by Amanda Churi
“You say natural abilities,” I repeated, “but I don’t understand. Mabel and I have only recently begun to change…”
This came as a surprise to them both. “You mean that you have never been able to access your demon form at will?” Seek pressed, incredulous. She looked over at Mabel, who met her startled white eyes. “Nor have you been able to call on fire?”
Mabel shook her head, her face straight. “Never,” she confirmed. Her eyes shifted towards mine. “Eero has only ever fully transformed into a demon once, but that was when Satan entered his body. Ever since we came to the future, our other halves have become active.”
“Other halves?” Kaitlyn urged.
“Neither of you were born with these powers?” Seek continued.
“Uhm, no?” Mabel said unsurely. “Eero was born with an Essence, but the demons were inactive until he was struck by lightning. My powers never came forth until I used a sword… And even then, there was an interference during the transfer of powers.”
Seek and Kaitlyn were silent, looking at one another for guidance. “So, we have prophets who don’t even know how to control what they have been given,” Kaitlyn grumbled in despair. “Great, just great.”
Mabel and I perked up in surprise. “Prophets?” we echoed.
The two girls looked away from one another, focusing on us. “Yes. Prophets of the legendary prophecy passed down for generations.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. Prophecy? No, no, no. Mabel was the prophet; she was the Receiver, and that much had been proven. Me? I was nothing more than a screwed up puppet on my mother’s part.
“How is that possible?” Mabel countered, crossing her arms in defiance. “The prophecy that involved me was around almost a thousand years ago. There is no way it is still in effect.”
Seek stared at her coldly, retaliating Mabel’s defensive body language with her own exasperation. “Do you need a refresher? Perhaps your lapse in time clashed with the dark materials that surround this world, bogging your memory.” She held out her hand. “Give it.”
Mabel blinked, unsure as to what was being asked of her. “Uhm, what?”
“Your hand,” Seek elaborated. “I know you remember.”
“Remember what?!”
Seek veered her sight to Kaitlyn, her bodyguard processing the words behind her assertive eyes. Kaitlyn nodded, grabbing the hand of Seek and holding it tight. She looked at us next. “Eero, take Mabel’s hand, please.”
“Why?” I prompted suspiciously.
“Because we said so.”
I always loved that explanation.
Filling every pocket in my lungs with air, I looked at Mabel. I didn’t know what they planned, but I figured that we had better fulfill their request unless we wanted them or someone else to make us.
I held out my hand to her.
Mabel focused on my hand for a moment before her eyes suddenly widened, a gasp fleeing her lips. Without needing more grooming, she threw her hand into mine like there was no tomorrow, spinning towards Seek and snatching hers as well.
A deadly, viscous black wave flew over me, the power of the water knocking my feet out from under me and sending me spiraling into the dark sea with the strength of the tide. I screamed as my hand was ripped away from Mabel’s, a whirlpool of bubbles entrapping me as I violently twirled and tumbled below the surface. My lungs swelled with ache, tainted liquid smelling of chlorine and ammonia racing into my nostrils and down my throat. Puffs of air immediately escaped my lips as I gagged, struggling to hold onto consciousness as I was cast downriver to an unknown location.
The water crashed down on me once more, its punch shoving my knees to an undiscovered earth. As though there was an approaching tsunami, the water was sucked away, but I was left rooted in place. I gasped as the roar of the ocean receded, hanging my head as I slightly vomited, trying to be rid myself of the toxic fluids. The water that took me hostage retreated in every direction, silence dawning on this strange, foreign, and definitely evil dimension that I had been exposed to—one that I wanted to leave ASAP.
“Wh-what’s going on?!” I gagged, lifting my exhausted head and scanning the darkness for any signs of life. My friends were nowhere to be found. They had just disappeared; the haunted sea swallowed their entire existence. “Seek! What did you do?!”
