Defiant Guardians Anthology

by Jacob Peppers

  There was no burn. No smoke.

  Gauss, nodding his head, pointed to Deborah who was sitting up on her makeshift cot. Her eyes were wide open, her arms crossed over her shaking body.

  “You did that to her,” said Gauss, dropping his arm.

  “I’m so sorry,” I said, my bottom lip quivering. “I didn’t mean to hurt her. I don’t know what came over me. I-,”

  Deborah jumped up from her cot and made for me. My face flinched as hers came close to mine. She wrinkled her nose a bit and then… and then… she pecked me on the lips with hers.

  We stood there for a moment and I wanted nothing more to do than to ask her to do that again. There we were. Together. Demons most likely trotting on the soil above our heads. Her armor was broken and dried with old blood. I was half naked, still breathing heavily, and my arms were confined to the walls.

  And all I could think about were her lips on mine.

  “You saved me,” she said in a low voice, lower than a girl’s voice her age should have been, but for some reason, something about that voice gave me goosebumps.

  “That part is a little fuzzy,” I said, trying to recall what exactly I’d done.

  “I saw the whole thing… you know,” she said. “I was floating just above my body, rising higher with every passing drop of my blood. It was you, Ira, who pushed that blood back into my body.”

  “Yeah, that part I remember,” I said.

  Deborah’s eyes would flick to me, then away, then back at me. I wasn’t sure if she was wanting to kiss me again or if she was disappointed that she owned me her life now. Either way, I was happy for her attention. However, the aching in my wrists brought me back to reality.

  Gauss must have sensed this for he brandished a small knife from his waist and cut the ropes. I let my arms drop lazily by my sides before grabbing each wrist and rubbing them. Deborah looked like she was about to walk away but instead chose to give me a hug. It was weak at first but grew with the passing seconds.

  Over her shoulder I could see my mother raising an eyebrow at me, her blood-stained face giving me a half grin.

  What the hell had happened to my life? At one point I’m preaching to the masses about the Almighty and the next I am half naked, bloodied, and getting embraced by a beautiful girl whose sole purpose was to fight demons. Oh… and I was half demon… can’t forget that detail.

  When Deborah finally let go of me and walked back to her cot, things got back to serious in the cellar.

  “Alright, we need to make a plan of action,” said Mother in a commandeering voice.

  “Agreed,” said Gauss. “What do you have in mind, Commander?”

  Mother scrunched up her lips as she thought for a few seconds. “If demons have made it this far, I think it’s safe to say that there are demons probably still lurking back in the Refuge.”

  “I will go back and lead a cleaning party through the entirety of the Refuge,” volunteered Gauss, but Mother was shaking her head.

  “No, you started Ira’s training, you must see it finished.”

  “You’re not saying…”

  “I am saying.” Mother’s armor clinked as she put her hands to her waist. “It’s time you, Ira, and Deborah open the Stillness Chamber and do your training in there.”

  “But Commander, that chamber is spiritual and holy in the utmost degree! It would be the highest of sins for us dirty humans to walk inside of it.”

  Mother scoffed, “Do you think the big man in the sky is gonna give a shit about us using the Stillness Chamber when the devil’s minions are running around Auracle murdering en masse?”

  Gauss and I stared at Mother with open mouths, most likely neither of us having ever heard her say a swear word before.

  “Tell me, leader Gauss, if you were the Almighty-“

  “Commander, I don’t think it’s right-,”

  “Don’t interrupt me,” snapped Mother, making Gauss flinch. “If you were the Almighty and demons were slaughtering women, children, and husbands in the streets. Would you give a damn if a few righteous warriors entered the Stillness Chamber for training?”

  Gauss’ mouth was jutting open and closed for a few seconds before he said, “I, uh… no, ma’am, I wouldn’t care in the least.”

  Mother smiled, raising her chest more into the air. “Good! Now grab your trainees and make haste! Every second is a murdered child of the Almighty!”

