Playing With Fire

by Jordan Mendez

  Chapter Nineteen

  Al pushed open the doors leading to the throne room the second he came upon them, and ran in fuming. Alastair followed close behind him reluctantly, knowing exactly what was to happen. The chandelier hanging far above from the ceiling was lit in a brilliant display, and the dark grey walls seemed to glow golden from the uncommon light. Slight traces of blood still stained the floor, but the pentagram was gone. Outside, the illusion barrier had already collapsed, and the full moon dominated the sky, ruling like a mighty king against thousands of stars. One could even see out the massive glass windows to the calm black sea over the walls of the kingdom that had been etched into the cliff. The stone courtyard loomed just outside, as if watching the scene unfold like a neutral bystander.

  A beautiful man sat sprawled out in the large throne across the room, wearing a coy smile that made him seem rather sly. Al recognized him immediately.

  “Velkire!” Al hissed in a voice that was so alien that even Alastair noticed it was out of place. “I’m going to rip you to pieces!”

  Velkire burst out laughing, as if Al had made the funniest joke in the world. Al clenched at the sound of it. Velkire’s laughter was repulsive to him.

  “You’re just as hilarious as your sister!” Velkire barked, while wiping tears from his eyes. “Or should I say…my sister?” Al didn’t respond, but Velkire seemed to read his mind just the same. In the blink of an eye, Velkire was by Al’s side, but how, Al did not know.

  “You didn’t know, did you?” Velkire whispered in Al’s ear, the words sliding off his tongue in a sickeningly delighted tone. “That your beloved sister Scarlet was actually my sister? Yes, it is true. Our sister is a monstrosity, just as I am.”

  “SHUT UP!” Al swung his arm out at Velkire, and Gladium Angeli, the sword of the angel, solidified in his hand, nicking Velkire’s torso and tearing the soft silver fabric of his tunic as he jumped back. Velkire bore an insane smile on his face, and looked to be on the verge of laughter yet again. Al glared at him, and held his sword up in defense.

  Alastair, still standing by the doors, made a movement to go help, but a cold metallic hand grabbed his shoulder.

  “Neither of us shall interrupt this fight,” Enzio’s deep raspy voice growled. “Not until it is our time to do so.”

  Alastair didn’t reply. Instead he looked at Al with a crushing guilt, knowing that he had not only brought Scarlet to her death hardly hours before, but had succeeded in bringing her brother to the same fate as well. Velkire giggled with a twisted glee that could only be owned by a mad man.

  “Oh, how long has it been since I myself have fought?” he cried out, throwing his hands up in the air theatrically. “It couldn’t have been since the Great War! How I’ve missed the thrill of a fight!” Velkire snapped his fingers, and the double doors of the throne room slammed shut. Large curtains appeared from nowhere and fell from the ceiling, making the world behind the windows disappear as if it was a magician’s trick.

  The candles lacing the chandelier exploded into bluish grey flames, changing the golden glow of the room to a menacing silver hue. The grey walls turned black and the scarlet carpet leading to the throne turned a deep blood red.

  “Let’s make this a little bit more interesting, shall we?” Velkire’s smile widened and he snapped his fingers again. This time, four glowing blue spheres appeared at each corner of the room, each with a figure inside them. Al’s heart skipped a beat when he recognized each figure. Inside the spheres were Gideon, Yuki, Kyra, and Siren. “If you win, I won’t kill them! But if I win…”

  Al didn’t need to be told what came next. With a cry he charged at Velkire, and the beautiful man’s smile darkened with malice.

  ~

  It didn’t take long for me to realize that I was lost. In fact, after around the fiftieth wrong turn and same array of royal dead eyed portraits boring down at me, I was about to give up. I had made it out of the dungeons in almost no time at all, but I had never realized just how big the castle was. Hallway after hallway, corridor after corridor, staircase after staircase—it was obvious that the place needed a map to it.

  It was upon the third time I had accidentally looped back into the stone court yard that I heard the first explosion. The ground practically shook as my eyes shot to the adjoining balcony, where a pillar of black fire burst out of, along with quickly descending winged figure. Black bat-like wings snapped open a moment before hitting the ground sending out a current of air that blew dust everywhere. The winged figure glided towards me with incredible speed.

