Page 32 of Bond & Protect

Is The Rift closing? The light is shimmering a little less brightly now. That gives me strength. Not much, but enough. My legs aren’t trembling as badly as they were before, which is something. I jut my chin out a little, wondering what I can do to close The Rift as well. I don’t know what’s happening, though, I don’t know if Mila is somehow doing this. If only I could communicate telepathically with her as well. That would make life so much easier.

‘Mila is making it easier for us,’ Sydney suddenly explodes, his voice bursting into my brain like a firework. ‘We need to use this time to destroy this fucking thing. We have to kill it now!’

A low hum of chatter comes from Elias and Amos as well. I can’t hear exactly what they’re saying, but we’re connecting back together somehow despite all the monsters on the other side of The Rift threatening to destroy us from the inside out. That’s special. That means we must have something special between us. Who would have ever thought it? That it would be this special.

Walking is still challenging, but somehow I just about manage it. Just as the guys do as well. I don’t know if the monster even knows what’s happening, it seems distracted somehow. Is this because of Mila? Is she somehow distracting him? Shit, she really is the best person I have ever met in my life. It means we need to do the same thing. We need to keep fighting. I put my head down and keep on battling against the winds coming our way. But it’s definitely a little easier now. I don’t feel like myself anymore. I haven’t reclaimed all of Liam, but there’s enough of me there to keep on going. To keep on destroying this beast. We owe Mila that much.

We really might be able to get him back through The Rift, to put an end to this. That’s exciting, especially because moments ago, I was almost ready to give up. I was ready to slide down and to just become a part of the dirt. I hate the way I was ready to lose my shit totally.

What is that? A new voice comes from… well, I don’t know where really, which terrifies me. We don’t want someone to charge at us, putting themselves at risk. I knew being so close to the town with Faraway Lane, but if this is where The Rift is, then what can we do?

‘Someone needs to scare that person away!’ I scream out as loud as I can, trying my hardest to get through to someone, anyone. ‘We can’t have any more humans here.’

But it seems like no one can hear me. No one is listening. Either we’ve lost the connection that we’ve had, or something else is distracting the guys. Shit, that means it’s all on me…

I put my head down once more, and I continue to charge forwards. I keep going, refusing to back down, until I smack full pelt into the monster. I shove it backward, but nowhere near as much as I wanted to. I wanted to shove it back in The Rift all on my own, but I haven’t. I need to gather myself back up again, to slam into it again.

The second time I charge, I have even less strength. I do even less damage. I have to really try to control myself, so I don’t let the panic set in. But that isn’t easy when I hear that human voice again. It’s getting stronger, and more powerful. It’s knocking me backward completely. Shit, now we have even more to fight for. We have to stop this. We can’t allow this to carry on.

So I charge again, but unexpectedly the monster puffs up and knocks me flying. It’s almost as if someone has filled this beast with air and now, nothing will stop it…

Blinking, I turn back around to check to see if the other guys are fighting because it seems like I can’t do this on my own, no matter how hard I try. Unity… I really do need this unity. All of us, including Mila actually. Whatever she’s doing is really helpful. We need that.

But I don’t see anyone I recognize. The woman now standing in between me and the monster is unfamiliar to me. I don’t even think I have ever seen her before, even in town. But she’s the human, the person who’s stumbled across this by accident and is about to get hurt. I try to howl so she knows that I’m warning her, but she ignores my whimper. She focuses on the monster and chants. She says words that I don’t think any of us recognize, aside from the monster.

“Tu huc non pertinent. Priusquam te misimus, id est quod iterum faciemus..”

The monster retreats a little. It clearly doesn’t like her words. I stand up a little straighter, intrigued. Who is this woman and what does she know about this beast?

“Numquam tibi grata fuit. Rift ubi es tu. Derelinquamus! Noli redire semper.”

I don’t know what is in the woman’s hand, but she shoves what looks like a blade forward hard. The monster lets out a strange, squealing sound so deep and guttural I wish I could block my ears. I worry my eardrums are about to burst. Fuck, what the hell is happening?

I try my best to keep my eyes fixed forward so I can see what’s happening because I need to know, I need to see this shit with my very own eyes or I won’t be able to believe it. Everything about this day has been absolutely insane. I can’t quite wrap my head around it. Without my eyes fixed on what’s happening right in front of me, I fear it will all fade away…

The blade drives into the monster. It happens so fast it’s almost within the blink of an eye, but it’s also so slow I can hardly stand it. The monster howls as it seems to erupt. That’s the only way to explain it. It’s like a bomb has gone off inside of it. Gooey insides rush everywhere, flood over everyone, and feel really odd against our skin. The woman keeps muttering the same words that she said before, over and over again as The Rift begins to seal as well.

What the hell is happening? Who is this woman?

“You do not belong here…” All of a sudden, her words become understandable. “We sent you away once before, and we will do so again. You are not welcome here. You belong on the other side of The Rift. Leave, now, and never come back.”

Whoa. A rush of emotions hits me like a tsunami. All of me returns to my body. Whatever that woman did to kill the monster allowed me to come back as well. Thank goodness, I missed myself. I missed everything that I am, and everything that I can be.

I sink downwards with relief, slowly shifting back to my human form as I hold my chest. My heart is racing, struggling to come to terms with what’s going on here. That was a nightmare, even if not a lot happened outwardly. Internally I am scrambled. I thought the monster feasted on flesh, but it seems like it feasted on me.

Eventually, I manage to catch my breath enough to push myself up into a sitting position. I’m so relieved that everything is still as it was. The Rift really has vanished, and the monster is gone too. The goo all over the floor is the only evidence that it was ever here, although even that is starting to dissipate now. I don’t think I’m the only one shocked by that.

“What is going on?” Elias mutters. “I don’t feel… right.”

“I feel sick,” Amos agrees. “Like everything has rushed back into me way too quickly.”

“Same,” Sydney agrees. “The monster did something to me then. Something weird.”

Oh God, are we ever going to recover from this? I hate it. I don’t want to be affected for the rest of my life just because of that one monster…

“Mom!” But Mila distracts all of us as she bursts to her feet and she races towards the strange woman who came and seemingly saved us out of nowhere. “Mom, what happened?”

Mom? What does she mean? This is her mother? What is going on? What the hell is she doing here? How did her mother end up in the middle of the fight with that magic blade? That doesn’t make any sense to me at all. Mila hasn’t ever really mentioned her family since she’s been here. Not much, anyway. So to have this surprise is utterly shocking.

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