After The Apocalypse (Book 2): Church of Chaos (2 page)

Chapter 2

“Pilar! Pilar, wake up!”

My eyes jerked open and for a split second I thought I was going to see my mother. A scream died in my throat as I sat up in the bed. My heart was pounding so hard against my rib cage that I couldn't breathe.

My mother was nowhere to be seen in the pitch-black room. Instead, the zombie boy with the black hair was sitting on the edge of my comforter. He reached for my arm. I whimpered and flinched back away from him.

“Pilar, it's okay. You had a nightmare.”

My skin was covered in goosebumps. Sweat had soaked through my thin night-shirt. The bed covers were drenched with sweat despite the cold night air that was blowing through the open second story window.

“Seth.” His name rolled off my tongue with a familiarity that helped calm my panicked mind.

He crossed his arms over his chest and eyed me warily. “You okay?”

“It was a nightmare?”

“I came rushing in here with my sword because I heard you screaming. You were alone and fighting viciously with your blankets. I'm pretty sure it was a nightmare.”

I nodded and tried to get my heart rate to slow back down to a point where I wasn't hearing my own blood rushing in my ears. “It was-. I don't know. It was a bad dream.”

Seth rubbed his hands up and down over my goose-bump covered arms. “Want to talk about it?”

“I was back in the Cube.” I didn't know how much of the nightmare I really wanted to tell him.

“Tell me you didn't dream about Drake again?” Seth's eyes narrowed with annoyance.

“No. It wasn't Drake this time,” I said. “I was with my mother. We were talking and then zombies started to attack. I went down to the hospital ward where I used to work. It was full of zombies and-.”

“And?” Seth asked.

I sighed. “If I tell you, you have to promise you won't get mad. It was a dream. I can't control dreams.”

“Why would I get mad?” Seth sounded almost bored, but I wasn't dumb enough to fall for the act. He practically vibrated with tension.

“Because, in my dream, I walked into the hospital ward and you were there. You were fighting the zombies but it was like my brain didn't recognize you.”

“You were screaming because of me,” Seth guessed.

“No, I wasn't,” I lied. Seth tended to get extremely touchy whenever I started comparing him to a zombie.

Seth snorted with disbelief. “You were screaming and it wasn't because of me?”

“I was screaming because-.” I had to think fast now. My personal jury was still out on Seth. I was more than a little afraid of what the verdict might eventually turn out to be. “I was screaming because there were zombies everywhere and one was attacking me. It was about to bite me, but then-.”

“But then what?”

“Something weird happened,” I told him.

“What was it?”

“It doesn't matter. It was just a dream.”

“Humor me,” Seth said. “Tell me what happened in the dream.”

“I was about to get my throat ripped out by a zombie, but then I screamed at it and it stopped attacking me.”

“Humph.” Seth looked thoughtful. “What did you say to it?”

“I told it to stop and get away from me.”

“And it did?”

“It did.” I pulled my knees up to my chest and then wrapped my arms around them.

“Good.” Seth gave me his Cheshire cat smile.

“Good?” I frowned at him. “I had a nightmare.”

“You had a nightmare where you could control zombies,” Seth clarified.

“It was a nightmare.”

Seth shrugged at me. “You know as well as I do that dreams aren't always just dreams.”

I opened my mouth and then closed it again abruptly. “You're talking about the dream where I saw Julianne?”

He winked his dead white eye at me. “You talked to your dead best friend in a dream. She told you that your parents are still alive. You believe her enough that you and I are leaving for Ra-Shet in the morning to see if we can try to save them.”

“We're going to save them.” I believed in the power of positive thinking.

Seth laughed softly. “Fine. We're going to save them. Because your dead best friend told you so in a dream.”

“Now you're just being an asshole.” I purposefully moved away from Seth, sliding across the sheets so that my spine was pressed against the headboard of the bed. “Go away. I'm not in the mood for being mocked by you.”

“I'm not mocking you.” Seth rolled his shoulders and yawned. “Actually, I believe in your dreams.”

I frowned at him. “I don't know if that makes me feel better about the nightmare or worse.”

“It doesn't really matter how you feel about it, Pilar. Your dreams are more than dreams,” he said.

“Some dreams are just dreams,” I disagreed.

“Maybe so,” Seth shrugged. “But in my dreams, you can control zombies.”

I stopped, frozen against the headboard of the bed. “What did you just say?”

“You heard me.” Seth stretched out across the mattress, making himself comfortable despite the fact that he wasn't particularly welcome in my bed.

“I can't control zombies,” I said.

“Have you ever tried?” Seth asked. My eyes fell to a wicked looking unhealed scar on his abdomen. I'd never seen the mark before but it looked old. And angry. And raw. Another unhealed wound on his body. A wound that would never heal because Seth was one of the changed. Part human. Part zombie. Wickedly dangerous.

“No. I haven't.” I pulled the blanket across my lap because I was suddenly and inexplicably freezing.

“You don't know whether you can control zombies or not,” Seth said.

“You've really seen me control zombies in your dreams?” I couldn't quite believe what he was telling me.

“I've seen you do a lot of things in my dreams, Pilar.”

“Because you dream about me.”

“I've been dreaming about you since I was a kid,” Seth said. “You already know that.”

“Vera has mentioned it a few dozen times,” I acknowledged. Vera was Seth's younger sister. She made it no secret that she thought I was a waste of valuable oxygen. I was more than slightly intimidated by her.

“Ignore Vera. She's jealous.” Seth pulled a small pocket knife out of his pocket and began playing with the blade. He flicked it in and out of the handle using his thumb and his forefinger. It made a dull clicking sound every time it was retracted.

