by Max Jager
Carley quickly evaded the dagger, then stumbled over to pick it back up. He didn't intend on using it any more though. 'This is an unwinnable fight… I need to warn the others.' Carley thought as he quickly opened his virtual keyboard and immediately started trying to send a message to Brooke. Damion charged at Carley to try and stop him, but Carley was quickly and nimbly backing away and keeping his distance while he wrote the message. Damion couldn't catch him.
"No you don't!" Damion growled and he focused. Some of Damion's blood had gotten on Carley's arm when Carley first tried to stab him. That blood suddenly hardened, then it turned into a sharp spike that quickly extended and stabbed into Carley's shoulder, causing him to flinch. In that brief moment when he flinched Damion rushed in and grabbed Carley's arm, forcing him to press the cancel button and closing his virtual keyboard.
Carley immediately struck a pressure point in Damion's arm, forcing him to let go, and in the brief seconds Damion's arm was paralyzed, Carley turned and sprinted off into the forest as fast as his wounds allowed him to run. He was sure Jackson had moved the others already, they were safe for now. So he knew he just needed to run back to the village, Damion couldn't chase him there, and it would draw Damion even further away from the group. But Carley didn't make it far, he ran a good ten feet before his entire body suddenly locked up and he could no longer move. It was like something had frozen him in place, no matter how hard he tried he couldn't budge, he couldn't even speak.
Damion calmly walked over to Carley. He no longer looked amused, he was no longer smiling, he was glaring Carley down as he approached. "No! You do not run away, you do not call for help!" Damion screamed at him. "We are done playing!"
Damion furiously grabbed Carley by his neck and dragged him back to the center of the clearing. Carley was inwardly panicking and struggling to move, but he couldn't move a muscle.
'No! No! This is how he gets them?! THIS is how he does it?! Even Jackson can't stop him if he can do this! Nobody could stop this! I have to stop him! I have to stop him! What do I do?!' The thoughts were racing through his head, he was panicking more and more the closer he got to the center of the clearing.
Summoning all of his willpower Carley suddenly broke out of Damion's control, freeing his body from whatever spell Damion had used. He immediately spun around and slammed his fist into Damion's head. The adrenaline rushing through his body nulled the pain and gave him the strength to strike much harder then he normally could.
The blow knocked Damion to the ground and cracked the side of his skull, but also broke several of Carley's fingers and fractured his hand. Carley immediately jumped on top of Damion and began throwing punch after punch at his head, in a desperate attempt to stop him. He just kept swinging, using his adrenaline to hit harder than he normally could, with no regard for the damage he was doing to his own hand and arms.
Damion took three blows to the head before he regained his bearings and grabbed Carley's arms. He could tell Carley was much stronger then before, but that wasn't saying much considering how weak he was before. Damion was still stronger. Damion kneed Carley hard in the stomach, stunning him for a moment before he threw Carley off himself.
Damion stumbled back into his feet. Carley had finally hurt him, his head was spinning, his vision was blurring, and he started laughing. "I guess, you were fun in the end." He laughed, then he took control of the blood in Carley's body again and stopped him from moving.
Carley started trying to resist again, but he couldn't. He was exhausted and so badly hurt that he couldn't break free a second time. His arms hurt so much, everything hurt so badly, he couldn't move even if he wanted to. He was struggling to stay conscious. 'He's going to get away! He's going to hurt the others! I can't save them…' Carley was starting to cry, but there was nothing more he could do. He felt Damion pull his shirt off. It seemed like Damion was angry that there was already scars on Carley's back, Damion couldn't make his wing drawings here. But it didn't seem like that was going to stop him, because a moment later Carley felt the blade of the knife against his back.
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Jackson sat on a log, waiting for Carley to come back to the camp. As each minute passed Jackson grew increasingly more uneasy. He had waited twenty minutes. "Alright, screw it." Jackson didn't give Carley the full thirty minutes he had requested, but he couldn't shake the bad feeling he was getting and he hated sitting on his hands. "Everybody up!" He called out a couple times as he packed up his tent, then went to pack up Carley's as well. When he noticed that Carley left his weapons behind he sighed, but he did also notice that his dagger wasn't there, so he knew Carley wasn't unarmed. He grabbed Carley's things while Fate, who had been on watch began to wake everyone. She wasn't sure why Jackson was trying to wake everyone, but assumed he had a good reason for it.
Everyone sleepily walked out of their tents and were all wondering what was going on.
"Come on, pack it up!" Jackson called out.
"What is going on?" Brooke asked.
"We need to pack up and move. Now." Jackson insisted.
"Why? What is going on?" Fate and Brooke both insisted, but they could sense the urgency in his tone and started packing their things as quickly as possible along with everyone else.
"This is Carley's plan, not mine. All we need to do is stick to it, and right now that means we move." Jackson insisted.
Everyone was hesitant about this whole plan, but they packed up the camp as quickly as they could and everyone left. They traveled straight south for about five minutes staying in the forest and stepping a good distance off their original path.