  “Mother, er, Commander,” I said, putting a finger into the air to interject. “What exactly is a Chamber of Stillness?”

  “It’s the Stillness Chamber,” corrected Mother. “It is a place where only the most holy of warriors have been granted access to train. It is a world in and of its own where time is non-existent. A year in the Stillness Chamber is not even a second in this world. There, Gauss will have the appropriate time to make you the warrior you were meant to be.”

  Before I could ask another question, Gauss interrupted by asking, “But Commander, where will I find such a chamber? I’ve only heard of it spoken in stories.”

  Mother turned to me and winked, “Ira knows exactly where it is.”

  I raised an eyebrow at her, “I assure you, Mother, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “Of course you do, son,” she said, winking at me. “Now, Ira… Go home!”

  25

  We waited until dark to head out. All three of us sat quietly in the cellar, listening to the screams of the people above. Mother had already made her way out of the bookstore and out onto the streets. I prayed to the Almighty that she made it to the Refuge safely. Watching her leave made me feel guilty. Here we were, Gauss, Deborah, and I, just sitting in a cold cellar while people were being slaughtered above us.

  I could have asked Gauss why we weren’t above helping those in need but I knew what he would have said. He would have told me that I wasn’t ready. He would have told me I needed more training. However, this isn’t what I wanted to hear and so I kept quiet. Sure, I couldn’t take on an army of demons but I could hold my own! There was a lot of space in this cellar, couldn’t we go up and bring down a few families?

  About two hours into the silence, after I had heard my fair share of screams from above, I was just about to charge up the stairs when Gauss stood up suddenly, announcing it was time to go.

  I walked over to Deborah and offered her my shoulder but she refused. She rolled her own shoulders and bent her torso left and right. She was completely healed. This got me thinking… being that I used demonic power to heal her would this have any future repercussions on her health? I prayed not.

  The two large windows at the storefront of the bookstore were completely demolished. Books were thrown everywhere, their pages coated in three or four coats of blood. I didn’t notice Pom-Pos’ body at first, my eyes set on the red floor when Deborah nodded her head to the wall.

  There was the headless Pom-Pos. He was attached to the wall by three sharpened nails running through each of his limbs. His arms and legs were stretched outward in the shape of a star, but being that there was no head, a bloody star point was drawn. At his feet were thirteen lit black candles. I couldn’t help but gag and had to turn my face. I was pretty sure I could smell his gore.

  Gauss turned and shushed me, his finger to his lips as he used his other hand to quietly open the door. The outside wasn’t much better than the inside. The cobblestone ground was drenched in dark blood which had dried from the sun. With every step I took, I heard the stickiness of the carnage below me which had my stomach trying to force me to gag again.

  No demons were in sight but neither were there any people, alive people that is. There were plenty of innards and body parts, but I kept my head facing forward, refusing to look down. My ears perked at the sound of screams far away. A morbid thought popped into my head letting me know that the coast was clear… for now.

  It took me longer than I expected to get my bearings straight. I had Deborah lead me to Auracle’s main river, the river I had made my second kill,
and it was there that I was able to lead us back to my old home. All three of us had our weapons in hand, our eyes looking for anything and everything that moved. I must have looked pretty funny to them from behind as I was flinching every few seconds. However, after looking back at them, I could see they were acting the exact same way.

  We were about a block away from the chapel when the inevitable happened. My eyes had adjusted to the darkness and still, it was not enough to catch sight of the black demon which had attached itself to one of the buildings. It had waited until I was perfectly in front of it before it attacked.

  It felt as though I had been struck by a large horse. In the corner of my eye, I caught sight of its flapping black wings before it slammed its feet into my rib cage. The next thing I knew I was flying sideways where I crashed through the glass of the opposite building.

