And The Heavens Fell Silent by Maria Louise (beach read TXT) 📖

stood portrayed power and honor.
Hosanna perked up his ears and looked intently into my eyes as if he knew exactly what was going on. I stepped inside the stall and slip on his bridle.
“I need you to take me to your home, boy.” I told him while shakily stroking his long smooth face. Hosanna nickered a low calming sound, and I knew It was going to be okay.
I swung my leg over his back and hopped up on his familiar, warm body. Hosanna and I were so in tuned to each other's rhythm that all I had to do was think about what I wanted Hosanna to do and he would sense it through my body.
“Let's soar.” I whispered. Hosanna, who felt the urgency, reared up striking his hooves in the air before he galloped out of the stable and through the dark town full of cries and whimpers.
Don't look back. Don't look back. I demanded to myself. Ignore the cries of terror and the bellows of sick laughter. Don't look back. Do not look back!
Once we were finally out of the town Hosanna ran even faster than before. He glided across the priory towards the vast purple and black mountains.
He seemed to know exactly where we were headed. :Katheryn

In the end, we must pay the price for all sins, No matter the cost- Unknown

 

I awaited the demon, fulfilled with peace and contentment. Yram was safe, and that was all that mattered. It was my fault the terrible curse was upon her, so it was my job to fix it. And fix it I shall.
But, Oh! I prayed she would never find out just what the curse was!
I thought back to a time when Yram was conceived. The demon would have forced himself upon me even if I was not willing. They needed my daughter, and mine alone, to win this Godforsaken war. They needed a girl so pure and yet with the power for darkness. A child that would not be corrupted by the world. Sometimes I wonder if I shouldn’t have raised Yram to be so pure, but in the end I am glad that I did. because if anyone was going to heaven, I knew It would be my sweet Yram. She may be the last shining star in this very dark night.
I was soon brought out of my thoughts by the front door of my house being broken open. Splinters of black wood flew across my kitchen floor where I was calmly sipping my tea.
Oh my, I really did love that door. A dark thought came upon me; I really do love my life as well, yet that was going to be taken away.
Now I was angry. Superbus shouldn't have touched my door.
Without looking up from my steaming tea I asked annoyed, “Did you really have to break open my door?! You could have just knocked like a normal human being. Though, I guess that is the problem. You are not human.”
I took a sip of my sage tea.
That was when I heard his laugh, it was as smooth as honey on glass. After all, he was once an angel. Though I knew he was a monster I still could not help the flutter of my heart at his lush laugh.
“Your personality has not changed, Kathryn.” Said the demons seductive voice behind me. “Though the years have aged you roughly.” I could feel him pick up a strand of my hair, examining the gray color of it.
Slowly, I turned around and admired his ageless beauty. I could clearly see Yram's loveliness in him. The golden skin, the elegant tall body, the exotic high cheekbones, but most of all, the crimson eyes. Though unlike Yram's kind eyes his held bloodlust.
“Yes,” I said smirking. “and you haven't changed at all. Still a prideful lying demon I see.”
Rage flared in his eyes.
“Where is Yram?!” demanded Superbus.
“Oh that girl ran away about a month ago. Haven't seen her since.” I lied causally.
“Do not lie to me, human!” He said and slapped me across the face. “Where are you hiding her?!”
I straightened up. Rubbing my jaw I said, “Oh honey, don't go and be mad. You will screw up your pretty face, and I know how much you love your looks.”
Hatred burned like the sun in him.
I smirked.
“Tell me where she is. Now.” His voice was deadly quiet and he wore a slightly crazed side smile, which could only mean one thing. The demon was beyond rage. I was shocked he had not killed me yet.
Suddenly, men burst into my home, crawling up behind the demon. Well, I shouldn't say men. They were Creatures of the Flame. Once human but now more monster. Radiation does strange things to the body and mind.
A young boy to the right of the demon had sickly yellow skin that sagged off of his bones. He twitched his head spastically and licked his already red swollen lips like a snake. He was the most human looking of them all.
There were two other men behind Superbus. One had bloodshot eyes and veins that were pitch black and trailed along his skin like inky spider webs. He also had a grotesque abscess growing out of the side of his face. The pulsating abscess looked painful, and I could tell it was infected because of the steady, drip, drip, drip of pus onto my floor. Really? He couldn’t wipe up his mess? Men never change. Demon, monster, human, all the same.
The other guy was almost normal except for his shark-like teeth that he must have filed and his blistered skin that looked as though he spread oil all over it, making the skin glisten with slime.
“Now,” Said Superbus sneering. “are you going to tell me where my daughter is or are you going to make me let my friends here show you what living hell is really like. Though, I could show you the real thing if you would prefer.”
I did what was natural for a girl being threatened by a creep.
I kicked him in the groin. His eyes widened in shock as he let out a girlish scream.
I then did what any mother would do if her child was threatened. I took a knife out of the folds of my dress and stabbed the demon in his once, pretty eye.
It only took a couple seconds for the creatures of the flame to recover from their shock.
They giggled hissed and roared at me. I tried to be brave and not show fear as the slimy guy ran at me with cat like quickness. He grabbed a handful of my hair and slammed my face into the kitchen sink. He smashed in my face so hard I was positive death had swallowed me whole.

