Staked!

by Candace Wondrak

  While I accessed the situation, an electric zap filled the air, and the cages unlocked. This crazy girl must have pressed the button while falling.

  I ran over to Gabriel, shaking him, forcing him to fully come to.

  After a few seconds of jostling, he slowly blinked his eyes open. “What—” He mumbled and ran a hand through his dusty hair, “What’s going on?” I never had seen him so exhausted.

  “Your girlfriend didn’t want to have dinner with you.” I motioned all around me, at all the cages that were opening. “She wanted you to be dinner.”

  Gabriel jumped to his feet. “Wow. Okay. Um…”

  I looked around. Twenty Nightwalkers surround us, one of every shape and size. “We need to get them back in their cages before they kill us.” I glanced at Gabriel and then the remote that laid on the opposite side of the Nightwalkers. “Then we take this place down.”

  “Uh-huh. And how are we going to do that?”

  We took a step back as the group of starved Nightwalkers took a collective step towards us. This was definitely not good.

  “We need to get that remote,” I answered, pointing.

  They took another step. We looked at each other.

  “Split up?” Gabriel asked.

  I nodded.

  In a flash we both ran to the right and left of the huge group. They seemed dazed and confused. Perhaps because of the lack of proper feeding. The Demons soon comprehended that there were two happy-meals running around them and one laying on the ground, because they suddenly split into three groups, going after each of us.

  Too bad I was too angry to care about the ones who went after the still unconscious girl. Mostly because there was an ugly standing between me and the remote. I reached inside my coat, but it wasn’t there.

  My stake wasn’t there.

  I must have dropped it up on the lookout when I tackled that wacked-up girl.

  And I didn’t have enough time to go get it, because Gabriel was still a little sluggish. If I went up there, he might end up getting caught.

  The Nightwalker ran toward me, and its face met with my heel. Good thing I wore my hardest combat boots. More damage was done to its face than to my foot. Three came up behind me, trying to bite me like the little Nightwalkers they were. Two had contact with each of my fists, and the third with my head in a backwards head-butt.

  A headache surged through my brain.

  Note to self: avoid head-butts.

  I didn’t even have time to look for Gabriel amongst the chaos. There were too many surrounding the now-dead girl for me to see him.

  Hmm…maybe we could take this place down by just fighting. The columns seemed to be shaking, barely capable staying in place. One direct push could put this whole place over the edge.

  I finally saw him. Gabriel was scarcely keeping his own against a group of six. But he was by the remote.

  “Gabriel,” I yelled after roundhouse-kicking a whole hoard of them. “Try the yellow button!” A big Nightwalker wrapped his huge arms around my neck, constricting. I could barely breathe. “Now,” I gasped for air. A few more seconds with a hold like this, and I would be the unconscious (and soon dead) one.

  A shock emitted from the collar of the giant Nightwalker who had me in a death grip. I was beginning to see little white stars dancing around in my eyes. But after a few seconds of the shock, he let me go, falling to the floor.

  Not before the shock traveled through his dead body and jumped to mine, jumpstarting my heart and frizzing my hair. I stood, once I had control of my tingling muscles, holding my neck and half-smiling to Gabriel above the Nightwalkers, who had followed suit of the huge one. They were all writhing in pain.

  “Keep holding it down,” I struggled for breath. He nodded as I dragged the corpse of the girl farther in the chamber. She would turn eventually, even though less than half of her body remained, so I had to make sure she was crushed, along with the rest.

  Glancing to the far left, I noticed there was a steep pathway leading back up to the lookout point. I showed it to Gabriel, who was beginning to look better, more awake and alert.

  “Okay,” he said, still pressing the button. “But what are you doing?” His blue eyes were tired and bruised. And hurt. Understandable. His first girlfriend had tried to kill him by feeding him to her pets. I tried to tell him, to warn him, but he wouldn’t have any of it.

  I hoped this wouldn’t screw him up mentally.

