Hidden Runes

by G. Bailey

  “What do we have here?” I hear a sickening sounding voice say from behind me, and I turn, seeing a demon that looks half snake and half human in front of me. I step back, missing my step, and I go tumbling down the hill.

  The next three days the demons keep me, feeding off my blood and beating me senseless. It’s all a blur, but I have never been as powerless as I am now. The next real thing I am aware of is a bright, red light…When I open my eyes, a red-eyed demon with black hair and a handsome face is holding me in his hands.

  “You’re safe now.”

  I snap out of the memory of the first time I met Azi, and the only time I’ve ever been to Hell. I saw a lot of it as the demons dragged me around as their slave. They claimed my blood was worth more than any they had ever seen, and that it was the only reason they didn’t kill me. I walk out of my bedroom, closing the door behind me. Azi may have saved me, but he broke me far worse than any demon did in Hell. He should have left me there. I stare around at the empty apartment; the stillness of it, and I hate it. I hate being in my home without Hali. It’s too quiet, and it’s too messy. Hali was the neat freak, and I tend to forget to pick my stuff up. I used to get annoyed when she moved stuff to clean, and I couldn’t find it, but now I miss having her around to do that. It’s only been two days, and I will get her back. I have to keep telling myself that, or I might lose the plot and try to rescue her instead of moving forward with this plan. I go to the kitchen, reaching into the fridge and getting out my five packets of bacon when I smell a familiar smoky scent, and then I sense him. I turn around to see Azi standing in my living room, with only the faint trails of smoke still surrounding him to tell me he used a portal to get in here. He is dressed for Hell this time, no more suits like he usually wears. This time he has a North Face jacket on, similar to mine, but his is blue. He has a bag on his back, two swords, and I’m sure plenty of other weapons hidden underneath. I hate the first moment I see him, my body instantly warms, remembering every moment we spent together like it was yesterday. He was my first everything, and being with him was the first time I felt safe. But he ruined it, and I have to remember that.

  “Have you heard of knocking?” I frown at him, pulling my bag off my back, and shoving my bacon in the container inside. It won’t last more than a couple days, but the freezing landscape should help keep the bacon fresh.

  “Bacon? I see you haven’t changed much in all these years,” he chuckles as I close my bag and chuck it on my shoulder. I ignore him, starting to walk to the door, but he steps in my way, making me arch my neck to look up at him.

  “Get out of the way,” I snap, and he continues to move closer, until he's close enough that I can smell his peppermint scent. I never knew if it was a cologne, or something he put on that made him smell that way, but I always loved how he smelt.

  “We need to talk, what happened–”

  “I don’t want to talk about it. You fucked me over, just like everyone said you would. Demons like you can’t be trusted, and they certainly can’t love anyone but themselves. So, get the fuck out of my way before I do something that you will regret,” I threaten him as his eyes burn with anger. He goes to reply when there is a knock at the door.

  “Come in,” I say, stepping back, and Azi steps aside.

  “This isn’t over, and if I have to tie you down to make you talk to me, I will,” he states firmly, crossing his arms with a determined expression. I hate that he knows I like being tied up. Can’t believe the bastard actually just used that against me.

  “You can try,” I harshly whisper just as the door opens and the Protectors walk in. They have cloaks on again, this time with rucksacks on their backs, and weapons everywhere to be seen. I notice straight away the two axes on Trex’s back. The shiny black metal looks awesome. Connor has swords, and when he walks over, I spot the dozens of daggers and two guns on his belt. Nix is the last one through the door, and he doesn’t look impressed, but he does look hot. He has a bow, similar to mine, attached to his back along with arrows.

  “Here, these are for you and Azi. They have advanced Protector’s technology in them, making them stay as warm as you need them,” Connor offers me the folded-up cloaks. I nod, accepting them and chucking one at Azi, who catches it.

  “Where is it safe to make a portal around here?” Trex asks as I take my supplies and clip the cloak on. I put everything back on and pick up my bow.

