Immortal Light: Wide Awake (47 page)

“
Oh, yes; you are the third, Lucy
Higgins. The only difference with you is that the immortals never
knew about the first two. My master is much more of a visionary
than Peter Raven will ever be. It was a coincidence that the little
one found you first.”

He smiled a sadistic grin.

“
That’s where I have the advantage
this time. If you were to resist or for some reason kill yourself,
we would simply kill your friends hiding on their mountain. But
first, I will let my reapers absorb your pretty friend. Every ounce
of her life will be squeezed from her like blood being forced from
the body by a vice.” He paused and sneered at her. “And if all of
that isn’t enough, we’ll finish what we started with your
father.”

Lucy was suddenly more alert. She hadn’t even
thought about her father lying helplessly in his hospital bed. He
was there because of her. He had no future because of Lucy’s
actions and she had to protect him to give him a fighting chance at
life, even if that meant she had to die.

Lucy suddenly heard Kat’s voice from outside.
She was screaming. The door of the room swung open and two reapers
dragged her through as she kicked and demanded they let her go. She
was fighting them and though it was hopeless, it gave Lucy some
courage. In that moment she decided she had to protect the two
people she could: her father and her friend.

She then realized that the sword she held in
secret wait on her back was no longer necessary. She felt sad
knowing that she would never again see her father or Benjamin
again, but she knew it was the right thing to do.

“
I want you to promise me that if
I give up, you will let Kat go. You will give her a car and let her
drive away. Then you will leave her, my father, and all of my
friends alone forever.”

Sukabra burst into laughter. “I really do like
your tenacity.” He looked around the room and laughed toward his
henchmen. “Maybe I should keep you around. Would you like to be my
number one?”

He laughed heartily as Lucy glanced at the
reaper called Simon, who glared at Sukabra and then looked
menacingly at Lucy.

At once, Sukabra’s laughter ceased and he
looked directly at Lucy.

“
I promise, Lucy
Higgins.”

His words came as a shock and Lucy inhaled
quickly through her nose. She wasn’t sure what she had expected,
but it wasn’t that.

“
Okay, then. Let her
go.”

“
Oh, Lucy Higgins, I will let your
friend go as soon as I have what I want.”

Lucy looked at Kat, who was standing with the
reapers holding her in place. It was a moment before Kat realized
what Lucy was doing, and then it hit her.

“
Lucy, no, you can’t do this; Lucy
don’t!” Her voice was pure panic as tears sprang from her eyes.
Breaking free of the reapers she threw herself at Lucy and pled
with her not to give up.

Lucy didn’t say anything and the two reapers
again grabbed Kat.

“
Lucy, don’t! No! No!” she
screamed, fighting the reapers all the way to the door.

Dismissing the remaining reapers from the
room, Sukabra approached Lucy. She looked one last time at Kat.
Finally giving in to the sorrow of death, she felt a solitary warm
tear glide down her cheek.

Kat pulled at the reaper’s arms, but they were
too strong. She flailed her body and screamed for Lucy to fight, to
do whatever she could.

Lucy shut her eyes as she felt Sukabra’s hands
close around the sides of her face and she was standing on the
bright warm beach of Sunset Bay.

Sitting in her fallen tree
there was nothing more to do. There were so many things she
regretted in that moment, but it was the only way to save all of
them. She wondered if she was being naïve, but it
didn
’
t matter. If
there was a spark of hope that Sukabra would follow through on his
promise, she would sacrifice herself to save Kat and the
others.

The effects of the
extraction were beginning to take her down into the abyss of
despair. The winds started to pick up on the beach; her
haven
was changing. It
was being destroyed and all she could do was think about Benjamin,
and how she had failed him.

Looking toward the ocean she saw that it was
churning harshly and the sand was whipping up along the shore.
Those moments were her last few before the pain and torture would
begin, and she looked down the beach one last time.

As the wind swept the sand
into a frenzy, she saw something that made her stand up from her
perch in spite of the drowning sorrow she was feeling. It was a
person walking, no, running toward her. The whirlwinds of sand and
water were too violent to make out an identity. Lucy held her hand
in front of her to look through the tempest when she heard her name
being carried on the wind. It was faint, but the person was yelling
her name. She wanted to respond, but there was no way they could
communicate, so she ran. She recalled seeing Kat in her
haven
and not being able
to reach her. But, the person she was seeing couldn’t have been
Kat. Lucy knew she hadn’t invited Kat at that moment. Kat was being
held by reapers who were undoubtedly keeping her subdued by peeling
off little bits of her
light.
The person she saw had to be someone else. She
wondered if she was seeing what Sukabra was looking for: the new
queen.

At that moment, Lucy decided she had to know
who the queen was, and she pushed her feet harder. But the more she
pushed, the worse her environment became, until the wind pushed her
sideways into the water. She felt the force of the elements trying
to slow her down. It was getting too difficult when suddenly she
felt her body drained of all its energy. Collapsing to the ground
was all she could do. As she rolled to her side, lying in the surf,
she looked up at the figure trying to advance toward her. She still
couldn’t tell who it was or whether it was a man or a woman, and no
matter how she tried or how the figure tried, they were not getting
any closer.

Lucy started to cry as the icy waves splashed
over her, covering her with skin shredding blasts of sand and
debris. There was no more strength left in her body and she sobbed
as her body rose and fell with the white pummelings of the surf. It
was then that she thought only of Benjamin. She thought of how much
she loved him and how much she wished he were there with her as she
died, but he wasn’t and he wouldn’t be.

