When I opened my eyes again, I was back in the heat of the hellfire. The blaze still spun overhead, and I was still slowly turning to ash. My body ached and burned from the time I had been inside the firenado. My body never left; only my consciousness was summoned to the fields, to the in-between. My muscles and tendons were exposed entirely on my forearms and hands. Every layer of outside flesh had been burned away completely. The pain was excruciating, and it was building so intensely that I just wanted to die.
Then, I remembered Jon's words. I remembered that there was a way out; I just had to finish this. I had to kill Mucia, and then I was free.
I did what I had learned to do over the past few years. I went numb. I just blocked out the pain and stood back on my feet. Left then right, left then right. Every step took all of my concentration and all of my will. The fire kept trying to break down the tissues holding my body together. I healed too fast. My body was repairing itself, making for a constant state of renewable torture within the twisting hellfire.
Once I was moving, it wasn't long before the sea of blood-flames thinned, and I could see two figures through the last few feet. It was then that Mucia turned around, her attention shifting from the still-breathing Annabelle to me.
"What?" Mucia barked in a rage. "No! How can you…" She was confused and scared. The fear she had always masked with power crept back into her demeanor. "No one can withstand those flames," she screamed into the storm of power. Then, her focus intensified, turning the crimson flames even brighter and hotter. "Everyone burns. Everyone dies, except me!"
My blood felt like it was boiling within the husk that remained of my body. I had to end this quickly. I had to be sure she couldn't mess me up enough to escape. Then, I'd have to find her, only prolonging my stay on the earth as a perpetual killing machine.
"No one escapes death," my monstrous voice bellowed from within the firestorm. "Not even you… Mucia!"
As soon as she heard her name spoken, the fires that she had conjured all faded and ceased to exist. Within seconds, the flames that tore at my body were gone. This allowed my flesh to start regenerating my monstrous form in all its glory. It was silent. The roars of the massive pillar of fire no longer howled through the burning field. I stood tall, towering over the witch and the gypsy as a mangle corpse-like monster. Raw flesh and muscles hung from melted sinew. My will alone was what kept me standing. Bones were exposed as well, making me look like someone's fucked up Halloween decoration in their front yard.
It all slowly knitted back together, my body refusing to be destroyed. The pounding heartbeat returned full force. It spiked and fueled me with more rage and destructive wrath.
"How… How do you know that name? Nobody knows that name?" She was shaking with every word. She trembled and fell backward with each step that I took towards her. Speaking her true name stunned her in a way that made her, somehow, defenseless.
Annabelle stayed where she was standing from the very beginning, never stepping out of place. She watched as I dominated the witch with my relentless pursuit, making her run and stumble towards the woods as she scrambled for an escape.
I let her get a running start. I was counting to ten, and then the chase began.
I counted in my head. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three… two… one.
She was mere feet away from the trees when I exploded from my readied stance. My gigantic form reached her in two seconds after I bounded and plowed through the field. As soon as I was on top of her, my body cast a shadow in the moonlight that totally eclipsed her. She was standing in the darkness of my form when my hands came thundering down on her. My talons sliced, cut, and tore the flesh from her bones. She flailed in her death throes but was as successful as an antelope in a lion's jaws. After speaking her real name, without her powers, she was as much of a threat to me as a normal human being.
I wanted to relish in this kill. I wanted to do it slowly. I wanted her to pay for all of the things I saw her do in the visions. However, I knew the effect of her true name wouldn't last forever. If I drag it out too long, she may recover her power and escape my grasp.
I lashed out with a powerful swipe that separated Mucia's head from her shoulders. Mucia's severed cranium was rolling through the scorched field with so much momentum that it almost made its way to Annabelle. Again, I wasn't sure how much she could come back from, so she received the same treatment as Phineas. Head… removed.
I got off the corpse that used to be Mucia and stood up in the moonlight, taking a deep, calming breath. She was gone. Mucia was dead. Then, rage that had built in me took over, and I tore her body to pieces. I swiped with both hands as I shredded her body into thousands of bloodied pieces. She now lay scattered in the charred hellscape she had created. The beast was satisfied, but the rage was still infecting my mind. The last part was for me.
I did what they wanted, and now I just needed the moment Jon had spoken about. When would it come? I needed it to be now.
I heard quiet footsteps behind me. I spun in a rush to see Annabelle.
