Lynn
Stacey Thompson
Stevie Trinity
Copyright 2016@ Stacey Thompson, Stevie Trinity. No part of this work can be copied in any part without the permission of the authors.
Published by Fire Spirit Publishing
www.staceythompsonwriter.com
The Gatekeeper Series Short Stories
Kalerian
Rhea
Lynn
Acacia
Tyler
All the short stories lead up to Dark Magick releasing May 13th, 2016
Boom, was all she heard, her senses seemed to vibrate with the aftershock of it. Lynn raised her head from the cooking she’d just started. Her son came rushing into the room. Lynn glanced at him and then around her, senses heightened from the threat.
“Mom, what’s going on?” Sean watched her as he spoke.
She didn’t seem to register what was happening.
Another loud boom.
“Mom!”
Lynn met Sean’s gaze. “We need to move, now,” she said as calmly as she could. Everything was warning her about this day, the day it would all change. The visions, the dreams, but she ignored them until now, when she had proof everything was falling apart right in front of her.
She watched her two kids get their things and run to the car, she grabbed her SKS and followed behind.
There was the smell of smoke in the air and Lynn pulled her shirt up to cover her nose, the smell was just too much for her. She hoped into her old beat up car and stared at the steering wheel. Everything was so overwhelming for her, but this was it. Things were changing and would never be the same.
***
She looked at the roof of her little hut as bits of water dripped through the small openings between the wood logs. The drops missed her face by just a few inches. This wasn’t what Lynn wanted with her life, to live everyday in fear.
Lynn knew Rhea wanted to talk to her about something. She’d hinted at it the night before, but seemed to not know how to say whatever was on her mind.
She pulled herself from her makeshift bed and walked through her home. The water wasn’t as bad since the snow slowed, but it was still bad enough to be annoying. Lynn took precautions to keep the guns and ammo dry by placing a tarp she’d found on another mission over them. At least they wouldn’t misfire from being damp on her.
“Lynn, did you forget to talk to Rhea?” A tall dark haired man peaked into the hut.
Lynn eyed him. “Did you forget to knock?” She snapped.
He ignored her words and walked into the hut still watching what she was doing. “I just wanted to know if we were going on a mission today,” he said scratching his head.
“I know you are still looking for your family, but you have to know we may not find them, Miles.” Lynn tried to be gentle with him. Miles was the one person beyond her family she trusted, but he was still living in a dream, one that included his most likely dead wife and daughter.
“I’d know if they were dead,” he answered simply.
Lynn left it alone and picked up her pair of Sai. She put them in the holder on her back and turned back to him.
“We’ll know soon enough if there’s a mission and if it will take us anywhere near your missing family.”
“You’re going to talk to her now?” He asked hope filling his dark eyes.
Lynn just smiled and walked through her door. She’d grabbed a coat while they were talking and pulled it around her body. It was too cold in Wyoming for her to want to leave her home, but she knew she may not have much of a choice.
The snow was falling lightly and it was funny how it felt when it hit her hair. She liked simple things like this and quiet days that came with them. It was few and far between at this point.
Lynn walked to the hut Rhea shared with her man and her kids. She thought it must be nice to have someone to support her in these scary times.
“What took you so long?” Rhea spat at her the minute she was through the door.
Lynn stopped and looked around her. “I didn’t know I needed to be here the minute I woke up.”
“It’s important. I had another vision and this one was… weird.” Rhea sat in her chair and leaned back, crossing her arms. “There are people you need to get, but something is different about this vision.”
“What? You’ve been having these for a long time. Why is this one different? Why now?” Lynn said, leaning on the doorway.
“I can’t explain it. It feels like someone is piggybacking on my visions,” she said unsteady.
“Piggybacking?” Lynn wasn’t sure what that even meant.
“I think someone is seeing my visions as I see them.”
“No one can do that?” Lynn blurted without thinking. “Your visions are the one thing that guides us.”
“I don’t know how else to explain it,” she stated with a sigh.
“What was the vision?” Lynn changed the subject. If there was someone seeing what she saw, then time was of the essence.
“There’s someone in Surrey we need to get,” Rhea said, her back to Lynn. “I’m not sure which one it is, but they are important.”
“You want me to go to Canada?” Lynn raised her eyebrows as she spoke. “Do you know how far that is?”
“I can’t help where they want you to go. I just give you the information,” Rhea said leaning back in her chair.
“What am I walking into?”
“I don’t know,” she said simply.
“I’ll take Miles, but it will be a long ass trip,” Lynn sighed. “When should I leave?”
“I’d go as soon as possible. There may be other people on the way as well.” Rhea held her head.
“Are you okay?” Lynn could see the stress on Rhea’s face. Her blond hair was a mess even though she had most of it pulled into a ponytail.
“These visions give me headaches and they’re getting worse.” She closed her eyes as she spoke.
