Just a Little Death (Children of the Apocalypse Book 1) (7 page)

“Keep your thoughts to yourself.” My mom snapped.

I held up a hand, trying to stop any further arguing. “We’re going to go see a movie and then probably hang out at the hotel. I’ll be back to the dorms later tonight. Tomorrow, we’re going to enjoy the festival. I will enjoy my weekend, damnit.”

“I’m sorry.” Ruthie smiled. “You deserve a weekend of fun with your mother. Enjoy the movie, I’ll catch up with you later.”

Ruthie walked toward the parking lot and I turned to my mother. “It wouldn’t hurt you to be nice to her. She is my roommate after all.”

“That’s assuming I don’t drag you home after this weekend.”

I didn’t doubt she would try, but I knew I couldn’t just walk away from this. Not right now. And I wasn’t sure if I wanted to run from demons my entire life, there couldn’t be much of an existence doing that.

I walked into the dorm room after an uneventful rest of the evening with my mother. Kaleb and Ruthie sat on the floor looking over books. “My mom is sure that I don’t belong in this world.” I dropped my bag on the bed and sat down. “My feet hurt from walking, my car better be ready tomorrow.”

“The festival is all on school grounds, so you’ll be fine.” Ruthie said without looking up. “Did you know that Texas is thinking about seceding from the U.S., or trying to at least?”

Exactly what kind of books were they reading? I sat up and looked at them. “I had no idea. I don’t follow politics much. Why on earth would they want that?”

“Stricter border control, no control from the U.S. government, so on and so forth. They want to become their own tiny country.” Kaleb said. “We need to find War so this doesn’t turn into a disaster.”

I leaned on my hands. “They’ll have a hard time fighting if twenty percent of the population is taken out by the Black Death.” I closed my eyes to focus on the numbers. “At least half the state of Texas will die in the war, the other half will be infected, and they won’t win.”

Ruthie shrugged. “It’s still the start of a war. Imagine if the tides change and Texas won, then other states would think they can start a war and become their own country.”

It sounded like something that was Aeron’s problem, not mine. “We have to figure out where the horsemen are in the first place in order to start figuring out how to free them, or even if they want to come back.”

“What?” The other two stared at me.

I crossed my arms. “Has anyone considered they didn’t want to do this anymore? Fight a constant war between good and evil to keep things in balance? Maybe they wanted a vacation or something.”

Neither one of them said anything for a few minutes. They ignored my statement and went back to their books. I pulled out my phone and scrolled through social media, finding nothing that could keep my attention. “What are you two studying?”

“Whether or not you can reap souls in Death’s place in case he gets locked away.” Ruthie looked up. “You can summon a scythe now; your abilities are coming through.”

I didn’t know if I wanted the job of reaping souls. What I wanted was one night where I didn’t have to worry about demons and horsemen. Now I didn’t get that since my mother knew about everything.

Kaleb closed his book. “We’re just trying to cover our bases. None of us can take our fathers’ jobs. We were hoping you would be different. So far, the answer is no. Which means we need to make sure Death stays safe.”

“He’s avoided them. Have we narrowed down anywhere to look for the seals? Or the horsemen?”

Ruthie nodded. “We’re going to take a trip to Devil’s Playground over Thanksgiving.” The Devil’s Playground was a rock formation in the mountains where you could see the lightning dance between the rocks. It had a campsite at a safe distance, but I had a feeling we weren’t going to stay at a safe distance. 

“I promised my mom I’d come home for Thanksgiving.” I muttered. “But I suppose now she’ll understand if I tell her I want to take a trip.” Though I doubted it. She wanted me to turn my back on all of this. “It’s a shorter trip from my side of the mountain.”

Ruthie nodded. “You’ll go home and we’ll take an overnight trip. Your mother is right, you’re still young so you should get to experience life. That means going home for the holidays. We’ll all have to study for midterms. For the next few weeks we’ll keep doing what we are doing. Research and fighting demons.”

“What if we move our trip up?” I asked. “We skip a Friday class and take a three-day weekend. Worse comes to worse we skip a Monday.”

