Assassin's Promise E-Book

Phillip Tomasso

• Herausgeber: Next Chapter
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

When Blodwyn was a young boy, the King's Watch combed the lands in search of wizards, witches and anyone else practicing magic. When they stormed his house, it was Blodwyn's father they wanted. The self-taught alchemist was a lawbreaker in the eyes of the king, and the penalty for his art was death.

Left an orphan, Blodwyn's plan is simple: learn everything he could about killing and track down the Watch. Bent on revenge, he befriends the dangerous assassin Rasheed, but soon finds himself in the middle of more than he could have anticipated.

With the anger that once fueled his drive slowly diminishing, Blodwyn works his way towards the King's Watch and his revenge - and faces a decision that changes his life forever.

Leseprobe

ASSASSIN'S PROMISE

THE SEVERED EMPIRE BOOK 4

PHILLIP TOMASSO

CONTENTS

Novels

Prologue

I. On a Road to the Beginning

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

II. The Ways of the Teacher

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

III. The Assassination & the Revenge

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

An Invitation to Reading Groups

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About the Author

Copyright (C) 2017 Phillip Tomasso

Layout design and Copyright (C) 2022 by Next Chapter

Published 2022 by Next Chapter

Edited by Megan Gaudino

Cover art by CoverMint

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the author’s permission.

NOVELS

Mind Play

Tenth House

Third Ring

Johnny Blade

Adverse Impact

The Molech Prophecy (as Thomas Phillips)

Convicted

Pigeon Drop

Pulse of Evil

Vaccination

Evacuation

Preservation

Sounds of Silence

Treasure Island: A Zombie Novella

Damn the Dead (Forthcoming from Severed Press)

Treasure Island: A Zombie Novella

Blood River

Wizard’s Rise

Wizard’s War

Queens of Osiris

Assassin's Promise

Absolute Zero

Extinction (Novella)

Jay Walker: The Case of the Missing Action Figure

Jay Walker: The Case of the Impractical Prankster

You Choose

Woman in the Woods

Before the Sun Sets

Temple of Shadow

As always, I dedicate this to my kids.

Phillip, Grant, and Raeleigh

You Always Inspire Me

Love You Lots

PROLOGUE

Mykal walked out of the large building. Chiseled into a slab of marble—perhaps once hanging over the main entrance, but now in two sections on the ground—was the word Library. Clearly, inclement weather, war, abandonment, and time had taken its toll on the two-story structure. Stored for protection in vaults located several floors below ground were all of the rare, and outlawed leather-covered books, thread-bound parchments, and rolled scrolls.

Eventually, the hall of knowledge became more fittingly known as the Ancient Library Ruins. It was where Mykal, Blodwyn, and Anna went after King Nabal forced them out of Grey Ashland. The war between the kings had been brutal. Despite everything they’d done to ensure Nabal’s win, the outcome was less than they’d hoped for. Here, Mykal was expected to master his newly-realized powers as a wizard.

Closing his eyes, Mykal rubbed his temples. The throb had started shortly after dinner and now, some three hours later, hadn’t let up. Thankfully, neither had it become worse. Long days spent studying magic out of primordial books, and late evenings dedicated to the application of what he had learned under the direction of his mother, were beginning to wear his nerves thin. One of the only things he looked forward to was the few hours each evening when he honed his fighting skills with Blodwyn. It gave him the opportunity to exercise his muscles, instead of just his mind.

Speaking of Blodwyn, Mykal walked over to where his friend sat on a different chunk of marble. Under the starlit sky, he had a fire going. Rocks encircled the arrangement of kindling under stacked logs, and he absently poked at the wood with the heel of his staff.

“Mind if I join you?”

“Thought you’d be fast asleep by now.” Blodwyn nodded toward another chunk of rock.

Mykal sat, slowly, wincing.

“Are you okay?” Blodwyn asked.

“It’s my head. I’m just tired. I tried lying down. Guess I’m just not ready for sleep.” Mykal leaned forward, resting elbows on knees, palms toward the fire. “This is nice.”

“My favorite part of the day.”

“Your fires?” Mykal asked.

Blodwyn shook his head. “It’s more than that. It’s the sky. The moon. The peace that comes with it. Rarely have I had the chance in life to sit and appreciate the world, as I’ve had since we’ve arrived here. So much has happened in the last few months. I guess having the time to reflect on some things has become more important to me lately.”

