The Shattered Genesis (Eternity) (59 page)

             
The moment Mom hit the ground, Maura grabbed Brynna and pushed her away before she could engage in any more violent behavior that would drive my mother to have her committed or worse. But Brynna pushed past her a
nd pulled our frail, sobbing mother off of the ground. I had cried harder when I had seen the blood streaming down Mom’s face.

             
“You say whatever shit you want to me but if you say something like that to her again, I will break your neck! Do you understand
me?!”

             
“Brynna!” Maura had screamed at her as she reached out and tried to pull her away from Mom again. Brynna shook her off easily.

             
“You're the
devil
!
” My mother had shrieked in rage as Brynna pulled her onto her feet by putting one of Mom's arms aroun
d her neck. “
Satan
!
You're
possessed!
I should let your father
kill
you!
”

             
“Alright...” Brynna had replied as she walked Mom out the room delicately. “Just be quiet and hold onto me. Maura, she will need some ice. Could you bring her some?”

             
Why had that memory crept up on me? Why had it been
so clear? I was attempting to remain level-headed and emotionless for Penny's sake and even partly for Elijah's. Yet there I was, crying right along with my little sister. The cruelty of my mother in that reminiscence remedied my grief, at the very least.
But my grief evaporating had left an empty hole that was filled only with a toxic hatred that I knew Brynna had been carrying for well over twelve years.

             
I hated all three of them for her sake. Elijah had accused me of still being so young. But the sudde
n loathing of my parents and Maura was proof that I was growing up far quicker than even I
could have imagined.

             
I had seen them as being nothing short of God-like before. Now, I was beginning to understand that my three parental figures resided at the oth
er end of the theological spectrum. Perhaps they weren't at the very end. But they certainly were close. Brynna, whom I had begun to demonize after overhearing Maura, Dad and Mom doing it for so long, was working her way back to the top.

             
I hated that one
day Penny would have to experience that same upheaval of every belief she ever held on the people she loved.

             
Hopefully, if we were lucky, she would forget them. She would never grow to hate them because they would simply disappear.

             
After all of this time
, I know that wish has been granted. Believe me when I say that it brings me no joy.

Brynna

             
I was becoming more and more frantic, though those in my party never knew of my internal storm. The forest around us held a presence that we could not see.
Besides the years of events that those old trees had seen, some other conversation was occurring between them. I felt unsafe suddenly and certainly not alone. There was something moving amongst those woods, watching us.

             
Whatever that unknown, malevolent f
orce was could have claimed my brother and sisters. I would scarcely be aware, even with enhanced instincts and all-knowing perception.

             
I stopped walking and sat on the ground, leaning forward to put my face against my knees.

             
Just breathe
, my mind urged
as my heart pounded,
Just keep breathing, Brynna.

             
“Alright…” James was kneeling in front of me and rubbing my arms, “Baby, we’re going to find them. I promise you, we’ll come across them any minute now.”

             
The eyes of Alice and Quinn were turned away from
us. I could afford one fleeting moment of weakness while they looked off in the distance for any signs of movement. I flung my arms around James’s middle and pressed my cheek to his strong chest. His arms wrapped around my neck and his lips pressed to my f
orehead.

             
“It’s okay. They’re not looking, sweetheart.” He told me softly when I went to pull away. With that reassurance, I grabbed a hold of him again even more tightly than I had before. “You’re allowed to be afraid, Brynn. I know that you don’t think y
ou are but anyone would be afraid right now.”

             
I shook my head. I trusted James’s judgment and appreciated his acceptance of my temporary descent into emotional madness but I would not allow myself to succumb to the raging war of feeling. I had to remain c
lear-headed and ready to fight. He believed that my show of emotion was normal but I disagreed. It was not something I had ever allowed in myself before. It was an inconvenience we could not afford.

             
I pulled away from him, letting him grasp my hands so he
could pull me to my feet. I swayed slightly as dizziness twirled my brain in hastened circles. I grasped him to steady myself and my brows furrowed as I squeezed his biceps.

             
“You are totally lifting weights!” I accused him with a large smile that was ver
y uncharacteristic of me, “You were thin before. You certainly did not have these…” I squeezed his muscles again. “Believe me, I would have noticed. Despite my adherence to emphasizing physical attractiveness when searching for a mate, I do still look.”

             
“
So you
were
checking me out?”

             
The anxiety brewing in my chest calmed as my smile grew. I balled up my fist and hit him lightly in the chest as his arm wrapped around my shoulders. He chuckled softly, a sound that filled my ears with that glow I was so use
d to by then.

             
“I don’t know what exactly is happening to me. But I’m liking it.” He said, “Did I tell you I picked up a rock the size of a Volvo and moved it the other day?”

