by Amanda Churi
And Laelia being Laelia: “That’s a nice bow,” she commented in awe as she stared at the slick and powerful weapon that our attacker possessed.
She scoffed, rolling her eyes. “It’s the best bow there is,” she said gruffly.
Wow. Was it just an archer thing to be a complete bitch or what? That was supposed to be the person who The Seeker said could aid us? In what, driving us to our graves?
She looked over at The Seeker, motioning in my direction with the slight flick of a head. “That the boy and girl?”
The Seeker smiled, giving a simple nod as her answer.
Her companion grinned in response, chuckling victoriously under her breath. There was a sparkle in her eye through the dim light as she turned on my friends—a twinkle that yearned for blood, her fingers tapping the shaft of her bow eagerly at the sight of the buffet. “We-we did it…” she said gruffly with a dry chuckle, grinding her teeth together angrily as she raised the bow in my friends’ direction, who immediately huddled up against one another for protection. “What do you think of that, you bastards?! Huh? Trying to destroy the last chance that we have at winning this war, are you?”
“W-what?” Griffin stammered, his skin flushed as he stared down the arrowhead.
A growl rose in the woman’s throat. Heatedly, she pulled the string of her bow back, the space between the string and shaft beginning to pixelate, shimmering with gray and white particles and distorting the air. “Who the hell do you think we are?!” she screamed furiously. “Weaklings? We won’t stand for anyone who tries to stop us from achieving our goal! Did you think that we would let you get away with kidnapping them?!”
“What?” Laelia exclaimed. “What are you blabbering about? They’re our allies, but by Jupiter, if you want them that badly, take them!”
“Laelia!” Griffin scolded.
“We didn’t do anything!” Sybil cried, black tears racing down her face.
“Lies!” the brute retorted as she took aim at her targets. “All lies!”
I quickly looked at The Seeker, who had all attention on her ally, placid as she waited for the assassination.
I guess some things never change, no matter what you’ve been through. As the ruffian continued to scream and my friends hopelessly tried to defend themselves from being murdered, another part of me took over—a part of me that I thought I stashed away permanently and replaced with common sense. Guess not.
I roughly pushed Mabel away from me, quickly getting to my feet just as The Seeker turned towards me, only too late before my plan was already in motion. Immediately, I reached for her hand, yanking the gutting knife from her grasp with such intensity that the ragged edge ran across the surface of her skin, slicing her palm open as an agonizing scream shot from her lips. I twisted the blade quickly in my fingers, securing my grip on it before grabbing her around the stomach and pulling her back into my chest, raising the knife to her throat.
Her screams were silenced at once, a muffled whimper coming from her lips as she stared down at the large knife, her eyes broad and begging for help.
The woman immediately looked away from my friends, catching her breath in surprise when she noticed how quickly I had overtaken her magical ally. She lowered her bow slightly, her eyes losing all hostility the moment that I placed her friend at risk. “L-let her go!” she stammered, desperately trying to keep her voice even despite the situation. “Right now!”
In response, I squeezed The Seeker harder, causing her to gasp for air. I wasn’t going to be told what to do; I was not a victim here. Calla said that I had caused this; well, so help me, I was going to put an end to it, and I wasn’t going to tolerate any more psychopaths who tried to stop me.
“Drop your weapon,” I ordered.
She snarled angrily, defiantly raising her bow so that the arrow was aimed at my face.
I pressed the blade against The Seeker’s throat, the sharp edge lightly resting against her skin. The woman slightly flinched, her arm trembling as she held the arrow back, deciding whether or not to shoot.
“Don’t think I won’t,” I threatened. “Drop it. NOW.”
Realizing the bullets in my words were real, she reluctantly lowered her bow, bending down and placing her weapon on the ground before standing up with her hands held beside head face to show that she was defenseless.
Mabel immediately stood up, my other allies scrambling to their feet as well. They raced towards the crumbling building where our possessions had been placed, gathering them quickly and taking up arms.
“Get our stuff,” I instructed Mabel, who nodded quickly before cautiously walking past the archer, their eyes meeting for a brief moment as a million threats were silently exchanged.
