The Unimaginable World by Amber Riel (ereader with dictionary txt) 📕

Grim appeared and stood near the grave.  He looked down and shook his head.  “Sam Freeman,” he spoke.  “He was a business man when he was alive and also a family man.  He is survived by his son and daughter whom are at the ages of five and seven.  Children, I need you two to go back and look for the two small ones or else they’ll be next.  He lost his wife giving birth to their daughter and they have no other family around.  The need someone to take care of them.”         

“Where exactly can we find them?” Thorn asked.         

Grim sighed and then with his long white bony finger pointed in the direction of the blockade.  “They are locked inside of a small black family car,” he explained.  “Oh plus, Quill, you’ll have to be careful because they witnessed you shooting their father so that’ll take some explaining to do.”

I sighed and closed my eyes.  “That’s why he didn’t want me to kill him.”         

Grim nodded.         

I looked at Grim and felt horrible.  “I’m sorry I ruined your world for the mortals.  You warned me to be careful which I thought I was but one got through before I had time to kill him.  I’m so sorry.”         

Grim’s eyeless sockets locked onto me and I could feel that he was upset too.         

“This isn’t your fault, child.  It could have happened to anyone.  Now I need you to pull yourself together and try to beat this thing.  Understood?”         

I nodded.         

“Good.  I will be back.  I have things I need to do now.”  He vanished without another word.         

“See that, Grim doesn’t even blame you,” Thorn said.  “He’s honest too so you know that should be encouraging.”

I nodded.  “How am I going to explain to a couple of small children that I had to kill their father?”         

Thorn shrugged.  “Not quite sure about that but I’ll be with you to help.”         

I nodded again.

                           *****          

It hadn’t taken us long to find the car.  Thorn went to open the side door but the children must have locked it for safety.  “We’re not going to hurt you,” he spoke and then tapped on the door.  “We’re here to help.”         

Two pairs of little eyes stared out at us.  Each of them was puffy and red from crying.  The two children didn’t bother to unlock the door and open it for us.         

I looked at Thorn.  “They witnessed something horrible happen to their father and I was the cause.  They’re afraid of me.”         

Thorn sighed and placed a hand on my arm.  “We just need to let them know that you did it to keep everyone safe.”         

“They’re just children.  They’re not going to understand that I had to do it.  Anna was ticked off at you for killing her husband last night.  There’s no way those two will get over it and we can’t just lore them out with candy.”         

Thorn thought for a moment and a small smile grew on his rugged face.  “Maybe we can.  Stay here, I’ll be right back.”  He left me alone at the car for a few moments.

I wondered what he was planning when he came back holding something in his hands.  “What are you doing?” I asked.         

“Luring them out with candy.”  He opened his hands to reveal some wrapped Hersey kisses and a bag of mms.

I watched him walk over to the car and knock again.

“We’re not going to hurt you and we have some candy,” he informed the two children.

We heard a clicking noise and the door opened slightly.  The little boy looked at Thorn’s hand and then turned his attention inside of the car.  “I don’t think we should trust them,” he spoke.         

“But they have candy,” the little girl’s voice squeaked.

“But daddy says not to trust strangers.”         

Thorn sighed and placed a hand inside and pulled the door wide open.  “Look it’s not safe here,” he told them.  “Your father was bitten and my friend here had to do something horrible but to keep everyone who’s still alive safe.”         

The little boy slowly climbed out of the car and stared at me.  “She’s the one who shot our daddy.”         

I felt my heart drop at the sound of the child’s voice.  His words were upsetting and hurt more than anything else that I as an immortal could only imagine.         

“I know but she did it to keep you and your sister safe,” Thorn tried to explain.  “I know right now it doesn’t seem like it but she had good reason.”         

I walked over them and dropped to my knees.  “I’m sorry but I had too.  A monster had bitten him and he would have turned into another one.  I understand why you’re mad and even afraid but right now we just want to help and get you and your sister somewhere safe.  Okay?”         

