We stood like that for a long moment, staring over each other's shoulders.
She hissed out air as her rage left her, replaced with bitterness, sorrow, and guilt. "Zach, I…"
I hugged her. With my gross body that I hated. The guy—no, girl—who hated physical affection, now clung to her best friend. I knew by now that my own family was probably dead, but I had Abby. Together we could figure out if it was really the Church, and why or how all this happened. And I wouldn't lose her.
I cleared my throat. "Someone did this. We'll find out, and we'll see justice done." I don't know where I found the words or how I managed to say them when I was out of breath.
"I—thank you. I shouldn't have hit you; I'm a terrible friend. I shouldn't even get to have someone like you," Abby replied.
"You absolutely should have someone like me. Someone better than me, even."
"We should go." Abby's voice was distant.
"Yeah. I know what we'll find, but I have to see for myself."
Wiping away tears as best we could when they were still flowing, we both stood up and moved out of our embrace. As we stood, I remembered the heavy weight of the amulet in my pocket. With a look to both Abby and her nan's body, I pulled it out and put it on. Nothing happened, thankfully, but I could feel its cool weight on my sternum.
"I was right. It does look beautiful on you." Abby forced a smile. She reached down and closed her nan's eyes before she stood back up and gave me a nod.
Together, we ran out of Abby's ruined house and across the square. I took another look at the black lines as we ran over and past them. They seemed to converge in the square near the well in some sort of pattern. Across the plaza, my house was marginally more intact, but the entire top floor was burned away. Like Abby's place, the door looked like it had been kicked in.
I steeled myself as best I could and walked inside. There, on the floor in the front room, I saw the charred remains of two adults, and the cold, twisting feeling in my guts told me they were my parents. I couldn't tell how they had died, but I doubted it was the fire.
The door to the front closet, situated under the stairs and mostly intact, swung open. A black-haired blur shot out and tackled me in a hug, dropping a knife she'd been holding.
"Zach!" my sister cried into my chest; face streaked with tears.
"Tania! You're okay!" I hugged her back. Seeing my sister alive filled me with a new sense of hope.
"What happened, Tania?" Abby asked, still in a daze. She picked up the discarded knife and we moved further into the ruined front room. Small flames licked around the edges of the house and it was uncomfortably hot inside, but neither of us wanted to be on the street just in case what Abby thought was true really was true.
"T-the Church guys knocked on our door after you snuck out, Zach. They were dressed in d-dark clothes but I recognized one of them who was with that scary Inquisitor. Then…" Tania's voice trailed off and the tears started.
She managed to say, between sobs, that she saw the fight from the stairs. My dad had put up a struggle and Tania had managed to stay hidden upstairs when they went up to search, but ran down into the downstairs closet during the fire. Abby looked around the lower floor for any other evidence while I comforted my sister.
Tania pointed to amulet Abby had found, tears still streaming down her face. "H-hey. Where'd you get that?"
The honest question coming from my sobbing sister caught me off guard. "Abby found it in the ruins and she gave it to me."
Tania nodded and forced a thin smile. "M-my gift is nicer, but you'll have to wait until your birthday, o-okay?" Her voice was strained and I could see that she was barely holding herself together. We all were. Frankly, I was amazed by my sister's bravery throughout all this.
"I will. I promise you Tania, I will."
"Let's get out of here," Abby called from the back door. "The alley has hot spots, but it looks clear."
"Yeah," I replied and took Tania by the hand. I took one last look at the ruins of my life and turned to follow Abby. My sister and I left the front room and headed down the remains of the back hall to the rear door a few meters behind Abby.
I had just enough time to register a dark figure as he moved out of the remains of the kitchen and lunged at Abby.
"Abby!" I shouted.
"Yea—" she turned, and her eyes went wide. She tried to bring the knife up, but it was too late. I saw a flash of steel and heard her scream.
Abby turned the knife she held on her attacker and stabbed deep into his arm. He grunted in pain and grabbed Abby by the shoulder with his injured arm. She twisted, but the man's grip held firm.
"Zach!" Abby's eyes were wide with fright.
I took a single step toward the man, but Tania grabbed my arm and pulled me back toward the front door. The man's sword arm moved forward and thrust the blade toward Abby's chest.
"Run!" Abby screamed one last time.
The sword pierced through her. I saw blood spray everywhere. Abigail Hunter's eyes locked on me for one last second before the light in those green pools left forever. Her body slumped forward in her attacker's arms and before I could see what happened next, Tania and my own traitorous feet carried me out of the hall.
Not a moment later, I heard footsteps thundering behind me and the cloaked man, now covered in my best friend's blood, ran out of the hall after us. His one arm seemed injured and he was bleeding, but how much blood was his I couldn't tell.
Tania held my hand tight and led me out into the square. I could see a figure in the center of it now. A familiar, reedy silhouette who had changed his red and white robes for dark ones. The figure was reciting some sort of incantation I couldn't possibly recognize. My sister saw him too and turned us, aiming for the next street over.
I was exhausted.
My ankle throbbed.
My head and body were numb—Abby's death hadn't yet sunk in. It all seemed like a bad dream.
My ankle throbbed.
The man was catching up to us; Tania would be faster without me.
My ankle throbbed again and I tripped. My hand wrenched out of Tania's and I tumbled to the ground. I struggled to stand up, but it was too late—the man too close.
"Run!" I shouted at Tania. "I'll catch up!"
She looked to me and then the man, her face a mask of fear and sorrow: she knew I wouldn't make it. My sister hesitated only long enough to look into my eyes and give a thin smile before she took off at full tilt towards the safety of the side streets.
Before the man could reach me or decide to chase after Tania, I turned and ran toward the robed figure in the center of the square. I wasn't going to reach him. Even if I did, I couldn't hurt him. But neither of them knew that.
"I'll kill you!" My shout came out ragged and hoarse, but I'd never heard myself speak with such rage.
I stumbled forward as fast as I could manage. My pursuer caught up to me near the well. Pain blossomed across my back as the sword slashed a deep gouge and I fell to the ground at the center of the black lines.
"I'll kill you all," I glared up at the robed figure, barely able to lift my torso to see him. Inquisitor Finley's face looked back down at me, then at my chest. His eyes flashed recognition and, what surprised me the most, fear.
"Wait!" he shouted at the man.
But it was too late. Already, mid-motion, the man who killed my best friend drove his sword down through my spine and pierced my heart. I had a moment of lucidity. Finley's face was a mask of shock and he started to say something. Then, the black lines around me flared into an intense crimson light.
The last thing I felt was a searing, burning sensation just above my sternum.