“Speaking of reflection…” Mykal raised an eyebrow. “You do owe me some stories. I know it’s getting late, but I’d love to hear them.”

Blodwyn snickered.

“Did you think you’d get away from telling them to me?” Mykal asked.

“I suppose, I hoped you wouldn’t bring it up.” Blodwyn stabbed the staff into the fire. A log rolled over. A spray of orange embers erupted into the air.

Too many years had gone by and there never seemed a long enough lull in the day for storytelling. While Blodwyn knew everything about Mykal, there was very little Mykal knew about Blodwyn’s past.

“Because you have trouble remembering?” Mykal laughed.

Blodwyn shook his head. “Because I have trouble forgetting.”

Mykal sat up straighter, dropped his warm hands onto his thighs, and said, “If you prefer not to get into it, I’d understand, Wyn. I didn’t mean to pry.”

Blodwyn held up a hand. “It’s okay, Mykal. Sit. You’re right. I do owe you some stories. You’ll have to bear with me at times. The telling won’t always be easy. I guess the best place to start would be around the beginning. I was nine, almost ten years old, and my father was taking me fishing …”

PARTI

ON A ROAD TO THE BEGINNING

CHAPTER1

There was no way I could know my parents would be slaughtered before the end of the day.

My father was up well before the sun that morning. I saw him leave the house, but didn’t have to follow him. Before chores, he always spent an hour or two each morning in the large barn behind our house. As an alchemist, my father worked at creating new elixirs. He wasn’t a curer, but when his parents died from a plague that the curers couldn’t treat, he became set on discovering something that might help other people.

I was only allowed in—what he called his laboratory—when invited. His equipment was expensive and had been collected from many different lands. There were graphite rods, vials, a balance with weights, beakers, pipes, cork stoppers, and burners. Everything was on a large wood table where rubber tubes connected many of the beakers and vials. Some of the beakers sat over open flame burners. He had a device with mercury and silver he’d created for measuring temperature. Mixed and labeled combinations of chemicals, herbs, roots, and minerals were stored in jars and sat on shelves along the barn walls.

He often called what he was doing, science.

I knew we were going fishing that afternoon, and so, unable to sleep, I climbed out of bed and went outside where I filled a bucket with water from the well and soaked a patch of ground behind the house. I used my knife and hands to dig into the dirt. The grubs and worms wiggled to the surface in an attempt to escape the saturation. They didn’t realize the fate they’d face was far worse than waterlogged burrows. Plucking up the night crawlers, I inspected each as they squirmed between my fingers and only dropped juicy, fat ones into the empty bucket. I collected plenty, too. Some fish were clever when it came to snatching bait without getting snagged on the hook. When the bucket was more than a quarter full, I added another quarter of dirt over the top and set the bucket by the house until we were ready to go fishing.

My grandfather and father had built the log home we lived in. It sat proudly on land on the northwestern outskirts of Grey Ashland, closer to the Cicade Forest than to the king’s keep.

It was the end of spring, and while the days were warm enough for just a tunic, the temperature at night required a cloak. I looked forward to time spent fishing with my father. We had a secret spot where we returned again, and again. It was a place where he said his father took him, and he had explained that one day I could bring my son here, too.

Many evenings we sat on stumps outside of our home and whittled bark away from strong, thick branches. We’d talk about the fish we’d caught, and the fish we’d one day catch. Sometimes we talked about life-things, like girls, and growing up. Other nights, we didn’t talk at all. The silence never bothered me. It didn’t seem to bother him, either.

I kept my collection of fishing poles under the bed, this way one was always accessible.

“This is our hole, Blodwyn,” he always said, and then he’d wink at me. His eyes were bright, deerskin brown. My father was a tall man with broad shoulders, and some extra weight gathered about his gut. He kept his dark hair trimmed short, while his beard, streaked with grey lines that started at the chin, grew to unruly lengths. “Never tell another soul. Promise?”

That shared secret always felt more important to me than nearly anything else we ever talked about. I knew he was dead serious, so I’d give him an exaggerated nod. “I promise!”

On our way to the brook, I carried poles in one hand, the rods against my shoulder, and the bucket of bait in the other.

“Do you know why I keep this location a secret and don’t tell everyone about it?”

