Realm Wraith (43 page)

“She wanted out.” Rayne’s voice choked. “She wanted to end it. I thought she was just drunk, but—”

“I know it’s been rough for her, losing her son in that accident.”

“It wasn’t an accident.”

“What?”

“She told me about it. How she couldn’t take care of him. There was no ice; she drove off that bridge on purpose. She just wanted it to end.”

“Oh.” David sat down on the chair, stunned. “She told you that?”

“If the truth got out, she’d get in trouble. Assuming she didn’t go to jail, she’d still lose her job, and she’d be marked as a mental case. So she hid it and let everyone assume it was an accident. But she was suicidal, and nobody knew. And now it’s too late.”

“You don’t know that.” David did not look him in the eye.

A doctor walked out from behind the doors leading further into the hospital. “Mr. Mercer?” he called, looking around.

Rayne wheeled his chair over. “Yes, that’s me.”

“You’re the one that came in with Ms. Tomille, correct?”

“Yes. Is she—”

“I’m sorry.” The doctor hung his head. “She took an overdose of sedatives with a severely elevated blood alcohol level. She was already unconscious by the time we brought her in, and we lost her shortly after.”

“No,” Rayne breathed.

“Ms. Tomille was one of our best nurses, a bright shining star to the patients here. I don’t really know what to say myself, how something like this could have happened.”

“It’s my fault,” he whispered. “I knew she’d had too much to drink. She wasn’t thinking clearly. I—I should have checked in on her sooner, I should have stopped her from leaving my sight, I should have—I should have—”

“It’s not your fault, Rayne.” He felt David’s arm on his shoulder, and whipped around in fury to fling it off of him.

“Don’t you tell me that!” The volume in Rayne’s voice superseded all other sound in the waiting room. A complete hush went over the crowd as they began to stare. Rayne tried to shrink himself down, to hide himself from all those eyes.

“We’ll have to notify her next of kin,” said the doctor. “For now, the two of you should just go home, there’s nothing more you can do here.”

“Come on, Rayne.” David pulled at his sleeve. “The car’s waiting outside. I can take care of the arrangements; you just go home and rest. I’ll be here if you need to talk. For now, you should get some sleep.”

“No!” Rayne screamed, stricken with horror. “I won’t! You can’t make me sleep! I won’t
ever again
!”

“Rayne—”

Rayne’s chilling glare stared right through David. He turned and pushed past waiting patients, looking through them as he rolled to the door.

“You’re going to Hell,” he said, pointing at one man with a laceration on his leg. “You too. You’re damned. You’re fine, you’re OK, You? Oh, you are so bloody damned.” His finger moved from person to person as he looked deep within their souls, the dancing colors, the broken melodies, the strange forms that spoke to him of sin. He didn’t care how crazy he looked, as his own soul grieved, mad with despair, cursing his own failure to act before it was too late. Rayne felt his chair tilt as David yanked him out of the emergency room and shoved him into the passenger side of his car. After storing Rayne’s chair in the back seat, he got behind the wheel and drove.

“What the fucking hell was that?” he demanded. “Have you completely lost your mind? I know you’re upset, but that was uncalled for!”

“What does it matter, anymore?” Rayne growled. “It’s all over for her. I tried so hard to help her and now she’s gone! And I know. I already know, she is not in a better place!”

“How can you say that?”

“Because I
know
. I’ve been there. I go there, every night. I’ve seen the very backside of Hell itself, and so has she! That’s why she killed herself! She couldn’t take the madness anymore, and now she’s trapped there for all eternity!”

“Rayne, calm down.”

“Listen to me!” Rayne snatched up David’s collar. “Hell is real! We call it the Abyss! When people are wicked and evil they are sent there to suffer! Ever since the accident I’ve been going there, and I’m not the only one! I’ve seen it with my own eyes, I’ve experienced its walking nightmares! That’s why Miranda lost hope! That’s why she killed herself! She’s the same as me!”

