by Holly Hook
It was everything she'd feared.
Paul seemed to sense it. He hugged her tighter. "Leslie! Keep your eyes open. We're leaving." He directed his shout at the rest of the room. "Come on!" She'd never heard him shout so loud.
The calico carpet seemed to tilt around her feet as he knees started to give out.
Walk, Leslie. Another step. Her pep talk did nothing. Her legs had turned to lead. She couldn't fathom making it to the front door, let alone the car. An invisible anvil rested on top of her.
Her knees fell out from under her. The floor rose. Leslie stopped herself from falling all the way with her hands, but even that didn't last long.
Her arms gave out too, and she fell to the soft, welcoming carpet.
"Leslie! No!"
Paul's shoes appeared in her vision as he knelt down beside her. Janelle joined him. The sounds of struggle sounded a universe away. Gary and Mel must be trying to fight Thomas Curt. Something thumped. Broke.
Something in Leslie's head started to roar. As if in terror, her heart raced faster than she had ever felt it before.
And Paul brought his face close to hers, his reddening eyes wide with horror.
"Leslie. You can do it. Don't give in."
He pressed his lips to hers, and the storm inside her silenced.
She wrapped her arms around him as he chased away the horrible heaviness inside her. Leslie might float to the ceiling. It was working. The monster inside her could be tamed--
The roar came rushing back along with her racing heartbeat.
--for a few seconds, and that was all.
Paul's kiss could only keep it away a short time. She held on tighter, but electric pulses raced through her limbs that had nothing to do with him.
Leslie's arms flopped back down and she closed her eyes, leaving all the heaviness and the roaring and the tingling behind.
But she could see Paul and Janelle now from above. And herself, unconscious in their arms as she raced towards the ceiling. Paul hugged her closer, back heaving up and down, and right before the roof of her house obscured her view, she realized he was crying.
She was slipping, slipping away from the world that she knew and into another one she had only had nightmares about until now.
Chapter Nineteen
Sophia tried to blink away the gray taking up her vision, but then she realized. Hyrokkin was taking back over at last. It couldn't come fast enough. Andrina was tapping closer, the air so electric that it was making Sophia's hair stand on end. The stench of ozone filled the air.
We need to work together. Let me take over.
Sophia had never been so happy to hear that voice or feel that internal blizzard. It was her only chance of making it out of here alive.
She gave her silent consent as she stood.
A faint rumble met her ears as the cold finished its spread through her body. The storm outside was gearing up for something, and it couldn't be anything good.
Andrina stopped a few feet away as the factory door banged wide open again.
The storm blew in, and with it a blinding flash of light.
Sophia felt her teeth bang shut. Her eyes went with it as a flash of bluish-yellow slapped her in the face. The ground disappeared from her feet. Heat raced over her skin, but it flowed around her, barely enough to make her feel warm. The ice inside acted as a protective shell, keeping the brunt of it away.
Once again she landed, but upright this time. Hyrokkin was fully back in control, letting her stay for the ride.
Sophia almost wished she hadn't as she opened her eyes.
Andrina stood in the middle of the floor, staring at her in disbelief. Sophia wasn't sure why. What had even hit them?
Behind the goddess, the factory door sported a black burn mark. Rain beat against it, rolling down the front of the door and forming a large puddle there.
Lightning.
She had been struck by lightning survived without a scratch.
Not only that, but she didn't even feel stunned. Even the warmth from the strike was gone. Hyrokkin's presence had formed some kind of shield around her. The demon had once again saved her life.
"You must have a weakness. Tell me who you are," Andrina said, the stunned look vanishing. "I want to know who I'm destroying today."
Hyrokkin didn't answer, but the frigid demon stayed. It was wise. And Sophia wasn't going to answer for her.
"Fine. Keep your silence. I don't think you can keep that up forever. Not while trapped in a human form, anyway. Your power can't be pure enough. You have to tire out eventually."
Sophia could sense the Other trembling. There was probably truth in Andrina's words. Hyrokkin had tired out a few times before. It was due to happen again. Without her presence fully awake inside her, Andrina could kill her in an instant. That she knew. When the shield went down, the shark would come in for the kill and enjoy every second of it. Both she and the demon were doomed.
We have to escape, Sophia thought.
You're right. Was there an apology in the demon's voice?
Even if there wasn't, it was the first time they'd ever agreed on anything.
Hryokkin stayed in control, turning Sophia's head to search for an exit. The storm continued to rush through the door, a raging wall of water that almost threatened to flood the old factory. Maybe Andrina could flood the place.
Andrina remained still, watching. She nodded.
Another gust of wind came in through the door as something struck the factory window, making the glass shake for a second. It blasted against Sophia, pushing her back and soaking her clothes. She staggered to keep her balance.
Watch this, Hyrokkin said.
The wind stopped and Sophia staggered, regaining her footing.
The water droplets turned to ice in midair, floating and shining for a second before reversing and flying back at Andrina. Sophia joined in on willing them away, towards the goddess that blocked their exit.