  I neared the closest column, the one that was cracked about a hundred times. I pushed. I pushed hard. Slowly but surely, I felt it budging, moving. I grunted as I gave it one, final, hard shove and watched it fall, taking out the other columns with it, like a game of dominos. Honestly, I didn’t think my plan could have gone any better.

  But then I realized that I stood right where the final column was going to land. Quickly, I ran up the steep rise leading to the lookout. Time wasn’t on my side. The ground shook violently beneath my feet, causing me to fall to the floor while I was running out of the tunnel. It felt like an earthquake.

  Gabriel and I were going to have a lot of explaining to do.

  He waited for me, still holding that dumb button, right outside the tunnel’s exit into the crypt.

  I smiled weakly. That was all I could muster. “You can let it go now, Gabriel.”

  “Oh, okay.” Gabriel threw the remote down on the ground with such force it broke at first contact with the dirt. We started walking through the cobwebs on our way out, trying to find the exit. “Hey,” he said without turning to look at me, “I just wanted to say, thank—”

  A strong, tan hand hit his face, knocking him out instantly.

  Uh-oh. We missed one?

  The Nightwalker looked down at the unresponsive boy, its face twisted in anger and hunger. Then it looked at me with a startling stare.

  I froze, a rookie mistake.

  The Nightwalker had blood red eyes. Eyes that I’d never seen on a Nightwalker before. And I’d seen more than my fair share.

  Before I could think of what to do, it grabbed my neck and slowly lifted me in the air. My lungs felt like they were going to burst. I stretched my arms out, trying to reach for its face, but my arms were too short.

  I closed my eyes, feeling that if I didn’t they were going to pop right out.

  With insane strength, it tossed me aside, as if I weighed nothing. I landed hard on a broken coffin. Blood came into my mouth and I coughed it out. My brain hurt. My whole body hurt. I felt like I was minutes from passing out.

  I thought that we were out and free, but apparently not. We must have missed one. I looked up, noticing that this Nightwalker didn’t have a shock collar on. Maybe it was one of her newer pets and she hadn’t gotten around to putting a collar on it quite yet.

  Which really sucked for me right now.

  The tip of its foot collided with my stomach, then my nose. A burst of pain shot through me, in every nerve, up to my face. Blood flowed easily out of my nose; it must have broken it with a single kick.

  Something came up and I couldn’t hold it down any longer. I threw up. Blood mingled with yellow stomach acid. It was the only thing inside me right now.

  The Nightwalker placed its foot on my back, pushing me to the floor, into the puddle of blood I just puked out. I was too weak to struggle. It was over for me. I knew it. I was going to die, and so was Gabriel. So, basically, this whole trip was for nothing. Instead of just one death, there were going to be two.

  Did I do a terrible job or what?

  With one last push to the floor, I heard a snap. Or did I feel the snap? Crap. I’m sure that snap came from inside me. Abruptly, my breathing became harder, and with each breath came an unimaginable amount of pain. A rib or two must have broken. Fantastic.

  Wow. The sarcasm, right until the last minute of my life.

  The Nightwalker held me up with one hand, and the other moved my hair aside. Its maroon eyes fixated on my black-and-blue neck.

  Great. I wasn’t just going
to die. Nope. I was going to turn into one of the creatures that plagued this earth like vermin.

  Its face was inches from my neck when I took in the fact that I didn’t want to be a Nightwalker, especially one with evil red eyes. So I ignored my earlier note-to-self and headbutted it so hard that it stumbled back, holding its own head like it was about to burst.

  Though, in reality, it was my head that was going to explode.

  I was short of breath and had plenty of pain, but that didn’t stop me from snatching part of the broken coffin the Nightwalker had thrown me into and shoving it straight through its heart.

  Its eyes widened in realization, and it fell to the floor with an earsplitting thud.

  I stumbled over to Gabriel, who was still out cold. Could I carry him while under this much pain? No. Could I carry him under normal circumstances? No. But I could drag him. That would have to do. I wrapped one of his limp arms over my shoulders and started to make my way home, slowly and agonizingly.

