by Rue Volley
“Awesome, of course it would go up,” I muttered under my breath.
I stepped in and pulled the door behind me. I started to walk slowly up the stairs, they went on forever. I finally came to a point where I started to see more light ahead and I pressed against the wall, listening for any voices. There was nothing, no sound at all. I saw that the stairs were coming to an end and I peeked up to see if anyone was waiting at the top. I looked to the left and the right. I saw nobody. I sighed and stepped up and out into the room.
I looked up and saw the room was open to the sky. The clouds drifted overhead so closely that if I was up there. I could touch them, I was sure. The room was lit only by the sunlight coming in. The ceiling was open and the walls were all cut in tall pieces in a circle, revealing more sky. I looked down at the floor and saw symbols glowing under my feet, they pulsated as I leaned back and forth on them.
I stepped out and gripped my blades in my hand. I looked to the middle of the room and saw a large mirror reaching upward. It was turned at an angle away from me. It almost looked like one of those strange sculptures on a college campus. God college...! I couldn't remember the last day I was actually in school. I blew out my breath and watched as the black swirls led me forward and seemed to pool around this mirror.
I walked forward and watched as my feet broke up the black mist with each step. I reached the edge of a large hole, I looked down and saw that black water rolled under this mirror that was suspended by nothing above it. I heard a groan and I ran around it to the other side. My eyes got wider as I saw that Josh was lying on the mirror. He was on his back, but the mirror was at an angle. I didn't know how it held him in place.
“Josh,” I called out to him, in a half whisper.
“Hey... Josh,” I said a little louder.
He started to move a little, but said nothing. I looked above him and saw nothing that I could climb onto to get to him. Under him a rolling pool of black water. I scanned the room, it was empty.
“Josh... listen you have to wake up!” I said with a low tone. My voice echoed a little. I crouched down instinctively. No one came so I slowly rose back up. I saw him move his head.
“Josh!” I said again.
He groaned and started to flutter his eyes.
“Wake up and tell me how you got on there,” I said to him.
I saw his chest rise and fall. He started to mutter something, but I couldn't understand him. I looked behind me and started to back up. I was going to have to jump, I didn't know what would happen when I hit that mirror, but in that room devoid of anything I could use, my options were limited. I placed my blades on my back and kept backing up. I sucked in my breath and started to flash forward, I heard a voice cry out and I covered my ears as it echoed through the room, like a sonic boom.
I stopped right at the edge and teetered on my toes. I leaned back and fell to the floor, my heart racing in my chest. I pushed myself up quickly and looked out, as the room filled with flashes of protectors, one by one. Sophia stood front and center, Erik by her side. I pulled my blades and turned them at an angle, as I gripped them tightly.
Erik threw a boy in front of him, at his feet. I looked to see that it was the one who had given me the basket of food. He rolled onto his side and groaned. I stepped out from the back side of the circle and placed my feet apart. Erik grinned, as he looked at the boy on the floor.
“Seems that we have some treachery,” he said, as he stepped forward.
He pulled his blade and the boy rolled onto his back putting his hands up. Erik came down in a flash and plunged his blade through his shoulder. I heard the echo of the blade penetrate the stone under him. The boy cried out, and reached for the blade. Erik stood up and left it in him, pinning him to the stone floor. I watched as blood flowed out from under him and snaked its way towards me. I gripped my blades and I felt a sharp pain in my stomach.
“Hungry?” Erik said to me, as he tilted his head.
I scanned the room. “No… I am fine.” There must have been a hundred protectors standing before me.
Sophia laughed, her voice echoed in the room. “You have had your fun and now, say your goodbye to Joshua Barrington, he is about to return to the creator.”
“What?” I said, as I turned to look at him. “No… you cannot destroy him, you can't.”
“It has already been decided. It is fortunate that you are here to see it, you must understand our laws,” Sophia said as she walked towards me.
“You let me come here,” I whispered.
Erik laughed. “Humans do have their uses, outside of food.” He looked at the boy lying on the floor, who still struggled with the blade in his shoulder. “I knew that your compassion would stir him when you refused to feed. He simply did what I expected him to do.”
Erik flashed to him and sank his teeth into his shoulder, the boy cried out and Erik rose up with blood dripping from his mouth. He grinned at me, with blood blanketing his teeth. He flashed down and gripped his blade, pulling it upward, in a blur. The boy’s body came up with it off of the floor and fell as the blade came out of his shoulder. He hit the stone and cried out again.
“Stop!” I yelled at him.
Erik wiped his mouth with his arm, gripping his blade in his hand. He looked down at the boy who was trying to crawl towards me. Erik lifted him up over his head and threw him at the hole of black water. I reached out but he flew by me so fast, I watched as he fell into the water screaming. He sank into it and light rolled out from him as he disappeared under the water.
I leaned over the edge and cried out, “No!”
Erik started to laugh and I looked back at him with hatred in my eyes.
“You didn't need to do that you ass!” I yelled at him.
He stood there with this grin on his face that made my stomach turned.
