AVA
Chapter 1
AVA
Ava wasn’t feeling pain or thirst or hunger. She was just felling the warm sand. “Is it sand?” She thought, and couldn’t say for sure. She was lying down, eyes closed, for a moment she didn’t remember nothing, her mind was empty like an endless void.
“Wake up!”
She didn’t move. She couldn’t. Her body didn’t obey.
“Wake up!”
She tried to move her fingers, but she didn’t have energy.
“WAKE UP, AVA!”
She jolted awake and every moment of her life came back flooding her mind. Her mother and the accident and the orphanage and Diego and Sister Francis and her death and her resurrection and JC and the Tarask taking Lilith away and Jillian and the OCS and the Vatican and Vincent betrayal and Adriel and Mary, poor Mary and Switzerland and Beatrice and Michael and the FBC and Madrid and Mother Superion and Camila and Yasmin and the museum heist and the crown of thorns and the last fight and Micheal death for nothing, and the divinium bomb, and defeating Adriel, and the ark… And Beatrice.
“Bea.”
Her head was spinning, she looked up. The sun was high in the sky. “Was it noon? How long she was lying down?”
“Get up, Ava.” That voice again, she knew that voice.
“Who are you?” asked Ava, but she knew.
“Get up and follow my voice.”
“Mom?”
“Come, Ava. Follow my voice.” And she did, she got up and start wander through the desert. It was then she notice that she wasn’t alone, few meters away she saw others walking everywhere.
“Do not follow others, Ava. Follow my voice.”
And she walked and walked and walked for days to south, to north, to east, to west, to every direction. Each time the voice was become hard to listen she change her position like trying to tune a radio station.
The sun never set or rose, but ran across the sky back and forth. Ava counted a day every time the sun crossed the sky twice. No one slept, it was not necessary.
Sometimes her wander was the same as others and they talked, she met a man who was following the voice of his daughter, she died at 25 in a fire. They walked together for two days, and the voice of his daughter became low, and they parted way. Other times she crossed paths with someone, they would stop for a moment to chat only to hear another voice.
After 50 days, by her count, she saw a women 50 meters from her fall to the ground, she was with another wanderer and tried to run to help.
“No, leave her.” Said the wanderer. “Do not try to help a waverer”
“A what?” Asked Ava.
“The Wavers are the ones who give up the search”
“What do you mean?”
“Watch.”
Ava then saw the sand swallow the woman.
“Do never waver, Ava. Follow the voice of your mother always.”
They continue to walk, Ava was still shaken from what just happened.
“Where did she go?”
“No one knows, and I don’t want to find out. Some people that I’ve met think that the wavers turns into sand. Others believe that they went to hell. I’m here for quite some time, for my counts at least 8 months, and I’ve seen a lot.”
“8 months? That’s a long time to be wandering.”
“Yeah, but I’m going to see my wife again that’s what keeps me going.”
They fell silent and walked for 2 hours until the Ava's mother voice started to became low, and she had to say goodbye to her companion.
“May we meet again, Ava.”
“See you soon, Alexandra.”
And then Ava headed south.
For several weeks Ava walked alone, only with the voice of her mother in her head. She never wavered. She kept going for the OCS, for her sisters, for Beatrice.
“You would’ve liked her, mom.”
“I’m sure I would’ve, honey.”
Suddenly a shadow began to form on the horizon, it was big. Ava start to walk fast, she could see a city. She found was she was looking for, after what look an eternity she arrives at the gates of the city with several others wanderers, some know faces smiling to each others waiting to enter the city. Each was received with joy by theirs loved ones. They could now rest.
Ava was looking for her mother and she was there smiling waiting to see her little girl again. They hugged and cried together.
“Mom!”
“Oh, my beautiful daughter! How a missed you!”
“I missed you too, mom. But we are together again!”
Ava mother touched her face looking sad.
“I’m sorry, honey. Your journey don’t end here.”
“What do you mean, mom? I walked the desert, never wavered from the path.”
“But you’re not dead, Ava. You have to go back”
“What? How?”
Then a voice that she didn’t hear for a long time called her in the middle of the people.
“AVA SILVA, YOU MOTHERFUCKER! YOU MADE IT!”
“MARY!”
And Ava cried again from joy. Mary was right there smiling, she ran to her and their bodies collided in a fierce hug.
“Liked the hair, but what are this rags that you are using it? Why there are holes in your clothes?”
Ava then remembered the divinium shards int her body, but where she touched her stomach there was nothing. She was completely healed.
“What? I was pierced with divinium, that’s why Beatrice and Lilith put me through the arc, for me to be healed by Reya.”
“The Realm took care of it, apparently.”
“The Realm?” Ava asked.
“Yes” Answered her mother. “The Realm recognized you through the Halo. Now, how about we get inside for you to take a bath and eat something? Reya wants to talk to you. But she can wait for you to rest.”
“Your mother is right, lets go. We have so much to talk about and prepare for.”
Ava was lost, so many things happening at once. But as soon as she touch the ground inside the city, everything became clearer. She is the Warrior Nun, she has a war to fight and for that she needs to go back to Earth, to go back to Beatrice, her sisters and the OCS.