by RJ Gonzales
Boom!
They was loud banging on the door, as the men were trying to rip it from its hinges. “Where do we go now?” I asked looking down the hotel-hall looking area.
Angela looked to both sides. “That way!” she pointed to the left.
The banging on the door continued. Wood began to chip away and crack, sending a few pieces at me. Angela took my hand and pulled me toward her, “We don’t have much time, now come on!”
We ran down to the end of the hallway and came to a stop. To both sides were continuations of the hall with even more doors—probably leading to more rooms.
“To the right!” Angela said, pulling me with her.
The door behind us burst open. Bane’s thunderous tiger roar echoed down the hallway. Behind him, a different type of growl sounded, almost like a hiss. They were fast. Their footsteps were at the corner in seconds, just as Angela and I burst through a door leading to the main hallway. Guards caught sight of us from the other end and burst into a sprint for us. We ran in the opposite direction.
“Stop!” they yelled.
Angela was practically hovering over the floor. I had to force myself to keep up. The other doors burst open. Bane, Leo and the guards were hot on our tails.
Suddenly, I felt the jolt as Angela ducked us into a small opening in the wall.
“What are we doing?” I asked.
“Ssh!” She shushed.
The group of men chasing us passed by. Unaware of our small hiding spot.
“I think they went through the library!” One of them shouted. Another door busting open sounded. Angela waited a few seconds more to catch her breath. She looked at me. Something was on her mind.
“I need to give you something,” she whispered.
“What?”
She took in a few more breaths before she continued. She looked at her hand, examining it like it was evidence, and clasped her fingers together like a claw, and reached into her abdomen.
“What are you doing!” I said out loud.
“Ssh!” she fished around herself, wincing a few times as she kept digging around. “I need you to take this.” A small neon purple pearl, about the size of a quarter, floated a few inches above her hand in front of me once she’d pulled it out.
“Why?”
“Just please take it. It is a gift.”
“Angela, why?”
She pried my hand open and tucked it in. “I want you to have it. You need to swallow it to gain the power within it whenever you feel the need to.”
“What power is it?”
“I am not too sure. They don’t tell us anymore because some Angels were caught selling theirs in the dark market.”
Angela ducked her head out to make sure it was clear. “Come on.”
I tucked the pearl into the shirt pocket as I followed her.
“There’s the door!” Angela pointed to a large wooden door on the floor below. “This one leads out the back, there shouldn’t be many guards there, so we should be able to sneak past them. Once we get outside, we need to head for the ferry to get you home.”
“What about you?” I asked.
Angela peered out of the small wedge we were in to make sure there were no guards. “Do not worry about me, Rini—It’s clear. Come on!”
We ran down the stairs as fast as we could to the door. I could smell the air outside. The soft smell of dirt and flowers.
“This is it,” Angela said.
She threw her hands around the handle and flung the door open. The orange light spilled in. It was sunset. The King and troops were more than likely heading for the other side. This was our time to escape. Now or never. Angela stepped out first, taking in the sight for a moment. I was next to taste the freedom.
“Get back here!” A voice roared. Large, orange and black striped beastly arms wrapped around my body and lifted me up. “Where the hell do you think you’re going?!” I was face to face with Bane in his mundahlian form. A cross between tiger and man. The foulness of his warm breath, blew across my face as he huffed, out of breath. “Answer me!” he shook me violently. My brain rattled inside my skull.
“Let me go!” I screamed hitting him in the face with my fists.
It didn’t affect him. He roared a mighty roar that vibrated throughout my body, and his grip constricted me.
“Stop!” I yelled.
The next second, he tossed me through the air as though I were a rag doll. My back slammed against a wall and I fell onto the floor. Heavy stomps that shook the earth beneath them came toward me. I couldn’t move, my whole body hurt and the wind had been knocked out of me. Angela ran from outside, and jumped on Bane, trying to break his neck. They wrestled with each other, breaking the railing from the stairs and a few nearby tables and chairs until he got his hands around her head and tossed her at the wall as well. Leo and the guards entered the room then.
