Clawing Free

by Josh Roberts

  “So, Mia is . . . alive?” Lissy asked. “Why should I believe you?”

  The beast laughed the same bellowing, bass-tinged laugh it had before. It then lunged, throwing itself off the cliff and turning about-face as it fell. Its unfurling wings pumped until it was hanging, midair, in front of them.

  “Because Mia is a part of me.”

  Lissy lashed out at the implication that the evil Imugi had any part of her sister within its being. “Liar! Mia was nothing like you! You killed her. You murdered her like the rest of them that night because she decided not to give you what you wanted after all! She saw through you just like I do.”

  The fire behind them was raging now. The Imugi’s eyes shone a deep red, reflecting the blaze. It roared and said, “I consumed her! Her very being empowers me!”

  Behind the Imugi, the entire army of horrid beasts arose, their eyes all glowing red. Lightning coursed through the sky from one beast to the next, as if their proximity to one another amplified their potency.

  Lissy was infuriated at the thought of this beast even looking at her sister. And the other dragons—why were they all rising to face her? Was this all just a parade put on to coerce her into giving them what they wanted? Why hadn’t they just killed her already?

  Neil stepped toward the edge and shouted, sending little ripples of fear pulsating through Lissy’s body. “Tell me one thing!” Lissy could barely hear him over the storm and the fire and the dragons. Her brain was on tilt. “Tell me, why Lissy? Why her spirit? Or Mia? Why not Melissa or Logan? Why just toss them aside but hover above us now, talking?”

  He was right. The Imugi didn’t seem content with just anyone’s sacrifice . . . there was no indication that Mia’s friends had even been given the chance, nor Logan or Porter. She felt Neil’s words ignite a small spark in her, tripping synapses in her mind. There was something there, just behind the curtain.

  “That’s enough!” the Imugi shouted, appearing shaken for the first time since their encounter had begun. “This ends now.”

  The dragons behind the creature roared in unison, chanting their agreement with its declaration. “Will you defy us? Or will you join, giving yourself to an eternal life of—”

  Something snapped in Lissy, the wisdom of Neil’s question taking hold and bringing with it complete understanding. She spoke softly, not even audible over the deafening storm or the cries of the evil beasts swarming in front of her. But instead of attacking, the beasts all seemed to be listening to her whispers.

  “I get it,” she said. “It’s not about consuming someone so you can be empowered. Or even an attempt at becoming Mireu. That’s the thing . . . you can’t.”

  The dragons all recoiled at the accusation, as if she’d physically slapped each of them across the face. They began to snarl and spit sparks from their mouths, angered by her words. But more so than anger, she sensed fear in them. Neil took her hand, a subtle but obvious gesture of his agreement. She continued, raising her voice to yell: “You’re nothing but a coward trying to eliminate the competition.” A righteous rage fueled her now. “You ask me if I know who you are, but what you wonder is if I know who I am. Well guess what. I just got there.”

  She took a step forward, releasing Neil’s hand and planting her foot on the edge of the cliff. “I’m someone who scares you. Because . . .” She searched for the final grasp on all that had just bubbled within her. “Because I can see.”

  At her words, the dragons began to scatter—not exactly leaving the formation, but moving in and out of their ranks and shooting glances in all directions as if they were terrified of some unforeseen danger.

  “I said that was enough!” the original Imugi shouted. But Lissy fired back, shutting it up once and for all.

  “Be quiet,” she said through gritted teeth. While still fighting to stay upright physically, spiritually she felt invigorated. She knew why she was there—why Mia had been there. It wasn’t the Imugi who’d called them after all.

  The beast’s mouth shut the instant she demanded it. And, although she still didn’t physically see anything beyond an army of evil wanting to rip her limb from limb, she felt something . . . something bigger than hurt, more powerful than history, and more believable than fear. In her spirit she could sense a being far grander than anything the army before her could threaten. She could sense love.

