For Nevermore Season 1

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    They circled around Randy’s body, examining him. The chime in her ears was still ringing, so she couldn’t hear if the monsters were speaking or not. Noella stayed perfectly still, feeling Dante’s warmth against her body, and his gloved hand over her mouth. She could feel his heart racing against her chest, and it sent a tingle through her, though it was good, not scary.
    The three monsters turned toward them and moved closer. Noella remembered how the things had sniffed her location as she tried to hide from them in the decrepit school. They were nearly 30 yards away, and moving closer, sniffing the air.
    She wanted to move, to run, to do anything other than sit, but Dante kept still, keeping his hand on her mouth. She looked at him for direction, and his eyes locked onto hers.
    He shook his head no.
    She had to trust him.
    The monsters inched closer, and Noella’s heart raced, certain this was it. They were going to find and kill them.
    She had an almost violent need to pee. The last time she’d gone was in a bucket in the cell, which was utterly gross. But now she was about to pee her pants, right in front of Dante.
    Suddenly there were more lights — now above them — and Noella wanted to cry.
    This is it. Now they’re surrounding us.
    As the whistling from the explosion faded, Noella heard another sound — the familiar hum from one of the blimp-like machines above them. The three monsters looked up, then turned quickly, and started to run.
    Sparks shot from the blimp, and a voice called out, “Stop, in the name of the Queen!”
    The monsters kept running, surprisingly fast and agile, given their size.
    Noella waited as the blimp-thing passed, until there was nothing around them but black.
    The song of night returned. Dante said, “We must get you back.”
    “First, I need to pee,” she said, then hopped up and hobbled to a spot behind a large tree and dropped her pants, embarrassed, though not half as embarrassed as she would have been if she had peed her pants.
    She returned to Dante, who didn’t seem too weirded out to see a girl peeing without privacy.
    “What were those things?”
    “Harvesters,” he said, as if she’d understand.
    “Harvesters of what?”
    “You don’t wanna know,” Dante said, as he began to walk up the next hill, distracted, searching for something in the distance, or maybe the sky.
    “Where are you going?” Noella asked. “I have questions.”
    “Yeah, I know. But first we need to get you home.”
    “How did you find me?” she asked. “How did you know I was in danger?”
    Dante stopped, then turned to face her, and for the first time his features softened, and his eyes locked onto hers, almost hypnotically.
    “You still don’t remember? Even after all this?”
    He reached out and held her hands in his gloved palms. She remembered his warning before about not touching him. Still, as her hands fell into his embrace, she felt butterflies stirring. She laughed, feeling silly, as he moved closer, now just inches away. She continued to stare into his eyes, her mind settling into the oddest sense of deja vu. Like she’d known him before.
    Well, of course you do, you’ve been seeing him in your dreams forever.
    No, it was something else.
    It was what he’d said before.
    They’d known each other for centuries.
    But how?
    “This isn’t your first life,” he said. “I’ve known you now in nine different lives.”
    “Nine?” she said, staring at Dante in shock. “Nine lives like a cat?”
    “Yeah, something like that.” He smiled. “You are a very, very special being.”
    She flushed, at first feeling like he was heaping undeserved praise on her. But then Noella realized he wasn’t necessarily complimenting her.
    “What are you saying? I’m not human?”
    “Not even close,” he said. “You’re one of the last of your kind. And some of infinity’s most powerful people are fighting over you. They want to capture you, to turn you to their side. And they’ll stop at nothing, spare no one.”
    Noella’s head was spinning as she tried to pull sense from the incomprehensible.
    “Come here,” he said, taking her hand and leading her up the hill he had been heading toward just a moment before.
    They walked in silence as she tried to comprehend what he’d said, but also because he seemed to be listening for something. Perhaps more of those blimp-things.
    As they stepped into a clearing atop the hill, Noella saw what he’d wanted to show