Page 94 of Fallen Thorns
“I need to leave.”
The creature let his bottom lip pout and his glassy eyes drooped. “So soon?”
I turned to leave but then I was stopped in my tracks as the back of my mind opened up and his icy fingers crawled their way in, yanking me backwards.No.
“Please don’t run away from me, Arlo. You know I hate that.”
No. Please. Please.
Anything for you.
“Lovely. Right. Now I have your full attention. I’m correct in believing your precious Thorns leader tried to block your mind, yes?”
She tried.
He scoffed.
Please stop.
“Oh, don’t cry. She failed. She’s nothing compared to me. Though she does get points for effort.” He elegantly slipped down off the countertop, and stepped over to me, wiping away a frozen tear.It’s so crowded in here.
“It’s frustrating how hard you’re still trying to fight this. Why can’t you simply embrace all I’ve opened up to you? All the knowledge I shared, and all the freedom I have promised. Are you not relieved?”
Of course I am. You gave me air to breathe.
Stay, Arlo.
“What arewe?” I begged, pleading for answers.
“We? Oh, that’s more like it. You know your place.” He circled me like a vulture. “We, my boy, are everything. The infinite possibility ofeverything.”
“Gods?”
He moaned, thinking up a response with a heavy eye-roll. “We are notgods, but we are the closest thing to the idea. Can’t you feel that? Why won’t you let it in?”
“My mind.”
“Oh, don’t worry so much aboutyourmind. You are but a host. You only need to worry aboutthemind.”
My mind.
“You will get nowhere by fighting it.” His long fingers danced across my shoulders as light as petals as he glided past my back, his feathers dusting over the floor to his side.
I am but a host.
“Whowereyou?”Stay present. Ask and stay present.
Michael scoffed. “Irrelevant. Michael was no one. It was such a long time ago now anyway.”
“And me? Am I no one?”
His smile chilled my very core. “Oh. Oh, no. You are very muchsomeone.That is why I chose you.”
I was chosen after all.
“It was always you. And the three of us united on earth again will mean the new beginning. Finally.”
“Three of us?” Tears fell uncontrollably from my eyes.
