Beauty From Ashes

Chapter 29: Unity Part 1

So for this chapter, we're in for some sweet reunions and interactions.

Now, the past two chapters both left off on cliffhangers, and I assure you, both of them are going to be resolved here. But before we continue the ending of the previous chapter. I'd like to set it up by showing what happened, 24 hours ago.

Albert's POV
Finally after a long tense day and a half, and after a fun little feast and get together with a bunch of friends, and a pretty wild encounter with those Conquerors, I'm finally back home with my family and Cheyenne. Cheyenne and I are stepping into her room to put away some of the stuff she packed for her attempted run away.

Colton is in the music room, preparing a list of contacts and preparing the online invitations for Friday's upcoming party. Mom is doing calls in the kitchen, dad is watching some games in the living room, and I can imagine Jillian is running around. God I wish I could just lay down and relax for the rest of the day after that intense encounter, but I've only got 6 days before I go, and 5 days until my party, so as soon as I finish putting Cheyennes bag and dirty clothes into the basket, I've gotta work on getting a head start.

But as I set them down and stand up straight.... Cheyenne locks the door, and I turn over to her with a squint. "Uh, hey? Why did you lock the door?"

She shrugs. "We said we were gonna talk about.....stuff when we get home."

I squint to her. "I mean yeah but....haha, I didn't think you meant as soon as we got here."

She shrugs. "A good time as any. Since we're about to be busy as heck."

I close my eyes and shrug. "Fair enough. So, where do you wanna go with it?"

Cheyenne then looks around the room in silence. She sighs. "You know, I was half expecting this room to be so much more trashed...."

"Huh?" I look to her back. "Because of those demons?"

"Yeah.... Though I'm not sure why. Since I saw this room the day after." Then she turns to me and let's out a snicker. "Sometimes I forget that this was Colton's room too."

I chuckle and smile. "Yeah, me too. Well, first this was our mom's room, dad was next door,, and then the two of us shared the room downstairs." I tuck my hands into my pockets and laugh some more. "And like, I'm not even sure why we did that. Maybe mom was putting dad in the dog house over some-"

"I had a dream about you in this room," she said abruptly.

I turn around and squint. "What?"

She sits on the bed and looks up at me. "That first night when- whenever Lacey, Mads, and Teri attacked me. After I passed out, I had a dream with- with you, and Vincent-"

"You had a....dream about me?"

"About all of you. All the people I knew...." She takes a deep breath. "You died. All of you. And Hell had taken the Earth...."

I stare at her for a moment and shut my eyes. "Wait. You mean the nightmare that woke us all up years ago?" She nods her head. I shake my head in response and walk over to sit on the floor with her. "How did it happen?"

Cheyenne closes her eyes and shakes as she recalls it. "We....We were shopping somewhere. Trying to- to pick up some stuff before, you had to rehearse. And....And you knew who I was."

This leaves me confused.

"No. You....You knew that I was the Phoenix. You were angry....and afraid.... And- And one of the demons who tortured me thrust it's claws through your chest, and it jumped back down to Hell, carrying you with it. And....And then I could hear everybody else. Screaming. Scared....and they were- laughing at me. Mocking me for how....I kept silent. How I didn't warn them.... Warn you and everyone else, about....what I saw down there...."