Challenging him felt good.
I felt Brent to my right and Reese to my left. This was it. If we were to stop him it would be right now. I stepped forward and as I did a vision slapped me hard.
The vision was from the past showing me a much younger Kace. Judging from his appearance it was from the nineteenth century. Kace was holding a baby in his arms. Tears ran down Kace’s cheeks. He was clutching the child and rocking, shouting to someone in the room that stood off to the side of my vision. The next thing I saw was Kace and a woman wrapped in a loving embrace. The woman was beautiful. Long flowing brown hair framed her delicate face. She had creamy skin, almost doll like. The softest of pink blushed her cheeks. I saw her again wrapped in the arms of another man, who looked similar to Kace. Next, Kace and the man who looked like him were arguing and the woman lay on a bed holding a newborn. She was shouting to Kace and the other man that the baby belonged to Kace. The other man stormed out.
Pausing the vision in my mind, I took a deep breath wanting it to end but it continued.
Kace clutched the now lifeless child. “Why? Why?” he wailed. I saw the woman on the floor at his feet, blood puddled around her head. The other man from earlier stood over her, laughing sinisterly. Kace was still clutching his dead child while tears stained his cheeks. Kace shouted at the man, continuing to ask him why. “You betrayed me,” the man said as he squeezed the trigger again, landing a single bullet between Kace’s eyes.
Three apparitions left the bodies, Kace, the woman, and the baby. A face I recognized stood in front of them, Omni. Kace begged Omni to spare his family, to save their lives. Kace told Omni he had been the one to sin. The vision stopped and I felt wetness on my cheeks from spilt tears.
Kace spoke softly.
“The woman and the man from your vision were married and the man was my brother,” Kace said, hanging his head regretfully. “Her name was Cecilia and my brother treated her horribly. I fell in love with her. I knew it was wrong but I bedded her anyway. Cecilia was with child. When the child was born, my brother knew it wasn’t his. He threw her out in the cold. I took her in and cared for her the way she deserved and I loved my son more than I ever loved anything in my life,” Kace explained.
My vision returned and I watched as a dark figure came to Kace offering him a trade. The menace in the tone of the dark figure was unmistakable. Red eyes glowed with fire behind them, as Satan came into view offering him a trade. Through smoke, Satan stood before Kace as a shadow with fiery eyes offering Kace the one thing he wanted more than anything else – redemption he thought had been denied him by the spirit world. His family would be returned to the physical world if Kace would spend eternity serving Satan. The vision changed again and Cecilia was alive. She was at a kitchen table, writing, and the child, now a few years older, burst into the room and hugged her. She held him close and kissed him softly. The visions ended and I felt a sense of pity for this man in front of me.
“I couldn’t let the woman I loved or my child pay for what I had done. I was the one to sin, stealing my brother’s wife,” Kace said, suddenly looking like a man who suffered for years. I held out my hand to him, but he refused it. “My brother took everything from me and I begged the Agents to give it all back, but they denied me. I had no choice. My family had to live. I made the deal.”
“There’s always a choice Kace, but being indebted to Satan was the wrong choice,” I said.
Kace grinned incredulously. “Satan? Really, Claire, isn’t that a tad bit dramatic? Are we talking horns and a tail even? You have quite the imagination.”
Was I wrong? The vision was only a shadow of darkness. “Is that not who you surrendered your soul to, Kace?” I asked.
He shook his head. “My soul, Claire? You do indeed have quite the imagination. I made an agreement. There is no Satan, Claire, just a shadow. The Shadow holds all of the evil in the world, enveloping the weak. I agreed to ensure his presence in the world, Claire,” Kace explained.
“It’s wrong,” I said firmly. “If you and your family’s time had come, then that was how it was meant to be.”
“You’re so innocent, Claire. Think about it. Could you let him die if you had an opportunity to save him?” Kace asked, nodding his head at Brent beside me.
I wanted to say yes, because that was the right answer but
I glanced up at Brent knowing that I would be lying. Kace read my expression clearly.
“No, I didn’t think so,” he said, touching my cheek with the very tip of his finger, wiping away a tear. I saw the steam out of the corner of my eye before I felt the searing burn in my skin. I wanted to scream it hurt so bad but looking into Kace’s eyes, I saw the gesture was sincere. He was tormented with the choice he had made and his expression suggested he wanted saving.
Brent inhaled sharply, shoving Kace back.
“Keep your hands off of her,” Brent ordered, sliding in front of me. Kace’s sadistic laugh bounced off the walls echoing around us.
I stepped around Brent pushing him back. “No Brent, it’s okay, he wasn’t trying to hurt me,” I explained.
Brent turned to me, placing his palm over my scorched cheek, his touch instantly cooled my skin – in fact it was freezing in contrast to my cheek – healing the burn until the pain subsided and the gash was gone.
He leaned into my neck and whispered. “We can’t trust him, Claire.”
“I know. Just let him speak, please,” I whispered back. I saw a desire for Kace to explain what he had done and why. We needed to hear him out because that knowledge could only help us.
“The first person I ever haunted was my brother. I had him hearing voices by the time I was done with him. I wanted him to die but I knew being locked away in that mental hospital would be a far greater punishment,” Kace explained, his eyes dark and without penance.
“Why do it Kace? What purpose does it serve?”
He looked at me and for an instant I thought I saw a dim light behind his dark stare.
“The Shadow needed help. He agreed to save Cecilia and my son’s life if I agreed to help him. The Shadow can control humans or apparitions by closing and locking their seal. The Shadow can’t enter the physical world but I can, and the apparitions that follow me are able to as well. We haunt humans that are weak, preying on them until they give into The Shadow’s darkness. When they submit to The Shadow, their seal closes and The Shadow can control them, making them perform many evils.”
I held my hands to my chest, holding in my fear. “I don’t understand. I thought a human seal was matched to another human seal so we could have eternal love.” I watched Brent for an explanation as much as Kace.