Jacquelyn Frank - Forsaken

Apep: (-pep)

Asikri: (Ah-S-cr)

Chatha: (Chath-UH)

Docia: (D-shuh)

Hatshepsut: (hat-SHEP-soot)

Ka: (kah) Egyptian soul

Kamenwati: (Kah-men-WAH-ti)

Menes: (MEN-es)

Ouroboros: (You-row-BORE-us) A snake or dragon devouring its own tail, a sign of infinity or perpetual life.

Pharaoh: (FEY-roh) Egyptian king or queen. This is used in reference to both male and female rulers. In this case, the rulers of the Bodywalkers.

Tameri: (Tah-MARE-)

And so it will come to pass in the forward times that the nations of the Nightwalkers will be shattered, driven apart, and become strangers to one another. Hidden by misfortune and by purpose, these twelve nations will come to cross-purposes and fade from one anothers existence. In the forward times these nations will face toil and struggle unlike any time before, and only by coming together once more can they hope to face the evil that will set upon them. But they are lost to one another, and will remain lost until a great enemy is defeatedand a new one resurrects itself

Why hast thou forsaken me?

Leo Alvarez was not a religious man. He had been anything but for as long as he could remember. He had come such a long way from Sunday mass and the catechism lessons his mother had demanded of him.

Such a long way.

He was not what one would call a good man. He wasnt evil, surprisingly far from it considering the harsh realities of his life. But he most certainly was not an angel. He was not free of sin, and many of those sins were very grave indeed. But if he were to ever be judged for them, Leo would not be apologetic for the things he had done. He had a code, which he followed efficiently, and felt it would speak for him.

But however serious his sins, he didnt deserve the punishment that was presently being dealt out to him. No one deserved the cruel and excruciating torment he was swimming in.

Leo rolled in and out of consciousness, but he knew the bliss of unconsciousness would be robbed from him violently when the blade sinking into his flesh found the all-too-responsive nerves and receptors. The message was received in a burning explosion of pain, forcing him to clench his jaw until his teeth creaked under the stress of it.

But he would not scream again. He was hoarse from everything that had come previous to this new onslaught. He didnt worry about whether or not it made him seem weak. No. None of that mattered at the moment. Nothing mattered to Leo outside of one single word. One single objective.

Live.

Live, Alvarez, he demanded of himself for the thousandth time. Although, by now it was obvious that the twisted demon who orchestrated his agony had no intention of killing him.

No.

That would be far too merciful, and this evil thingthe creature that had lashed him down to the coarse cemented floor, his wrists torn to shreds inside the cuffs of heavy metal manacleswas everything opposite of mercy. But these wounds would be healed shortly. As would the newest carving that the beast was drawing into his body. Healing would come only after the thing called Chatha was through lifting Leos organs out of his body to present them to him, just before he would begin to dissect them before his prisoners very eyes.

This time he reached deep and Leo could feel him fumbling around inside his gut, moving lower, slick fingers having difficulty gaining purchase at first. But eventually Chatha found his kidney and ripped it out of him, giggling as he held it up, prodding at it with a finger, not caring that Leo was quickly dying of blood loss.

Maybemaybe this time I will die before he can heal me, Leo thought. But he struggled to tamp the hope down, knowing that it was a part of the creatures tormenting ritual, realizing that it was contrary to his earlier directive to live. But the creature did this, liked to make him think he was going to find the release of death. Make him think that, after days of this torture it would finally be over. And he was fading. He was reaching for somethingsomething beyond life. Something waiting for him. Something of infinite, blissful peace.

Then Chatha dropped the kidney, and scrambled up over his body on hands and knees. He pressed his face close to Leos, filling his darkening vision with that innocent and maniacal visage.

No, no, he tsked, wagging a blood-wet finger before Leos nose. No fair!

And that was when tears would burn into Leos eyes, that secret of all secret hopes dashed all to hell as the beast laid hands on him like an Evangelical preacher touched by God, and healed him.

Leo awoke with a savage shout, his body lurching out of bed, forcing him to stumble and fall as his sleeping muscles refused to awaken and do their duty. He fell to the floor, his hands barely reaching out in time to keep him from landing face-first into the luxurious carpeting. The jarring of his body shook sweat from the tips of his hair, a shower of salt and water spraying everywhere. He was soaked in it, his bare chest slick with wet and his boxers plastered to him in their drenched state.

He tried to slow his breathing, tried to make himself understand that he was awake and, for the moment, safe. This house was the home of his best friend. The friend who had seen him healed and who was patiently waiting for him to open up and talk about the horror that he had been through.

But he would be waiting a very long time because Leo would never, ever speak a word about it to anyone. He would not resurrect those moments in the bright light of day. He would never burden another soul with the horror he had survivedsomehow.

No. He would go to his grave with it. He would drag it into the afterlife with him, and this time it would be the one kicking and screaming.

She tilted her head, listening to the wind, feeling the eddy of how it flowed freely or, better yet, washed around things. The rush and sound of it acted like sonar, telling her where everything was just by the way it shifted. When there was no wind she was as good as blind to what was happening in the world, and those were the moments that she found as terrifying as humans would feel if only they knew what was out there. What was out there living and breathing beside them without their knowledge.

Knowledge. Knowledge was key and it was her job to deliver information. Her people could feel and sense things all aroundjust like she could with the actual wind right at that moment. But unlike the surety of knowing there was a cow twenty paces to her left and a church with a steeple twenty miles due south, the future had murky eddies. The wind of the future was blowing in bad directions now and if the wind blew one way tragedy and horror would reign. If it blew another, there would be tragedy and survival. And yet another would bring victory and joy. It was the first that must be avoided at all cost. The othersthe others would fall as they would and that was as it should be.

Whistle and blow, whistle and blow, she murmured, the phrase like second nature, her peoples way of saying What will be will be.

She pushed off the branch of a tree, letting the wind wash over her, letting it lift her up. The feel of it flowing over her skin was the most comforting sensation she knew. There was nothing like it in all the world, nothing more freeing. She had no idea how anyone could take it for granted or how mortals bore being bound to the earth. Then again, they tried to fight it, didnt they, in their great lumbering metal machines? Poor things. She supposed it was their comfortable and safe way of doing things. But the wind was not safe and as much as it buoyed up it was the sudden plummeting sweeps down toward soil that made life course through the veins. Those humans who flew on silk wingsyes, they were the braver sort. To know that a single tear in that silk could end their fragile mortal livesit was invigorating. Those were humans she longed to know better.