Journeys End – Chapter Three

[Note: Thank you for the response to the first two chapters of my novel. Here is the Third chapter. There is a possibility that I’ll post one more. I hope you like it. Chapters One, Two & Four can be found here]

 

Chapter Three

 

When I was young I grew up with Cassandra, she was my best friend. We would do everything together; she was the girl next door. Our parents were best friends so it was almost inevitable that she would be my best friend as well.

We would spend virtually all of our free time together, and she would always get me into some form of trouble. Any time that I got grounded, it was usually because of some scheme that we had concocted to keep ourselves amused.

Cassie is a unique person, scary intelligent, caring and about as stubborn as I am. She has a good heart and will go out of her way to help anyone. The kind of person who you can’t help but love.

When we were fourteen, her family moved away to Canada as her dad was offered a job that he couldn’t turn down. It was one of the hardest things in the world to say goodbye to my best friend. We were never together in a romantic sense, but I still loved her more than anyone else. If she hadn’t moved away who knows what could have happened but that’s how life goes I guess.

We kept in touch over the years, writing to each other once a week. It was good that in a small way I still had my friend even if it wasn’t the same.

We lost touch after a while. As life took over we wouldn’t write as much, you know how it goes.

Then a few years went by, and we didn’t speak at all no more letters. Phone calls were too expensive, so I was never allowed to call her and vice versa. But I never forgot my best friend.

After high school the internet came into the force that it is now and on the off chance, I looked Cassie up, and we reconnected. Catching up on what we missed, neither of us was the same person we were before she left. We had both grown up, but at the core, she was still my best friend.

While I went off to work she studied her ass off and became a nurse; helping people was always built into her DNA, I was never as smart as her, but I managed to keep up.

We would talk every few weeks whenever we had time, and she would always ask about my family and particularly Karen. She loved my sister as if she were her own.

After a while, we stopped talking as much. We both got into relationships, and those took over, as happens in life. Every so often there would be the odd email or the odd text message, but that was it.

 

A searing pain burns through my head, and I wake up gasping for air “What the hell is going on?” I ask no one in particular. I can barely move sitting up hurts so much I feel like I’ve been hit by a train. ‘What happened? Where am I?’

I look around and see the smouldering remains of the beast that attacked me. I look down at myself to find I’m naked and horribly scared. I remember the pain of its blood burning my skin on contact. My clothes have been utterly destroyed and so has my gun.

I roll over and tumble right off the side of the pallet of wood and slam into the ground hard, knocking the wind out of me. I lie there in agony for a few minutes before pulling myself up and limping back to the warehouse.

Everything is where I left it. “Ok Sam, you need to get moving. You can’t stay here any longer, it’s not safe. Get some clothes on and get out of here. You need to get away from these beasts.” I groan to myself actually impressed that I can think in coherent sentences.

I try to ignore the pain as I get dressed in the last of my clothes. My skin is still raw from the burning blood of the alien, but I manage to get them on without wincing too much. I think back to what happened before I blacked out.

“I must have hit my head really hard, what the hell was that I heard as I passed out?” I ask myself. I have a vague memory of hearing something, but it’s foggy, and I can’t quite remember what it was.

“Talking to yourself is the first sign of madness, don’t you know?” I look around, startled, trying to find the source of the voice.

It sounds distant and familiar. “Who’s there?” I shout barely keeping my voice from breaking with fear and grabbing a broken length of wood to use as a weapon.

“You won’t see me. I’m not actually there. Also, I’m not a vampire.”

“What do you mean you’re not actually here?” I ask still wary of what was happening, “and who are you?”

“Well, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” the voice replied. My head is still throbbing, and I can feel myself getting angry.

“Will you just bloody well answer the damn question!” I scream

“Ugh, you are so impossible at times you know that Sam? Can’t a girl have a little fun?”

It feels as if someone has slapped me in the face when they say this I know who that voice belongs to but it can’t be. It’s not possible. “Cassie?”

“See I knew you would get it eventually you clever boy!”

“I’ve gone insane! That’s what’s going on here I’ve finally snapped! I’m completely certifiable that’s what’s going on. I’m nuts!” I keep repeating to myself as wander around the warehouse.

“Well that may be true, or I could be really talking to you. What do you think?”

“I think I need a drink” I groan as I rub my head “Well if you are Cass then how are you here right now?” I keep looking around trying to see if I can pinpoint the voice.

“Well that’s complicated I don’t think you’re ready for that yet. Let’s just say I’m here and that’s all I can say for now.”

Hearing Cassie in my head is seriously freaking me out, but it’s good to hear her voice again.

“Cassie, is that really you? Where are you? Are you safe?” I blurt out.

“I can’t answer those questions Sam. You aren’t ready.” She replies

“To hell with that, answer me.” I demand “Cassie if you are real then you are all that I have left. I have lost everyone. Karen is dead, my parents are gone. No one else is left here. I haven’t seen a single person since the night of the invasion, and now you come to me like an imaginary friend and you won’t tell me if your real or if I’ve finally cracked with the pressure and the solitude.”

“I’m sorry, Sam,” she says her voice breaking “I am so sorry, I loved Karen I can’t believe she is gone. I know how hard that has hit you, but you can’t do anything for me now. Save yourself, be safe and get away from them.”

“Fuck that. Cassie, you are alive, and now I know it. I’m coming to get you. I don’t know how, I don’t know when, but I’m coming to get you, and nothing is going to get in my way.”

“You can’t! If you do, you will be killed. They won’t let anyone get close to here.”

I look around still trying to see if I can find where the voice is coming from “This is giving me a headache.” I groan as I rub my temples trying to ease the pain.

“Listen to me Sam; I don’t have much time left. I need to tell you don’t come looking for me. You can’t find me and…” her voice begins to break, I can hear the emotion building “…I don’t want you risking yourself, you are too important to me.”

I can hear her sobbing, and it breaks my heart. I push those feelings to the side, and I embrace the anger boiling in my chest. Through gritted teeth, I growl “I swear to you Cassandra I am coming to get you. No power on this earth will stop me from finding you. I am coming to get you!”

“It’s not any power on this earth I’m worried about…” the voice replied and with that she was gone. I could feel her presence had disappeared. I slump to the ground still aching from the fight with the beast, and my head is pounding. ‘I have nothing left to lose apart from Cassie, and I’ll be damned if I’m losing her as well.’

I drag myself up from the ground and head out. I’ve got a long road ahead of me, and I am not going to waste any more time, I have to get moving. I know what I have to do now, and God help anyone who tries to stop me.