In The Shadow of Death

The eight of us barely fit in the SUV, especially with the amount of weaponry we were packing. I was sitting between Maddy and Jimmy, my head on Jimmy’s shoulder.
I need my sister. The longest we’ve ever been separated was that week she ran away.
And now she’s gone.
I think I fell asleep, which was a miracle considering the amount of noise in the car, because we were pulling into Tulsa and I couldn’t remember getting there.
“We split up from here. Lil and Jimmy, Matt and Maddy, Kiva and Zack, and Cory and me.” Johnny slipped right back into leader mode. Sera and I always thought it was hilarious that he was in charge.
Jimmy and I grabbed our swords and headed for the streets. It was cold and very few people were out on the streets.
This is the time when the demons come out to play.
I closed my eyes and cast out my senses, searching for a demon. I think I did a better job than I expected, because I even got an image of the house. It was about seven blocks away.
I felt a large breeze and turned to see that Jimmy had unfurled his wings. I wished I had the time to admire his jet black wings, but we had a mission. He wrapped his arms around my waist tightly and our feet lifted off the ground. The house was dark and scary looking. Or maybe it was the blood I could smell emanating from the house.
“Leave, leave now, please.” I stopped and Jimmy bumped into me.
“Did you hear that?” I whispered.
“Hear what Lili?”
“I could have sworn…” I shook my head. “I could have sworn I heard Sera.”
“Don’t say that name.” Someone snarled from the corner of the room.
Jimmy lit up the room with a flash of lightning. It only illuminated the room for a moment, but that’s all I needed.
In the corner surrounded by mangled bodies and soaked in blood was Brian.
“Jesus Brian, what happened to you?” I breathed. Jimmy stepped between us, using his body to shield me. The madness in Brian’s eyes was a good enough reason for me to let him.
He sounded like a maniac when he laughed. “Have you forgotten your sister already? The fact that she died saving you.” His eyes narrowed as he stared at me. This is the first time I’ve felt real fear for my life in a long time. He lunged towards us and Jimmy was ready, sword drawn already.
“Stop! This isn’t what Sera would want!” I screamed as he knocked Jimmy to the ground and charged towards me. I swung my sword up to stop his from slicing me in half. He seemed dead set on killing me and it was all I could do to just keep him back and not accidentally slice one of his limbs off.
“It’s your fault she’s gone.” He snarled. Jimmy and I were barely keeping him back. Brian had somehow produced a second sword, making him doubly dangerous. The only sound was our swearing and the clash of our swords.
“Where the hell am I?” My heart nearly stopped when I heard the voice. My head swung in the direction it had come from. A familiar blonde was standing in the room, looking dazed.
“Sera!” I yelled, running towards her. She’s alive. She ran behind a chair putting it between me and her.
“Listen I don’t know what’s going on but I just want to leave, okay. You three can do what you want, I promise not to tell anyone anything okay? Please just let me leave.” She begged.
I just stared at her, like Jimmy and Brian were doing. What the hell?
“Dashuria Ime.” Brian whispered, stepping forward. Even drenched in blood, you could tell he loved her. I would personally be scared shitless right now.
“Please just don’t kill me. I promise I won’t tell anyone what I saw. Please.” Tears started to run down her face.
“Sera, sweetheart, it’s me Lil.” I felt my vision blur from my own tears.
“Please just let me go.” She pleaded
Jimmy rested one hand on my shoulder. “She doesn’t remember us.”
“I don’t know you and I promise not to tell so see it’s safe to let me go.” This time she was talking to Jimmy. I buried my face in Jimmy’s chest and started to cry.
“I can’t lose her again.” Brian put Sera to sleep using his power. Jimmy called Johnny and they drove home. Brian, Jimmy, Sera and I would be going back in a car we’d “borrowed.”
Okay, so we stole it.
She doesn’t remember me.
She doesn’t remember me.
The words pounded in my head like a heartbeat the whole drive home. My sister, my twin didn’t remember me. I didn’t get it. I’d come back in full possession of my memories. What had happened that made her come back as an amnesiac?
I sat on the couch feeling sorry for myself until I heard Sera’s voice.
“Please, just let me go.” She was cowering in the corner, trying to get as far away from Brian as she could.
“Sera, please, it’s me.” He was on his knees in front of her, his eyes shining from unshed tears. I pushed him away.