The woman looked back to me, her eyes honing in on The Seeker as she trembled in my grasp, trying her best to stay still so that the blade did not sink into her throat. “Release her,” she demanded gruffly, remaining still so that she gave me no reason to get a kill.
“Not until you answer some questions,” I snarled.
She scoffed smugly. “Go ahead, little boy.”
I tried to ignore her insult. “Who are you?”
“Kaitlyn: Maven of Spears,” she answered, almost seeming bored.
“What do you want?” I continued, watching Laelia, Griffin, and Sybil move to stand behind Kaitlyn, ready to attack her if she tried anything. Mabel swiftly made her way back towards me, clutching Miho protectively in one hand while holding Coruscus in the other, her satchel over her shoulder and my bag on her back.
“Nothing,” she replied. “I couldn’t be bothered now, no matter the circumstances.”
“Kaitlyn!” The Seeker gasped, her eyes urgent as I lightly loosened my grip on the blade so that she had a little more leeway. “No! We need them!”
I looked down, confused. “What are you talking about?”
“You don’t have to answer that, Seek,” Kaitlyn warned, her voice dark.
“I think she does,” Mabel suggested smugly, raising Miho to Seek’s concaving cheeks. “Get talking.”
“Uh… Uhm… I…” She couldn’t quite figure out what to say, glancing down at her sliced hand, her eyes widening fearfully. “My-my blood!” she screamed shrilly, her lower body lightly thrashing in my grasp. “Quick, cover my wound!”
“What?” I wondered.
“Shit!” Kaitlyn screamed, bolting away from my friends and towards The Seeker. Kaitlyn leaped through the air towards us, sliding on her stomach and holding out her cupped hands desperately.
The thick blood from Seek’s wound coated her hand, gathering at the tips of her fingers as the drops of blood hung from her nails, ready to fall to the frozen earth. As though my life had been placed in slow motion, a single drop of blood fell from her finger through the frigid air, Kaitlyn holding her breath as she slid forward, hoping to catch the juice of life.
It hit the ground, a dull drip echoing in my ears as the blood splattered onto the soil, missing Kaitlyn’s hands by mere centimeters.
Kaitlyn lay there in mortification as the red liquid was absorbed into the dry dirt, trembling. She looked towards us desperately, her body stiff as a rock as she zoned out, waiting for something.
Seek didn’t move either. She held her breath, staring at her disappearing blood as her face crumbled in dread.
There was suddenly a change in the air—a breeze so light that unless you had known the absence of moving air, it would have been unnoticed.
“Kaitlyn!” Seek screamed horrifically, knocking the knife out of my hand and squirming away from me as I was overtaken by the quickly changing environment. The chilled air began to take its leave, replaced by a warm breeze that differed in temperature so much that it caused the air to fill with steam.
“We need to hide!” Kaitlyn announced roughly. She looked back towards us, grunting angrily before quickly spinning on her heels and grabbing The Seeker by the wrist. She charged our friends, who stood there in dumbfoundment, snatching her bow off of the grou
nd. She shoved them out of the way with the slick weapon, running down one of the ruined streets and disappearing from view.
I looked at Mabel, our eyes sharing the same fear. I didn’t know what was going on, nor did I trust them, but whatever was happening had to be far worse than them if they were running away from it. I groaned, shaking my head as the wind picked up. I made my decision—keep your friends close but your enemies closer.
“Come on…!” I exclaimed tensely, running after them as the temperature continued to increase, causing the ice fragments around us to melt and form puddles in the dry earth.
Panicking, Mabel and the others listened, following in my tracks as I ran in between two collapsed buildings, struggling to keep my pace up because of the amount of debris which consumed the once mighty street. The passage was hardly wide enough for me to fit through, my hands brushing alongside the broken establishments as I made sure that I didn’t lose my footing through the piles of rubble and bodies that lay scattered in the street.
“In here!” a voice whispered harshly.