“I know,” Lynn answered simply. “I’ll leave as soon as everything is together.” Lynn smiled at her friend. “We’re going to get through this whole thing. We just have to stick together.”
Rhea finally met her gaze and smiled back. “I know.”
***
Lynn packed her bag thinking about what Rhea said. She was so sure someone was watching what she was doing, but there was no one who could do that. At least not anyone they’d run into yet.
“Are you ready?” Miles asked walking into her hut.
Lynn smiled and nodded her head. She had no idea what they were going to run into, but she was as ready as she could be.
“Do you think you’ll run into him?” Miles ventured.
Lynn gave him a dirty look, she hoped not. Miles knew of the man who haunted her dreams, but not of the past she seemed to remember too much of lately.
“It’s time to go, We will get a car when we get closer to town.” she didn’t even give him time to protest as she was out the door in no time. Lynn could hear Miles mumbling behind her, but paid it no mind. This was what she did and he could come along for the ride or stay home.
They walked for awhile when Miles grabbed Lynn’s hand, stopping her in her tracks. She glanced back to him, but he was looking beyond them both, Lynn slowly turned her head to see what he was looking at.
A large black dog.
It didn’t look like normal dogs. It’s lack of fur made it look something like a naked rat, but it was huge and muscular. The real giveaway was the eyes. It’s bright red eyes would bore into your soul so the animal could see every part of who you were. Then it used it against you.
It didn’t look like it had their scent yet, but it wouldn’t take long. Lynn turned back to Miles as qui
etly as she could. They were close to the edge of town, but there wasn’t much to keep them from the animal if it set its sights on them.
“What are we going to do?” Miles whispered.
“We can’t go this way. We’ll have to swing around and get a car from the other side of town,” Lynn said raising her eyebrows. It wasn't what she wanted to do, but what other choice did they have?
“Okay, let's do this quietly. I don’t want to be a Hellhound’s lunch.” Miles backed up, keeping his eyes on the thing as he went.
Lynn followed slowly, but she was still running over plans she could do if it heard them, to keep them alive. Rhea was depending on them to bring back this group and she wasn’t going to leave her alone to deal with this world.
Before long the trees filled in around them, but Lynn was still uneasy.
“We made it,” Miles said letting out a sigh of relief.
Lynn smiled before she heard a snarl behind him and watched his smile melt from his face. Lynn pulled Miles to her and fell to her back as the Hellhound jumped for him, missing him by inches. She pushed him to the side and pulled a knife she kept at her side.
“They can’t climb,” she yelled.
Miles seemed to understand what she was getting at and started to climb one of the trees.
Lynn eyed the Hellhound who just attacked Miles. It growled and showed it’s horrid teeth. She just watched it, waiting for the attack she knew would come. There was no way the Kings of Hell would let them finish any mission, this may have been their intention the whole time.
“Lynn, come on.” Miles held a hand out to her. “I’ll help you.”
She didn’t look at him, just the animal in front of her. “What are you waiting for?” She spat. It turned its head as if looking for its master.
“Lynn!” Miles yelled getting her attention.
“If I hide from it, we’ll never get out of here.”
“But you’ll live. If that thing bites you, you’re dead,” Miles yelled at her.
Lynn thought about her options for a moment, but something told her she had to take this monster on. Instead of waiting for it to attack her, she lunged at it. The dog sidestepped her attack and gnarled its yellow teeth. Lynn hit the ground hard, but rolled to the side and swiped her knife at the dog. It shrieked as the blade cut into its leg.
Lynn got to her feet and took the advantage, bringing her knife down on the dog’s neck. It gnashed, trying to bite her, but she managed to stay away from its teeth. Lynn pushed the blade further into its neck until it stopped moving.
She pulled the knife from the animal and turned towards Miles. “Not bad, huh.” She smirked and wiped the knife on her pant leg.
Mile climbed down from the tree and shook his head. “You could have died,” he snapped.
“Anyone can die at any moment. Just because I don’t want to, doesn’t mean it won’t happen,” Lynn didn’t want to look him in the eyes. A part of her wanted this all to end, to either go to the next world or die to get out of this one, but her kids and her friends kept her from that. They gave her strength.
“Let’s get that truck. I’m not in the mood to walk,” Lynn said without missing a beat. Miles followed her back to town and they both watched for any stray dogs to come their way, but none did.
***
She watched as he drove. Lynn couldn’t sleep so she just watched the broken landscape pass by. First thing they saw was a truck parked on the side of the road, windows rolled up and dusty. Lynn thought it was interesting, the way the tires were still good and the truck was perfectly parked. She thought it was odd and beautiful in its own way.
The war had taken a toll on her and she wasn’t seeing things in the same way as she did in the beginning, everything was different. Her world was now one she couldn’t stop to appreciate the odd things she saw, she had to act and think about all that later. She couldn’t even stop for the ones who didn’t make it. That was something she held inside. One day she knew it would break her, but she wasn’t letting that happen today.
