“Who are you?” I asked ignoring his politeness and how he knew my name. He only laughed again.
“I guess Vaze didn’t tell you about me yet,” He said as a coy charm danced around in his eyes. He leaned closer, as if to make it more dramatic. “I am Velkire.”
Realization hit me hard and fast — really fast and unfortunately literally. Out of the darkness, a new guest arrived. It was Enzio. The minute he saw me his hand shot to my throat. Or rather, the minute I saw him I found his hand had shot to my throat.
“I’m going to enjoy every moment of your death, you worthless rat,” He hissed into my ear, hardly above a whisper. “I’m going to make sure you feel every grinding second of it and go through as much pain as possible until your very last breath leaves your body.”
“Now Enzio, can’t you tell she’s scared enough already?” Velkire said with a hint of pleasure in his voice. He wagged his finger at him as if it were a joke. “If she faints before she hears everything we’ll have to come back all over again. And if my memory serves me right, you hate taking this form, so that would just be a nuisance for you.”
Enzio’s eyes shot back to Velkire. A faint look of fear harbored in them as he looked at the handsome man, as if his small joking was hiding some sort of vile threat. I didn’t notice at the time though. I was too busy choking and turning a slight shade of purplish blue that would have made blueberries proud.
Enzio released my neck and walked back to Velkire. Sweet air flooded back into my lungs and when I had my fill of it, I looked back up at Velkire.
Velkire walked closer to me with curious eyes, poising his chin between his pointer finger and his thumb in a way that may have very well been practiced. “Fascinating,” He said in awe. I tried to look like I was calm, also trying to add the aura of not even having the least interest in him, when in reality I was so scared I wanted to run away and hide in a hole. I probably would have if I wasn’t tied up.
“A mere child defeated not only one, but dozens of Shadows, and possesses a power that even the most powerful witches and warlocks can only dream of,” He said acting as if I were a test subject. “Even in the Forbidden Lands, nothing has ever amounted to this one gift—this one little girl.” He turned to Enzio with a smile on his face that resembled a small child about to receive a present. “Isn’t it just brilliant Enzio?”
“Mystifying, my lord,” He said emotionlessly. I was starting to get annoyed. The fact I that was most likely in mortal danger left me for a moment. Yeah, I had an interesting temper.
“Hey, I’m still here,” I said. “If you’re going to kill me can you hurry it up? I’m getting kind of bored.”
Velkire laughed. Enzio shot me a look that said he wanted to kill me. Maybe he just wanted to make sure I knew. Nice guy.
“And she’s so amusing!” He said with glee. He turned to me. “I’m not going to kill you yet. It’s been too much fun to watch you struggle. I want to see how long you’ll last in this game of mine. If you get far enough, I’ll reward you, but not yet. Shadows are just the vermin of the army I have under my thumb. Although they are stronger than regular humans, you are too. You also have one other thing besides your gift that they don’t—a will. Unfortunately they can also be cowards. I’d send some after you to test your brothers as well, but the forest scares them so much, they do not obey their master. Hmm… no matter, there are other things I can send.”
Fear for my brothers came into my mind, and I scrambled for an idea. The only one that came was to keep talking.
“It won’t matter what you send, I can stop them before they get within twenty feet,” I said while forcing a confident smile onto my face. “You know that, don’t you Enzio? Oh, how’s your hand by the way?”
“Take a look for yourself.” He lifted up a bandaged hand and unraveled the black bandages. As they fell to the floor, a terrifying site began to unfold before me. Enzio’s hand was no longer flesh and blood. It was mechanized, like an automaton owned by a cheap magician. But it looked far more advanced than anything I’d ever seen (even though that wasn’t much). The hand moved like a normal hand, but where the joints were revealed the strange contraptions spinning around inside. Enzio seemed to sense my distress.
“That’s not even the best part,” He said slyly. In the blink of an eye, the fingers extended into sharp black claws like those of the Shadows, but they looked like they could do ten times the damage. I tried my best to keep my cool. I whistled in awe.
