The Darkness

Chapter 14: Luke's Second Life

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

LUKE'S SECOND LIFE

LUKE POV

........Luke's Second Life.

Luke Past

I was seventeen when I first saw her. Like in every life we had together it only took a glance to fall in love with her. My father, Sir Drake was fighting a battle for Christianity and I, of course, had followed. At the time I thought he was a good man. 

We'd made our way to a village where a young woman was claiming to have visions, a sure sign of the devil. We found her in a church standing at the front towards the pulpit. She turned as we entered and I gasped, entranced. Her hair was long and blonde and her eyes were silver as she smiled at me wearing a long flowing white dress. 

"Sir Drake, Luke, welcome." I watched as three men and two women walked in from the back and flanked her on either side. They all looked angrily at us but she waved them off. 

"I'm Leslie." She paused and glanced at the people on either side of her. "We all know what must happen here. It is the only way to cease the death." Sir Drake spoke up then. 

"You must be tried as a witch."  

"And we will die but the war will end." She raised her hands as I pulled out the rope we would bind her with. Her followers followed suit as her eyes stayed on me.

..........

Father decided to let them be a lesson. He made her watch as her friends were tied to crosses and lit on fire. Their eyes never left hers as the flames engulfed them and their screams wrenched the air. No one spoke as the smell of charred flesh filled the air but tears slid silently down her cheeks. I was standing motionless until she let loose a cry of anguish that tore at my soul. I jerked and turned. My only thoughts were to get as far away as possible. 

At dawn I wandered back to the hut the villagers had let my father and I use while we were here. I glanced up to where the crosses still stood, only to see my father and Leslie saying I do. I don't know if she had panicked at the thought of death or what but she had married my father.  

I fell to knees as our past life came back to me and I remembered what she was to me. I watched in slow motion as they turned towards me. Her eyes met mine as I glanced at father and saw his eyes encompassed in black. She jerked as she saw what I saw but I was already up and running.  

I made it halfway across the village before she caught up to me. I hadn't realized she'd remembered me until she called my name. 

"Lucas Gabriel Gray. That's your name. Oh my Goddess what have I done?" She stumbled as I caught her before she fell. Pushing her hair back from her face I spoke. 

"Leslie, my love, it's done now. Our life is gone and I can't go back in time and stop you. Go to your husband and know that I will always love you." Letting her go I pushed her back as I turned and walked away.

..........

I awoke in our hut on a hard bench. I'd stumbled in several hours ago when it had started to rain. I hadn't wanted to return but I didn't have anywhere else to go. Luckily they weren't her when I'd come in and passed out in exhaustion. I felt the fire on my back and I rolled over to see who had started it and instantly wished I hadn't. 

They were sitting across from me and I grimaced as he jerked her into his lap. She sobbed, keeping her eyes tightly shut as he jerked her back against him and ripped her dress off. Her breasts fell out as he grasped her nipples and jerked on them hard. Then his pants were off and he was shoving into her savagely as he bit into her neck. Blood slid down her chest mixing with her tears as she cried out.  

His eyes met mine as they turned black and shoved into her harder than before. So hard she would have been thrown off his lap if he wasn't clutching her arms. Then her arms opened and she realized I was watching her. He cried out as he got off and shoved her to the floor. I started to rise as a bright light flashed and I was somewhere else.

**********

My eyes blinked as I struggled to adjust to the sudden bright light. Then my vision cleared and I saw I was surrounded by white sand with a river down the middle. There was no other landscape other than those two things. Where was I? One minute I'm in a hut then I'm here maybe I was dead. 

"Luke, where are we?" Startled I turned to see Leslie was standing beside me. I struggled to think of something clever to say but I had nothing. 

"Don't know." 

"Who's that?" I looked to where she was pointing knowing that no one had been here before. There was a woman floating six feet above the river. We stepped closer while her back was to us. It was then I realized she was talking to someone off the other side of the river. 

"I can't Garrett. You've died. You have to accept that." 

"But this is the river of time, Sara, can't I swim across and change it?" Sara sighed. 

"Only the living can make deals. And the price is always a steep one." 

"Excuse me." As Sara turned I caught a glimpse at the guy on the other side of the river. It was one of the guys that had died for Leslie. Leslie must have realized it too cause she rushed forward and was fixing to jump in when Sara screamed at me. 

"Don't let her do that. If she comes over here she dies." She looked across at Garret as tears slid down her cheeks. 

"Bubu, I'm so sorry. I was afraid. And Luke he's the one Bubu. I was supposed to be with him and I married the devil instead." Bubu smiled wanly as I grimaced. Bubu? What kind of nickname was that? 

"It's okay. People make mistakes Les."  

"Speaking of which, how are you two here? The only people that appear here are ones that want to change something." We both nodded as Sara sighed. 

"The price is steep and I can't tell you what it is?" 

"So how do we know what it is?" 

"You'll know when it happens." I started to speak but she shook her head. 

"I know what you want and I understand. But you two have a long ways to go and you'll have to pay two prices." We nodded as everything went black.

*********

It felt like my insides were tearing apart as I appeared inside the church when we had met Leslie. I blinked as she nodded at me and I whirled to face my father as I pulled my sword from its scabbard. His face was shocked as I rammed it through his heart. Pulling the sword from his body I pushed him down as I spoke. 

"Wars over. You'll never have her." With that I turned my back on him and walked over to kiss Leslie. Our lips had barely met when I felt a sword pierce my chest and exit Leslie's. Neither of us said a word as we fell to our knees. 

And so I paid my price. We ended the war my father had started by ending his life and ours but Leslie became the Chosen. And the side note I never told her about was that not only did she have to stop her father but she had to prove her love for me as well. Thank God she did.

**********

LUKE

PRESENT DAY

I stopped reading there unable to continue as I got the message Gabe had wanted me to get. I heard screams from inside the house but I didn't move from where I sat. Some prices had to be paid.