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Allison Fae
Allison woke after a dreamless night. Her eyes opened slowly, and she sat up as she stretched across her bed. She awoke with another beginning in the shower—willing herself to fully feel the energy of the day.
She washed her hair and let the water pour over her skin for an extra few minutes before shutting the water off. She stepped out and got ready for the day. After she left the room—bag over her shoulder—she dropped the key off at the front desk and headed back out to the streets. It was early—but the hustle and bustle city energy had been prevalent in the people that Allison came across. She was able to follow a group of about twenty or so people that were all walking in the direction of the palace. She wondered how many people would be participating, reasoning that it must be pretty selective if it is a public event. Would they host a tournament full of a thousand people for others to watch as a public spectacle?
She separated from the crowd as she entered the main gates of the palace—there was a smaller group of people who she could easily tell had signed up to participate standing near a booth. She saw Zane and she kept his gaze until she joined the group. The other two people beside him looked strong—muscle definition that looked steely.
“They’ve split us into two groups.” Zane said with his arms crossed. “They already took the other four. Which means we’re not facing off first.”
“Shame,” Allison said. “What have they said thus far?”
“They’re preparing the stadium now; they’ll be taking us back and be assigning us each an opponent from the other four. Then winner moves onto the next bracket, so on.”
“I wouldn’t take it so hard when you lose,” the man closest to Zane said. “This is a man’s game and you’re just not going to stack up.”
Allison scoffed, ignoring the comment. If there was one thing she hadn’t missed it was arrogant men that thought the world revolved around them. Instead she steadied her breathing and prepared herself until the four of them were called off by an official.
~…~
LUCAS Gray
LUCAS didn’t sleep at all. He was too preoccupied with his thoughts as he sat next to Laven who passed out like a light. They ended up staying at an inn a few blocks away from the Hilltop—for all intents and purposes it was a better locale with nicer waitstaff, but he wished he could have preserved the proximity to the investigation firm.
The sun had not yet risen, but there was a feeling deep in his gut that told him he needed to act—he wasn’t sure of the exact cause but there was a sort of…ringing in the back of his head like a faint bell. He had heard that sound somewhere before and he searched his mind until it clicked.
He slowly slid out of bed and stood, looking back on Laven he replaced the blanket over her and held his hand out on her shoulder.
“I’ll be back soon, rest easy.”
He slipped a keycard into his pocket and headed out of the door. The atmosphere of the city at twilight was eerie for sure, but he knew how to protect himself if need be. He knew where he was headed—tracing the map in his mind he followed the streets until he stood facing the building across the street. He swallowed hard and walked up slowly to the doors. He looked down to the door, but before he did he looked right up at the top of the door and noticed a camera. He stared straight in and took a deep breath.
“Godsong,” he said…and he waited. It was the ringing sound he had heard in the back of his mind—the sound that emitted from the tool that Sakonna had used in the bottom of SubCon. It was the engine—their terrible engine. A fragment of the original machine, ICARUS. The only people that knew that sound and its importance were in that facility on that day.
A sound clicked as LUCAS looked down to the door. He attempted to open it and the handle turned easily. LUCAS’ breath caught in his throat, and he slowly pushed the door open. Standing in front of the desk directly in front of him was a face he couldn’t ever forget. She was almost fifty years older, but he could recognize her anywhere.
“I didn’t know what to think when I was notified that someone had attempted to break in here. At first I was annoyed,” she said, turning away from him to place both her arms out on the desk. “I have it lined to report to me of any disturbances like that. Little things, pests. But I was not prepared to see your face. I have to ask if you’re a demon—one of those nightmares come to end my days or if you’re a miracle incarnate. I need that answer before anything else.” Her voice was strained, he felt awful.
“I am not Cain Gray,” he said, and he could feel her deflate. “My name is LUCAS.”
Her eyes darted to him, and she turned back around, and then they widened in recognition. “You’re Abel’s…”
LUCAS nodded. “It took me a long time to realize that he had modeled me after Cain. That never fails to make me sad, but I am different. I am alive. And I am continuing Abel’s mission to stop the Creatures of the Night.”
A tear formed in her eyes. “I have been working my entire life to bring down those bastards after what they did. And to think you were here. And Abel? Is he…?” She looked above as if he was going to enter in behind him.
