Through Glass: Episode Four Read online

  Through Glass

  A Novella Series

  Episode Four

  Rebecca Ethington

  This Novella is part of an ongoing Novella publication.

  A new episode of The Through Glass Series is released in timed intervals throughout the year.

  If you have read the ORIGINAL Through Glass Novel (released Sept. 213) or have read the first three novellas this is the next one you will want.

  The novellas are meant to be read in order.

  Published by Rebecca Ethington

  Smashwords Edition

  Text Copyright ©2014 by Rebecca Ethington

  The Glass Series, characters, names, and related indicia are trademarks and © of Rebecca Ethington.

  The Glass Series Publishing rights © Rebecca Ethington

  All Rights Reserved.

  No Part of this publication may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher. For Information regarding permission, write to:

  Rebecca Ethington – permissions@ Rebecca Ethington.com

  Published by Imdalind Press

  Copyediting by C&D Editing

  Production Management by Imdalind Press

  ISBN-13: 978-0-9914313-1-1

  Printed in USA

  This Edition, March 2014

  Chapter One

  The cold of the darkness we stood in seeped through my father’s heavy leather jacket like a slow leak, chilling my bones and igniting the shiver of fear that was already running over me. What little light we had sequestered ourselves in rippled off the old stone of the alley and faded into the encroaching darkness that was now our world.

  My breath came in heaving intakes as I stood in the orb of light Travis had created. My lungs shook as if I had somehow forgotten how to breathe; as though running from Abran’s men, watching Bridget bleed in Travis’s arms and everything that had happened in the last few minutes, was nothing more than a nightmare. A nightmare that I hadn’t woken up from for the past eight years.

  We had barely escaped what should have been safety—a compound that was flooded with light, keeping the inhabitants safe from what lingered in the shadows outside—from the shadows we now stood in.

  But that safety could never be safe for me, and what little security the Blue, that Azul, contained was really only a disguised danger, a danger that had been revealed the second I squeezed the trigger and a man who had been thought to be safe, a man who had stood in the light, turned to ash.

  Just like the monsters do, like the creatures that had taken over our world and cast everything in shadow.

  Now, nothing was safe, only a ticking time bomb.

  And in Travis’s attempt to keep me safe, to escape the compound that had suddenly been cast in fear, we were now marooned in the dark. Isolated in the very place that I had escaped from only days before; the very place I had been so desperate to return to after I had heard what Abran had planned for me. The science experiment I was to become.

  And now I was here, in the world that would haunt and destroy us, yet somehow, would keep us safe.

  It was so much more than that, though. It was the question of what we had escaped from, and what very well might now be hunting us that caused my chest to tighten in a familiar fear, my breath to catch painfully in my throat.

  My chest shook as I inhaled, the fear stuck deep inside, as I looked to Travis, waiting for an answer to my question.

  The question of what we did next.

  “Let’s start by getting Cohen back.” He said the words so simply, but the effect was anything but. The effect was razor blades that cut against the iron cage that had grown around my heart, an all-encompassing ache that inflated in my stomach.

  Getting Cohen Back.

  It wasn’t possible. It shouldn’t be possible.

  He was gone, changed into one of the Tar. Travis had told me this; I had accepted it. I had vowed to save him from that fate in one way or another.

  But not to get him back.

  Not in a way that made it sound as if he was still there, as if he was still human.

  I gasped as the words repeated in my head, the desperate hope freezing me in place as I tried to push it away and accept the truth I already knew.

  Travis walked deeper into the alley while I stayed planted in the middle of the shadowed passageway, the movement hidden from me until the light that he held like a shield suddenly began to dim, the safety it brought leaving as he did.

  “What do you mean we need to get Cohen back?” I asked as I caught up to Travis, almost afraid to hear the answer.

  Travis didn’t even look at me, he only kept walking, his eyes trained far ahead into the dark of the alley. “You watched them take him, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “How long ago?”

  I opened my mouth to answer, only to close it again. It seemed like such a simple question, yet I couldn’t find an answer. So much had happened, so much time stolen from me while I was held captive.

  I honestly had no idea.

  I did not like the ugly twist of fear I got from the thought, the way a razor blade of stimulated panic ran over my body in waves of fear. My muscles tensed as I looked at him, his handsome face strong as he waited for my answer.

  “I don’t know,” I admitted the words slowly, almost hoping that an answer would magically appear at the last minute, but nothing came.

  Travis’s throat made a soft, little click of disappointment as we stopped at the end of the alley, the tall walls that had surrounded us opening up to a wide street that I recognized at once as old downtown, a place I had visited so many times before except that nothing about it was familiar.

  It was just like every other street that lined the surface of the dark world, each one that was now covered with the wide rings of ash; the circles that screamed of death and painful endings. Windows were broken, cars upturned, or even plunged through buildings in some cases. What had once been the store where a thousand girls had bought their prom dresses was now a dust-covered relic. The bookstore, like the ones I had spent Monday afternoons in growing up, was covered in shards of glass, the shelves broken and empty.