Andrina screamed, raising her hands in front of her face as the cloud of ice battered her. The puddle on the floor stopped rippling and went solid, along with the water running down the door and coming in through the entrance. Everything in front of her turned silver and white. It looked as if the new ice age had already begun for a second.
It didn't last. The storm went back to liquid, blasting in through the door and casting its healing rain around the storm goddess.
Hyrokkin was once again running out of steam. Warmth crept back into Sophia as she weakened.
Andrina seemed to know it, too. A smile split her face as the curtain of rain parted away from her, leaving her dry and untouched. The last of the ice pellets melted around her feet as she started to advance again.
Hyrokkin, Sophia thought as she backed away.
The demon had never sounded so scared. Run. At least until I can strike again.
She did.
Sophia bolted across the factory, away from the door where another bolt of lightning might come through and strike her. With Hyrokkin not shielding her, she wouldn’t be able to take it. Blood pumped through every inch of her as she kept the middle ground, keeping as much distance as she could between her and the fragile-looking factory windows.
There was a set of double doors on the other side of the room. She had to go for them.
Andrina said something, and the pounding on the roof grew louder. Hail, possibly. She'd have to take that risk. By time she got outside, Hyrokkin might be back online. She could freeze the rain or something.
But the double doors opened by themselves. As if it was a mouth screaming, the storm rushed through the opening.
Sophia's clothes flapped against her as she slowed, struggling against the wind. It growled past her and into her, shoving her back into the factory-turned-arena.
Help, she pleaded.
A trickle of winter raced through her, but it wasn't enough.
Her legs fell out from under her as her limbs surrendered to the wind and allowed her to go flying back.
> This time, she could feel the impact of landing. The shock. The pain, dimming her vision and radiating through the back of her leg. Something might have even broken.
"Stand," Andrina ordered, appearing in her vision. From her angle, she looked upside down, and the ceiling above her tilted back and forth. "I at least want this to be a semi-fair fight."
The storm goddess was toying with her.
For now, at least. She would eventually come in for the kill, swift and fast as any predator. The grayish-blue in her eyes spun with hatred and her fists clenched with restraint. It was as if she was waiting for something. For Hyrokkin to weaken more, maybe?
Sophia dared to close her eyes. The tilting stopped. The pain started to abate, enough for her to bend her leg. Still no killing blow came. Andrina was waiting, then.
We need to conserve your power, she thought to the abyss behind her eyes. Just enough to keep us alive. That's all.
Agreed.
Sophia knew one thing. If she made it out of this, something was going to be different between her and the winter demon.
"Get up," Andrina ordered again, nudging her with her pointed high heel.
But she had to hold on first. Until the storm ended, at least. It couldn't take too much longer. Or could it?
"Sophia!"
The voice jarred her eyelids open. It wasn't Andrina shouting at her. It was another voice, one she hadn't heard since leaving the campsite that day.
Kenna's.
Andrina turned to face her as Sophia scrambled to her feet. Kenna rushed in through the front door, casting a yellow rain slicker aside. Behind her ran Callie, pink highlights sticking to her head. They hung near the door as the storm battered them from behind.
They had seen her at the airport after all and followed her here. Callie had followed her here. Why? Did she still hold out hope that they could still be friends?
Get back, Hyrokkin ordered, a bit stronger now.
Sophia obeyed. If Kenna got too close, it would chase her away, leaving her completely open and powerless.
The volcano goddess gave her a glance, nodded, and trained her glare on Andrina. She'd come unarmed. Unprepared.
And Andrina seemed to know it.
She turned to meet her new adversary as a fresh roll of thunder rolled over the building. "What are you doing here? Do you honestly care about this girl who wants to help me end the world?"
Sophia tried to shout that it was all a lie. Kenna and Callie and all the others must still think that. They had probably come to kill her before Hyrokkin could be released. At the very least they were here to recapture her.
But Kenna's brows lowered in suspicion. Her gaze traveled to the broken shelves on the side of the room and the scorch mark on the front doors as Callie moved away from them. Her friend should run. Andrina could release her right now if she wanted. But the goddess wasn't even looking at her. Her gaze was trained on Kenna.
"You don't care about anybody," Kenna said, managing a step closer. Something dark and ancient crept over her face. If Sophia squinted, she could make out the fire in her eyes, burning despite the storm raging around them. This wasn't the Kenna who had been chasing her back at the campsite. This was a Kenna that was letting something deep come to the surface, something she hadn’t seen before.
Behind her, Callie threw a lit match towards a puddle of oil on the floor. "Sophia. Get back!"
It caught fire. The air rippled with heat as the flames sprang to life and bent under the wind coming through the door.
Hyrokkin took over once again, forcing Sophia to pedal back towards the back of the building as the wall of fire lurched forward, following Kenna's stare. Andrina only had time to raise her hands in front of her face before it enveloped her and she began to scream.
* * * * *
The rooftops grew smaller under Leslie as she zipped away. She felt as if a giant hand were yanking her back. It wouldn't let go. The Outbreak had taken its hold. In seconds she would forget her name or even that she was a person.
Her rooftop, her body, and Paul grew farther away. A gray cloud obscured her view. There was no stopping. No resisting.