“Because all the best fish swim here.” They did, too. I couldn’t recall a time we ever left empty-handed. Very few people fished the sea. Some fishermen kept small boats docked at the Delta Cove, and down along the Ridgeland Port. My father said between the Voyagers and the sea serpents, the risk wasn’t worth it. Especially not when the brook was safer, and the fish enjoyed the bait.

The brook stemmed from Lantern Lake and ran to the Isthmian Sea, cutting through the center of the Forest. In some spots, I could easily jump from bank to bank, while in other locations I’d have to hike up my trousers and walk across. The brook was rarely more than knee-deep. At the end of winter, with the melting snow, the levels rose, got a little deeper, and moved much more swiftly. Usually, I could stand in the water without worry of losing my balance. It was about solid footing on otherwise slippery rocks beneath the surface.

Father brought bread and cheese for us, and a goatskin of ale for himself. We set up on a large flat rock by the water. I removed my boots, rolled my trousers up over my knees, and butt-scooted to the edge. I dipped my feet into the water and hoped I hadn’t scared away the fish. Sometimes the fish inspected my toes with nibbles.

“It’s because your toes look like wiggling worms,” my father said with a laugh.

“It tickles,” I said.

“Just be careful something bigger doesn’t come along and chomp off your big toe.” He laughed, but I pulled my feet out and sat with my legs crisscrossed.

Father grabbed the bucket, reached in, and let his fingers rake through the soil. “Got some good ones this morning, didn’t you?” He exhumed a white grub. It coiled itself around his thumb as he threaded a hook through the meat of its body.

“Uh huh.” I set my pole down beside me and withdrew a long reddish worm from the bucket.

“Not going to use the whole thing, are you?” Father arched an eyebrow.

I snapped the worm in half. “No, sir.”

I dropped the unused half back into the bucket. It burrowed into the soil, and aside from a sticky trail of green ooze, was out of sight in seconds. The other half I pierced with my hook, and cast my line into the brook. “How many do you think we’ll catch today?”

“Maybe a hundred?”

I laughed. “You know what’s coming up soon?”

It was my birthday next week. I couldn’t wait. My mother made the best pastries for special occasions, and my father used the imu for cooking a freshly-slaughtered pig underground. The imu was six feet long, and four feet wide, and three feet deep. Neighbors were always invited. There was no way the three of us could eat an entire pig.

“Is it next week?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“Is it an important day?”

I giggled. “Yes.”

He shrugged and turned his attention back to the brook. “Nope. I have no idea what’s coming up soon.”

I couldn’t contain the laugh. “Yes, you do.”

My father looked at me, smiling. “I could never forget your birthday. It’s hard to believe you’re going to be ten years old.”

“I’ve used up all of my fingers, and am going to have to start counting on my toes next!”

This time my father laughed.

Something pulled at my line. The joking was over. “Father.”

“Wait for it. Wait for it…”

There was another tug, as the fish took a second run at the bait. I pulled back on the pole. The sharpened hook passed through its mouth. I lifted the fish out of the water and looked to make sure my father had been watching.

CHAPTER2

The setting sun tinted the scattering of clouds orange and pink and gave the blue sky a purple smear along the horizon.

While my father readied the fire on his grill alongside a large maple tree, I helped my mother fillet the fish. The blades we used were long, thin, and sharp. Father liked the skin on his fish, so mother would scale a few for him. The ones for us, we skinned.

“Cut the head off.” Mother pointed.

“Just below the gills,” I said. “I remember.”

I went to work on the smaller fish, placing my hand on top of the knife, pressed down, and drew the blade across the neck. Holding the fish by the tail, I removed the skin cutting toward where the head had been and did my best not to cut away too much meat.

“You’re getting quite good at that.” She wiped scales, and guts from her blade along her apron before setting the knife down on the block of wood.

“Thank you.” I couldn’t mask my smile. Between my father’s legendary pig roasts, and anything my mother made, I felt like one of the luckiest kids in Grey Ashland.

“Riders.” Father was by the fire, stood with hands on his hips, and stared north.

A cloud of dust rose in the distance. I could make out men on horseback, but not how many rode toward us.

“Take the boy inside,” he said.

Mother didn’t question his command. She yanked away my knife and took my hand.

“Father?”

“Go with your mother.” He shooed me away with a wave of his hand.

