by Lindsay Nall
Inside the barn bits of wood and hay were strewn everywhere from Mari’s crash, Nyght found her kneeling in the corner shaking her head. Kneeling next to her he took her face in his hands and shook her until she focused on him.
“Uncle was right…he was right…” It took a minute for Nyght to figure out what she was referring to but when he did he shook her harder.
“You said you’d break that promise. You said if you found her you would kill her, you would release her soul with your own two hands.” She didn’t move, didn’t try to deny what she had said.
“This is different…”
“How!?” She flung his arms off of her and shook her head. “You’re a Shadow! We don’t run away; this is what we do! She’s not your mother anymore.” Still, she said nothing just shook her head and he swore when the demon burst through the wall of the barn, he covered her protecting them both from the spray of debris. Standing he took a defensive pose in front of her ready to defend her until she could come to terms with what was going on.
‘What if she doesn’t? Will you die for her?’ Nyght shook his head ignoring his inner demon and attacked the one in front of him.
Mari felt lost in a world of black water, a cooling rippling sensation that caused her skin to go cold, her lungs to burn and the only warmth in her body her thoughts. She let the numbness of her limbs take over her thoughts before a blast from the demon hit directly in front of her sending her flying into the wall and sliding down it into a crumpled heap on the floor.
“Marisol?!” His voice was like an echo, a memory played by a mind that didn’t want to accept what was going on. An echo… a memory… something she had been told before, something someone had told her that had stuck with her…but what was it? The memory of the words she was looking for seemed to escape the corners of her memory like shadow chased by light, what were those words?
A scream of pain broke through Mari’s thoughts as Nyght was injured, hurt because of her, because he was protecting her. The memory came to her then, the words her Uncle had told her years ago.
“Being a Shadow, a warrior of God isn’t about fighting or even protecting the world, it’s a born trait, a need to protect those we love.”
“Is that why you do it? To protect me?”
“Till my last breath.”
The memory faded as fast as it came leaving the resounding echo of those last words in her mind. “Till my last breath.”
Nyght yelled once more as he was thrown backwards through the barn but a soft wind seemed to catch him in its embrace and carry him gently to the ground to land on his feet in front of Mari. She smiled at the look of shock on his face as she placed her hand on one cheek and then kissed the other.
“I love you, now go.” Nyght blinked twice, her face held so much determination but her eyes were the softest he had ever seen them. He nodded stepping around her so they were back to back.
“Be careful.” Her shoulder twitched in response but she did not look back to make sure he left, he would do as she asked because he trusted her and now she needed to trust herself. Steam rose from the ground where the demons drool dripped, an acidic combination of saliva and poison dripping from every breath.
“You would make an excellent new puppet.” Puppet? Mari had never heard of demons calling anything puppets and wondered just how evolved this demon had become in its time. She shook her head not wanting to think about how many people this demon, who was once her mother, had murdered. Static flared around her fingertips flashing from tip to tip in an intricate dance as she drew the power to her. She focused on the memories of her mother, her father who had died at her hands, the memories the three of them had shared and drew it into her using it as her source of power and unleashed her attack. Ropes of lightning surrounded the demon, its arms, legs, and torso bound by them growling and snapping as it tried to break free. Mari rushed the demon pulling speed from the wind and power from her heart but as soon as she was within reach of the demon it broke free of her hold and backhanded her in the stomach sending her through the remaining barn wall and into a grassy field out back. “Such a wild little puppet.”
She groaned as she tried to reclaim her bearings struggling to her knees and forcing air back into her lungs. She managed to stand as the demon came to a stop a few feet away from her. “Let us see how you like this act.” Strings shot from the ground; black, sharp and fast. They pierced Mari’s body suspending her in a web of pain. She lost all control of her body as soon as the strings pierced her flesh, as long as the demon had her strung up she couldn’t move. Black smoke billowed from cracks in the earth surrounding the two before dissolving into a large sphere protecting the two from outside interference including light. Mari couldn’t see anything and wondered if it was really dark or if the demon was forcing her mind to play tricks. Looking around she realized the strings that had held her up before were gone but still she had no control of her body, it moved on its own the only thing accompanying her in the darkness a small light that shone above her.
