Through the Windshield Glass (34 page)

"I don't
have time for that! Make them all disappear like last time!" I demanded.

Daman laughed
again and black poison dripped from his mouth. He advanced towards me until he
was just inches from my face. He smelled worse than the last time I had
encountered him in the hall. It made me long to smell sewage, burning compost,
or even a decaying mammal baking in the sun. I swallowed my vomit and looked
Daman straight in his black eyes.

"I am not
going through the doors again," I said angrily.

"Then you
condemn your friends to die," Daman said, "Just like my Rose, lovely
Scarlett, and that large one, Roman was it? Don't look so sad, his girlfriend
will be dead soon too. Stephano told me she killed three of my best men when
they went to your camp. When we found her in my palace it was too good to
resist. I'll have
　
her
executed, but not before my boys have had some fun."

I gathered my
strength and shoved Daman away from me. As he had been talking I saw each of
the people he mentioned die as though I had actually been there. I could feel
Kinga's blood spraying my face.

I watched as
Scarlett exited the room where I had been kept in the palace, I shouted for her
to watch out as two demons came up silently behind her. One grabbed her hair
and forced her head back, the other slit her throat wide with Bridgette's
knife. Scarlett dropped to the ground, the two demons made three small slits in
each of their own palms and washed their hands in Scarlett's blood. When they
had finished they looked stronger, deadlier, and disturbingly more human.

I tried to
close my mind to the images, but I couldn't do it. I saw the attack on the camp
and watched as demons and friends alike began to fall. Arthur intercepted a
demon who had flung himself at Scarlett and was rewarded with a vicious
disembowelment. Roan proceeded to kill the beast while he pushed Scarlett into
a tent and commanded the
　
sobbing
girl to stay there.

The view
switched to Roman and Bridgette, they were fighting back to back with much
success. Roman looked like he was about to laugh as he easily restrained three
demons at once. He turned to Bridgette and nodded to her.

"This is
for Arthur," Bridgette said angrily. Her vorpal blade slit all three
throats of the caught creatures. She and Roman both turned back to the fight,
but before another round of throat slitting could occur, Stephano arrived.
Roman saw him first, he pushed Bridgette into a tent just before time was
frozen and everyone was glued in place.

"The Great
King Alecsande cordially invites you all to attend his wedding," Stephano
announced gallantly, "If you would kindly--" that's when he noticed
the three freshly dead demons lying at Roman's feet.

"Did you
kill these men?" Stephano asked Roman. The invisible bonds released Roman
and before Stephano could stop him, Roman lashed out, wrapped his massive hand
around Stephano's thin neck and lifted him off the ground.

"They were
not men," Roman growled, "And neither are you."

For a moment it
seemed that Roman had won, Stephano was turning purple. However, just as the
demon's life was about to end, an arrow pierced Roman's skull and the giant was
no more.

"No one
else has to die if you will all kindly follow us," Stephano said. No one
bothered to check the tents so Bridgette and Scarlett were left to grieve over
their lost loved ones. I watched Bridgette cradle Roman's huge bleeding head in
her lap as she sang him a lullaby and finally closed his eyes.

Then I was
watching her being overpowered in the halls by a hoard of demons, Daman emerged
from their ranks and smirked evilly into Bridgette's face, "Don't worry,
as soon as my boys are done with you, you can join your love."

Finally, the
torturous vision ended and I collapsed to the ground at Daman's feet. I could
barely see, I could only just make out Daman's shoes.

"You have
become very powerful Daman," a deeper, more vicious voice said from
behind Daman.

"I was
taught well," Daman said meekly. I watched his feet turn and his head came
briefly into view as he bowed deeply to the voice.

"It's
really too bad you tried to escape me by marrying her," the voice said,
"You would have been a wonderful assistant."

Something
whistled through the air and caught in Daman's chest with a sickening crunch.
He fell to the ground in front of me; completely and unbelievably dead.