  And not once did I turn back to watch the fires engulf the red-eyed Nightwalker.

  Now

  It smiled at us from across the cemetery, showing its strange, sharp teeth, and I could have sworn that I heard it laugh. With a blink of its red eyes, in a flash of wind, it was gone. But there were two lumps on the ground.

  Gabriel appeared next to me, a solitary sweat bead rolling down his face, and said, “What the heck? What did it drop?”

  He knew as much as I did, which was absolutely nothing. I shrugged as the uneasiness and worry set in. Without a word, I took off toward the blackened things the Nightwalker left us. I skidded to a halt and dropped down onto my knees. “No” was the one word that I was able to say.

  “What’s wrong?” Gabriel said, running up behind me, carrying both our swords.

  “This—this is what’s wrong.” I held up the two items.

  “No’s right,” Gabriel exclaimed as he realized what they were.

  I stood up, still clutching to the two objects, and glanced at my watch. It was twelve o’clock, midnight. “Happy birthday, Gabriel.”

  “Yeah.” He gripped both swords tighter, muttering, “Happy fricking birthday.” Only he didn’t say fricking.

  For a moment, neither of us did anything. We simply remained frozen, like we were mesmerized by the two mummified items I held. Then we silently turned and headed back to the house, for Michael needed to see these as soon as possible.

  Looking on the bright side of things (which I never did), at least they didn’t have it all. But it still sucked.

  Things the Nightwalkers already had for the Osiris Ritual

  (a checklist by, yours truly, me)

  1. Blood of Ta-Bitjet (?)

  2. Cat’s head (Check)

  3. Falcon’s claw (Check)

  4. Virgin (?)

  “Kass,” a raspy and disheveled voice spoke.

  I looked around me, frantic to find the owner of the voice. But it was too dark. This forest was too dark. I couldn’t see a thing. The only thing I could make out was the glint on my sword that the moon’s light created.

  “Kass,” it said again.

  Who was it? Or…what was it?

  A bright light spiraled toward me. I took a step back, because lights were hardly ever a good thing. In a blaze of luminosity, it flew straight through me, making me feel dizzy and short of breath.

  In a second, it was impossible for me to breathe. I fell to the floor, dropping my blade and holding my neck. My eyes ached and burned. I closed them for a moment, trying to pull it together.

  A leaf cracked, making me open them and move into a defensive position. Shoes were standing in front of me. And those shoes were attached to legs, and those legs were attached to a torso. And that torso…well, you get the idea.

  But it was the head that I couldn’t see. Everything was fuzzy, and all I saw was darkness.

  “Kass,” the voice came from the thing, or person, standing and looking down at me.

  I attempted one last endeavor to obtain a breath, but I failed. Collapsing, my body fell to the floor and I was met with pure nothingness.

  I bolted upright in my bed and seized my neck, worried that I wasn’t able to breathe. But air easily flowed in and out of my lungs, thank God.

  What a weird dream, I thought as I tossed the warm, comfy covers off my body. What could it possibly mean? Why couldn’t I make out the being’s face? And that light…

  I wondered if I should tell Gabriel about it. He told me that if I had any other visions to let him know. Did that dream count as a vision?

  Wait. Gabriel. Gabriel…

  There was something I had to remember about that blonde boy.

  Ah, yes. Today was Gabriel’s birthday and I had yet to go buy him some presents. Why did I always wait until the last minute to do things like this? If I wouldn’t have waited, things wouldn’t be half as crazy as they were right now.

  I picked up my clothes and was about to head into the bathroom when I glanced at the clock.

  Oh. My. God.

  It was one-thirty. In the afternoon.

  I slept till one-thirty? I never slept that late. I was lucky to hit ten-thirty, and that’s when I really tried, but one-thirty? Jeez, that’s never happened before.

  Except after I took a bad beating, when I saved Gabriel three years ago. Yeah, the day after… Let’s say when I woke up, it wasn’t the same day.

  I rushed in the bathroom, throwing my clothes on, brushing my teeth, applying deodorant. I had to get to the mall pronto to get some gifts.

