Evoke

chapter 9

I was in some sort of sick auditorium. Dried blood painted the walls and covered the guardrails. Blazing floodlights were aimed directly at the gruesome stage. Skulls hung from chains dangling from the ceilings, decomposing bodies with frozen horror stricken faces were piled in the corners and bloody instruments laid everywhere.

I was bound to a chair by manacles that burned where they touched my skin, unable to do anything but watch my family being tortured to death by the three Hunters!

First were my parents. They were tied together with a rope and soaked in kerosene before being set on fire. The greedy red flames licked at their bodies like hyenas. I tried to reach out to them, even call out to them but I couldn’t. All I could do was watch hopelessly as they screamed such a high pitched note while the blaze consumed them despite all my efforts to tear my eyes away from the horrifying scene. I was being forced to watch by some unseen person.

Next was Josh. He was locked in a small glass cell with a swarm of angry wasps which he’s highly allergic to. I watch them repeatedly drive their deadly little stingers into his flesh as he screamed, screams that I couldn’t hear through the glass wall of the room that encaged him. Soon I was taking in the gruesome sight of his disfigured body covered with weal’s that had puss coming out of them caused by the bee’s stings as convulsions took over his entire body which was doubled in sized.

Then it was my cousins, aunts and uncles. All of which either slowly bled to death as they were being cut all over their bodies, hanged, decapitated, mauled by various animals or locked in a tank filled with water to drown. It was just one grisly death after another and another. Once again I was forced to watch every single one of them as they screamed and begged for me to help them, begged for me to sacrifice myself. No matter how much I wanted to I couldn’t! I felt totally and completely hopeless!

Last was Chloe, sweet, kind, innocent, nine year old Chloe. They tied her to a chair and electrocuted her for five minutes, her hair-raising screams rising in pitch by the second until it was an earsplitting shriek. Froth was coming out of her mouth after the first minute proving that she was dead but the kept electrocuting her lifeless body for the remaining four minutes as I screeched her name even though I knew she could no longer hear me.

I heard a voice say that as long as I lived my family will die; each and every one of them.

“Mackenzie! Mackenzie wake up!” I heard a voice say as the nightmare faded around me. Someone was shaking my shoulder, urging me awake.

My eyes flew open and started into Shane’s face hovering over mine, his bangs fell into his face casting is into shadows before he impatiently pushed it back and I saw his worried expression. I could only see flecks of green in his eyes in the darkness. I quickly looked to my left and right and saw that everyone else was still asleep. I felt like I had just run a mile in the snow with only a tank top and shorts on.

“Mackenzie, are you okay?” Shane asked me in a concerned whisper. “You were whimpering in your sleep and saying a bunch of names.”

I looked up at him, than I buried my face into his chest and busted out in tears, feeling his hard muscles relax as I leaned into him.

“Shh,” he whispered, rubbing my back in attempt to sooth me. “Whatever it was it was just a nightmare, you’re safe now.”

“N-no it w-wasn’t,” I stuttered. “I-I th-think it was a w-wa-warning.” I explained my nightmare to him and what the voice said at the end as best as I could through all my stuttering.

“I think th-that they’re g-going to k-kill my fa-family to draw m-me out of hi-hiding.” I said, not able to stop my stuttering.

“That won’t happen,” Shane said protectively his deep green eyes flashing with a fierce intensity. “We’ll kill them before they can touch a hair on anyone in your family’s head, well not exactly us, will kill them but they will die. Plus, I swear that nothing will ever hurt you again Kenz, for as long as I live.”

“Th-thanks Shane, you don’t know what that means to me.”

“You’re welcome, now try to catch some sleep, I’ll wake you if I think if you’re having a nightmare again.”

“Okay,” then I rested my head against his chest and fell asleep, wrapped in Shane’s arms.

I didn’t find this potion in anyway awkward because Shane felt more like a brother to me. Everyone here actually feels like a sergeant family to me with Thomas being the father, Olivia the (fashion/perky) annoying little sister, Shane the caring brother, Jasper the obnoxious brother and Eddie the parent-like brother.

With that thought I drifted off into a peaceful slumber.