V. Coyote and Jaguar

When Sky woke, it was storming outside. June was sleeping soundly under the blankets. Sky went to the window and opened it. He looked out at the land. Today wouldn't be a good day to investigate. He would have to wait until the storm blew over. Sky thought about his recent dreams. He had been avoiding contacting Kathy. Sky sat down and turned on his laptop. He opened up the text editor. Sky sighed. He wasn't sure what he should say to her. He wasn't certain his dreams had anything to do with the past. As much as he wanted to ignore the possibility of those dreams having bits of real memories from other lives, Sky couldn't deny what he could do to the storm outside. The more he thought on that, the more he realized he could go out investigating today. He simply needed to end the storm himself. But he didn't want to. Sky knew he needed to write to Kathy. As June slept, Sky wrote out everything he could remember from his dreams; every name, every event, and all those things that didn't seem to belong to any reality, magic abilities and all. He did his best to remember the names he heard in his sleep. When June woke up, he made them breakfast. After eating, he went back to writing. The letter to Kathy took a long time to type out. He rewrote several parts again and again. When he was satisfied with what he wrote, he opened up some of the family documents to take screenshots of specific parts. Sky added the text file and the screenshots to a folder named "For Kathy Beaumont". Sky opened up another blank text file and started on a second letter. This one was addressed to Alex. His face went deep red as he wrote. He knew June couldn't read, but he kept checking that she wasn't looking at his screen while he typed. The contents of this letter was very different from Kathy's. Sky did his best to explain his current situation with May and June along with a plea for help and requesting absolute privacy on the matter. Sky felt stupid writing it. He put that file in a folder labeled as being for Alex and Eric with the title of the file being "For Alex Linwood Only - Private.txt". Even naming the file embarrassed him. To this folder, he added a general letter to the both of them about what he had been doing along with several photos of himself and places nearby. Sky saved this to one USB and what little new information he had gathered in the last few weeks to a separate one. He wrote with a sharpie on the top of the one for Alex, Eric, and Kathy "For Dr. Alexis Linwood". He hoped the overly formal way of addressing Alex would mean others wouldn't be looking at the files and that is was research material that needed to be gotten to him immediately, rather than the personal information it actually was. Sky had never been so cautious about labeling things before. He always trusted May wouldn't mix up the USBs he gave her before. Sky double-checked everything he written and labeled before putting them away. "You were writing a lot today, but you haven't gone anywhere the last few days." June noted. She rested against him. Sky jumped a little at the sudden contact. "It wasn't really about the investigation. I was writing to my parents." "What about?" June asked. Sky clicked on a random file and pretended to be looking at it. "Just what I've been doing lately. I'm sending them some of the photos we took too." "Really?" June asked. "What kind of photos?" "The ones of the flowers and things like that. Not the ones near the lab." Sky scrolled aimlessly through the document. "What are you doing now?" "Reviewing some data." Sky lied. "There's some things I wanted to go over again. There's so much information, I end up forgetting about some things." June frowned. "Oh. So, are you going to be busy all day doing that?" "I don't know. I might be busy for a while." June moved away. "Guess I'll go find something to do..." Sky watched her gather up a few items from around the room. She opened the door and went down the ladder. Sky peeked down at her. He asked, "Where are you going?" "To wash things. Might as well since it's raining." She said. "Okay. Be careful." Sky said. He waved. Once she was out of view from the door, Sky went to the window to watch her. She stopped not far from the tree. Sky sat back down with his laptop. He sighed. He didn't know what to do about June. All the reasons he gave himself for why he was still dating her weren't convincing him. There was desire, but that was hardly a reason. He was lonely. Seeing May reminded him there were plenty of other people nearby, many of them with ideals more aligned with his own. He wanted to get June somewhere safe. But what would she really do if he convinced her to go to the Sanctuary and then immediately broke up with her? He would have to keep up the charade longer and she might leave anyway once he broke it off. She already didn't trust people. Whenever they kissed, he was only comfortable about half the time. He was forcing himself at times, and at others, his body wanted it, but he realized now, not with her. Sky wasn't sure if he could have sex with anyone yet, but he felt like he could be a lot more explorative with May than June. Maybe neither of them were right for him, but June definitely wasn't. 'How do I end a relationship?' Sky looked back over at the window. He watched it. 'Why did I say yes? What am I doing?' Sky opened a folder on his computer. He clicked through the photos in it. Sky stopped on one of Alex at his desk. He looked lost in thought. Eric, he thought, must've taken the photo without Alex knowing. "I wish you were here." Looking at the photos they sent him and the ones he sent back, Sky realized he didn't have any photos of them together. He wanted to see himself smiling beside them. Maybe, if he made it back, he would have Alex and Eric adopt him officially. Maybe "Linwood" would be fine. He didn't need to hold onto the name "Summerfield" to expose and destroy Moone & Wolfe. Eric and Alex were already making an effort to hide his identify from other people. Why should he say he's the son of Tom Summerfield? His mother didn't want that name when she was of sound mind. She was Pamela Archer then. She may have wanted to be Pam Beaumont. That man made her Pixie Summerfield. If Crystal were alive, Sky knew she would have abandoned the name, either by marriage or giving herself an entirely new name. No one who loved him would care if he became Sky Linwood. Sky looked out the window again to see what June was doing. After he finished exploring the lab, he told himself, he'd leave this place and say goodbye. He wasn't sure how he'd end things, or if she would even care, but he'd sort that out then. If nothing changed in that time period, then he'd have to accept she wasn't someone he could help. He hoped he'd be wrong about that and he'd find some solution to make everything work out alright, but he doubted that would happen. Standing in the field down below, June reminded him of wind. She seemed to already be vanishing. 'Are you already halfway to becoming a ghost?' Sky wondered. He found morbid humor in the thought. In a way, he was halfway to being a ghost himself. June was staring out at something. Sky looked over in the direction she was facing. A car was traveling through in the distance. The sky turned red behind the vehicle. Sky's eyes widened. He shouted down to her. "June! Get back up here now!" June looked up at him, then ran for the tree. She quickly scaled the wooden ladder along the trunk and closed the door. Sky locked it, then pulled the shutters of the window almost completely closed. He left enough open to be able to see out some. "What's going on?" June asked. Sky felt over his coat pocket to check he had his gun on him. "It's Moone & Wolfe. They're transporting their fake Delilah through here." "What's Delilah?" June asked. Sky, baffled by her question, immediately turned around in confusion. "What do you mean? You don't know who Delilah is?" She shook her head. "How have you been out here all this time, but you've never encountered any of their propaganda?" June shrugged. "Dunno. I never go near those people. How would I know anything about them?" Sky sighed. "Anyway, Delilah is someone the people at Moone & Wolfe worship as their goddess. They claim she is reborn in new human bodies every so often and has special powers. Right now, this fake one can manipulate the weather and bodies." "If she can really do magic, how do you know she's fake? That sounds like she's real." June said. "Moone & Wolfe have created a lot of people who can do things that seem like magic through experiments they've done. She's not really special among them." Sky added, "Besides, I know where the real Delilah is. Delilah isn't that woman they're transporting. They just claim she is." "You know where a real goddess is?!" June's mouth hung open. "Shh! Last time I saw them transport her somewhere, there were a lot of infected animals around her. Don't get too loud. If you hear anything weird, we need to lock the window immediately." Sky said. "Okay, okay...so...where's this goddess at?" June asked in a quieter voice. "The real Delilah's still not a goddess, but that person can do special things too. I can't tell you right now where Delilah is. Not while we're out here. If they found out we have the real Delilah, they'd start attacking us more to get to Delilah." Sky said. Rain poured down heavily outside, deep red as it always was when Heather brought it. Sky saw a group of infected animals gathering behind the vehicle. He wondered why they flocked to her. Could she summon them or were they drawn to her for some other reason? "I don't understand. If they can make magic, it sounds like they have gods and goddesses to me." June whispered. "Humans can't make real gods." Sky concentrated on the weather. He shifted the movement of the storm slightly, diluting the red with clear rain. The transport vehicle abruptly turned toward their direction. Sky's eyes widened. He stopped and lowered himself toward the floor. Sky locked the window shut and checked the door in the floor was locked. "What is it?" June asked. Sky put his finger to his mouth and shook his head. He listened closely to the sounds outside. The car was getting closer. Sky's heart pounded in his head. 'Please, please keep going. Please don't stop.' Shrieks echoed beneath them. The infected animals howled and hobbled along with their broken bodies. The vehicle stopped directly under them. He heard a door open and close, then the creaking as someone scaled the wooden ladder nailed to the tree. Three knocks at the door. June looked at Sky. He shook his head again. "Why don't you come down here? We only want to talk." A man said. Sky didn't recognize who it was. He assumed it was someone in Heather's group. Sky didn't answer. "Open up." The man said in an angry voice. "This is your last warning." Sky said nothing. The man emptied his gun into the wooden door. June cowered against Sky, making herself as small as she could. Strange, long fingers stretched through the holes. The fingers pulled at the wood. The damaged wood bent and broke until all the holes collapsed into one and the door fell through. A long snout rose up through the space where the door once was, then the rest of the head. Neck thin, head heavy, it bobbed back and forth before resting on the floor. The creature attempted to pull the rest of its body through, but one of the jagged edges of the wood punctured through the bloated skin. Blood emptied out of it. The body, dead, fell back through to the ground. Moments later, a man rose through that same space. "Children? Are you really?" The man asked, pointing a gun at them. Sky recognized the voice as the same one from earlier. He presumed the man had reloaded his gun. Sky reached for his own. "What else would we be?" "Something tricky." The man grinned. He laughed. "Let's see what you really are." Sky's hand shook. He was too scared to fire. Instinctively, he defended himself in another way. Lightning rained down around him. Several bolts struck the man. His charred body fell through the hole like the creature. Gathering his courage, Sky crawled over to the hole to see if anyone down there was alive. Blood from infected animals and people soaked the ground. Their brittle bones lay exposed through the holes in their empty skin. Four humans were scattered amongst the other dead bodies, burnt and motionless. One figure remained standing. Heather, dressed as Delilah, was unaffected by Sky's attack. She looked up at him and smiled. "So, you're the one who keeps playing with the rain." She laughed with a child-like voice. "Are you that king?" "What king?" Sky asked her back. "The Bloody Raven. The only true king remaining." Heather lifted the four human bodies in the air with her powers. The bodies exploded into red mush. Faintly, Sky saw something else destroyed, but it was gone too quickly for him to understand what he saw. June cowered behind Sky, crying. "I am not him." Sky answered. "You sound exactly like him. Your voice is identical. It's that same shade of rain." Heather's voice changed to a deep, masculine tone. She laughed again, this one much more sinister in sound. "I see. You're that little lion." "Who are you?" Sky asked. "You're not AA93, Delilah, or Heather. Are you another persona they've programmed in?" Heather's eyes glowed red. As they did, the sky, the ground, and the air all filled with a deep, red haze. Heather walked over to the ladder. She didn't climb it. Her body rose in the air. The inside of the tree house became red like everything else. June got up and attempted to open the window. Sky assumed she must've been trying to jump from there. "Don't! It's too high!" Sky called out to her. A black shadow appeared around June. It enveloped her and lifted her into the air. She fell into a deep sleep. Sky turned back toward Heather. The dark shadow came from beneath her feet, but she had another shadow behind her. Projected on the wall, a giant wolf smiled down at him. 