  “There is a basement under the building. It’s big enough, and no one goes in it,” I reply, pushing past them all and towards the door. They follow me down the steps, and I wait for them to leave the apartment before locking the door. I walk around the building to the alleyway, unlocking the basement door with my key and walking down the steps. I wait until we are all in the middle of the dark basement, with Connor using the flashlight on his phone to see. The others don’t care, and Azi can see in the dark, anyway.

  “Are you ready for this?” I ask, pulling an arrow out of my quiver and holding it at my side. They all nod, pulling their weapons out. Azi doesn’t, he just stands still.

  “Are you opening the portal, or me?” Azi asks.

  “Me. Just keep an eye out, we can’t have any souls escaping. You know how much trouble souls can cause humans. People don’t like ghosts, and we haven’t got time to call a reaper,” I comment and pull my sleeve up, pressing my finger to my red rune and thinking of Hell. I open my eyes as my rune glows bright, blasting red light into the room. A second later, a red portal burns into existence, getting bigger and bigger until it’s about the size of a door. A soul rushes out almost instantly, and I load my bow, shoot it in the chest, and send it back through the door.

  “After you,” I say, waving my hand at the door. Connor runs into it first, followed by Nix and Trex.

  “I’m going last,” Azi tells me, and I don’t bother arguing with him, running towards the portal and jumping in, feeling the fire burn all over me, and then I’m just falling.

  Thirteen

  Evie

  I land with a roll when I fall out of the portal, and bump into someone, knocking myself onto my side. I sit up, seeing Connor on the ground, shaking his head as he gets up. Nix and Trex are slowly standing up, looking a bit dazed, but at least they didn’t break anything on the floor. I stand up quickly, loading my arrow into my bow and looking around while they aren’t focused. Travelling great distances in portals can make you feel a little drunk sometimes, and I’ve travelled through so many it doesn’t bother me anymore. I doubt it will bother Azi, either, when he finally manages to get his ass down here. I look around, not seeing anyone or anything near us. It’s just snow, and the mountains behind us. At the sound of a loud bang, I turn around to see Azi land in a crouch, and he grins at me before rising to stand.

  “Where to next?” Connor asks, walking over to me. He brushes snow out of his hair as the others come over.

  “See the mountains there,” I point to them as I speak. “They hold the entrance to the next layer. It’s not going to be easy to get to them, but once we are inside, it’s only demons we have to deal with,” I tell them, and they give me a confused look.

  “The souls here are the worst of any souls. They are stuck here for their actions in their lives, and the demons usually feed off them until they fade away. They aren’t like souls on Earth, who have to put a lot of energy into just moving a flower pot or something,” I explain.

  “And the good souls? What happens to them? Are they here?” Nix asks.

  “Truly good souls never come to Hell. Souls that are neutral are taken to the second layer, and reborn,” Azi explains for me, and Nix nods, looking away sharply. What was that about?

  “Let’s go, it’s going to take us at least seven hours on foot to reach the mountains. And that’s only if we don't run into trouble along the way," I say, putting my bow back on my back and walking ahead. We walk in silence for about an hour, and I’m impressed with how well the Protectors are able to keep up with me. They don’t complain about the climbi
ng in the snow, or the fact the temperature is dropping every hour. The snow is beginning to freeze over and become hard to walk on. Nix catches up to me, while the others are closer together just behind us.

  “Can I ask you something, love?” Nix asks, grabbing my arm when I nearly slip on some ice. I pull my arm away, meeting his light-green eyes that don’t seem to have a motive.

  “I might answer, so you might as well ask,” I reply eventually.

  “How old were you when you killed someone for the first time?” he asks.

  “Why? Do you want to know how long I’ve been a monster?” I snap out in reply, and he shakes his head, his black hair moving with him and getting some of the snow out of it.

  “If killing as a child, when you had no choice, makes you a monster . . . well, that makes me one, too,” he admits, making me pause for second, and look at him.

