Legions

by Karice Bolton

  Something was on the horizon, and I needed to be prepared. I didn’t know what exactly, but I wanted to be ready. The itch of a fight was spreading through my visions, and the tingle of fear was beginning to seed itself exactly as it had happened before Athen was taken away from us, from me. The only difference was that this time I was ready, and I was expecting it. I would no longer be ignoring my visions. That’s why I needed the practice and the time alone.

  Looking at Google earlier, this park seemed like the perfect place to practice what I wanted, especially on a gloomy, rain-drenched day when most mortals wouldn’t dare be staring at tide pools, perching themselves on slimy, cold rocks. They were smarter than that. This portion of the beach was just tricky enough that in weather like this, it could be very dangerous.

  That danger was another reason that led me to this spot for my training. There had been some disturbances around this area dealing with humans, and my gut was telling me the demons were involved. I didn’t think I’d actually be running into any, I only wanted to survey the area – get a feel for it and the possibilities that may lay ahead.

  The cliffs were edging closer to the highway’s edge cueing me to the fact that I was getting closer to my destination. As I turned into the public parking area, my suspicions were confirmed. The lot was completely vacant except for one vehicle, an older, white Mazda sedan. The crunch of my wheels hitting the gravel fighting with the loudness of my music, began to build a little anxiety that I wasn’t expecting to feel. Turning into a parking spot at the far end of the lot, I flipped off my music and took a deep breath in, scanning the area. I wasn’t sure what for exactly, but I had already had to promise my soul to Cyril and Arie that I’d be extra vigilant on my little trip. They weren’t thrilled at the idea of me going out on my own, but I think they understood. I needed to practice my training, and I needed clarity.

  I was following the path down towards the beach and finally made it to the beautiful tide pools. The water was crystal clear exposing all sorts of wonderful sea life from the beautiful purple starfish sprawled on the side of a rock to the sea anemone’s tentacles waving to match the rhythm of the water’s ripples. I could see why this was such a popular place for visitors to come to. I also understood what an easy way to get prey it would be here, from the dark demon’s point of view. There’s nowhere for the humans to run. Looking back along the beach, the jaggedy, black cliffs were rising from the ground exposing beautiful quartz etching throughout, with old tree roots wrapping themselves along the boulders and cliff perches.

  The harshness of the Northwest beaches were at their most brilliant here. Even much of the vegetation was rugged and beaten to death, barely hanging on to the cliffs edge. The rawness of everything I was witnessing made me realize the gravity of the situation even more. There was no room for error around this landscape, and there was no room for error when fighting our enemies. Hopefully, if I can learn to negotiate my way around this rugged landscape, I’ll be that much more prepared to face the Legions.

  Taking the far most hiking trail, I followed it for what felt like forever as I was constantly walking uphill along the side of the cliff, heading towards the large towering trees. The perfect place for me to bounce from limb to limb and maybe even try it without the trees, like Cyril and everyone always liked to rub in.

  The corner of forest with the Douglas firs clumped together that I picked was perfect. There was no way anyone would be able to see what I was up to, but if on the off chance there were any visitors, I’d be able to spot them before they saw me. Piling my backpack and jacket on one of the almost dry rocks, I prepared myself as best I could for my practice session. I threw some downed branches over my stuff, just in case.

  Stepping back to take a look at how tall the tree I chose was, I found myself sucking in the air and not wanting to let any of it out. Somehow it worked back at the bog, I only hoped it would continue to work here. Closing my eyes, I pictured myself at the top of the fir tree. I felt where I wanted to be, the wind blowing my hair, the tiny fear in the pit of my stomach as I would look down. I envisioned myself already up-top looking at the meadows and cliffs.