  “Vaze?” I cried out in shock and surprise, mixed in with slight longing. His head snapped up with his black hair whipping around in a torrent, his gorgeous blue eyes boring into mine as his face lit up.

  “Scarlet!” he shouted in overwhelming relief as he grabbed me off the ground midair, embracing me tightly. I didn’t care, I was so happy that I hugged him back as hard as I could. Vaze quickly kissed my forehead, but before I could protest a cackling laughter cut through the air. I looked over Vaze’s shoulder back to the receding balcony, and saw her—the demon me.

  “You can run, but you can’t hide, little bat boy!” she called out laughing, with a voice identical to my own. She was far away, but I could see directly into her red eyes. I only saw malice and dancing blood lust. Vaze looped around and landed on the balcony of a tower, away from the view of the demon. He set me down on my feet, and kicked in the glass door leading to a dark room. He grasped my shoulders so that I looked directly into his eyes.

  “I want you to get away while I’m fighting her, Scarlet,” he said with his eyes filled with worry. “Find Al and the others and get out of here as quickly as possible, understand?” I shook my head, realizing immediately what he wanted. I wasn’t going to let him be the idiot hero. That was my job.

  “No! Vaze, I’m not leaving you!” I batted his hands off me, but he just looked at me with sadness.

  “Please Scarlet,” he whispered. “I don’t know what I’d do if you died, please just do what I ask…” There was a moment of silence, in which both our feelings were plain as day. He wanted to die to save me. I wanted him to live. Vaze turned away from me towards the balcony, and I snapped. I grabbed his wrist, and he looked back to me. I pulled him to me quickly, and craned my neck up while pulling his head down, and kissed him. He seemed more surprised than anything, but he pulled me closer just the same. His soft lips melded to mine, and for a split moment our hearts beat at the same tempo. I pulled my head away and rested my forehead on his, but I allowed him to hold me and kept my arms laced around his neck.

  “You better not die Vaze,” I said, trying to keep the fear from my voice. “I’ll never forgive you if you do…” I could feel Vaze’s chest vibrate as he chuckled, and he lifted my chin back up with a finger so that our lips met once more.

  “I won’t,” he cooed. “I promise.”

  He released me quickly, and ran off the balcony, unfurling his wings as he fell, then making a sudden arc back up into the sky leaving the only way to see him by watching the stars disappear. I watched for a moment before I ran into the room. I still had a job to do, and Al needed me.

  ~

  Vaze felt more alive than ever before in his entire life. He was flying off to face certain death, but he couldn’t help smiling like an idiot. Vaze could hear the demon’s taunting, but it no longer bothered him that the demon’s voice was identical to Scarlet’s. He absolutely knew the difference now. While the demon’s voice was filled with malice, Scarlet’s had caring. Seeing her again, alive and breathing, had revived all his memories of her, bringing them to life as if they had only happened a moment ago.

  Vaze drew his sword as the demon came back into sight. The beast was torching everything in sight as it stalked through the stone courtyard. It may once have been a very lush courtyard, filled with flowers and plants with a stone fountain at its center, but it was desolate and dry as Vaze returned to it.

  Suddenly, the demon Scarlet s
topped in her tracks and sniffed the air deeply, and somewhat resembling a bloodhound about to start the hunt. It wasn’t much different either. The demon’s pointed grey ears perked up and she spun around quickly. Her eyes met Vaze’s and her face twisted into a wicked grin.

  “Looks like the little bat came to play,” the demon said in a sing song voice, her face twisting into a fanged grin. Vaze only smiled back and laughed. The demon’s face filled with confusion, and she perked her head to the side slightly, white hair falling across her face.

  “Did you hit your head boy?” she asked harshly, the sick joy in her voice turning into irritation. Vaze brushed his hair out of his face chuckling, trying to irritate the demon further.

  “Of course not,” he replied coolly with a grin playing on the corners of his lips. Vaze could hear his heart beat pounding in his ears, but he forced his composure. “Why should I take such a pesky demon seriously, when said demon is simply a copy of Scarlet?”