"No one ever saw you were coming," Annabelle spoke, lowering herself to her knees just behind me. She had all of my clothes in her hands. She carefully placed them in front of her before slowly backing up a few paces. "I see a lot of things, but whenever I tried looking for things near you… All I saw was a void. You blot out all things around you, Sam."
She knew who I was. At this point, it didn't matter, but since this was the first time we had met, it just surprised me. The kill had calmed me enough to contain the beast. I slowly eased back into my usual form, popping and compressing my dense muscles back into their human shape, before Annabelle's very eyes.
I was standing on scorched earth, completely naked. I reached down and sifted through the clothes that had survived enough to be still wearable. My pants were barely hanging on, and my shirt had turned into a vest after almost ripping in two.
"Where is everyone?" I asked her. "Eleanor got hit by his venom. I'm not going to be here for much longer, and I need to make sure she's going to be alright."
Annabelle closed her eyes for a moment before speaking, "I know, dear. Everyone is at Carter and Eleanor's house."
"Can you see her? Is she okay?"
"Yes," she responded, "I can see her. And… She will be okay, but… You have to go to them." She seemed to be very careful with her words, like she knew something I didn't.
"What do you mean?" I asked. The way she said I 'had' to go was unusual.
She explained, "I can see them there now, and Eleanor is not alright. If I look ahead, there is a void in time. I cannot see what happens during that void. It's like that time doesn't exist. The only times this has ever happened to me are when you are in those timeframes I'm looking into. It has been happening ever since I started reaching out, looking for the beast causing all of the strife in our world. It also happened when you first met the Chasse family that night. I don't know why this is, or what it means, but I do know that on the other side of this void, Eleanor is okay." She looked into my still blackened eyes to see if I understood, which at that point, I still wasn't sure what she was waiting for me to see. "You are the void. You have to go to them."
She didn't say anything else. She didn't need to. I knew what I had to do. I tore through the woods just feet away from where we stood, leaving the charred property behind me. I didn't know what was going to happen, but I believed Annabelle. I wanted to see them all one last time before I made my choice anyway. So, if my presence would somehow help or heal Eleanor, then I would be there, no questions asked. I would do anything for my new family now, just as I would for my family back home in Texas. I'd do whatever it took to keep them safe. So, I ran to them.
I stopped at the old factory, diving into the river to wash the blood and ash from my completely healed body. I got new clothes as well. I still had a few sets of pants and shirts tucked away in the rusty structure. I didn't want the last time I would see them to be with me half-naked, covered in what looked like shredded rags, blood, and ash. I was only there for about two minutes before I had cleaned up and put on real clothes. I sprinted to the hole in the wall and leaped from my old home. When my feet hit the ground, they bounded into stride without faltering.
I used the woods and the tunnels beneath the city to get to their house in the fastest way possible. The map of the tunnels floated in the forefront of my mind as I clawed through subterranean passageways one minute, and then leaped from tree branches the next, only to find the following entry point back underground if it gained me a faster route. Dawn was approaching, and I had to make sure ordinary people didn't spot me.
After ripping across the city like a bat out of hell, I had arrived. I slowly approached the familiar house, making sure I was stealthy enough not to be noticed by the two vampires or the alpha werewolf that I could sense just outside in the backyard. I could hear voices. Everyone was there on the backside of the house as the sun crept over the horizon. Even Martin, and the one I suspected to be Charles, it seemed like everyone had made it out of that chaos alive. I guess I was enough of a distraction that they could help the rest of the gypsies and hunters escape.
Yet, something was off. I could hear… crying. Audible weeping was coming from the back patio. It was deep, sorrowful weeping that didn't often find its way into this family's emotions. Autumn was there, sitting in a patio chair just off to the side by herself. She was curled up, holding her knees as she sobbed. I could see the makeup running around her eyes. It looked like she had been crying long before I arrived. Then I saw Carter, who was just as visibly crumbling. Frank sat beside Carter, one arm around his shoulder and the other in Jane's hand.
Martin and Charles stood at the edge of the shadows, keeping clear of the sun's rays as they grew across the surface of the yard. They watched in silence, knowing nothing they could say would help. They just stayed silent and were there for the family. I could see Martin's eyes. Blood was pouring out of them in a way that looked like tears. He was just as wrecked emotionally, but he was keeping it inside.
For a split second, I wondered what was going on. Then I realized it. Eleanor wasn't with them. My eyes turned back to pitch as the rest of my senses heightened. I scanned the house for every scent, every sound, and any sign of life. I found nothing, except for one smell. The same smell I knew better than anything else. It was death.