“Why are you awake?” Miles asked glancing her way. “I told you I’d drive for a reason.”
“Can’t sleep,” she answered simply.
“Is he there again?”
Lynn held her breath, regretting ever telling him her secret. “No, I'm just focused.”
“You won’t be focused if you fall asleep before we get there.” He shook his head. “You’ll have to drive before long and I’ll need sleep. I don’t want to worry about my life because you’re too tired to drive.”
He had a point.
“I’ll try, but I won’t guarantee anything,” Lynn said. She decided fighting him wasn’t going to work today. Lynn closed her eyes and thought of anything but the war. She thought of her kids, and her life before all this. She was normal. Nothing special at all and then it all came crashing down.
***
1999
Lynn was walking out of the church she grew up in, hand in hand with her new husband. He was smiling and laughing as they walked down the stairs. The rain was turning her perfectly curled dark hair into a mess. She laughed anyway. Her husband, she wasn’t sure she was going to get used to that word, pulled her to him, his dark hair falling into his face.
“I love you, forever.” He smiled and kissed her hard. The rain increasing around them. It was cold, but all Lynn could feel was her husband's hands on her arms pulling her to him and the kiss that seemed as though it would never end.
When he finally let her go from the kiss, he picked her up into his arms and carried her to the car waiting for them at the bottom of the stairs. He tucked her into the back before sliding in beside her.
“I can’t believe we just did that?” Lynn said without thinking.
Her husband smiled, “We had to so that our son would have both his parents.” He slid his hand to Lynn’s stomach.
“Blu, we could have waited. I mean a church wedding? You know I’m not a Christen,” Lynn said, biting her lip.
“No, but my family is and this is a better way.” He kissed her and leaned back in his seat. Lynn closed her eyes and felt the cold reach to her. She opened her eyes and she was sitting on the steps of that church, the rain cold on her back.
“You will never get to love another,” the voice was familiar and dark. Lynn balled her hands into fists.
“You can’t even let me have a good memory, can you?” She screamed at the falling rain. Lightening lit up the sky, followed by and earth rumbling clap of thunder.
“You are bound to me.”
“No, that is all in your head. I don’t want anything to do with you,” the words came out as the rain fell harder, making it hard to hear. Then he appeared in front of her. The rain seemed to miss him completely. His dark hair was cut long around his face and his eyes, the hint of green in his golden brown eyes made them look astounding. If he wasn’t such a bad guy, he’d be a beautiful man.
“Go away, Kalerian,” she said calmly.
He reached out for her. Lynn stepped back, nearly falling on the steps behind her.
“I can’t. We are bound together, from the first day we met all those years ago,” he smiled as he spoke.
“I don’t know what you are talking about.” Lynn shook her head. She had some memories of her past lives, but none had him in it that she remembered.
“You will see very soon.” He stepped back cocking his head as he watched her. “I’ll see you very soon indeed.”
Lynn woke up with a start and glanced around her. The sun was up now and they were in a territory she didn’t recognize.
“We made it into Canada,” Miles said, shaking her out of her dreams. He looked her way and made a face. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” she lied. “Are we close to Surrey?”
“I’m not sure, but I think we might need gas once we get those people,” Miles said tapping the gas gauge.
“Great, that will be easy to come by.”
“Might be easier that you think. There are a lot more cars in a populated area like that. Someone is bound to have a full tank.” Miles smiled and raised an eyebrow at her. “Great road trip, huh?”
“I guess. I never thought we’d be trucking into Canada,” Lynn said with a slight smile. The dream she’d just had still tugged at her, she wondered what he was talking about. Normally a dream with him, wasn’t just a dream, it meant something.
“There is a sign,” Miles said pointing just ahead.
Lynn watched for it and finally could see they were just twenty miles away. She sighed and tried to busy herself by checking her ammo and her gun, but something was tugging at her. Something she didn’t like thinking about.
“Who do you think is this important person?” Miles said, breaking the silence.
“I don’t know, Rhea didn't see that, she just saw they were important.”
“Why do you think that is?” Miles asked, not looking her way.
“I don’t know. They must not think we need to know that yet,” Lynn said smiling slightly.
“Do they really think about the humans they are maneuvering through this world?”
“That’s a good question, but I don’t know. There has to be some kind of plan to it all.” Lynn glanced at him. She was different than other humans, because she was a witch. She could easily see why he thought this, because he was just a guy who’s whole world was turned upside down by something he didn’t understand, like most of the people they saved.
“I hope so, because this would suck if there wasn’t a good reason,” Miles slowed down as they entered the city limits. “Do you have an address?”
“Nope, just an idea of the streets,” Lynn answered pulling out her map. “You need to make a left at the next street.”
The city was different. It wasn’t eerie like some of the other places they’d been. This city had pretty much been left alone until all the major ones were destroyed. She’d heard there were fighters in the larger cities, at least for a little while.