“You two thought you knew everything. You walked right into our trap.”
His words were like venom, trying to stir my anger, but I pushed it out of my mind. I couldn’t feed him anything. I had to think of good things, like a life with Fate. Then I felt something start to burn around my tattoo. It felt like a hot poker was being pressed against my skin and that feeling quickly expanded, but instead of collapsing in pain, a burst of power shot through me. The resistance disappeared as his fingers slipped off the frame.
He was gone, and I fell to my knees, almost landing through the doorway myself.
There were too many and I was drained. I willed myself to get up off my knees, thinking if I just dug deep enough I could do it but my body wouldn’t obey. I could hear the people shuffling into the office as I fell forward, trying to use my hands to push myself upward, when I was jerked backward and a blade slid across my throat.
I heard a roar of anguish in the distance. Fate had arrived but it was too late. Another cry, this one from the agony of someone dying nearby. There was fighting all around as I lay there on the floor, in a pool of my own blood. Then he was there, cradling me with fingers pressed against my throat. I knew it was too late and from the look in his eyes, so did he.
I did it. I mouthed silently, using the last of my strength to raise my hand to his.
“I knew you would.” He pulled me closer, hugging my body to his and rocking me. “Don’t go. Please, don’t go.”
My eyes fluttered shut as I heard him whisper, “I love you.”
I tried to say it back but couldn’t as everything faded away.
Chapter ThirtyFour
Blackness everywhere. I’d never experienced absolute darkness. No one had. It didn’t exist in our Universe.
“Where am I?” I said, even though I was alone in the blackness, just to see if I had a voice. Was this the nothingness they’d talked about? But how could I have thoughts?
“No,” a voice answered.
“But I was killed. I shouldn’t exist at all. How can this be?”
“Because I can do anything.”
“Was that you? The shadowy form I saw a night ago?”
“I am everything. The sun, the moon, the planets, the air you breathe, the molecules that created you.”
“What happens now?”
“What comes next is your choice. Make it wisely.”
“Can I go back?”
“Yes, but not as you were.”
“Why are you doing this?”
“Because I want to. Make your choice.”
The smell of flowers from the florist shop I was working at part-time filled the air of the car. Kit, one of the younger floral arrangers I’d become friends with, always gave me one of the older bouquets to take home on the days I worked. She said it was important to surround yourself with flowers, especially in winter when things seemed the bleakest before the spring.
Nothing seemed bleak this week though. I was driving a brand new Audi I’d won in a lottery some crazy lady outside the mall had talked me into entering. The only reason I’d paused by the table in the first place was everyone kept tripping as they approached the area and I couldn’t quite figure out why.
I enjoyed driving it so much I’d been taking the long way home, even though I had a ton of studying to do for my finals next week. I didn’t particularly care to drive past this part of town, since it still had burned down buildings from the riots that had happened before my birth.
My mother had told me all the stories. She’d said they’d stopped just as she’d gotten pregnant with me and that I’d been her miracle baby. The thought was ridiculous but I didn’t argue with her. She was whimsical like that. She had all sorts of crazy tales to tell, like how a guy in white silk rested his hand on her belly before she’d even known she was pregnant and congratulated her. Or how Santa left a crib for her under the tree. She still swears that the Tooth Fairy really had been the one to put money under my pillow every time I lost a tooth.
She occasionally said some normal things too, like never to pull over to help a stranger when I was alone at night. But when I saw the old guy who looked like he was twenty years past his due date standing next to an ancient Honda, I had to. The car looked like it might have been even older than he was and he was leaning on a cane. There was no way I could drive past. What if he didn’t carry a cell phone?
Strangely, I’d never had a nightmare in my life but leaving this man out here in the elements not knowing if he’d be okay might cause my first. I pulled the car up behind him and threw it into park, tucked my own phone into a back pocket and walked around to where he stood.
“Sir? Do you need some help?”
“Thanks.” He held out his hand to me and grasped it in a firm shake. “Name’s Paddy.” His cap sat low on his brow and although he was clearly in a distressing situation, it didn’t seem to dent his jovial manner.
“I’m Justine.” I pointed toward where his hood was open. “I’m not very good mechanically but I think I’ve got jumper cables in my trunk.” I pointed back behind me toward my own car.
“Nice car you have there. Very responsible of someone so young to be so prepared.”
He lifted his cane toward my car and it gave me the strangest image of him waving it violently at kids. I shook my head. Lack of sleep was making me think really weird thoughts.
“Not really. I have the strangest luck of parking next to people with car troubles. It doesn’t look like you have a flat but I’ve got a pump as well if it’s needed.” I was up to a count of two flats and one dead battery just this week alone.
“I’m not sure if it’s the battery but let’s give it a try while we wait.”
“Wait?” I looked around getting a little nervous. “Wait for what?”
He frowned for a second. “A tow truck to show up?”
I nodded, wondering if Paddy wasn’t a little senile.
“Oh look! I think we might have some more help,” he said, completely enthused that another car was pulling down the street.
I turned to see headlights coming from the distance but with no indication they were going to stop and help. Just as I made out the shape of a pickup truck, it started slowing down.
It passed us and parked in front of Paddy’s car. The door swung open and a guy of similar age to me hopped out, but where I felt like a girl of twenty, he looked all man.
“Need some help?” he asked Paddy, and then his eyes shifted to me and stayed there. I wanted to look away but couldn’t seem to do it.
“I’m Paddy, that’s Justine. We’d love some!”
“I’m Pol,” he said and grasped Paddy’s hand.
When his hand touched mine, a zap of static zinged us both.
“Justine has some jumper cables in her trunk,” Paddy suggested, then mumbled something under his breath neither of us could hear.
He stepped closer to me. “Let’s go get them and I can hook them up to my truck.”
“Sure,” I tilted my head toward my car and we headed over together.
“Pol is an interesting name,” I said, scrambling for something to say.
He smiled and then laughed a little. “It’s short for Polaris. My mother said as soon as she got pregnant with me, everything else in her life seemed to flow exactly as it was supposed to, like I was her little North Star, guiding her direction.”
I laughed with him then. “I get it. I’ve got one of those mothers, too.”
“Do you know him?” he asked, motioning to where Paddy stood. “You shouldn’t pull over for people you don’t know.”
It should’ve been strange to be lectured on safety from someone I just met but I felt like I knew the guy. “He looked too old to do me much harm.”
“Well, I’m here, so even if he turns out to a be the oldest serial killer still alive, don’t worry, I won’t let you die.” The corner of his lip turned up and he winked in a conspiratorial fashion.
I hesitated, afraid it would sound like a cliché, but then asked anyway. “Do I know you?”
He stopped what he was doing and leaned his hip against the trunk of the car. Something about the way he moved seemed so familiar.