And The Heavens Fell Silent by Maria Louise (the ebook reader .TXT) 📕

     “Maybe.” I informed her. “I may be insane, but dis is somethin’ much bigger den my mental state! We can finally get revenge on all the cruel things dey have done to us! Dis is the final chance we have ta fight for what we believe in! To take revenge on the people dey have taken from us! They are goin’ to find out where it is whether or not you lead them to it. All we are doin’ is putting an end to the battle that has been ragin’ for generations... Plus, look at dat army. They must be very afraid of this “Zion” to have that great of numbers.” Most of what I said was a lie. I was simply good at manipulating people. It was obvious to me that she was a damned christian, and I used that against her.

     When I looked back at Yram’s face I knew my speech had worked. She had a type of wildness dancing in her eyes and a snarled on her lips that reminded me of myself.

     I could tell by the look of anger she shot at the army, they had indeed taken someone from her. Good. I needed an advantage over the girl.

     “She is lying.” said Phoenix glaring at me. “But we do need to go. The army is not good.” 

     I wondered how much Yram would mind if I killed him. Probably not that much but I decided not to take any chances. I needed Yram to take me to this Zion so it was best not to be on her bad side. I had a feeling her bad side was very, very dangerous. Yram had this aura of dangerous power flowing around her and it gave me a slight feeling of fear and something else to...

     She reminded me of someone. But who?

Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die-Unknown

    Into the desert. As we continued into the wasteland, with every foot, meter, mile, I dreaded what we might find, or more likely, not find. For once, I was actually doubting the mission. But I can’t. I need to get to Zion. I sighed, I felt that I might never find need my way out once I entered, my internal compass had long since ceased operations. The belligerent energy from the following army was really the only thing that was keeping me from stopping where I was and sitting on the wet sand. The further into the cold desert the less and less vegetation invaded the blazing earth. As I found out, this earth was constantly moving. The ground in the desert was constantly shifting, like a living thing, never stopping to rest.

  “It’s an interesting concept”, I murmured, thinking out loud.

  “What’s interesting?” Yram asked. She did not turn to look at me, but I could feel her intense, red eyes glaring into the darkness. She really did have a strange beauty about her. Even though  she still had small chunks of mud in her hair, it waved in an ethereal way. “You okay back there?” she asked again. Then I realised that I had to answer her.

  “A-a-ah, nothing... just thinking to myself.” I answered hurriedly. My cheeks felt hot, and I was glad to be sitting where she could only see the back of my head. I looked up, the stars barely shining through the bloody red atmosphere.

  “Hey, I’m starvin. I hope ya can find us some food, miracle man!” Whiskey shouted from somewhere behind them. I closed my eyes, a slight feeling of annoyance rising in my skull.  aid nothing, but reined the horse to a halt.  “Wheeel, any suggestions?” Came the boisterous call.

  I dismounted, Yram scooted forward onto the horse’s shoulders. I took a quick look around, nothing but red sand and Tall, spined cacti. “Yram”, I said calmly,”give me the sharp thing in your pocket.” I extended my hand to her, waiting in a awkward silence. After a long silence I felt the cold blade fall into my hand . A searing burning, a magnetic repulsion, surged up my arm through the weapon. I was about ready to fling it as far as I could, but only came across as an over exaggerated shudder.

  “What, what is it?” Yram asked, seeing my jump. I could also sense her suspicion and curiosity at how I knew the blade was in her pocket, but I myself, had no clue.

  “Yeah, it’s nothing, really,” I said, ignoring the fact that my hand could no longer feel anything save for the invisible pins and needles.  I walked to one of the cacti, they stood as tall and imposing as stone pillars. I dragged the blade across the smooth skin of the cactus, not seeing the sharp needles the jutted out like knives. The cactus head fell into the unforgiving sand with a small thud. I pulled some of the spines off and dragged the oozing plant to the girls to eat.

  Whiskey craned her head to see what I had brought for her with a look of distaste on her face. As we all fed on the slimy insides of the cacti, Whiskeys eyes darted to my hand. “Hey, what’s dat der’ stardust?” she asked with her eyebrow raised as only she could. I looked down at my hand, a shimmering gold dripped down my fingers. I stared at it, half in shock, and half indecisively.

When liberty comes with blood dabbled on her hands it is hard to shake hands with her- Oscar Wildes

     A shimmering gold substrates was on Phoenixes finger. I licked my thumb and slid it over the gold liquid. It came off as I rubbed it but then flowed back through a small hole the way blood would when someone was wounded.

      Blood. Gold blood.

          Honestly, I should not have been shocked. But I was. I wanted to scream, slap, maybe even cry. How could everything in my world flip upside down in less than a week? How could a beautiful boy bleed gold blood? How could I be the daughter of a demon? How could my mother have been taken away from me?! This chaotic mystery was becoming a normal thing in my life.

        I did none of the things I wanted to, however. Instead, a motherly influence came upon me. A side of me longed to be sweet and kind. A side of me craved to be with Phoenix in a way more then just fearing and shunning him. The overwhelming feeling stunned me but still I could do nothing but succumb to its desires.

      Phoenix was just standing there, with a dumbstruck look on his face. I saw the devilish gleam in Whiskey’s eyes and leaped to action. “Phoenix,” I started, “you’re bleeding, here let me help you.” As I said this I held his hand gently and slipped his finger tip, that was swelling with the glistening liquid, into my mouth . Mama  told me saliva would work as a natural disinfectant.

      I was quite aware as to what blood tasted like from sticking a pricked finger in my mouth innumerable times, but this was different.

     My eyes grew wide, my mouth was filled with the taste of wild honey and the feeling of summer sun on your skin, at least, how it would feel in a perfect world. It was pure ecstasy, then it was the taste of a long-lost memory, bitter sweet and far since gone. It tasted like a lazy summer afternoon, sipping sweet tea with Mama. A tear welled in my eyes as I remembered my dear mother, dead, just like any chance of escaping the army that followed close on our heels.

    My joy was cut short by intense pain. Pain such as I had never felt before. My throat burned, my breathing was restricted, my tears of sadness turned to tears of pain. I spat out the blood, it fizzled on the ground and fused the sand into a kind of glass. I coughed, soon mingling the blood glass with my own, burgundy colored blood. The pain seemed to fray at my very sanity. The pain came in waves, eventually enveloping my entire body while I savagely attacked the pain’s center with my claws as it worked its way around my body.

     Phoenix held onto me as I dropped to the sand, he said something, but I couldn’t hear it over the ringing in my ears and the fire in my blood.

     I lost myself in agony and ecstasy.

The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.

- Walter Bagehot

   Yram had quite given up on trying to ride Hosanna and instead had me lead him out in front. It was not as luxurious as riding on the horse, but Yram had seemed very wary of me since the incident last night. Somehow, the sand managed to scorch the bottoms of my feet, until I dug my toes into the sand. I was about ready to fall over in exhaustion when I heard a whoop from behind me. I barely had enough time to move before Whiskey came barreling by me. She urged her mount over the desert, kicking up sand in their wake. She disappeared over the rise and all that I knew of her existence was the fading shout. Suddenly the sounds of splashing came from behind the dune. I trotted my way up the hill, Hosanna far ahead of