Fate's Return (Twisted Fate, Book 2)

Chapter Forty-Eight

There was no pain as the shadow claimed its prize. My body tingled with discomfort like a sprained ankle while it is wrapped in ice and being elevated—you feel it, yet it doesn't hurt unless you move. I stayed as still as I could.

After a few minutes, the black began to lift, and I could see Mike, Gabe, and Raffy. Still, I couldn't control my movements or my mouth. My thoughts weren't my own. I couldn't hear the shadow's thoughts or know its intentions. Just... nothing.

They were all arguing with each other, and I watched with the soundless sense of sight as their lips ran too fast for me to catch up. Was I missing the importance of my birthday finally being explained? Or were they blaming each other for my poor decision-making skills? As pathetic as my situation was, I didn't care, because watching them argue meant they weren't celebrating the end of their so-called protective duty.

So, instead of thinking, I hummed. Not that I was happy, but the Darkness said that the real Deryk hadn't fought, that he'd gone into a peaceful sleep like one would take an afternoon nap. Since I couldn't fight and I wasn't about to miss anything by going to la-la-land even if that meant that I might see David, I would think and sing every joyful thing that I could imagine. Then shove it at the shadow for its sharing pleasure. Maybe, if I was annoying enough, it would let me free. Maybe, but highly doubtful.

*****

I'd always thought odd numbers would be unlucky but the number five wasn't as cursed as I'd thought it would be. I was remembering my fifth most favourite memory—a day at the beach—when it began. I had made a list of the five things I would do if I ever became free: go ice fishing (lame but the huts are cool), learn to cook, graduate college, learn to go deep-sea diving, and find a way back to David.

I didn't care in which order they arrived, though I hoped finding David would be last as I'd have to die in order to achieve it.

It also took five minutes to set me free from Darkness, though I have no clue how it happened. I had let resignation settle before Darkness came. Once it did, I continued to bide my time thinking of useless things, making lists and reliving memories, before striking back. I figured if I didn't try right away, it would come as a surprise later, maybe give me a chance of success. So, I counted down, humming rhymes as I started with my least favorite happy memory, and worked my way through the top ten. Once number one arrived... Well, I figured if dark didn't mesh well with light, happy and depressed would be just as much of a contradiction. By the time I reached the memories of David, the shadow would be begging for release even more than it had fought to get in.

But I didn't have to do anything, the memories of David remaining secure within the privacy we'd shared.

When Darkness came to me, the process was slow, probably so that the shadow's chill didn't freeze my body useless. It was so cold, like the frost of winter as it seeped into your bones, that it took five minutes to trickle through my skin and past my muscles. Once my skeletal structure had been overcome, nothing was blocking Darkness from its full possession.

What would happen to me when it succeeded?

A slow burn began as it reached my heart, and I thought it had taken me to the edge and released its hold to watch me teeter and fall. Instead the heat, with light I didn't realize could exist, let alone be found inside of me, pushed the shadow away. I latched onto the silver-white light tinged with blue and pushed. Except for brief images in my mind, I skipped past family and friends—everything natural that I knew of as good—and let thoughts of David in, holding tight so they wouldn't fade.

Every date, every laugh, and every smile—I relived it all as if it were happening right now and used it against the shadow as it tried to invade my body.

Pushing Darkness away from your soul? Not easy. Also? Painful. Not at all like the ease of letting it in. Somehow, I managed to do it. My body trembled and quaked every thought out of my head until light was all that remained. Goodness and purity.

I could feel it now that the cold had been driven away.

Through the exhaustion of exorcising my own body of its evil parasite, I opened my eyes of my own intention. It wasn't a long glimpse, but it was enough. I saw the gold of Mike, Gabe, and Raffy on my right, and the shadow writhing in pain on my left. It screamed as my light of silver, blue and white advanced. Every touch of light to dark evaporated like steam in the air after a tub of hot water poured on snow.

From where I stood when the shadow was forced out, I fell to my knees, and then lay on my stomach, barely capable of lifting myself enough on my elbows to watch.

With a final screech, the Darkness was gone. My special light faded. It pulled back into my body, enveloping me in a warm cocoon. The rain stopped and the wind died, and the pleasantness of the hot spring's fresh aroma returned.

"Ah..." My throat was so dry. The strength in my arms vanished, and I fell back to my stomach, resting my cheek on the cool ground. I blinked, a slow smile curving my lips up, and then the exhaustion of the day closed my eyes. "That was the worst ride I've ever been on."

The sound of feet scrambling to my side was the last thing that penetrated my conscious, but it didn't matter.

I passed out before they arrived.