“Take the Enthiduan to the kitchen! This chase has left me famished!” Bane ordered. The guards walked over to Angela, who looked like a toy, thrown on the floor across the grand opening. Immobile and small compared to them. She was knocked out.
Responding to their touch, and blinking herself awake, Angela came to her senses. “No!” she shouted. “No! No!” I watched in horror as they dragged her away.
“What about the girl?” Leo asked once returned to his human form. They were both standing over me, nude.
“Don’t worry about her,” Bane noted. A grin spread across his sweaty face. It lifted his cheeks and wrinkled the corners of his eyes. “I’ve got something cooking up.”
Jett
35
Mundahlia hadn’t changed.
In the same conditions as when we left. The small village markets, our abandoned huts on the island—and the castle, sitting atop the hill in the distance, overlooking all of it. A vigilant structure that could oversee things happening in even the farthest corners of our hidden world. We’d managed to just get buy with the little sunlight there was keeping my homeland partially hidden. A fading picture that gradually refocused as the night settled in a little more. It’s not that you couldn’t enter during the day, it’s just that you wouldn’t know where to go. Ships and other crafts venture on to our land all the time. But their fate is usually one that results in death. Free game, remember?
The only thing that had indeed changed, was the population. It seemed smaller, almost evicted. Usually the streets were buzzing with other mundahlians, but today it was almost empty. Only the elderly and young children and women remained, it seemed.
“It’s good to see you guys again,” Louis, a friend of Martin and Nicolas’ said. The same friend who wrote to us to tell us that Zuni had been killed. He agreed to ferry us to and from Mundahlia for this trip. It was noble of him. He didn’t seem to care of the trouble he would get into if they found out what he was doing. He looked tired. As though he’d spend a majority of his life never once even resting his eyes for a moment.
We stepped off the boat and onto the sand.
“I’ll wait for you all here,” Louis said.
The air smelled the same. Like salt from the ocean mixed with cinnamon. I spotted the small diner I used to go to with my mom when I was smaller. A small stone structure, nestled between a bar and a grocery shop. All crafted of the same material. The same old man who owned it greeted us as we passed. He sat in a rocking chair with a blanket over his legs.
“Well, I’ll be!” he said. “What brings ya’ back down yonder? There’s a bounty on yer heads, ya know?”
“A girl.” I said. “And I’ve come to get my mother back too.”
“Well, now, who’s the pretty ‘dahlian that got’s ya man’in up and being all fearless?” His eyes were slightly cross-eyed and he had a large salt-and-pepper beard. He’d aged and become more wrinkled than ever since I’d seen him last when I was just a young pup.
“She’s not a mundahlian. She’s a human.” I spoke loudly so he could hear.
“A human!” he gasped, nearly chok
ing on his saliva. “Well, isn’t that just the craziest thing! There was a little lady that came down here a few days ago, I think? ‘least I think she was a human. Margie threw some fruit at her. I told her not to, but you know my wife. Always havin’ ta’ do what her sister is doin’. Anyway, is that the human you talking of?”
“Yes.”
A look of dolefulness flashed across his aged face. “Then, I’m sorry for your loss, boy. She prolly’ dead now, ‘least I think so. That’s what Margie said. That she was burnt dead. Heard it right from her sister’s friends’s husband’s mouth. Yes, she did! I was there. In the courtroom with the little lady. I whispered to Danny that she was a human. Young fella didn’t even know the diff’ence. But, I fell asleep and by the time I woke up, she was gone. But, yes boy, she prolly dead. Margie said so.”
“I didn’t say such a thing!” An older woman came out from the cafe. She had an apron on, stained with patches of dried dough from bread making. “I said Daniel told me that he wanted burnt bread for the enthiduans and the girl! Not dead! You old owl! Now you’ve gone an’ scared the life right out of him!” She pointed to me. “Look doll, I’m sorry for throwing food at your pet. But, I’m sure it’s fine. Daniel told me that the King tied her up with the Enthiduans, and that’s all. Your mama talked him outta killing her.”