'This...this can't be something the company is capable of...' Sky thought. He trembled with fear. "W-who are you?" Red-eyed Heather and the wolf shadow moved in unison, bowing to Sky. "Allow me to introduce myself again, as you seem to have forgotten me, little lion. My associates call me Mr. Lou. I am a harvester of souls and spreader of seeds, our seeds. We are me, I am we. We exist here to keep ourselves eternal, though we are not alive as you deem fit to determine it. You've given us many names. Werewolf. Disease. Virus. Red Madness." "You...you're saying you...are the virus? How could that be? A virus can't have consciousness." Sky couldn't move from where he stood. He was too frightened any sudden move and he would be devoured whole. The wolf shadow walked along the walls to the one behind Sky. It separated itself from the wall, amassing itself into a thick, black, squirming sludge. As it drew closer to him, he could see what the mass was made of. Thousands and thousands of tiny, black worms writhed together as one. "Oh, but I have been here on this earth thinking for a long, long time. Since the first lives existed on Earth, I was formed not long after. It didn't take me long to find a way to make more of us like other lifeforms, much as you deny us our dignity of living because I do it so differently from you." The black, wolf shaped mass slunk over to Heather's body. "I've replicated myself many, many times over millennia. And with each replication, I grow stronger, we grow stronger. We all share the same thoughts, the same desires...to be more. To amass more and spread out to every corner of the Earth." "Do you control the Moon?" Sky asked. "The Moon controls the Wolf, but that silly company's name can never grant them the sort of power that king wields. No one controls me. We are no wolf. I am a maker of deals and a skilled puppeteer. I can use bodies as I see fit, to collect me the souls I desire." The being said. "Souls? What do you want with the souls?" Heather grinned from ear to ear. Her smile seemed almost painfully wide, as were her red eyes. The wolf creature spoke through her body. "They are delicious. The souls I make deals with are forever under my control to help me spread myself around, but the ones they infect...I eat them, their very essence. I've learned how to eat them quickly before those who guide souls arrive. My thoughts and desires grow more expansive with each one I eat." "What do you mean you eat a soul? What happens to the soul after that?" Sky asked. The creature separated again from Heather, returning to a wolf-like form standing on its hind legs. The being's front paws changed to human hands with long claws and ripped open its abdomen to reveal a small black hole. "They go in there. In what you would call my stomach. I've made a deal with this one here. When the time comes, her soul will be mine to control in death and then I'll devour all those others at that silly company who are left by then. That was, after all, part of our arrangement, my arrangement with that man. I've lent her my powers. For she is now me, and we are she. But I will eat her as well, when it's over. She has an unusually tasty soul." Sky tried to hide his fear in front of the creature, but he could not. His body betrayed him, his hands shaking violently. He continued on with his questioning. If he lived through this, he might have something useful to tell Alex and Kathy. "The worms...they couldn't have been with you from the beginning. What are they?" "Oh, my dear friends. No, we met much later. We have a lovely arrangement. We want the soul, they want the flesh. They freely let us use their bodies to help us replicate ourselves in exchange for the bodies of others to feed on. Since we've joined together, we have spread out so much farther than I could when we were alone. You do not know their name, because you have not named them yet." The being shifted form to a thin, tall young man. The man's clothes looked old, but Sky couldn't place the era. They seemed to come from many time periods and none at once. The man had pale skin, devoid of color like a corpse. The being's hair was long and wavy, a brown-black shade that matched the colors of the clothes he wore. A ragged top hat sat on his head. The man's eyes were obscured by shadow. He grinned widely. "Enough about me. What about you, little lion? Would you like to make a deal with me? I know you hate these people. I could give you the power to destroy all of them. In exchange for your soul, of course. But fear not, I don't want your eternity. I wish to eat your soul." "Why am I different?" Sky asked. "Because you've been running. There have been many, many souls who returned to life, but they all went through Death's orderly rules of reincarnation. You ran through the river of starlight on to a new life, not once but twice. They wish to cut you down for disturbing the order. When you don't follow the order, the soul causes strange effects on the body and the world around it. You are dead, little lion. You are a ghost inhabiting a living shell." The man walked closer to Sky. He let Heather's body fall to the floor like a discarded doll. "Such a soul is bound to taste delicious. I ache with desire to eat you." "If I made a deal with you, I'll cease to exist once I got what I wanted." "Yes." The tall man caressed Sky's face. "But does it matter? You hate them so much. Isn't your soul worth ending them? I have no loyalty to those silly humans. If you offered yourself to me, I could fulfill every revenge you've ever fantasized about. Don't you want to give everyone a happy tomorrow? I'll give you my power. Let me eat you." Sky's skin crawled at the being's touch. The hand was wet and cold. The place on his cheek where that being touched him was sticky from a strange, clear slime left behind. He thought over what the being said. If he gave away his existence, but it ended everything his family started, could he be satisfied with that? Everyone would still have to rebuild. He wouldn't have spread the truth. He wouldn't have done it by his own hands, and it would take his own existence to do it. But they would be gone. Alex would hate him for it. He could see Alex crying in his mind. Sky didn't know if he could trust this being either. He doubted he could. If the being was willing to so easily betray the last person a deal was arranged with, why should he assume he wouldn't be betrayed before achieving his goal too? Sky dropped down to the floor and grabbed his camera out of his backpack. He snapped several pictures of the being. The man laughed. "What are you doing, child?" "I need to get pictures of you to show everyone else." Sky looked over at June. "Let her go. She isn't involved in any of this." "Involved? I don't care what my food is involved in." The strange being said. He grinned. "Oh, perhaps you'll make a deal to spare her life instead? What do you say? Is your soul worth saving this girl in this moment? Or will you watch as I consume her?" Sky's heart rang in his ears. "I have too much I need to do and too much I need to know. I can't die yet. Is there...anything else I can give you in exchange for her life?" "You're hardly in any position to make a deal." The being laughed at Sky. "The Bloody Raven, that's Wren Blackwell's older brother...have you met him before?" Sky asked, stalling, but also curious to see what he could get the being to admit. That man lived centuries ago. He was terrified at the being and Heather both speaking of the man as if they were certain he was somehow still alive. "You said I sound like him." "We have met him many times, but he has not always known I was there. I've kept myself hidden in his presence when I needed to. I saw what he can do...I saw him destroy a soul without a scythe and without the stomach that I possess to process one. He did it with his will and rage, so powerful and mighty. With enough centuries, he will be a god we could worship." The man put his hands together and close to his chest, as if the being was praying. "He will become a god beyond this world one day, far beyond the reach of earth and the moon. Ah, but such beauty...how I wish to eat him before he can transform in such a way. Ah, if you could give me that king and let me devour him, I would give you the world itself to reign over. With his voice, his power, you could become a god too." "His power?" "The rain...the gift from that celestial spirit who rose to power from outrunning all who hunted him. Through his blood, other wonderful gifts from the moon and stars and night fall down into the hands of mortal and immortal alike. In the mists of red and grey, a being born who could rise to the ranks of the most primordial ones if he consumes and completes himself...and you who have inherited his voice and the mark of the blood in the rain, what gift hides within you yet to be discovered? Ah, but I do so wish to eat you, much as I wish to uncover your secrets. Do we eat you now or wait? Or do I bow to you and eat him? So much desire fills me, consumes us..." The tall man shifted his form slightly, his human head changing to that of a black wolf, still wearing the top hat. The beast-man smiled, showing off his sharp teeth. Black worms wriggled in between them, crawling out of the tongue and the gums. "Primordial...what does that mean?" The being, Mr. Lou, wrapped his arms around himself, stretching them out to go around the body twice. The fingers elongated into blade-like claws that reached down to the floor. "I think I will have to eat you both. Ah, much as worshipping destructive gods intrigues me, I cannot let such feasts exist for so long before me. My love, my devotion shall be to Decay, not Death. For Death chases me the way he chases you. He cannot kill me though. He does not view me as a living being either and Death may only take the once living. Only Decay comes to us and takes as more spreads. But you are Death's. You've been running from him for some time. Let me end your suffering here. Come to me, let me grant you a wish. Then, come into me until all of you is gone." "You don't make this sound like a good deal for me." Sky took more pictures of the being. He hoped even if he was killed, someone might find the camera. It was unlikely, but in that moment, he needed to hope for something. He watched the being unwrap its arms from itself slowly. Mr. Lou unfurled his long blade-like claws and wrapped them around Sky's body. "Mr. Lou, I believe we made a deal. You are not to harm any Summerfield or Blackwell unless I give you the order." A voice spoke over a radio. The sound seemed to be coming from Heather's body, Sky thought. He didn't recognize the voice. Sky spoke to the stranger. "Who are you?" "I am the Advisor." The voice answered. "The Advisor?" Sky didn't recognize that title off-hand. He would need to dig through the records again to look for it, if he managed to get out of this. "You're a relative of mine, aren't you?" "Yes." The voice answered. "Must you interrupt my feasting, human?" Mr. Lou complained. "We had a deal, Mr. Lou. I expect you to make good on your end of the bargain. I heard everything you said about betraying us. Have you forgotten I have a deal with one far more powerful than you?" The Advisor said. The wolf-man creature sighed. "How could anyone forget?" "Leave the boy be, and the girl as well. I don't know who she is yet." The Advisor ordered the being. He then spoke to Sky. "Boy, I know you must be one of us. What is your name?" "Why should I tell you?" Sky asked. "You have no power to fight me right now. I will let you go. I am only asking your name, your full name." The Advisor said. Sky looked over at June. "You'll really let us go?" "Yes." The Advisor reassured him. "My name is Sky Rain Summerfield." Sky answered. "So, you are alive. How is your father?" The Advisor asked. Sky spoke coldly. "Dead." "Wonderful." Sky was surprised by the Advisor's response. "Who are you?" "You don't need to know that right now. Rest assured, I won't let Edith take you." The Advisor said. "I thought you wanted me as the Doctor or whatever." Sky said. The Advisor gave him another surprising answer. "They do. I do not. I may have to kill you one day. If I fail in my ambitions, then I will make you the Doctor. I'd rather neither come to pass. For now, stay alive and quiet. I am curious though. Why do you sound like that king?" "How should I know?" Sky asked his own question. "How do you know what some king from centuries ago sounds like?" "We've met quite a few times. He is not fond of me." The Advisor said. "He finds me disappointing." Sky felt a chill down his spine. "How could someone be alive that long?" "You're questioning that when Mr. Lou stands in front of you? Haha. You're funny. I see your father didn't tell you about a lot of things then, if something as trivial as that surprises you." The Advisor laughed. "But that's good to know you haven't encountered him. I'd rather not have to deal with him again right now." "I have one more question. For you." Sky looked over at Mr. Lou. "You referred to me as that 'little lion'. You're talking about Leon Blackwell. Did you meet Leon before?" "Yes, you and I have met before, when you were that little lion. I had managed to get one of my underlings to slip inside and curse your older brother's beloved. So close was I to devouring his soul. That would have been especially delicious, to devour a soul in front of the soul's other half. The agony it would have caused him...I planned on eating your brother right after, to complete the dish. But that king got in my way, brought that little bird to the Prince of the Forests and had my essence expelled from him. You saw me then. But it seems you don't remember." Mr. Lou told Sky. Sky tried to understand, but he had no idea what the being was talking about. He didn't know who "Prince of the Forests" could refer to or what this incident was. They had so few records, if he lived through this, he doubted he could find one about this. Something that fantastical sounded like exactly the kind of record the Moon would keep under lock and key. "I have another question." The Advisor interrupted. "It sounds like you aware of this past life. Mr. Lou has told me about some beings doing what he's described you doing, but they typically don't remember and they don't usually do it more than once. Tell me, do you know the name of who you were in the other life you lived through?" Sky considered if he should answer truthfully or not. He had a feeling if he answered honestly, he wouldn't be let go. "I don't. I only remember some of Leon's life." "Mr. Lou, you could tell he was the same being and that he'd come back twice. Can you tell me what his name was in that second life?" The Advisor asked the being. The wolf-man answered. "Yes, of course I can tell you the name. It is easy for me to see such things about the past when I look at the soul closely." 