  My eyes and mouth were both closed tight to keep the glass out. After the commotion died down, I opened one eye at a time. Then, the pain came. I wasn’t able to breathe and the whole left side of my body was on fire. I whirled my head around looking for my spear but it was nowhere to be seen. I must have dropped it outside.

  As quickly as I could, I stood up, my demon hand out in front just in case the demon was ready to come and finish the job. For some reason, I couldn’t help but open my mouth and let out a roar, and doing so made both of my horns itch.

  Looking out the window, I saw the demon coming for me. It was walking upright, its long wings attached to both its legs and its arms. Its body was surprisingly human around the chest and stomach muscles. Its face held a long beak that was coated in blood that had blackened from the sun. I could see its eyes from here and I watched as they flicked from my demonic arm to the horns on my head. It was calculating whether or not I was worth it... still, it walked with a confident air.

  And in half a second, the demon’s head was gone. One slice from Gauss’ sword and the head was rolling away, it’s beak opening and closing as it tried its best to scream. Deborah jumped through the window, now offering her own shoulder to me.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Just dandy,” I said, trying to refuse the shoulder, but as soon as I tried to take a step I felt my whole left side erupt again with pain. It would take some time for my hellish blood to heal this wound and so I accepted her offer.

  “I was this close to killing it,” Deborah said with a smile, holding two fingers out in front of her, the space between them was minimal. “Then we would have been even.”

  “No way, you would still owe me,” I said, a little delirious from the pain

  Gauss shushed us again and I couldn’t help but feel like this was my first real mission. I’d read about this kind of stuff before in the library back at the Refuge. It didn’t matter whether or not a soldier was wounded during a fight with a demon. The mission always continued no matter what.

  The face of the chapel made my heart hurt. It was in complete ruin, much more so than it usually was. Where there once was two large swinging doors was no more. All the painted glass windows were gone, either broken or stolen and the smell coming from within was terrible. It smelled as though something inside had died.

  And that’s exactly what had happened. There were two homeless people laying on the ground, one with a slit throat and the other had a broken bottle stuck in his gut, which was probably the same weapon that had slit the first one’s throat. On the edges of the room were abandoned sleeping bags and cooking equipment.

  It was nice to know that the church had been used to house some of Auracle’s forgotten people. But… a murder in the Almighty’s home? That was uncalled for. Could this place ever be brought back from the dark state it was now in?

  “The altar,” Gauss said, walking past me and stepping over the two dead people. Deborah and I followed but we were sure to give the corpses a wide berth.

  “What are you going to do?” I asked him, the pain in my ribs starting to subside. I was able to let go of Deborah who kept her eyes on me to make sure I was okay.

  Gauss answered me by putting his foot on the top of the atar and front kicking it as hard as he could. The altar, being an ancient structure layered with history, exploded into hundreds of splinters as it flew forward.

  “What the hell are you doing?! Do you know what you just did?!”

  “None of this matters anymore, Ira. Lives are at stake and I have no time to fiddle with objects that hold no soul.”

  I raised a finger to object but the dusty book lying on the floor where the altar once stood made me shut my mouth.

  “This… I can’t believe the stories were true,” said Gauss, dropping to his knees and bowing to the book.

  Deborah and I looked at each other before following suit. We kneeled beside Gauss and bowed our head. Our mentor of arms said a small prayer and, with one shaky hand, flipped open the front cover.

  Then, nothing.

  I peeked open an eye and saw that Gauss still had his eyes shut. He was mumbling something. After a few minutes, I couldn’t take it anymore. I was just about to ask him what the heck he was doing when the man toppled forward, his head slamming into the front page of the book and getting sucked inside.

  “Oh shit!” I exclaimed, trying to grab the man’s shoulders but it was no use, the book was too strong!

  Before Deborah and I knew it, Gauss had been distorted in such a way that the book was able to pull half of him in. Then… he was gone.

  Deborah looked at me, her eyes wide with fear.