In a time of need, hope shall appear… Seek’s voice replied, permeating the expanse of nothingness in a deep, husky, and sinister voice.
“What?!” I called back, my skin bristling in disgust.
Perhaps a dozen feet in front of my flushed body, she suddenly broke free of the shadows, standing and staring my way with her shining crimson eyes. My jaw dropped in surprise, my eyes illuminating; I wanted to call out to her instinctively—to stand, to run to her, to make sure she was safe, but this dimension had paralyzed me and made my being one with the earth, granting Mabel the curse of petrification as well.
Her face was chiseled with fear—with memories. A pool of blood sloshed around her bare feet, staining her skin and bubbling beneath the surface. Lonely, pitiful wails filled every molecule of the air, crescendoing from silence into a faint, but urgent, choir. Glass shards floated in the warm blood about her, along with wings from tiny birds. A large coil of thread encircled each of her wrists, a large needle on each side connecting to the bondage and keeping her in place. She did not flinch; I could not even tell if she knew what was happening.
“Mabel!” I called out. “It’s Eero! Snap out of it!”
Driven by past, watched over by gear, Seek continued.
Mabel’s body began to shake, the beam of light from her eyes strengthening. Inhaling urgently, as though she had parted from a dream, she whipped her head to her bondage, quickly fighting to free herself.
Full of sin, they ally with those defeated by pride—
Mabel screamed as she tore her wrists through the coiled thread, her hands running red as she raced towards me. I tried to stand, but my body still refused to participate.
For when the future is at risk, these worlds will collide.
She couldn’t have been more than a meter away before a surge of fire erupted from the stone like lava, creating an endless, as far as the eye could see, wall of neon red flames.
“What is going on?!” I demanded as Mabel skid to a halt, the flames’ menacing stance and life-threatening heat forcing her back.
“I-I don’t know!” Mabel squealed, holding her hands to her mouth as she faced the ferocious opponent before her. “I don’t know, I don’t know!”
“Just part the flames!” I told her quickly, flexing my biceps as I tried to raise my arms, though my hands remained bolted to the ground. I didn’t understand the situation either, and yes, I was freaking out inside, but she had to do it before things started to get more crazy; we all knew that there were no limits in this nutjob of a future!
“How?” Mabel cried.
“You know how!” I shot back, flustered. “Just do it!”
“HOW WOULD I KNOW HOW?! What do you think I am? A witch?!”
My eyes broadened. What…? Did she not remember?
Embrace…
A hand grabbed my neck, yanking it back so that my vertebrae reached its limit. I grunted painfully, feeling their fingers scratch my skin and remain attached, though as I stared up, there was no sign of my apprehender.
Do not fight.
“Mabel, come on!” I urged frantically, staring up into an abandoned galaxy as their grip intensified, their unseen nails drawing blood. “Do it!”
She groaned pitifully, her head spinning like a top as the dire situation reached its peak. Trusting me, she released a battle cry, charging the wall of robust flames with a lowered head, prepared to smash their line of defense.
In time, all shall fall from this smite.
I fought with the spirit as her scream shattered my eardrums—her gruesome, horrific, and downright deadly wail as the flames turned against their master, throwing themselves at her small body and r
ipping her skin, clothing, hair… Ripping her life away.
“MABEL!” I roared, my heart thrown to the wolves as I saw her incinerate like kindling. I would not stop fighting the malevolent force, but it didn’t matter at that moment, because as my own soul fell apart, watching her suffer and fall to this madness, my own enemy appeared, giving me little time to process the rapidly trucking chain of events.
Their solid black silhouette clashed against the hungry backsplash of flames, the hand of my apprehender appearing around my throat. They had no eyes, and I could not even pick out a single, unique feature belonging to them. Still, I glared into their blank face, my eyes festering with golden fury.