  The street was nothing more than your every day apocalypse.

  I didn’t think I would ever get used to it, the way everything had been destroyed. Even before I had left home, I wasn’t used to it.

  Travis stopped at the mouth of the long alley as he looked over the street, his fingers tensing around the light he held and obstructing the rays in order to send beams of light away from us, turning the illuminated disk into something akin to a flashlight.

  My shoulders tensed as I stood beside him, looking over the same desolate space he did, my heart beating faster as the fear of an open space began to seep into me.

  We had run from the compound, but that didn’t mean we hadn’t been followed. The alley may have provided some security, but one step out and all of that was ruined.

  “Do you think it’s safe?” I asked, the shake in my voice surprising me.

  “I don’t think Abran would have followed us all the way out here. I chose this side of town on purpose.”

  “Why?” The word came out all choked as it lodged itself in my throat, my mind already berating me for asking the question.

  “This is one of the last places in this section of town that the Azul haven’t cleared out. We are in the Tar’s territory here.”

  His words froze against my soul in a line of terror that settled painfully in my joints. Everything stiffened and I held tighter to my gun, almost as if one of the massive things would come around the c
orner, as if their giant claws would slash through the air and end me in a ring of smoke.

  Except I wouldn’t turn into a ring of smoke, not anymore.

  Not according to Abran, not according to Travis.

  I flinched as the memory of Cohen’s blood splashing over me came back fresh and hard. The shadow of his body against the black of the sky as he was taken away from me cut through my heart. I tried to control my breathing as I looked out on the grey of the street, my panic rushing through me in a painful vice, screaming at me to run, to be ready to fight.

  I knew both were coming.

  “We should be fine.” Travis’s massive frame towered over me as he stepped into the dark of the open street, his gun held before him as he scanned the street. The way he moved looked like something out of a police movie, the tautness in his back and shoulders matching the hard lines of his jaw. I wanted to laugh at the ridiculousness of it, at watching my once little brother take on a role I had watched him play at so long ago. Except it wasn’t funny because I knew as well as he did what could be waiting for us, and how real the monsters he had once played at had become.

  My heart thundered as I watched him, knowing I needed to follow him, to stay in the precious light that he held in his hand.

  The destroyed street before me had taken on a completely different form at the knowledge of where we were. Whose territory we were in. I knew what dwelled on these streets; I had run down them before I had been found.

  I had been hunted.

  I never stopped being hunted.

  Now there were more than just the Tar that screamed for my blood, however.

  My jaw tensed into a tight line as I moved to walk beside my brother, my eyes continually darting through the open area as I tried to get my bearings, convince the painful wire of fear that had wrapped around me that it could loosen, that with the light and the guns we held we had security.

  But it didn’t want to listen.

  Fear was as much a part of the world as darkness was. If you went somewhere without fear, you went somewhere without a hope of coming back.

  We walked on in silence for a moment, Travis’s tense movements still raging through me before he began to loosen, the anxious line of his muscles relaxing a bit.

  “Can you guess?”

  “What?” I asked, not understanding his question through the fear that still ruled me. My mind rushed around at the simple phrase, the already heightened nerves that ran through me flaring nightmares at what his meaning could be.

  “How long it has been since they took Cohen?” Travis clarified, his whispered voice somehow heightened now that it only had open air to move into.

  I stepped around a wide ring of ash as I looked at my brother, trying to decide how best to answer him. While the question was one that should be easier to answer, my mind had still put a block on it as if I didn’t want to think about how long it had been since I had lost him.

  I swallowed as I stepped back to Travis’s side, my heart squeezing together in an uncomfortable pain at the thought of Cohen being taken away from me again.

  “Well, I left, slept once, got knocked out, met your girlfriend, got shot in the chest—by said girlfriend—and since then have been everything short of stoned until we got out of there.” I rattled it all off like it was nothing, even though my heart was reacting like I was reliving every minute.

  The emotions were raw and painful as they moved through me, sparking a heat that heightened what I already felt. The angry brick wall I tried to keep my heartbreak behind seemed to crumble, my chest tightening painfully at the unwanted memories, the unwanted emotions. I tried to push all the feelings away and stop them from seeping into me, but it couldn’t take away everything. It couldn’t take away the pressure that built through me. It couldn’t take away all of the sadness.

  It couldn’t take away the heated explosion that I could feel was coming.

  The one I knew I should stop, yet I couldn’t make myself do it.

  “Oh, wait! I was stoned!” I growled as Travis glared at me out of the corner of his eyes, but I only plowed on, the look sending my blood into a steady boil. “I don’t know how much time has passed, Travis.”