LUCAS looked to the floor, distraught. “Abel gave his life to send SubCon to the bottom of the ocean floor, permanently.”
“I…see. Well, this night keeps getting more interesting,” she said. “There’s another like you that’s here that I met with not too long ago. She’s going to be participating in that tournament here. Her name’s Allison.”
LUCAS’ eyes perked at hearing the name. “That’s exactly who I’ve come here to find, actually, but you have to be careful about that one there,” LUCAS said. “She was traveling with Sakonna not too long ago. I don’t know if she has her own agenda—”
“Hold on, working with…?” she asked. “I can’t say I got that vibe from her. There was someone else she came here with, but she said that she was planning on taking him out in the tournament.”
“Someone else?”
“He looked…not right. His skin was so pale it was almost gray and his…” she made hand motions near her head. “His head trailed back like you’d shot him with a high caliber bullet and the skin and bone decided to stay.”
The sight was not a pleasurable image. He ran a hand through his hair, “Okay, well do you know where she would be now?”
“She’s staying over at the Hilltop—least if she didn’t already head on out toward the tournament.”
“Shit,” LUCAS said. “Okay, I need to head back to my own place to gather my group—I’ve got a few friends with me that have helped me get here. I need to let them know.”
“I’d offer to go along if I was as agile as I used to be,” she said, shaking her head. “Age catches up to all of us.”
“No, don’t worry,” LUCAS said. “It was really nice to see you again, and I’m very happy you’re still here. Levi says hello too,” he smiled.
“Levi’s…” she said.
“I’ve got a backup of their database in my system,” LUCAS began. “And his core was sealed inside, I’ve been trying to bring him back to how he was before he blew up. It’s going to take some time to make a body, but I’m getting there.”
“That is wonderful. Have you heard from the others?” She asked.
LUCAS shook his head. “I think Aria and Simon are out of the country. I can’t track them that far.”
“Track…?”
“That’s how I found you here. The backup I have had encrypted data on everyone in that game. Yours was the only one we could access—although to be fair it was tricky to get to it.”
“All this time of hiding and changing my name and they could track me no matter what,” she sat against the desk, dejected.
“I do not think they have access to those records anymore,” LUCAS said. “I have a very high suspicion that mine are the last remaining copy.”
“That’s good, I guess.” She sighed. “There’s something I want you to keep safe, but you have to be careful who you tell about it. I’ve been running on the ‘no-one’ factor. It seems to have worked out.”
“It’s Godsong, isn’t it?” LUCAS asked. “You saw me in the camera and knew a way to get me to come here was to bring that out—almost like a code word.”
“I didn’t know what I was doing, really. I felt compelled to try, and if you responded curiously to it I would have less a chance to fear you. If you were someone who knew what it was I could possibly entrust it to you to keep.” She reached into a pocket of her overcoat and brought out a white prism. “It’s much smaller than in the days of old. I’ve realized they built a shell around the core itself back on SubCon. This is the true essence of the beast itself.”
“I am honored,” LUCAS began. “But why don’t you keep it…or why didn’t you trust Allison with it?”
She sighed. “I can’t keep it because I’m sick, and I’m not going to be around much longer. I run this place like a workhorse because I know it’s not going to be much longer that I can and I’m trying to make things as right as I can before then. And as for Allison…I don’t know. I got the vibe I could trust her with enough information but not all the information. She reminds me a lot of myself when I was her age and that is a dangerous thing.”
LUCAS nodded, he understood. “I’ll happily accept it, thank you. I’m going to go see if I can head her off before she makes it to the tournament.”
Sherry nodded and smiled. “You have his face, but you don’t have his flaws. You’re going to make someone very happy someday.”
“I hope so,” LUCAS said, but he turned and ran out before he could see the reaction. He palmed the fragment in his hand as it glowed with the shimmering silvery rainbow of an opal. By the time he hit the streets he hadn’t realized it was starting to brighten outside as the sun hung on the horizon. Shit.
He booked it back to the inn and hoped he wasn’t too late.
~…~
William Wallace
He stared at himself in the mirror. The new tournament of champions was to begin and still he couldn’t be satisfied with the face that stared back at him on the other side of the glass. Here he had absolutely everything under his control with zero threat to his power for the conceivable future and yet still he sat in his lonesome with that dark feeling in his heart that no matter what he did he would always be judged. Always be loathed.