In the distance from what little shadow the light created a form began to take shape making its way closer to her, a man poised and ready to strike.
“Reagan?” He said nothing only lunged at her. She wanted to run, wanted to get away but her body fought him, attacked him, defended itself from him and eventually destroyed him. Her legs carried her off into the darkness past the body of her teammate and friend and into the vastness of pure black.
Everyone in the field regrouped when the last lower level demon was destroyed. Bodies littered the ground slowly dissolving in puddles of black oil and smoke as they decayed in the field. The hierarchy demon that had accompanied and called forth the one that held Mari’s mothers’ soul had run during the battle escaping into one of the tears and sealing it shut so they couldn’t follow it or summon it. The few demons that had valued coming back to fight another day had followed suit sealing the tears behind them until none remained.
“Everyone else sees that right?” Vander asked pointing at the large black tinged semi-sphere in the distance.
Marinique stepped to the front of the group heading for the object, the others behind him. “This can’t be good.” He muttered.
They could barely see inside the sphere to make out what was going on, the demons outline was hard to see but the outline of Mari’s suspended body was clear. She seemed to be floating, crucified in mid-air, her eyes closed but her face twisted in pain. They tried everything to try and break it, to free her but none of their attacks or abilities, even combined, did so much as scratch it.
“Marisol…” Nyght growled under his breath angry at himself for leaving her earlier; for letting her get caught up in this situation.
“This is not good.” Dantis whispered coming to stand next to the others with large lacerations on his shoulder from what appeared to be a demon bite.
“What’s going on in there?” Nyght demanded his eyes widened when three lacerations appeared across Mari’s abdomen though nothing had touched her.
“I can’t say for certain but this,” He tapped on the sphere. “it can only be destroyed from the inside.”
“We will break it down.” Marinique whispered. Though Dantis tried to tell them all it was an impossible feat they ignored him.
In the blackness, Mari screamed with the pain of Vander’s attack. Wanting nothing more than to let him kill her, let him end her suffering but her body wouldn’t have it. She attacked until just as Reagan and Tadum before him Vander fell to the ground with no breath. Mari tried to piece things together to try and understand what was going on. She knew this wasn’t real. She knew the demon was feeding off of something but what? It was then she thought of the strings that had pierced her body before this nightmare. Strings that were in her body, in her mind, accessing her memories? She chose to try something, something that could work but at the same time couldn’t. She had to risk it. Had to try it or the pain of killing everyone she loved would kill her mind.
“Mari
!?” Nyght yelled slamming his fists into the side of the sphere. It reverberated but just as before it did not bend or even crack as he had wished. “Damn…”
“I believe it has her mind somewhere else.” Dantis whispered watching the girl suspended in mid-air, surprised when the others stopped their attacks to listen to what he said.
“What are you talking about?”
“The wounds on her body. Look closely at them.” The five men looked at the wounds on Mari’s body their eyes traveling back and forth from each wound to each other and back. “Vander’s weapon, Reagan’s weapon…”
“Somehow it’s making her fight us?” Vander whispered looking to his hands where he still clenched his morning star.
“If the tears on her face are anything to go by, yes.” Everyone looked to her face in silence unsure what they could do to help her.
“Memories…good memories…” Mari focused as hard as she could on every good memory from her childhood until now; about her parents, her uncle, Bart, Tadum, about Vander and Nyght and Reagan. She pulled every bit of happiness they had given her into her mind, every smile, every laugh, every look, she fed it into the darkness until the single light above her began to expand.
“Nyght… it’s cracking.” Vander whispered watching as slowly cracks began to spread from the top of the dome down and throughout it. “Is she smiling?”