'Shit.' Sky tensed up. "What was the name?" The Advisor asked. "I have no reason to tell you. My deal with you is to protect those you have outlined for me to not touch. If you want that information, you can make a new deal with me, of course." The wolf-man laughed in a deep, guttural tone. "Never mind. I'll sort that out later. I doubt it matters who. Sky, I'll let you go for today. Do not die yet. If you absolutely need assistance, come to us. Say your name is Leon Lowell, and that you need to see the Advisor. I will assist you." "You said earlier you might kill me." Sky said. "If I don't have a choice in the matter, I might. It's not personal. There's someone else's life I need to protect. I am willing to sacrifice all other lives to undo what has been done. But if we can be allies, I will help you." The Advisor said. "Who is it you're trying to save?" Sky asked. "As of right now, you don't need to know that." The Advisor said. "We've talked long enough. Mr. Lou, bring AA93 home. You may eat anyone else along the way, but leave the boy and his friend alone for today." "Very well." The being shifted back into a black mass and picked up Heather, taking her out of the tree house. A few minutes later, a car started. Sky watched Heather drive away. It took him a few minutes to check on June. He was so stunned by everything he saw, he wasn't able to think straight. His heart was beating so fast his chest hurt. Once he had calmed himself enough to stand up, he went over to check on her. She was fast asleep, seemingly unharmed by the creature. Sky packed up his things, then woke June. "We need to move, now. This place isn't safe anymore, for a lot of reasons." Sky said. "But I like this house." June seemed unfazed and far too calm. June's calmness alarmed Sky. He tried to convince her. "I know, but at least for right now, we're going to need to find somewhere else to be." Sky was eventually able to get her to leave the tree house by promising they would move back in after a while. He asked her what she remembered before she went to sleep. June was uninterested in talking about it, and told him he was being paranoid about leaving. "It's a good house. It's a waste to leave it. What if someone else claims it while we're gone?" "We'll come back. If someone's claimed it, I'm sure we can convince them to give it back to us." Sky said, having no interest in doing anything of the sort. The first night, they stayed in an old, abandoned house. Sky locked and boarded up everything he could. They slept in the attic of the house. June was unbothered. She slept peacefully through the night. Sky struggled to close his eyes. Every sound outside made him flinch. Desperate to sleep, he doubled his dose of medication that night. He knew he shouldn't do that without contacting a doctor, but he was desperate for any relief. Taking the extra medication did make him drowsy. As he started to finally fall asleep, he wished someone was there to protect him that night. Eric, Alex, and Kathy were too far to walk to, and it was too late. Half asleep, he got out the small radio he always carried on him and plugged in some headphones. Sky curled up beside June, seeking any sort of comfort, and closed his eyes. Kathy's voice and piano surrounded him. He could tell this was a recording of an older performance. It didn't matter. He could hear her. She was out there somewhere. He remembered this song. It was a cover. Kathy had performed it once for him when he was sick one day. He recalled the title, "Lullabye for a Stormy Night". He fell asleep as the song was ending. Someone else was singing then, in his dreams. Sky was a child, but not himself or Delilah. The walls were made of stone and the floor covered in flowers. He was resting his head against someone's leg and his body was mostly covered by something red and black. Across from him, rested on the other leg, was another child. The child was dressed in red. In his mind, he felt like he was looking at a reflection of himself, though he couldn't see what his own body looked like. Sky looked up at the person he was resting against. He recognized the man. Wren Blackwell looked down at him. The black and red across Sky's body was the cloak Wren wore. The raven shaped clasp shined in the moonlight. Sky sat up. His voice was a higher pitched. 'Papa.' Wren looked down at him. 'Oh, did you finally wake up?' Sky nodded. Yawning, he cuddles up against Wren's side. 'So, that's where you've been.' A woman said. Sky looked over. He knew the woman's face from paintings he saw, but he knew he would recognize her without them. Rosabella Blackwell stood at the doorway of the room. She carried a sleeping child, one a little older looking than the other child who rested on Wren. Sky noticed the books around them. He appeared to be in a library. Sky got up from where he had been rested and hobbled over to Rosabella, half asleep. 'Mama. Pick me up!' 'I can't carry you both. You're awake. You can walk back to bed., Robin.' She said to him. Wren laughed. 'That's Leon. They switched clothes again.' Sky laughed, but he didn't know why he was laughing. Wren picked up the other child, Robin. She didn't stir from her sleep. 'I couldn't carry them both back. Now that Leon's awake, let's get them all to bed.' 'Papa, pick me up.' Sky pulled at Wren's cloak. 'You can walk. I have to carry your sister.' Wren said. Sky tugged harder. 'Carry me! Papa doesn't love me.' Rosabella laughed. Wren sighed. He repositioned Robin so he was carrying her with only one arm. Wren knelt down and offered his other arm. 'Come here.' Sky latched on and buried his face against Wren's body. He started to fall back asleep. When he opened his eyes again, he was in bed. Robin had switched places with his older brother, Rowan. She was curled up against Rosabella, as she often was when they shared a bed as children. He was certain of that in his dreams. His brother was also where he always was, clinging to their father. Sky rested in between his siblings in the center of the bed. He watched his parents and siblings sleeping peacefully. Sky caught a glimpse of someone moving past the window. The light of the moon revealed a man in red who looked similar to Wren. He crawled over Rowan to get to the man. The man in red put a finger to his lips. Sky went quiet. He watched the man in red leave a box at the foot of the bed on the side Wren slept on. Sky grabbed the man's wrist. 'Make it rain.' The man shook his head. He spoke with Sky's current voice. 'Not right now. In the morning.' 'Stay!' Sky held him tighter. 'I can't. Not here.' The man's raven hair fell forward over his shoulders. His face was half hidden by the darkness of night. 'But I am never far, no matter where you go. Call my name, and I'll fly to you faster than the wind.' The room and everything around him faded. He was older now, much older than he currently was. Sky looked at himself in a hand mirror. He had dark skin and much darker, thick, curly hair. He had eyes the same shade as his mother's, and his eye shape was a blend of his mother and father. His face shape and lips were his father's, his nose his mother's and his cheeks his mother's. He looked like a perfect blend of them. He felt pleased with how much he resembled them both. He thought, for the day when he outlived them and if he lost all paintings of them, he would always be able to see them whenever he looked in the mirror. He smiled, enjoying seeing his father's smile and the sparkle of his mother's eyes staring back at him. 'But you don't have this face anymore.' Finch sat beside him. Sky handed the mirror to Finch. 'But you do. I thought you looked a bit different, but it's this eyepatch.' 'Oh? Well, it won't be long. I've lost sight in this eye the last two times I've lived. I'm sure I'll lose it again. Though it's funny this is making it hard for you to remember. I didn't wear this when you were small. I started wearing it when you were in your teens.' Finch tapped the eyepatch. He touched the end of what was left of the arm he lost. 'I wonder if I'll keep this or if I'll lose that too.' 'Why is it I am seeing you, but not as a memory? Robin, I understand...but what about you? Who are you?' Sky asked. 'I thought you recognized me.' Finch looked at himself in the mirror. 'I do.' Sky said. 'I don't.' Finch reached out for Sky's hand. Sky's body changed to his current self. Finch's clothes also changed to modern ones. They felt familiar, but Sky couldn't place why. 'Call me, when you need me. You don't need to do all this. We can stay home and live quietly. I must confess, I've come to love you quite deeply. I don't know if I'll give you back to Wren. You're mine now.' 'You can't replace my father.' Sky said. Finch pulled his hand away. He looked away. 'I suppose not. But you may use me as your shield, nonetheless. I swore to your father, even at the cost of my life and my soul, that I will protect you. You must come back this time. Your mother and father are waiting for you.' 'They can wait a little longer.' Sky stood up, then opened his eyes. It was morning now. June was already up. She was going through his bag, looking for something to eat. As he woke, Finch's face faded from his mind. He opened his laptop to search through the files for information on a Finch. If Finch was a servant, he might not have a last name to search by. He seemed to be the servant of someone named Hollis, and Hollis was obviously a nobleman. Hollis's son was a Roibín who was in a relationship with Rowan Blackwell, Leon's older brother. He recalled he once read a diary from a Roibín Winter, but the diary was so damaged he could barely get anything out of it. Sky checked the family tree to see what Roibín's father's name was. He was not shocked to see the name Hollis Winter. 'So Leon's older brother's lover is this Roibín, and his father was friends with Leon's father. Finch must be a servant of the Winter family. Probably Hollis's personal servant. Do we have any records on Hollis Winter?' He found nothing in his search. Sky next looked through the collection of scans and photos of paintings in hopes that Finch might have been painted with one of the Winter family members at the time. There were no paintings in the Sanctuary's records of any of the Winter family from the time period Finch would have lived in. Maybe Kathy would know something, he hoped. Sky wanted to send the photos of the creature he saw, but he wasn't sure what to tell them happened. If he said what really happened, Eric and Alex would force him home immediately. He also didn't want to look at the photos yet either. All the terrifying and disturbing things he had seen over the years paled in comparison to the horrid forms of that beast. The thought of looking at it again scared him. He was anxious merely transferring the photos onto the laptop and over to a flash drive. The creature had a name. He could ask if anyone had ever heard of that name before. There was one more thing he needed to search for. The Advisor. He couldn't recall ever seeing that title in anything. Sky searched through the files he had. Nothing came up. That would be another thing he would need to ask Kathy. He typed up a simple message to her asking if she knew anything about a "Mr. Lou" or "The Advisor". Sky and June changed sleeping locations for the next two weeks every day to be safe. June was unhappy about it. She saw no reason to be concerned about being found, and complained about missing her treehouse every day. The way she described the treehouse, Sky noticed, became more grandiose with each passing day. They didn't travel too far from the area. Sky avoided the old lab entirely, but he did intend to finish investigating it at some point. Most importantly, he didn't want to be far from May's supply route. He avoided looking at the photos for the full two weeks. Most mornings, he woke in a cold sweat but couldn't remember what he dreamt the previous night. He met with May at the usual spot two weeks out from when they last spoke. She exchanged USB drives with him. He saw one was labeled from Kathy and the other one was from Eric and Alex. He chatted with May for a long time before heading back to June. He didn't tell May about what happened with Heather, but he did give her another flower. He didn't bring one back for June. When he returned to the home he was staying in for the day, he read through what was on the USBs. He started with the one from Eric and Alex. Both Eric and Alex had written him a letter. He read Alex's first. 'I was shocked to see you wrote my name as 'Dr. Alexis Linwood'. I thought something really serious might have happened. You can imagine my relief when I just found a lot of teenage romantic drama in your letter instead, haha. I knew at some point you might write me something like this, but I didn't expect it'd be about two girls. I did tell you liking girls and boys was an option. My main advice to you is to not cheat. If you want to be with May, break up with June first. Try to let her down easy, but you know, sometimes things end badly no matter how nice you try to be about it. Don't beat yourself up over it. I would just get it over with. I'm a little concerned about what you said about feeling pressured to do sexual things with her. Keep telling her no. You don't have to do anything with anyone you don't want to, even if you're dating them. It sounds like she pushes your boundaries a lot and you already have feelings for someone else anyway. Just dump her. I know you're worried about her safety. We have supply routes in the area she is free to visit and get food from, or get a ride back to a safe location. If she doesn't want to, it's not your job to try to save her. You already put in a lot of effort to try and convince her. She's not interested. It's sad, but just let it go. Since you're starting to think about this stuff, I think you should ask for some condoms from the supply people. Not from May, but one of the adults. She might take that...a number of ways. You should be carrying them on you before you consider seriously starting a sexual relationship with anyone. If you need me to send you educational material on that topic, I can. I know I've given you material on that and showed you how to use them correctly, but it's been a while. It's okay to ask me for help learning about that. No matter what, please promise me you won't have unprotected sex with anyone. I know I shouldn't need to remind you about how dangerous that could be while you're out, but the Red Madness has a high chance of killing you and the Rust has a 100% fatality rate. Please, be careful. You don't have to stay out there either, if you don't want to. You can always come home. We miss you. I wish you'd come home. It's safer here. If you wanted to keep investigating, I wouldn't mind switching to working for the supply team and traveling with you. You don't have to be alone. I know we were only paired together