“Shiny,” I said in a mocking tone. “Do they come in anything besides black? Or is that just your pet peeve; red with black or nothing?”
Enzio growled, but a stern look from Velkire made him decide not to choke me again. Velkire turned to me.
“That is true, you probably could stop some of my slaves within twenty feet,” Velkire said in disappointment. “That won’t be even the least bit interesting at all. And on top of that your father was the best weapons master that walked the earth, so even without your gift, you are a formidable foe. Fighting just seems to run in your blood.”
“Wait—what?” I cut in, but I was ignored.
“I’ve got it!” Velkire said with glee. He took off a black glove from his hand to reveal his long pale fingers. “This may burn, but it should be much better than the alternative way.” He held out his hand to me, and revealed the pattern on the palm of his hand. It was a pentagram—a five pointed star within a circle. He started to move his hand toward my forehead. I knew whatever he was going to do couldn’t be a good thing, so I did the only thing I could do in this position.
When his hand was close enough, I snapped my jaws down on it, and bit as hard as I could. The iron taste of blood tinged my tongue, but I refused to release his hands from my jaw. Velkire spat a curse uncharacteristically and hit me over the head. A trickle of blood ran down my forehead but still I would not let go. I would have held on until I passed out if not for Enzio.
Reacting to his master’s cries, Enzio snatched me up by the back of my neck and rose me off the floor, chair and all. He squeezed so hard I thought he might break my spine. Instantly my jaw released as an involuntary action, and Velkire pulled back and clutched a bleeding hand.
Enzio released me and my chair hit the floor. The second it landed he back-handed my head with his metal hand. I didn’t react beyond jerking forward. I didn’t want to give either of them the satisfaction of seeing me yelp in pain. I looked at Velkire, who seemed to be surrounded by stars until they cleared within a few seconds. His expression and mood changed from relatively happy to dark and evil. I smiled cockily. I enjoyed pissing off people I didn’t like. That may get me killed one of these days.
“You really are dull witted like Enzio said, aren’t you?” Velkire’s voice sounded especially hollow. “Now we’re going to have to do this the hard way.”
He motioned with his good hand to the darkness and a young girl walked into the light. She was beautiful, yet terrifying at the same time. Her hair was pure white and her features where soft and gentle. She wasn’t human though. Like Enzio, her eyes were red. But unlike him, instead of normal eyes with red color, they were completely red, with no pupil or iris. Her skin was grey like stone, yet it had the look of youth and vigor. Her ears were slightly pointed at the end, like a gargoyle’s.
“Yes master?” she said to Velkire. Her voice was sweet and high, but at the same time was steely and low, as if two people were talking at once.
“This is the girl,” he said. “You know what to do.” The girl smiled sweetly.
“Indeed master,” she said in response and then walked over to my chair. She lifted up a hand, but unlike Velkire, she didn’t have any designs on her hands. However, she had something a lot worse. Instantly, her nails turned into black claws like the Shadows’.
“Please sit still,” she said politely in a sick cheery attitude. “This will only hurt more if you struggle.”
Yeah, right—as if I was going to listen. She put a hand on my shoulder and leaned down
to eye level. I tried swaying back and forth, in hopes that I would fall and break the chair to give myself a shot at freedom, but she forced me to be still. Before I had the chance to brace myself she jabbed her clawed hand into my lower torso, and began to slice the same design as on Velkire’s hand onto my stomach. I screamed in agonizing pain. It was unlike any I had experienced before. I kept begging my body to let my mind pass out, but it never happened. The girl’s claws continued to etch the design onto my stomach, seeming to cut my insides up in the process. I coughed blood onto the girl’s hands and onto my pants. She didn’t seem to care.
Finally, she stopped. She rose up from me and returned to Velkire with my blood dripping from her fingers. Unfortunately, the pain didn’t leave with her. It felt as if she was still tearing through my flesh.
“Anything else, Master?” she asked in her cheery little demonic voice.
