Thief of the Eclipse Short Story – Part 7: Memories
It’s the second Tuesday of the month and you know what that means – the next segment of the Thief of the Eclipse short story!
Click here to start reading at the beginning. Below is a brief refresher on the story up to now (contains spoilers):
Zelena has been offered a mission by Lazaro, a mysterious diseased man. He will tell her the truth about her father’s death if she steals memories from Father Remiel, her superior in the Eclipse Guard. Zelena stole the artifact from the caravan and must use it on Father Remiel.
And now, part 7.
Thief of the Eclipse Short Story – Part 7: Memories
Zelena didn’t know if it was Usha’s punch or if she was too far from Father Remiel’s memory, but she felt reality fading. Terror filled her stomach and told her to run. Reeling with pain, she closed her eyes and took a step.
When she opened her eyes, she was in an alley in Osage Grove. Her father strode down it, bright-eyed and whistling softly. Her heart surged. This was the father she knew and missed.
The Usha ghost began to materialize beside her. Zelena rushed up the back stairs to second-story room and lay flat on the landing. Peering between a potted plant and a ceramic cat she watched her father and Usha. The Usha ghost scanned the area, searching.
Father Remiel stepped out of the back door of a room halfway down the alley and grabbed her father by the arm.
“The girls,” Fathe Remiel said.
Her father scowled. “I already told you. You will not have my girls for your collection. They have no powers. They are just little girls.”
“You can’t hide them from me forever. This is your last chance!”
Zelena’s father snatched his arm from Father Remiel and walked on. Father Remiel howled in anger, and running to catch up, her wrapped his arm around the other man’s neck. Zelena’s father stopped short and prepared to fight, but Father Remiel placed his other hand on the side of her father’s face. His eyes rolled back in his head and his body convulsed as it collapsed to the ground.
He placed both hands on the sides of her father’s face. “If you won’t tell me, I’ll take it myself. I’ll take it all, bloodlines be damned!” Father Remiel shouted.
Zelena let out a cry. This couldn’t be the man who saved her from the streets. He couldn’t be the person who killed her father. A look of ecstasy filled Father Remiel’s face and he appeared to radiate a faint glow from his hands and arms.
Footsteps clanged up the stairs. Usha must have heard her cry. Zelena jumped to her feet and stepped through the wall of the nearby room. She had to get what she came for and get out. Fast.
She focused her mind on Lazaro and the bedroom she’d seen in his head. The wall shifted around her and resolved into a sitting room in a fancy house. Father Remiel stood over Lazaro, his glowing hands resting on either side of Lazaro’s face.
“It’s your fault I lost the girls. Your interference stole something very important from me, so I’ll take something equally valuable from you. You’ll regret the day you ever interfered with me.”
Zelena’s heart tightened. Lazaro was right. Remiel wasn’t who she’d thought he was. She’d been working for a monster. At that thought, the Usha ghost appeared beside her. She was materializing faster and faster with each shift. Zelena could see the murder in her sister’s eyes. She had to hurry.
Running across the room, Zelena shifted through Remiel as he stole Lazaro’s memories.
— to be continued —
Come back the 2nd Tuesday of next month for the next part of this story. Subscribe to the blog via email in the box on the top right of this page and be one of the first to read new stories when they are posted!