  As if planted within her for this specific instant in time, Lissy suddenly recalled one of Mia’s stories from years before—a story about combating hate with love. As they bubbled up from her heart, she spoke the words that her father had given to her sister, and Mia had given to her. “Love always wins. You might feel afraid sometimes, or angry, or hurt, but if you respond with love, the bullies can’t win.”

  At this, the dragons devolved into chaos. Some of them flying left, others right, the rest straight up. The leader simply stayed in front of her, hovering, attempting to maintain a strong front. But she knew what was happening, they were launching their final attack—a Hail Mary. But it was too late; she could see beyond them now.

  Looking the Leviathan dead in the eye, she said, “You’re going to regret messing with my family.”

  The beast started to speak, but then, responding to the intensity in her eyes, it propelled itself backward, attempting to escape her wrath. She realized that she could now sense all the other dragons rocketing toward her and Neil like a torrent of missiles descending on them from every angle.

  She went on, not even flinching, “You have no power over me, not anymore.” Strength continued building inside her with each word she spoke. It was as if she’d plugged into some unseen source of power merely by recognizing its existence. “I choose to destroy you. All of you.”

  In a moment of pure faith—the opposite of fear—Lissy closed her eyes and invoked the name of the one she now knew had summoned her there, to that place, to defeat her many demons.

  It came as a whisper, “Mireu.”

  “Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known the dragons intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon.”

  * * *

  ~G.K. Chesterton, Tremendous Trifles

  31

  August 30, 2019

  Lissy’s body tensed, ready for the impact of the seven oncoming beasts about to overtake her. But just before they scooped her off the edge of the cliff, a blinding white flash lit the entire sky. Unable to withstand its brilliance, Lissy and Neil dropped to their knees and shielded their eyes. Then, eyes still clenched, she heard a roar so vehement that it rattled her bones and completely drowned out the cries of the oncoming attackers.

  Lissy opened her eyes. To her surprise, the light had faded, and each of the seven attacking beasts were flying past her in all directions. It was like they’d simply flown through her.

  That’s when she saw it. Although the original Imugi still hovered between the cliff and the Mireu, it was easily visible behind the smaller dragon.

  In length, the Mireu must have been more than four times the size of the largest Imugi, over half the length of a football field. Its coloring was a striking combination of blues, purples, and a white that literally shone like a lamp, illuminating the heavens. Its very presence seemed to have banished the electrical storm and the darkness along with it. Every star now shined at what seemed like peak brightness, and the moon glowed like a diamond in the sky, casting off colors Lissy had never before seen it display. She wondered if it, too, was reflecting the light emitting from this majestic beast.

  The Mireu’s shape also differed from that of the Imugi’s. It was broader, less like a serpent and more like a lion with elongated features. It looked to have the same scales on its back and wings, but this glorious creature shimmered with the most amazing array of hues instead of the dark onyx of all the others. The only way she could think to put it was: she was obs
erving beauty personified.

  Except for their apparent leader, the Imugis immediately turned and flew straight at the Mireu. The Leviathan, however, dipped its head and sped directly toward Lissy, electricity arcing from its mouth to the ground all around her and Neil. But the beast’s last-ditch effort to frighten them meant nothing with the Mireu backing her.

  As the hoard collided with the glorious Mireu behind the oncoming Leviathan, it was Neil who stood and spoke. “Stop,” he said emotionlessly. The dragon did as it was told. Halting in midair and flapping its long wings to keep it afloat a foot from where they stood.

  The creature hissed, “You have no authority here, boy!”

  Neil remained detached. Lissy knew he was thinking of David as he said, “If only I’d known before, that just isn’t true.”

  The animal started to speak, sparks flying, but Lissy cut him off, standing beside Neil. “You know, the funny thing is that if it wasn’t for your greed, you might have won. But you tipped your hand. You can’t help but overdo it, can you? You should have killed me when you had the chance, snake. Now go back to the pit you came from.”

  The beast hesitated until Lissy shouted at it one last time. “GO!”

