Silence can be so Loud... Pt. 2

"They will come looking for you, Kindred. You must know that."  "I do, Clarise, but they won't find me. You know that I can be sure of that, don't you?"
 "I only know that I want to protect you in any way that I can. This is one of the first places they will look for you. They know of our bond. We have to find a place where you can hide until we can think this through."
 "Clarise, it is not the people from the "home" I am worried about. The souls I have hurt have come back. They are trying to destroy me before I can make it all right." Kindred stood and walked to her radio. He turned the volume up enough that he felt it would drown out their conversation to anyone but them. "They can only reach me if it is silent. When the home took my music away, they came back.  The further away I get, the harder it is for them to find me. We need to get to the cabin as soon as we can."
 Clarise studied Kindred. She watched his eyes flutter from side to side as if he were watching for something, someone. She knew she could deny him nothing. He had saved her life more times than she could remember. She loved him very much but she also knew that staying with him meant having to watch the horrors she had tried so hard to forget since he had gone away.
 "I'll take some time off from work. We can leave as soon as you want to."
 "My father was a cruel man, Clarise. It was because of him that I became what I am today. He forced my hand when I was just a child. I only thank him for causing me to search out the people in the dark. They saved my life and in turn, I found you. I only wish others could see them, like you do. Then they would not think me crazy."
 "You are far from crazy, Kindred. You are the smartest man I have ever known. Have you talked to the people in the dark yet?"
 "No, but they know I am free right now. They always know. We should get to the cabin as soon as we can. As much as they know I am free, so do the "souls." Once we reach the cabin, I will seek out the dark people and they will tell us what to do."
 "Kindred... you do know that you did Not hurt all of those souls, right? Have you come to realize that yet?"
 "If that is true, then why do they seek to kill me? Help me, Clarise. Help me to remember, please."
 "I found you five years ago, Kindred. I was coming home from work and saw something in the road. I wanted to just pass it by but something told me to stop. I found you, curled in a ball, the rain falling on your face. I was drawn to you immediately and tried to help you into my car. There was something out there that night. Something both good and bad. They tugged at you as I was putting you in the car. The voices were a mix of "save him" and "let us have him." When I got you into the car and touched you, I could see into your mind. I saw the little boy, reaching out to his mother for comfort. I heard her words of hatred, felt your very soul cry as she slapped you. Over the next four years, each time I touched you while you slept, I learned more. I saw the people that you tried to help and watched each and every one of them want to be with you. I saw women fall in love with you only to hate you when you told them you were leaving. I saw men want to be You and have your knowledge and your charm. They tried to destroy you when they found they could not have it."
 "And you saw the dark people come to me? You saw the souls of those that I had hurt trying to destroy me?"
 Tears streamed down Clarise's eyes as she held Kindred. She wasn't certain if she held a man in her arms or a little boy, still reaching out to his mother. She cried softly and felt Kindred's huge fingertips brush the tears away.
 "I saw it all, Kindred. I learned that the "dark people" had come from another plaine, somewhere far away from our own world. They came in the dark to help you. Times when you were alone in the silence, vulnerable to the "souls."
 "And the souls? Tell me again where they came from."
 "They too came from another place. A place that is evil and cruel. The place that your father exposed you too every time he struck you or your mother. He opened some portal that you and I closed for a while. A place that somehow has been re-opened."
 "We have to go there and close the door forever, Clarise. You know we must."
 "Yes, Kindred... we must go there. But remember, we might not win. If we lose, we both may die."
 "Do you love me enough to go there with me, Clarise?"
 "I do. We will go to the place in the mountains that you first found them and face all of them."
 "We won't die, Clarise. We will win this time, completely. We will spend the rest of our lives together."
 Clarise watched him as he drifted off to sleep. She layed him down on the bed and covered him. She layed beside him and tried to sleep. She wondered if her own words were true. Would they survive the silence?
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Clarise was suddenly startled from her sleep. She heard before she saw Kindred fighting in his sleep. She turned and saw the blankets pulled back. Unseen fingers were tearing at his chest. The skin was torn away and blood covered his body. He screamed out in the night and tried desperately to fight off the creatures that were trying to steal his heart from his chest.
 "Just take me... make it all end!!!!!!" 
Clarise heard his words and tossed back her blankets. "No-o-o-o-o Kindred, No! Do not give in t them! I will not let you go!"
 Clarise covered his body with hers. She screamed out in both shock and pain. Never had she felt this before. Never had they torn into her skin. She writhed in pain but refused to move from Kindred's body. "Fight, Kindred, fight! Don't you dare give up now. I just got you back and I am not going to lose you again!" Her body was filled with unimaginable pain. She cried out again and again, still refusing to let them take her Kindred. "Wake up, Kindred" she cried... "Please wake up for both of our sakes!!!!"