“Come with me.” Mother led the way into the house. Her voice trembled. “Go to your room.”

My heart raced. It felt like time moved in slow motion. I could smell the smoke from the grill. The day’s catch was forgotten, but that didn’t stop my stomach from growling. I climbed onto my bed. The straw-stuffed mattress sank under my weight. Sitting with my back against the log wall, arms wrapped around my legs, knees drawn to my chest, I shivered. I watched helplessly as my mother produced a long, thin sword from behind a dresser.

She looked at me, brow furrowed. “Don’t come out of the house. No matter what you hear, you stay inside. Understand?”

I nodded.

“Say it!”

“I understand.” I never knew a sword was stashed behind the dresser. I couldn’t recall my father having a weapon. The tools used on the land, and with the animals would have been considered dangerous instruments, but the idea of a sword inside the house caught me off guard.

Mother left the house, closing the door behind her. My eyes remained riveted on the handle.

Somehow, I managed to find the courage to climb off the bed. I stayed close to the wall and slid over to the window. I parted the drapes with the back of my hand. If my father caught me spying, he’d belt my butt for sure. I’d have deserved it, too. It seemed worth the risk at this point. Whatever was about to happen outside had both of my parents unnerved.

The dust cloud grew as the riders closed the distance. There were five men, as best I could tell. I could identify the men. They wore chainmail over leather jerkins. On the black vestment was the king’s sigil in red. They were the Watch.

It felt like a storm was headed right for us. My father stood in front of my mother with the sword in his hand, its tip pointed toward the ground.

He said something to my mother, who shook her head. My father turned away from the riders and said something else. Maybe he repeated himself. This time, she took steps backward, away from him. He pointed at the house.

Mother backed out of view. My eyes went back to the door. The handle moved. I dashed for the bed.

“Were you at the window, Blodwyn?”

I spun around on the mattress but didn’t answer. Instead, I jumped off the bed and ran for her. Wrapping my arms around my mother’s waist, I said, “What do they want?”

“They must be here to talk with your father,” she said.

“About what? What could the Watch want with father?” The stories of the king’s special knights frightened him. He knew their reputation. The Watch acted as judge and executioner on behalf of the king, purging Grey Ashland of witchcraft, and magic.

“I’m not sure.” She combed her fingers through my hair. “Don’t worry. Everything will be okay.”

Even though I wasn’t ten yet, I knew she was lying. I couldn’t recall a single time my parents had lied to me. She wanted to calm me, but must not have realized the lie made everything worse.

The horse hooves pounded the ground. It sounded like a thunderstorm.

My mother knelt down and held my head between her hands. “Go out the back way and find a place to hide in the barn. You stay there until I come for you.”

“I want to stay,” I insisted.

Her hands dropped to my shoulders. She shook me. My eyes bounced back and forth inside the sockets. “Listen to me. Wyn, listen!”

I knew I was crying. The tears clouded over my vision.

“Hide inside that barn until I come and find you. Now, go!”

I lurched forward and hugged her. “I’m afraid.”

This time her hands cupped my face and calloused skin from hard work felt as soft as feathers. Her thumb wiped a rolling tear from under my eye. “Don’t be afraid. Don’t ever be afraid of anything. When that happens, you face that fear, Wyn. You face it.”

She spoke softly. I didn’t like the way her eyes moved over every inch of my face.

“Go,” she said. “Please, go.”

I heard my father raise his voice. “I have done nothing of the sort! How dare you suggest such a thing!”

There was no mistaking the sound of steel clashing against steel. It was followed by a moment of silence. I held my breath. My eyes were wide and locked on my mother. She was motionless, as well.

The silence was shattered by the scariest sound I’d ever heard in my life: my father screaming.

“Run,” my mother said. Panting, she spun me around and pushed me at the back door. “Run, Wyn!”

My hands went out in front of me. I caught the wall, instead of falling, and just made it to the back door as the front one burst open.

CHAPTER3

My mother turned away from me, faced the men who burst into our house, and raised a fist in defiance. I stopped, straddled the threshold with one foot inside our house, and one outside of the house on the stone path by the back door.

I saw my knife from filleting fish in her hand held in a closed first. She brought it down in a wide arch, and screamed.

