***
After convincing Trent he didn’t have to walk me in, I slowly made my way to the back door. The closer I got there, the thicker my fear. I wasn’t afraid of Mom and Dad being mad at me for taking off. Instead, I feared the rest of their explanation, the unknown. I feared knowing more about the danger I was in.
Before entering the house, I hesitated at the back door and breathed in the cold air. When I let it out, a warm cloud of vapor escaped my lips. If only I could escape, too.
When I walked into the house, I found Farrell on the couch. He got up right away, his eyes landing on my sweatshirt: Rice. I had forgotten to give it back to Trent. I crossed my arms against my chest, for some reason embarrassed that I had on another guy’s clothes. "Where are my mom and dad?"
"We’re here," Mom said, walking into the room with Dad at her side. She approached and touched my arm. "Are you okay?"
"Yes," I said, but thinking no. "And I’m ready to hear more. And I want the whole truth, okay? No more lies."
She nodded and took a seat with Dad on the couch. I took the side chair, distancing myself from them. Farrell stayed by the fireplace.
"You guys said you wanted to know what had happened," I said. "Well, it all started at Infiniti’s. We played this card game where you ask a question and the card gives you the answer. When I touched the cards—" I hesitated, unsure of how to explain what had happened to me. "I saw a red desert, like I was there, but I wasn’t."
Dad closed his eyes. "Describe it."
"It was flat, and everything was red. The sky, the dirt. It was so hot that the air burned my nose and lungs. And when I stood there, everything looked familiar. Like I’d been there before."
Mom’s hands went to her mouth, and she sucked in her breath. "Dominique, why didn’t you tell us?"
"Because I thought I was crazy, Mom! Don’t you get it? I thought it was all in my head." I also wanted to say that it was their fault, but I didn’t. I just couldn’t lay that blame on them, no matter how mad I was about everything.
"You saw it again in your room that night, didn’t you?" Dad asked.
"Yes, I did. I also saw it two other times."
Dad looked at Mom. "I knew it," he whispered.
"Wait. You knew? Why didn’t you tell me! Why didn’t you do anything?"
"We couldn’t know for sure, Dominique," Dad explained. "But we did do something, we called for Farrell. He is a special Pure, a Walker, assigned to protect you."
"And we were going to tell you," Mom said. "We just didn’t know how far ahead of us the Tainted was."
The Tainted…I remembered sensing someone behind me in that red desert. My skin prickled with fear.
"You felt him, didn’t you?" Farrell asked. Usually Farrell’s green eyes were tranquil and serene, but now they looked stormy and filled with rage. A chill spread through me and I shuddered.
"Yes, I did."
"When?" he asked.
"I was drifting asleep here on this couch, and I found myself in that red desert again. I knew there was a presence behind me. I couldn’t see it, but I heard it. It said, ‘You belong to me, and I’m going to find you’ and then Farrell woke me up. I called to him, and he came."
My mind shot back to my vision. Recalling every detail made my head spin. For a minute, I thought I could smell the dirt from the red desert, thought I could feel the heat invade my nose and lungs. But I had to tell them everything, and so I went on.
"A few days later I was at Infiniti’s." I remembered the text I got from Trent asking me to go eat with him. I avoided Farrell’s gaze and decided to keep that part to myself. "We decided to play the Ouija board. It was stupid, I know, but I thought the board could help me understand things. Answer some of my questions."
"What did you ask it?" Mom said.
"I asked about Farrell. But the board didn’t want to talk about him. Then, I asked if I was in danger." I closed my eyes in painful recollection. "It pointed to YES. After that, everything seemed different. Infiniti said that the spirit had changed. Then the board spelled ‘you marked’ over and over."
My hand went to my birthmark, fear flooded my thoughts, and my entire body shook.
"Dominique, it’s okay. We don’t have to talk about it," Mom said.
"Yes, we do," I demanded. "The same feeling from my visions, that fear and dread, surrounded me until I saw a black mist coming out of the board, coming for me. And then I remember seeing..." The shimmery image of Mom and Dad flashed before my eyes.
"What?" Dad asked. "What did you see?"
"I saw you, Dad. And Mom. But not really you. It was a vision of you. And Mom, you told me to call for Farrell. And I did. That’s when a blinding white light filled the room." I looked at Farrell, recalling his face before mine, almost feeling his breath on my check. "I thought I was dying." The lump in my throat expanded. Don’t cry, I said to myself. Not now.
"I’m so sorry, Dominique," Mom said. She walked over and took my hands, kneeling down in front of me. "We’re never going to let anything happen to you," she whispered.
Tears rushed to the surface. It took every effort to force them in, and words escaped me. I nodded and squeezed her hands.
"It’s time for you to hear the rest," Dad said. "The Tainted and the Pures waged war for over a millennium. Many innocents died, until we decided to let the fate of the race rest on one human soul. A marked one. One born unto Pures. This will be the one who, if taken by the Tainted, will lead to their victory and bring about the Next World, a world filled with darkness, misery, and destruction."
Dad approached me. "It is also said that this marked one will have the ability to defeat the Tainted, and restore peace and order among the race."
Shivering tingles of panic and fear cascaded through my body. "I’m the one," I muttered.
"Yes, you are," she said.
I released her hand, not wanting to talk anymore about Transhumans, Pures, Tainted. I closed my eyes for a moment, hoping that maybe if I stopped thinking about it, it would all go away when a small hint of vanilla wafted my way. I opened my eyes, half expecting to see Jan, but didn’t. "Does all this have something to do with my final soul life?"
Mom, Dad and Farrell stood before me, the three of them so beautiful and striking, all of them with the same pure green eyes, and now I knew why. They were Pures. "Yes," Farrell answered. "There are some souls who are given time to complete a task. You are one of those souls. You have been waging this war now for eight lifetimes. So have all those directly linked to your path.” He sat next to me. “This is your final life, Dominique. The final battle for the marked one is upon us."
If my heart raced any faster, it would’ve exploded right out of me. "What about all the other times before? What happened to us?" I asked, afraid to know the answer.
"We do not know what has gone before, it is hidden," Mom said. "But we do know that every life starts the same. After your birth, your father and I discover your mark at the back of your neck. In every life, we search for a way to remove it by studying ancient scrolls and testaments. Our hope is that by removing the mark, we can save your life. That’s why we’re here in Houston."
All this time I was so pissed at them for bringing me here, angry that Dad spent so much time with his work, but it was all to save me. Everything they had done was for me. Guilt filled me. Then I thought of Farrell. He was special. He was my protector. Maybe he knew something that we didn't.
"Farrell, if you’re really my Walker, sent to help me in every life, then you should know what has happened before, right?"
"No, I cannot see what has gone before. But I have always been with you."
That was how I knew him. I had been with him for eight lifetimes, and now it was our ninth. He had always been with me. My thoughts turned to the red desert, of the way I remembered that place, and how I dreaded it.
"Each time, I die," I whispered, recalling the dark presence and the warning that it would find me. "I die at the red desert."
>
Farrell stood close. "Yes, you do."