Dark Rider

“Doesn’t matter,” Rider shrugged his shoulders as he climbed over a fallen tree, when he jumped off to the moist forest floor he reached up and held his hands out to help Kassie and then A.J. but less attentively. He just grabbed his wrist and yanked him to safety. “God had to help us; we’re screwed if we stay any longer.”

“Oh how fun,” Kassie grumbled as the realization hit her, Christ had helped them out of the tunnel of darkness which meant they could be spotted by her father and the tracker. Fear crept into her heart as she looked from A.J. to Rider; she wanted to hurry but was stuck in spot from the stunning fright that radiated from toe to head. “Rider…”

“I know, Kassie,” Rider whispered weakly, he had once again, in his mind, put them in danger. And he couldn’t get them out fast enough; he knew that sooner much rather then later that Lester Mackerel would be showing up with Vega hot on his heels, ready to fight to the death of both A.J. and Kassie. That thought nearly sent rage so strong flowing through his veins that he could have ripped a tree from the roots buried deep in the earth. “I won’t let them hurt you, Kassandra. I won’t let them take A.J. from you, ever.”

“Are you so sure about that, Atrum Angelus?” the sweet velvety voice of a female sung like seduction causing both Kassie and Rider to break their connection at the eyes to look towards the voice, and when they did they found someone completely unfamiliar but all to known by them both at the same time.

“Vega,” Rider spit her name like venom burning his lips as he stepped forward, in between his charges and the renegade bounty. “Leave now.”

“Oh burn in hell,” she snapped as she glanced from Rider to Kassie, her blue eyes with bright red pupils (from her soul interfering with the body’s soul, which was fighting back) burned heavily as she glared at them. “You two, boy have you got a truck load of shit coming for you.”

“You will not touch them,” Rider shouted, shocking both Kassie and A.J., they had never heard him scream or shout before and it was a frightening sound. He sounded almost ravage, Kassie was surprised that the small woman didn’t seem scared. Kassie knew though, that this body wasn’t hers, so she had no clue to what this Vega woman actually looked like. But from her personality, Sheba the six armed Goddess from Mortal Combat video games that A.J. played could have been her match. “The man you are helping has no soul, his own child he wants to destroy and take to the abyss. How could you help this—this demon?”

“Its easy,” she said calmly as she glanced from Kassie and A.J., both seemed shocked to silent and frozen into place from the scene unfolding before them. “He promised that I could take you down when he got the rugrats.”

“You always were heartless,” Rider commented as he stepped forward and sneered at the woman. “You just can’t let it go can you? I had a job to do, Vega. I’m to take those lost souls, evil and pathetic to the abyss, no matter who or what they are to others.”

“What—what happened?” Kassie found her voice to question the obvious vengeful Vega’s reason to destroy Rider.

“I was his partner,” Vega spit out as she glared at Rider and began to walk sideways, as if circling Rider, Kassie and A.J. while she talked and explained her old wounds that stayed open, ready for revenge. “I fell in love with a mortal; I was keeping him safe and hidden from Lucifer and Christ. I couldn’t risk losing him, I loved him. Rider found out, ratted me out and Donavon died—was destroyed.”

“I had too,” Rider claimed with malice, he hated her. Kassie could tell, she held a grudge for his trustworthy work habits and he hated her for being a traitor. “We had a job to do; you turned your back on everything. He was evil, he killed children, women, anything he could get his filthy hands on. Did you think you could have hid him forever, love or not. Right is right and wrong is wrong, you knew that.”

“Guess what?” Vega said hysterically as she leaned in and out frantically, like she was having problems with the body she held hostage. “Right or wrong, you’re dead today. You will be sent to the abyss, find out how it feels to live in misery for all eternity. Bring a buddy to work day!”

“Bring it,” Rider backed up and stood in a fighting stance, gesturing his hands forward to himself, he showed her he was ready.

Kassie had backed A.J. and herself up to a tree as she seen things were going to get dirty, she didn’t want to be in the crossfire, but she didn’t want to leave Rider by himself. She wasn’t a coward, she wouldn’t run even if she had to make A.J. go, she couldn’t. It just wasn’t in her to give up and leave a friend or fellow comrade alone to die. She was determining in her mind if she was ready to send A.J. away and go in to help Rider when she felt something blow on her neck, her mind froze as well as her body, joints locked and jaw snapped shut as she felt it again. Only one person in her life ever blew on her neck, trying to tickle her, no one else ever had. And the only time he ever done it was when she was a child and he hadn’t hated her, when he actually cared—when he wasn’t drunk and evil. Her father. Slowly, she turned around, though she hadn’t wanted to, coming face to face with her father was like looking into the entire world’s evil, hate and lies wrapped up into one body for a four hour limitation. It was hell on earth to the fullest extent; she gasped in a breath of air and let out a loud scream, beckoning Rider to help her. But before she could so much as say his name through the scream, the force of her father’s fist against her jaw knocked her to the ground, where unfortunately a tree root stuck out and the landing brutally bounced against her skull, sounding a sickening breaking sound through the air. A.J. stood in stunned silence, his hands stuck at his side as he stared down at Kassie, when he heard the crack, he thought her dead. All reasons inside to keep alive, living and worrying seemed to die out and the only thought that ran around was that she was dead and he couldn’t do anything about it. “You killed her,” A.J. stared at Kassie, tears clouding over his blue eyes to the point they puddled and fell over the lid to run like river down his cheeks. “You killed her…”

