Fractured (29 page)

“
I’m turning back the clock
,” Abyzou sneered. “
And you’re turning yourself over to be mine.
”

Bash hesitated, looking at that gnarled hand. This was it. This was going to be her past. And her future. There was nothing else she could do.

She reached out, about to lay her hand in Abyzou’s, when Abyzou’s hand suddenly disappeared with a loud
thunk
.

“You have...no idea...how long I’ve wanted to do that,” a familiar voice said.

Bash looked up to see Lily standing there, her naked body drenched in blood. She was wielding a broken lamp like a weapon, having smacked Abyzou away from Bash, accomplishing what Bash had tried doing earlier. Somehow, Lily had been able to hurt the demon. Maybe it was because she could hold hands with Abyzou. A quick glance had shown that Lily had clawed her way out of the mound of flesh on the bed. The old woman lay crumpled on the floor. Knocked out? Or...?

“Lily?” Bash asked incredulously.

Her sister was breathing heavily. Even though hunks of the other flesh hung off her, there was something different about her twin. In the space of an instant, Bash could tell that her sister was changed. When Lily wasn’t possessed, she was an entirely different person.

Lily was breathing heavily and offered her sister a small smile.

“I’m so sorry, Bash,” she whispered. “For everything I’ve done to you. For everything I’ve done to everyone.”

The hotel kept breaking apart around them as the two sisters faced one another. Bash held onto the ground for dear life, but it wasn’t the deteriorating hotel that held her attention: it was her sister.

“It wasn’t your fault, Lily,” she said. Tears kept falling unbidden, from her eyes. “It wasn’t your fault at all.”

The ceiling tore away, sucked right into the ether of the night sky above them.

“That’s where you’re wrong, Bash,” Lily said. “A lot of the things that happened—your blindness, Dad dying, Mom getting sick—I
wanted
that to happen. Whatever you say—the demon may have given the power for those things to happen, but I wanted them to. Your life would have been so much better without me in it.”

Bash lay sobbing on the ground. The wind tore away at her lips, and she felt as if the very colors were leeching from her skin and clothing, swirling up into the abyss above. She was fading. She could feel it, her very life sucked from her.

Abyzou still hadn’t gotten up from her spot on the ground. Lily must have hit her really hard. Now without a master holding it all together, the world was falling apart around them.

“The thing is,” Lily continued, “while that bitch has been in my head for twenty-three years, I’ve also been in hers. I know everything she knows. And I know what I have to do. To make things right.”

“What? What are you doing, Lily?”

“I’m going to make things right,” Lily repeated softly.

“
How
?” There was no other option for what she was proposing.

Lily pointed up at the swirling vortex above them, the horrible night sky that was sucking the world around them away. “We’re going backwards in time right now,” she explained. “And I’m going to take us to the time when you and I were born. Dad promised Abyzou he would give her his second child. But if there
was
no second child...”

The weight of what Lily was proposing hit Bash like a ton of bricks.

“No! No, Lily!”

“I love you, Bash.”

Bash was sobbing. “No, Lily,” she cried. “
No.
”

Lily turned her head slightly to look at her twin sister. “You always were the bigger crybaby, Bash. Act like you’re the bigger sister, would you? While you still have a sister.”

“No!” Bash screamed. She reached out, and latched onto Lily’s hand. “You can’t do this. You don’t have to sacrifice yourself, Lily.”

“I have to,” Lily said. “I’m not even supposed to be here.” She pulled gently, and Bash’s fingers slipped. She collapsed on the ground sobbing even harder. “I have to make this right,” Lily added.

She strode over to the demon, grabbed her hand, and waved at Bash.

Bash watched in horror. She should have done something, she should have stopped her sister from ending her life. As it was, she felt too weak to move. Too weak to save her sister again. She watched as her sister and the demon were sucked up into the night sky.

I have to make this right
, Lily had said. Even if it meant she never existed.