  Like before, her word acted as a cannon, hitting the beast and sending it careening backward through the sky, all the way into the group of dragons still encircling the Mireu.

  As if it were waiting until Lissy and Neil could enjoy the show, the Mireu had only kept the army of Imugis at bay until that point, swatting them with its colossal wings or nipping at them with its long teeth. But now, the incredible God-like animal smashed through the group and caught the Leviathan Lissy had just dispelled against its body, wrapping the dwarfed-looking Imugi in its great legs. The larger dragon held the smaller, took its neck into its mouth, and clamped down. The Imugi that had, only hours before, been the most feared thing in Lissy’s life now went limp as the Mireu twisted its prodigious head and ripped the Imugi’s body from its neck.

  With that, the Mireu dropped the evil Imugi—in two parts—into the lake. Lissy’s eyes grew large as the sovereign being was then overtaken by the rest of the dragons. They swarmed it, furiously pulling at its wings with their teeth and clawing at it with their long, scythed hands. Notwithstanding, this minor annoyance lasted only a second before the Mireu thrust its wings outward and began battering the smaller dragons with them, moving the wings forward, backward, up, and down. With the pests scattered momentarily, the Mireu lowered its head and, as if fueled by an unseen jet propulsion system, blasted itself out of the group, grabbing one Imugi’s wings in its mouth as it did. Easily tearing the wing off as it flew, the other animal could no longer sustain its own weight and spiraled down beside the lake, landing in a heap on the roof of Porter’s truck. Lissy watched under the light of the Mireu as the wounded animal dragged itself off the vehicle and toward the lake, its back legs apparently broken by the fall.

  Before she even had a chance to look back to the battle, two more Imugi plummeted directly on top of the already wounded beast on the ground. One of the two had been decapitated, and the other hobbled around on its one remaining leg. The Mireu was ravaging the dragon army despite their outnumbering it eight to one.

  The group’s numbers had dwindled to four, the largest of the bunch not even measuring in at a third the length of the Mireu. It dispensed with the smallest two via a similar head-tearing technique to what it used—twice the size of the Imugis—to dismember the third dragon. And finally, it flew circles around the last of the beasts. The animal just hovered in the air, not even fighting back, as if it knew it was already dead. The Mireu took each of its wings in one of its shimmering hands and ripped them off its body. Then, with a quick flip of its wrists as the other dragon fell, the Mireu sliced open the enemy’s neck.

  The last of the dementors fell to ground with a thunderous thud, not moving any longer. In fact, none of them were moving. Every single evil dragon lay dead on the ground or already buried deep in the lake. Lissy exhaled, not realizing she’d barely breathed throughout the entire battle. She’d never seen such a spectacle. Eight dragons were already more than she could fathom. But then the Mireu—it was flying toward them now—was the most beautiful and terrifying thing she’d ever seen. The closer it came, the more every aspect of its perfection shone bright under the light of the moon and the light it emanated.

  Flying overhead, it swung wide above the forest, and once again, rain began to fall, dousing the raging fire that threatened to overtake the entire forest. While it was a powerful shower, even the rain felt different under the control of the Mireu. The wind no longer whipped the torrents from side to side; instead, the drops fell straight down gently, as if to cleanse the mountain of all that had just taken place. Even her body began to feel better—stronger—under the cascading waters.

  The Mireu lowered its body gracefully into the clearing. It was enormous. Bringing its wings to his sides, it lowered its face to meet them, though its head still hung fifteen feet above the earth. Lissy noticed immediately that it had the most intoxicating eyes imaginable. Unlike most, its eyes shone hundreds of different colors, each reflecting or refracting with every subtle movement it made. It felt more like she was staring into two large diamonds than the eyes of a dragon. Although she was looking directly at it—its body similar to the Imugi’s, only much larger, stronger, and infinitely more graceful—a part of her still couldn’t fathom the sheer immensity of its form.