As I quietly stalked around the house, I peered through the living room window. The curtains were just far enough apart to peek in. Through the white linen drapes, I saw Eleanor. My heart started beating harder. She wasn't moving. There she lay, motionless, no pulse, no breath, nothing. She was gone. I was too late…
Why… how? I couldn't understand. I felt like my head started spinning; I was so confused. Why would Annabelle say she would be okay? She said she saw her. She said she'd make it… she was wrong.
As I stood outside the living room window, staring through the glass like a statue, frozen in sorrow, I noticed something. The latch to the window was undone, and it sent my mind running.
I lifted the window so quietly that it was like the wooden frame was made of air. No sounds escaped the wood as I slid it up into the top half of the frame. I lifted my form through the small square opening and into the living room. I was a ghost, and nobody knew I was there. Everyone on the back patio continued in their grief, unaware of my presence. Even the older vampires and the alpha werewolf were ignorant of me. How this was happening, I was unsure. But I wouldn't question it. I just kept moving and following my instincts.
I stepped up to Eleanor, the woman I had slowly begun to regard as a motherly figure, and put my arms underneath her cold body. As soon as I touched her, I started tearing up. Feeling her body, cold and lifeless, and just knowing that she was taken from the world was enough to send me into a tailspin. But I couldn't. Not in their living room. I had a plan. It came to me almost instantaneously, but I didn't doubt it. I didn't know anything beforehand about what I was going to do, but I knew I was going to get her back. Everything I had planned would be successful because I would make it so.
I gracefully crept back out of the window while carrying Eleanor's body. I was silent, but steady in each step as I paced away from the Chasse house. The anguish and agony of seeing and feeling her this way were too much to deal with. But I couldn't alert them to my presence. Otherwise, they would stop me, almost for sure. So, I just watched my feet. Left then right, left then right, to the nearest tree line. Then, I disappeared into the crooked trees with her. I carried her gently, making sure not to harm her body any further.
After about an hour of walking through the trees, I came to the water. The Missouri River flowed in front of me. It was exactly what I had imagined. Deep enough for what I had planned. Again, I had never done this before, but I knew it would work. I couldn't explain it, but I was running on pure instinct. It would work. I would make it work.
I stepped into the chilling waters, wading in to almost shoulder level. I looked into Eleanor's familiar face one last time.
"I'm sorry," I said to her. "I'll make this right," I promised her, but it was meant more towards myself.
I stepped deeper into the waters, completely submerging us both. The current took us, no longer held in place by the strength of my legs. We floated underwater, carried by the current of the river. I pulled her in closer to me, no longer carrying her perpendicular to myself, but I held her firmly to me. I pressed her cheek to mine as we tumbled through the depths of the churning waters.
I could feel my breath running out. Yet, the struggle never came. As soon as I felt the burning inside of my chest as my lungs screamed for oxygen, I took a full breath of water. The rushing water filling my lungs was calming. I could feel everything starting to fade and go black. However, my grip was tight around Eleanor. I wouldn't let her go.
Then, I heard the words, "Fall!"
The overwhelming voice of my maker commanded me to die. He was pulling me from the physical world.
Then, like I had only blinked, I was somewhere else. The churning waters of the river no longer surrounded us. We were brought somewhere else. At first glance, I didn't recognize it, but I was in the fields. It was different this time. The skies weren't blue, and the sun wasn't shining. The sky was filled with a grey hue, littered with storm clouds that cast lightning bolts down into the surrounding fields of dirt.
I stood and quickly noticed someone beside me. It was Eleanor.
She looked panicked as soon as she saw my face, "Sam… what happened… where are we?" She looked all around, confused about where we stood. It was all unfamiliar to her.
Jon stepped out of the old, weathered tool shed from before. There was no fire this time, and something was happening in the fields. He didn't speak to us. He let us have a moment before he came over.
"Eleanor," I said as I pulled her in for a tight hug. "You're alive, I knew it!"
"What are you talking about, Sam?" she asked in confusion. "What's happening? How did I get here?" Then she started remembering things. She pushed away from me slightly, just enough to talk to me. "Sam! Sam, you're okay!" She was overjoyed. "I'm so sorry for what happened. We just… we were scared, and we acted too quickly. Autumn… she never meant to hit you with that bolt. I can't tell you how much it hurt her to think that she hurt you. She's barely spoken a word since it happened."
"It's okay, it's okay," I tried to calm her down. I just kept hugging her. "I'm not worried about any of that."