“No, that will be all,” he said cheerily, as if it were contagious. Enzio stared at me with a smugly. Velkire slinked toward me like a cat to a trapped mouse.
“Don’t worry child,” He said in an exaggerated insincere tone. “In time this may prove to be a gift, if you use it well.” He cocked one foot up onto the top of my chair and stooped his face down to mine until we were staring eye to eye. I then knew what was underneath the fake tenderness. It was bloodlust. “Who knows? Maybe you’ll like this power so much, you’ll decide to come and join me.”
As the last words slithered off of his tongue, he kicked my chair back towards the ground. I couldn’t react. The pain proved too much of an obstacle for my thoughts. The only thing I could think of was that I was so tired, and I just wanted to shut my eyes, never to open them again. The only thing I could do was stare blankly at Enzio and Velkire as I sailed towards the ground. Velkire’s smug smile stuck with my sight as the light faded. It was over soon enough, though the impact never came.
~
I jumped out of the cloak I had used to cover the ground. I was drenched in a cold sweat and my heart threatened to burst from my chest as I looked around frantically.
My brothers were all sleeping in a ring around the fire. I released a relieved sigh. Though we were in the Forest of Death, we were still safer than being wherever Velkire was. The dream had seemed so real, but my one reassurance was how I felt. Though my shoulder was still sore from my previous injuries, there was no pain from whatever happened in my dream.
“Are you all right?” A voice from above asked. I clenched with fear. A quick look told me it was Vaze on his watch. I took a deep breath to satisfy my racing heart.
“Just had a bad dream,” I said, trying to avoid going into details. There was no reason to make a fuss over it. “I’m fine now.”
“You know,” he said while hopping down from his perch to sit by me. “I was taught dreams can sometimes be more than dreams. Like for people with the Sight, or people like you— demons in spiritual form can torment them in their dreams. Or sometimes in dreams the Healer can give you visions. For me, dreams are never just dreams. Even the most bizarre of them hold some importance.”
That scared the crap out of me. He may have just been saying that so that I would share what happened, like when Jake tricked me into coming clean about shoving live squirrels into Darren’s pillow to get back at him. I searched his words for a loophole, or some hint that he was lying.
“Can demons in physical form go back to spiritual form?” I asked, trying to keep as much information as I could from being figured out. Vaze laughed. Though I should have been mad, his laugh was light and kind and it comforted me.
“I can’t see why they would want to, they would be vulnerable to Guardians in spiritual form, and for a Guardian, that is when they are strongest. It would be pure suicide unless they are targeting someone without a Guardian, but that is rare.” He spoke as if he were talking to a clueless child. That was half true as I was completely clueless, but I wasn’t so much a child any more. I was short but I didn’t look a thing like a child. If I wasn’t height challenged, I could pose as old as Seth if I wanted, due to early curves. But rather than get mad at Vaze for subconsciously offending me, I simply nodded. There was no way I was going to go back to sleep after that dream, so I decided to prolong the conversation.
“About this Sight thing,” I started. “Do you know anyone who has it?” Vaze didn’t answer at first.
“Just one,” He said with a distant look. A sad smile formed on his face. I had a slight urge to ask him who, but by his reminiscent expression I came to the conclusion that it was another personal topic. I decided not to ask.
“Can they see everyone’s Guardians or just their own?” I asked.
“Everyone’s,” he replied. “The only ones they can’t see are departed Guardians. They can also see demons in spiritual form unfortunately.”
A distant howl ripped through the air, making me jump away from the sound, but into Vaze. I accidently knocked him on his back and fell on him.
“Sorry,” I said, embarrassed that I was a klutz.
“It’s alright, you’re smart to be scared,” He said but stopped short of blushing. Or maybe it was the reflection of the fire. “But unless you want to stay like this, can you please get off of me?”
I turned deep red and scrambled away. “I’ll take this post. You can go to sleep,” I said quickly, trying to change the subject.
