by Lola StVil
Then the net tightens, and I can’t breathe.
I thrash around inside the net. It seems to be getting tighter and tighter, and the more I try to wiggle loose, the tighter the hold it gets on me. I am panicking, like really panicking. My breath, what little of it I can suck in, comes in tiny, terrified pants. I can see the short plumes of steam in front of me as I try desperately to breathe normally.
My stomach rolls, and there’s a voice inside my head that whispers to me, telling me I’m going to die here. It does nothing to calm me. I don’t want to die. I can’t die. The fate of the whole world rests on me.
A voice breaks through my panic just enough to pull me out of my head and back to reality. Although I don’t stop struggling, I focus on the voice.
“Guys, listen up. You have to stop struggling. I know it’s hard, but just relax, and you will be freed. This net stuff is made from Manolo vines. Remember when they got Quinn? All she had to do was relax, and she was free. The harder you struggle, the tighter their grip will get on you,” Regal says.
I hear him, but it’s like he’s speaking a different language. I keep struggling. I can feel the strands of the icy net—Manolo vines did he say?—cutting into my skin.
I peer down at the ground as I hear noises coming from down there. Everyone else is free. They stand on the ground looking up at me.
The restraints and the eyes watching me bring it all flooding back and I’m back in the Meat Market, tied to the chair, with men watching me. They’re stepping closer, and I know I won’t be so lucky this time. This time, they’ll rape me, all of them taking it in turns to use me.
I scream and pull my arms and legs forward as hard as I can, desperate to escape the restraints that hold me.
“Atlas? Atlas?”
A voice is shouting at me, but it barely registers in my mind.
“Disney, listen to me,” the voice shouts.
That’s strange. Only Kane ever called me Disney. It was when we first met, and I was still naïve enough to see the good in the world. He hardly calls me that anymore. I guess I no longer see the world through a haze of good intentions and happy thoughts.
Still, something in the word pulls me back to myself, and I’m once more suspended over the ground of the Valley of the Damned. The change of location does nothing to the icy net though. It still holds me in place, and I can see blood welling up on my lower arms as the net gets tight enough to cut into me.
“Disney, listen to me,” Kane says again. “I need you to do exactly as I say. I need you to take a deep breath and calm down.”
I want to scream at him that I can’t take a deep breath, that I can barely breathe at all, but I don’t. I try to do as he says and I realize that actually, I can breathe. I use the elation that it brings me, and the newfound energy that comes with it, to up my struggle. Now I’ll be able to get free.
“I need you to stop struggling, Atlas,” Kane says, his voice the sound of calm and reason. “That’s how we all got free. Once you relax, the net will break, and you’ll be free.”
“You’re lying,” I say.
I don’t know why I would think he was lying, but the panic still has me in its grip. I might not be able to feel the temperature here, but I can definitely feel the icy fingers of fear that caress the back of my neck like a scorned lover trying to wheedle his way back in.
“I’m not lying, Atlas; I swear this will work. I need you to trust me. I love you, and I’m right here. I won’t let anything happen to you,” he says.
My mind flashes back to the Meat Market, to being bound to the chair. It flashes forward, and I’m lying in a pool of urine, pained and broken. The feeling of utter desolation that I felt at that moment washes over me, followed by the spark of anger I felt inside of me as I lay on that stony ground.
I need to get the anger out. It’s too much to keep it in. It will destroy me.
“Something already did happen to me, Kane, and you weren’t there to stop it, were you? I was so scared, and I was all alone. You left me all alone,” I scream at him.
I instantly regret my words. I’m not angry at him—none of what happened to me was his fault, and he came for me as soon as he knew where to find me. After risking his life to find out where I was. The anger just burst out of me, and I lashed out.
I see the look of utter devastation on Kane’s face, and I know I’ve hurt him more than anyone in the Meat Market ever could.
“Kane, please forgive me. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean that. I was just angry, but not at you. I know you did everything you could to get me out of there.”