  I reached up towards the sky and felt my legs spring off of the ground as the air began hitting my face as I shot up towards the first set of limbs. Grateful the method I learned was still working, my body kept darting towards the top of the tree. My feet were barely touching the limb before moving onto the next one. The needles were smacking my legs and poking through my jeans as I bounced off one limb to the next. My goal was to get faster, think less, and begin to see how I could apply this to other things I needed to learn. The tree limbs were bouncing and snapping so quickly as I leapt from one to the other, I realized that my speed must have increased ten-fold compared to the bog. The exhilaration was building in my fingertips as I saw the sky through the treetops. I was almost to the top of my first tree.

  Letting out a scream that I had been holding in for months, I knew this was what I needed. I looked around the landscape, enjoying the freedom and the quiet that was surrounding me. Now was my true time to mourn Athen’s loss. My lungs hollered Athen’s name over and over and with every tearful scream, my heart began to feel a little more whole. When my voice had become hoarse and no more tears were able to come, I sat quietly at the top of the world, silent. I knew going forward my mission was to stay strong and learn as much as I could as fast as I could.

  Letting go of the tree, my body went sailing down to the forest floor. I sprung myself onto the next tree and shot up the limbs faster than the last and, again, let myself fall back down to the ground. Ziplining with Athen back in Whistler entered my mind. The way he held me as we went flying down the mountain harnessed together. Him wanting to tell me so badly what I was, and what I was capable of but unable to. If he could see me now, he would be so proud. I was sure of it.

  I was balancing on the tip of my latest treetop, when I grabbed my iPhone to look at the time. I had no idea how long I had been practicing. What I saw shocked me. I had been scaling these firs for hours, and I hadn’t even completed the one task I was willing myself to do my entire drive up here. I wanted to be able to hop from tree to tree before I left. Shoving my phone into my back pocket, I took a deep breath and pictured myself landing perfectly on the top of the tree next to me. Looking over at the tree next to me, noticing how spindly the treetop looked, I began to get jittery, but I forced myself to go for it, and I did.

  Landing it perfectly, the giddiness was impossible to hide. I had no one to share it with, but I was thrilled regardless. My smile was impossibly wide, and the chill from the rain that was coming down in buckets now didn’t even phase me. Seeing the next tree in front of me, I hopped onto it as well. Nothing was interfering with my balance. If I could ever feel like a being with wings, this was the time.

  While arguing with myself as to whether this would be the last jump or not, I spotted a group of people walking towards one of the trails. I did my best to not move one muscle for fear that I’d cause attention. It’s not everyday someone was 70 feet in the air wrapped around the top of a Douglas fir. As I rested my head against the bark, doing my best not to get poked by the needles, my mind began to drift to what I was planning on doing with my newfound talents. Daydreaming about saving Athen from the serpent-eyed woman gave me hope and helped to make the time pass as I realized the group of people wasn’t leaving. I snapped to and began trying to figure out what they were up to. Something didn’t seem right. It was as if they were surveying something down there. They were looking up at trees, pointing at rocks, arguing, and then it hit me. These weren’t naturalists.

  I kept deathly still and tried staring as hard as I could and listening as best I could to try to pick up what they were doing. Watching them deliberate over an unknown, continued to raise the red flags. To my horror, they started their way over towards where I was. They didn’t seem to know I was up in the tree, and I was at least now able to see them better. Unfortunately, with the close prox
imity I could now sense them as well. They were what I expected.

  The closer they got, the quieter I breathed, the slower I blinked my eyes, the harder I prayed they wouldn’t see me. When they were only about 100 feet away or so, they stopped. My heart began beating so fast that I was worried I was going to give myself away.

  They were spreading out and, before I knew it, fighting began amongst them. The females and males were going at it regardless of gender. Another one of the demons somersaulted and missed their intended target, landing on their back. Another one of the demons came over to help him up. One of the females attempted to jump on the shoulders of another, missing as well, landing with a thud on her side. I couldn’t believe what I was witnessing. These demons were horrible. There was no way they could be this bad. Unless it was a trap, and they knew I was here, luring me down thinking I could take them and then they could finish me off.