"What's happening? Where are we?" she asked, noticing something wasn't right.
"Look… Eleanor, you got hurt, but it's okay. I think I can make everything right."
"What…" she started to remember even more. "Oh no… Sam, did I…?" she started crying there in the fields. She was torn at the thought of leaving her daughter and husband in the world by themselves. She fell back into me, and I tried to console her there in that strange place as the storm crackled and raged overhead.
Jon stepped up to us right as the rain started, "It's time, Sam."
"Who's that?" she asked after seeing Jon appear.
"Don't worry, El; we're going back," I said to her. Then I turned my attention to Jon, "I need you to bring her back. She died because of me… because of us! If I had never been in their lives, she would have never been anywhere near that chimera. She would have never been hit."
"It doesn't just work that way, Sam. You cannot just give life back that was taken. The scales would be out of balance. Then he'd send you."
"No… You have to! This isn't right!" I yelled. "I've given up everything for you… for him," I pointed out into the vast fields in the distance.
Jon looked uneasy, listening to me release my innermost emotions. The ones that I had been holding in for so long.
"I gave up everything. My wife, my twin brother, my whole family… and my daughter. Now it's my new family, Eleanor…" I started to get choked up. "NO! I won't do it anymore. I don't care what names he gives; I won't do his work. If you won't help me this one time… I'm done." I meant every word. I didn't care what happened to me. I was getting Eleanor back to her family.
Jon, let me rant. He didn't interrupt me, and he looked apologetic. Behind his old eyes, he looked like he had seen all of this before. Maybe in his own life.
"You haven't given everything… not yet," he warned. "There is a way, Sam. Like I said before, you have a choice."
My choice? Was this it… But how? I felt like I was in one big game where I was just the piece that was being passed around by all of the players. I had no control, merely along for the ride.
"There is only one life at stake… yours," Jon said.
"Mine?"
"Yes, yours. You see," he spoke carefully, really trying to make me understand, "Eleanor has already died. Her life has been claimed in the physical world. Once a life is claimed, it can never be returned," he told me. "But it can be bargained for. It can be traded."
"What? How? What do I have to do?"
"You don't have to do anything," he said. "That comes after the trade is made. The trade… would be for your life."
I felt a cold chill pulse through the front of my face, "My life…"
"Yes. Your life is still on the table. You were never claimed in the real world. You were only transformed. You've never died because of the immensely powerful abilities of the monster."
I was silent as I processed everything he said. I was still alive. I never died, and I could go back to everything that I had given up. I could be normal. I was silent for longer than I realized.
"That is the deal. You've brought Mucia to her final rest, balancing the power that has been tilted for so long. For this, he is willing to offer you your life back. Or," Jon offered, "You can trade your life for Eleanor's."
Eleanor had been silent up until this point: "Trade your life?" She was confused but still keeping up with the conversation. "Sam… what happened to you? What is he talking about?" She reached out and grabbed my forearm, just above my wrist. "You have a daughter?"
I started tearing up again. I had a daughter, a wife, a brother, sisters, and parents. I had it all, and I gave it up to protect them from what I had become. I loved them with all of my heart, just as I loved Eleanor, Autumn, Carter, and the rest of the Chasses. Nothing was different. The people I cared about needed to be protected. I would protect them. I would save them just as I always had, and still would.
After a few moments of silent thought, I spoke to Eleanor.
"You're going back, and I need you to do something for me," I started.
"What…" Eleanor said, too shaken and confused by everything to process it all at the moment.
"Tell Carter that I'm sorry for not telling him the truth. And… tell Autumn, everything I felt… everything I said, it was all real." I wasn't sure what was going to happen, or if I'd ever see them again.
She couldn't respond; she was so choked up. She just nodded as tears filled her sad eyes.
"Are you sure this is what you want, Sam? Once you make the trade… there's no going back. You will stay the same until you pass the burden off onto another," Jon said, waiting for my response.
I couldn't say the words. So, I just nodded.
"Very well," Jon said, turning back towards the old shed. He walked away and stepped inside the small, decrepit structure again.
"What does this mean?" Eleanor asked.
Jon returned with his old-timey rifle. I hadn't noticed before, but the wood was carved with all kinds of intricate symbols and languages that I didn't recognize. When he stepped up to me, he flipped it over in his hands. I saw his name carved into the underside of the stock. I saw a few other names in different languages that I did recognize. He stepped forward, right in between us.
"Place your hand on the gun, Sam," he ordered. "Then, he will perform the trade."