by chance, but I do care about you. Eric and I were talking about this again recently. If you wanted it, we'd love to adopt you. You can keep your last name if you want. I won't be offended if you don't want to change your name. Some things would change if we made it official with the Sanctuary's rules about that. I'd be more than your guardian then and I would technically have more say over where you went, but I want to support you in any way I can. I don't know how you feel about that. If you want to keep things how they are right now, that's okay too. II just want you to know we love you, and you can come to us for anything. Oh, I'm sending you an educational proficiency test. Please answer everything and send it back. We use these to sort out what lessons kids and teens are falling behind on with their studies. I know you're really bright, but you haven't ever gone to school. This will help us sort out what you need to work on. Once it's been graded, I'll send you some stuff for you to work on. This way, you don't have to go to a classroom to keep up. I know you don't want to do the regular education route. But as your guardian, I can't just let you not keep learning. Please complete it. I know it's boring, but it's for your own good. Love you, -Alex' Sky felt a pain in his chest when reading over the adoption part. He wanted to say yes, but he didn't feel like he was allowed to. His birth name lingered over him like a heavy cloud. Changing that name on a piece of paper wouldn't stop Moone & Wolfe from seeking him out. Now they were fully aware he was alive. He wanted to disappear. He wanted revenge. He didn't see a path towards achieving his goals and being normal. Inside the text file, Sky typed "Sky Linwood" to see how it looked. Heat rose in his face. He hit the backspace fast. Sky closed the file and looked for the educational assessment. Sky didn't see anything like that on the USB. He checked the supply box May gave him. There was a booklet at the bottom of it. Sky read over the title, "Education Proficiency Test for Grades 9th-12th". He flipped through the book, seeing it was divided into several subjects. Sky wondered what grade he was supposed to be in. He would be fifteen soon. He knew those grades were typically high school students. Was he supposed to be in high school right now? He vaguely recalled Crystal would start her school year in autumn and it would end just before summer. Students were typically eighteen when they graduated high school. He counted back and sorted out he would have been in ninth grade, soon to be moving to tenth, if things were how they used to be. If he had gone to school like she had, he would have been one of the students who graduated at seventeen due to his summer birthday landing after most graduations. He never really thought much about it before. Seeing the grades listed on that cover left him feeling an intense sadness. It was a reminder both that he was nearly an adult and that he was still a child; a reminder that he was supposed to be doing something much less dangerous and working only towards passing milestones on his way to adulthood. He was five when everything happened. He would be fifteen soon. It had been nearly ten years since then. Ten years of normalcy robbed from him by his own father, robbed from everyone. Everything felt unreal in that moment. He felt like he was losing his mind. He should be in a school right now, doing a math lesson and complaining about how bored he was. He should be thinking about after school clubs or sports and college applications. He should be able to go home to a safe house with a loving family. When Alex taught him how to drive, he shouldn't've had to worry about getting killed by strange creatures roaming around after they left the parking lot. If things were like before, if Alex and Eric were his parents, they would probably be discussing buying him a car for when he was old enough for a license. He would've gotten to experience what a camping trip was like, being outside in the woods where the only worry might be a passing black bear or keeping an eye out for a snake. Would he have played a sport, an instrument? What would his hobbies have been? Sky didn't have any hobbies. He didn't think about that much. It didn't matter. He needed to survive and get his revenge. But right then, the emptiness of his life felt like an impossible weight to carry. He wanted to disappear even more, simply to not feel the pain of it. He held the booklet close to his chest and pushed back the tears that were building. Going home and giving up on everything seemed like such a comforting thought. He pictured Eric cooking dinner for him while Alex helped him with homework at a dining table. Sky put the booklet to his side. He opened up Eric's letter. 'I hope you're alright out there. I miss you. I know you want to do things your way, but I wish you would come home to us. Alex is always worrying about you. I am too. You don't have to come back right now, but if you come back, we are in a unit where you'll have your own bedroom and we have a private bathroom for the three of us. You don't have to rush back. It's reserved for the three of us. Whenever you want to come back, you have a place to stay. I don't know if Alex mentioned this in his letter. I know he was worried about asking you this too soon and you feeling pressured. We're both in agreement we would adopt you if you wanted us to. I already have the forms ready. I'll stop if it bothers you, but I have been referring to you as my son already to other people. We started doing that to avoid telling people about your connection to Moone & Wolfe, but saying it that as a cover made me realize how much I wanted that to be true. I'm sorry if I'm getting ahead of myself with this. I don't want you to feel uncomfortable. I'lll come up with something else if it bothers you. I know this is a really personal thing. If you don't see us like that, I understand. I hope you'll at least let us help you as much as we can. I wish you'd come home. It's not safe out there. I wish I'd met you when you were younger. Thinking about how long you were alone for and how young you were, it makes me sick. I know you're strong. You survived all that. You probably will survive just fine without us. But I don't want you to have to live like that. If you don't want to be a family with us, that's okay. I'll love you no matter what, even if you hated me. Whatever it is that will make you happy, I want to make it happen, even if I have to exit your life. You've been gone nearly a year now, and every day I worry more about you. I know your mission is important to you and there's the stuff about Delilah. But I don't care about any of that. I'm not interested in revenge, and you don't need to do any magic for me. I just want you safe. You don't have to do any of this stuff, if you don't want to carry on with it. We can be normal people living as much of a normal life as we can and no one has to know who you and I were before. But if it means that much to you, you can call me for help. I'll get you bullets, knives, explosives, cars, whatever you need. I'll take you wherever you want to go. I'm just so worried about you. I'm sorry. Are you sure you're alright out there? Is there anything you need? We can send something with a supply truck to you. Let me know. I'm sorry if this letter is a bit much. I hope I'm not weirding you out. I'm sorry. I think the anniversary of you leaving coming up has been making me worry more than usual. Did you want anything for your birthday? I don't know what I'd be able to get you, but I'll see what I can do. -Eric' Sky was crying before he finished the letter. He was glad June was outside. He opened the pictures they had sent him of themselves and the home. Sky fantasized about living there with them and forgetting who his biological father even was. He spent a few minutes staring at one of the photos of Eric and Alex together. He wished they had sent him a video with the letters. He wanted to hear their voices. Sky searched through his files to find a video they send him in the past. He watched it on repeat. After several watches, he forced himself to close the video. Finally, he read Kathy's letter. 'You've told me quite a lot that I need to think on. I suspected we might have had some type of connection. I had vague, hazy memories in dreams of the past, but I would have never thought that was what I was seeing. I am going to need to reread everything we have. When everything was shut down and the Moon took over, I lost a lot of my records, but I have notes on what I can remember from them. I have a lot to cross-reference. If I'm understanding all this correctly, Leon's wife has likely been born again in this time too. I don't know how we would find her. Delilah had specific abilities, but it doesn't seem like we have anything to go on with this woman. Have you ever dreamt of someone like that too? As for the souls...I did not show you my notes about this, as they're hard to believe and I no longer possess the evidence about it. But I do know the Moon & Aurora were both researching souls, how to revive the dead, and how to exterminate a soul. From what I gathered, Heather Smith may be capable of destroying a soul somehow. She was able to kill with ease as a child, but I don't know if her ability to destroy a soul was one she always possessed or one she gained later, and how they would have accomplished her being able to do that. Both groups often had dealings with beings they did not fully understand the power of and beings beyond normal human comprehension. Sometimes they were successful at even capturing these beings. She may have gained this power through something like that. Coyote knew much more about this than I ever did. He was saw things even many of the other high ranking members of the cult know nothing about. It's a shame we can't contact him. He took his family and friends out of the country before everything happened and hasn't contacted anyone here since. Can't say I blame him. I heard from Coyote that when the Moon was exploring death and how to reverse it, they encountered a being of death who was very upset with what they were doing. He wasn't visible to the human eye. He made himself visible somehow. He was like they say in the old stories, a skeletal figure with a large scythe. He threatened to cut down their souls and end their existence. It sounds like this being or another like him made good on that promise for one of these other souls. From what you described, I suspect that person being alluded to in your dream, the person Delilah's father Leon Blackwell had returned to in life again was, once more, your father. I can think of no one else who has tormented me as much as he has. I wasn't sure if I should bring that up or not. I am sure you already thought on that. I know you've told me you hated him, but he was still your father. Feelings can be complicated. I struggle even today with how to view my own father, my feelings shifting between hatred, pity, and longing for the innocent love I once had for him when I knew nothing. I cannot tell you how you should feel about that information. That is your burden to carry, but I bring this up to confirm it. I have been told of that type of being and what it does. What you heard in your dream is likely the truth. Your father's soul may be gone. I do have some more information on the families that is beyond what we have in our files right now. This is from my private research. Here are some things I have listed for the people you mentioned. Robin Blackwell: Named for a knight who served the family, a knight who was most likely the lover of her uncle, Rowan Blackwell. She also was given the same nickname as that knight, The Hellhound. She usually had dog symbols on her clothes. It was known she would trade places with her brother even long after he was king as a protective measure to ensure the real king was safe when visitors came. She is listed as Leon Blackwell's fraternal twin, but it is said they looked like identical twins. Aurora had hers and Leon's remains thoroughly examined. They discovered that Robin and Leon were sesquizygotic twins, or semi-identical twins. Robin was actually intersex, but outwardly appeared to be female sexed and had an androgynous appearance. Her diaries frequently mentioned reproductive-related issues throughout her childhood that stopped around age fifteen. It's listed she received treatments from a man simply listed as Rin. What she describes sounds like a hysterectomy and hormonal therapy, but that doesn't seem possible, given the time period. Whatever actually happened, it appears her parents were aware, but she kept everyone else in the dark, including her brothers. Her health problems largely go away after this treatment. It's possible, given what the family has been involved in, Wren Blackwell may have sought out help beyond what an ordinary physician could have provided to her at the time. She never married and was in a romantic relationship with one of the hosuehold servants up until the servant's death. She adopted an orphan and raised the girl as her own. I have more information on the daughter, if you'd like. Robin's only long-term relationship was with a woman, but it seems she was likely bisexual. She pursued a few men, but nothing long-term came of any of these pursuits. She died an old woman from pneumonia. Rowan Blackwell II: Initially the heir to the throne, he traded places with Leon to avoid marriage. The family told the public he was actually Rowan Blackwell I's son and Rowan II wanted the 'real' heir to reign. We've talked about this before. It is very unlikely that this was the case. From what I have seen of Rowan I's diaries, he was likely gay and had been in a long-term relationship with Robin Ó Rinn before his death. His engagement to Rosabella Gráinseach was clearly exclusively political in nature. If Rowan II had been born after a marriage between the two happened, it might be, but the pair never actually married. Rowan I died in battle before that ever happened and I doubt a gay man would be rushing to try and make an heir before he had to. Given Rowan II was lovers with a prince from another kingdom, Roibín Winter, and the two moved into a castle at the border of the two kingdoms and lived together unmarried until Rowan II's death, this seemed to have merely been a way to avoid getting married to stay with his lover. Rowan II had no children and adopted no children. He left no heirs behind. He seemed to suffer from severe, frequent migraines. More than one person