  After a brief silence, the Mireu spoke. Its voice was strong, yet gentle—almost fatherly—drawing a stark contrast to the rocky, rasping voice of the Leviathan. She recognized it immediately as the first voice she’d heard in her visions. The one she’d allowed to be drowned out by the Imugi’s onslaught of horrific imagery. “Well done, Elisabeth.” That simple statement brought with it a surge of emotion so profound, Lissy was completely overcome. She found herself weakened and intensely strengthened all at once. It was like the Mireu had taken all of the love, encouragement, and pride that her father had never been able to show her and distilled it down into those two words: well done. Falling to her knees, the walls inside her began to crumble. She was coming apart. Every ounce of anger she’d ever felt at the absence of her father, her sister, and her mother . . . it all fell away. Although she’d only just met the Mireu, suddenly its approval—its acceptance of her—meant more than any other person’s approval in the world.

  “Look up, Lissy,” the Mireu said.

  Hesitating, she looked up, realizing Neil was on his knees now, too, crying. Had the Mireu spoken to him as well? She’d been so overwhelmed, she honestly wasn’t sure. She tried to speak but couldn’t seem to get the words out.

  Although it had rows and rows of teeth, not unlike a shark, its smile was intoxicating. It leveled it at them and spoke as if it already knew every thought they had—every question they might ask. “Remember, Lissy, this is a battle you need not fight again. I am here, always. But you have the dominion, the power over this place. So whenever you are in need, just call—open the door.” The Mireu grinned even wider. “Open the door and I will come through it.”

  Still unable to speak, Lissy thought of Mia, realizing then that she must’ve either succumbed to the Imugi’s request or allowed it to destroy her in the end. If she hadn’t, she would surely still be alive.

  The Mireu lowered its head even farther, placing it gently against Lissy’s arm. “She made the right choice. In the end, your sister, too, sought to defeat the evil one.” It pulled back, gazing at her.

  In barely a whisper, Lissy replied, “But she—”

  “Her life ended because, although she desired to fight, she didn’t know how to fight. She perished due to lack of knowledge. You gained that knowledge.” Lissy thought of Yunjin and all of her many words of wisdom. Those words paired with what Mia had taught her that saved her life.

  Looking into those large diamond eyes, Lissy sought for the understanding she knew lay within them. “So she lost?”
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  “No!” The dragon laughed a laugh so infectious that Lissy found herself grinning, too, even through the confusion.

  “But how—”

  “Your sister lost a battle because she was ill-equipped to win it. But the war is something I’ve already claimed. The evil ones cannot take that away; they can only drag some of you down with them. In Mia’s last breath, she chose to fight for what she knew in her heart was right. That is still a victory.”

  “But she—”

  “Is not gone. Departed, perhaps, from here. But never gone.” Still crouched, the Mireu unfurled its wings.

  “Will I see her again?”

  “You will.” The marvelous creature stood, its head now towering fifty feet above them.

  Lissy wiped tears with the sleeve of her shirt. “Will I see you again?”

  The dragon smiled that thrilling smile. “Continue to look beyond the fear, and I will always be there.”

  The Mireu crouched as if it were about to launch itself from the ground.

  “Wait!” Lissy shouted. “Why me? I know now that it was you that brought me here to . . .” She searched for words. “Open the door to you. But what makes Mia and I different from everyone else? Why can we see the Imugi when no one else can?”

  The Mireu rose from its crouched position. “Each and every one of you is called for a unique purpose. And it is the purpose of some to show others that which they refuse to see. You and Mia are two of those people.”

  “So is that it then? I’ve fulfilled my purpose?” Lissy felt a pang of disappointment. Had she completed all there was for her in the very moment she decided to fight for her future?

  The Mireu smiled again, this time as a father smiles at the confused words of a child. “The monsters never stop coming, Lissy. They may not always take the form of an Imugi, but as long as there are human beings on this earth, there will be antagonists. That is because they want something only you possess: purpose—that very unique purpose placed within each of you. So no, your calling is not fulfilled, it has only now been discovered.”