Fallen Daughters

I nodded in agreement, looked at Pike’s determined face, and smiled. “It’s what Cross and Trinity would have wanted.”

“Yes. We were born and trained to be soldiers. Not slave transporters.” He reached out and grabbed my hand. “But we will fight side by side. We are not only joined by lifeblood, but we are joined by love.”

I studied the glow coming from Pike and could see an energy of sorts. I could see the gold of Cross very faintly. It was almost like Cross stood all around Pike’s frame. Cross was there. I knew he was. “I can see Cross,” I whispered. “I can see him shining from you.”

Pike nodded with a smile. “I can see Trinity. There is a soft light of pink blending with your orange. You are the prettiest sunset I have ever seen.”

Tears welled up in my eyes. I could feel Trinity, but the fact that Pike could see her, made it all the more real. “Is this the eternal life the myths have spoken of? The gift that all Lifeblood twins have?” Did Pike and I just stumble on what the Drenken had been destroying our planet to discover?

“Possibly.” He nodded and looked pensive. “Yes. I believe so. Our twins are here. Though they may not be here in the physical form, they are still very much here. Immortal through their light.”

“They live on,” I added.

“They live on.”

“Pike?” I asked tentatively. “Now that the red flows through you again…”

“Do I feel any differently toward you?” he asked with a wicked smile.

I couldn’t help but wonder. I looked down at the ground, worried about what the answer may be.

“No. If anything, I feel even more love. I feel all the love Cross felt for you as well as your sister’s. I can feel their love.”

He stood up and walked toward the control room. “Come on. We have a planet to find and a battle to win.”

Fallen Daughter #5

30

Yeah…it was fair to say that she hadn’t made the wisest choice by deciding to drive some desolate backwood road in the middle of a rainstorm—at night. Jessa fancied herself a wise woman, full of street smarts, and definitely self-reliant. This, however, would not fall in any of those categories.

The rental car’s windshield wipers barely kept up with clearing the massive amount of water sluicing across the foggy glass. She fiddled with the knob, hoping to speed up the back and forth motion to no avail. It was almost impossible to see the road without even a sliver of moon in the pitch black of the night’s sky.

Where the hell was she? All she could see was a few feet ahead of her of a road that seemed to lead to nowhere. This was a recipe for a perfect horror story. She had no phone signal, her GPS on her phone decided to stop working, the storm raged around her, and she just continued to drive into the woods of nowhere. And if things couldn’t get worse…

In the corner of her eye, she saw something white sprint out onto the road and hit her right tire, or fender, or some part of the car. The slight bump, and then a crunching sound under the tire made it very clear that she had killed something. A rabbit? A raccoon? A deer—no not a deer—she would be dead by now if that was the case. Ugh, what if it is was a dog?

She kept driving. It wasn’t like she had hit the creature. It hit her…right? And besides, the crunching noise under the rental car made it very clear that whatever hit her was definitely road kill. And even if she did pull over, she had no fucking signal to call for help, and she hadn’t seen a car in at least an hour if not longer. Jesus Christ! What the fuck was she doing?

After a few more moments mourning the creature she hadn’t even really seen, Jessa realized she could barely make out the lines in the road. The rain came down harder, and harder, and even harder if that was even possible. Jessa had no choice but to pull over to the side of the road. Driving in these conditions was insane. When the car stopped, she pulled her shaking hands off the wheel and ran them through her hair, taking deep breaths to calm her panicky nerves. Taking a moment to look around, she could barely make out the trees of very thick woods all around. This two-lane road ran smack dab down the middle of the freakin’ forest. And yes, her overactive imagination could almost hear the sound of banjos being played by psychopathic serial killers waiting to chop her up into tiny bits. She couldn’t just wait out this storm in the middle of nowhere. What if there really were killers in the woods? Okay…she knew she had a fanciful mind, but she couldn’t help it. And even though she knew she was just being paranoid, she wasn’t going sit in a car all by herself on the side of the road like a sitting duck. She put her car back in drive and headed out.