  I didn’t get that feeling, however. I think they were truly this bad. They must be minions or newly-formed - not sure which one. Either way, it was fascinating. I couldn’t believe my good luck or bad luck, depending on how I’d want to look at it considering I was stuck up a tree like a cat. The fighting actually seemed to be getting worse by the minute, and I was worried that I might not be able to stifle my laugh. I hoped I wasn’t going to be that poor in my battles.

  The confidence began growing lightning-quick inside of me, and that’s when I decided to do it. These were about as unskilled as I could get, and I took it as a sign. I think it was time to practice. Cyril and Arie would be furious, but that thought only popped in after I had already let go of the tree, flying down to the soil awaiting my arrival.

  Landing with one knee on the ground, and the other ready to lunge, I looked up at the group of demons: a smile across my lips appeared as a laughter I didn’t recognize began coming from deep within. A sound I didn’t know was possible began oozing out of my soul. Pointing at my first victim and curling my finger to welcome her, I imagined she was the serpent woman luring Athen. She didn’t have a chance. I snapped her in half without thinking. Her body’s black smoke already lifting towards the clouds, I was thrilled to welcome my next victim.

  The larger demon, who was dressed completely in black and a ridiculous-looking cowboy hat, charged towards me with a barreling effort. My body jumped up into the tree just as he was about to collide into me. I was almost embarrassed about even trying to fight these creatures. I already knew I was horrible, but seeing that I could outwit and outfight them was even more puzzling. He began scaling the tree at such a slow pace, that I let my body fall to the ground to begin my next fight. The other demon girl ran towards me, but stopped right in front of me. Her fist landed right in my side as I stepped backwards, dulling the ache of the potential force that could have been. I grabbed her neck with my right hand and swiped her knees with a left kick, pushing her onto the ground. The cowboy hat guy dropped behind me with a thud, and I spun around with a quickness that surprised myself. I jumped back into the tree, breaking off one of the branches, and let go back down onto him, feeling the point penetrate his flesh. He never saw it coming, and it was just enough to have the other two run off back towards the trail.

  As I let go of the tree limb, the demon fell onto his knees and flat on his face. It was ridiculous. The black mist slowly began releasing into the air. Feeling more confident than I had in a long time, I grabbed my things and went back down towards the beach and parking lot. It was time to get home and explain what happened to Cyril and Arie because I honestly didn’t know.

  Chapter 10

  We were all in the kitchen playing with our food rather than eating it, knowing the choice that we were making carried a heavy burden. It carried consequences I wasn’t sure I could handle but had to do my best to try. The quiet tapping of Arie’s spoon hitting the ceramic bowl began to get on my nerves. I did my best to squash the annoyance. It wasn’t her fault.

  The Legions were making themselves known to as many of us as they could. Arie was getting endless texts and emails with updates on family members who had either been recently returned from the Awakening and reintroduction processes, or who had just been taken away. We were all being scattered around trying to find our loved ones, or were helping others who were searching, leaving us to possibly fall right into the demon’s trap. Yet, there was nothing we could do about it. That’s how we were wired, unlike them. We had emotions. We were easily distracted, compared to them. We had to find our loved ones.

  Even though I’d been on a high from the day before, the heaviness of the situation wiped the slate clean again. It was hard to revel in the tiny successes when hearing about new people experiencing the heartache that I had now been feeling for months.

  It seemed the demons that I’d run into the day before were newly turned, easily destroyed. Even with hearing that though, my happiness couldn’t be swayed. It felt pretty good to kick butt like that. It also showed just how weak these new demons truly were. If they were building the Legions with lots of new members, it could really be a benefit for our side.

  Because of the run-in at the library, we decided to do something pretty unprecedented and move things along a little quicker than the normal process. We were going to force contact. The thought that he may have seen the waves of prismatic colors from my soul bounce off the library walls gave us enough hope to pounce on things.