"Get some medical supplies ready, and stay here." Jackson ordered as he handed Carley's things to Fate and grabbed his own things and immediately left the camp. Everyone was rushing to follow the order and didn't notice Jackson leave the camp in a hurry.
As Jackson ran out of the camp he almost ran into a young woman who stumbled out of the trees. She stood at 5'4" with sharp blue eyes and long brown hair that reached her mid back. She wore a black hoodie and black leggings, and oddly enough had a pair of headphones around her neck. Jackson quickly changed his path and went to run around her, but was stopped in his tracks when she spoke.
"Are you one of Carley's friends?" She asked. "I saw Carley last night, at the big meeting in the center of town. But he left town with a group of people before I could find him. I was too afraid to go out at night, so I came looking for him this morning."
"Yeah, why?" Jackson questioned.
"I'm Jess, Carley's girlfriend." Jess casually replied.
"Uhh… Camp's that way. Carley should be back soon." He pointed back at the camp.
Jess looked a little worried, the expression on his face and his demeanor told her something was wrong. But she nodded in agreement. "I'll go wait in the camp then." She said and headed in the direction Jackson pointed, and Jackson ran off after Carley again.
As Jess approached the campsite the group was almost in a slight frenzy trying to figure out what was going on.
"Carley is missing, of course." Brooke called out.
"Jackson's gone." Fate added. "Why did he lead us over here if he was just going to run off?"
"What's the plan? What are we supposed to do?" Elliott worriedly questioned.
"Damion isn't here either." Matthew spoke up.
As soon as they heard those words Elliott and Brooke froze. "No…" Elliott murmured as the realization hit them.
"He… Wasn't sleeping in front of that door to protect Damion and keep the killer out… It WAS Damion, he was keeping Damion contained. Shit!" Brooke nearly shouted.
"What do we do?" Elliott looked around, as if he could find an answer in this camp.
"Are you guys Carley's friends?" Jess asked.
Most of the people at the campsite stopped and turned to Jess. "Yes. Who are you?" Fate asked.
"I am Jess, Carley's girlfriend. I ran into another man running out of the camp a moment a
go, he directed me here." She replied.
"Did he say where he was going?" Brooke worriedly spoke up, ignoring the first part of her statement for now.
"No. But he said Carley was coming back here soon, and he seemed really worried." Jess replied as she took a seat on a nearby log.
"Which way did he go?" Elliott hurriedly asked, and Jess pointed in a north west direction.
"Alright, let's go!" Fate called out as she ran out of the camp. Sophia ran with her and was just a couple steps behind.
"The rest of us will stay behind to guard the camp, and the kids." George stated.
"But I wanna go help!" Snipes argued, and Inami nodded.
"No. You're both staying here." George insisted.
Elliott and Brooke nodded, "Alright, thanks." Brooke said to them before the two of them started to run off, but they stopped after a few steps. "Jess, right? Lets go! We need to hurry!" Brooke shot her a questioning look with she didn't get up.
"I'm not going." Jess stated. "I'm not a fighter, I'll wait for everyone to bring him back here."
"What do you mean you're not going? That's your… Um, partner out there!" Brooke nearly shouted back at her.
"I-I'm not a fighter, I'm lucky I worked up the courage to cross the forest alone. If there's some killer out there, I'm not going anywhere near it." Jess argued. "I can wait here, I know he will be okay, he'll be back soon." She added as she put her headphones on as a clear indication that she was not going to argue this any further.
Brooke looked about ready to yell at her, but Elliott spoke up instead. "Comeon Brooke, we don't have time to argue." He said as he grabbed Brooke's arm and pulled her away from Jess. Then the two of them ran off into the forest to find Carley. By now, everyone was split up into groups of two. All except Jackson, who was alone.
Jackson didn't know what to expect when he caught up with Carley and Damion. He knew Carley wasn't as weak as the others thought he was, but Damion was an unknown. Jackson's mind defaulted to the worst case scenario.
As he ran into the clearing he spotted Damion kneeling beside Carley's lifeless body. Carley clearly did a number on Damion's face, Damion was halfway through carving the wings into Carley's back with a pocketknife, but when Jackson walked into the clearing he stopped and grinned. "Good evening Jackson." He started to stand up. "This... this should be fun. I won't need to hold back."
Jackson looked down at Carley's body, then back up at Damion. He was a little thrown off by the Damion's insane demeanor, he wasn't like this before. Jackson squeezed the grip of his cudgel as he stared down Damion, ready to take him out.
"So that religious shit was all an act, huh?" Jackson said.
Damion shook his head. "Of course not, why would you say that? I am helping him. His girlfriend is dead, I am reuniting them, so he will no longer miss her. He shall become an angel."
Jackson's nostrils flared and his eyes intensified. "Is that right…?"
"You've lost someone too, have you not? You're distant from everyone, emotionally and physically. The way you treat the group, you've lost someone close to you before and now you won't let anyone else in. It was your fault, wasn't it?"
Jackson's face tensed.
"It's written on your face. But I doubt you'll ever be able to see her again, you don't seem to be the type who will become an angel." Damion stated flatly. "We'll find out soon enough though. But if you see her again, what will she think? It's your fault she's dead, will she hate you?" He didn't know much about Jackson, but was grasping at straws in an attempt to set him off. He pointed down at Carley. "Was this your fault too?"