As she closed her eyes, a final salty blast
overtook her. She coughed violently as she felt the sting of water
being inhaled through her nose. Having no choice but to give in to
the extraction, she felt something grab her. It was pulling her
onto the beach. Then she heard her name much closer. It was right
in her face and she didn’t dare open her eyes, as she didn’t want
the source of the voice to disappear.

“
Lucy! Lucy, don’t give in. You
can beat this, Lucy!”

The voice was Benjamin and he was there. Lucy
opened her eyes and he was real. His wonderful face was there
getting beaten by the wind and sand. He was pleading with her, a
look of utter distress in his eyes.

“
I have to,” she sobbed. “It’s the
only way to keep you and Kat safe. He said he’d let her
go.”

She cried still, and Benjamin grabbed her by
her shoulders and pulled her up to a sitting position.

“
You can beat him, Lucy; you can
do it.”

“
No, I can’t.”

“
Yes, you can, I’ll help you. I’m
here with you, but you have to decide to fight him or I can do
nothing.”

“
No, Benjamin. He’ll kill you, all
of you.”

“
Not if you fight him. You have
more power than you think.”

Lucy felt nothing but hopelessness. She didn’t
understand why Benjamin wanted her to fight so hard, and then it
hit her. She was dying so he could live, but he wanted her to live
so she could light his way home. Hopelessness turned to
anger.

She looked him in the eyes, mustering all the
strength she had left just to speak. “Why do you want me to live,
Benjamin?”

He looked perfectly confused by the question.
“I want you to live because I need you, Lucy.”

“
You need me for what?”

Benjamin shook his head in confusion. “I don’t
understand, Lucy. You need to fight this or you will
die.”

“
You don’t want me to die because
I’m supposed to destroy all evil and make it easier for your queen
to come back; that’s why you don’t want me to die!”

“
No, Lucy,” he answered
immediately. “That’s not true. I love you. I want you to live
because I love you more than anything. I’ve loved you since the
first time we touched. I felt a bond with you that defied anything
I’ve ever felt in my lifetime. I want you to live because I’m madly
in love with you and losing you would kill me from the inside
out.”

Lucy looked stunned for a
moment. From nowhere, all of the hopelessness of the extraction
began to change. She suddenly wanted to live. She wanted to fight
and she felt
light
from somewhere begin to seep back into her.

The two of them looked around as the wind
began to die and the ocean calmed. Lucy felt the strength to stand
so she did. Benjamin helped her up.

As the last violent whips of sand and wind
blew past, Lucy remembered the person she had seen, the person she
was fairly certain was the queen. When she looked again, the person
was gone; Lucy had missed her chance to see who she was.

She looked at Benjamin then pulled herself
into him; his familiar scent filled her with courage and hope and
she knew she could defeat Sukabra.

Benjamin’s voice came suddenly. “You have to
fight him now; he will overcome this.”

“
How, how do I fight
him?”

“
You could fight
him with your
light
and bring him here, but that would only slow him down, he
will overcome it and kill you.” It was as though he were talking to
himself, trying to come up with a solution. He stopped talking and
looked to the ocean as if pondering something
profound.

“
What do I do, Benjamin? Help
me.”

Benjamin looked her in the
eyes. “You have to bridge the real world with your
haven
and kill him out
there.”

She didn’t understand. “What do you
mean?”

“
You’ve done it
before, I helped you do it. The dance; when we were in our
havens
, everyone saw us
dancing because I bridged the two worlds. Our actions were the same
in and out of the
havens
. I’m going to show you how to
do that now.”

“
Okay, do it; tell me
how.”

“
Usually we make
reality mimic the
haven
, but we have to make the
haven
mimic reality the best we can
this time. What are you doing out there; are you sitting,
standing?”

“
I’m sitting on a bed with my back
to the wall.”

“
Okay, sit down exactly how you
remember sitting out there.”

Lucy sat down and crossed her legs. “Okay,”
she signaled him to continue.

“
You took my practice sword; is it
anywhere near you at all that you can reach from a sitting
position?”

Lucy looked up at him. “How do you know I have
the practice sword?”

“
Lucy, we don’t have time! Is it
near you?”

She was surprised that he had already found it
missing in only a few short hours.

“
Yes, it’s on my back, in my
bag.”

It was Benjamin’s turn to look intrigued. “How
did he not see it?”

“
Benjamin, we don’t have time!
What do I do?”

“
You need to simulate its position
with your sword in here, can you do that?”

Lucy thought about it for a moment and pulled
her sword from its scabbard. “We have to fold it in half,” she
said, handing it to Benjamin.

He nodded approvingly, having figured out how
she got the practice sword past Sukabra’s reapers. “How is it
sitting in your bag?”

Lucy knew precisely where it sat as she could
almost feel the sword’s guard still sticking in her back. She told
him about the hole she had ripped and showed him where to put the
sword. Bending down he held it in position.

“
Okay, now I
want you to—
”

Without warning Lucy screamed and grabbed her
head falling to her side. Searing pain shot through her and
travelled down her spine. It was more painful than anything she
could ever imagine and she writhed in the sand.

Benjamin dropped to his
knees beside her. The winds began to pick up again. “You have to
fight it Lucy. Focus your
light
, don’t let him take
it.”