  “How old were you?” I ask.

  “Five. I killed my father,” he responds in a cold tone. I knew there was something dark about him. This kind of explains some things.

  “Why?” I reply.

  “For beating up and killing my mother. He was about to kill Trex, holding a dagger, dripping with my mother’s blood, to his throat. I picked up one of his daggers off the floor, where he had dropped it, and slammed it into his cold, dead heart,” he tells me the story like it isn’t something that happened to him. There is no real emotion in his retelling of the story. That must be his way of coping, pretending that his past happened to someone else. I don’t blame him.

  “You don’t seem to regret it,” I reply.

  “I don’t,” he says firmly.

  “You shouldn’t, and I am sorry,” I tell him honestly.

  “I told you. Now, shouldn’t you tell me your story in return, love?” he asks. I want to ignore him, but something makes me speak instead.

  “I was eight, older than you,” I start off.

  “Who was it?” he asks.

  “A Protector. I had left the demon compound, ignoring my friend’s advice, and thinking I knew better. Thinking I was safe . . . but I wasn’t. He was waiting for me,” I say, trying to forget the fear I felt when the Protector caught me, and slammed me onto the ground, holding a dagger to my neck. I wasn’t a fighter back then, just a scared child.

  “How did an eight-year-old beat an adult Protector?” he enquires.

  “My friend was a witch, and a smart one. She was older than me, eighteen at the time I was attacked. She had just gotten her power and followed me to make sure I was safe for the night. She used her gifts to hold the Protector down, and I killed him with the dagger he tried to kill me with,” I tell him, trying to keep any emotion out of my voice. She also suggested leaving my rune name on him as a way of scaring the other Protectors away. It became a thing I just did after a while.

  “Where is your friend now?” Nix asks.

  “She died,” I reply simply, still missing her with every single part of me, and I can’t even say her name now. It hurts too much. I stop dead in my tracks, hearing a slight sound, seconds before over twenty souls rush at us from all directions. We walked straight into a soul trap. The souls appear almost see through, but any weapon with silver on it will kill them. Luckily all my weapons have silver, but there are a lot of them, and not enough of us.

  “Weapons, now!” I shout, pulling my bow off and grabbing an arrow. Nix does the same, and we start firing instantly. I hit three souls before they get too close and whack the nearest one with the end of my bow when it heads towards me. I grab a dagger out of my belt, slamming it into the soul of what looks like a burnt body as it runs at me. I turn around, just in time to see Trex slam his axe over the head of a soul.

  “Shit, there are too many. It’s like they have gathered together to find us and trap us,” I mutter, grabbing the hand of the soul that reaches for me, and flipping it over my shoulder, slamming my dagger into it as it lands. I jump up, looking around, and seeing nothing but souls. More and more are running towards us, far more than the twenty we started with. Crap a doodle.

  “Azi!” I shout at him, seeing him holding two souls in his hands, and he is burning them. He quickly kills them, looking over at me, and then to the army surrounding us.

  “Alright,” he shouts. “Cover me!”

  “Everyone cover Azi, and jump into the flame portal he makes!” I tell them, neglecting to mention that it hurts like hell to go through a demon portal. It will likely knock us all out, including Azi for holding it open so long. The guys do as I ask, and I pull another arrow out, shooting soul after soul as I back up. I get to Azi’s side just as he opens the fire portal, which looks just like a wall of flames. Connor gives me a wide-eyed look, but I don’t have time to look at the others as a soul runs at Nix, catching him off guard, and biting his arm. He swears, pulling the soul off of him, and I shoot the soul with an arrow. He holds his arm as he backs towards the portal and jumps in with a nod at me.

  “Jump in, Connor, Trex! Azi can’t hold it for long!” I say, knowing I’m close to leaving their asses here. Connor jumps in, and Trex kills two more souls with his axe before jumping.