noted in their diaries the prince avoided bright, sunny days and preferred darkness and nighttime. He had many episodes of having severe headaches and would often vomit during these headaches. He would hole up in his bedroom under blankets and shut his window closed during these times, unable to stomach any food for hours. Because of his avoidance of bright light, he had many nicknames related to nighttime, including the Night Raven and the Prince of Night. Much like his namesake, it seems from his diaries he was also likely gay. His relationship with his brother became distant sometime in their forties. He died first out of his siblings, from what seemed to be have been a stroke. Hollis Winter: A former enemy of the Blackwells during a decade long war, Hollis became a longtime friend of Wren Blackwell afterwards. Hollis had multiple children but only ever brought his eldest child with him to visit the Blackwells. His diary suggests his other children were actually fathered by a different man his wife was seeing. He and his wife appeared to have married due to an unplanned pregnancy, but saw different people after the marriage. Hollis was in a romantic relationship with his servant, Finch of Esmé, and his wife, Aderyn Hollow, was romantically involved with one of the servants serving the Hollow family who began serving the Winters after the marriage. Hollis officially claimed the other three children as his and financially supported them, but was only close with Roibín, the only child that was actually his. He was a writer, preferring poems and short stories. There were rumors, because of their closeness, that Wren and Hollis might have been lovers, but both of their diaries mock this idea. He lost an arm in adulthood during an assassination attempt on his and his older brother, Collin's, life. Hollis survived, but Colin did not. It was said he was very prone to 'melancholy' all of his life over the loss of his brother, Collin. He likely suffered from severe chronic depression. In his diaries, he frequently mentioned suicidal thoughts. Physicians at the time couldn't determine why he began declining in old age, but the symptoms described suggest some type of cancer. Finch of Esmé: I don't have much information about this person. He served the family since birth. He lost sight in one eye as a child, and lost an arm in adulthood during an attack on one of the family's smaller castles. He also walked with a limp in adulthood, likely from the same incident that caused him to lose his arm. He was a well-educated servant compared to most servants at the time. It seems he was educated specifically to be Hollis's personal servant and companion. I haven't found any evidence Finch kept a diary, but Hollis mentioned in his that there was a possibility Roibín may also actually be Finch's son instead of his. He did not elaborate on why that was in the diaries of his I have read beyond there being some ambiguity about the timing. It seems both Finch and Hollis had slept with Aderyn within the same thirty days around when Roibín should have been conceived. At some point, there were rumors Finch and Rosabella were having an affair. Rosabella, Hollis, and Wren's diaries all make fun of this even more than the Wren and Hollis rumors. I can't tell you much else about Finch. There isn't much to know. Roibín often called him Finn. Roibín Winter: Son of Hollis Winter, never married, no children. It was said he looked very strongly like Hollis. While Hollis wondered about the paternity of his son, no one else questioned it because they looked so much alike. Lover of Rowan II until his death. He and Rowan II often exchanged poems before moving in together. He was very close with the Blackwell family. After Rowan II's death, he moved into the main Blackwell castle and began sharing a room with Leon. Leon had become a widower for the second time the same week his older brother passed away. I have not seen any diaries of either from this time period, but it was rumored they became lovers. Its hard to say if this was just gossip, or true. It may be, as both had just lost their significant others, they moved in together out of loneliness and to comfort one another. I couldn't find any information either way. There is mention in several diaries of an incident when Roibín almost died, but the description of what happened was vague in all the sources that referenced it. The Winters had asked the Blackwells for advice on treatment, and afterwards they went to see this same Rin person. Rin was unable to assist and they were then sent to someone named Llywelyn somewhere far outside the Blackwell family's lands. I couldn't find any information on where they went or what the treatment was, or even who this man was, but Roibín recovered. Llywelyn was referenced by the nickname "The Prince of the Forests" by Wren Blackwell, but I couldn't find any other references to this title anywhere. Roibín stayed with Leon until his death. The two died around the same time. Rosabella Gráinseach: Wife of Wren Blackwell, formerly engaged to Rowan I. Following the family lineage, Rosabella's mother was born to two North Africans who had traveled to a small region in the Mediterranean. Her grandfather had overthrown a small king and taken over his kingdom. I couldn't sort out exactly where in Africa they had come from, but the region appears to have been predominantly Muslim and the kingdom her grandfather founded was as well. Rosabella's grandparents changed their names after moving to fit the local culture, which has made tracking down their origins impossible. Their new names in Europe were Alfonso and Rosabela Campaña. I couldn't find any records that show what their names were originally. Rosabella's mother, Eleonora, who Leon Blackwell was named after, was married to Egret Gráinseach in exchange for a large portion of land the Gráinseach family had acquired through the Blackwells. Eleonora was poisoned by her husband, who then married Eleonora's step-sister, Mara. Eleonora's mother died and her father quickly remarried. Egret later also poisoned Mara and was eventually shot through the face with an arrow by Rosabella. Egret raised the family Christian, but it seems Rosabella had pagan and Buddhist leanings after her marriage to Wren. Rosabella was known for loving archery and hunting. She was very involved in helping her sister-in-law, maiden name Fleur Blanchet, raise her younger children after Rosabella's brother died in battle. Leon, Robin, and Rowan II were very close to Loup and Nina Gráinseach. I can send you notes on them if you want. Wren Blackwell: Leon's father, younger brother of Rowan I. As you know, Wren was half-asian, but I couldn't pinpoint where his mother was from. The things described in his diaries suggest his mother was a Buddhist. Wren's own beliefs seem to be a mix of Buddhism and pagan traditions. His father, Argus, had promoted Christianity as most of their neighbors were already Christian kingdoms, but his grandfather, Christopher, seemed to still follow older traditions. Wren continued to promote Christian traditions publicly while following a different set of beliefs privately. He refused to be baptized and would not allow his children to be baptized. Wren primarily seemed to worship a moon deity and frequently wrote about fairies in his diaries. It seems he was bisexual, but he kept this fact hidden to only a close few and his only long-term relationship was with his wife. He considered Hollis his best friend. It was well known he involved his wife in political decisions and he was a master of diplomacy. No wars were waged with his kingdom during his lifetime, though a few small skirmishes did happen from time to time. He was known as a very loving father. He lived a very long life, outliving his oldest child Rowan. Roísín Rivers: Leon's first wife who died in pregnancy. From what you've told me, this is who you are seeking. Leon pursued her for a while before eventually marrying her after a dramatic event where he revealed in front of a crowd to her father he had taken her virginity and needed to 'make things right' when her father seemed uninterested in letting the two marry. Roísín was pregnant three months after the marriage and began having health problems early into the first trimester. They consulted with this Rin person again, who suggested she take an herbal abortive due to how dangerous the pregnancy was likely to be. Roísín's mother had also died in childbirth giving birth to her. Roísín was adamant she wanted to go through with the pregnancy. Rin had warned her it was especially dangerous as he was sure she was having twins. In the third trimester, she was bedridden and already on the verge of death. Leon begged her to consider again going through with an abortion. I'm not sure how they were planning on doing this, but Leon wrote that Rin could do this. She refused. Roísín died less than twenty minutes after her second son was born. She died holding her babies, with Leon holding her. Leon never recovered from her death. I suppose, not even in death. Ella Rivers: Roísín's older sister and Leon's second wife. Shortly before her sister's death, she had been in an accident that killed her husband and her newborn child. Ella was still lactating when Roísín's children were born and was the wet nurse for the children. To keep the families together and provide a mother for his children, Leon married Ella less than a year after Roísín's death. Their marriage was tumultuous. Ella had frequent episodes of erratic, sometimes violent or dangerous behavior. She would fall into deep periods of 'melancholy' after these episodes and had issues remembering these episodes. Her behavior had gotten so bad the Blackwell family pushed Leon towards divorcing her and the Rivers family formally gave their consent and apologies. Ella's behavior seemed to have started in her teen years and escalated in her mid-twenties. Her behaviors would also become worse shortly before giving birth and in the months immediately following when she would sometimes have to be kept away from her own infants. Leon never divorced her, though she did move out of the main castle and began a relationship with another man with Leon's permission. She had no children with this man. Files from Coyote I received show that historians with Aurora had labeled in their records on her they suspected she likely had Bipolar Disorder and may have suffered from Postpartum Psychosis with more than one pregnancy. Leon Blackwell: Father of seven children between his two wives, the twin of Robin, initially the spare then became the king the same as his father. Never emotionally recovered from his first wife's death and likely suffered from severe chronic depression for his entire adult life. A loving father and loyal husband. Aurora noted in their information on him he may have had PTSD. Internal information listed 'Shared Psychosis Disorder, folie communiquée' with Ella's name alongside this, but did not elaborate further on what evidence they had for listed that. This is all conjecture, of course. This information was retroactively diagnosed from letters, diaries, and other accounts from centuries ago. We can't really know this information for a fact. Leon did seem to be mentally unwell. He attempted suicide frequently. This was mentioned in multiple diaries. His wrists were said to be heavily scarred from cutting them that by his 40s, both him and his sister always wore long gloves in public to further disguise which sibling was which. Robin, if disguised and not wearing gloves, could be identified as a stand-in by her wrists. Leon attempted to jump from his balcony many times, and was restrained by Ella, his children, or others in the castle. Eventually, Wren required Leon to be moved to a different bedroom on the lowest floor with no window for his own safety. He would wander at night and try to jump elsewhere. Guards had to be placed outside his bedroom to prevent this. Once Leon was king, his attempts were rare. The family tried to keep this all hush-hush, but Ella would tell people all about this when she was in the middle of one of her erratic episodes. He was described as usually being cheerful and kind, but when he had an episode of 'melancholy', nothing could pull him out of it and he would sometimes be rude to others during these bouts of sadness. Sometimes, he would be found sleeping on Roísín's grave. His suicide attempts seemed to have stopped entirely after Roibín moved in with him and accounts of him from others suggest he became more stable and his bouts of sadness were less severe. It's unclear what happened, but he became distant with his older brother later in life, though they don't seem to have hated each other. Like his sister, he only had confirmed long-term relationships with women, but had pursued men earlier in his life. He was likely bisexual. Leon frequently claimed he saw his first wife's ghost at night, as did Ella and Roibín after moving in. No one else witnessed this, so it is unclear if this was real or not. This information was gathered from various sources, including things I had passed to me through Coyote and other things I had gathered from sneaking into Aurora's records. I have more information if you'd like. I have extensive notes on a lot of the family, especially this point in time for obvious reasons regarding the supposed 'pact' in the cult's lore. A lot of this information has been kept hidden or censored by Aurora and Moone & Wolfe. They need their ancestors to be 'perfect', but they couldn't not keep a true record of everything either. This information was usually only for the absolute top people in the companies and families to see. It's strange looking over it, if what you've seen in your dreams is real. I never thought I might be reading about myself. How could I even think that would be? I've been looking at the portraits of Robin Blackwell since you sent me that letter. I feel nothing when I see her face, but I can't shake I'm forgetting something. When I read your words, somehow I knew you were right, but I can't recall any reason why. I've been hoping I would dream something that would make everything clear, but I don't remember my dreams. I've never been one to remember much of them at any point in my life. I don't know what this means for you and me, or what it means you should do. I don't think we have all the pieces yet. But I've been thinking...I know you have your heart set on ending them, but perhaps fate has brought you here for some other purpose we don't yet understand. I can give you all the information I can find, but the