Paul would be hysterical by now, and she'd soon forget that, too.
The storm wrapped around her on all sides, threatening to absorb her.
Leslie tried to scream, but she no longer could. She was just a ball of consciousness now, blown around by the updrafts around her like a piece of dust. Lightning forked past, ignoring her. Dark clouds closed in tighter and tighter. She could no longer see anything. Her house. Her friends. Janelle--and who else? Someone else had been there with her when she'd collapsed to the floor, hugging her close.
Her life was fading, eaten by the storm, blown away by the wind parting the maelstrom around her.
No. I'm a person.
Not a deadly force of nature.
I'm a person a person I'm a person I'm Leslie…
Hail flew past and then cleared. The rain ended. Clouds parted as she flew through them.
Something was different now.
The clouds hung low, and she could see the ground slowly drifting below. The tan rooftops of houses. A neighborhood arranged in neat rows. The roads looked like lines on a drafting board. The cars, like ants. Curves. Smokestacks. Billboards. Even the expressway floated past, zooming with life.
The storm was open here, unlike the downpour and the sheets of hail. Slowly spinning, like a monster waiting to strike. She was floating up towards it, guided by some deep instinct.
All while so many lives milled around below her.
Even her horror couldn’t make her turn back.
A low growl boxed her in on all sides, growing louder, from everywhere at once.
I'm a person…
Louder.
I'm…
The growl was inside her. The storm was her, and she was the storm…
My name is…
Spinning. Descending.
No name.
* * * * *
The fire roared, enveloping Andrina like the flames around a stunt man. She flailed, the sounds of her shrieks shaking the windows and forcing Sophia to cup her hands over her ears. The sound still invaded, threatening to make her head explode with the pressure. It was the most horrible scene Sophia had ever witnessed besides the airport. This was different. This was an image that would be burned into her memory forever.
The sprinkler system burst to life overhead, amazingly still powered after years of neglect.
Water washed over Sophia, but it was nothing compared to what she'd felt from the storm outside. The flames petered out and started to die around Andrina, hissing and spitting as they did so.
Now it was Kenna's turn to scream and scramble for her rain slicker. She vanished under it as the factory filled with steam. Smoke filled the air to be beaten down by the spray overhead.
Hyrokkin raised Sophia's head as if it was a puppet on a string. Her strength was back, but Sophia didn't argue this time. Not now, when her life--both of their lives--hung in the balance. This could be the last chance.
This time she welcomed the ice. Embraced it, even.
She felt the cold go forth, free to move in the open air of the factory, free to avoid Callie over by the door.
The spray from the sprinklers solidified in midair, forming streamers of ice and coating the inside of the building. The floor glimmered. The air shone with flakes and pellets, all swirling around Andrina and forming a tighter and tighter noose around the storm goddess. She shouted something from inside the miniature blizzard as it drew closer, but the silvery vortex refused to loosen its hold.
The blizzard fell away, and Sophia stood in shock at what she saw.
Andrina stood there, encased in ice.
Literally.
She was now a statue frozen in time. At least an inch of ice coated every inch of her, forming a shiny layer Sophia had only imagined in cartoons. Though thick, it was not enough to hide the colors in her eyes as they continued to swirl l
ike the listless water of a dying whirlpool. Her face was all too clear as she clawed at the air around her, still.
The storm goddess was smiling. It wasn't a nice smile, either. It was a grin that told Sophia that she knew something that the rest of them couldn't even guess at.
Behind her, Callie dropped her book of matches and Kenna sluggishly hugged the rain slicker over herself as the sprinklers continued to unleash their deluge down on them all. Kenna remained still, breathing heavily, recovering from the water's paralyzing effects. Her gaze went down to someplace under the floor. The fire attack had backfired on her, and Sophia could feel her wounded pride from here.
She waited for one of them to say something. The hesitancy from the winter demon told her that she was waiting, too. Waiting on word.
It didn't come. Callie stared at her and back to Andrina. She took a step back as if afraid to come closer.
"It's…it's okay," Sophia managed at last. "This wasn't what anyone thought. She didn't want Hyrokkin to help her end the world after all."
And then the demon sprang forward again, seizing her tongue and taking control. "She wanted to kill us. Both of us."
Shock came over Callie's features, but it vanished a second later. Sophia knew why, and she also knew it was best not to state what she'd learned about Janelle in front of either of them. Not now, anyway.
As if in agreement, Andrina continued to smile behind her icy prison.
"We need to leave," Callie said. "She might break out at any second. Kenna, you might want to stay close to Sophia. You two should together in the car. I'll drive. I have a learner's permit."
Callie still might be her friend after all. Kenna, she wasn't sure about, but she couldn't blow this now.
Please behave, Sophia thought to Hyrokkin.
Fine. I will. Though that was the most fun I've had in about five hundred years. There was a grudging satisfaction in the demon's thoughts. Exhaustion, too. There would be no more mini blizzards or mass freezing for a while. That meant that Callie was right. They needed to get out of here, because Hyrokkin's protection would be gone again with her this weak.
Plus, the rain had stopped outside. Kenna had to get under the roof of a car again before it started back up.