The blade of a sword popped out of her back, and then was withdrawn. The knife fell out of her hand. It clanked on the floor. My mother fell onto her knees. Her dress absorbed the gout of blood spilling out of her back.

She lowered her head, her long hair draped over her face, and the ends dangled just above the floor. She gasped for air, wheezing heavily. She clapped both hands onto her belly, but I could only see her from behind, and helplessly watched as her back rose and fell each time she struggled for air.

I knew I should have run, but my legs wouldn’t move. The man who had driven his sword through my mother smiled down at her, with yellow-stained teeth. That was the first thing I noticed. Then I saw his eyes. They were blue, cold, and hard like ice. His nose was long, surrounded by wrinkled skin. Warts like anthills dotted his face. Some had long, dark hairs growing from the centers.

His chainmail was stained crimson from blood. I didn’t think it was his. Nothing about the way he stood indicated that he was injured. He reminded me of a bear the way he towered over my mother.

Someone said, “The boy!”

The bear’s eyes found me.

He grinned.

A shiver raced down my spine. All eyes fell on me. Without a command, five men lunged forward at once, tripping over each other and my mother’s body.

I found my legs and exploded out the back door. I started toward the barn. It couldn’t offer me safety now with the Watch so close behind. I ran past the barn and toward the forest. My heart pounded fast and hard. The sound filled my head and throbbed inside my ears. It wasn’t long before I felt a burning in my chest, and a stitch at my side. I pressed a palm over the pain, but kept running.

Concentrating on my footing, I worried if I tripped, they would catch, and then kill me. It kept me going. There was no way I could get revenge against them for the death of my parents if I was dead. Somehow, I was going to get away. And, more importantly, somehow, I was going to get even.

I didn’t dare look behind me. I was running far too fast. If I chanced a look back, I’d fall for sure. I would either escape…

Or I wouldn’t.

My imagination messed with me. At any moment, I expected hands to latch onto my shoulders; I expected a sword through my back, my mother’s blood mixing with mine, as I died in the same way.

My legs pumped faster, and harder. I had the advantage. I knew the land around here. The Watch wasn’t from the area. If I could keep ahead of them, I could find a place to hide. I knew how to hide. They’d never find me.

The intense heat inside my chest grew as if my lungs were catching fire. I wasn’t sure how much further I could run, not at this pace. The men chasing me were on foot. They wore heavy garments and were burdened with bulky weapons. Would they be able to keep up?

It was dusk, the sun nearly vanished behind the horizon. The trees were so close, I grew confident I would survive if I could just get into the forest.

My parents were dead.

My mother was. I watched her die, but I hadn’t seen my father.

Could he still be alive, lying in the grass, wounded, and bleeding, but alive?

I couldn’t hear the Watch. I thought I should be able to hear chainmail rattle as they ran, but all that filled my ears was the sound of my heavy breathing, the beating of my heart, and the sound of my boots slamming hard on the dry ground.

My face felt hot and knew my skin was turning red around my cheeks as if I were outside in a winter cold for hours.

The forest loomed ahead of me. It seemed like a haven, a sanctuary. It also seemed miles away, as if a mirage. So, close, but unreachable.

My back muscles tightened and I cringed as, finally, I made it into the forest—still fully expecting steel to pierce my skin, or arrows to come through the backs of my legs.

The pain from such an assault never came. Instead of worrying about an attack from behind, I concentrated on the woods. This was where I played, where my father and I hunted with bows and arrows.

The groundcover was tricky, with plenty of fallen limbs, and thick brush, ideal for tripping up anyone carelessly sprinting through the foliage. I didn’t slow down, though. Instead, I picked up speed, and darted right, left, and right again.

It seemed futile, but I continually listened for any sounds coming from behind me. If they were going to kill me, I wanted to know it was coming. Especially now when I was so close to escaping.

In front of me was a long trunk from a fallen tree. I only saw it at the last possible moment and leapt into the air. My right toe clipped the bark. It was my fault for losing concentration. With my arms pinwheeling, I was propelled forward and crashed hard onto the ground. My forearms and elbows absorbed the brunt of the fall, and my breath raced out of my lungs from the impact. I gasped for long seconds, unable to breathe.

They had to of heard me.

The fall was far from graceful, and my gasping sounded like a strong wind moaning as it whipped past the tin on my parents’ house.