They exchanged looks. “The mountains are easier to travel now. We go, take a look, rule it out if we can’t find a seal, and move to the next one. The sooner the better, right?”

“She’s right, if we can start ruling out local places then we can move on to those that are not local.” Kaleb tapped his knuckles against the cover of the book he’d been reading. “We’ll go next weekend.”

Ruthie frowned. “Do you think we can make it back in time? We don’t want to tip any of the Devil’s demons off. I’m sure Gypsy and Princeton will be suspicious if we’re all gone.”

“Pete hasn’t run into any of the Sins in his dorm, so I think we’ll be okay.” Kaleb smiled. “It’s a good plan, Sammy.”

A little bit of pride swelled in me at his words. Ruthie looked at her watch. “Okay, time for you to go and for us to get to sleep. Long day tomorrow and all that.”

Kaleb stood and gathered the books. “I’ll see you tomorrow at the festival since the cat’s out of the bag.” He let himself out and I fell back against my mattress.

“I know it’s not how you expected the weekend to go.” Ruthie went to her bed. “But it might be better now that your mother knows. She might be able to help us.”

I snorted. “Don’t hold your breath on that. She wants me to turn away from all this and go on the run with her.”

“You can’t outrun what you are, Sammy. It never works and there are consequences for such actions.” She chuckled. “Your mother should know that. You don’t just run from your responsibilities. Besides, I’m not going to let you get killed. It’s my job.”

I rolled over and faced her. “Because it’s your job…”

“Well, I’m fond of you too, and it won’t be my job forever, because you’ll understand how to protect yourself. I like to think we’re becoming friends.”

I did too, but I wasn’t sure if the daughter of Death was allowed to have friends. I tried to imagine my father sitting down to have dinner with someone. “What happens when this is over? After the horsemen are back?”

“You return to what you’d consider a normal life, for now. There will always be demons and evil, but it’ll be more balanced and rare when you have to face one like we have these last few weeks. You’ll continue to learn to control your abilities and hone your skills. When your dad is ready, he’ll retire and you’ll take over for him.”

I frowned. “Or if he’s killed.”

“Or that,” she confirmed. “But don’t worry, that’s only happened a few times.”

Her light voice attempted to cut some of the tension and it worked for the most part. I pretended to lift a glass in a toast. “To being a college student, the daughter of Death, and a demon fighting bad ass. But even bad asses must sleep.”

“Yes, even we need our sleep.”

My mom walked with me as we made our way through the swarm of people that had shown up for the festival. She’d kept the chatter normal, talking about work and classes. She had asked about Jared several times, but I always pushed it off. She’d asked again as we approached the picnic tables.

“I told you he’s way out of my league and I’m sure he has a girlfriend. He hosts all kinds of parties out in the desert, there’s bound to be at least one girl he hooks up with.” I shook my head.

She laughed and we both froze when Professor L sat down with us. I closed my eyes and prayed nothing crazy was going to happen. She set off all my instincts. Something had changed about her though. Today there was a red haze surrounding the irises of her eyes. I glanced at my mom to see if she had noticed. If she did, she didn’t show it. She smiled at the woman. “Hi, I’m Sammy’s mom. Are you a parent as well?”

“No, I’m her college algebra teacher. I just wanted to come and see if she managed the homework assignment that’s due Monday.”

I didn’t think teachers made a habit of checking in with their students in college. Or meeting their parents. My mom looked to me and I nodded. “I did. I finished it yesterday morning.”

“Good, I look forward to seeing if there was any improvement from the last one. It’s so nice that your mother came in for parents’ weekend. It must be so hard being an only parent to an extraordinarily unique child.”

Her words made me think I was dealing with one of the Seven Sins. Envy and Pride were already taken care of, that left Greed, Sloth, Lust, Gluttony, and Wrath. I guessed she was Lust. She smiled at my mother.

My mom shrugged. “She’s always been such a good kid. I couldn’t imagine what it would have been like if her father had stuck around.”

I could and I knew it wouldn’t have ended well between them since they both had different paths for me to take. “That’s neither here nor there. I’m glad she was able to take time out of her busy schedule to come up and see me.”