Those left will be tested, and continue to be undone…
The chest of the ghost shimmered an intense white in reply to Seek’s words, their free hand reaching into their gut and retracting a large cross held captive by an iridescent ivory sheen. I did not move, a monsoon of scalding, humid air seeping into my lungs and sticking to the cilia as I stared upward, watching them twirl the cross in their hand as they honed in on me.
“S-Seek!” I screeched, hardly able to speak as I tried to fight their hold one final time, even though it was as useless as ever. “Stop it! Just stop it!”
...And it will remain as such—
“SEEK, PLEASE!”
Until the war is won.
The cross flew down upon me.
My heart involuntarily skipped a beat, my lungs drawing one last decrepit breath. I closed my eyes, screaming in preparation for the end, and it wasn’t until my cry drew on for several elongated seconds that I realized I was not dead.
Distraught, my eyelids crashed open, and I stumbled back when I saw that I was in the training room amongst my friends. I snatched my hand away from Mabel, continuing to scream and shake as I tried to reassure myself that I was still in one piece. Kaitlyn’s face was straight, as well as Seek’s as she glared at me, but Mabel had come apart on every level—anyone could see it. She did not even register the breakage of our skin; she was frozen as she stared at her feet, hardly breathing.
“W-what was that for?!” I rasped with hatred, horrified as Mabel’s demise looped in my head. “What the hell are you trying to do?! Give us a heart attack?!”
“She needed to remember what originally set her on this path,” Seek answered. “Had it not been for that vision, she would have never so carelessly trespassed on uncountable properties in search of you, and, furthermore, she would not have been captured by the Executioner.”
With my vitals beginning to return to normal, I shifted my stupefied eyes to Mabel, who would not look at me. Vision…
“But—there was darkness,” Mabel’s challenge to Calla from long ago rang in my head, “and I saw Eero, and flames, and wings, and—”
I could almost see her through a new set of lens. That… That was how she knew me… How she knew my name and why she put such faith in me from the start—
Even though I caused her to burn up in the vision, but we could ignore that.
“…T-the prophecy never mentioned a Receiver, if you think about it,” Mabel mumbled pathetically, closing her eyes as she tried to forget what she had seen. I didn’t blame her; that premonition, however true or false it might have been, was downright terrifying.
“It never said Receiver specifically, no,” Seek admitted through a tired huff. “But do you remember the ancient painting of the prophecy? The one with the gears? There were flames and the Sword of Maeve. You are the only one to our knowledge who can practice such an art.”
“Then what about me?” I spoke up. “The prophecy mentions hope; that’s Mabel. If anything, I destroyed this world; I can’t be part of it.”
“But think,” Seek jumped in. “In the ancient painting, a golden triangle and bolt connected the three inner gears, the Sword of Maeve running directly through the heart. Gold? Come on, that has to relate to you!”
“That’s very far-fetched…” I tried again.
Seek shrugged. “Prophecies are very vague; if you think you figured it out, there’s a ninety-nine percent chance you’re wrong.”
“Even if a supernatural deciphered it for us?” Mabel challenged.
Kaitlyn scowled, leaning forward to accept her duel. “If it was that dastardly Calla, definitely.”
I frowned. Well, there went whatever small theories that I had… “So, what do you make of the prophecy?” I asked quietly.
Seek shrugged. “Not too much…” she told us. “Driven from past… It’s possibly talking about how the prophets came from the past, but before that, I was under the assumption that their drive came from their past…”
“Worlds must collide,” Kaitlyn added. “Past and future?”
“Or Heaven and Hell,” Seek contradicted.
“And then we have the situation that in the artwork there are four gears total…” Kaitlyn mumbled. “Mabel and Eero are only two people—”
“This is exactly why the queen is reluctant to admit that both of you are the hope we have been waiting for,” Seek told us glumly. “The prophecy can be interpreted many different ways, and it has already been misinterpreted on several occasions—”
“So, if you are wrong again,” I edged on darkly, “we probably won’t find out until it’s too late. Right? Then we’ll just be another misinterpretation and you will move on like nothing happened.”
