When the Raven Calls

Chapter 25

FIFTEEN MINUTES LATER, I WAS creeping back towards the square, having scouted the way back home and found it mostly empty. I was approaching them, less than half a block away, when I first started to feel like something was off.

I was close enough that I should have heard Chris and Syrena talking, if not bickering loudly. I hesitated, but kept going, my Sense surrounding me. I could feel them ahead, but there were only two things giving off enough energy to be healthy people. Fear tried to grasp me, sinking its sharp nails into my heart, but I shoved it away. Syrena was an amazing fighter, and Chris had her back, not matter what. Maybe something went wrong--maybe the Seconds had escaped--but it would be okay. We'd regroup and sort it all out later.

When I walked in, my mind didn't fully process what I saw.

One of the Seconds--the one Chris had shot with and arrow first--was sitting, slumped against the side of one of the buildings, tied up. The other was lying in the grass a few feet away, several arrows protruding from both his neck and his chest, his face still twisted, frozen eternally in an ugly scowl, like his last thought had been, Gods, I hate how happy everyone is.

Sitting in the middle, looking nearly as hollow as the dead Second, was Chris. His bow was still in his hand, his fist clenched around it, but the rest of his body sagged like a marionette with cut strings.

Syrena lay next to him, her body facing away from me but her face in my direction. Her eyes were open, but she seemed to be focusing on something in the distance, and I waited for her to look over, to sit up and acknowledge me.

Chris turned around, his eyes so... empty, so broken, and I looked back at Syrena, waiting for her to glance my way.

Some part of me started hissing the truth, but I shut it out, standing, unmoving in the face of the cold wind, waiting for something that wasn't ever going to come.

"Sam..." he said, his voice raw. "She... she said to tell you you proved it. That you were family."

I didn't respond, because I didn't want to be family, not nearly as much as I wanted her to look up.

"What... I mean, why..." I asked, my gaze still locked on her. I couldn't bring the next words to come to life as I stumbled forward.

"Sam, she's..." he choked, desperation burning in his gaze. He was saying something now, something about what had happened, but I couldn't hear of the sound of the blood pumping through my head. I didn't want to be here, to see this, to know this, and yet, I couldn't quite bring myself to pull away. There was some kind of gravitational pull, because while half of me was screaming and trying to get as far away as possible, the other half needed to know.

I didn't break down till I saw the knife.

I knelt next to her body (Gods, that felt weird. She shouldn't be a body--she should still be her), reaching out with my Sense, trying desperately to force life back into her, but it wouldn't work. I was drawing energy out of the plants, the insects, even the other Second, desperately forcing it into her body. It was pointless--like trying to hold a fistful of water, the energy kept leaking out of her and into the ground. I was on the verge of a panic attack, and somewhere deep in my hysterical mind, I knew that, but the rest of me...

I was freaking out because I wanted a rewind button or a pause button or to not know or to fix this or to have something else happen or something anything... Please please please Ju'mat help but nothing was happening and my powers were useless and

It.

Wasn't.

Working.

I would be turning 18 in a matter of weeks, but in that moment, staring down at the scarlet-coated blades of grass, I had never felt more like a child. The next words out of my mouth were completely non-sensical, but I said them anyway, maybe because it was all I knew, all I could handle in that moment.

"Why won't she wake up?"

***

AS IT TURNED out, we did drag the Second through the streets that night. I pull him behind me, numb to everything around me, because I couldn't believe that Chris was walking next to me, carrying her body.

Gods, even the thought didn't seem right. How could a leader, someone filled with so much passion and life, suddenly be gone, nothing left but the already decaying collection of skin and bones, muscles and blood, that she had once possessed?

When the door to the apartment opened, I moved in quietly, completely ignoring my best friend's sudden barrage of questions, along with Aria's comments and Dwight's snarky remarks, simply putting one foot in front of the other, moving on autopilot, tying him to a chair before turning away.

I knew the instant that they saw her body, because everything but Dwight's stream of insults stopped instantly. I heard questions and accusations, and I listened to everything going on, but I didn't join them. I was busy sitting with my back to the closed bedroom door, my head tucked between my knees, not letting myself think about anything other than keeping my breaths even, counting with my eyes closed.

I was worried I'd forget to breath if I didn't.

***

SOME TIME LATER, Thomas got back. I heard the door open, and he came in, his voice excited as he talked about a stroke of luck. He stopped mid-sentence, and I realized that Chris must've left her body on the table.

They were probably all sitting in the living room, drinking. I didn't blame them--alcohol didn't sound half-bad right now.

"What happened? Where's Sam?" I heard him ask, scared and confused.

Only silence answered him, and I didn't have to be there to know what the look on their faces would be.

My lungs started aching from sudden disuse, so I took another breath, starting my count over. I thought about moving to the bed, but I couldn't muster the energy, so I sat in the dark, listening to the sounds of the city outside the window.

No one said another word that night, and when I woke, salty tears had found their way into my mouth.