City of Endless Night by Milo Hastings (e novels to read online .TXT) 📕

flipped on my cell phone. I started to dial Max, the phone flashed, “Twenty-four new messages.” I stopped, knowing that I wasn’t strong enough to keep telling him no. I sent him a text instead that read, “Yes I C U. Get some rest U look terrible.” I pushed send and powered the phone off.

I was getting ready for my second night in Max’s truck when I thought of the impossibility of the entire situation. My courage brought me to him. In meeting him and nearly losing him I felt unfettered passion. From our initial meeting there were three more things I had to achieve: Empathy, Trust and Virtue. Though I had never talked to Rewsna about any of this in any detail, now might be the opportune time to ask her some questions.

I closed my eyes and rather than look in on her when the tunnel arrived, I called to her telepathically, “Rewsna, are you there?”

I waited a minute and wondered why she was the only one I was able to share a clairvoyant connection with, when she answered, “It is I, who share my connection with you, Lauren. Where are you?”

“I’m close. Rewsna, I need some straight answers. Can you help me?”

“I can try, but some answers you seek are within you. You hold the answers.”

“This power of sight thing, I like it and I am pretty good at it now. This Beast thing that attacked me, if I try to see him will he know that I am watching?”

“No, I don’t think that he will.”

“Max can tell when I’m watching him.”

“That isn’t surprising, Lauren. He is your other half. You two are connected spiritually – there are many connections you share. The Beast should not have the same type of tie to you.”

“How do I destroy him? It can’t be as simple as shooting him, right?”

“Ah, that was the correct question. You may kill him with a weapon, a stick, a knife, a gun - it does not matter, you can kill whatever form he is in. Human is by far the most fragile, but his life is vulnerable in any organic form. But you did not ask how to kill him - you asked how to destroy him.” She paused as if contemplating my question and finally responded, “I can only tell you how we destroyed others of his kind. Trust is a powerful element. If you trust in an outcome so deeply you do not need proof of its existence, it exists. Conversely, if you trust that something you can see, touch, and feel is nothing more than a figment of your imagination, then it ceases to exist. You must slay the Beast in any form it presents itself in, then trust that it has been erased from existence – that it is nothing more than a memory. If your trust waivers, the Beast will survive.”

“After I destroy it, I will be free of it, right? It could never come back to hurt any of us again?”

“If you destroy it, yes – it will cease to exist. But if you waiver, it will find you again. So far each time it or one of its minions has found you – you have held the upper hand and you have weakened it. Should you be unsuccessful, the roles will reverse and it will be the one to grow stronger. You should not attempt to destroy it until you are certain that you can.”

A plan began to form in my mind and Rewsna watched it unfold. “I think that is unwise, Lauren. It seeks you and will anticipate that action.”

“You told Max that the Council would help me. Where the hell are they? All watching from afar? Let me guess: they have full schedules and can’t be bothered?”

“Lauren, the Council is all around you. They have not left you, but they do not intend to interfere with your destiny.”

“That’s frickin’ great, all around me but a hands-off policy? I’m supposed to beat this thing on my own and then what? Someone jumps out of the bushes and yells April Fools – we were here the whole time?”

“That would be inappropriate, it is September.” Rewsna had never tried to make a joke before and this one caught me off guard. Her sense of humor was drier than the Mojave.

“You are hysterical. So I do this on my own?”

“Do you feel that you are on your own? Did a stranger not seek you out and help you communicate with your protector, Peanut? Did that same communicator offer you a way to contact Seth? Did you not notice the cell phone store that you stopped at with Seth at ten p.m. closed at nine? Did you think it not strange that a park ranger has not bothered you in two days, though you are clearly not camping? Of course, you did not. All these things you attribute to luck or your own good fortune are the things the Council assisted with. They will not interfere with your destiny, but they do not leave you alone and are moving you toward your correct path. I see your plan. I tell you now that it is unwise, but you will decide what, if any, action to take.”

My mind spun. Mike from the rest area was on the Council? He wasn’t creepy: he looked like a regular guy. The cell phone store? It was true, we were the only customers there. I had come and gone from the park today several times never seeing a park ranger. “Rewsna, why is it such a big secret? Why wouldn’t one of the Council have told me who they were, or offered to help me?”

“They did offer to help you. You just took it for granted that it was nothing out of the ordinary. Even if you had cornered them, they would only have guided you to the correct path. The decisions you make are your own.”

“You told Max you didn’t know where I was?”

“You were