keys to this mystery, including my place in it, seem to exist solely within you. Tell me, what else have you seen? As for the Advisor, he is not someone frequently seen, but he is a key figure in the rituals. The advisor oversees for the two sides of the family the Delilah ritual and declares the new Delilah. Since Delilah has always been a fake, the Advisor is in on this. As far as I know, the Advisor has always worked for the Moon but is seen as as trusted person by Aurora as well. The Advisor comes from the main family. From the records I have found, there have been three people who went by this title. The first was a Jensen Summerfield, originally born Jensen Blackwell. The position seems to come into existence when the families split and Jensen changed his name along with the rest who stayed with the Moon. His son, Jen, took over after him. The third advisor was Jensen's grandson, also named Jen Summerfield. There are rumors they are all the same person and that he may have been an early test subject on the anti-aging treatment they're currently using on Heather. I cannot confirm this, but I doubt they would've had such advanced medical treatments that far back. If by some chance he is the same person, which doesn't seem likely, I would suspect it would be more likely connected to one of those beings they've come in contact with. This was merely a rumor, largely based on the name and the Advisor usually avoiding being seen often by even higher ranked members of both companies outside of the rituals. Nothing is really known about him. I have seen the current Advisor only once myself. He was blond, the same shade as your aunt Edith's hair. His hair is slightly wavy. That was years ago, so he may have gray hair now. He's on the shorter side, I'd estimate about 5'7" or 5'8" in height. I only saw him once. I can't remember his eye color. He looked really pale, like he didn't get out in the sun much. According to the records, the only person who oversaw the ritual prior to the split was the head of the Blackwell family at the time. The Advisor is one of the few allowed to look at uncensored records. He very likely is directly involved in censoring the records himself. If you encounter him, presume he knows everything, even more than I do. Did you come across this title in a record somewhere? 'Let me know if you need anything else. I'll send you what I can. It would be better if you stopped by the Sanctuary sometime. I don't trust certain information to just be handed out to supply staff. You could look through my records there. There's a lot of information I have that hasn't been digitized yet. Alan and I have gone back and forth on whether certain records should be, either because of how fragile they are to handle or if we want the information easier to find. There is some particularly disturbing information, and some it is very, very bizarre and hard to believe. I wouldn't believe it myself if I hadn't seen evidence in person. -Kathy Beaumont' Sky took a moment to take in everything he had read. It all sounded so dry and clinical. The people who belonged to those names seemed too alive and complex in his dreams to be described in a single paragraph. It felt dehumanizing to read. He only saw brief moments in his dreams, but the emotions he felt there couldn't be contained in so few words. Even the medical diagnoses listed, however likely true they were, felt wrong to read. It felt like a violation to see such personal information so coldly prescribed by people who never knew them. Sky was surprised by his own reaction. He had done the same sort of thing before when he read through those old diaries. They obviously belonged to real people who lived a long time ago, but when he read them before, they didn't quite feel real. They were already dehumanized in his mind by the virtue of being long buried corpses. He felt a strange anxiousness at knowing someone else had read Leon Blackwell's diaries and the diaries of people he knew. 'But am I really him...Even if I'm Delilah...but what if that's not true...This is all dreams...' Sky told himself. He pulled up a painting of Leon. Before, he was a stranger, just another old timey painting from long ago of some nobleman. When he looked at it now, he felt as if he were looking in the mirror. The face felt as if it belonged to him just as much as his real reflection did. Sky looked at one of the more realistically drawn portraits of the man, a silverpoint sketch done by an artist only listed as "L.B.". The unnerving, familiar feeling was even stronger. The artist's depiction of Leon exactly matched his dreams more than any other art done of Leon. The portrait listed that Leon was twenty-five in the sketch. He wondered who L.B. was. Given how connected the families had been for so long, he wondered if the person was a Beaumont. He hadn't dreamt of any Beaumonts yet though. Sky's fantasies about normalcy drifted away from him as his mind was consumed with questions about the past and the future. He wrote his response to Kathy before his letters to Eric and Alex. He wanted more information about everyone she mentioned, but he didn't want it summarized like that. He wanted to see the actual sources. But Kathy didn't have those. For now, he focused instead on the other thing she mentioned, the beings the companies had captured. He wanted to know what exactly she meant by that and what this death being was. It sounded like what Mr. Lou had described was coming after the both of them. Sky had no memories of any deathly spectres. He didn't really want to see any either. After writing his response to Kathy, he wrote letters to Eric and Alex. His letter to Alex was mostly thanking him for the advice and assuring him he wasn't going to do anything reckless. He said nothing about the condoms. There was no way he could ask anyone for those right now. He would be too embarrassed, and the thought of May accidentally overhearing that or June going through his bag and finding them both terrified him. If June saw them, he was positive she would pressure him even harder than she already did for sex. Thinking about that made him nauseous. Eric was the hardest to write a response to. When he reread over the letter to work on the response, he was overcome with emotions again. Sky struggled to find the right words. He wrote: 'I don't know what to say to all of that, but I'm not upset. I don't want to come home yet. I have a lot to do, but I do miss you. May told me you were hiding my identity from other people. I do appreciate that. If I'm away from home for a long while, we can still keep that unit, right? I don't know what name I want yet. I'm still thinking about it. I'm sorry about making you worry. To tell you the truth, I've been telling other people you're my parents already. I don't know if I'm ready yet. I have a lot on my mind. I believe you, but it's hard for me to think anyone loves me. I've caused you so much trouble. I miss you too.' Sky initially ended the letter with "I love you", but he felt too embarrassed to leave it afterwards. He wanted to say a lot more than he did, but what he wanted to say felt too personal to write. He wanted to say it to Eric in person. He put the letters on separate flash drives, one for Kathy and one for Eric and Alex. Sky uploaded some new photos to both of them. He said nothing about Mr. Lou and sent no photos of the being. For the next month, Sky moved June around the area. She grew more upset with each passing day. She desperately wanted to go back to the treehouse. He was getting really frustrated with her behavior. She insisted that it was fine since nothing bad had happened to them in all the time they had been away. He tried to explain to her that had nothing to do with whether the treehouse would be safe, but she wouldn't listen. Eventually, he relented and they returned to the treehouse. Sky had to repair the door at the bottom from where it had been shot at. Sky was nervous about touching anything there. It was covered in blood. He should have burned it down, he thought. That's what Alex would have told him to do. He made it rain and washed the area off with water instead. June didn't help with the cleaning. She seemed more annoyed than before that he was doing that. It was a waste of time, she said. In May's next visits, Sky received new letters from Eric, Alex, and Kathy. Kathy told Sky she wanted to talk to him in person about the beings. It was too much for a letter, she said. She had notes and files she wanted to show him when he got back. He agreed he would wait until he visited the Sanctuary to look at them. He told her he wanted to look at her notes about Leon's family then too. Sky was getting ready to leave. He decided he would visit the lab one last time and then say goodbye to June. It was too late in the day to go. He would do it the next day. It had been nearly a year since he left. Today was July 6th. Tomorrow was his fifteenth birthday. He had lost track of time and forgotten June's fourteenth birthday. Sky wasn't sure yet how he was going to end things. He asked June to stay with him and watch the sunset. The fireflies came out early. He sat with her quietly, hoping some warmth would fill the space between them. June tried to kissed him. He rejected her. "Sorry, I'm not feeling well." He said. She sighed. "I think I want a new boyfriend. I wonder when one will stop by." Sky's heart sunk. "Are you breaking up with me?" She shrugged. "You won't do anything with me. What's the point? Besides, I know you like that other girl." 'What makes you think that?" Sky asked. "You talk to her different." June said. "Besides, you boss me around too much. My mama said not to listen to people like that. This is my home, no matter what." 'This is...about the treehouse?" Sky couldn't believe it. "June...it was covered in infected blood. People were after me and..." "We didn't get sick." Sky wanted to argue with her, but he realized there was no point. He was leaving soon anyway. "I'm sorry. It's already really dark...is it okay if I stay tonight?" "I guess. Would be nice if we had sex before you left." June said. Sky looked away from her. "I can't. I don't have any condoms." "What's a condom?" She asked. "It makes it so you don't get diseases and stops you from getting pregnant." Sky explained. June tilted her head. "Why would you want to stop a baby from being born?" "I don't want to have kids." Sky answered. "I don't get you. What kind of person doesn't like babies? It's not like you'd be the one getting pregnant anyway." June crossed her arms. "And I don't have any diseases." Sky had an answer prepared for her. "My dad forbid me from having sex without a condom. I'd have to get one from the supply people." "That guy's not really your dad, Sky. We've been over this." June said. Sky was tired now. He couldn't enjoy the fireflies or the stars. "Yeah, I know you don't think he is. Is it okay if I stay if we don't do anything? If it's not, I need to go now before it gets too dark." "You can stay." She said. June went up to the treehouse. Sky looked out at the lights moving across the empty field. He hoped he would find something useful tomorrow inside the lab to make the last year not be a waste of time. Sky slept on the opposite side of the treehouse as June. He left early in the morning to visit the lab. He carried all his things with him, unsure if he would stop by again or not. He had envisioned their relationship ending with a big fight, but it didn't. It simply ended, and he didn't have to reject her. She let him go instead. In his mind, this was the best option, yet he couldn't shake off the hurt aching inside him. He wasn't sure why he felt so bad. He was certain by now he didn't really love her and he didn't want to be in a relationship with her. He didn't think he even wanted her to touch him. He wondered if he ever loved her. Maybe he did, for a moment. There was something about her very being that hurt him. She was someone who could not be saved. She actively rejected attempts at being saved, and sought to step over any boundaries he put up to keep himself safe. Thinking on last night and her trying to shame him for caring about using a condom made him sick. He didn't really want to sleep with her, but he thought that was at least a logical reason to reject the prospect. The Rust and the Red Madness could spread through sex and kill someone. It was more than reasonable for someone to deny sexual activity to protect themselves from death. His skin crawled thinking about how he cleaned that contaminated treehouse for her against his own better judgment and that he slept in there again. "What the hell is wrong with her?" Sky muttered to himself. He remembered May telling him some people simply couldn't be saved. He hadn't wanted to believe it, but he had to admit she was right. It made no sense to him that people existed who so thoroughly refused to do anything for their own benefit and for no logical reason at all. He considered not returning to say a final goodbye to June. The supply truck was coming through later today. He would get on it with May and move on. All he needed to concentrate on right now was getting to the lowest floor of the lab, the last one left to explore. At the bottom of the lab, he found walls covered in what looked like dried blood. It seemed to be from many years ago. The rooms were all empty. No furniture was left behind. Whatever was on this floor, someone had come back to make sure it was cleared out. After a full year of wandering around, Sky was left empty-handed. Sky laughed at himself. He turned around and headed for the stairs. His flashlight caught something he didn't see on his way down. Underneath the stairwell, there was writing spray-painted across the wall. In big letters, the words "ABYA YALA REMAINS" were written. Beneath the words was a drawing. A coyote sat on the back of a turtle, eating the moon. Above the coyote were stars. Beneath the turtle was an upside down jaguar, eating bones. More words were written underneath the drawing in smaller writing. "Poisoners of land, thieves Take the white bones and rust Grind it into dust and drink up your black and red diseases" Underneath that were many names. Sky saw surnames from within the twenty families and family names he knew were related to Moone & Wolfe. At the very bottom of the wall was written: NOT EVEN YOUR CHILDREN EVER BELIEVE YOUR LIES. Sky took picture of the wall. He had no idea what any of it meant. He hoped someone else would. Happy to find something, he returned to the surface. Sky headed towards where the supply truck would be stopping at later in the day. He decided he'd wait there until it arrived. He thought about going back to the treehouse again. 