The Rapture

THIRTY-FOUR

PEARL

I leaned my head back on his enormous chest, sighing. "I love you. You know that, right? I'm sorry about all the messes I cause...."

Warm sunlight poured over my skin, a gentle breeze stirring my hair. Puffy white clouds sailed the sky, so beautiful I wanted to cry. Had the world truly ended?

It didn't seem like it.

A group of geese swam in the pond at the base of the hill we sat on. On the farthest edge of that pond, a dock floated. The park, surprisingly, was empty–almost as if we were the only two in the world.

With a deep chuckle, Dumuzi wrapped an arm over my midsection and pulled me closer. "I am not afraid of a troublemaker, little human. I know you adore me."

"Good."

I brushed my fingers across the muscles on his arm, smiling. I could stay forever like this–warm in the sun and in his embrace.

"Is this place significant to you?"

"Yeah." I nodded. "Stepdad used to take me here to fish a lot growing up. The pond is much deeper than it looks."

"You must have liked that."

"I really did. I miss him."

He leaned down, placing his lips next to my ear. His voice was a rumble. "It hurts to lose somebody you love, doesn't it? Loving you makes me so... weak."

Weak?

Frowning, I twisted in his hold to look up at him. "What do you–?"

I froze, and my sense of calm shattered.

I screamed.

His arms snared around me like a cage. Dark, purple eyes–too dark to be his–glared down at me with so much violence that it made my stomach twist. Short, white hair fell to his chin as he curled his lips over his teeth in a snarl. Not Dumuzi!

"Who are you? What do you want?"

His face looked younger, wilder, and filled with nothing but hate. It made me want to run–far away from here, far away from him. "Nothing that you can give. Dumuzi is weak because of you. If you die, so will he. It will take no effort to reach him now. Through you, I will do so."

"Let me go, or I swear to–"

"Swear to who? God? No." His fingers on me tightened and I let out a yelp. "I would not even consider you an insubordinate. Your existence is a waste. When I am finished with you, human... you will wish your kind had never existed. Even if by mistake."

***

I jolted upright, my heart beating frantically inside of my chest. My eyes were wet with frightened tears. Who the hell was that?

I looked around me, trying to stop my shaking. Just a dream.

I wasn't in the same white, bland room as before. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and looked around. My nausea returned, and I groaned.

The room was still white, but it shone brightly. The floors were so polished that you could see the reflections of the objects in the room. The headboard of the bed I was in glowed a whitish blue; a few feet away from me was a large, alien chair and some kind of setup with more gray, rock-like formations and holograms in front of it.