I was wrenched
from the hall and found myself waking up in Michael's arms.

"Alice,
are you okay?" Michael asked frantically, "Why is your head
bleeding?"

"Don't
mind that," I said weakly as I tried to sit up, "There are more
important things to worry about. I've got good news, and bad news. The bad news
is we're about to have company."

"What's
the good news?" Michael asked.

"I'm a
widow," I replied.

Chapter Forty-nine

Michael was
still staring at me with his face stuck somewhere between confusion and
happiness when time froze. I knew it couldn't be Stephano who had done it, the
stillness was so complete I could barely breathe.

At first I
thought it was pain that caused the world around me to become black, but it was
soon clear that the power that had extinguished the light was not my own human
weakness. The evil in the air was palpable, it stroked my skin, played with my
hair and whispered something in my ear I couldn't ignore.

"I can
give you back your life," it said. I could do nothing but listen to the
essence. I felt it touch hand, it traced the circle in my palm and I watched as
it lifted away, glowing and golden. The circle floated to just above my head,
"You don't have to be your family's angel any longer. You can go back to
before you died and choose to live."

I felt I was in
a dream, the whispering no longer seemed menacing. It was more like enticing,
friendly, and kind. I could see my room in front of me like I was standing in
the doorway. My bed was undone and inviting, I knew all I had to do was lie
down in it and I could go back to living with my family. The voice urged me to
do it. My heart beat fast, I so wanted to take
　
a
step, but something held me back. I couldn't decipher what it was, but it kept
my feet from moving.

"You can
even save your friend," the voice promised. Suddenly, I saw Maria standing
in my room. She looked perfect and I wanted to run to her, but again, my feet
seemed to know something my brain did not.

"Alice,"
Maria said, "Don't you want to help me? I shouldn't have died, I was
tricked, I don't want to be dead."

"I
know," I said, "I know, but--"

"You can
save Michael and Leigh as well," Maria said, "You can keep them from
dying in the horrible ways they did."

"Please,
Alice," I heard Leigh's voice beg. I whipped around looking for the source
of her voice, but I couldn't see her.

"Alice,
none of us should have died the way we did. You can change that, all you have
to do is go to sleep," Michael's voice urged. It was as if he was standing
next to me, his breath tickled my ear, but when I turned he too was absent.

I wanted to
obey so badly. My head began to hurt with the effort of ignoring the pleas for
help. I was dizzy, lightheaded and in tremendous amounts of pain. With each
throb of my ribs and pound in my head I lost more of my nerve. It was agonizing
to know that I couldn't do anything despite what was being promised to me.

"I can't
save you, Maria," I said finally. Maria looked enraged, but she didn't say
a word, "You were dead before I got out of my driveway, there's nothing I
could have said to save you."

Maria began
crying bitterly, "You won't even try?" she asked desperately.

"No,"
I said firmly. The word was heavy and sharp. It sliced through Maria's thin
constitution and I watched as she crumbled into a desperate dying heap on the
floor.

"How can
you say that?" Maria shrieked. She started crawling towards me, but she
didn't make it far before her chest begant to echo blood again. Within seconds
she was lying on the floor gasping out her last bloody breaths. She looked up
at me with the last bit of light in her body before her pupils became cold and
dark. The desire to rush to her was almost unbearable, I grasped the doorway
and tried to look anywhere else, but I couldn't escape Michael and Leigh.

"My
brother murdered me, Alice," Michael said, "You can stop him from
ever doing that, you could even stop him from dying and ruining so many other
things."

Michael's
request was tantalizing, but Leigh's plea was worse, "I gave my life to
help a girl, shouldn't I get a reward for doing that?"

I clamped my
hands over my ears and shut my eyes tightly, but it only made things worse. I
could see Leigh being suffocated to death by the girl who had hated her so
much. Her little loving face changed colors gradually as she let herself die.
Within minutes her face matched her eyes and she looked like a fragile China
doll as she fell from the girl's arms into a graceful heap on the floor.