The shadow of his mother faded behind him, staring holes into his back like the knives they twisted. Daniel Aldoun appeared to his side; Ellie Parker next to him. The other students’ golden eyes peered at him from the shadows and suddenly the weight he carried seemed momentous. On top of the weight fell the darkness of Amnael.
Except, he wasn’t in the shape of Amnael. He had been a man in his middle ages who had a thin sweep of dark hair and even thinner glasses on the bridge of his nose. He knew not the man’s name, but he felt the man’s anger—his desperate rage that melted through the mirror.
“You will stay in your places and cease your voiceless jabbering,” William gripped the sides of the desk so hard his knuckles were pure white. “I have revoked your ability to judge me. I will not hesitate to revoke your ability to remember me. So help me if I don’t just wipe this empire of the face of the planet before you shadows have anything to say about it.”
He bent down and took a deep breath. He needed to get a hold of himself. The thought appeared that he might have mislaid the trap near his central elevator—that his mistake would be the ultimate undoing, but he refused to give into paranoid delusions. The voices only kept growing in his mind like a cacophony of regret swirling like a tsunami.
He made pained steps toward the overlook where he would sit and judge the tournament. There was a buzzing sound in his ear—it wasn’t from the voices, and it wasn’t from the people below. It was a new sound, and he wasn’t sure of its origin. It hissed like smoke and fire and…he lost it. It whirred past him one moment and then gone the next. He shook it off. It sounded distant—if it wanted to come and wipe them all out at this point. So be it. He would go out watching the sport of his own creation.
Ain’t no good boy indeed.
~…~
Allison Fae
Allison was first up on the docket to fight a man named Darren Dinto. He was a construction worker who spent frequent mornings training so he could bring his poor mother up from the bootstraps after their father had been taken out of work from an accident on the job. Allison was empathetic to his situation, but it was not enough to halt her progress. She sat in a small, darkened lobby just outside the central stadium. It existed in the center of the palace’s inner courtyard—the modifications had at one point been done by Darren’s own family.
She heard a voice echo all across the stadium but could only catch bits and pieces of the opening. The voice was a young man’s projected, but she noted how strained his voice had sounded. She caught a little bit of the history of the event before she decided to instead focus on her own plan. She ran through the rules of the event in her head once more.
Two fighters would enter the ring and would use every tool in their arsenal to determine a victor. If no side caved in defeat the fight would go to the death. She closed her eyes and hoped the only fighter it would have to come to that to would be Zane. She looked to her right and through the darkness—through the walls she could see the holding lobby where the other fighters sat as they viewed the ongoing match. They were encased almost like a prison cell. They probably were outfitted cells if she thought about it hard enough. It was clear it was made to avoid any outside interruption for the fighters at hand.
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The lights around her started to glow and that was her sign to begin walking. She took even paces out to the stadium proper and saw thousands of people in the stands all around her in a circle. It echoed the roman coliseums of old—an image that would forever live on in her memory.
~…~
Ally Fae / LUCAS Gray
LUCAS had yet again missed out on his opportunity and dashed back to the inn to wake the others up. They had met him outside—Laven had given him a verbal lashing for leaving alone in the dead of night, but she had understood when he told her what he had heard and showed the fragment he held. The three of them looked at one another and knew they had no time to lose.
“No Bambo or Roshe yet?”
Laven shook her head. “It’s possible they stayed somewhere else. I haven’t seen hide nor hair of them and this city is huge.”
“We should get going, right?” Ally asked.
Laven nodded. “Castle’s this way. If she’s entering the tournament we can at least confirm our sights on her and gain insight.”
“Sounds good to me, but we need to make sure the fragments we have are secure,” LUCAS said. “I wouldn’t be shocked if they’re checking for weapons in the audience.”
“That’s true…” Ally said. “Hey, wait. Jace,” she said, looking over to see him appear beside her.
“Yes master?” He offered a terrible accent.
“Hold these,” she motioned to the fragments in LUCAS’ hands.
“Oh I like the way you’re thinking,” he said, chuckling. “Sorry for the accent. I can do that right away, go poof, and they’ll be safe with me.”
“Like a portable storage system,” Laven said. “Yeah that’ll work.”
