The Freeing Blood

Chapter 18

The world had come crashing down upon me. I longer had my best friend to lean on when I felt weak; to laugh with when I had a funny story to share; to cause all sorts of trouble with. I’m not sure the reality of the situation had hit me until just now that my best friend was officially gone. He had left me at the worst possible time in my life. He had left me in the middle of my battle against the darkness inside Zak. Knowing that Luke wasn’t going to be waiting back at the pizza shop after all this was said and done….it paralyzed me. I couldn’t move. How could I?
Luke was…dead.
“Aerolynn? Aerolynn!” A deep concerned voice called out to me bringing me out of my dark thoughts. Feeling almost numb, my eyes slowly lifted up to meet a pair of large stormy blue orbs staring back at me.
“We have to—gah!” Zak cried out as his head was slammed back onto the ground and his body convulsed beneath mine. His hands unconsciously tightened their grip around my arms making me wince in pain. That throbbing stab of pain is what slammed me back into reality; it chased all the numbness away.
I would have to mourn over Luke’s death later. Right now, there was a soul in need of saving. And if I didn’t hurry, then I might never get Zak back. His control over the darkness was steadily slipping. The only thing that kept him barely hanging on was his overwhelming concern for me.
“Aer....o…..lynn,” he ground out between clenched teeth. His voice went into a deep growl for a second before returning to normal. His eyes were constantly shifting between ink black and stormy blue.
“Hurry!” he yelled. I flinched back at the sudden assault of sound on my ears.
I scrambled up onto my knees and hovered over Zak. What in the world was I supposed to do? The whole reason I had fallen off the edge of the cliff was to bring Zak back into himself because I wasn’t powerful enough to defeat the darkness while it had absolute control over Zak. *Thou cannot defeat power greater than thine own*. I had finally understood what it meant in that moment. Now that Zak had slight control over the darkness, that meant it was weak enough right now for me to defeat it. The only question was…how? Mary had said that it was similar to what she did to me to bring me back to my body, but what if I didn’t have the ability to magically push my hands through Zak’s chest? And even if I did…what in the hell would I do? The darkness wasn’t just in one location inside his body. It was EVERYWHERE. So how would I even know if I got all of it?
I was jolted out of my frantic thoughts as Zak wrapped his fingers firmly, but gently, around my arm.
“I…be…lieve…in you…” he softly encouraged through tightly clenched teeth. I gazed deep into those wide, stormy blue orbs of his seeing the inner battle he was having within himself. It was the struggle of pain and determination that made me nod my head firmly and focus on his chest.
“Here goes,” I mumbled. “This may hurt a bit,” I spoke a little louder in order for him to hear me.
A laughter mixed with pain forced its way from his lips. “I don’t think it could hurt much worse than—AAAAAAAGGGGHHHH FUUUUCK!” he growled as I slammed my hands into his chest.
It had been just as Mary said. My hands had turned into something like liquid as soon as they hit his chest; they passed right through into the center of him. He felt so…warm inside. I could feel the rapid beating of his heart pulse all around my hands as it pumped blood throughout his body. That wasn’t the only thing I could feel unfortunately. My hands soon began to burn with a great intensity as the darkness began clawing at them to make me remove myself from his chest.
“I’m sorry, Zak,” I whispered. A tear trailed down my face as I moved a hand to grab at the darkness.
“AAAAGGGHHHH STOP MOVING!” He yelled.
“I’m sorry! Just bear with it for right now!” I snapped back trying my best not to cry. I didn’t mean for it to cause him this much pain, but I couldn’t control that factor. Right now, I had to search for the heart of the darkness.
Zak’s fingernails dug into the dirt at his sides as his feet planted themselves on the ground. He squeezed his eyes tightly shut as I continued maneuvering my way around inside his body looking for the base of the darkness.
“Get away!” He growled, his hands lunging for my throat and squeezing it tightly between his fingers.
“Zak…I’m…trying….to help,” I sputtered refusing to remove my hands from his chest. Who knew if I would be able to get back inside him again? This might be my only chance, but I had to hurry. The darkness was beginning to take over again and soon I would be powerless against it.
“Zak!” A shocked male voice cried out. I looked up through blurry vision to see Nick and Aaron stumble off the trail and fall to their knees beside their best friend.