Then I was
rewatching Michael's
　
death,
his heart beat for the last time and I opened my eyes again,
　
"I can't save you! Why
can't you realize that?"

"But you
can, Alice," the whispering voice said, "All you have to do is go to
sleep in your bed and when you wake up, everything will be as it should
be."

"Prove
it!" I insisted.

The scene in
front of me changed, I was now looking at myself lying in my bed as I had the
morning I died. I watched as I saw the text from Maria and immediately sprang
into action, but something was different. Instead of rushing to my car, I
called Maria's home, not her cell phone. In a frantic voice I informed Mr. Cole
to stop his daughter before she killed herself. I heard him run up the stairs
with the phone still in his hand and listened while he burst into Maria's room,
wrestled the gun away from her, and held her while she sobbed into his chest.

Then I was
looking into Maria's future. I saw her falling in love with a handsome man
while I stood by as her maid of honor. We grew old as best friends, she died
with many children and grandchildren; while I died an old maid who never gave
up hope. Somehow, I was all right with that because I knew Maria was happy and
I had been the cause of it, and I knew it would be selfish of me to take any of
that away from her if I married someone better or had more children.

My view changed
again so I was watching Leigh's life. I was volunteering at the home where she
was staying and I heard the screaming of angry girls coming from another room.
I hurried into the room just in time to pull Leigh from the girl's arms and
call an ambulance. Leigh survived with a good attitude and few bruises. She
grew up to be a highly successful doctor, she married a fabulously wealthy man
and she had five beautiful children. Again, I felt a great pride in knowing
that I was the reason for all of Leigh's good fortune.

The last
person's fate I saw was Michael's. I was looking at him in the heat of battle
again, but it was a different scene than the one I remembered. Michael was not
dragging Daman's body to a fox hole; he was standing alongside his brother
watching the chaos before them unfold. It was clear neither of them had seen
real combat before.

"Tell them
to get into a hole," the voice whispered in my ear. Without even thinking
about it, I obeyed. Somehow the brothers heard me and both sprinted for a hole
just in time; the concussion from the bomb gave them a few bruises but both
survived the bombing and many more to come. They returned home heroes, they
both married fantastically beautiful women. Sudden intense jealousy overwhelmed
me, I felt something flinch in the air as though my extreme change in thoughts
had startled it. For the first time I was thinking of myself, I knew it was
selfish, but I didn't want Michael to marry anyone else.

"Alice,"
the voice warned, "You can be a hero. Just go to sleep."

"I can't
be a hero!" I protested, "I can't go back in time to save Daman and
Michael, it's not possible! There's no way I can save Leigh either, I don't
even know where she died! And Maria didn't want to be saved, she would have
found another way to kill herself, there's nothing I could do!"

Chapter Fifty

The vision
ended, my eyesight cleared and I realized I was on my hands and knees gasping
for air, but the air around me was so repugnant my lungs refused to take it in.

"You
should have gone to sleep, Alice," Leif's voice said from behind me,
"Now I have to kill you while all these people watch. Turn around and face
me."

I closed my
eyes for a brief moment before I slowly turned and stood to face the man who I
　
instantly realized was no man at
all. Leif was terrifyingly tall, almost two feet taller than Michael. His skin
was black and flaky as though he had been mummified and recently unwrapped, his
arms snaked down into long talon-like fingers and he had no facial features
save for the tell-tale demon black eyes. The skin of his head was stretched
taut over his skull and gave the impression that he was being suffocated, when
he spoke I realized I could feel it more than hear his voice.

"Why do
you have to kill me?" I asked in a surprisingly level voice, "I
didn't do anything to you, just let my friends and I go."

Leif laughed
again, the skin on his face stretched even tighter and I feared I would soon
see the inside of his skull.

"You
married that traitor didn't you?" Leif questioned, "Which makes you a
traitor as well, traitors cannot survive, they are the seeds of rebellion and
the leaders of foolish crusades."