:Yram

Love is like a brick. It can build a house or sink a dead body- Stefani, Germanotta

 

After running relentlessly for miles, Hosanna slid to a stop on the outskirts of the dead wood forest.
As I tried to relax my death grip on Hosannas mane he pawed the ground madly, stirring up ash from the burnt trees. I could tell by his actions that the City of Zion was somewhere on the other side of the dead forest.
I looked right, then left, trying to see if there was a way around it. The forest was so long it stretches for miles and miles, and, like the ocean, I could not decipher where it begun or ended.
“Come on, boy,” I pleaded to Hosanna. “We are going to have to go through it.” I tapped him with my heels to urge him forward, but Hosanna refused to go forward, backing away from it instead.
Something was holding Hosanna back. Fear maybe? I did not blame him. The forest was completely silent, with no sign of plant nor animal life. Not that we had life anywhere else in this forsaken world. The flare completely dried out the lands. Since most plants were dead, almost all herbivores went extinct to. The rare animals that survived were mostly carnivores, because they fed on the flesh of humans. The only way humans survived was off of the flesh of carnivores and occasionally their own kind. It was rare to find many herbivores besides horses, and that was only because people needed the transportation.
Humans were a sick, demented race. It was no shock to me the Lord stopped fighting for us. There came a time when enough was enough.Though, even through the darkness of this world, I had seen signs of light. Mothers who looked at their children with such compassion I knew love was not forever diminished. Children who secretly snuck me food when I was banned from trading for it. Even though it was small glimpses of hope, it did not matter the size. One small star in the vast darkness of the night sky, was enough to fight for.
Honestly, I did not even want to go into the forest. The black scorched trees reached up to the heavens in black and white charcoal curls. Some trees even resembled the withered bodies of humans. I shuddered in defeat. But then, a memory came to me. I remembered a lullaby mother had sang to me as a child, to ease my fear when I was woken from a nightmare. Lord please let this work, I silently pleaded to God. Please.
I sang.
I could feel Hosannas tense muscles loosen and my own fear fade away as I sang and Hosanna walked on.
Thick ash loosened as Hosanna trudged into the dark forest. It swirled around his legs and fluttered from the trees onto our backs. It was exotic and beautiful, the way I imagined snow would be like. Only drier.
Despite the fact that the dusty ash was starting to find its way into my mouth, soaking up all my moisture, I sang on.
“In a dark world,
With no light
a young girl was shining,
shining too bright.
She was beautiful,
innocent and pure,
the darkness wanted
to take her sweet soul.
The girl kept on running
from the evil,
Trying to hide
from the corrupted people.
Saving herself,
protecting her heart
she wouldn’t let