I try to take my words back, to make that look leave his face, but it’s too late. I’ve said it now, and I can never take it back.
Suddenly I’m falling. Concentrating on Kane made me forget my plight, and I’m free. I land in Kane’s arms as he catches me and breaks my fall. Even after what I said to him, he won’t let me fall. He sets me down gently on my feet.
“Kane, please,” I say, reaching out and touching his arm. “I’m so sorry. I—”
“It’s fine,” he says with a shrug. “You’re free, and that’s all that matters.”
I need to make him understand that I didn’t mean it, that I don’t even know why I said it. It was just panic that made me blurt it out to get the anger out of me.
“Kane,” I say again.
“Really, Atlas, it’s fine,” he says.
His eyes tell me a different story. I can see the hurt in them, and I don’t know what to say, what to do, to make it right again.
“Guys? I think we have bigger problems than your lovers’ tiff,” Perry says.
I turn around and find myself looking at the hideous form of the Winter Demon.
The Winter Demon is every bit as hideous as I feared he would be. He stands upright on two almost human looking legs. His body widens out as it goes up, and at his shoulders, he’s so muscle-bound I can hardly work out where one muscle ends and the next one starts.
His whole body is covered in thick white fur that should lend him a cuddly appearance, but it doesn’t. Instead, it makes my eyes hurt to look at him. Dotted amongst the white fur tufts are lots of sharp silver spikes.
In several places on his body are small red patches. His arms end in two big, horrible claws that shine silver as though he has metal hooks for hands. He stands tall, tall enough that I have to put my head back to see to the top of him.
But none of that is the worst part. No, the worst part is his face. His head sits squarely on top of his thick, sturdy neck. I was prepared for him having no eyes; Pest warned us about that. But I’m not prepared for what I see. Not only does the Winter Demon not have any eyes, but he also doesn’t have any facial features at all.
His blank face is the only part of him not covered in the thick white fur. Where his face should be is a perfect circle of pink, puckered skin. The skin undulates repulsively as though thousands of maggots crawl just beneath its surface. Somehow, even without knowing where his eyes are, I feel as though he is watching me.
I feel my insides turn cold as he steps towards us. He’s in no hurry, which is lucky because I as sure as hell need a couple of minutes to prepare myself for this. I can’t tear my eyes away from the hideous thing that is his face, and as I watch, the puckered skin ripples at the bottom. With a shudder, I realize he’s smiling.
Without warning, all of the red patches on him suddenly glow up brighter, and red energy balls fly from each one. They fly off him in every direction.
“Get down,” Kane yells, pushing me to the ground and throwing himself beside me.
The others follow his lead, and the lasers fly harmlessly over our heads. The lasers cut into the snow in a circle around the Winter Demon. Where each one lands, a patch of snow fizzles out in a hiss, and the land beneath the snow takes on a charred appearance. I’m glad that didn’t hit any of us.
“Guys, we need to take out those red patches, and then we’ll only have the hooks to deal with, and we can get close e
nough to give him the mixture,” I say.
I’m getting to my feet as I say it and I run to the left, firing at the Winter Demon as I run. Regal runs to the right doing the same. I hit one of the red patches, and I watch, fascinated, as the creature oozes out a thick, sludgy substance that I assume is its blood. It’s the yellow color of pus.
If the Winter Demon is hurt by this, it makes no indication of it. It fires out another round of lasers, and I duck, narrowly avoiding the laser, which slams into the ground behind me.
Langston is at my side as I try to make my way around the edge of the demon and get behind him to start on the lasers there too. She throws up a shield, but in seconds, it has frozen solid, and it falls to the ground in shards of yellow ice. We’re on our own with this one with no protection.
The lasers are coming thicker and faster, and Langston looks at me in wide-eyed horror as we duck and jump and dive to the side to avoid being hit.
“And now we dance,” Perry shouts from the other side of the creature, where he and Kane are firing into its red patches.