“You need to shed this addiction you have to emotion. It really is wasted on these creatures,” Erik said as put his blade onto his back.
“He was not a ‘creature’. He was a person, a human being, and you just killed him,” I said as I felt a vibration start to rise up in me.
“Sophia.” he said as he turned to look at her.
Sophia raised her hand up. “She will learn, this is temporary. Once she has severed her need to care for these things, she will become the future.”
“The future?” I muttered.
“Yes. Joshua and his siblings are the past. You are the future of our people, let them go, Rue Valon,” she said to me as she stepped forward with her hands out.
I took a step back and realized that I stood on the edge of the hole. I looked down as the black water rippled. I looked back at her and shook my head.
“I will never be like any of you. You are animals.”
A murmur went through the room. I scanned it, as they all leaned to each other whispering.
“Silence,” Sophia yelled out as she raised her hands.
“We are not going to play this game any longer. As we speak, the horse you shared yourself with is racing towards your ‘family’, as you call them. The trackers are behind them. I have all confidence that they will break through Theodore's spell and destroy the last of your rebellion to your lineage. They have poisoned you, as did your parents, by not allowing you to understand the importance of who you are.” She stepped forward, closer to me and held her hands out to me. “Embrace who you are Rue Valon, feed.”
She pulled a blade and ran it across her palm. I looked down as the blood pooled in her hand, it dripped on the floor and sank into the stone, fading away.
She held it up to me and I could smell its sweetness. I closed my eyes and the colors all swirled behind my eyes, my stomach ached, my mouth was dry. I sucked in my breath and grabbed at my stomach, as a pain filled me.
“Stop,” I whispered.
“You cannot deny who you are. You hunger little one,” she said to me in a gentle tone, the first one I had ever heard from her.
“I can't,” I said as I started to feel weak
er.
I closed my eyes, and flashes started to form behind my eyes. I felt myself waver and I opened up my eyes. I gripped my blades in my hand and looked down at the water. Then I raised my blades at her as I cried out. She closed her hand and flashed away from me. I stood there as I watched all of them pull their blades from their backs. I gripped mine and flashed around to the other side of Josh. I stopped almost to edge of the room looking out over the land. For a moment, it was peaceful and I sucked in my breath and turned around flashing towards Josh, who still lay on the mirror.
I jumped as hard as I could through the air and landed on him, he grunted and fluttered his eyes open. I looked down and put my hand on his face. He half grinned at me, like he was dreaming. I smacked him, and he turned his head.
“What the hell?” he cried out.
“You have to wake up Josh!” I yelled at him. I closed my eyes and started to focus. I waved my hand over him and I felt him start to slide a little.
“Oh shit,” I said as I sat on top of him. I looked down towards his feet and saw the water rolling under us.
Sophia and the rest of the protectors had flashed up to the circle around us and I looked out as they all had their blades glowing. Sophia stood there with a hard look on her face.
“Come down from there,” she said forcefully.
I pointed one blade at her.
“Screw you,” I said.
Josh grunted and started to move his legs. “What the fuck?” he said as he looked down. “Oh shit Rue, what the hell are you doing here?” he asked me.
“Saving your ass,” I said as I stared out at all of them.
“Yea, looks like it,” he said sarcastically.
“Oh shut up, we have to figure out how to get off of this thing,” I said as I looked around the room.
We slid a little and I squeezed my legs against his sides.
“Oh, this is sexy,” he said.
“Oh my god!” I yelled at him. “We are going to die here if you don't help.”
“Okay, okay... give me your blade,” he said.
“What?”
“Give it to me,” he said as he lifted his hand. I placed it in his hand and he quickly sliced it across my palm.
“Ouch!” I said. He grinned at me as we slid a little more down the mirror.
“Let me drink your blood, I'm weak,” he said.
I pressed my hand against his mouth and I felt his mouth on my skin. I tightened my grip on him and he groaned. He pulled my hand away from his mouth and grinned.
“Could you not do that?” he said.
“Do what?” I asked him.
“Press down on me like that...”
“I can't help it…” I cried out and wrapped my hands around his neck, as we started to slide down further.
He grunted and tried to push himself back up with me on top of him.
“This is not the way I wanted our first time to be,” he said with a laugh.
“Oh my god, shut up!” I said in his ear.
Josh looked out at the protectors surrounding us, they all started to chant.
“Oh shit,” he said.
I pushed up from him and looked out at the room. “What?”
“They are going to release me into the water,” he said.
“You mean us,” I added.
“Yea, us... doesn't matter. The binding will end and this mirror will tilt up, we will fall.”
I pressed back down against him as we started to feel the mirror shifting.
“Give me the blade!” I yelled at him.
“What?” he yelled out, as the chanting became louder.
“Give me the damn blade!” I screamed at him. He placed it in my hand and I reached down and started to cut the leather on his chest.
“Really…? You want to do me now?” he said with a wicked grin.
“No...”
I cut through it and pulled it apart on his chest.
“This is going to sting a little,” I said to him.