“Of course. I’ll let you two be and enjoy your day.” She stood and gave a small wave with her slim fingers. “I’ll see you Monday, Sammy.”

I watched her saunter off into the crowd. My mom put her hand on my shoulder. “You can tell that she’s not human.”

“Yes, but I don’t know who or what she is. She really bothers me though.” I shivered.

“Next time you’re in class, hang back and summon your scythe, it should reveal her to you completely and summon a barrier.”

That didn’t sound like a wise idea, but maybe it would lead me to some new information. I hadn’t gotten the chance to voice my concern with Ruthie yet, but I had math class on Monday, that was plenty of time to talk to her. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“Not pushing me to make a choice right now.”

She patted my cheek. “You’re my daughter, I know when to push and when not to. When the time comes, I’ll be there.”

I nodded and looked over the sea of people moving through the courtyard. None of the humans knew about the demons, the angels, or the apocalypse. Someone with a facemask walked by and I wondered if they were really concerned about the plague, or if they were someone with a compromised immune system. Could be both. I closed my eyes and focused. A number came to my mind. Over half the student population would die from the plague if Pestilence wasn’t found.

“What’s wrong?”

I shook my head. “Some days the numbers in my head depress me.” I knew I had no choice but to find the horsemen. No one could take my place in this fight.

“You’ll get used to it.” She promised.

I hoped she was right.

Past Pestilence

“You’ll keep me updated?” My mom asked as she stood in front of the train station. “I don’t like the idea that your abilities are showing.”

This weekend had been a little rough because of her opinions, but I’d miss her. “I’ll make sure to keep you as updated as I can.” I sighed. “I know this is hard for you, but trust me, it’s not easy for me either.” I hadn’t shared my plan with her to go to the Devil’s Playground with the others. Something about me searching among the dancing lightning made me think she wouldn’t appreciate the plan.

She hugged me and kissed my head. “Send my apologies to your father, I never meant to keep you from him. If I had known…” She shrugged. “Maybe things would have been different.”

“Of course. Let me know when you get back into town.” I squeezed her. “I’ll be fine, I promise. Nothing has really changed since the first day of school.”

“Except now you’re fighting demons, dealing with the Seven Deadly Sins, and you’re able to summon a scythe.” She chuckled, but it didn’t mask the sadness in her voice.

She had a few points. “I’ll be fine.” I said again. She walked into the station and a flood of relief went through me. I couldn’t imagine how life would have been growing up knowing I’d fight demons. The woman probably wouldn’t have let me out of her sight. I loved her, but her over protectiveness would be a problem. I turned around and Ruthie stood right there. I raised a brow. “I didn’t think you were going to come to see her off.”

“I sensed a demon around and I didn’t want you alone again.”

I started to walk back towards the school, but she pulled me towards the parking lot. “I brought the car.” She grinned. “Didn’t think you wanted to walk all the way back.”

“Nope, I can’t wait to find out about my car and see if I can get it back on the road.” I walked with her to the car lot.

She unlocked her car and I got in. “Why do angels have cars?”

“So that we blend in, haven’t you figured that out yet?” She got in the driver’s side. “We do a lot of strange things to blend in. We come in different forms all the time, but the best way to protect you is to always be there somehow.”

I raised a brow. “You haven’t been here all the time.”

“That you know of. I don’t always appear like this. It’s complicated.” She shrugged. “A lot of times guardian angels take the form of lifelong friends, and if something happens to that bond, we reappear as someone right when you need them most.”

I combed through my life and tried to think of who she would have been. She was right though, there was always someone there during the tough times. “I guess you’re right.”

“Now, as for the other Children of the Apocalypse, they blend in because it allows them to see how things are affecting the human population.” She pulled the car out of the parking spot and headed towards the school. “It’s how balance works.”

I tried to imagine leading a normal human life while trying to keep an eye on the death tolls of the world. “Never a dull moment?”

“Not for you guys. My job can get boring sometimes, but that’s not a problem.” The light turned red and she stopped at it. “How was the festival with your mom?”

“Oh you know, a lot of crappy food and some discussion on how the job search was going and my plans. Professor L sat down with us for a moment.”

She glanced at me. “The algebra teacher?”