Saudia is directly in front of the Winter Demon, and I know what she’s doing. She’s trying to keep its attention focused on her so we can do the most damage as quickly as we can.
I’ve now taken out five of the red patches, and Langston has taken out seven. The ones on our side are almost gone and avoiding the lasers is easier now.
A high-pitched noise fills the air. It’s like the sound of nails on a chalkboard, and I subconsciously put my hands up to cover my ears. The sound intensifies in its pitch, and I feel the warm rush of blood trickling from my left ear and intense pain as my eardrum bursts. The noise stops as quickly as it started, and I drop my hands limply back to my sides.
The Winter Demon flexes. His whole body squeezes in on itself and then expands to twice the width it was before. It sucks itself back down to its normal size, and as it does, hundreds of fur balls drop from it. Each fur ball bursts to life, running towards us on four short legs.
They too are pure white, and I can hear them squeaking to each other. They are no bigger than kittens, and I don’t think they’ll be a problem for us. I fire at one of them, and it explodes in a ball of fur and blood.
I am wrong about them not being a problem. They dart towards us, zigging and zagging to avoid our fire, and when they get closer, they fire as one, banding into little groups, with each of them targeting one of us. Twenty icicles fly towards me at once. I leap to the left, and they miss me as I drop to the ground and roll.
I spring back to my feet as the icicles that were meant for me reach the cliff walls of the valley. They penetrate the rock and stand out like soldiers standing at attention. I swallow hard. If those things are sharp enough and come with enough power to penetrate rock, then I was wrong about the little creatures not posing a problem.
The Winter Demon is still firing its energy at us, and it becomes a dance alright. Between avoiding the blasts and the icicles, I barely manage to fire any shots of retaliation and I know everyone is in the same boat.
I jump and dodge and fire, and I begin to settle into a rhythm. Fur balls are exploding around me, and the red patches on the Winter Demon are almost gone now.
I step closer and fire at a fur ball. My shot misses, and it releases another round of icicles. I throw myself to the ground, and the icicles sail over me. I fire at the fur ball as I come to land, and this time, my shot lands and it explodes. I am too close, and its blood splatters over me. Where it touches, I feel an intense cold biting into me.
I look down at myself, and I see small patches of ice clinging to me where the blood touched. The cold is spreading through me. Sadie’s mixture only works against nature’s temperature, not these things, and I can feel myself starting to shiver violently. I reach down and flick off one of the pieces of ice, and I am rewarded with a warm rush where it leaves me.
I stay down, flicking the rest of them off me. I still fire into the fur balls, but I’m careful not to take down any that are too close. Langston finishes off the last red patch on our side and begins working on the fur balls.
I glance over to the other side of the Winter Demon. Kane has his sword in his hand, and he dances in close to the Winter Demon and then back out again, jabbing at the red patches. The Winter Demon has turned to face him, and it steps closer to him, slashing out with its hooks. Kane jumps back in time to avoid being decapitated, but one of the hooks scrapes across his chest, bringing a thick welt of blood through his shirt.
He roars, I’m not sure whether in pain or anger or both, and brings his sword up over his head in both hands. He brings it down through the air in a graceful arc and slams it through one of the Winter Demon’s wrists. The claw drops to the ground, twitches twice, and stays still.
An almighty scream pulls my attention to Saudia as I pick off the last ice chunk and get back to my feet. I fire into the fur balls automatically, but my eyes are on Saudia.
She has fallen to the ground, impaled by at least thirty icicles. They have gone at least four inches into her body everywhere they’ve hit, and blood is pouring from her, turning the snow around her to red slush. The most disturbing one is implanted in her right eye, and I retch as I watch her drag her icicle-covered arms up and attempt to pull it out.
Regal and Perry are already running to her, and I force myself to look away. I need to concentrate on taking out the rest of the fur balls. Kane and Langston are firing at them too, and all of the red patches on the Winter Demon are gone now.