I closed my eyes and a symbol started to appear behind my eyes. I placed the blade against his chest and started to cut him, not to deep, just enough to etch the symbol into his skin.
“Oh my god,” he cried out. “You are a naughty girl.”
I opened my eyes as he leaned down and looked at his chest. “Now, cut me!” I said as I gripped onto him, the mirror was slowly tilting upward and we started to slide.
“Do it now!” I screamed out.
He reached up and tore my leather open, he smiled as he saw my chest.
“Oh my god... do it Josh!” I screamed at him.
He placed the blade against my skin and I bit my lip. It stung as he traced a symbol into my skin.
“What is the plan here?” he said.
I looked down at the water... “We are going in,” I said.
“What...? No, no... no,” he said. “We will die Rue!”
“I hope not,” I said as I looked down at him. “But just in case…”
I leaned down and pressed my lips hard against his. He reached up and held the back of my head. I opened my mouth as I back away from him. I could see a blue mist trailing from his lips to mine. He opened his eyes. The mirror tilted at a sharp angle and we started to slide to the end of it. Josh reached out and grabbed my hand.
We fell off the edge and he grabbed me, pressing me against his body as we saw the water quickly coming up from below us.
“I love you,” he whispered in my ear, right before we hit the water hard, sinking below its surface.
***
The horse stopped mid gallop, he skidded to a stop. He rose up and turned around, instinctively galloping in the other direction. One of the trackers flashed by him and he took a sharp turn hitting the girl midair with his side. He huffed and pushed on. He flashed across the open field as two more flashed behind him. His coat was swirling with blue, bright, and thick. He slowed down and one of the trackers flashed almost passed him, he turned and raised his hooves hitting him in the chest, the boy rolled away from him to the left. He pushed on, breathing hard, his hair flying behind his head.
He came to cliff and jumped out into the air hurling towards the water at the bottom, he pulled his legs in and hit the water going under with a huge splash behind him, he rose up…
I had my hand gripped to the only thing it came in contact with, my horse’s man. I reached behind me and grabbed at Josh, pulling him up onto the horses back.
I choked out black water and sucked in my breath, it burned in my lungs. The horse kicked his legs and dragged us to the sandy beach on the side of this lake. I crawled onto the sand and rolled onto my back coughing. I rolled over and saw the horse push himself up with Josh on his back, Josh started to slide off and I ran to try to cushion his fall, it knocked me down too. I sat there looking down at him and yelled his name.
He laid there motionless and I shook him. He started to blink his eyes and coughed up black water from his mouth. He blinked a few more times and reached up to touch my face.
“Rue,” he said, as he coughed out more water.
I backed away from him as he leaned over and I saw water trickle out of his mouth. The horse dug his hooves into the sand and started to move back and forth.
“We have to go now,” I said. He pushed himself up and looked around.
“Where the hell are we?” he asked.
“A lake that I dug symbols into before I got to Valon,” I said.
“Good girl,” he said.
I walked to the horse and he leaned down on one knee. I grabbed his hair and pulled myself up. Josh looked at me and shook his head.
“When did you get a horse Rue?”
“I found him, well kinda stole him on my way here,” I said as I reached down. Josh took my hand and pulled himself up behind me. “We have to move,” I said. The horse shot off down the side of the lake.
We rode for an hour before we stopped to rest. I needed to eat and so did Josh. I could feel his grip on my sides getting weaker. W
e stopped in a clearing in the woods and he jumped down, he reached up and the horse knelt down, letting me slide off of him. Josh raised his hand and rubbed the side of his head. He huffed and kicked the dirt.
“He is beautiful,” he said, as he stared into his eyes.
“You like horses?” I asked.
“Well yea, look at them,” Josh said as he pet his side.
I smiled and looked down.
“What?” he said.
“Oh, I don't know, I just didn't know that you liked anything,” I said as I looked around.
“Yea... I'm not a robot,” he said as he glanced at me.
“Well, we need to eat Josh, my stomach is killing me.”
“Yea, okay.” He knelt down and pressed his hand against the ground then stood back up and looked out into the woods.
“There are wolves out there.” He pointed out towards the forest.
“No… I mean food, not blood Josh.”
“Oh… well, I don't really track that. Fruit just kinda hangs there. I don't have to chase it.”
“So, you feed on wolves?” I asked.
“That and other things, anything that could possibly kill me,” he said as he walked towards me.
“Oh,” I said as I looked away from him.
“Wait,” Josh crouched down and felt the ground. “There is a tracker coming, looks like food is coming to us.”
“I am not doing that,” I said as I looked around and lowered to the ground.
“Well... this isn't the time to be picky Rue. It won't be blood, just a burst of energy, an adrenaline rush.”
“I can't believe you are talking about this like it's a rabbit... it's a protector coming this way.”
“Oh so you hate rabbits?” he asked as he felt the ground again.
I stood up. “No… I do not hate rabbits. It was just the first thing I thought of.”
He laughed. “Sounds like a deep seeded problem.”
“Stop Josh, how can you joke around? We just almost died, like an hour ago?” I started to walk to the horse that was getting anxious.