Legion Of The Cross (eBook)

chapter I

a vision

I was dreaming a horrible dream.

I was standing in a field of tall grass, so tall that it passed my hips. The tips of the weeds appeared soft and feathered, but when I stepped further into them, they poked my legs and raked the skin off of my feet. Blood trickled down my legs like a slowly flowing river. There was a field as far as the eye could see, not a tree in sight. I turned, looking at the view behind me: fog lingering by the trees and darkness protruding from a non-visible sky. The field with sharp weeds seemed a better choice. I continued on, gritting my teeth at the painful jabs the greenery made in my legs.

The grass thinned as I made my way further into the field. When I thought I saw a clearing ahead, I ran towards it, willing to put up with a few seconds of ripping flesh to be rid of the slow, sorrowful tearing. The clearing was now about five steps in front of me, and joy flooded my heart.

I had only taken two steps before the ground disappeared beneath me. I hadn’t seen it, the cliff. The rocky, dark, jagged ridge stretched the length of the field. My body flung from the edge carelessly as I fell into the darkness below. I was weightless for what seemed like an eternity. My mouth hung open in a soundless scream. Thankfully, I didn’t hit the rough, rocky edges like what would have actually happened if I weren’t dreaming. My heart pounded in my chest, fear pulsing through my veins.

I hit the ground with an exaggerated impact. I was slightly dizzy, and my head hurt. My limbs sprawled around me. My hair was spread above my head, mingling with the rocks and dirt. My heart was still racing, making it difficult to catch my breath.

I seemed to be in a type of ravine. The rock walls on either side of me were haunting, whispering things I could barely make out. The voices danced through the air, flowing through one of my ears and tickling the inside of my head. I would have laid there forever, but something caught my attention.

The sky had suddenly lit up, captivating my eyes and dilating my pupils. The clouds rolled away, revealing a yellow light- so peaceful amid this pit. I could only see a small amount of the sky above me because of how close the rock walls were. The sliver of the sky then changed. The calming light stayed where it was, but above and behind me, a dark vermilion began to appear. It turned from orange to red to a fluorescent Christmas red, almost a sting to look at. The two colors met in the middle, splitting the pit in half.

I saw a path leading back up to the cliff edge on the light yellow side. I was fixing to run to it when I noticed there were dips and slopes all the way to the top. It was definitely not an easy climb. There was enough space to squeeze through, but there were so many twists and turns that it would take me forever to get out. A light breeze flowed through the cracks of the jagged cliff wall, and I felt it tickle my hair.

On the red side, there was a path too, but there were no rocks, twists, or turns, a straight way out. There was a small light at the end of this path, but I couldn’t tell if it was light or something glowing… Either way, the red path seemed the easiest and smoothest way out. The rock walls continued to whisper, and I caught one of them.

“I can get you out.” They whispered.

“I can get you out of what is uncomfortable.” They continued to chant.

I took one last look at the light side, then the red, temporarily contemplating between the two. I chose the red. I began walking towards the light end of the path, enjoying the smooth road I had to walk on.

I hadn’t gotten very far when I started noticing that the light I had seen wasn’t as bright as I had originally thought. As I went on, I noticed the light separated into two lights, but they resembled a pair of floating dark rubies more than anything else. I wondered what they were.

As I continued down the path, I noticed something wet on the floor and on the walls of the cave. I stopped for a moment to observe the muck on the wall. It didn’t seem harmful, so I dipped my finger in it. I came back with a black goo-coated finger. “Eww!” I tried to fling it off my hand. Then I felt the gunk on my ankle. The black goo had risen above my sneakers and was climbing up my calf. Absolutely disgusting, I thought.

Something clapped overhead, and I whipped my head up to the sky. It was changing color again, but not to a Christmas red this time. A much darker maroon color stretched all the way down to the floor of the cave, making the two red dots more visible. I saw now what those glowing orbs were; I tensed.

They were eyes. It was a hyena, crouched down and grinning. Its eyes and creepy smile were fixed on me. The animal laughed. It laughed that high, long, eerily joyful cackle that sent chills down my spine.