I tried to hold my anger in when she referred to my girlfriend as my pet and it.
“Thank you all for your useful information!” Martin chimed. “But we need to get our move on to the castle to speak with the King.”
“You just miss’ ‘im,” The old man said. He shook his head while looking at the castle, “He ain’ up there any more.”
“What do you mean?” I walked closer to the old man and woman. “Where is he?”
“That girl of yours,” he said. “She kill’ one a’ our own. She broke the pac’. The King and his troopers went rollin’ out about four hour’ ago. All that left at the castle is the Queen, some guards, and a few of his chil’ren. Yup. He says he gon’ start slow to make it known that they’s there, juss’ for a few days. You know, a human here and there. He wants ta’ start trouble first. Get em’ all riled up. Then he gon’ move in all them troopers to do the rest. I suppose right now they’s at the other end of Mundahlia waiting for the council to okay it.”
“We’re too late!” Vicktor said.
“We have failed!” Nina followed.
“We’re failures!” Frederick added.
God, how I wanted to punch them!
Nicolas turned to his kids, “Nevertheless, we are here for Rini and Ludenia. And we are not leaving until they are rescued!”
“Good luck with all that folks!” The old man waved as we left.
We were too late. The war had begun again. Or at least it would in a matter of a few days, a month at max. Max being when they start killing everyone with no mercy. This time the humans didn’t have a chance. It’s the beginning of a new era. A mundahlian era. The start of the end of humanity. But either way, I didn’t care about it as much as I did about rescuing my mom and Rini. And we needed to work swiftly. The King and the army wouldn’t be gone for long.
I gazed at the castle in the distance. Still about half an hour of walking to go. Soon.
Rini
36
I was chained to a chair at a grand table. The dining room. Decorated with carpet of red and ceilings of gold and silver, separated from each other by smokey grey stone lining the grand walls.
The Queen and some of the royal children—some familiar from the trial, some new—sat at the other end watching me struggle. She seemed to stare at me as though she wished I weren’t in my predicament, but didn’t know what to do.
Bane pounded a fist on the table, “Hurry up! We’re hungry!”
Doors flung open and chains being dragged about the floor sounded. Large men carried Angela and a little boy Enthiduan in. No! This is what Del was talking about. How they eat them. The large men laid them down on the table, and tied their hands and feet so they couldn’t move. Angela and the little boy were sobbing. So was I.
“No, please!” I mumbled. “Please!”
Bane turned his gaze to me. A smirk flew up his face. He leaned to Willa. “Save me some will ya?”
“Yup!” she exclaimed, snickering after and looking at me.
Bane got up from his seat, the chair legs rasping against the floor, and walked to me. “You know, for all I care we could have eaten you instead, Rini.” His fingers traced my arms. “But I’ve grown quite attached to you,” he whispered in my ear. “You’re like my own little toy, that I can use whenever I want.” His hands ran across my breasts. “And,” he leant closer. “We didn’t get to finish our little...moment of passion.”
“You’re sick!”
He laughed. “After dinner, we can pick up where we left off—don’t you think?” A woman dressed in black bondage entered the room. She had a collar around her neck and her feet were forced into narrow platform shoes.
“Ah, the entertainment!” Bane said.
The others and the Queen stared at me. Unsure of what to do or say.
A large man wearing a white shirt with black suspenders and shorts stood behind the woman. He held a stereo that looked twice his size in his small arms. He pressed a button and music began to fill the room. The woman, made up with too much makeup, began singing strange words in a high-pitched voice that resonated across the room. Opera.