  A battle was looming and the sooner we could get Athen back the better for us all, or even come to the realization that it might be a lot longer than we thought and prepare for the battle without him.

  “Well, we’ve got some good news and some bad news.” Cyril offered up, grabbing his glass of ice water.

  “Yep! Think we are on the right track.” Arie agreed, nodding her head.

  “Okay, want to share it with me?” I was completely puzzled. We hadn’t really been surrounded by much good news lately, so I wasn’t sure what it could possibly cover.

  “Athen and that serpent woman you keep seeing in your dreams do seem to be together. To what degree, we don’t know yet… But tomorrow they are likely going to be together at that Starbucks we’ve been avoiding for so long. I think it’s time to meet up with them both.”

  “So what’s the good news?” I looked at Cyril while waiting for his answer, but he was just stirring his soup in circles.

  “That was the good news.”

  ***

  Looking over all of my notes from my recent dreams made it pretty hard to stay focused on just one idea. I never wanted to miss something that I should have told my family when it came to my dreams and premonitions, so I made it my mission to take notes. Placing my journal back in the drawer, I looked at my wonderfully inviting bed, pushing away the sadness knowing I’d be climbing into it alone yet again.

  It was pretty hard to imagine life as a typical nineteen year old any longer. I had given that notion up. Even when I thought I was one, I knew I wasn’t deep inside. I was plugging away up in Whistler and everything, but even then, things didn’t fit. Everyone would go out wanting to party, and I just wanted to curl up with a good book and Matilda snoozing by my side. The drinking age being what it was compared to the states made most of the under twenty-one crowd go crazy, and it just didn’t do it for me.

  Always thinking I bored the heck out of whoever I was around, I tended to do things I enjoyed, by myself. I knew I wanted someone to love, but didn’t think that was possible, especially at my age. Little did I know I wasn’t really that age, in the normal fashion. It was like the best present in the entire world to find out that this life was waiting for me and had always been mine for the taking. To have Athen show up, offering me a world that was beyond perfection and allowing myself to believe, truly believe in what was being offered, only to have him taken away so quickly, made me question everything. The worst question of all that I kept fighting became was it even worth it? In my previous existence, I didn’t even know our love existed. I got through all of the days just fine. Knowing what I wa
s missing was the most excruciating experience ever.

  I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. We didn’t come up with much of a plan for the next day, but I hoped sleep would bring one to me. Only time would tell.

  My body jerked up with a sudden start as something awoke me. Realizing that my cheek carried the sensation that someone was running their finger along it, began my heart pumping wildly with the knowledge that someone had to be in my room. Scanning my room, the darkness provided the uncomfortable stillness that managed to make me dreadfully aware that I wasn’t alone, only I couldn’t see my visitor. I started panicking as I looked all around. I saw no one.

  I reached up and retraced the tracks of the strange feeling on my flesh, not understanding what I actually felt. I tried to calm myself down, but the sound of my heart beating so quickly made it impossible – that and the surge of the adrenaline that was running thought my veins. I slowly moved my body from the side position to flat on my back thinking I had a better shot of protecting myself if I could see the entire room at once, darkness or not. I did my best to move slowly, fearing that I might frighten whoever was in my room to act in haste and possibly hurt me.

  I managed to slide both hands under my sheet as if that layer of cotton could somehow provide the level of protection I felt I needed. With only my head sticking out of the covers, my eyes darted from one breezy motion to the next. There was definitely someone in my room.

  “I know you’re in here. Whoever you are.” I whispered, wishing I had chosen to play dead instead.

  Athen’s voice entered my head at the same time creating a calming force as I remembered back to our time in Seattle right before Thanksgiving. I was able to take a deep breath in as opposed to the shallow ones I had been taking since I woke up. I didn’t understand the significance of Athen’s words at this very moment, but all of the fear inside me began diminishing. I’d be okay.