LUCAS nodded and handed the two pieces over. He palmed them and vanished without another word.
With that in agreement the three of them ran as hard as they could to the palace.
The crowd forming around the palace was dominating. It was as if the entirety of the commonwealth had gone to attend this one event.
“Perhaps attendance is required by citizens,” LUCAS offered.
“Perhaps they’re just curious of the fights and just enjoy it?” Laven countered.
Whatever the reason was, they were antsy as the seating process began. They were surprised they were able to fill the stadium which had extended itself in a full circle around the events below as the central spire where the emperor sat hung in full view behind the seats that sat opposite them.
Ally looked up to see the emperor open the door that led to his inner chambers. He walked out with a slow stride. He wore a full black two-piece suit and sat with a noticeable lack of effort on the throne at the edge of the balcony. It was hard to see anything below his chest, but from here she could see a despot’s gaze.
“He looks awful,” Ally said. “Like he doesn’t care about anything.”
“Welcome to the life of an emperor,” Laven said.
LUCAS stared up at the man as he cleared his throat and the crowd around silenced.
“Hello all and welcome to our tournament of champions. You know the drill by this point. I don’t need to waste your time explaining the rules. But I will remind you that this was a gift to you, the populace for the glory you can achieve if you too apply yourself, blah next. Our first challengers are on the screen there. You can read. You all can begin now.”
It was certainly a speech. The three of them looked at each other confused, but the masses erupted into a raucous applause and on the gigantic board to the side of the central spire saw the names appear on the screen. Ally looked and swallowed hard as her own name appeared on the screen.
So they were starting off with her. She felt terrified for this moment, but knew she had to tough it out. What happened next would greatly change how the rest of…everything played out. She felt Jace by her side in spirit and he felt him put a hand on her shoulder.
“You got this, love.”
~…~
Allison Fae
“You got this, love,” the faint voice whispered from her lance, and she closed her eyes and heard the taunt incoming from her opponent. The crowd’s loud cheers had totally drowned him out. She kept her eyes closed and could see the entirety of the battlefield as if dozens of spotlights had highlighted them. She saw the figure of the boy—he couldn’t have been older than his mid-twenties—start dashing toward her. She stood perfectly still and focused on her breathing.
The crowd’s noises tuned to a perfect silence and suddenly she heard the laughter as Darren had begun to celebrate his early victory. She waited until he crossed the line. He kept dashing forward and brought out a sharpened scimitar. It glistened in the crimson rays above and he raised it above his head.
She tapped her armband with her right middle finger and the lance extended to its full length ending right at the center of his gut. He ran into it and dug his heels into the dirt. The tip of the lance had broken skin, but he pulled back enough to avoid impaling himself on the end.
“Shit!” He called.
She whipped the lance around like a staff and the back and gelled to a fluid and she spun it like a pair of chrome chucks and shot out an end toward his legs. It wrapped around and hooked into his heel as she yanked upward. It spun him around and sent him to his stomach. She stepped over and carried the lance and bent down—willing the metal to work with her hands. Her body was over his and the crowd had to wait in anticipation of her final presentation.
She backed off and revealed Darren Dinto hog-tied with the metal sealing his wrists and ankles together in one central mass.
“Submit,” Allison said under her breath. It reached his mind simply and he called for submission. A cannon exploded above, and bountiful fireworks were displayed over the field to signal defeat. Her name was displayed on the scoreboard as the victor. He gave a wave to the crowd—she figured she’d play to it while she was here. Her gaze froze at one face in the stadium.
Up on the western edge—third row from the bottom and seventh person across was a young girl who looked remarkably like Allison Fae. She locked eyes with her doppelganger and kept a lock for just a moment to send one thought over.
“Who are you?’
She held still as the crowd’s cheers sustained her look as she waited for a response. One came, and it came forceful.
“You. Is it true you worked with Sakonna?”
The question was simple in its reply, but the answer was much more complicated and couldn’t be sent back through such a quick medium. She simply looked at her and turned, returning back toward the eastern exit back to the holding lobby as the next group began their match. She caught a glance up at the screen to catch the names of the new opponents as they were being entered in.
She could only see Zane’s name being entered before the ran out of time and re-entered through darkness.