  “Don’t worry, we’ll get him back!” I cried, shoving my hand into the book and just like Gauss, my hand slid right through.

  The other side was cold and I could feel a breeze. I tried to pull my hand back but found that I couldn’t. Deborah was there, trying to hold me back but again it was no use! Within a second my head and body were sucked into the book. I opened my mouth to scream but I wasn’t able to…

  I couldn’t breathe.

  26

  I had an epiphany.

  With vomit pouring out of my mouth and into my lap, I found the sides of my lips raising into a mad smile.

  Life could not get any weirder than it already was. This was it. Nothing more could surprise me. Not even if the Almighty revealed himself to me at that very moment.

  Well, maybe that would surprise me but nothing else!

  Gauss was standing up, his arms crossed over his chest. He was completely naked which made me realize that I was naked too. My eyes drifted to Deborah who, lucky for me, was also naked. However, it was hard to marvel at her stunning body when it was covered in puke.

  I caught Gauss’ eyes which told me to avert mine away from the woman and I did so feeling like a dirty pervert.

  The land, the world, the… where were we? Wherever we were, it was plain. In the spiritual readings, which had once been my life’s goal to preach, they had defined a place called purgatory which described this setting perfectly. Is that where I was? Purgatory? Where those poor souls waited to be relieved of their sins to be allowed into the heavenly kingdom? If so, where were the souls?

  The ground was a mirror, reflecting everything above it. If I stared down at it long enough it ended up giving me a headache. There were also no walls and everything was white and without ornament. This world seemed to go on for as far as the eye could see. Being that everything was white, however, who knew if I was just staring at a distant wall.

  I turned my head and noticed a large window behind me, which looked out into the real world revealing the other half of the church, including the two dead homeless people and the church’s exit. If I squinted my eyes hard enough, I could see the grass just outside the church steps which was frozen in a sideways stance from the wind blowing through it. Time looked to have stopped completely.

  “Where exactly are we?” I asked Gauss, wiping stomach acid from my lips.

  “The Chamber of Stillness, I suppose.”

  “And we’re here to train, right?” asked Deborah, turning away from us and using he
r forearm to hide most of her butt. This brought my attention to my own nudeness and I quickly covered my groin.

  “That is correct.”

  “And how are we supposed to do that butt naked and without weapons?” Deborah asked, pointing through the window at the armor and weapons that had been left behind on the ground.

  Gauss rubbed his chin as he thought a moment. He walked to the window and put his hand to it. Then, he slammed his fist into it. There was a loud thud and I could feel the vibrations come through the ground to where I was sitting.

  Then, he did something I hadn’t thought of. He simply walked around the window, disappearing. A few seconds later, he whistled for us to join him and we did so. As we were walking, Deborah looked down at where I was covering myself, and then she looked me in the eyes and winked. I could feel my cheeks go red instantly. I wanted to think of something witty to say or maybe even wink back at her but my nerves kept me from doing so.

  Behind the window was no window at all, but another altar that looked surprisingly similar to the one Gauss had shattered what seemed only minutes before. It was even covered in the same dust and two half-melted red candles. The wooden face of the altar, which I had come to take for granted, had three hourglasses carved into it. The main one in the middle was standing upright while the hourglass on each side of it was tilted away. How had I not noticed this before?

  Gauss hovered his hand over the altar. He kept it there a moment before letting it rest on the top. A sword appeared instantly a few inches away from his fingers.

  “Just as I thought,” he said, grabbing the sword and giving it a few spins to his side.

  The blackness of Gauss’ skin was evident in the all-white world we were in. He also had a much more mature and, dare I say, manly and hardened body than my own. I really wanted to be clothed now and so I too put my hand on the altar.

  A long grey robe appeared and I quickly took it and threw it over my shoulders. It was neither warm nor cold. The temperature of this place didn’t seem to change at all no matter what. I felt comfortable, plain and simple. It was a feeling of neutrality.