I looked to my side, skidding to a halt in the dust as a pair of gray-white eyes beamed at me from an open crevice located on the side of one of the crumbling buildings. I didn’t even question it, taking up their offer and submerging myself in the dark, broken environment; I wouldn’t have been able to see anything had it not been for the dull luminance Seek gave off. She snatched my arm the moment that I entered the crumbling stronghold, pulling me towards her and shoving me against a wall with crushing force. She kept me pinned at the chest with one hand, Seek stretching her neck around the corner as she rapidly motioned for the rest of the group to follow.
Kaitlyn stood on the opposite side of the entryway, the low light veiling most of her body in deceitful shadows. She squeezed her bow in her hands, her eyes slits as she kept a watchful gaze to make sure that the real threat did not enter the premises.
My friends quickly filed into the dark building, Seek holding a finger to her lips, signifying them to keep quiet. They shuffled in the gloom as they hurriedly pressed their bodies against the wall next to me, struggling to calm their frightened hearts. Mabel quickly scampered to my side, snatching up my hand in a deadlock as she leaned her head back against the stone, her eyes broad and filled with angst.
“Stay calm,” Seek whispered briskly.
As soon as she said that, the light veiling her body was extinguished, plummeting us into the void. Only a small sliver of dull light managed to permeate our hiding place, seeping through the crack in the foundation that we had entered from.
“Yup, it’s him,” Kaitlyn informed Seek through a low, hostile growl.
Seek pulled away from me, unpinning my body as she glared at Kaitlyn with wild eyes. “Shoot…” she mumbled, looking slightly past the concrete wall to see if she could catch a glimpse of the enemy. “How are we going to get them out of here without him seeing us?”
“Them?” Kaitlyn reinforced under her breath. “What about you? You’re the one who can’t be caught here.”
“And neither can they,” she urged. “We’ve waited years for this; we can’t let them fall into enemy hands.”
Kaitlyn bit her lip, contemplating what The Seeker said. The five of us stayed silent, listening with interest. While I had no clue what the words they spoke meant, the longer that I stood there, the more I found myself subconsciously thinking of them as acquaintances rather than enemies; their priority now seemed to be keeping us out of harm’s way—totally backward from earlier, but I figured there was a reason as to why.
Kaitlyn sighed, looking down at her bow. “Do you trust me, Seek?” she prompted weakly.
Seek looked baffled. “What? Of course!”
“Good,” Kaitlyn responded dryly. “Then make sure you get them to Aphrite at all costs.”
“What?! Kaitlyn, what are you doing?!”
She didn’t hear another word of it, ignoring Seek as she raised her hand in protest. Boldly, Kaitlyn grabbed the edge of the opening to the outside world, taking a shaky breath before emerging from our hiding place and standing outside the entrance.
“Hey!” I heard her scream. “Looking for me?”
There was a screech—one unlike anything I had ever heard before that paralyzed my spine with fear. It wasn’t one that came from an animal—it was cold and violent, enshrouded with pure hatred and hunger.
Not even a second later, Kaitlyn turned tail. Her figure raced past the crack in the building in the opposite direction that we had come from, an embodiment of steaming, purple mist in hot pursuit of her.
“Let’s go!” Seek demanded, furious as she raced out after the mysterious being, taking off in the opposite direction that Kaitlyn had gone.
Too frightened to protest, I followed, my allies having the same idea as we pounded through the crushed rubble and bodies, desperately trying to reach the destination that The Seeker had in store for us. I didn’t care where we were going; all that I knew was that I did not want to be caught by whatever took Kaitlyn’s bait.
We crossed out into the open where we had first come to after our kidnapping, though Seek did not stop. She turned sharply, her feet scrambling through the now muddy earth as she hurriedly changed her direction and headed off down what seemed to be the main street of the fallen city.
We stayed hot on her trail, though we were horribly slow compared to the ghostly child, the light around her body growing more potent the longer we ran. I didn’t know how much longer my body could possibly keep this up; it had to be running on reserves by now from the overpowering adrenaline coursing through me each day that I existed in this twisted world. If this continued, it would only be another few days before all of us would finally meet our end.
