Page 11 of 1001 Dark Nights: Bundle Forty-Seven

It was a bloodbath, plain and simple. It was destruction after destruction, the air filled with red.

“Please,” I begged. “Mom. Dad.” Did I even have parents? That was an unanswered question. Why did my hands feel so warm? And why did I feel my blood in my veins as ifTheywere speaking to me, moving through me? Communicating with me. “Please.” Tears burned my cheeks. “Please, just…help.” I raised my hand to the Heavens. Raised it so high my shoulder burned. My arm refused to come down.

I needed a savior.

And I had none.

People ran around us, and the mountain continued to erupt and billow smoke until I saw red.

So much that I couldn’t fathom it.

Where were my parents? Where was I?

The tears continued to burn my cheeks. They pressed a scar of trauma against my skin that would never go away until I saw her.

I inhaled.

The air was full of smoke. It was messy and burned my throat, but I knew I wasn’t gone yet.

Her eyes were full of joy and happiness, and her soul…somehow, I could see it. I could see the blue through her chest, and I knew.

She was good.

I knew it was good.

And I knew…

I would survive this, for whatever purpose it may be. I had no more fear, no more doubts. I reached out my hand. Even at eight years old and with no memories, I reached for my angel.

And she held on.

So much was going on around me. There was so much fire, so much destruction, so much I couldn’t comprehend. And then I saw him.

He was clothed in wings of white and gold, dripping with black and white blood.

His gold armor glistened, and he ripped his giant helmet from his face and slammed it against the now-crumbled concrete.

A warm hand grabbed mine. She leaned down, and I saw that her eyes were green, and her hair was black. She squeezed harder, then pulled me to her side. “Don’t be afraid, little one.”

“Who are you?” I asked.

“Eva. Or you can call me by the name given to me by the Creator. Eve.” She smiled again. She looked so pretty with her dark cloak—it had a tree clasp made of real gold around the front. And her skin seemed to glow. “We’re going to save you.”

“Who?” I asked, looking around.

She reached for another person. Someone I’d been running after in order to get free. The girl had weird dark hair and light eyes.

Eve pulled her into our embrace. “All of you.”

“You can’t save us from this,” the girl whispered and started crying so hard I was afraid she would choke. “Only we can save ourselves. Only we get a few days. Only we know what happens—”

“Shhhh.” Eve held her close, pressing the pretty girl’s face to her chest. “I save to provide, I save to forgive myself andothers, and we save.” She looked up. “To protect the world.” A tear slid down her cheek. “We save because, what’s the point…in abandonment or surrender in this life or the next?”

All I remember is Eve’s smell and the girl’s. I remember the way the girl stared at me with hope in her eyes.

Hope.

Destiny.

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