Seek’s jaw dropped in disbelief, the white light around her body flaring up; Kaitlyn certainly did not seem happy with the accusation either, but I refused to take back my words. I was nothing more than Azuré’s pawn, and that was probably all that Mabel and I were to the Encryption.
“Well,” Seek began, grinding her teeth as her energy raged around her. “You’re the ultimate demon, Eero—one who holds the traits of dark souls from all different breeds. Let’s see how well you fare against one who holds the innocent! After all, you’re right! Why would we miss a demon? Especially the one who brought this hell to us?”
My nerves heightened the moment her challenge arose, a switch in my body flicked as my purpose became tested yet again. Half of my body flooded with rage… No one saw me as useful besides my friends—only as someone capable of destruction. Another part of me cried—died inside when the gold light of my inhabitants reached through my skin. As I felt my gums slicing and my nails extending into gruesome claws, I remembered Kevin’s words—the warning that if I did not control myself, a demon would be my permanent form, and I would lose myself, much like my mother. Last night’s dinner already proved that I was losing the battle within… I had to stop this before I lost more of my humanity!
Struggling, I took a step back, trying to evade Seek. Control it! I scolded myself. She’s testing you!
“A pathetic, puny demon from the past,” Seek continued, shoving past Mabel, who stood to the side, looking on with angst. “The one who allowed the Lord to rise to power—for Heaven to fall and for darkness to ascend!”
“I-I didn’t know what I was doing!” I protested, trying to fight the demons within, who urged me to attack and show Seek that I was anything but weak. “I only wanted to help! I thought my job was done!”
“Oh, your job was!” she screamed as she stalked towards me, twisting her hands within one another and increasing the potency of power surrounding her. “Your job was to destroy the world, and look what you did! Congratulations!”
Fight her! the demons screamed. Make her regret her words!
All of those innocent souls that she has surrounding her, another pointed out, look how tasty they are… They would nourish us well.
I closed my eyes momentarily, trying to block out their words, and when I reopened them, I found my eyesight to be enhanced once more, allowing me to see every particle in existence. This time, though, I saw something I never had—it almost seemed like I stepped into another dimension.
The light around Seek was actually thousands of souls. They were white, misty wisps swarming around her body like a blizzard, eac
h whispering chants and words to the child that only she could process. “FIGHT ME!” Seek demanded.
What are you waiting for?! ATTACK HER!
I groaned, shaking my head as I curled my claws, preparing to lunge and slash her throat. I… Couldn’t!
“NO!” I defied, snapping my head down as I felt the restraints snap. A surge of golden light shot out of my pupils with a sharp screech, ricocheting off of the tiles and slamming into my face. I screamed as what felt like a rain of bricks pummeled my skull, causing me to hit the floor face-first.
I groaned, clawing at the ground as I held my stinging forehead to the cool tile, my demons taking their leave when they realized that I had refused to engage. The quality of my vision had fallen by the time I forced my eyes open once more; it was still powerful, but it was no longer strong enough to peer into the spiritual side of the world.
Mabel rushed over to me, resting a hand on my back and glaring at the Encryptors, warning them to keep their distance. They had tested us enough today.
“He didn’t attack you,” Kaitlyn noted breathlessly. “He fought the temptation.”
Seek smiled with pride, her souls reuniting with one another beneath her skin; it was as though her display of aggression was nothing more than an act. “And you tell me you’re not part of the prophecy,” she mused quietly. “Part of our extensive research is finding out just what the two of you are capable of. Eero… You can’t deny the fact that you are a demon. Your quickly altering appearance only proves such.”
“Wait, what?!” I screeched, jerking my chin up and frantically running my hands through my hair. I hadn’t gotten to look at my reflection since the attack! Was my physical appearance not reverting properly after each demonic display?!
“Shh, it’s ok,” Mabel cooed, lightly patting my back.