  The demon let out an unearthly growl that reverberated throughout her body, making it seem as if she herself were vibrating. Her smile faded and her jaw clenched into an animal like snarl. Her scarlet red eyes blazed, making her black pupils seem more like snake slits. A flaming beacon wouldn’t have tipped Vaze off more that he had not only irritated the demon, but infuriated her.

  “Don’t you dare call me that, you spineless worm!” the demon shrieked, her voice seeming to split into two: one that resembled Scarlet, and the other a deep raspy beast. “I am so much more than that girl is! I am Raven, her opposite! I shall snuff out her pathetic flames from this world and drown her in the darkest depths of hell!” The demon Raven thrust out her hand, and black fire spiraled through the air towards Vaze, roaring like a lion.

  Reacting immediately, Vaze arced down beneath the pillar of fire and swept towards Raven, flying only a few inches off the ground but remaining parallel. The demon turned quickly, but couldn’t dodge Vaze as he punched her across her face, the full force of inertia behind it, knocking the demon off her feet and onto her back. She hit the ground with a satisfying thud, and before she had any time to react, Vaze was standing over her with one foot on her throat, just enough to let her breath. Vaze lowered the tip of his sword to her nose and stared into her evil red eyes. They were filled with hatred.

  Vaze thrust the sword into her head, crushing the front half of the demon’s skull through her eyes, but the demon didn’t even flinch. Vaze withdrew his bloody sword and looked down at the dead demon. His wings disappeared back into his back, leaving only a ripped shirt and two black marks to ever suggest they were there. Vaze turned away in disdain and kicked away a pebble. The small pebble clattered across the stones and hit the cracked dry fountain, bouncing off and skittering to a halt. Vaze felt a small jolt through his spine, and on instinct he lunged forward—right out of the range of Raven’s claws as they swept out at him in a deadly arc. Vaze jerked his head back to see the demon.

  Vaze gawked at her in horror as the demon, half of her face only a slit in a skull and covered in blood, stumbled towards him. Black fire seeped from her wound, covering it in an inky black haze. Like leaves blown around in the wind, pieces of skin swirled around the crushed head, and her face began to remake itself. Bits of skin started to reform and zip back together, and soon there was no wound at all, leaving Raven seemingly brand new. The demon lunged at him with an angry cry, and Vaze launched himself back into the air, his wings unfurling in the blink of an eye.

  “I’m going to rip you limb from limb!” the demon roared, and wings of black fire jutted out from her back grotesquely. The demon reared down and flapped her new wings. Immediately, the fire dispersed and was replaced by bloodstained raven wings.

  Vaze swore under his breath as the demon cut through the air towards him, and he flew off with her in pursuit, dodging black fire and too close for comfort swipes of the demon’s claws.

  ~

  “Come on, boy!” Velkire laughed as he danced around Al, dodging all of Al’s attacks and landing punches. Velkire’s attacked looked hardly anything more than swatting a fly, but they stung like knives. It was humiliating really, being beaten so easily by an unarmed man when one had a blade such as Al’s. “Is this all you can do?”

  Al was covered head to toe in bruises, each on carrying its own personal bite of humiliation and hatred. Al could feel his entire body pounding as if constricted with each heart beat that jostled through. Everywhere ached, and every subtle inch that he moved, pain was all Al could feel. But the very worst pains were the blows to his pride. Velkire was playing him for a fool, and they both knew it.

  “I have to admit,” Velkire chuckled, covering the top half of his face with his hand as if trying to conceal his laughter. “I knew that you wouldn’t put up much of a fight Alphonse, but this is honestly pathetic.” Al flinched and gripped his sword tighter. Velkire tilted his head to the side slightly and lost his smile, his hand slipping down to his chin.

  “It’s time to finish this little game, Al,” Velkire hissed, completely lacking any tone. He almost sounded bored. Velkire held out his arm to the side and gripped the air. A black rapier hilt appeared in his grasp, and a blade slowly formed, starting off as vapor but then solidifying into a deadly sharp blade. The silver light of the candles above reflected off the sword, and a shiver went down Al’s spine. It suddenly occurred to him that he very well may die.

