The Demon Inheritance

SIXTEEN

When the flight landed in Texas, none of us - the Extants, the Apotropaics - existed. With the help of Nahara and her control over daylight, all of us jumped from the plane early on. So, when the Co. pilot, who had been in the bathroom most of the attack, was to ask who exactly had saved everyone, the only answers would be delusional. Each tell of a completely different heroine, since there were eleven of us in all, although I didn't really help any of the bystanders directly. None of the Cromans were there to be interrogated, thank Croma. Although, since all Cromans took up the first class section, the missing gap was probably obvious... Nevertheless, we were off.

We landed in a town called Killeen, which was like a more mellow city. I would resemble it to Nashville, where the building aren't tall but plenty. Of course, the real destination was somewhere else, but we left early on enough to take suspicion off of our part. After all, there was a group of kids missing back and Millton, and if an investigator were to track us and follow these violent attacks, there would be something obvious going on involving us, and my parents should be the last to know about Croma. After all, they'd forbid me from doing anything related to this. But it was the only way I could go and save Mary.

***

"Your job here is to be a soldier, not my son!"

Oliver, reaching the fragile age of ten, dipped his head to the ground and cursed himself. He wanted to be like his brother, Ace, who was never approached and nearly molested by Salt, and who had a loving mother who cared about him as anything other than a future Apotropaic. He wanted no more of his immortality. Ten years after the attack on Croma, and since time was measured so differently then back on Earth, where the rest of the surviving Cromans were, he would have to wait many, many more decades. After all, he was immortal. Giving him immortality was probably the most motherly thing Ebony had done, and it felt like a curse.

Oliver struggled not to cry. Soldiers didn't cry. Soldiers didn't think. Ebony left him alone in the white jacket she had given him, and he wiped invisible tears from his eyes before they could come with the sleeve of his jacket. "I don't understand... Why is she like this towards me?"

Little Oliver soon found himself in the library. Those books were so comforting to him, each one holding a story to carry him away from the threat of reality with their giving fiction. Of course, most of it was knowledge-fueling, but it still erased the pain of reality.

He wasn't really too close with his brother, either, who was so constantly exercising and training himself with weapons. Ace hardly made it to the library, mostly, Oliver felt, because he himself was there all the time. He practically lived there, and kept his own writings in his actual room. That was the only thing he used his room for. He didn't even sleep there, in his room. Instead, he slept in the library, away from everyone.

Oliver hugged his knees to his chest. "I have to be a good soldier... For Croma... For whoever my Extant is going to be..." He would work so hard in later years to let himself go, to kill off all of his emotions, to be the perfect little soldier that his mother always wanted him to be.

Oliver sauntered over to the shelf and grabbed an entirely new book. In his hand was a work of nonfiction, something about the Murondoes angels. He would read for now. Read until he couldn't keep his wide, little boy eyes open anymore and he fell asleep on the woolen seat.

***

I opened my eyes to find myself sitting on a bench inside of a gas station, Oliver beside me and Caleb beside him. His sapphire eyes were half-lidded, straightforward, and void of any natural light. After learning how bad his life had been, after learning what Salt had tried to do, I wanted to at least pat him on the shoulder and tell him that none of it was his fault. However, that didn't happen. I would have to explain my visions to him, and that was the last things I wanted these Cromans to know.