Familiar Beginnings by Alice Winters

Author:Alice Winters
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Published: 2020-03-26T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

I open my eyes to the sound of water. The world around me is strangely dark as I feel water rushing past me. Panicked, I stand up quickly and break through the surface of the water, only to realize I’m in the middle of a river.

I take a step and hear something behind me that makes me turn quickly. Along the shore is a line of people with sickly colored skin, shadows obscuring some of their faces, but it’s clear they’re focused on me. As they look down at me, I see that their eyes are pale, lifeless.

“A killer.”

I turn to find the speaker.

“Another killer.”

The current of the water is going faster. It’s pushing against me and I feel like if I let it, I’ll never come back.

Come back? To where? Where am I? The world is dark, almost like everyone beyond this river and the shore is just nothingness.

“You’re dead,” one says, and I turn, but no one seems to be speaking.

“You expect to be forgiven for your sins?”

Again, I hunt for the voice, but I can’t tell whose it is. They have no distinguishing features on their faces or color that allows me to tell them apart. Their mouths never seem to move and their eyes never seem to blink. But deep down, I know I killed all of these people. Whether it was me or my power that killed them, I don’t know. Havoc tells me it wasn’t me—that I couldn’t control it, that Geoff was the one using my magic to end their lives—but I could have stopped it. I could have died before Geoff killed them. I could have made it end. But I didn’t know, right? I was a kid.

They step closer to the river’s edge and I step back, letting the current push me. Etienne’s words come back to me, telling me to not let the current take me, but I deserve it. I deserve whatever this current has in store for me.

Without my selfishness, so many would still be alive. I push off, bringing my feet up and letting the current sweep me back.

This is right, this is what I deserve.

I glance down at the paint coloring my skin. The water is washing it away. I try to hold my arms up because the paint reminds me of Havoc and I at least want that. I deserve this, but can’t I take a piece of him with me? A simple memory?

My body slams into something and I sink. I’m pulled straight under and water fills my mouth and nose. I kick and thrash, trying my hardest to reach the surface although the water feels like it’s collapsing my lungs. When I break through, I see what stopped me. It’s a man… or maybe a shadow of a man. It’s hard to focus on it because its shape seems to constantly be changing. His face morphs and molds but his eyes never do. The irises are black, darker than the shadow’s skin.

“He’s weak.

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