“Honey, my name is Lil. We’re not gonna hurt you, okay?” I made sure she understood before going on. “Do you know what your name is?”
“You called me Sera.”
“Do you remember anything before you appeared in that room?”
“No. I don’t know what’s going on.” I fought the urge to hug my sister and instead held out my hand for her to take. She did and I led her into the room I shared with Jimmy. I dug into the pair of jeans that had my wallet and pulled out the picture of Sera and me.
“Your name is Seraphina Camael Quinn, but everyone calls you Sera. We’re twins. My name is Lilith Isabelle Quinn. Everyone but Jimmy calls me Lil. He calls me Lili.”
“Who’s Jimmy?” She interrupted.
“My boyfriend. He’s an angel just like you. He’s the tall guy with the blue eyes.” I tried not to sigh like an idiot when I described him. “We were raised by our grandfather Ezekiel. We called him Gramps.” I went on to give her the Cliff Notes version of the time from our twentieth birthday to the End of Days.
“I don’t remember any of this.” Sera said after I finished describing everything. “Not you or Brian or anyone.”
A light bulb suddenly went on in my head.
“Cory?” I called, sticking my head into the hall.
“What’s up?” She asked.
“Can we go see our mom? I think she might help jog Sera’s memories a little.” I also just wanted to meet my mom.
“Yeah. I’ll fire up the SUV.” She disappeared down the hall and I went back into the room.
“We’re gonna go see our mom, okay?”
The whole ride over was completely silent. Cory played some soft classical music and that was it.
“Well, this is it.” Cory turned the car off in front of a normal looking house. My hands were suddenly shaky.
I was going to meet my mom for the first time.
What if she didn’t like me?
What if she was disappointed in me?
Cory knocked on the door and it seemed like an eternity until the door was opened by a woman with dark hair and lavender eyes.
“Lilith?” She breathed. I nodded, unable to speak from the tears clogging my throat. “Seraphina?” Sera nodded tentatively and our mom gathered us into a hug.
She smelled like a mom, like fresh baked cookies and flowers.
“All my girls, together in one place.” Mom whispered, squeezing Cory’s hand. Then she ushered us into a cozy living room before producing a plate of chocolate chip cookies.
“I had a feeling I’d need these soon.” She smiled and I grinned back at her.
“I was hoping you could help Sera remember everything.” I explained how we’d both died on the End of Days and only I’d come back with my memories.
“Demons walk the earth commonly, but for an angel to be here they need to be atoning for a sin.” I thought about what Jimmy had told me about his drug use and accidentally killing someone. “For Sera to come back she had to give up her memories of everything.”
“Is that me?” Sera was looking at a picture of two girls, about five years old.
“Oh God, you have that picture?” I started laughing. We were in the bathtub, up to our necks in bubbles because I put too much bubble bath in the water. I told the story to Sera.
“And for ages we smelled like blueberry soap.” She said slowly.
“You remember?” I couldn’t keep the excitement from my voice. “Damn. I wish I had my toe shoes.”
“Did Ezekiel give you those?” Mom asked.
“Yeah. He said they were yours. He gave Sera your cross.”
“I dropped the cross in your hand and it gave you that scar.” Sera blurted.
We were there for maybe five hours and bits and pieces were coming back to Sera. Mom sang the lullaby she used to sing for us and she finished the lyrics.
“Oh my God. Brian is my husband.” Sera gasped. “I learned the demon language so I could say husband.”
“Mijinita and mata.” I nodded. I’d sat in on those language lessons.
“That’s why he killed all those demons. The bond drove him crazy.” She looked up at me with wild eyes. “We have to get back to the house.”
“You two should probably go. I bet Jimmy is getting worried.” Mom smiled slyly when I gaped at her. “I have my ways of knowing. He sounds like a good man.”
“He is.” I smiled just thinking about him. We hadn’t had any alone time since I showed up in that clearing. We hugged our mom goodbye and headed home.
--
“Jimbo?” I poked my head into the darkened room.
“Everything go okay?” He asked.
“I think she remembers most of it now.” I crawled onto the bed and lay next to him. “Have I mentioned I really fucking love you today?”
“I think you have Lili. But that’s okay.” He pulled me closer and kissed me.
For some reason I seem to lose my clothes around him.
And you won’t see me complaining.