It took a lot of convincing but eventually the two children agreed to come with us and I had promised not to lay a hand another mortal.         

“I’m Thorn and this is Quill,” Thorn told the children.

“I’m Tom and this is my sister Sasha,” the boy answered.

“Nice too meet you, Tom,” Thorn said, holding out a hand for the boy to take.         

Tom shook Thorn’s hand then climbed out of the car and walked over to me.  He looked up at me with sad eyes.  “You said that you had to kill our daddy?” he asked.         

I nodded.         

“You think he’s in Heaven with our mommy?”         

I nodded again.         

Grim appeared and stood next to me.  I knew that the mortals couldn’t see him but Thorn and I knew he was there for a reason.  “Be careful in the city.  The place has been over run and they had to try to destroy it.  Explosives were sent off and destroyed almost everything in sight.  With that said, there still are zombies in the city so keep an eye out.”         

Thorn and I both nodded.         

Grim vanished again.

Ziles and Thorn cleared the road of the cars while I stayed near the car with the others. Vivid stepped out of the car and looked at me then turned her attention toward the two guys.  “Strong,” she spoke.         

I rolled my eyes.         

She kind of laughed.  “So is Thorn seeing anyone?” she asked.         

“I don’t think so but it’s not any of my business if he is or not,” I answered, trying to keep my jealousy hidden.         

Vivid nodded.  “He is attractive and he’s strong.”         

I just kept to myself.  I didn’t want to listen to her continuing on about someone I had practically know my whole life.  “We work together.  We don’t talk about stupid things like relationships.”         

Vivid looked at me and her mouth dropped with a smile.  “Are you jealous?” she asked.  “Do you have feelings for him?”         

The questions had come out of nowhere and had thrown me off in surprise.  “No,” I replied.  “Our relationship is professional and nothing else.  He probably sees me as a kid anyways.”         

Vivid nodded.  “Then you won’t mind if I work my charm on him then.”

“Keep it professional,” I hissed.  “We’re here on a mission not to find dates for a ball.”         

Vivid laughed.  “You do your job then and I’ll do mine.”

“Keep it professional,” I repeated.         

Vivid took a break from laughing but a mischievous smile grew on her face.         

Sasha opened the door and climbed out.  Bones followed behind and sat down.  “What happened to your dog?” she asked.         

“What do you mean?” I asked the child.         

“Why doesn’t he have any fur or skin like most dogs have?”         

I sighed.  We hadn’t exactly explained the whole situation to the children so I didn’t know how to tell her.  “It’s a skin condition,” I lied.         

“But he doesn’t have eyeballs either?  All animals and people have eyeballs.”         

I nodded then sighed.  “He was born like that.  It’s a long story, Sasha.”         

She nodded.  “What kind of dog is he anyways?”         

I looked at Bones.  I knew if he were from the mortals’ world he would have been a normal bred dog but being from our world it was a whole another story.  “He’s a blood hound,” I replied.  “He’s just different.”         

“Blood hound?”         

I nodded.         

“Like a hunting dog?”         

I nodded again.         

“What does he hunt?”         

“Anything,” I answered, “mostly zombies.”         

“Oh.”         

Bones sat down and looked around.  He stayed quiet, almost as if he were planning something in his head.

I sat on the concrete next to him and waited for Ziles and Thorn to return.  We were going to need to get a bigger car for everyone to fit but I knew that we would make it work until then.

Back on the road, we headed toward the city.  Thorn had explained to Ziles what Grim had told us early about the city being a horrible place to go but we needed to check for at least one survivor if there were any.  The dark grey sky from the night before only continued to grow worst.  I watched flashes of lightning strike in different areas.  A loud roar of thunder filled the air.  The next thing I knew it was pouring rain outside.

We neared the city but Thorn had Anna drive into the woods.  He had her stay there with the two kids and Ziles.  “Vivid, now I need to see what you can do,” he told the demon.         

“I know what she can do but it has nothing to deal with zombies,” I muttered to myself.         

A wide smile grew on Vivid’s face.

“Quill and I will cover you,”