“Stand back!” Dantis yelled. Once everyone was clear Nyght drew back focusing all of his energy into his arrow. In a shower of silver sparks that quickly disappeared the orb shattered, the strings that had been holding Mari up snapped and she fell to the ground. Slowly she stirred as if coming out of a daze and pulled herself to her feet listing heavily to one side as she clutched the lacerations on her abdomen.
“How could you break my spell?” Mari grinned slowly raising her gaze with her eye turned on to glare at the demon.
“Until my last breath.” She whispered and sensing the others nearby called out to them. “Nyght! Black fire!” Nyght looked from her wounds to her face and back unsure of how much more stress her body could take but he knew she wouldn’t give up until this demon was destroyed. Nodding he invoked the words to conjure his attack aligning it with her outreached hand as she ran for the demon. As every time before she pulled the fire into her hands shaping it to her liking as she ran towards the demon combining her own power with Nyght’s fire and attacking with it. The demon teetered but did not fall, the blow simply knocking it off balance letting it regroup quickly and grab Mari by the neck. What was left of the black fire dissipated in her hands as she grabbed the demons forearm to try and gain some leverage. She could see her mothers’ soul consumed by the agony of being coupled with the demon writhing with the torment, Mari thought fiercely of what she could do. How to break the demons hold on her, how to separate the demon from the soul without destroying both of them; the thought came to her slowly like remembering a dream after waking. A muzzy wispy thought that formed slowly but when solid gave her hope and resolve. With a deep breath, she concentrated and attacked.
Nyght came to consciousness slowly squinting into the sun as the green leaves of overhead trees made dancing shadows across his face. He didn’t remember how he had gotten to the middle of the woods at first. Rubbing his eyes he thought back over the day remembering the battle with the demons, slowly events came to him and he shot up straight. A bright flash was his last memory, a flash that had scattered everyone but not Mari. He stood racing through the forest as quickly as he could calling out her name hoping the attack she had used, whatever it had been, hadn’t destroyed her as well as the demon.
‘Idiot.’ He thought racing down a side trail. ‘You better be alright.’ He could hear others calling Mari’s name, an echo to his voice as he raced towards them.
“Vander.” He nodded at his comrade when they met up at the end of the path. “Where’s Rayne and the others?” Vander shook his head in a silent answer. “We have to keep looking.” From the depths of the forest, a sound came to them, the sound of laughter echoing through the forest so greatly that it seemed to be coming from all directions.
“This way.” Vander nodded to the north Nyght following at a run to keep up with him as he twisted around trees, jumped over vines and roots the sound of the laughter growing louder until it stopped in a gurgle dying off to silence.
“Through here.” Nyght pointed to the east when they came to a surrounding of bushes. Breaking through the line of plants first he ran into something solid that grunted when he hit it.
“I was wondering how long it would take you two to show up.” Marinique stepped to the side letting the two men enter the small clearing he was standing in. Nyght opened his mouth to ask where Mari was but a look around the clearing answered the question. “She came to a couple of minutes ago.” Nyght took a step towards her but Marinique stuck out a hand to stop him.
Vander watched the two as they seemed to communicate through facial expressions alone than to where Mari was lying on the ground. The blade Marinique always wore at his ankle was pierced through the chest of the demon, Mari held on to the hilt. Tadum and Reagan stood to Mariniques' opposite side watching the scene in front of them in silence but Dantis was nowhere to be found.
“She grabbed it as soon as she came to, said the demon's laughter was making her head hurt.” The corner of his mouth turned up in a partial smile. Vander looked over the demon realizing it was not the demon that had bound her mothers’ spirit but the ring leader, the one who had started the battle with its hoards.
She must have caught it in the blast but it had left hadn’t it? What had been that blast? Had it brought the demon back? The only way he could even fathom that happening was if she had ripped her mother’s soul from the demon and this hierarchy had come back to claim it. Nyght shook his head at the thought. Mari would never do something so crass as ripping a soul from a demon, it would forever mark the soul as unredeemable sentencing it to a lifetime in purgatory.