“Restrain him!” I heard a familiar soprano voice order. I smiled up at Mary, thankful that she was able to bring the men here in time.
Nick and Aaron nodded at each other before grabbing at Zak’s arms and ripping his hands away from my throat. I gasped for more air the very moment my esophagus had opened up. The sudden intake of air made me cough for a short moment before I went back to focusing on my task.
“Keep him restrained and I will work as fast as I can. Mary?!” I called out after giving Nick and Aaron their orders.
“Yes?” she asked cautiously.
“Care to possibly help me know what in the HELL I am supposed to be doing right now?!”
“Um…well…where do you feel the most power?”
I moved my hands around making Zak scream in agony. It seemed that no matter where I went, I felt the darkness’ power pulsing all around my hands. It clawed at them, bit at them; anything to make me lose focus and remove my hands. Tears stung at the corners of my eyes.
“I-I don’t know! It feels the same no matter where I go!” I cried out helplessly.
“Close your eyes and focus on the energy inside of him!” Mary instructed.
I closed my eyes and focused all of my thoughts on my hands.
“Now…I want you to block out any sounds you hear except for the sound of my voice. Surround yourself in a bubble where the only sound is your breathing and my voice,” she soothingly explained. I imagined a giant bubble enveloping me and her blocking out anything and everything. Slowly, Zak’s cries of pain and demonic curses began fading away until it was only silence that rang deafeningly in my ears.
“Now search for the power of the darkness…” she whispered.
Keeping my eyes closed, I slowly moved my hand around in Zak’s chest. I bit my bottom lip as I focused passed the agony and the burning sensation. Slowly, that faded away as well leaving me to feel only the energy inside myself and Zak. Zak’s energy felt so…empty and weak. Like there wasn’t much for him to stay alive for anymore. I could feel him on the verge of giving up; the pain of the darkness and my energy inside him becoming too much for him to take. I could feel the satisfaction of the darkness as it felt him giving up.
I adjusted my hands closer to where his heart beat slowly; slower than when I had last heard it. Then again, I had been hearing HIS heart; the heart of his humanity that had been beating fast from the fear and pain clutching at his heart. I was looking passed that now. I was feeling the heart of the darkness. The calm, steady rhythm of it made me sick to my stomach. It knew it was going to beat out Zak’s control and eventually push me away. It knew it was going to win this fight.
I felt the steady stream of power emanating from that beating heart. Anger coursed its way through my body. Not today you son of a bitch. Zak is MINE! I thought to myself as my fingernails dug deep into It’s heart. I could vaguely hear It’s cries echoing out of Zak’s mouth making me lose focus for a few seconds before digging my nails in even deeper. There was no way I was letting it win. Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew that I was digging my nails not only into the heart of the darkness, but into Zak’s heart as well since that is where the darkness drew It’s power from. But I couldn’t focus too much on that right now. Gripping it so tightly in my hands, nails penetrating deep, I could feel this burning liquid ooze out over my hands. I ground my teeth together as I wondered what I should do now.
“Draw it out,” a soft child’s voice whispered. I took a deep breath and focused every single fiber of my being onto my hands; all the energy I had in me bringing light to the darkness of his soul. Zak’s body convulsed beneath my hands as I felt the darkness slowly seeping into my fingers. It continued to slowly climb up my arms and branch out. Each nerve and vein was set on fire; my teeth ground against each other as I tried to bear with the pain.
“Mary!” I screamed as I felt it reach the center of my chest and still sizzle its way throughout my body.
I felt a comforting hand touch my shoulder. “It’s alright. This is part of the process. In order for you to completely expel the darkness you must take it into yourself first. From there you can destroy it because YOU will be the one in complete control. It won’t have a chance against you.”
My eyes snapped open to stare down at my arms that had black webbing running up all along the entire length. I opened my mouth to scream only to be cut off when my throat was suddenly blocked off by a thick liquid. I coughed hoping to get it out of my throat when a small hand was slapped over my mouth. I flicked worried brown eyes over towards Mary. She was vehemently shaking her head at me.
