The Chosen

Chapter 8 - Part 2

Ian kept his eyes on the road ahead despite the questions swirling in his mind. Was Lizzie really seeing the creatures or was she still suffering from the after-effects of her car accident? If she really was seeing the creatures, what was she actually seeing?

Demons?

That was what he'd been taught.

Adniel. Would a demon reveal its name so easily?

He should've paid more attention to Cecilia, his teacher, when she was teaching him about demons. Thinking that it wasn't his responsibility to deal with them, he hadn't bothered.

No point mulling over a stupid if-only.

Ian exhaled silently through his nose. If he was honest with himself, only one question truly mattered. Now that Lizzie had admitted that she was still seeing the creatures, was he going to continue going against all he'd been taught so he could protect her?

He clenched his hands around the steering wheel.

He already knew the answer to that question. Otherwise he wouldn't have steered the car away from the route back to the compound and headed toward his childhood home.

Ian just wasn't sure why.

Helping Lizzie—especially after what she'd admitted—went against everything he was supposed to believe in.

If Lizzie could really see the creatures, then she truly did belong to the Guardians. That was what the Guardians did; they went after people like her. People whom Satan had given power to, which explained why she could see what no one else could.

He clenched his jaws.

No. Lizzie wasn't evil; there was no way she was one of Satan's minions. He hadn't known her for long, but there was no way she was marked by the devil. If she was, then why was Ian given the vision to save her? It didn't make sense.

Right now, nothing made sense.

He thought about the wooden box that Lizzie had described, and his chest tightened.

The box was such a distant memory that he thought he'd imagined it. A fragment of his creative mind filling in the hole left by the sudden departure of his mother.

And the tree house. Another piece of his distant memory that almost seemed imagined.

The tree house was before everything—before his mother died, before his life changed. That period of time was so long ago that it felt like another lifetime.

He wasn't sure how long it was before he finally turned to Lizzie. When he did, her face was angled toward the window, her hands clutched around one of the backpack's straps.

His hand moved toward hers, just as hers had when he spoke of his mother. The soft brush of her fingers over his knuckles had sent a jolt of electricity up his arm before calming into a warm comfort.

But just before their hands touched, Ian pulled his back and planted it on the steering wheel.

He couldn't remember the last time someone had reached out and comforted him as Lizzie had. He hadn't realized how long it was since someone had held him until Lizzie's mother pulled him into a hug.

Now, he wasn't sure if Lizzie would appreciate his touch, if his touch could alleviate even a smidgen of her probably overwhelming concerns.

Ian stopped the car at another red light and was checking the rear view mirror again to make sure they weren't being followed when Lizzie opened the door and stepped out.

He blinked.

She slammed the door closed and strode away from the car.

"Lizzie!" He got out, thankful that no other cars were around, and sprinted over to her, ignoring the throbbing pain on one side of his abdomen. "Where are you going?" he asked and grabbed her hand.

"I don't know." She shook his hand off. "I can see you don't want to be anywhere near me. I'm going to walk it off, then find some place quiet so I can sit and think."

"Lizzie, I'm not going to just let you walk away."

"Why?" She closed her eyes and shook her head. "Forget I asked. It isn't as if you'd answer anyway. I didn't ask for this. I didn't ask to have nightmares or to get into an accident. I didn't want to see what I saw."

"Lizzie."

"This whole thing has been crazy. I'm seeing creatures no one else sees. One of them is telling me about things I shouldn't have known. I shouldn't know your mother's name was Emily. I shouldn't know about your childhood tree house. Unless, of course, everything is rubbish but you're keeping the truth to yourself. I'm done. I can't do this."

"Lizzie," he said and reached for her hand.

"What?" she shouted in his face as she took a step away from him so his hand grasped nothing but air.

A dull ache pounded in his heart. He hated that Lizzie was shunning his touch.

"You keep telling me to trust you, but you clearly don't trust me enough to tell me anything." She turned and stormed away.

"The Guardians are after you because of what you saw and are seeing," he said while trotting behind her.

"I graduated college at fourteen. You think I haven't grasped that?"

"They're after you because no one should see what you're seeing. If you're actually able to do so, someone gave you that ability. They believe it's Satan. The syringe you saw, that was meant to knock you out so he could take you back and interrogate you." The words came tumbling out of his mouth.

She stopped and whirled back to him. "I want to know who you are and why you are helping me."

He sighed.

Lizzie shook her head and began walking away from him again.

He clasped his hand over her wrist. When she tried shaking his hand off again, he held on. "I'm a Chosen. We see visions of people we're supposed to save. When we get the visions, we set out and save the charges. I've been seeing visions of you for months. But the visions of you were different. Unlike the rest, your face was obscured. It was like watching the vision behind frosted glass, and it drove me insane because I couldn't get all the details I needed. For months, I kept thinking I might fail you."

Lizzie stared right at him. "So you weren't on your way to your aunt's. Was there any truth in anything you've said to me?"

"I wasn't lying when I told you about my parents. My dad told me that my mom passed away when I was six. I don't have many memories of her." He sighed softly. "As for everything else, it was because I wasn't supposed to tell anyone about the Guardians or what I am."

Silence filled the next minute, until she broke it with another question. "Do you think Satan gave me the power to see what I'm seeing?"

He hated the self-doubt in Lizzie eyes. And like before, when she'd talked about her future, he felt the need to reassure her. "No." He tucked her hair behind her ear and cracked a smile when she didn't flinch away from him or step out of his reach.

She pursed her lips. "Then how do you explain the things Adniel said about your mom?"

Ian sighed and ran his tongue under his row of teeth. "I've never come across anything like this."

They stood looking at each other for a moment before he took a step away from her and cocked his head to the side. "Your creature said we'd find answers at my old place, so let's go get them."

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Reposting after some edits! Do vote and add to your reading list. :)