“Yeah, that one. Something was different about her though. There was this weird red shadowing in her eyes. It was around the irises but I swore it was bleeding into the iris towards the pupil.”

“She’s not of this world then. Remember Death’s eyes?”

“He has skulls in them. His eyes were the first ones I could see anything different in.” I pulled down the vanity mirror and looked at my own eyes. No skulls appeared, but maybe it didn’t work that way with me.

“Yours will be that way when you take over his position.” She said as if reading my thoughts. The light turned green and she turned towards the parking garage for the college. “You’ll start to see it more and more as your abilities come to light.”

I nodded. “My mom said that the professor was a demon. Is that why she gives me such creeps?”

“She must be a high one, a Sin maybe. They tend to create feelings in someone that aren’t there normally or amplify them. If you spend enough time with the RAs you’ll understand.”

“That’s good to know. Are things set for our trip to the Devil’s Playground?”

Ruthie nodded. “We’re all set, let’s hope it’s the only place we have to check.”

“We all know it’s not going to work that way. Fate isn’t that kind. Three horsemen mean at least three different places. I doubt the Devil is stupid enough to put all three seals in the same place.” I glanced out the window and watched as a few people made their way down the sidewalks.

Ruthie pulled the car into the parking garage and flicked on her lights. “I know, but if we can get Pestilence out then we can handle War and Famine without the plague killing people off.”

One less thing to worry about. “Finding any of them at this point would be a good thing. Before World War Three starts, twenty percent of the population dies, and people start starving.” My stomach churned at the numbers moving in my head.

“It boils down to stopping the apocalypse.” Ruthie laughed. “No big deal.”

I wish I had her confidence. I felt like we were missing a big piece of the puzzle. “What’s on the agenda tonight?”

“Pete wants to meet with you, start you on some history lessons of the horsemen. The more you know about them, the better. Get to know him a bit. He’s had a fairly human life, Pestilence wanted it that way. The only thing anyone talks about with you is the apocalypse. You aren’t going to be much of a team if you don’t know each other.” She parked and turned the engine off. “They need to be able to trust you to have their backs.”

“And I need to be able to trust them.” I finished the thoughts. “Who wants to trust a bunch of strangers with your life?”

She got out and looked at me over the car. “Exactly.”

“Well, what does he like to do?”

“He was a soccer player in high school, he played rugby when he was in England a few decades ago.” She locked the car and we walked towards the stairs that led out of the parking garage.

“Okay, there’s some type of sports event going on at the stadium tonight. Maybe I can talk him into going.”

“No, it’s football. Try the common room with the soccer game turned on. It’ll get him to relax and open up a bit.”

I wasn’t sure if getting him to open up and talk would be a good idea, because his dad went missing first. Of course, maybe it would ease the stress a bit. “Okay, I’ll give it a try.”

Ruthie and I had dinner alone. She’d let Pete know I would meet him at his dorm and we’d study history in the common room. One on one wasn’t something I’d done with the guys since I’d met them and I hated that I was nervous. It wasn’t a date, it wasn’t anything remotely romantic, and neither of those facts helped me calm down. His dorm was safer than ours since we had two Sins currently working in ours. I stood outside the building waiting for Pete to come down and let me in. Security measures for the school called for each visitor of the dorm to be escorted by a resident student. Most of the time, students just followed others in, but on a Sunday evening there weren’t a lot of people moving in and out of the building.

Pete pushed the door open and smiled at me. “Ready for some old history?”

“Sure, it sounds a lot less dangerous than facing demons.” I walked in and followed him to the first floor common room.

The soccer game was already on the television and I relaxed a little, I wouldn’t have to awkwardly ask to turn it on. I didn’t know much about soccer other than the ball went into the goal and it wasn’t as big as football season.

“I’m a soccer nerd, so I hope you don’t mind that I have the game on.” He sat down in one of the couches with a pile of books in front of it.

I shook my head. “I don’t, but I don’t know how much of a conversationalist I’ll be if it’s about the game.” I said honestly. “Ruthie said that you played when you were in high school.”