~…~
Ally Fae / LUCAS Gray
Ally stared in horror as she saw the fight play out in less than thirty seconds. She had Darren pinned almost immediately. The crowd around her ripped into a vacuous roaring that nearly deafened her. She turned to LUCAS and Laven who had similar looks of concern on their faces.
The screen started to shift over as Allison started walking back toward the side of the stadium. The name that replaced Allison’s name was Zane Hannes, and then name that replaced Darren Dinto’s…
~…~
Allison Fae
Allison sat on a bench looking through the one-way glass that looked out toward the field. She saw Zane walking out onto the pitch. On the other side of the field she saw a figure wearing a dark cloak with the hood pulled up over their head.
Zane bent forward and she saw his mouth moving—something of a taunt but she couldn’t hear what he said.
Zane leapt forward as his tendrils shot out of his back. The energy of the crowd echoed so loud she could hear it plain as day underneath them. The holding zone sat just underneath the audience seats above and the display board just behind them. She eyed that robed figure as he stood still—very similar to how Allison’s play worked out. The difference was she was sure Zane was infinitely more dangerous than Darren was.
Zane leapt into the air and barreled toward the figure. She saw him bend at the knees slightly, waiting for Zane to get closer. Zane’s sharpened tendril arced over his head as the two to his rear shot out reaching for the figure’s legs. The figure grabbed for the robe and thrust it into his grip and balled it into his fist. The face offered a smile as his eyes offered a serious look—blue and hazel in contrasting accord.
Allison stood to her feet as she saw her father rip his robe off. He ducked underneath Zane’s frontal assault and he whipped out the rope like a towel from an age long passed—tightened to crack like a whip—except his hands had been glowing a pure white. The crack was amplified and billowed smoke as the impact sent Zane off balance.
Zane aimed himself up and managed to land on his fours, but he smiled a wild grin as he stood up and brushed himself off. He spun fast and vanished into thin air, talk around the stadium had begun and Gavin took two steps in reverse, and he too disappeared just moments before Zane emerged from a void in the air that looked like it had been torn with dark claws. He lunged into empty space and Gavin caught him from the side, pinning him down
Gavin reached down and took the fragment of the Black Monolith from Zane slipping it into his hand. It was a sight missed by most by how subtle it was, but Allison was deadlocked staring at the swift motion. Zane erupted into a fury and Gavin hopped off. He landed and disappeared once again.
Zane was wary, looking all around him—sensing where his energy had gone to. There was a silence among the crowd as they waited for Gavin’s attack, but it did not come.
~…~
Ally Fae / LUCAS Gray
“What the hell is Gavin doing here?” LUCAS asked.
“I don’t like this,” Laven said.
“Who is that?” Ally turned to ask.
“He was working with the caravan I was a part of before this. He wasn’t full time like I was, but he collaborated with us enough to be a regular.”
“He’s the one who introduced me to the fragments of ICARUS,” LUCAS said. “He’s involved in this whole situation, but I can’t quite get the grasp of how.”
LUCAS watched as Gavin so effortlessly put the creature named Zane in his place and then…vanished. They looked in anticipation as the crowd around them held their breath waiting for the attack. The cannons were let loose, and Zane was declared the winner. He screamed out in a roar that echoed louder than the crowd.
~…~
Zane
His face was pushed into the dirt with the troublesome man digging a knee into his back. He tried lashing out with his tendrils and he bared his fangs, but he was kept down. The man looked at him with a look that seared red hot feelings past his vision. He wanted to rend his flesh from his bones and see them scattered at the base of a million dead planets.
The man bent down and took hold of the black treasure and as his face was down he whispered, “Thanks for your consideration.”
The pressure lifted off of Zane and he immediately kicked up to his feet. He saw the man float backward and vanish. Zane tensed up and turned to face the opposite direction awaiting the next strike. He clenched his fist, but silence ran through the coliseum as it became increasingly clear that he was alone on the pitch—the man had vanished for good. The cannon blasted into the sky and Zane turned to see the explosions in the air.
“No…” he said. He looked to the display board to show a sign of forfeit from the man who called himself Gavin. “No…I’m not done. I will not be made the fool. I WILL NOT!” He screamed and his cries filled the space and he spun to look up at the emperor above. He launched himself into the air and landed on the edge of the balcony—facing the man who looked down on him. He looked like a rat who had been stuffed plump for far too long.