“All right, clearly you’ve been drinking.” David glared. “You’re not anything like Miranda.”

“It was one beer.”

“Look, we’ll talk about it when you’re sober. I know you’re upset, Miranda meant a lot to me, too! I don’t really know what to think right now; I’m still trying to take it all in. It’s hard, I understand that. Please, just settle down.”

“Fine.” Rayne’s voice choked, and he released David’s shirt. He curled up in his seat to lean against the side of the car.

They pulled up in front of their building, and David helped Rayne drag himself from the car to his chair. He returned to the car to park it, and caught up with his despondent friend in the hallway outside the elevator.

“Try to stay calm, you’ll wake Levi,” David hissed. “We can talk about this in the morning, after you’ve gotten some sleep.”

“Please, please, no, I can’t—”

“Remember what you said before? You skip a night, you sleep twice as long later. You can’t put it off. And you need to rest; you’re clearly inebriated, and you need time to calm down.”

“For the last time: one beer. I’m completely sober.”

“Well, you’re not acting like it.”

David was right; Rayne already knew that, he just didn’t want to face reality right now. He wove his chair into the flat, and threw off his jacket, leaving it tossed over the back of the couch. He rolled to his bedroom, glaring daggers at his bed. Rain fell outside once again, and he could hear the distant pattering drops outside the window, between the rumbling thunderclaps.

Without bothering to take off his clothes, he fell down onto the covers, lying there, telling himself he wouldn’t actually fall asleep. He’d just rest, then maybe he wouldn’t be too tired the next day, and he wouldn’t have to return to the Abyss, not in the wake of Miranda’s death. But his soul had other plans, and no sooner had he laid down than the oppressive haze and prickling sensation of his world slipping away took over, and he was helpless to fight it.

* * *

Black air surrounded Rayne where he now stood. The ground, the sky, everything had no color at all. The slick, slippery ground sucked his feet in with every step. He could hear the buzzing of insects swarming around him, but he paid them no heed. He stopped in his tracks after a few steps forward, frozen in indecision, unsure of what to do now that he was here in the Abyss.
He felt Apolleta’s presence behind him, but did not bother to turn.

“So, you’re all right,” he heard her say.

“Of course I’m all right, why wouldn’t I be?”

“Well, there was that monster. I thought I was done for but I got out of there in time. But, then I realized I’d just left you alone with that thing to die. I thought—”

“After you vanished, it got bored, and left. It didn’t attack me.” Rayne’s voice lacked feeling.

“Are you all right? You sound different.”

Rayne still didn’t turn to face her. “Miranda’s dead.”

“Miranda? You mean that—wait, what? How do you know that?”

“Because I was there when she died. She couldn’t take it anymore, so she ended her life.”

Apolleta moved around him, so they were standing face to face. “You mean, you knew her? I see. No wonder you were always so concerned.”

He grabbed her by the arms, glaring at her with sudden fury. “Don’t you get it? She’s here now! Forever! She’s damned because she couldn’t find redemption, and she gave up on living!”

He let go, seeing Apolleta wincing in pain as his icy grip brushed against her blisters.

“Why am I just sitting here?” he muttered, not to her. “I should find her.”

“I’ll go with you,” she said. “I’ll help you look for her.”

“I don’t need help. But, thank you. I appreciate the company.”

As he reached out with his mind, seeking her soul, he felt another familiar presence here in the Abyss. He understood a choice before him and he hesitated.

“Wait,” he told Apolleta. “There’s something I need to do first.”

“A’ight. It’s not like she’s going anywhere.”

He took her hand and pulled her forward, taking them before a dark castle carved into a mountain with ornate stone, decorated with gargoyle-like beasts who moved with a life of their own, glaring down at the two sudden intruders. Before the gate of this monumental fortress stood a man.