“Yeah, this most recent time, when I had to have the cover to get into this school after we found out you’d be here. I really enjoyed it.” He smiled. “High school is such a hell hole that I hate having to do it for a cover. But I was at a school we thought you might be at. I had to stick around just in case you showed up.”

I wrinkled my nose. “I can’t imagine anyone wanting to relive high school.”

“Not my favorite thing, college is much more fun.” He shook his head. “When I was raised, there weren’t limits on alcohol, it was just there and part of life. Now that it’s restricted, people go crazy for it. It makes life a lot more interesting when you’re hanging around with a bunch of drunk humans.”

“Can I ask you a question?” He nodded and I continued. “Does it get lonely? You only have a few friends who are as old as you.” I leaned back in the chair.

His eyes focused on the screen but after a few moments he nodded. “It does, and it really sucks when you find a human you like and they age at a different rate. We can change our appearance to make us seem older or younger as needed, so they never notice. But it sucks when Death comes to claim their souls and you know you’ll never see them again, or have the same connection.”

I thought about having to be the person to take a loved one’s soul away and my heart ached. “How long will you live?”

“We’ll live forever. We get the choice to retire from our jobs at some point, but we’ll live on until someone decides to kill us.” He glanced at me. “That means you too. You talk like you aren’t one of us. You are, and you’ll come to that realization soon enough. Let me give you a piece of advice?”

I nodded.

“Don’t fall in love with a human. You don’t want the heartache.” He pushed the books towards me. “On to business.”

I wondered if he had experienced the heartache of losing a human lover. With his change of subject, I didn’t want to push. I picked up the first book. “It’s a Bible.”

“So are all the other ones, various translations and publishing years. I want you to read Revelations, and when you’re done, tell me what conclusion you’ve come to.” He leaned back and his eyes went back to the television.

So much for having a conversation. I wasn’t sure how this would help me to learn the history of it. “Wait, if we don’t die of natural causes, does that mean the horsemen from the previous generations are still alive and just, retired?”

“A couple of them, yes.” He nodded. “I don’t know what happened to the other two, but I know they are dead.”

“Can they come out of retirement?” I flipped through the first Bible until I hit Revelations.

He grinned at me. “You are brilliant!”

I blinked. “So that’s a possibility? How come you guys haven’t thought of it before?”

“No one bothers the horsemen after they retire, they want to be left alone, but I think these are dire circumstances, don’t you?” He reached for his phone, but froze when breaking news bulletin popped up on the screen.

He grabbed the remote instead and turned up the volume.

“Twenty people on the western slope have died tonight due to complications from the plague. The doctors have confirmed that it is the bubonic plague and can be transferred via infected fluids as well as fleas from infected rats. With two hundred more admitted to the local hospitals, they are calling this an epidemic. Over four hundred have been hospitalized total in the state and they expect those numbers to rise.” The news anchor glanced up at the camera. “They are urging people to take precautions as they handle all animals and if they show symptoms they need to go to their local health care facility immediately.”

Pete looked at me and I nodded. “Five hundred dead tomorrow.” I stated. “It’ll be three thousand in the state before the month is out.”

“How many in the country?” He clenched his fists and started gathering up the Bibles.

I concentrated. “Thirty thousand.” They were supernatural numbers for the plague in this day and age. A case occasionally wasn’t unusual, but something like this would be considered impossible.

“Come on. We’re postponing history. We’re going to go get some help.” He grabbed my arm and dragged me towards a dorm room. He took a moment to drop all the Bibles off and grab a coat. He remained silent as he led me outside and to his car.

“We’re going to go see my grandfather. I hope you’re ready.” He unlocked the car and we both got in. “He’s not far from here. A few hours’ drive, we’ll be back late, but in time for classes tomorrow.”

I wasn’t planning on a long car ride, but I wasn’t going to argue. Seeing the numbers, I knew we needed to try anything. I buckled up and nodded. “Let’s do this.”

Three hours later we drove into a tiny town. A motel, a gas station, a liquor store, and a few houses dotted the side of the main road. The plague occasionally popped up in rural towns like this, a farming town with high populations of rats because of low human population and inadequate pest control. For some reason I wasn’t surprised a past horseman would be living in this type of town.