'No, it's over. I don't need to go back there.' "So, here you are. I've been looking for you for quite some time." Sky heard a man's voice from behind him. He turned around quickly, reaching for his gun. A man was sitting on a large rock. He wore a black cloak and carried a large scythe. The man was not skeletal though. His skin was a dark russet brown. His eyes and hair were black. 'You've been running for a long time. I'd love to cut you down now. I won't go easy on you like that weakling Conrí did." Sky lowered his gun. No bullet was going to work on this being. "There's more than one of you, isn't there?" "Of course. My master is quite busy." The hooded man said. "I know...I sort of know why you're here. But I don't remember most of what happened. Couldn't you wait until I'm supposed to die?" Sky lowered his head in respect. His heart was pounding so hard he could barely breathe. He hadn't fully mentally dealt with the last strange being he met. "I am sorry for whatever I did in the past, but I can't do anything about what he did. Please, have mercy on me." "What he did? You are he." The man said. He stood up and walked over to Sky. The man grabbed Sky's face, then forced Sky to look up at him. The man's hand was ice cold. "You have already committed several crimes to be here." "I know...kind of...I know the me before did those things." Sky put his hand on the man's cold wrist. "I promise I won't run the next time. Please, don't kill me yet." "Leave him be." Another man spoke. Sky and the hooded man looked over to where the voice was coming from. A man with a similar skintone as the hooded man stood in a t-shirt and jeans. He had long black hair and eyes that matched. The man smiled at them both. "He's interesting. He might help get rid of all the poison soaking up in the land. I want to see what he might do. It would be nice if there was less death here." "The death is not our kind. I don't care." The hooded man said. "Our kind? All kind are mine who dwell on this earth." The man in ordinary clothes spoke. "I understand your rage, young one. But all pain and death are tragedies to me. This land has been out of balance for a long time. I hope for the day it can heal again. It won't heal by more death, much as you may wish for that in vengeance. All children are born innocent, no matter their parents' character. He's still quite young. Let's see what he becomes." The hooded man looked back at Sky. He let him go. "Very well. I respect your sight is beyond mine, Old Man. You may live today, Boy, but I will be the one to collect you when the time comes. Don't count on that soft-hearted fool to shield you for a third time. Should you become a monster, I will cut you down and nothing will remain of you to run again. I'll leave you here. I have much work to do today." The hooded man vanished. Sky stepped back. He turned to the other man. "Where...where did he go?" "Of to work. There are always people dying." The man said. Sky looked around once more for the hooded man. "Thank you for helping me. Why did you..." When Sky turned to speak to the man, he was nowhere to be found. Instead, a coyote was facing him. The coyote showed him its teeth and laughed maniacally with the voice of a human. Over the laughter, he heard a scream he thought might be June's. He ran in the direction of the scream. Sky looked back one more time. The coyote was gone. He kept running toward the treehouse. A demon was moving through the field, just behind June. "June, run!" Sky shot at it, careful to make sure he didn't accidentally hit June. June couldn't run fast enough. The demon grabbed her by the back of the thigh and dragged her body around through the field. Sky ran up on the infected creature and unloaded his gun into it. The blood from its bloated body gushed out into the tall grass. He kicked the mouth open and pulled June away from it. Sky tried to help her up. She couldn't stand. June was shaking. "Kill me." "I can't kill you." Sky tried again to get her to stand. "Please, kill me! I don't want to turn into one of those things!" Tears ran down her face. "Don't let me turn into a monster!" Sky shook his head. "I...I can't..." "Please! Please, give me your gun! I'll do it myself!" She tried to take his gun from him. "No! Wait, we can get your back to the Sanctuary. They can cure you!" He moved away from her. Sky kept shaking his head. "The supply truck comes today. They could help you..." "No, I won't go to those people! They'll keep me! Daddy said they couldn't even fix most people!" "That's better than nothing! We might be able to make it!" Sky started to cry himself. "They might be able to cure you. We have to try." "Give me the gun!" June demanded. "I'm not going to those people. They can't help me. They can't be trusted." "June, please, wait..." June cried harder. Her cries shifted to screams. "No, no, no. I don't want to be a monster! I don't want to be like Mama and eat you! Daddy...she ripped him up...I don't want..." Sky couldn't say anything. He could only cry. "I don't want to. She hunted us all down until Daddy shot her. And then he got it cause she ripped up his legs and he turned the gun around and..." June grabbed Sky's shirt with her bloodied hands. "Shoot me. Don't make me go to that place. I want to stay home. Don't let me turn into a monster." Sky raised his gun, hands shaking. "Are...are you sure you don't want to try getting help? It's so soon, you have good odds you could..." "Please...please shoot me. Right here." She pointed to her head. "Daddy said it doesn't hurt like that. It'll be over right away. Can't you do one thing I want?" Guilt washed over Sky. He nodded. "I'm sorry I wasn't a good boyfriend. I love you." Sky pulled the trigger. He expected June to say something back. An "I love you" or to start another argument, as she often did. June didn't say anything after that. She fell back beside the demon. The field was quiet, but the sound of the bullet echoed in his mind. He couldn't move. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't understand why he shot when he could have waited until the truck came and had all the adults force her into treatment. The world shifted away from him. His thoughts went away. Sky took off his clothes and changed into a clean pair from his backpack. He opened a small box from his bag, one meant for cleansing an infected area. He used it to start a fire and burn down the treehouse and the part of the field. The fire kept spreading until the whole field was engulfed in flames. Sky looked down at his gun. He turned it on himself, his finger on the trigger. He stood there, unable to move and unable to act. Lightning struck the field. The sky became dark and green. Wind rushed past him, pulling him forward. He lowered his gun and screamed as loud as he could. As the sky quickly darkened, more lightning lit up the area. He saw something illuminated in the distance, something forming, spinning. He heard the sound of a train, but he knew it couldn't be. No trains had run for years. In a matter of seconds his suicidal thoughts turned to ones of fear for his survival. He grabbed his bag and ran. As he ran, the wind grew stronger. He rushed down the hill and met with the metal border. Without a second thought, he climbed over the jagged barrier. The metal caught in places on his shirt and pants, ripping through. He felt the cold metal against his skin, unsure if it broke the skin. He didn't have time to think on it. He saw a long abandoned building ahead. The sign had fallen off. Nothing remained to suggest what it once was beyond the empty shelves that must have held goods once. The glass had shattered long ago. Kudzu covered the roof, the purple petals mixing in with the swaying wisteria dancing on bending pines. He ran through the sea of falling flowers and through what was once floor to ceiling glass windows. He found the employee bathroom and locked himself inside. Sky felt around in his bag for his flashlight. He was so shaken by everything he couldn't find it. The howling outside grew closer as the walls around him vibrated. Sky tucked his head down and covered his head with his backpack. Tears slid down his face as he screamed again. Light fled back into the room as the roof was ripped off the building. Unconsciously, Sky looked up directly into the eye of the tornado. Wind and flower all swirled around him. The walls around him all lifted away as he began to float. He saw Alex and Eric in his mind. He saw Kathy in the room of artifacts and himself holding Rowan Blackwell's sword. He saw his mother's face and his sister's. He gripped tightly to his backpack's strap, not out of desire to protect anything inside it, but simply to hold onto anything at all. The funnel of wind and debris swirling around him blended with the flames, sucking them up and merging into one burning, howling force. He had stopped crying. One thought remained in his mind as he replayed his happiest and worst memories in his mind. 'This is it?' He felt arms around his waist, dragging him back down to the ground. Sky looked over his shoulder to see who was there. The black haired man from earlier smiled back at him. "You have quite the power. But you mustn't let it destroy you. This is your storm. Calm yourself." "I can't!" Sky shouted. The black haired man pulled Sky all the way down until they were both sitting on their knees. He embraced Sky from behind, holding him tightly with one arm. He used his left hand to cover Sky's eyes. "I will do it for you this time. But you must learn to control yourself more. A storm has its purpose. Will you let it bring life or destroy it?" Sky cried as the howling stopped and the wind dissipated. Behind his closed eyes, he saw June's bleeding body, his family's decaying flesh, and countless other corpses he had seen in the last ten years. "I can't save anything. Because I'm his son." "Is that so?" The black-haired man removed his hand from Sky's face. Sky opened his eyes. The land around them had changed. They were somewhere else, in a dark forest illuminated by stars too numerous and bright, and a full moon far too close in the night sky. "Where have you taken me?" "Somewhere safe, where no one can hurt you. None may enter here who I do not allow." The man said. "Who are you?" "They call me Coyote. They have for a very long time, far longer than man has told stories." The man said. "I thought Coyote was Jake Corbin...?" Sky said. "Some also called him that name. But he is not me. I am well aware of who he is though. He will join this realm one day, my foolish child, so kind." Coyote said. "What do you mean?" Sky asked. He looked more closely at his surroundings. A blue river full of stars ran through the forest. Sky felt leery of it. "I'm sure you've noticed some are unable to be taken by that being, the one who called himself Lou. It is possible for humans to defeat him within the body. You are clever enough to use your great minds to find a solution. But for the time between, I was summoned and offered a deal. One soul, bound to me for eternity by whatever means I desire, whether torture or servitude or his soul's annihilation, in exchange for the protection of a group of people. Initially, he asked for all who dwelled within these lands, but that was too much for me to grant. Us old ones are not supposed to interfere in the affairs of man to such a degree. But I did grant his plea for one set. I've yet to decide what I will do with him when his time comes and Death must hand him to me." Coyote sat with Sky in the dark forest. Blue lights shined on his back and then projected into air above them. The lights shifted into the shape of a man. Sky didn't recognize this person. He presumed it must be Jake Corbin. "One soul for eternity for the protection and immunity of many, from both those old beings in any form they may shift to. That was our bargain. That is why you cannot medically explain it. It is not a solution you may find within science." "That wolf creature wants to eat me. I don't know if our scientists can do anything about that." Sky curled his knees in against his chest. "Don't worry about him. Your family will keep you shielded in time, once you return to them." Coyote said. "My family..." Sky thought about his aunt Edith and that man, Jen, the one who was known as the Advisor. Coyote rearranged the starry lights into new forms. The lights took the shape of Alex and Eric. "Oh. Right." Sky stood up. He reached to touch Alex's hand. His hand went through the image. "Why did you save me earlier? You've saved me twice now." "I watch the stars. I know how they may move, all the paths that are likely to pass. I can move them a little myself, if I want. There are paths along your future where you may play a pivotal role in shifting the future of this place." Coyote moved the blue lights high above them until they blended with the stars in the night sky. "This land has been suffering for a very long time, centuries before now. I wish to see a future where it begins to heal. But I will not force your destiny against your will. By human hands the suffering began. By human hands, it should be mended. You are free to choose the future, to heal or to destroy." "What is it I need to do?" Sky asked. "I feel so powerless." "Let your heart guide you, but do not let it consume you." Coyote said. The forest faded away from them, draining down into the ground like rain on a misty dawn. "As you almost allowed it to a moment ago. Look at the depth of your sorrow across the land." Sky stared out at the field. The fires were still burning, but the tornado was gone. The building he took shelter in had been ripped to pieces. Trees were down, burned, broken, and tossed about. Nothing remained where the treehouse once was. "I didn't mean to...I was only trying to clear the field so no one else could be infected..." "I know." Coyote patted Sky on the head. "You have much to learn about what power you possess. Do not forget to reach out to others to help you control it." "What can anyone else do about it?" Sky asked. Coyote lifted up Sky's backpack off the ground. He opened the bag and handed Sky his medication. "To heal or to poison, depending on the dose. Will you use this as you need?" Sky took the bottle from him. "Will this really help me control my power?" "You trust your parents' wisdom, don't you?" Coyote asked him back. Sky held the bottle close to his heart. "I want to ask you things I'm terrified of knowing. Can you tell me...will everything be alright in the end?" Coyote looked at him with weary eyes. "What will be is in your hands. Use them well." "Why me?" Sky asked. Coyote turned away from him and looked out across the land. "Do you think you are alone in bearing this burden? It will take many to undo the sickness that has spread so deeply into these lands." "I know, but...why do I have to be part of it? I didn't cause all this to happen." Sky wiped off his face. "I just want to be normal. I want everything to be normal again." "Little one, it never was. The world you're dreaming of has yet to exist." Coyote offered his hand to Sky. "Come. Your parents will be here soon, within the hour." Sky took his hand. "How do you know they're coming?" "I can see much further than you." Sky didn't understand, but he had a feeling if he asked what that meant, he would get another answer that he couldn't comprehend. "Where are we going?" "To sleep." Coyote said. '"Sleep?" Sky rubbed his eyes. He suddenly felt very tired. "I can't sleep right..." Sky's eyes were heavy. He closed them and fell asleep. Coyote caught him and gently placed him on the ground. The black-haired man changed shape, shifting into his namesake. The coyote, eyes wide and alert, looked ahead beyond the scenery. He lay down beside the sleeping boy, listening closely to the wind. Another coyote came to join him. She asked, in a voice not heard. 