Sorrow's Gift

Chapter Twenty-Four: Parrish

The match burned down to her fingertips before she was able to wrap her mind around what her eyes were seeing.

She'd heard Karmen scream and had tried to find her flashlight, but all her fingers landed on was a book of matches she'd used earlier to light a candle.

The apartment was flooded with rats. Hundreds of them. The main door was closed, but they seemed to be coming from somewhere in the kitchen.

What the hell was going on?

But there was no time for questions. The wave of rodents was almost to her, and she couldn't take the risk that they were carrying the virus. Hell, even uninfected rats in a pack of hundreds could eat the flesh off a person in minutes.

Parrish dropped the match to the ground and reached for the sword propped against the wall beside her. The room plunged into darkness, and she only had her ears to guide her.

She slashed and heard the screech of rats and the thud of their small bodies as they were lifted by her sword and dropped again to the floor.

"Noah," she screamed. "Help."

She had no idea what part of the apartment he was in. The back room, she thought probably. He'd said goodnight more than half an hour ago. She hoped he wasn't asleep.

She hoped the rats weren't in his room.

How had they even gotten in here?

Parrish slashed again, turning her body around in a circle to get more leverage on her blade.

Her sword began to glow with an icy blue frost. Her eyes drank in the light, grateful she could at least see the critters rushing toward her. But God, there were so many of them.

She frantically looked toward Crash. He was asleep on the couch and even though she shouted his name, he wasn't waking up. She had to do whatever she could to protect him.

Karmen screamed again, and Parrish's stomach tightened into knots.

Where the hell were Noah and the girl? If the others didn't start helping her fight these things, she had no idea what they were going to do. There were too many of them.

Parrish kicked and spun, slicing rats to pieces. Their blood sputtered up into her face and across her clothes. Her stomach lurched at the gore of it, but she had no choice.

This new world was about survival no matter what.

And keeping the ones you loved alive.

Parrish forced her stomach to settle. She tightened her fist around the hilt of her sword and kept swinging through the darkness.

Finally, a light shone down the hall, and Noah called out to her.

"Are you okay?" he asked. "Where did these things come from?"

He pushed through the mass of rodents, beating them down with his bat.

"I don't know, but I think they're infected," she said. She sliced through another group of them, but they just kept coming. "Where are the others?"

Crash stirred, and then, wide-eyed, jumped onto the cushions of the couch. He closed his eyes and power kicked on for a moment before clicking off again. He cursed and shook his head.

"Dear God," Parrish whispered. The lights had only been on for a second, but it had been enough to see what was really inside the apartment with them.

It had to be thousands. Thousands of rats.

"What are we going to do?" she shouted. "We can't possibly kill them all."

She and Noah made their way to the couch and climbed on top with Crash. Even with all three of them fighting, they were barely keeping their little space on the couch clear of the rodents.

From the hallway, an eerie red glow lit up the darkness. Parrish strained her neck to get a closer look, but she couldn't tell what was making that light.

Please, do not be some kind of super-rat like those zombies the other night.

She shuddered. That was the stuff nightmares were made of, and she'd had her share of nightmares lately.

As the red glow spread across the room, though, she noticed the rats fall into some kind of daze. They stopped moving, their eyes locked on the red light.

The girl stepped forward, walking slowly and deliberately through the mess of rats. Her palms were covered in red flames, and she held them in front of her as she walked.

Parrish held her sword still, ready to attack if the rats started coming toward her again.

They were entranced by the fire, somehow, their beady little eyes glued to it.

"What in the—" Crash started, but Parrish grabbed his arm and shook her head.

She had feeling the girl was concentrating very hard, and the last thing they needed was for her to drop her focus right now.

The girl made her way to the center of the group of rats, and then slowly lowered to a crouch. Parrish couldn't believe she was getting so close to them. What was she planning to do?

None of the rats moved. They were mesmerized, completely under her control as she turned her hand palm-up and brought it toward her chin. She blew a puff of breath across the top of the fire and the flames rolled forward in a wave.

The rats screamed as the fire enveloped them, their furry bodies bursting with a bright red light that spread through the entire group of them in an instant. Parrish raised her hand to her eyes, squinting against the light.

When she looked again, every single rat in the place was dead. Their bodies were burned and still, but the fire had not caught anywhere else.

"How did you do that?" Parrish asked, letting her sword drop to her side. She'd never seen anything like it.

"I don't know," the girl said, shaking her head. Her hands trembled at her sides. "I didn't know I could do that."

Parrish collapsed onto the couch, wincing at the stench of the burned bodies. They were safe and they were alive, but damn, they were definitely going to need a new place to stay.