  Wait a second. Where even was the mall?

  With that concerned thought in my head, I ran downstairs and found Michael sitting on his chair with the laptop on his legs.

  He looked at me from under his rimmed glasses. “Ah, finally awake, are you? Marvelous. Well, since you slept in so bloody late, I called Raphael.”

  My eyebrows went up in confusion. Why would Michael call Raphael because of me?

  He typed something and, seeing that I still stood there, added, “Raphael came for a surprise visit and took Gabriel away for some lessons. They will be back at six sharp.”

  I still was a bit lethargic in my thought process, so I continued to stand there, needing a bit more of an explanation.

  An explosive sigh seeped from Michael’s lungs. “You are wasting time. Go, shop for him, since I assume you have not?”

  “Oh. Right. Where’s the mall?”

  “Norwalk Road,” was his curt reply. “Take my card.”

  I nodded. I wasn’t going to turn down the offer of Michael paying for Gabriel’s gifts, since I didn’t have a job and couldn’t make money myself.

  “I’ll be back in a bit.” And with that, I was out the door and down the sidewalk.

  The mall was nice. Like, really nice. Not that I haven’t been to nice malls before, it’s just that this one was nice and huge, with every possible store you could imagine.

  I went to the nearest map station. As I looked for which stores to hit, my head suddenly recalled that I told Alyssa I had some shopping to do this weekend, and she told me to come visit. She worked at Payless. That’s where I would head first, since after that my sole purpose was to shop for Gabriel.

  After I went to see her, I was going to breathe like Gabriel, I was going to think like Gabriel, I was pretty much going to be Gabriel. All so I could find good presents he’d like.

  I went up two escalators and made a right. According to the map, it should have been around here somewhere. My eyes scanned the area, and I spotted its big, bold yellow letters instantly. Heading towards it, I looped my fingers around my belt loops and meandered in, acting as nonchalant as I could.

  She was in an aisle, assorting the shoes.

  “Alyssa, hey,” I said as coolly as I could, even though I wasn’t exactly the coolest person around.

  She jumped and almost dropped a shoebox. “Oh, boy. You almost gave me a heart attack. For a moment, I didn’t know it was you.” Her long, frizzy black hai
r was in a ponytail, something that didn’t quite look like her. Neither did the khakis.

  I laughed and replied, “Yep. It’s just little old me. Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.”

  Now it was her turn to laugh. A few curls, too short for the ponytail, fell into her face. She pushed them aside. “Oh, you didn’t scare me. You just surprised me.”

  “So…” I skimmed around the store, and seeing it was empty, I said, “Not too busy in here today?”

  She shrugged her small shoulders. “The people come in rushes. One minute it’ll be really boring and slow and the next, ten people will come running in, asking if we have our BoGo sale going on, which we don’t. And I tell them that, then they get upset. It’s the same thing every day.” She chuckled. “I’m glad you came to visit. Gives me an excuse not to work as hard.”

  “How could I pass up the chance to see the quiet Alyssa in a work uniform?” I mocked, even though it turned out that Payless employees didn’t really have a uniform besides tan pants and a company T-shirt.

  “Hey, I’m not that quiet,” she said quietly. Yes. Quietly. She said she wasn’t quiet quietly. Exactly my point. “Now, before you get mad, let me apologize first. I’m sorry...I might have let it slip that you were coming.”

  I tore my eyes away from the pair of red high heels that were luring me to the dark side of the shoe world. “What?”

  A customer walked in the store, holding two cups of coffee.

  Before he made his way to the back of the store, where we were, Alyssa added hastily, “I didn’t know he was going to stay here all day and wait for you. I’m so sorry. I think he really likes you, though.” Her last words I could barely hear, but I heard them alright.

  Who was she talking about? Certainly not—

  “Here. One coffee. Black. No sugar, but five Sweet-N-Lows. Even though they are basically the same thing.” John shrugged his wide shoulders and smiled at his sister, then at me.