“I’m fine, I just started my post about thirty minutes ago,” he said. “You don’t really want to be alone out here—I can tell. After Jake’s post I had planned to take the whole night, only because I knew your oldest brother was the bravest. It’s no doubt the rest are brave, but I wouldn’t want to put them through it. However I knew Jake could handle it. I couldn’t even imagine Al doing a post by himself.”
I laughed. Al would be as pale as a ghost after something like that, and would be stuttering for a couple of days. But it was true. I didn’t want to be the only one awake in this forest. In the forest of my own home, I knew everything that happened. The worst predator I could run into was a small black bear, but those bears were lazy and have seen me so much they probably think of me as a friend. And even if they didn’t, it would take only a few minutes for me to make them a bear barbeque buffet.
But in the Forest of Death, I knew nothing. For all I knew this could be home to a few dragons. I have always been afraid of dragons, only because they possess the same power as I do. However, the difference was they had metal plated scales that protect them from harm. I didn’t. To them I’d probably be just as sweet and chewy as spicy pastry. The thought was sickening, so to put it plainly, I stopped thinking.
I rolled back onto my cloak, and tried to rest my eyes a bit. It was easier said than done. Tuning out the forest proved a task for the strong-willed.
I finally decided to stop fighting it. I wasn’t going back to sleep and apparently neither was Vaze, so there was no point in trying. We decided to keep watch on opposite sides of the fire, to be able to see in all directions. I heard a couple more howls, but did my best to keep my cool. The warmth of the fire made it feel a little like home during the summer, back when I would go outside and nap in the warmth of the sun. I liked heat, but my skin was always ice cold no matter the circumstance.
The whole time I spent thinking about home, a different noise rose from the air. The sound of music slowly made its way over to our camp, and I was oblivious to it.
“Do you hear that?” Vaze asked while looking around. I strained my ears. I heard nothing.
“Hear what?” I asked back.
“Music…” He breathed softly. He stood up slowly with a blank stare, as if in a trance.
“What are you doing?” I asked in confusion. My confusion grew as my brothers slowly rose to their feet as well. They had all been fast asleep, and they still looked like they were asleep. “Guys, what’s going on?”
None of them answered me. Instead they bolted into the trees away from me. I scrambled up from the ground, unsure as to what to do. A flash decision c
ame to me when another blood curdling howl shot through the air, much closer now than before. I bolted as fast as I could to catch up to them.
I was whipped by passing corpse branches as I ran through the blackness of the forest. I could hardly see, but I could see enough to catch glimpses of Jake’s fair hair or Al’s pale skin flashing in and out of sight. Unfortunately, they were quite a distance away from me. I struggled to catch up, but to no avail.
Soon, there was a break in the trees ahead of me. Silvery moon light flooded in through the large opening and I saw Vaze and my brothers running towards an amazing sight. The opening led to a break in the forest, and in the middle was an enormous stone castle. The very foundation seemed to be made out of a greyish black stone. An orange-reddish glow came from every window in the immense structure. The sight took my breath away. It was amazing, yet at the same time, it was terrifying.
I was entering the clearing when I was grabbed around my waist by a strong arm. A pure white hand shoved over my mouth and pulled me back into the trees. I tried to scream, but all that came out was a terrified squeak as I watched Vaze and my brothers entered the gates of the castle.
“Do not try to go after them,” a deep voice warned. “If you want to save them, and live to tell the tale, you can’t do it that way. That is pure suicide, running into the immortal queen’s castle like that when you are not under her spell, no matter how heroic or how powerful one is.”
I struggled to free myself as my kidnapper dragged me back into the forest. Whenever I got close to getting free he tightened his grip around both my waist and my mouth.
“Stop struggling!” The voice said frantically as he dragged me back into the Forest of Death –“I’m trying to save you!”—emphasis on ‘BACK INTO THE FOREST OF DEATH’.
I wasn’t going to cooperate. I opened my mouth as wide as possible and clamped down on my perpetrator’s hand. I seemed to be biting hands a lot lately. A concealed yelp came from my attacker and he quieted down quickly, but he didn’t put his hand over my mouth again.
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