“She has nothing to be jealous of. She's taller than me, prettier than me and she has much better hair.” I attempted to run my hands through my snarled curls and then stopped. The curls were a lost cause. My hair always looked like pure hell.

“Vera isn't a part of any of the prophecies. She's pretty pissed off that you're-.” Seth stopped mid-sentence.

“That I'm what?” I pressed him.

Seth shook his head, sending too long dark hair into his eyes. He brushed it back casually. “You don't need to worry about the prophecies right now. We can spend the rest of our lives debating the value of them after we rescue your parents from the cannibals in Ra-Shet.”

“Not that rescuing my parents isn't absolutely the most important thing I can think of, but you can't just tell me I'm part of a prophecy and then not tell me the prophecy.”

“What makes you think I even know the prophecy?” Seth countered.

“You're the high priest of the Church of Chaos. There are at least twenty people downstairs who think there is a slim chance that you might actually be a god. If there is a prophesy, my guess is that it's your prophecy.”

Seth snorted. “It was Jeremiah's prophecy. He was the psychic. Not me.”

“But you have psychic dreams?”

Seth stopped playing with the knife. “Fine. You caught me. I have visions sometimes. I suck at interpreting them. I normally lie and claim I don't have them. I hate the whole 'god' thing.”

“What prophecy am I a part of, Seth?” I crossed my arms over my chest and focused what I hoped was a strong, intimidating glare on his good eye. The iris was the palest, coldest blue I'd ever seen. “I want to know.”

“You're a part of all the prophecies, Pilar. It would take me years to explain.” Seth sat back up on the bed, all feigned casualness fading away. He was all tense muscles, tight angles and raw strength now. A deeply intelligent and terribly dangerous boy who I had been forced to rely on against my better judgment.

“All of them?” I repeated with disbelief.

“Pretty much,” Seth confirmed.

I took a deep breath and then exhaled slowly. “And you were going to tell me this?”

“After I save your parents' lives,” Seth said. “I figure you'll be feeling extremely grateful by then.”

We sat and stared at one another in the moonlit darkness. “You want something from me, don't you?”

Seth laughed. “In a matter of speaking. But now isn't the time.”

“Now is the time.” I put a little more distance between us. “You know I don't like secrets, Seth. I definitely don't like being used or taken advantage of. Whatever it is you want from me, spit it out now.”

Seth glanced around the bedroom. “Really not the right time to be worrying about what I want, Pi.”

“Tell me or I won't go with you tomorrow,” I snapped.

“You can't go to the city by yourself. You'd be killed in a matter of hours.” Seth yawned. “Find a better threat.”

“I shouldn't have to threaten you. If you have an ulterior motive for helping me rescue my parents then I deserve to know what I'm dealing with.” I was so furious with him that I was on the verge of tears.

“I'll tell you when the time is right.”

“Like hell you will. I didn't just go through the nightmare that I did with the Scavengers so that I could start blindly trusting you. I've learned a few hard lessons in the last month. Tell me the truth. What do you want from me?”

“Fine.” Seth closed the distance between us. His mouth was only inches from mine. I was going to bite the shit out of him if he tried anything nasty.

“Tell me what you want,” I growled.

“I want you,” Seth spoke each word with almost vicious force.

I jerked backwards as if he had slapped me. “What?”

“I want you.”

“You want me?” I took a deep breath and then swallowed. “Why would you want me?”

“Oh, come on Pilar. You can't be that surprised. I wouldn't have nearly killed myself saving your life if you weren't important.”

“Why am I important?” I had my suspicions but the butterflies in my stomach needed confirmation.

He laughed. “Answer that question for yourself.”

“The prophecies?” I guessed, still stunned.

Seth bared his teeth at me in an expression that didn't even try to pass for a smile. “Smart girl.”

“If I'm so smart, why won't you trust me with the truth?” I asked. “Tell me the prophecies and let me make my own decisions.”

“Saving your parents is your first priority, Pilar.” Seth sounded disgustingly calm. “It's not exactly going to be easy to get into Ra-Shet, rescue your parents from a flesh-broker and get back out with them.”

“And?” I knew the task ahead of us wasn't going to be easy.

“And you're already terrified, emotionally drained and struggling to cope with everything that has happened in your life during the last few weeks.”

“And?” I didn't try to deny what he was saying. I'd been having nightmares ever since my parents had disappeared. “I've been through hell. It's not a secret. That doesn't mean you have the right to withhold information from me. Especially not if the information is about me.”

“I can't afford for you to be distracted by a bunch of bullshit prophecies.” Seth crossed his arms over his own chest. “Focus on saving your parents. The prophecies cause more problems than they solve. We could spend years discussing and debating the value of the prophecies. It wouldn't do us any good.”

“It wouldn't do us any good?” I repeated his words skeptically.

Seth threw his hands up into the air. “They're prophecies, Pilar. Not facts.”

“But you said I could control zombies in your prophecies. Now I've had a dream where I could control zombies. Surely that means something?” I demanded.

“Trusting the prophecies could get you killed, Pilar.” Seth narrowed his eyes at me. “Ra-Shet is dangerous. You need to be thinking on your feet, not trusting in my delusional nightmares.”

It wasn't the strangest thing he'd ever said to me, but it was pretty close. “What if the prophecies could help us save my parents?” I asked.

“Why can't you just trust me?” Seth countered. “I've never lied to you. I've never hurt you. I'm going to risk my life to save your parents. People who I care nothing about. This will be the second time I've put my life on the line for you.”

“It's not that I don't appreciate what you're doing for me, but how can I trust you if I know you're not telling me everything?”

“Have I ever betrayed you?”

“I don't know,” I whispered.