Chapter Seventy-Four

Jenny tried not to be scared. She settled her face into a brave expression, keeping the tears back. Her Daddy wouldn’t want her to cry, so she balled her fists, keeping her back rigid as she stared at the barred door, keeping them safe.

Andrea was holding one of the crying kids. Jenny didn’t blame any of them for crying; she could hear the booms, screams of pain, and clashing metal like they could. Every so often the building would shake like an earthquake that her school used to make the kids drill for.

A hard lump made her throat feel tight, so she tried to swallow it. I won’t cry! I won’t! she told herself. Her nails dug into her palms, and this time, she welcomed the pain as a distraction.

BOOM! The building shook. A child cried out; Andrea made soft, comforting shushing noises, her hand stroking the hair of the frightened boy. Jenny gritted her teeth. There was no reason to worry, she knew. Mr. Ambrose was out there, and he would protect them.

Mr. Ambrose had always protected them. From the very beginning, he had. She could see the sadness eating away at him. It was a shadow monster that preyed on his heart, the dark light that glinted in his eye. It was in the set of his shoulders, the weight of his jaw, and the faraway looks he would get.

It was in the way he would settle his hand on her head as if seeing her as something precious soon to be lost. She had wanted badly to cheer him up, to banish that shadow around him. Even when he did super scary stuff like hurt that bad Reaver man.

That had made her want to cry, seeing that. But he had been a bad man, that Reaver. He had hurt her Daddy, and even though what Mr. Ambrose had done to him had been scary, she knew it had been deserved.

Daddy was wary of Mr. Ambrose; she could see that, too. She saw way more than adults thought she did. He didn’t like how Mr. Ambrose handled things. Even now, he clenched his jaw and paced, like a grumpy bear.

“It’s okay, Daddy. Mr. Ambrose will protect us.”

Daddy glanced at her, and his worried brown eyes gained warmth as he smiled.

“I know sweetheart. Of course, he will.”

But his head turned, and she saw his shoulders bunch up.

BOOM!

The building shook, fading away as the sounds of squelching and screaming carried through the wood.

Jenny blinked and shook her head. Tears wanted to flow, but she refused to let them, clenching her eyes tight. She felt a warm hand touch her head, and she looked up at her Dad.

He pulled her into a hug, kissing her hair.

“It’s going to be okay, princess. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

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A crack split through the room, and a child screamed, pointing.

“Monster!”

Jenny looked and saw a scary green face with dead eyes looking into the room, a metal axe sticking through the hole. Darren stood up.

“Go with Andrea, sweetie.”

Her Daddy looked at Andrea, pointing to the trap door in the back,

“Take the tunnel out, get the kids to safety. I’ll buy you time.”

Andrea nodded and held out her hand to Jenny.

“Let’s go, honey.”

Jenny knew that expression. Her Dad had that expression on the night the System came and they fell into the portal. It said bad things were about to happen.

She was tired of not helping. Of seeing bad things happen and being unable to do anything about them.

“No! I’m staying with my Daddy!” Her tiny body quivered as tears fought their way through her eyes this time.

“Sweetheart, I know you want to help, but you can’t. You need to go with her.”

Even as Darren spoke, another crack split the air. The trap door was opened, and kids led by other adults started going through. Jenny shook her head as fiercely as she could.

“I’m not going! I’m staying! I can help!”

Darren closed his eyes, and Jenny saw his throat tighten.

“Grab her, Andrea. Make her go…and keep her safe.”

Andrea grabbed a hold of her.

Jenny screamed, thrashing as she was pulled. Darren rushed to the door, the bar blocking it bending inward as weapons tore at the wood. She could see Mr. Ambrose through the cracks, fighting something huge.

“Mr. Ambrose!! Help!! We need you!!”

But he ignored her calls.

Her throat tore, and she scratched at Andrea’s hands. The other woman cursed, pulling her. Her Daddy roared, pressing his hands to the doors, keeping them shut as monsters tried hacking their way through.

“Mr. AMBROSE!” Jenny screamed, pain tearing her throat, burning like acid in her effort to be heard.

No answer. She struggled in Andrea’s grip as the woman pulled at her.

“We need to go, Jenny! Come one!” Andrea yelled.

She didn’t hear her. She wanted to run to her father, she needed to get to her father.

She saw a power infuse her Daddy as he kept the door closed, but the doors were coming apart. Splinters spraying inward as weapons did their brutal work on the doors.

Darren cursed, and turned, his face twisted as he spread out his arms wide, bending his legs.

“Go! Andrea! I’ll hold the doors.”

His eyes turned to hers then. Those eyes looked at her with a father’s love.

Jenny had heard that eyes were the windows to the soul, and in her father’s eyes, she saw herself. She was a baby, swaddled and held by him, her finger wrapped tightly around his.

She was a toddler, running around the house, bringing him toys as he laughed, picked her up, and tossed her in the air. She was smiling, squealing with a toddler’s joyful laughter.

She was being pushed on a swing. She was sick in bed, her father’s warm, strong hand on her forehead, eyes filled with worry.

She was ten, her father putting a crown on her head at her party, smiling gently at her.

As Jenny was pulled through the tunnel, she saw sharp metal pierce through her father’s chest, blood rushing forth as if from a broken dam.

She screamed until her throat was raw.

Her father’s face wasn’t twisted with pain, he didn’t cry out. He simply looked at her, a loving smile on his lips, a proud light in his eyes.

Her father couldn’t die. He was Daddy, strong, invincible…safe. When things got bad, he was there, protecting her, guiding her.

Jenny watched in slow horror as that light of love, of warmth, faded from her Dad’s eyes.

She was pulled through the door as monsters poured into the room, her Dad’s broken body crumbling to the ground, blood pooling beneath him. The eyes were windows to the soul, but her father’s soul was no longer there.

Now his eyes were just lifeless, dead things that held nothing in them.

Jenny would never feel her father’s love again.

She was no longer a little girl.

At that moment, she became something else, and as the trap door closed behind her, Andrea rushed them up the tunnel; Jenny felt resolve burn through her.

She had one single thought etched in the fires of loss across her soul.

Never again.