The Hathaway

Love as strong as Death

I couldn’t bear it any longer. I was suddenly drawn back into my body, which had not slowed or taken a misstep. My face was wet with tears and I realized that I was not only feeling my own dismay about the brutal vision I had just witnessed, but I could also feel the deep grief and sense of loss emanating from the orb that led me on.

As I struggled with this new knowledge, I began to sense a darkness ahead of us. I knew we were close to Evelyn’s house, but the woods felt different somehow, more oppressive, more threatening. I focused my attention on the blue orb that was leading me and refused to give in to the anxiety that was growing inside. Finally the orb stopped, and I waited for the others to catch up. One by one they joined me on the edge of what should have been Evelyn’s back yard, but none of the houses on the property could be seen. Nothing could be seen. It was as if a curtain of darkness had been drawn around the entire area, not just shadow, but tangible darkness with substance and weight.

Andi was the last to arrive, and once we were all gathered, I could feel the orb urging me on into the darkness. I hesitated, but Ben and Helmut didn’t. They plunged in and promptly disappeared from view. I had no choice, I could not allow Ben to face this without me by his side. I turned to the kids and said, “You wait here. There’s no telling what’s…”

“Like hell!” Kevin roared as he rushed past me and vanished from sight. The others raised their arms and shouted, charging after him as if they were entering a battle. There was no stopping them. Andi, Beth, and I looked at each other and clasped hands, following the children into the mysterious void.

As we passed through this veil of darkness, I lost the sensation of holding their hands. All my senses failed. I could no longer see the blue orb that had been leading me, nor could I hear the soft sounds of the evening woods or even my own footsteps. Despite the jarring emptiness I continued to move forward, and soon emerged into a sphere that seemed more real, but still held a dreamlike quality that made me doubt my own senses. Both Evelyn’s house and Union House rose before us, and the others stood in stillness, taking in the odd view. While the houses were recognizable, they had changed. The air around them seemed to pulsate and waiver, like heat rising from the pavement on a hot day. All sound was muffled and seemed to fall instantly to the ground.

Ben and Sabina looked at each other knowingly and began to move towards Evelyn’s house. “This way,” Ben called, motioning for us to follow. The building seemed to pulsate with darkness, as bits of it passed in and out of sight, getting lost in the shadow that had consumed it. The sight that greeted us when we entered the kitchen was beyond belief. The floor and ceiling in the center of the room seemed to have vanished, replaced with an ominous vortex. Evelyn hovered between these two dark voids, wrapped in a black mist that snaked around her like a predator ensnaring its prey. She held a large knife in her hand and I could see traces of blood on the edge of the blade. Her son lay cowering on the edge of the room, looking at his mother in terror. Andi and Helmut raced to his side, quickly inspecting his wounds to make sure he was not seriously injured, then dragged him into the living room and out of harm’s way.

Above Evelyn’s head a blue orb spun and vibrated. It was the Eldress, the one person Elder Jackson feared. She had not waited for the rest of us, and seemed to have arrived just in time to avert a tragedy. I could feel her holding the shadow in check. She was strong enough to keep him from acting, but could not hold him for much longer. Many of the other orbs surrounded her, shoring up her strength, and as they did the mist that had a hold of Evelyn tightened and she gasped in pain. She raised the knife to her own throat, and the shadow spoke, using her voice. He laughed and said, “You cannot hold me forever, and when you release me she dies.”

The last of the orbs joined the circle they had been creating above Evelyn, and they began to spin as they had on the night of the fire. I could feel their strength and resolve. They would not allow her to become his next victim. It was enough that he had claimed her sister, and forced her to injure her own son. They closed ranks, melding into a singular blue light that slipped between the mist and his prey. They focused all their power on her, ignoring him and pushing him away, as they gently carried her to the living room to be with her son.

The distant echo of a frustrated scream could be heard reverberating throughout the darkened house, and the mist seemed to regroup, gathering the scattered fragments of shadow into a malevolent core. Helmut and Andi had rejoined us and we found we had formed a circle around the perimeter of the vortex in the floor. A child stood between each adult, and as the mist congealed into the form of a man, they reached out to each other and joined hands. In this otherworldly setting I could just make out a faint pink glow emanating from them. It seemed to be originating with Kevin, but was clearly pulsing through all of them.

The shadow man laughed, his disembodied voice surrounding us as if it were coming from the walls themselves. “Children!” he sneered, “What can children do to stop me? I am become death, and you will all bow before me.” He hovered within their circle, considering each of them individually. “Who will be first to feel my cold embrace? The youngest?” He considered Sabina, but she didn’t flinch. “No, too easy, I will start with this one, the one with the strength of a thousand. He shall be mine, and all others will fall!” With that he lunged toward Kevin.

Helmut’s hand shot out and grabbed the shadow figure by the throat, stopping him cold. “You shall not touch him,” he growled with an intensity that seemed to strike fear into very heart of darkness. He had his other hand on Kevin’s shoulder and a brilliant light seemed to be shining from this point of contact

Sabina turned to me and shouted, “Now! Do it now!”

I wasn’t sure what she was asking for. “What? What should I do?”

“Remember what Emma told us. It’s in the words of the song. Haven’t you been listening? It’s the light of love that drives out darkness, Kiss him!”

Everything fell into place. I instantly leaned over and kissed Ben passionately, allowing myself to get lost in my love for him. As he returned the kiss, I could feel the change in the air. The oppressive atmosphere lifted and the darkness was replaced with the pre-dawn glow of the morning sky. The last echos of the shadow's final scream faded like a bad dream, and Ben and I found ourselves surrounded by the family that we had come to love.

“So that’s what ‘love as strong as death’ looks like,” Evelyn mused from the doorway. “I never would have imagined.”