“Don’t do that. Don’t let a single tiny drop of it out of you. Even with that small tiny drop, the darkness can grow into something horrendous that not even the archangel Gabriel could destroy. I know it’s choking you, but trust me. You will continue living. Just hold out for a little longer. Look, Zak is growing healthier because of you,” Mary informed me, her eyes focusing over at Zak.
My eyes fluttered down to gaze upon Zak’s handsome face. A face that had been consuming my every waking thought and had been the center of my dreams ever since 2008 when Ghost Adventures first aired. As the years went by, my fondness for him only grew. Who would have thought that our destinies were intertwined; that we were fated together by God Himself? Tears gathered in my eyes as I saw his body beginning to calm. I could feel his heart return to its steady beating, fear no longer consuming him. He had gone through so much for me even before he knew me. Now it was my turn to battle with the darkness inside of me. He had saved me by allowing me to believe in love again. I was going to save him by loving him so completely in return.
I closed my eyes as tears made fresh tracks down my face. Not only that, but Luke didn’t die to save me just so I could wimp out now. He died so that I could save Zak and our love could grow stronger and continue to live. He gave up his life just so that I could stay happy beside the man I gave my heart to. And for that…I would not give up now.
I did my best to breathe through the thick ooze that was the darkness and drew every last tendril of it inside of me. Once I could no longer feel any more power emanating from Zak, I retracted my hands and fell onto my back. Mary removed her hand allowing me to cover my own mouth and stumble to my feet. My knees wobbled threatening to buckle, but I stood firm. The darkness crawled beneath my skin making it contort in odd ways. I started growing sick at watching my skin form waves along the length of my arm. This wasn’t natural. Everywhere it touched me all I wanted to do was scratch at it. To peel back the layers of my skin and claw at it; to dig it out any way I could.
I doubled over as I felt an unexpected blow of pain in my abdomen. It was beginning to fight back. Little did it know, the only place it was going back to was Hell. My eyes stretched open wide as the darkness blacked out my eyes and continued up into my brain. I smiled beneath my hand as I realized what it was doing. It thought it could control me by taking over my brain. The thought almost made me laugh. Almost. I was too afraid to even so much as lick my lips in case a drop of it escaped.
“Focus, Aerolynn. Now is the time to expel it; to destroy it. Use the power God bestowed upon you to exterminate it!” Mary commanded.
I closed my nearly blinded eyes and pressed my lips firmly together. I stretched my arms out wide on either side of me and planted my feet firmly to the ground. It was now or never.
I enveloped myself in a bubble that now only surrounded me cutting out every noise but the beating of my own heart. As I focused on the power pulsing within me, I began to feel a different sort of warmth form inside me. This warmth wasn’t painful; it wasn’t threatening. This one felt soothing; calming almost. It brought me peace. I fixated harder on this warmth allowing it to grow larger inside me until I could almost see a large white ball of pure energy formed within the center of my body; my core.
A smile played at my lips as I felt the darkness receding; it was splitting off into different directions inside my body as the light grew. It knew that it’s time had come. I heard the demonic scream of pain as the light seared It’s dark tendrils the way it had ripped at my flesh. Payback’s a bitch, I thought darkly.
I could feel the power building within my center until it felt ready to burst at the seams…and it did. My eyes snapped open and my head snapped back as the light exploded inside me. Dimly I felt my feet lifting off the ground as a bright, blinding white light shone from my eyes and mouth. My body shone with the intensity of the sun as I was lifted higher into the air. You might think that having your body shine with the brightness of the sun…it would hurt, but it didn’t. All I felt was complete and utter peace…serenity. Like I could finally go back home and sleep without having to worry about anything else going wrong with my life.
I let the light take over, washing my being clean of the darkness I had extracted from Zak. When I felt the last bit of darkness burned away, the blazing orb slowly receded. My body felt tired all of a sudden as I descended back towards the ground. Once the light had completely faded, my body dropped from the air to be caught in a pair of strong arms.
I blinked open my eyes to see a pair of the most beautiful, sparkling blue-grey eyes staring back at me shining wet with unshed tears. I lifted a hand to his face; my fingers gently caressing his unshaven skin and trailing along his jaw. He placed a large, dirt covered hand over mine before it could fall away from his face.
A small, tired smile pulled at the corners of my mouth.
“I love you,” I whispered.
Then all was black.