  Alastair watched Velkire and Al from the corner by the double doors, horrified. Velkire was finished playing, finally getting bored of his toy. With every fiber of his being, Alastair wanted to help Al, but the only movement his body could manage was trembling. He could still feel his master’s presence behind him. A cold hilt slipped into Alastair’s hand, and without looking he knew what it was.

  “When the time comes,” his master’s raspy voice whispered in his ear, causing him to shake once more. “You’ll know what to do with it, Alastair.”

  The malicious feeling of the blade he was given was all too familiar. It was Alma Ladron, the soul thief. Sudden warmth of flames went down Alastair’s back, and he knew his master was gone.

  Chapter Twenty

  It didn’t take long at all to find myself running down a large hallway, which I was ninety nine percent sure (‘ninety nine’ is a good number right?) led to the throne room. Generations of piercing blue eyes stared down at me from their beautifully crafted frames, making me feel slightly awkward as I stopped in front of an empty suit of armor covered in thick layers dust to take its sword from. It was a perfect mid-range one-handed blade, and it fit into my hand as if it was made for me.

  I’m sure in your life time, people have told you not to run with sharp objects. I for one say go ahead, as long as you’re not running in a dress. At the occasion of tripping over my dress and nearly impaling myself, I decided to search a nearby room, in which I found an old brown tunic, boots that were a tad tight but manageable, and a pair of ill-fitting trousers which I fastened with a torn piece of curtain. I was most likely wearing a dead man’s clothing. I hadn’t felt more at home in those clothes than any other I had worn in my entire life.

  With my regained mobility, my surroundings blurred across me as I ran down the hallway, finally coming upon a pair of large dark double doors I recognized as the entrance to the throne room. I gazed up at them and strength left me. My whole body went cold and shook furiously, until my legs gave into my weight. I felt like stone as I fell to my knees. My fear had finally caught up with me. I let out a shaky breath, and cupped my face with a trembling hand while holding the sword at my side in a death grip. I closed my eyes and tried to force myself to regain my composure.

  “You’re more of an idiot than I thought if you go through those doors, girl,” a deep voice said, breaking the silence with a cold raspy tone. My body twisted around as I jumped to my feet, and fire enveloped my body like armor caressing me in warmth. Enzio and I shared an icy glare, but his eyes looked completely bored as he leaned against a cobwebbed pillar. He was wearing
his usual apparel, and his metal hand had a certain aged glint to it. He seemed more tired than bloodthirsty. In fact, there was nothing about Enzio that screamed death, or even ‘die Scarlet’. He also didn’t look surprised that I was still alive.

  “Missed me?” I hissed sarcastically. He didn’t even flinch.

  “I’ve seen much more baffling things than pests coming back from the dead, and frankly I’m not the least bit interested,” Enzio sighed indifferently. I wasn’t familiar hearing his voice like that. It was somewhat softer and, if I hadn’t known better, human. “Scarlet, we both know if you go through those doors you will most likely die, only permanently. And if you die, so will the rebels and your family. Do you want that?” I bit down on my lip. Enzio was not mocking me or lying. I knew that every word coming from his mouth was truth in his mind. But I also knew that truth in one’s mind and actual truth could always be different.

  “No,” I whispered, reciting the words in my mind that The Healer had said to me at our meeting. “No matter what happens, I know He is holding me. Whatever happens, I will be safe, in death or life. I am not afraid to die.” My fire dissipated with a slight sizzle, and my instant armor faded. I tossed the sword on the ground, putting my arms out in surrender.

  “If you don’t believe me.” I paused, taking a deep breath. “Then take your best shot.”

  Enzio didn’t respond, he only stared at me skeptically. Then, Enzio stood up straight, and walked slowly to me until my forehead was about four inches from his chest. The thick smell of blood wafted off his clothing, choking me slightly. Enzio gazed down at me, his red eyes boring holes into my skull, but I stood my ground. It was only when he made a move that I did not expect that I was taken aback. Enzio grabbed the end of my chin, and looked into my eyes. They lingered for a moment, as if studying the very depths of my soul. Seeming content, he released my head, and my arms fell in surprise. I stared up at him, half in confusion and the other half still intent on proving I wasn’t afraid of death.