~…~
William Wallace
The creature leapt from his place on the ground and landed directly in front of him. The ringing sound in the back of his mind had turned up to a fever pitch. It rang from somewhere far above and he didn’t dare look away from the creature that stared at him with a blood-thirst that resonated with his own. His mother behind him placed a hand on his shoulder and he shook her off, a dead look in his eyes.
William stood, the throne behind him knocking back from the force—the energy between the two of them was electric.
Zane leapt forward and wrapped his tendrils around William’s legs. They sunk with hooks into his skin, but William shoved a fist right into Zane’s sternum, knocking him off balance on the ledge. He fell down off the balcony. The tendrils still had William up by the legs so he was dragged with Zane off the balcony back to the pitch. The crowd gasped as they saw the two of them tumbling down.
“WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?” A voice pierced the chaos and the collective gaze rose toward an object in the sky—a gigantic fireball headed directly toward them.
~…~
Ally Fae / LUCAS Gray
Zane had leaped out toward the emperor and Ally sat back in shock as the crowd gasped all around her. She looked to the side and saw that LUCAS and Laven had started to stand. “Things are about to get real wiry. I think we need to help,” LUCAS said.
“Ally, stay safe here. Send Jace in if you need to,” Laven said, placing a hand on her shoulder.
She nodded and whispered to her constant companion. He appeared by her side and nodded in response.
“Come on, let’s g—” LUCAS was cut off by the girl on his immediate right screaming into the air. “WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?” Her arm was outstretched and past the falling bodies of Zane and William was a gigantic object crashing down to the surface—it looked huge. It wasn’t rock—it looked like a gigantic hunk of metal shooting out from the cosmos.
“SHIT!” LUCAS called, turning to the others. “We need to get out of here, NOW.”
~…~
Ally Fae / LUCAS Gray
Allison saw Zane leap up toward the emperor and she knew she had to intervene. She bolted out toward the edge of the stadium and heard a tremendous screaming from above, but the specifics of what it had said had eluded her. She emerged from the darkness to see the two bodies tumbling toward the earth—William was above and Zane below. She crossed the distance and whipped out her lance. She closed her eyes and saw a few very important facts all at once
Zane definitely no longer held the fragment of the Black Monolith—that was now with her father wherever he vanished to. That would have to be a tack she tackled at another point. Second, the emperor had the remains of a Child of the Night within him. She sensed a name behind his face, and she spoke it aloud: “Mason Radica.”
She looked between her two targets and made the choice as she leapt up and soared up to their falling forms. She brought her lance and ran it through William’s chest, pinning him to the wall of the central spire. His eyes bugged out of his head as the realization hit but he offered no final word. Shadows claimed his soul from within and his eyes went dark as blood trailed down his lips.
Zane below flipped enough to land on all fours as he looked up at the both of them. Allison felt a lingering wind around her whisper thanks, and she eased her breathing as she opened her eyes to Zane leaping up toward her.
She glanced up above and saw the object falling toward them and instantly she recalled seeing something exactly like that not too long ago—and she ripped the lance from William’s body as they both fell to the ground below. She formed the metal of her lance into a flat edge and used it to propel herself away from the wall and then she slid it under her feet as a sled to absorb the shock of the fall. Zane caught William’s body mid fall and he started tearing into it as he fell.
“Come on come on come on come on,” Allison said to herself. The crowd had evacuated the stadium and it would be too late for her to get out now. She saw Zane finish his meal, unsatisfied from the remains and he turned to her. Pure hatred shone in his eyes and he dashed toward her on all fours with his tendrils running amok out of his spine.
Allison thought fast and spread her metal around her like a shield over the top and dug the edges underneath the dirt. She was surrounded by pitch black. She heard Zane beating on the sides and it put to mind the day she lost her leg with Felix slamming his drunken stupor into the shield. She curled up tight and gripped the Red Monolith tightly. She felt a cooling energy spread over the shield and as she closed her eyes she saw Zane’s bloodhound-like gaze turn slowly upward as he realized how little time he had remaining. He gritted his teeth and turned into himself, vanishing from view.
Allison remained alone in the stadium, but in truth she wasn’t really alone. She felt the warmth of Jace hold her still. She felt Devon and Alex appear by her in the dark. They embraced hands and waited for the end.