“I’ll ask you again, why did he send you after me?” It was a growl. Low, fierce but those who knew her voice could hear the exhaustion and the strain in it.
“Why does the king do anything? Your God took his power.” The demon's voice was raspier than before, the pewter in the blade was working its way into its system killing it slowly.
“You called me the key!”
“You mortals. Your stupidity is applaudable. You bear the marks of the original Fourteen, the best warriors and now you fight against him. You fools will never win…”
“Answer my question!” She cut off the demons’ ramblings. She didn’t want a history lesson, she knew where the Fourteen came from, the history of her and her colleagues.
“You’ve never wondered how you can carry two fractures? How you can be so much more powerful than the Fourteen?”
“I am one of the Fourteen!”
“Stupidity. You were not created by the king.” Mari twisted the blade in the demons’ chest making it let out a deep howl of pain. “You were born of the light, not the darkness. Have you never wondered about your parents?” She narrowed her eyes.
“My parents are dead, they were mortal.” She shook as the demon laughed.
“They lived in Whittiker.” Four of the men stared at the demon, slowly their gazes traveled first to the back of Mari’s head then to each other. No one had known where her parents had lived after Corta, Mari’s mother, had been separated from her family. Marinique bowed his head with a heavy sigh, this truth if let out would be the end to many things for the two of them. “You see the truth now.” The demon was looking to the five men behind her.
“You know so much! If the people I thought to be my parents weren’t then who is my real mother and father!?” Mari twisted the blade again but the demon did not scream or even fight. Its life, what atrocity it had led as a life, was seconds from being extinguished. Mari shook the demon viciously demanding it tell her the names of her parents before it expired, demanding the truth. Its body began to fi
zzle and pop as it dissolved into the earth but she wouldn’t back away. She wanted the answer. As the blackened flesh of the demons face began to slough off its skull black foam burbled from its lips, black foam and a name. Her fathers’ name. The demon let out one last shriek of laughter as its body melted to nothing leaving only a black oily residue on the dirt in its wake.
“Mari what did it say?” She looked from the residue on the ground to her comrades, her gaze settling on each for a moment then moving on until she looked at her uncle, the one who had spoken. The name the demon had whispered squirreled around in her head refusing to settle long enough for her to get a grasp on it.
“Marisol?” Nyght knelt in front of her with a worried gaze. He fought so hard to keep hold of his humanity over his demonic side. Would she have to fight like that now that she knew the truth? Was there a chance she could lose herself to whatever name the demon had spoken? “What did it say?”
“My father’s name.” Blackness ebbed at the edge of her vision forcing her to blink several times to try and clear it but it wouldn’t leave her. She didn’t know she had spoken until Nyght repeated her father’s name in question, it was the last thing she heard. The last thing she saw Nyght’s shocked eyes then she gave in to the blackness letting it consume her.
Epilogue
“Has she spoken yet?” Nyght stood from where he sat in a chair next to Mari’s temporary bedroom door in an unused wing of the headquarters building. Karter’s attempt at keeping prying eyes from bothering her. He had stationed himself there three weeks ago, the day after she had snapped. Stress-induced coma the doctors had said but everyone who had witnessed her conversation with the demon knew better. It wasn’t stress-induced, it was trauma. An inability to handle her entire world falling apart. Her family, her childhood, her uncle, her life was all a lie. None of the group had told anyone what they had discovered from that demons last breath, didn’t even mention anything after Mari’s destruction of the demon that had held her mothers’ soul. In her attempt to save her she had managed to separate her mothers’ soul from the demon but the soul of a demon gets no redemption from God and is sent straight to purgatory. She cried for two days when she realized what she had done. Though a soul in purgatory can be redeemed according to legend there was not one case in history where it had happened. After those two days, she went catatonic. For a week she wouldn’t sleep, eat or talk. Then, while Marinique was sitting at her side she came out of it and attacked him. Using her abilities she threw him from her room and barricaded the door. No one had been inside since.