'What have you caught there?' 'A little fox.' He answered her without speaking. 'What for?' She asked. 'Foxes are tricky. Let's see what he does. He might destroy them. I want to see.' He said. Coyote looked down at Sky. 'This one has died before, and avoided those who oversee the dead. He's upset the order by refusing death's terms. I too was much like that when I was young. I find him intriguing.' The other coyote lay down on Sky's right side. 'We could destroy them ourselves, if you wanted.' 'That isn't allowed.' Coyote answered. 'This is their problem to solve.' 'And yet, here you are, extending this human child's life.' She said. The old coyote laughed. 'I merely stepped on a single thread of fate for a moment. The oldest one won't mind. After all the trouble I've caused, this is hardly of significance.' A woman now sat beside Sky where the other coyote once was. She appeared young and old at the same time. She looked up at the moon in the daylight sky through the clearing clouds. With her eyes that saw far beyond the blue, she watched the movement of the stars. "For only a moment?" In Sky's sleep, he was in a dark space. A bright light shined in the center of it all. A woman in a shimmering rainbow dress played the piano. He recognized the song as one of Kathy's, but it was not her playing. Sky looked up. The bright light over the piano appeared to be cast by a full moon hanging directly overhead. The woman in the rainbow dress began to sing. He ran over to her. 'Mom!' She looked back at him and kept singing. Sky sat down beside her. He played along. 'I've wanted to see you for so long.' Sky said to her. She smiled, and kept singing. Her body began to fade and shift to blue. A loud humming buzzed in Sky's ears. It grew louder, drowning out the music. Sky reached out to grab his mother's hand, but he slipped through to the white keys. 'Please, don't go!' Sky called out to her. She spoke to him, but he could not hear her words. Her body dissipated like mist, along with the piano and the strange humming, leaving only him and the moon. Sky looked up at the pale light in the darkness. The sky was devoid of stars and clouds. It wasn't night he was left beneath, but an endless void that stretched out in all directions around him. He stood on nothing but the moonbeams that fell down from above. He wondered if he stepped out of the light, if he would fall forever or simply disappear. He didn't want to be under that light any longer. There was nowhere to go. Sky stepped one foot out of the light. A steady hand grabbed his arm and pulled him back. Sky turned around to see who had grabbed him. A man with brown hair wearing an eyepatch pulled him into a field. Sky recognized the man as Finch, Hollis's personal servant. The face, Sky recognized as belonging to someone else too. He was well aware who that was, but in his dreaming, he was unable to vocalize that name. The more he thought on who shared that man's face, the deeper the name lodged itself inside his throat. A wind blew around them. Finch let go of Sky. His hand then touched the empty sleeve. He wrapped it in his hand from the top, then slid it down the sleeve. The missing arm returned to him. Finch then slipped off his eyepatch, his eye now healed. The familiarity grew. He shifted his attire to modern clothes, a t-shirt and jeans. Finch spoke to Sky. 'Where were you going?' 'I don't know.' Sky said. 'Why are you here?' 'To stop you from wandering.' Finch said. 'I don't know if I will be able to.' 'You can let me go.' Sky turned away from him. 'Everyone around me dies. You'll live a longer, happier life if you let me go.' Finch hugged him tightly from behind. 'Even in your dreams, with centuries between you and I, you use your words with a precision my beloved never could and you've gathered all of them up as arrows to rain down on all of us. My poor little ghost, haunting yourself, your teeth will never rip from our hearts our love for you, nor will death cease to be if you wander off into that void. No, should you take that path whether you burn every bridge behind you and let yourself be destroyed, in fire, you will come to haunt every one of us for all of eternity, far beyond the temporary mourning that lingers on with death and decay. You shall be a ghost whose pain will be burned into souls who will be unable to remember you, yet never forget your pain no matter how many lives we transform ourselves through. Is that truly what you wish to leave us with to avoid seeing our deaths?' Sky's body had changed. He took on Leon's appearance. 'I wish I had never existed. Then everyone would have been happier.' 'Do you truly believe that you are the source of all evil in the world?' Finch walked through Leon's body, his form shifted between the past and the present, between flesh and faded blue. 'I'll gladly carry you on to your happy ending, even if I am ripped limb from limb and scattered about into red dust. We all would. Why can't you accept death? If I die at ninety, if she dies at ninety one day before you, will you still be unsatisfied? Will you run again? What is your perfect ending, Leon?' 'Leon, come. Let's go back. It's getting late.' Another man said. Sky turned around. Roibín stood behind him in front of a grave. He was old, much older than Finch. Sky's body, Leon's body, was much older now too. Day had become night and the field far from sight. Sky looked at the name on the tombstone. He couldn't read it. His mind wouldn't let him focus on the letters. Roibín took Leon's hand and held up a lantern. 'It's going to storm tonight.' 'Couldn't we stay a little longer?' Leon asked. 'It's best we don't. We stayed a long time already.' Roibín held the lantern up higher with his left hand and tightened his grip on Leon's hand with his right. He looked back at Leon, then back ahead. 'I know what you're thinking. I am the only one who does, now that he is gone too. But we must endure it. Under the spell of night, we will see them again in our dreams. We've merely switched to sharing a third instead of two thirds of our time with them. In time, it will be always. Come, my love. Let's rest and dream.' 'The pain doesn't dull in my dreams.' Leon said. 'I know.' Roibín answered. 'It never dulls in mine either.' Leon stopped. He slipped free of Roibín's grasp and ran back towards the graveyard. 'Leon, stop!' Roibín chased after him. 'You can't run from it! Please, wait.' Leon couldn't find the grave. He came across a river of blue and ran straight across it back to the field. Finch wasn't waiting for him there, and Roibín could not reach him. Leon's youthful appearance returned to him. He saw her there in the field in a white dress. Roísín was picking wildflowers under a cloudless sky. Leon casually walked over to her. 'Good morning, my lady. You're awake early.' 'I can never sleep well when I am away from home.' She said. Roísín laughed. 'You are Leon, aren't you? You're actually dressed as a man today.' 'Well, I am a man. Is it so strange that I should dress as one?' Leon picked a red flower. 'Do you prefer me in a dress?' She laughed again. 'I prefer you as you. But I suppose my preferences aren't worth much thought in this world.' 'Why not?' He asked. She looked away. 'Well, you are certainly a man, if you would ask such a thing.' Leon took the red flower and placed it in her hair. 'Why do you think I can't give you a world you desire? I am no ordinary man.' 'Oh? How so, Prince?' 'Let me show you a miracle.' Leon said. He grinned. 'Would you like to see a rainstorm?' 'Rain? Are you saying you rule over the clouds?' She laughed loudly. 'Go on then, oh mighty prince. Show me your miracle.' Leon began to hum a melody Sky knew but did not know how he knew it. The clear blue darkened to grey. The wind howled as lightning shot across the clouds above them. Within seconds, the sky opened up and drenched both of them. Roísín stared at him in shock. A silence lingered between them. She smiled, a sadness in her eyes. 'So the rumors are true, about the Blackwells having magic. But tell me, Leon, is that power enough to move the laws of this world that bind us?' Leon took her hand and kissed it. 'Don't underestimate me. If I can make one miracle, surely I can make others and give you whatever beautiful world you desire.' She laughed under her breath. 'Is that an oath to me?' Leon bowed. 'Of course.' She walked around him. 'And how many other women and men have you given empty promises to you before today?' Leon laughed nervously. 'Those times were different.' 'Oh, is that so?' She handed Leon the flowers she picked. 'Here. I'm sure you can find someone nice to give those to.' 'Roísín, I'm not...' Leon held the flower to his chest. 'Forgive me. I know magic and sweet words aren't enough to show you my feelings are true, and I know I am not as powerful as I wish I was. But still, would you give me a chance anyway?' 'My father will part us, no matter what love may bloom between then and now.' She said. Leon gave the flowers back to her. 'Do you think something as trivial as an arranged marriage would stop my love? If he sends you to another man, I will find ways to meet you and to bring you to me, if I cannot convince your father myself. I don't need your last name to become mine nor your children's. Your heart is enough for me.' 'I wish I could run away from this place.' Roísín said. 'Why don't we?' Leon asked. She opened her mouth to say something, but the words didn't come. She only laughed as she brought the flowers close to her face to hide her smile. Sky opened his eyes. The black-haired man stared down at him. "Good, you've woken just in time. Your parents will be here shortly." Disoriented from his dream, Sky took a moment to understand where he was. For a moment, he couldn't remember whether his name was Sky or Leon. The dream was becoming blurry. Finch's face slipped away from him, and the words he exchanged with all the people he saw in his sleep began to vanish one by one as the hot July sun bore down on him. He sat up and looked around at the destruction from the storm he accidentally caused. He felt sick and uneasy. June's face flashed in his mind, and then again in a distorted form. His heart raced and he struggled to breath. The black-haired man took Sky's hand and helped him up. 'It's alright, child. You must calm yourself back down. You are safe right now. Come with me." Sky's body shook as he walked. Dark clouds gathered above them. The man stopped and looked over at Sky. "Take a breath. Calm down. Look above you." "I don't...know what to do..." Sky's eyes watered. The black-haired man touched Sky's head. Sky felt a warmth fill him. He breathed more steadily. "I will help you once more, but I cannot do this for you every time. You must learn to control it on your own, for your sake and that of others." "I'm sorry..." 'It's alright. Let's go." Coyote walked Sky to the edge of a clearing. Sky saw an RV approaching. "Is that them?" "Yes. Go on. Go to them, and stay. Their love will protect you." "Won't you walk with me to meet them?" Sky asked. Coyote shook his head. "I've meddled enough. You must walk the rest of the way on your own, but I will be near when I am far. Should you lose control again...you may call for me." "I will...I'm going now..." Sky let go of his hand and started to walk toward the RV. He looked back. Coyote was gone. Fear began to creep up on him again. He ran as fast as he could across the clearing. The RV stopped. The door opened. Sky could see Alex at the door. Alex saw him. He ran toward Sky. Without a second thought, Sky went in for a hug. He put so much force into it, he knocked Alex and himself down. Alex regained his balance and hugged Sky back as they both sat on the ground. "You're alright, right? Are you hurt?" Alex asked. "No...I don't know..." Sky couldn't hold his tears back. He buried his head into Alex's shoulder to muffle his voice. Alex patted his head. "It's going to be okay. I'm here." Another person got out of the RV. "Did you find him already?" "Yeah." Alex answered. He smiled wearily. "I've got him." Sky looked up. Eric was now kneeling beside them. One of his arms was in a sling. Half his face was bandaged. Sky could see from the space between his jeans and his shoes that one of his legs was bandaged too. "Eric...what..." "We got into a bit of a little...altercation with some people under the Moon's brainwashing. I'll be okay." Eric put his uninjured hand to Sky's face. "Are you okay? That storm hit all the way to the Sanctuary. The normal supply team had to evacuate the area to one of our safe houses. Whole area is messed up right now." "I'm sorry..." Sky started to cry again. "Sorry?" Alex asked, confused. He looked around. "Oh, that girl...is that girl nearby? We can take her back to the Sanctuary with us, if she has any injuries." "We don't...need to." Sky buried his face again. "Is she...gone?" Alex said, being intentionally vague. Sky nodded. "I see." Alex helped Sky up. He wiped off Sky's face. "Let's get inside. We need to get back home, and we need to get you tested for the viruses too. Then, we can give you the vaccine." "Vaccine?" Sky's eyes widened. Alex grinned. "It's done. The vaccine for RM. Let's get inside and I'll give it to you myself." VI. Travelling