There was a terrified wail—an explosion of rock and dust shooting from the second story of a leaning building that directly crossed our path of travel. Seek squealed with terror, large chunks of concrete raining down around us. I covered the back of my neck and held my breath as a storm of dust obscured our vision. Despite the large hazard in front of us, Seek was determined to keep going. Nothing would stop her.
The outer wall of the building, the source of the commotion, was shattered, and when we were almost next to it, a ghastly feeling rose inside of my chest—a feeling of both remembrance and horror, but I wasn’t sure why.
…Wasn’t sure why until I looked up, that was.
Kaitlyn was on the floor, her neck hanging out of the building as she held her bow protectively across her chest. Towering above her was an embodiment that scared the living daylights out of me.
A man who was one with the shadows stood over her, glaring down at her bloody face with thirsty red eyes—and no, not his pupils. His pupils were the only normal thing about him, narrowed and as black as ink. Where his eyes should have been white, they were a fierce blood-red. His skin was the color of ash, layers of gray mist flowing from his pores. He had on a dark purple hat similar to a fedora with two small purple horns sticking out from the fabric. His hair was a light purple, as was his cape, his shirt and pants practically indigo. A pair of long, ebony gloves covered his hands, excreting a murderous red haze that sizzled the air around him.
He looked like half of a shadow, his body slightly distorting in the faint wind he caused as he expelled many colors of mist in correlation to his appearance. His face was as hard as stone as he stared down at Kaitlyn—unforgiving, unmerciful, and unfazed at the thought of stealing her soul.
Until he noticed that I was looking at him.
As I ran by, my eyes couldn’t break from his evil red ones; the others noticed what I had as well, putting on an extra burst of speed to get past the devilish fiend. He curled his lips into a snarl, revealing two white fangs as the same eerie screech that I heard earlier surged towards me. He dismissed the presence of his previous prey, leaping down from the building and onto the ground, a typhoon of purple-black smog swirling around him as he shifted targets.
“Run, run, run!” Laelia screa
med frantically, looking over her shoulder as she pulled Griffin along by his hand; they were the two closest to the wicked spirit.
“That’s the Lord’s henchman!” Sybil squeaked fearfully, glancing back over Laelia’s shoulder that she rested on. “If he catches us, we’re done for!”
“Then we need to protect ourselves!” Mabel exclaimed, looking my way with determined crimson eyes. “Eero, catch!” she cried, throwing Coruscus towards me. My arm flew out to the side instinctively, locking around the hilt of my tomahawk. I don’t know if any of them realized that he was after me; I certainly didn’t have to look to know that his blood-filled eyes were burning into my back.
“Don’t stop running!” Seek encouraged. “We need to get across the divide!”
On her words, we emerged from the ruins of Pikë, the emptiness of the dimension returning. Seek looked behind her, my eyes following her line of sight as my focus became drawn to the spiritual man racing towards us. He was mere feet behind Laelia and Griffin in the back, both of whom were trying desperately to pick up the speed. His nose was flaring like a bull, the deep black bags under his eyes increasing in saturation as heinous thoughts brewed within his brain. His black boots romped through the dry soil, showing the intense desire behind his chase.
Grunting angrily, he pulled his arms back as a ball of dark magic ignited in the palms of his disclosed hands—a swarm of shadows and dark spirits that whistled like a tea kettle, rippling intensely in their invisible confinements as the man flashed his fangs, taking aim at me.
I prepared myself for his onslaught, ready to move to the side the moment that it left his hand; still, why was he after me specifically?
He threw his arms out in front of him, the shadow ball screaming with energy as it flew towards me at incomprehensible speeds. Not even a second after it was out of his hands, my legs ready to change direction, Laelia stumbled, her ankle rolling as her body was thrown heavily to one side, causing the ball of darkness to make a direct hit with the back of her head.
The henchman slowed his pace in shock, his eyes wide as Laelia screamed in agony, pressing one hand to the back of her head as the dark spirits exploded against her skull with a mighty wail, sinking into the roots of her blonde hair so that it looked like her body was radiating black energy. She was crying and stumbling, though somehow, with Griffin and Sybil’s encouragement, she managed to continue running.