That was the last thing Bash knew.

EPILOGUE

1991

Cheryl gave one last, desperate push—giving it her all. If it didn’t happen now, she didn’t know if she would have the strength to try again.

That last bit of effort was all she needed. The piercing cry of a baby tore through the delivery room, and Eric whooped happily at the sight. Her job done, Cheryl let out the breath she’d been holding, feeling her heart swell in hope.

“Congratulations, Mrs. Martin,” the doctor said, holding up the bundle that seemed too small to be real, “you have a beautiful baby girl.”

The doctors and nurses measured the baby, bathed her, and fingerprinted her. The wait was agonizingly long for her. She wanted to hold her baby. Waiting for them to finally finish their tests and to catalog her felt like it took years.

“Let me see her,” Cheryl said through her choked throat.

Finished, the doctor finally set the bundle in her waiting arms. After six miscarriages and the scare of the second fetus that had disappeared, she almost didn’t believe it. Her baby was here. And after nearly forty years, she was finally a mother.

Eric gave her shoulder a quick, proud squeeze. She was a beautiful baby girl. She had smatterings of dark hair and all her little fingers and toes were intact, complete with tinier finger and toenails. She was the most precious thing Cheryl had ever seen. She watched her in wonder.

This is my baby,
she told herself, giddy with ecstasy. Life felt complete. Whole. Like there was nothing else she needed in the world.

The baby’s eyes fluttered open, revealing one light blue eye and one dark green eye. The mismatched eyes met Cheryl’s for a brief second before squinting closed again. She was fast asleep.

“Whoa, her eyes,” Eric said softly. His hand cupped the baby’s head as he leaned over Cheryl, examining their baby daughter. “Cool.”

Cheryl chuckled. “Our daughter arrives and the first thing you say is ‘cool’?”

“Well, yeah,” Eric said innocently. “She is cool, isn’t she?” He leaned into the bed, cuddling both Cheryl and their baby. “I’m so proud of you, honey,” he added, kissing Cheryl on the forehead.

“Can you believe we made that?” she whispered. She couldn’t take her eyes off the baby. She prodded her hand with a finger, and the baby responded by grasping it with her whole, clenched fist. “She’s perfect.”

Eric was nodding, his head against Cheryl’s. “You still think we should name her...after your grandmother?”

“Yes,” Cheryl answered, never being surer of anything in her life. “Bathsheba.”

*****

2012

“Excuse me?” a voice asked.

Twenty-one-year old Bathsheba Martin looked up from her empty drink at the bar, her dual colored eyes flickering in appreciation at the handsome stranger in front of her. She smiled at him warmly, suddenly conscious of herself and her appearance.

“Yes?”

The handsome blond man looked to be about her age. He was ripped with muscle and had an easy style. He was exactly how she liked her men: strong, handsome, and incredibly cute. He had snuck up on her while she was having a celebratory drink after her last final for her Bachelor degree. She had just gotten off the phone with her mom and dad, telling them the news that their only daughter now had a Bachelors of Fine Art. She would graduate next weekend.

“I’m Seth,” he said, leaning against the bar, smiling widely. “I’m about to head off to Afghanistan, so I thought I’d have a good night. And I noticed that you were sitting here all by yourself. Can I buy you a drink?”

She grinned. “Hi, Seth,” she drawled. “Call me Sheba.”

A B O U T

Sci-fi junkie, video game nerd, and wannabe manga artist Erin Hayes writes a lot of things. Sometimes she writes books, like the fantasy mystery novel Death is but a Dream, the sci-fi middle grade book Jacob Smith is Incredibly Average, and the Her Wolf paranormal series. She works as an advertising copywriter during the day, and she moonlights as an author. She has lived in New Zealand, Texas, and now in Birmingham, Alabama with her husband, cat, and a growing collection of geek paraphernalia. You can reach her at [email protected] and she’ll be happy to chat. Especially if you want to debate Star Wars.