  “Now, Vi!” Azi says, sweat pouring down his forehead, and his red eyes blazing. I put my finger to my blue rune, calling my holy fire, and make a wall of it in front of us, seeing the souls run towards the holy fire and burn themselves. I turn around, and run into the portal, feeling like every part of me is burning before I land somewhere cold, then black out.

  Fourteen

  Evie

  “Evie . . .” I hear my friend speak, her words filled with shock as I pull the dagger out of the chest of the Protector on the floor.

  “He was waiting for me in here. He knew I would come to see you today and get food,” I say with a shaky voice, my hand dropping the dagger onto the ground as I realise what I’ve done. I’ve killed him.

  “Don’t you dare feel guilty, not for this. I’m sorry I wasn’t here to protect you until the end,” she says, coming over to me.

  “Why do they keep coming for me? Why am I not safe anywhere? I thought this place was safe.” I ask. I was lucky to kill this one, and if I hadn’t been training with the old demon I found to help me, I wouldn’t have survived. And if she hadn’t come home and stopped him with her magic...

  “I thought the same, but evidently, it’s not. We will move to another place,” she states, holding her hands on her hips and staring at the dead Protector.

  “I can just leave by myself. You don’t have to move because of me. If I’m not here, they won’t come after you,” I say, trying not to look as upset as I feel.

  “I’m not leaving an eight-year-old on the streets while she is hunted by monsters. Even a smart eight-year-old like you,” she says, tutting like she does when she isn’t happy.

  “But you’re a witch; you can’t leave your people,” I protest. All the witches live in this demon underground. They own the section my friend lives in.

  “I have no living family, and I’m a teacher, so I can get a job anywhere,” she reminds me, and I nod, biting my lip. “The witches won’t miss me, don’t worry.”

  “What should we do with him?” I ask, knowing we can’t just leave him here. My friend picks a picture up off the side, the drawing of my rune name I drew earlier today when I was bored.

  “We leave this, as a warning for whoever is after you,” she says, leaning down and placing the drawing on his chest. “Now help me pack our stuff, and no more living on the streets for you. You can hide with me, and we will figure something out. I’m tired of letting you walk out that door for nights on end and worrying as I wait for you to come back, Evie.”

  “You’re like the only real family I’ve ever had,” I say quietly.

  “Not ‘like’, we are family,” she says, pulling me into her arms and kissing my forehead. “You won’t be alone ever again, Evie.”

  “Vi, wake up,” Azi's voice penetrates through the darkness, and I blink my eyes open. As everything comes into focus, I notice my he
ad is in his lap, and his hand is gently stroking my cheek. For a second, I forget what happened in the past, only seeing his handsome features and the red eyes that would scare most, but not me. They’ve never scared me. I have always liked the darkness. The emotion I can see in his eyes now calls to me. I'm not sure if it's real, but I don't know if I can look away. “Vi, I never meant to hurt you. It was always you for me, from the moment I met you here. Let me explain what happened that night."

  “Azi,” I whisper softly, and the sound of a male groan snaps me out of whatever moment we were having. I jump off his lap, ignoring his annoyed glare. I can’t risk letting him close like that again. This is a job, that’s all. That was stupid, Evie. I pull myself to my feet, looking around at the small cave we are in and the snow just outside the entrance. By the looks of the trail of snow, Azi dragged us in here from outside. I look over to see Trex waking up, shaking his head and looking dazed. Where the hell are we?

  “I’m going to get some wood, or anything we can use. I checked the cave while I waited for you to wake up, and it is safe. It’s night, and we aren’t going anywhere until morning,” he pauses. “We are at the bottom of the mountain to answer your unasked question,” Azi says, pulling his cloak around him, and walking out of the cave without another word.

  “What happened?” Connor mumbles, sitting up–his gold hair sticking up all over the place, and he has mud all over his cheek. He rubs his face, glancing at his friends and pulling his bag off his back, getting out a drink. Trex is still struggling to come around, running his hands over his face. I try to hide my smile when he looks my way, but he sees it anyway. I chuckle and look back at Connor.