"Enough…" Jackson insisted. He tightened his grip on his cudgel and charged toward Damion.
Damion watched Jackson as he charged, and started laughing. He cut his own wrists just enough to make them bleed, and made sure to get the blood on his weapons. He watched as Jackson rushed in and prepared for the man to strike him with the cudgel, but jackson didn't. Jackson immediately tried to tackle him, and Damion only just barely side-stepped the attack. Damion took a step back to regain distance and watched as Jackson spun around and charged at him again.
Watching him charge in a second time, Damion threw his knife at Jackson, who quickly sidestepped the knife and kept charging. But before he could reach Damion he suddenly felt something stab into his back, striking his left shoulder. He quickly moved away from Damion and spun around to see who had stabbed him, but nobody was there, the bloody knife was levitating on it's own.
Damion's dagger flew back to him and he caught it, then he charged at Jackson. Trying to end this quickly, Jackson grabbed his combat knife. As Damion lunged in to attack, with a stab at Jackson's chest, Jackson quickly ducked under the blow and slashed his knife across Damion's stomach. But… It barely cut into him. Thinking fast, Jackson punched Damion in the stomach, knocking him to the ground. Immediately, Jackson jumped on top of him and drove his knife down into Damion's head. The tip of the knife's blade snapped on contact, it barely even pierced the skin.
Jackson suddenly understood why Carley lost this fight, Carley came here with nothing but a dagger… Clearly Damion couldn't be hurt by blades, but judging by how bruised and swollen his head was it seemed like Carley was onto something.
Jackson had to quickly jump off Damion when Damion tried to stab him again, but as soon as he jumped back the blood on the ground hardened and shot up at Jackson, turning into a spike that stabbed through his leg. Jackson held back from shouting out in pain. He stumbled a step back, only to see Damion lunging at him again, stabbing a knife for Jackson's face as he laughed maniacally. The grin on Damion's face clearly showed that he was really enjoying this. Jackson sidestepped the first attack, then had to quickly back up to evade a second swing that came at him. He swung his cudgel at Damion's head but Damion ducked under the blow. Jackson quickly moved in to kick Damion while he was low to the ground, but Damion caught the kick and immediately went to stab Jackson's leg.
Jackson slammed his cudgel down into Damion's head right as Damion stabbed the knife into his good leg. Damion was knocked to the ground, but two more blood spikes sprang out of the ground, forcing Jackson to jump backwards to evade them. Damion picked his knife back up and threw it at Jackson again. Jackson sidestepped it, and this time knew to keep track of the knife for when it came back. He was struggling to stand now, both of his legs were badly injured. He looked back at Damion and couldn't understand why he wasn't going down, that was a heavy blow to the head, he shouldn't have been able to get back up.
Damion did seem hurt by the blow, he was stumbling a little and trying to regain his bearings. Jackson took advantage of the moment to rush in as quickly as he could and slam his cudgel into Damion's ribs, knocking him backwards. But Damion wasn't knocked over, he kept his footing and immediately ran back after Jackson after.
As Damion lunged in for his next attack jackson quickly grabbed Damion's arm with his free hand, and immediately slammed his cudgel into Damion's head, twice. But right after the second swing Jackson felt a sharp stabbing pain in his hand. Damion's blood had sharpened into multiple spikes which had stabbed through Jackson's free hand in several places. Jackson was forced to let go before he lost his hand to this magic, he quickly backed up to put distance between them again. And he finally saw some sort of reaction from Damion.
Damion took a few steps back and started clutching his head in pain. It was a sign that Jackson's attacks were causing damage, not nearly as much as they should, but Damion was hurt. Jackson took advantage of Damion being stunned, and charged at him head-on, intent on finishing this. But before Jackson could reach him, suddenly his entire body froze. Jackson was rendered unable to move.
"My head!" Damion groaned in pain. "You hurt me! You really hurt me!... I like you. But, I will not let you kill me. No, that must not happen." He laughed a little. "The game is over now." While Jackson was unable to move Damion grabbed his dagger and started walking back over to him. Jackson was struggling more and more as Damion app
roached, but he couldn't budge. Damion kept getting closer, and closer, and then he suddenly tripped over something and fell on his face.
Jackson glanced down at Damion, only to see that Carley had used what little strength he had left to drag himself over to the fight. He had grabbed Damion's leg, and tripped him. But Carley was in terrible shape, he was barely clinging onto life.
As Damion fell he lost focus on his spell and Jackson broke free. Jackson started to immediately strike Damion as hard as he could with the cudgel, and got three strikes in before Damion locked Jackson's body in place again, causing Jackson to furiously growl at him.
Damion shakily stood back up, keeping his focus on Jackson for now. "No." He shook his head and laughed a little. "You can't kill me." While Jackson was unable to move he took Jackson's cudgel away and threw it into the forest, then thrust his dagger for Jackson's throat. At the last second Jackson took control of his own body back and broke himself free. He stumbled back, evading the attack.