The Fear You Know

Epilogue

 He heard the sound of a beautiful woman singing, watched her dancing through a misty blue forest in a pure white dress, her dark hair streaming out behind her Despite knowing that she was the one singing her voice seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once, though as he tried to follow her he found her mirrored in every direction he looked. She stayed just beyond his reach as he chased after her, though in one moment she turned and held her finger to her lips.

As if to silence him and tell him to simply listen.

He didn't want to go against the word of this beautiful woman, so sat down in the grass under the branches that reached down and listened to her soothing songs carried along by them on a current of rising black water bringing him upwards towards the light.

His face broke the surface and he blinked, coming into consciousness slowly as he realized how much his body hurt. He groaned in pain and opened an eye. His face was bathed in hellish red firelight and smoke filled the air around him. Voices echoed up from the night, and figures passed over the flames like demons dancing through hell.

For a moment that is where he thought he had gone.

But, no, something didn't make sense.

He was lying on a sheet in a courtyard surrounded by stone, and overhead the sky was black and smattered with a thousand glittering stars. The moon was orange still against the rising smoke, but there was no longer screaming. There were plenty of moaning and soft voices. He could even hear the occasional crowing of a carrion bird, and watched them flutter through the pale firelight.

He tilted his head and watched as a two headed monstrosity alighted not so distantly from him cawing at him with one head while the other spun around to survey the damage. It took flight again croaking into the air to join its night time brethren.

Turning his head to the side he watched as white coated individuals passed through the lines and lines of bodies.

He saw many people lying there, those in the robes of the university and others, in the clothing of the stalk. Some even wore no clothing at all, though the words that had once scrawled over their skin was now absent. Many of them were missing limbs, some of them had bandages around their faces from missing eyes.

The only ones that were not present among the triaged were the Outbreak, who were likely too high of a contamination risk to treat.

Eli shifted and turned his head outward to the sound of men and women calling to each other.

He even thought he heard the roaring of a rather angered dread, though he was surprised to find, while wary, he was not afraid.

He rested his head back down on the makeshift pillow left for him and sighed.

He was about to fall back asleep again when something heavy rested itself atop his chest.

Eli grunted in annoyance and looked up to see one large eyeball looking down at him.

"Wink?"

"No, your mother."

Eli frowned.

"Too soon?" The dread shrugged, "Do you really think a piece of masonry would get rid of me that easily?" he appraised Eli with a furtive look, "I should warn you now, before you have the chance to freak out, that tree really did a number on you, not as bad as it could have been, but a few of your ribs are crushed, your leg is fractured, one of your hips was, probably chipped or something,... oh, and your left hand was crushed, like mangled crushed, like probably never gonna work exactly how you hope it might, crushed."

Eli sighed feeling his insides well with..... Disappointment.

Disappointment but not fear.

"I see?"

"You Lost your smallest finger." Eli turned head tilting in the direction of the voice as Peter approached. He had a bandage over one of his eyes as he limped over, coming to sit next to Eli with a sigh.

"Are you ok?" he asked.

"Peter shrugged, not really, I lost the eye, but I had two of them anyway."

"That's a pity." Eli muttered, Peter's eyes had always been a strange and striking aspect about him.

"Bright side is now I get to wear a patch or something, so I can look interesting"

Eli snorted, "Does that mean I get a hook hand?'

PEter cracked a smile, "Well unfortunately for you, you didn't lose the hand, just your smallest finger. You crushed most of the bones in that hand which probably means you'll always have a gimpy hand, but that's ok. Hope you weren't using it for anything important.... Oh and probably a limp."

Eli shrugged, "It was just my left hand."

Peter sighed, crossing his legs and leaning back in the grass.

" I knew we were going to save you from exclusion, but that is not really how I planned it working out."

"Oh, you didn't plan on getting your eye poked out?"

Peter frowned at him, "So now we have a funny guy, what happened to all that angst and darkness and whatever?"

Eli grinned, "Turns out that was more a side effect of Fear I think.... I'm over that now."

Peter rolled his eyes, "took you long enough."

The two of them laughed before quieting, "Where is my father?"

"He's gone after the tree, they are going to try and wrangle it, bring it back so they can seal it in place again. I know it seems crazy, but this was just a fraction of the damage it used to do out roaming on its own. It's dangerous to keep it here but it would be worse to allow it to roam."

Eli nodded in agreement.

"And your father?" he wondered softly

Peter sighed, "Not sure, we didn't find him among the bodies, though that doesn't mean much. He was barely a head and a torso, so the tree probably just threw him out into the bushes. We will find him by morning."

He tried to keep his tone light, but Eli could sense the hidden pain behind his words, "I'm sorry" he said, reaching out gently with his good hand and resting it on Peter's arm.

Peter shrugged, "Not like I really saw him as my father anyway. Might as well be a stranger now."

"Is ok, I can share mine." he looked around at the university, "Seems like I am already doing that with everyone else anyway."

It was around then that a team of able bodied men led by Adrien appeared wrangling the tree by way of ropes as it kicked and bucked against them. It tried to rush them on occasion, but the lack of remaining people to feed its fear made it sluggish and weak compared to just moments before, and they were able to control it with Adrien's help as they dragged it through the courtyard and back into its position inside the ruined atrium. For the time being it was lashed down with thick iron chains as it continued to thrash and pull.

Adrien Then disengaged from the party and walked to find them, gently sitting down beside Eli and sighing, taking his good hand gingerly in his own, "Your color is back."

Eli's mouth twitched though he was feeling tired, "My hope is back."he said softly, and Adrien smiled.

"I'm glad to hear it."

He turned and sighed resting either hand on the two younger men's shoulders

Twisting his head to look up at the sky and sighed, watching the moon as she was obscured behind a veil of smoke, like a shy bride.

"This isn't over." he said more to himself than to them.

"This is just the beginning."

,

THE END