  I knew my voice was too loud, but I didn’t do anything to stop it, either; I just let it grow. I let the anger, the frustration, the heartbreak—I let it all grow. I let it seep out of me, hoping it would take away the pain that had flown through my chest. I hadn’t felt this pain since Cohen had been taken from me. I didn’t want to feel it again.

  Unfortunately, I didn’t have a choice right then.

  “Calm down, Lex,” Travis said, his voice deep and rumbling as he looked into me, the dark light in his eyes glowering.

  I knew he was right, but yet, I couldn’t make the anger that had suddenly incapacitated me leave. I couldn’t ignore the way my brother wasn’t a child anymore, the way his face was more of a leader, like our fathers. I couldn’t ignore the scold in his eyes, the look identical to the one that Mom had given us every time she was gently trying to help us calm down.

  If for only that alone—for that look and all the memories that came along with it—I exploded.

  “Travis!” I snapped, my volatile blood boiling in reaction to his voice, to the way he spoke to me like Mom had, and all the emotions that came right along with it. “Don’t you dare!”

  I didn’t get out more than those few words before his hand clamped over my mouth, the smell of dirt and blood that soaked into his rough skin nauseating me.

  “You are going to attract someone,” Travis growled in my ear, the grip he had on me increasing as he tried to restrain his temper.

  I wanted to correct him, I wanted to say something, but I couldn’t make the words come. No matter how contrived and clichéd they sounded they were still true.

  And he was right.

  I would attract someone.

  I should have known better. Hell, I did know better, but the emotion had come on so strong, the anger and hatred boiling up in me so quick that I couldn’t control it. I grit my teeth and leaned back against him, letting the boil under my skin settle into something I could manage.

  Something that I could pretend hadn’t controlled me.

  Just like they had said, like they had warned.

  Just like they warned me when they told me I was turning into one of the Tar.

  I banished the thought from my mind with a heaving breath and held completely still against him, my body relaxing as the last of the volatile emotions melted away.

  Travis’s arms fell away from me as he felt my body relax, the soft click as he released the hammer on his gun echoing around me with a sharp crack. I didn’t even look at him; I only stared into the darkness, not wanting to see the look in his eyes at what had almost happened.

  What the click of his gun had meant he was willing to do.

  “I’m sorry,” I told him, but I wasn’t sure he heard me, he only stepped away from me as we walked into the dark, his voice low as he continued the conversation. As if nothing had happened.

  “You need to control it, Alexis. Don’t let it rule you.”

  I could only nod numbly at his words, knowing he was right but not wanting to say it out loud. I needed to fight this. I needed to fight for what I wanted and what I believed in.

  I needed to fight to live.

  If I was to let the volatile anger rule, I was only one step closer to changing. Or so they said.

  “We need to get to Cohen, Lex, before he changes.”

  You mean before I change.

  I shook the thought from my head and looked up to my brother, the hard light in his eyes all but gone now.

  “Why?” I asked, careful to keep my voice mellow. “You already told me he was gone, Travis. He’s not like Abran’s men, he was locked in a house just as I was, and now he has been taken. Turned into just another Tar, just another monster. If you shoot him with a gun, he will turn to ash just like all the others.”

  My voice trailed awa
y as I spoke, my eyes falling to the endless grey ash circles we were surrounded by. The ash was not undisturbed here as it had been in other places. Here it was spread over the street as the survivors had fought through them, fossilized footprints preserved in a windless world, the last promise that people had lived. They had fought, only to lose their lives anyway, only to turn into another ring of grey ash. One ring on top of another as person after person had lost their life.

  “But can he stand in the light?” Travis asked, his voice soft as he pulled my focus away from the open air mausoleum we were surrounded by.

  “I don’t know! You ask me questions I don’t even understand, Travis. How do Abran’s men stand in the light? Why was I left to live, alone, for eight years? How can it have been eight years? Neither Cohen nor I saw light after the world ended. I didn’t even get the light working before they took him away! How can I give you answers when I don’t understand them?”

  “That’s why we need to get him, Lex, so we can understand the questions.” Travis’s voice was deep as he pleaded with me, the tone low as he tried to control the sound running through me until I stood frozen before him. “Abran has done something to the people in Azul. They turned to ash, but what if they can also turn into creatures like the Tar.”

  “You mean…” I didn’t dare say it. I knew what he was alluding to, and I didn’t want to admit that what I had seen was real, that it could happen.

  I swallowed as the words got stuck in my throat, the dark brown of Travis’s eyes boring into me. I had almost expected the pity I had seen there before, but instead, I only saw a hard line and determination that had become so expected of him.

  The look I had never seen in my little brother.

  “I read your file. You told me about Sarah; how she changed right before your eyes. We have only ever seen that once, when someone we rescued changed for the first time. But what if it wasn’t the first time? What if they can change back and forth at will?”