Sorrow's Gift

Chapter Twenty-Five: The Boy

A rat skittered across the floor in front of him. Its eyes were milky and clouded and there were sores along its back.

The boy stood up, grabbing the map he'd laid out to study.

He ran to his bedroom and shut the door. He probably should have killed it. It was obviously infected, but for now, he just wanted to shut it out.

The second he took his hand from the door, a vision seized him so strongly that it brought him to his knees on the carpet.

He leaned forward, his eyes closing as an image forced its way into his mind.

A girl with a blue sword. She was fighting rats, too. Hundreds of them. Her eyes glowed almost purple in the light of her sword, and he recognized her in that moment.

He'd never seen her before in his life, but he knew her. He knew those eyes. That sword.

She was his leader. The girl with the infinity sign as her symbol. And she was in trouble.

He struggled to hold on to the vision, but as quickly as it had taken hold, it released him. The boy collapsed onto the floor, his chest rising and falling with each labored breath.

Pain shot through his temples and when he tried to open his eyes, his vision blurred. He closed them again, wincing against the pain.

I'm coming for you, I promise.

He wasn't sure how he'd be able to help her when she was so obviously skilled with a sword, but when he connected to her power here in the city, he got the strong sense that she was alone and afraid. If only he could reach her, maybe he could help her remember who she really was.

Maybe they could help each other.

But there was something odd about his connection to her. She was at once both close and far away, almost as if he were thinking of two different people. How could she be here in the city, but still far away?

He didn't have an explanation. Maybe when he reached her, there would be answers to all his questions.

When the pain in his head had gone away, he spread the map of the city on the carpet and went back to his task of planning. He must have left his red pen in the other room, which was a shame, because now he was too scared to go back out there and face that rat.

If it was infected, maybe that meant the Dark One could see him through its eyes. Was that possible? Had she gained so much power she could control humans and animals alike, seeing through their eyes whenever and wherever she wanted?

The boy knew it would be a mistake to underestimate the Dark One's powers. She was an ancient kind of evil, cunning and meticulous. And she'd had a very long time to think through her plan, trapped down there in her prison of ice.

She was not free, but she had eyes everywhere now.

The boy stood and grabbed one of his mother's shirts from the closet. He forced it under the door, sealing all the cracks so that no light shone through.

Just in case, he thought, and went back to his planning.