             
“You did not!” I exclaimed as I grasped his hand in both of mine.

             
“I did. You t
hink I’m kidding. But I am being completely serious. It’s not like I’m eating a lot, either. I don’t know where this is coming from but I definitely like it.”

             
“Do you think it’s the mutation?”

             
“I know it is. What else could it be?”

             
“Well, I love it. I t
hought you were quite good-looking when we first met. Though, if I am being honest, you were very thin.”

             
“I was. I hadn’t been feeling too well after I had that dream. Food repulsed me, to put it lightly.”

             
“Well, the fate of our kind rested on your scraw
ny shoulders. You will be forgiven for not wanting to eat.”

             
“Okay, I wasn’t scrawny!” He protested.

             
“You were. You looked slightly ill, if I am still being frank.”

             
“When have you ever not been frank?”

             
“There were times. But now, I see no use in holding
back honesty to spare feelings. It was something that developed as I aged, I suppose. It was part of my strange maturity.”

             
“Your maturity is very strange. It’s also the reason why I can easily justify having a relationship with you when you’re still so y
oung.”

             
“Well, I am an adult, by the old world standards.”

             
“I know. But you’re also so mature. I’m truly shocked that someone as beautiful as you would want to be with someone my age. You said you never had a lot of ‘suitors’ and I don’t really understand
why.”

             
“Elijah told you. I scared them away by being who I am.”

             
“Well, you don’t scare me.”
             

             
“Despite my best efforts. You know that I certainly tried to scare you away.”

             
“I know you did. But I was never afraid of you. I knew, and still do know, that
beneath all of that disdain and animosity, you have a good heart. You have a great heart, actually.”

             
“And beneath all of your apathy and arrogance, you have the kindest heart I have seen. I have never been able to trust someone the way I trust you. Keep t
hat in mind, if ever I start to pull away. In fact, remind me that I said that.”
             

             
He kissed me and replied, “I will.”

             
Apparently, a crushingly dense forest is a proper setting for heavy emotional discussions. Alice and Quinn were walking ahead of us, mut
tering to each other quietly so James and I could not hear. Their body language conveyed their tension and anger. It would not dissipate any time soon.

             
“It’s just a young person thing. In his heart, he knows he’s wrong. They’re reluctant to admit that the
ir relationship has to last forever. That’s not true, of course. They can separate any time they want,” James explained as we studied them, “But that will be harder than it would have been, if the world was still right. She’s his last link to home and vice
-versa.”

             
“You seem to feel that I have some emotional investment in their relationship.”

             
“I know you don’t. But you looked curious.”

             
“I was curious as to why she does not just punch him. That is what she wants to do.”

             
“Would you punch me?”

             
“If you wer
e making me that angry, then yes.”

             
“You would not.”

             
I smiled up at him and kissed his cheek.

“You are right. I would use my words to punch you.”

             
“That would probably be worse.”

             
“Indeed, it would.”

             
Alice and Quinn had disappeared into the brush up ahea
d.

             
“That is so very odd…” I whispered in awe at what was in front of me.

             
James and I were looking up at a wall of thick palm leaves and pine needles. Interspersed with them were the crumbling leaves of the various trees that surrounded us. It was a huge
green behemoth standing before us, blocking out the late afternoon sun. There was something threatening about its great mass. The feeling of being so small in the shadow of something so gargantuan was overpowering. I had to turn away for a moment.

             
When I
turned back, I found James looking up towards the canopy overhead. The wall of shrubbery reached up to the very top of the tallest nearby tree.

             
“It’s blocking something. Alice! Quinn! Are you there?”

             
“Guys,” Alice’s voice said tremulously, “you have to s
ee this!”

             
“How did you two get through there?”

             
“It parted for us. It was so weird!” Quinn called back.
             

             
“Well, I am just thrilled that they are so very special that…” I was beginning to mutter irritably as I walked up to the wall. But as I spoke, the le
aves pulled back and up, revealing a small, oval-shaped tunnel. James and I looked at each other, our faces contorted into expressions of shock and amazement.

             
“That was quite impressive.” I told him as I stepped inside cautiously. I looked back, my eyes
widened slightly as a new worrisome thought passed through my mind. “You don’t think this is going to close on us, do you?”

             
“No.” James replied, laughing. But his smile faded as he added, “At least, I don’t think so. I’ll go first. Scoot over.”

             
I moved t
o the side of the tunnel, grasping the twisted branches that made up its walls. He moved inside and maneuvered around me so that he was in front. I turned and grasped his hand as we walked through.

             
The walls never even shuddered in desire to close on us.
We stepped out into the soft orange twilight once we had reached the end.