I sucked in a breath and almost fell backward. The dark red color of the sky took an even bigger turn. It was now turning to liquid, mixing around and flowing down towards the ground. It reminded me of cake batter, gooey and sticky. As it poured onto the path, I tried taking a step back, and I couldn’t. My feet and calves were buried in the black goo. I looked around and noticed that the black stuff was swirling around in a circle, making a pool form around me. The velvet red sky was still dripping down as it crept closer to me. I recognized the smell. I almost vomited.

It was blood. Oh why, why did it have to be blood? The iron odor floated through the air, leaving a metallic taste on my tongue. My heart rate picked up. I turned back and looked at the light side of the cavern. It was non-changing, still bright with a slight breeze flowing through the rocks. I wished I would have taken the rough, winding path.

I realized I couldn’t get out. Panic rising in my chest, I screamed as more hyenas appeared and I sunk deeper into the black pool. I screamed again, hoping someone from the light side would hear me. My voice rang out, causing my throat to close in a rattling pain. Crimson blood rained from the sky as I dissolved into darkness.

~ Do not run away, my Reader. Please don’t close the book. I assure you, my friend, the story has just begun. I do hope you stick around. Oh please, stick around. ~

I sat up and gripped my hair, flinging my pillow off the bed. There was sweat on my forehead and on my palms. My mouth was dry as a piece of paper, leaving me licking my lips frantically. My hands were stiff from gripping so tightly.

What an awful dream, I thought.

I took the corner of my pajama shirt and wiped my forehead with it, reminding myself that it wasn’t blood. I hated blood, especially dreams about it. Blood was the bane of my existence, I could never hate something as much as I hated blood.

I told myself to forget about it and get up.

I slid out of bed and let my feet go cold on the hardwood floor. I went to the bathroom and brushed my teeth, getting that awful morning taste out of my mouth. Groggy, I stumbled down the stairs into the kitchen, where Mom was already making breakfast.

She looked up and greeted me, “Good morning, Alice.”

“Gomornrrrsh,” I mumbled, giving her half of a hug. I sat at the bar next to Dad as he patted me on the back.

“How’s my girl this morning?” He asked playfully.

I shrugged. “I had some crazy weird dream last night.” I made it sound like it wasn’t too bad.

“Well that’s never fun,” Dad replied, taking a large bite out of his avocado toast.

“I still don’t know how you eat that,” I said, disgusted.

“I’m telling you, it’s good!” Dad insisted. Mom had passed me a piece of toast with strawberry jelly on it.

“Thank you,” I took the toast. “What are the Waylon’s doing today?” I asked my parents.

Dad stood up from his chair. “Well, I think I was indecisive, but now I’m not sure.”

I giggled, choking a bit on my toast. Dad was pretty bossy, but he did occasionally make me laugh. He continued his dad-joke rant. “I wouldn’t buy anything with Velcro; it’s a total ripoff. I figure your mother will go shopping. You know, Alice, a successful man is one who earns more money than his wife can spend. A successful woman knows where to look for such a man.” I grinned and turned to Mom, who crossed her arms as she stopped digging in her purse, probably looking for Dad’s wallet.

“Charles!” Mom protested.

“Ellen!” Dad matched. They both fought over shopping for another minute or two.

I finished my breakfast and hopped up from the bar stool, stuffing my phone in my back pocket.

“Oh, honey!” Mom walked up behind me, almost hovering over me, making me feel like a trapped animal that had done something wrong. “How about you come with me to the church? We’re packing shoeboxes!” She said this way too excitedly.

I frowned but didn’t say no. Maybe I wanted to do other things today, Mom, I thought.

I went to my room and got dressed, dreading the next few hours. I pulled on my most comfortable jeans with a pink and gold tie-dyed shirt. I grabbed my thick-knitted jacket and threw it on. Putting my hair up in a messy bun, I thought of how long and boring it would be to pack hundreds of shoeboxes with a bunch of old people. Well, they’re not old per se, just older than me.

If you were wondering, my name is Alice Waylon. I’m sixteen and...