“And guess whose next?” his uncle joked cruelly as he stepped over Kassie’s limp body and walked after A.J. like a stalker, creeping on him like a fading darkness. He couldn’t get away, he didn’t want to get away, and he wanted to stay in that spot with Kassie. But the feeling of two arms lifting him away brought his attention back to the reality of the situation.

“Oh no you don’t,” Lucifer showed in his view, inches away from where his uncle was, grabbing hold of a silver slither of light above the body that had claimed to hold his uncle. His soul, which he tried to escape from the body with, Lucifer had caught and held high like a trophy with the grim expression on his face. “C, do you want to go take the boy away?”

“Take care of the girl, Rider—bring Vega to me after you get finished with her,” A.J. choked up at the relieving sound of Christ’s voice, they had came to the rescue. Heroes, like Rider—but they had been too late and he had lost his cousin. His self-proclaimed mother, the only person he loved and truly respected in the world. She was gone and he had no one left, he was alone in the word, twelve years old and so alone.

“Kassie,” A.J. fell into Christ’s arms and closed his eyes, he didn’t want to see the damp forest surroundings, the darkness that faded around the trees or the sight of Lucifer holding the evil spirit of his uncle over his dead cousin who lost her life during the fight. He wanted to wake and find it all a dream, but he knew and feared that it wasn’t and it was all too real.

“Alexander,” Christ broke his train of depressing thoughts and made A.J. turn to him, eyes open and alert. Instead of the forest scenery surrounding the bright frame of the blond man named Christ; it was his home in Fiji, his bedroom. He was sitting on the bed with Christ holding him up, sitting on the edge. “It wasn’t a dream, I’m afraid you had to endure every bit of the memories you hold. I’m so very sorry for that, but it’s all over now. You can live free again, like I planned for you.”

“I don’t want it to be real,” A.J. cried out as he leaned his head on the white jacket Christ wore, his tears staining the white material. “Please, make it all go away. Just make it all go; I want my life back with Kassie, I want her back.”

“Alexander,” he called out more stern this time, his tone made A.J. alert to his serious words he was about to say. “I cannot make it all a dream, life doesn’t work that way. I never wanted it to; you have to go through life’s roadblocks. Even if they aren’t planned, most are not. I want you to realize that what you have done today will forever change your life, but for the better. When I see you again, you will have a spot in heaven close to me. You have earned it, my child.”

“Kassie’s earned her spot too, right?” A.J. questioned, his bottom lip quivered as he asked the question he so dearly needed to know the answer to.

“Yes, right next to your mother,” Christ smiled wisely as A.J. sobbed with happiness. “But not quite yet, she’s not ready to see me again just yet—I’ve planned something better for her.”

The day Kassie had woke up from the comatose she was put into; she had realized she lost every memory she ever had. She didn’t know A.J. or who she was, slowly, day by day, week by week—Kassie learned of her life before the accident, A.J. decided to ease her worries and pain by telling her what he had been told by the doctors—that she had been in a car accident where she broke her neck and from the swelling of her brain, she had lost memories and some functions such as leg movements. She, over time rebuilt her mind and body, through physical and mental pain she discovered she was well loved and strong enough to go on in life. She had found out that the coma she had been in lasted a year, making her lose not only her life for twenty two years but another year. A.J. stayed at her side through everything, telling her stories and making her feel loved, no matter what though. When he tried to make her remember, the stories he told never rang any bells or sparked her imagination, she couldn’t get herself to remember even the smallest details of her life before, her favorite color or flower would have done as a miracle but she couldn’t remember. Six years had past since the accident, when the day came she could see her cousin graduate high school in California, there new hometown, picked by A.J. one day that he claimed they needed a new start. Sitting in the crowd of proud parents and relatives, Kassie felt uneasy, mainly because she wasn’t sociable since the accident but partly because they all had friends and family there. Where A.J. only had her, she felt guilty for that. She knew that their family had all died out but she wished she could do something more to make a home for him, not just a place to go to when everything settles down. But a home with a mother, father and child, Kassie knew though, no man in his right man would want a part of the damaged goods she so happened to be. She couldn’t blame them though, she had tried to date. It always went the same way, to much responsibility but she was happy alone or at least she told herself that she was. Glancing up at the sound of the principle calling out A.J.’s name, Kassie went to her feet and clapped proudly. Just the smile that beamed from the blue eyed, redheaded beauty made everything all worthwhile. He was happy, she was happy, that was family—she realized. They didn’t need anything but each other.