I whipped my head around to find three chosen ones surrounding us. They were the tools of the council, the weapons of the men responsible for the destruction of my people. The one who asked us the question was carelessly throwing a stick from one hand to the other.
“You sons of bitches!” Henry screamed, and without warning or thought, fueled by the fire that always burned inside of him, he ran straight at them.
The chosen one flicked his wrist and it was over. The small, seemingly harmless twig struck Henry right in the neck. Blood spewed from him like water from a fountain. His eyes bulged as he crumpled to the ground.
“Noooooooooooooo!” It ripped from me like my soul was tearing with it. I had lied to James when I said he had all of my soul. I stupidly thought that Henry’s lie had forever destroyed his claim to a small part of it. But when he lied about James being in the community, it hadn’t ruined what took years to build—our connection. Instead, I had been right those early days back in the compound when James had once asked me what my definition of the soul was, and I told him a soul has many different aspects.
My words drifted back to me. There are people who can fill a part of you, make it stronger. The part of my soul that longed to be carefree, the part that didn’t know fear of disappointment, that was the part of my soul that Henry belonged to. He took it with him.
Part of me would die with him, and I would always, forever, be undone.
Stephanie instinctively reached for her gun, but before she could lift it, a chosen one held her by the neck off the ground. In the blink of an eye, the chosen one who speared Henry was crouched in front of me. He reached up and placed a finger on my lips.
I wanted to bite it off. My eyes darted to Henry. He lay shaking on the dirt floor, his body jerking and moving like some uncoordinated dance. I rocked back and forth gently to try and control the lightning storm that raged inside of me. I looked up at Stephanie, who remained stoic, and I attempted to channel her.
The third chosen one stood behind Thomas and Daniel, who both held their hands up in surrender. That had been the mission, after all.
“Look what we have here,” the one holding Stephanie purred. He yanked her hair to the side. “This one has three marks. A fresh one at that! What could you have done to earn that last one so recently? How naughty were you?” he teased.
“I struck one of you bastards right in front of his friends. He thought he had the right to put his hands on me. I guess he didn’t like it when I marked up his pretty little face,” Stephanie boasted without hesitation. If she was still reeling from Henry’s death, she was hiding it well. She was a pro. Striking a chosen one would earn a girl a one-way ticket to doom. I wondered if this was something she had practiced with my father.
The chosen one in front of me narrowed his eyes. “Do you have three pretty little marks, too?”
I swallowed down the bile that sat rotting in my throat and nodded.
“Isn’t that lovely? Looks like we get to keep you two,” he said with a smile. He stood up and held out his hand to me. I jutted my chin away from his touch. “Let’s not start out like this. Hmm?” he replied, pushing his hand back into my face.
I clenched my jaw and grabbed his hand. When he pulled me up, I turned my head to look back at Henry. He wasn’t moving anymore. I blinked away the tears that pooled in my eyes.
“Friend of yours?” the chosen one asked.
I pressed my lips together and looked away. I wouldn’t put up a fight, but that didn’t mean I had to give him everything he wanted. His eyes darkened and he slapped me hard across the face. I fell forward.
The time between crashes of lightning and thunder was getting shorter and shorter. Soon, I wouldn’t be able to stop hell from breaking loose. Mission or no mission.
“I asked if he was your friend,” the chosen one snarled. I nodded, unable to stop a lone tear from trailing down my face. “Tell me, what are you two girls doing out here?”
“We ran,” Stephanie answered. “From the compound a few weeks back. We didn’t want to know what happens after we got the third mark. These men are Isolationists. They were supposed to help us escape, but she got sick, and so we had to wait her illness out.”
I was caught off guard by how easily her lies came. I cleared my throat. “When we saw the smoke, we thought we might be able to find something in the wreckage. Something to help us survive.”
“Well, I’m afraid you’re going to find out what happens after all,” he said with a causal shrug. He looked up at his two compatriots. “Kill them.” In a synchronized series of movements, Thomas’s and Daniel’s necks were snapped.