I placed my hand over the hand grip area near the trigger as he held it by the stock and barrel.
"Eleanor, please grab Sam's hand," Jon requested.
She was scared. Scared of the situation, the fields, and the presence that started stirring in the storm-riddled land we were standing in. The ominous being was coming. The deal… the trade was being arranged, and he was coming to make the bargain. I would… die.
"Sam," she said, "thank you." It was all she could think to say. She didn't have the words, but her eyes said it all.
She placed her hand in mine, gripping me tightly and leaning in to hug me with her other arm. She squeezed me as tightly as she could.
"So, she'll live, and I'll stay this way?" I asked, praying that this would work, and all of my sudden hopes would be answered.
"She will live," he assured. "If you make this deal, and he sends Eleanor back, he is giving life. He needs life in return. It's the balance…" he reminded.
I knew the price. I had no escape.
"It is your life he wants. You'll have to give your life, but not like everyone else. He needs you as his right hand. You won't pass on, but you'll stay in this life as the monster. Your chance to be free will be gone. You'll only be alive by the power and purpose of the monster that he has given you. As soon as it's gone, and you transfer it to another, you will pass on. You will finally die."
This was my chance to escape the hell I lived in. My only way out was already slipping away. I had a split moment of selfishness take me over, wanting relief from this life, but it was short-lived. I thought of Eleanor, I thought of Carter and Autumn. My new family and new friends needed their mother, their wife, sister, and friend. There had been so much killing, so many bad things that I had done, that I never thought I'd be able to do anything good again. I felt that this could be my last chance to do something that mattered. It was a chance to do something right.
"It will be a great sacrifice, and you will bear a very heavy burden for a very long time," Jon warned, "but someone has to roam the physical world. Someone has to become the monster."
I was scared. Was this my fate? Was this what I was meant to become, to stay forever? Did I still have a place in heaven, or would choosing this path condemn me to the place where I sent the evil I slew?
I prayed silently in my mind; Lord, please help me. Is this what I am meant for… my purpose? Or have I been made into something you won't recognize anymore? I need help…
I fell to my knees in the dirt of the fields. I hung my head and stared into the earth for a while, losing track of time. I was scared. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, trying to ease my pounding heart. I opened my eyes and looked out into the horizon, through the vast fields. In that moment… somehow… it was calming.
"I'll do it," I answered. "Send her back and take me."
Jon looked at peace as I answered. He looked to the sky and smiled.
"Thank you, Sam. You have no idea what this means for me," he said.
He raised the gun in our hands until we were holding it overhead.
"I have people waiting on me," he said, looking up to the sky again. "Sam, remember, this life is hard, but family… friends… make it all worth it. I can tell you're already on that path with Eleanor and her family. Lean on them in the hard times, when the monster inside craves death the most. Don't live in seclusion." He looked at Eleanor, "Help him… he'll need it."
She nodded through her tears.
"What do we do now?" I asked.
"Take the weapon. It's yours. You're the monster now." He readied it in his hand, "It will send you back. Eleanor will awaken. She'll be alive," he explained. "And Sam… listen for the names. No matter how much time passes without, there will always be more names to come. Yet, the beast inside will always hunger for death. Find the ones in the world that need to be stopped, to keep the beast strong, but under control. Be ready, protect your loved ones, and stop as much evil and corruption in the world as you can."
I nodded as the peace washed away from me, the moment setting in.
"Thank you, Sam," Jon said again as he planted the rifle's barrel into the dirt before me. He turned around and paced to the fields. He only made it a few feet before he turned around, "There's a lot more to learn about what you are. You'll figure out a lot about yourself as you walk the world for him. I haven't told you everything yet; you're not ready. But, one day… You will be."
I watched him walk into the fields, making his way further and further to the end of my vision. When he arrived almost to the edge of the horizon, where the earth met the sky, the cloaked being appeared. The dominant figure met Jon in the fields. He stood there beside him, completely motionless. God only knew what was happening out there. Then, just as fast as he appeared, they both vanished.
Just then, I felt Eleanor's grip tighten. I looked over, and she was gone. It was like she was never there.
I was alone in the in-between. I was the beast, the monster. I couldn't think about any of that, though. I had to get back, and I had to find everyone. I had to make sure Eleanor made it out of that river.
I stepped up to the gun, feeling the power within its old, hardened shape. I readied myself with a deep breath. I gritted my teeth and grabbed the long rifle. As soon as my hand gripped the surface, everything went white. I was gone.