Bane put his hands on my shoulders and lent closer to my ear. “But first-” He waved his hand and the others picked up their knives. Everyone except the Queen. She had a hand under her jaw, with a look that meant her mind was deep in her thoughts. With a gleam in her eyes, she got up from her side of the table and left the room. Leaving me feeling less safe than I already did.
The metal from the knives in the hands of the royal children, gleamed in the light. Leo reached on the table and tore Angela and the little boys clothes open to expose their chest. “Dig in!” he said.
I saw their knives move closer to the bodies. No! I shut my eyes and turned my head as I heard the bellowing of a high-pitched, skin-crawling shriek. Tears flooded my shut eyes.
“Look at it!” Bane laughed. His hands still on my shoulders.
I didn’t.
He put his hands on my head and turned it violently in the direction of the gore. “Look at it!” he ordered again.
“No!”
His sharp boney fingers tried to pry my eyes open. He finally got one to open. It was a sight of pure malice. Angela and the little boy were screaming their heads off as the family members tore fleshy meat from their torso. I could feel their pain. A stinging sensation that pulsed throughout my whole bruised body.
“Bane stop it!” I bawled. “Please!”
“What did I tell you in the room,” his face was close and quiet. “I am alpha!”
A few of the children put their knives down. “Man, there goes my appetite.” A boy said, getting up to leave. He had a golden mane of hair, and features of a lion, but that couldn’t be. Del and Mark had told me Martin’s friend was the last of his kind. A few of the children followed the boy out.
“He’s horrible,” I heard a girl say as she shut the door behind them.
“Fine, all the more for me!” Bane shouted then in a burst of anger, ripped me from the chains and carried me over to the center of the table. Angela and the young boy’s blood was seeping though their lacerations. A desaturated fluid that looked like grey tar.
At the sight of Leo and another male reaching their knives to Angela and the little boys neck, I started bawling uncontrollably. “No! Please!” Leo and the other man stopped for a moment, looking over to me with a confused gaze. Slowly, they retracted their knives and I sighed. And then, with a swift movement of betrayal. It happened. I nearly vomited at the sound of my new friend and the young boy I had seen in captivity, gargling over their screams.
“Look at that,” Bane said, holding my head toward the massacre in front
of me. “It’s quite a sight now, isn’t it.”
“Angela!” I cried, wanting to collapse onto my knees, but Bane’s grip tightened.
She spurted out a gray liquid from her mouth and inhaled. “I see them, Rini. They’re waiting for me.” She looked at the ceiling as she talked about seeing her husband and child. “Oh my, how my daughter has grown.” I let out another tear as I continued to hear her speak. “I can finally be with them again. They are allowing me back in.” She smiled painfully. “I-I’m—free.” A glistening tear escaped her eyes and dropped onto the table. Within seconds, everything stopped. The struggling stopped. The screaming stopped. The woman who’d been singing had stopped as well. All that was left was the eerie sounds of chewing from the many mouths in the room, and my out of sync crying that bounced off of the walls. Angela’s light had faded away, and she was now dark. Like a burnt out lightbulb. The light from the little boy soon faded too as he curled into himself and took a last breath.
Bane released one hand and reached over to Angela’s body, tearing a piece of the grayish meat off. “Try it,” he laughed, holding it to me.
“No.” I said raspy, trying to look away from the gruesome scene.
He put a hand on my jaw and squeezed my cheeks. “Open your mouth.” I tried to move my face away, but he jerked it back. He hovered the meat near my mouth. Trying to feed me like a baby. It was so close that I could smell it. Raw and sharp. “Try your friend.” He brushed the meat against my lips. It was sickening.
“Open up for the choo-choo train,” he laughed.
“Bane just stop it!” A female voice called from the center of the table. “That’s enough of your sick jokes, she’s suffered enough.” I looked up and found a girl with long, light brown hair staring at me. Her mouth was stained with the dark grey liquid that was Enthiduan blood and she was dunking another piece into a dark sauce. “Leave her alone already.”
“Don’t run your mouth at me, Evelyn!” Bane said.