“Gabriel!” Rayne yelled, dragging Apolleta with him. The addressee turned to look at him. He’d degraded further now, his rotten skin peeling off in places here and there, and very little hair still clung to his head, only scattered patches remained, worming in a stiff breeze. His yellowed eyes were sunken within dark pits, focusing on the two of them with dull, muddy-brown irises. Orange gunk dripped from his tear ducts, running down his face in patterns. Rayne could hear Apolleta gasp beside him, clinging to his arm in sudden horror.

“You look well,” Gabriel said, glaring. “Lemme guess, you want to be sure I haven’t been blabbing your secrets? You don’t have to worry, I haven’t said a damn thing. It should have been obvious, since your demon friend hasn’t eaten you.”

“I figured as much.”

“I’m just doing things my own way. If what I know can help me, then, so be it. What else do you expect me to do? Join your dumb club? You think if we all huddle together as a safe little group, we’ll be just fine and dandy?” He looked between Rayne and Apolleta. “Where’s the other one? That thing. The one that can’t talk?”

An outraged snarl escaped Rayne’s lips. Gabriel’s smile turned into a frown as a wave of intense hatred radiated past him.

“What? You really care about that creature?”

“Gabriel, stop!” Apolleta spoke, as Rayne was far too angry to form words. “Miranda’s dead.”

“Oh. Is that why you came here? So desperate to replace her already?”

A frozen fist smashed into Gabriel’s jaw, throwing him backwards.

“I just wanted to be sure you weren’t up to anything,” Rayne hissed as Gabriel pulled himself up off the ground. “We’ll be going now. I’m going to find her.”

“It’s a fool’s errand,” he laughed. “You know that.”

“I don’t care.”

“Well, hang on. I’ll come with you.”

“Why?”

Gabriel dusted the dirt off his arms. “Curiosity.”

Rayne clenched his arm. At least if Gabriel stayed with them, he could watch him. “Fine. Come on.”

He reached out. Miranda’s aura was faint, distant, and broken. But he could still feel her out there, and he pulled the three of them towards her. They landed high up within a skeletal forest, surrounded on all sides by white trees that scattered the blinding light in a diffused pattern.

“Kaledris’s forest,” he gasped. Dizziness overtook him, the sense of another being invading his mind, and he clutched at his head with a cry.

I thought you might come,
the feminine voice drifted through his skull. Rayne winced. He glanced around at the waving roots, the rustling branches, the moaning, clattering skeletal forms, sensing her presence everywhere in this world.

Why so uncomfortable? It’s not really so bad, talking like this, is it?

He looked over at Apolleta and Gabriel, but neither of them seemed to be aware of Rayne’s current condition. They glanced around the forest, trying to get their bearings.

Do not worry. I know their thoughts, but they don’t hear me. Only you do. I did tell you though, did I not? That I would not tolerate you bringing others here?

Rayne focused his thoughts, responding to the goddess with words his two companions could not hear.

I already know why you’re here, and why you brought them. You will face only disappointment if you continue forward, for she is already a part of my forest. You have my word I will not harm you or your companions this one time, but neither will I protect you from any monsters hiding deep within. You may see your lost one, but then you must go, lest I be tempted to feast on such curious minds.

The being laughed. Rayne shuddered, sensing her hunger, and malicious desires. They overwhelmed his thoughts, and it became more and more difficult to discern his own emotions from hers. He tried to separate his mind by pushing her thoughts and feelings to the back of his head so he could focus.

“Come on,” he said to the others. She was near, he could feel her. Many souls walked this forest in wretched misery, similar to her in form, with lengthy limbs and faces devoid of human features. Some were whole, but some were stripped of flesh by unseen beings, revealing white bone beneath.

He felt his heart slow, then freeze, as she came into view. Immense sorrow welled up inside him. He knew it was her, but she did not recognize him now. She writhed about, reaching without awareness in random directions, as strangled gurgles escaped from her sewn lips. The skin on her legs was torn, as if pecked at by hungry beaks.