go of him and looking over at Tyler.

He was the hardest one to face. For the last three weeks, whenever I closed my eyes, all I saw was him lying on the porch. His lifeless eyes staring up, straight at me. They had haunted me. I walked over to him and stood completely still a few inches in front of him.

“Hey,” I said softly.

“Hey,” he choked, glaring at me.

“Can I at least have a hug?”

I didn’t need to say it twice. He picked me up and held me against him.

“Please tell me this is real? Tell I’m not dreaming?”

“This is real,” I told him, tightening my grip on him.

We were like that for a while, just hugging each other. Eventually though he knew he had to let go of me. I turned to look at the others. All of them were smiling, some with tears in their eyes. I stepped away from them slightly and took a good look at them all.

“Well,” I said, “The women look as beautiful as ever, but, guys, you look a bit worse for wear. Anyone would think you’d all been scrapping or something.”

All of them laughed.

“Let’s fix you all up,” I said, raising my hands.

My eyes turned white as they usually did, and the white statically charged aura came rushing out of me surrounding all the guys. Their cuts healed, their bruises disappeared. Jake’s nose went back to how it normally looked and Corey’s arm was no longer broken.

“There you go,” I smiled. The aura vanished and my eyes returned to normal.

“Please tell me you’re back?” Lily said. “Permanently?”

“Did you all really think you could get rid of me that easily?” I smirked. “But”, I said, in a tone that turned them all silent, “I’m not exactly the same as I was before I left.”

“How do you mean?” Jake asked.

“Well, for starters, I won’t be here all the time.”

“I don’t understand,” Lucian said.

“I’ll explain when we get home – I’m dying for a cup of coffee. They don’t have it where I’ve been. Oh and there will be someone coming later who I would like you all to meet.”

“Is it him?” Lily asked.

“Yes, before we go, though, there is something I need to make you all aware of,” I said seriously.

“What?” They all asked in unison.

“Argyle’s not the guy who’s after you,” I told them. “He was just one of his followers. Someone he trusted and who he thought would be able to take everyone out. This is a war, and it’s only just begun. None of us have seen anything yet, and we will have no choice but to fight.”

“Do you know who it is that is coming – the big guy I mean?” Lucian asked me.

“I’ve had my suspicions, but I keep being proved wrong,” I told them. “Oh, I have a lot of explaining to do, don’t I? Come on, then, let’s go home and I’ll tell you everything I can.”

We made our way out of the church and on to the hill.

“Oh and by the way, we have a proposition for you,” I said.

“Who’s we?” Lily asked, confused.

My eyes glowed red for a moment as I smiled at her.

Coming November 1
^st

Torment

About the Author

I have lived in Droylsden, Manchester, all my life. I live with my parents and my younger sister, Cheryl. I never knew what I wanted to do with my life until I began writing. This is my dream.

I get most of my inspiration from music, I’ll sit there listening to it and suddenly I’m no longer in the room. My stories play like videos in my mind, then I go and write them down.

I’m a very dark person, I love anything spooky, supernatural, or unexplainable, and so that’s the genre I want to write in for the rest of my life. I love watching scary films, although I find it very hard to find one these days that actually frighten me.

Table of Contents

eb7b42ea27984fc098bcda4a6a65ec62