A stray icicle catches me in the thigh, and I feel intense pain where it slams into me. It’s like being punched by something wickedly sharp and so cold it shivers your very core. I feel my flesh spreading open as it penetrates me. I imagine for a second how Saudia must feel, having so many places hit at once.
I drag the icicle back out and try to ignore the wash of blood that courses down my leg. I take out the offending fur ball, and I give a triumphant yell as I watch Langston take down the last one.
Now we just have to get the mixture into the Winter Demon.
“Fuck,” I say.
“What is it?” Kane asks as he joins Langston and me after going around the back of the Winter Demon and taking out a red patch we missed.
“The thing doesn’t have a mouth. How do we get it to drink the mixture?”
“Sadie said it has to go into its blood. We have to get it on the stump of its hand,” Langston says.
I shrug. It’s the best plan we have. It’s the only plan we have.
The ear-splitting noise comes again, and I look on in horror as the Winter Demon begins to shrink in on itself again. It’s going to put out another wave of fur balls. We have to stop it from doing that at all costs. Saudia is still down, and Regal and Perry are working on her, Perry dragging the icicles out and Regal healing each gaping wound as he goes. That leaves only three of us to fight the demon and the fur balls, and we won’t stand a chance.
I raise both palms and fire into the Winter Demon. The screeching noise cuts off instantly, and the thing stops undulating. It turns to me, its featureless face watching me somehow. I raise my palm and aim for its face.
“Atlas, if you kill it…” Langston starts, but she’s too late.
I fire. My shot hits where the demon’s mouth should be, and the skin there splits opens. Another rush of the yellow pus cascades down it, staining its white fur yellow. I’m not sure what happens next.
The spikes on the Winter Demon begin to hum, and a blue substance floats out of them. The substance covers its whole body, and within half a second, the entire demon is covered by a blue film that crackles and flashes, and I’m being thrown through the air. I manage to look to my side as I fly and I see Kane and Langston flying through the air too. The Winter Demon has attacked us with some sort of force field, sending us sprawling through the air at an alarming rate.
I slam down hard onto the ground but the snow cushions my fall, and although the wind leaves me in a painful rush, I don’t think anyth
ing is broken.
I get back to my feet. I can hear Saudia screaming in fresh agony, and I see her lying on the ground facedown. The force of her being slammed down has pushed the icicles into her body even further, and the blood that pours from her now isn’t the red blood of life, it’s the blackish arterial blood of death. Regal is dragging himself towards her, and I see his leg bent at an angle no sane leg should be at. His face is scrunched up from pain, and I can see the beads of sweat standing out on his face even from here.
He reaches Saudia and pulls out a vial of the Gelliom. It’s a good call. Knowing Saudia will be okay, I scan the landscape for the others. Kane is already back on his feet, and he is helping Langston back up. Perry is on his feet too, and he’s running at the Winter Demon.
He fires a red web at the thing, and the blue film around it crackles again. Perry is launched into the air before his red web reaches the Winter Demon.
The demon begins to undulate again, and I know this is our last chance. I pull the vial of orange liquid out, and I run towards the demon as it expands and contracts, expands and contracts.
As I run, the whole world seems to slow down around me. I can see Saudia back on her feet now. Beside her, Regal rubs a mixture onto his twisted leg. Langston and Kane are both firing past me and into the demon. Perry is back up and running back toward us.
I turn my focus to the demon and only the demon. It completes one final undulation, and a hundred or more fur balls fly from it, landing in the snow all around us. It sees me coming and steps towards me, swiping out at me with its one remaining claw. I feel intense pain as it cuts across my stomach and I feel a warm, slithery motion on the front of my body.
I don’t look down, but I’m almost certain my intestines are spilling out of me. I ignore the pain, ignore the warmth, and ignore everything but the demon. I am almost close enough now, and I uncap the vial.
I pull my hand back, lining up my aim. I am only going to get one go at this, and if I mess it up, it is game over. I flick the vial and a stream of orange liquid cuts through the air. It’s right on target to hit the bloody stump on the demon’s arm.