A twig snapped. It wasn’t too close to where I’d fallen, but neither was it all that far away. Panicked, I rolled into an extended patch of green shrubs and used leaves and branches for cover. Thorns scraped against, and dug into, areas of exposed flesh. I winced but didn’t cry out.

The Watch had never stopped following me.

It didn’t sound like they were running, but were still in pursuit.

Another twig snapped.

I didn’t think my fall had given away my location. I hoped it hadn’t. My eyes strained to see between parted leaves into the darkened forest. Everything was becoming shadows. The shadows moved. I couldn’t be sure what I was seeing.

I noticed the forest animals had fallen silent, and wondered if they, like me, were waiting for the intruders to leave.

“He’s around here,” one of the Watch said.

I held my breath. It sounded as if the man were standing right over my hiding spot.

“Yeah? Do you see him?” another called out.

“No, but I can promise you he didn’t just vanish.”

“He’s hiding,” the second man said.

“Well, of course, he’s hiding. Check the trees. Little monkey probably scurried up a trunk.”

There was a long moment of silence.

The second Watch said, “If he did, I can’t see him.”

It was far too dark.

“Poke the ground with your sword. If he’s hiding in the shrubs, we’ll find him.”

I stayed still, fought every urge to roll out of my hiding spot, and run. My heart still beat fast, but my breathing was more controlled. The pain in my side was gone, and the fire inside my chest had vanished.

I listened as the Watch stumbled around, and at the sound of their swords swinging through shrubs.

I thought it might’ve been just the two men who followed me into the forest.

A twig snapped near my head.

One of them was close, too close.

I was about to be discovered.

Or stabbed.

I didn’t want to die hiding beneath groundcover. If I was going to die, I wanted it to be on my feet, fighting.

The sword cut through the foliage near my head.

I sucked in a deep breath, ready to roll out of the shrubs.

Someone whistled.

The whistle came from far away. I barely heard it.

“What was that?” the man standing beside my hiding spot asked.

“The captain,” the other said.

“Do we keep looking?”

“He’s calling us back. Forget the kid. What was he, like five years old?”

I heard the sword pass through more branches and twigs.

“Come on. Leave him,” the other man said.

“Hear that?” the one man yelled. “It’s your lucky day!”

Lucky day? They’d killed my parents.

If anything, it was their unlucky day. They made a mistake.

They left me alive.

CHAPTER4

I stayed under shrubs inside the forest for as long as I could. It felt like hours had passed, and I grew restless. Staying still became challenging. It couldn’t have been more than fifteen, or twenty minutes, though. It didn’t matter. I was pretty confident the Watch were gone.

I thought I was alone in the woods when I heard the creatures once again. Squirrels ran up and down trees. Owls hooted. Perhaps they were signaling to me that all was clear, and I was free to come out of hiding?

Cautiously, I crawled out from under the brush and pushed up onto my knees. Looking around, I made sure I was indeed, alone. Despite the darkness that surrounded me, I could still make out the shadows. There was no sign of the King’s Watch.

The shadows didn’t belong to the Watch, if anything they were from my imagination. At least, that was what I convinced myself.

I would have stayed on my knees for a few more moments, just to be sure I was alone, but when I saw the fire through the trees, I got to my feet and stumbled over to the closest tree. I pressed my palms and the side of my face against harsh bark. With one eye, I stared at the fire. It was goinggood. Thick orange and red flames lit the night.

My house. The barn.

As if sleepwalking, I pushed past tree after tree until I’d made my way out of the forest. The temptation to run home caused my stomach to churn the longer I fought off the urge. I wasn’t sure I’d have been able to run. My knees knocked together as if my legs were about to buckle. I found the balance I needed, and walked. The flames drew me closer, and closer.

I knew I was crying as I made my way across the field, but ignored the tears rolling down my face.

The fire roared with life. The structures looked exactly like demons when they haunted my dreams. I swore I could see a face in the flames.

Black smoke rolled into a dark sky and blocked the light from a million stars.

I passed the barn. The roof was gone, the frame was like a black outline inside the fire. The wood moaned, and groaned, and then the entire barn collapsed in on itself. A huge puff of fire ballooned into the air with a whoosh.

The heat hit me as if slapped across the right side of my head, arm, and leg. I stopped walking and for just a moment, turned and watch the barn become little more than ash and support pillars.