by Lola StVil
I follow Amelie inside and wait beside her as she closes the door. She moves in front of me and leads me down a long tunnel. The tunnel slopes sharply downwards, and I know we are going underground. I vaguely remember hearing stories of the tunnels and secret chambers that flow beneath the cemetery, but I always thought those stories were nothing but a myth.
The tunnel is carved directly into the earth. I look around, awestruck by the work that must have gone into making this tunnel. It is big enough that I can stand without stooping and wide enough that Amelie and I could walk side by side, although she chooses to stay a step or two ahead of me. The tunnel is lit by lanterns that hang at even spaces along the ceiling of the tunnel. I don’t even have to duck to avoid them.
We walk in silence for a while. I feel as though I am journeying to the center of the earth, and I wonder briefly if I was right earlier and I am indeed following Amelie to the very depths of Hell. It hardly matters now. What else can I do but keep following her?
As we walk, I spot many tunnels running off from this one. It would be all too easy to get lost down here and never see the light of day again. Finally, the descent begins to level out and the tunnel widens into a large cavernous opening. The opening is large enough to host a decent party, I think to myself, and unlike the tunnel, it is finished with stone. The walls and ceiling are left bare, and the floor is covered with a large rug.
The cavern is furnished with several large chairs and tables, and I feel my jaw drop when I spot the large monitors that are hooked up to various computing equipment. I feel like I’ve wandered into a spy movie.
It could be worse. It could be a horror movie.
I can’t help but picture corpses lining the walls, hanging from meat hooks, their blood dripping onto the rug. I blink and swallow hard and the image is gone.
“Hey guys, I’m back. And I’ve brought company,” Amelie calls out.
I see two hooded figures emerge from the shadows towards the back of the clearing. The hoods cover their faces enough that I can’t even tell if they are male or female. The hoods are attached to long red robes that make the people wearing them look like they are about to take part in a religious ceremony.
I briefly hope that human sacrifice isn’t a part of their ritual.
“You brought a stranger here? And let him see your face?” a deep voice booms angrily from under one of the hoods.
That one is a man then, I think.
“Relax,” Amelie says. “He wants to help.”
The man under the robe gestures frantically to Amelie to approach him.
“Have a seat,” Amelie says to me.
I sit in the nearest chair, resting my forearms on a table which isn’t as cold as I expected. She crosses the opening and meets up with the two figures.
I can’t hear what they are saying properly. They talk in urgent whispers, Amelie explaining who I am and why I’m here. I do catch the odd phrase.
“Malakaro’s son?”
“He wants to make up for the sins of his father. We need him.”
The last phrase seems to convince the robed figures that Amelie was right to bring me here. The three of them approach me and take seats opposite me, Amelie in the center. It’s fast becoming clear that she runs the show.
“This is Nix,” she announces. “He wants to help us to protect the innocent.”
She looks at me. “Right?”
“Right,” I agree.
“This is Blade,” she says, gesturing to the man who objected to me being here, “and Snake.”
Snake hasn’t said a word so far, and I’m starting to wonder if maybe my father cut his tongue out or something. The thought is soon proven wrong when he speaks up.
“Welcome to the Shadow and Serpent, Nix,” he says.
The two men keep their hoods up, and the lantern light isn’t bright enough for me to make out any of their features in the thick shadows cast across their faces. It is slightly unnerving hearing what appears to be an empty robe address me, but I push my doubts aside and nod to the man.
Between the three of them, they spend the next hour telling me about how they formed and what they are all about. It feels like a history lesson, but I force myself to listen anyways.
The main point seems to be that they started out to combat evil and will go to any lengths to protect those who need it.
“Our motto is the blood of the one for the lives of the many,” Amelie says.
“Do you understand that, Nix?”
I nod, although I’m not sure I do. I take it to mean that they will sacrifice one person to save a larger group, but I think I may have misunderstood. That seems to go against what they stand for. How can they call themselves good if they are willing to kill?
It dawns on me that they must mean they are willing to sacrifice their own lives for the greater good. I can get on board with that.
“You were brought here because you claim to want to make amends for your father’s sins against the world,” Blade says solemnly.
I nod again. Somehow, I can’t seem to find my voice. It doesn’t put him off.
“If you truly mean that, then you will commit to helping us with a problem we have. Have you heard of a girl named Summit Case?”
I nod again. This time, I force myself to speak.
“Yes, of course,” I say. My voice comes out sounding surprisingly calm and level.
Who hasn’t heard of the infamous Summit Case? The girl who had to be sent away because her power is so great that if she ever learns her true destiny, it will unleash an evil so great it will swallow us all whole.
“Then you know the story,” Snake adds. “The threat must be neutralized. The girl’s very existence puts us all in jeopardy. A great evil is coming to our world, and she will be the cause of it.”
I don’t think that’s entirely fair. It’s not really Summit’s fault. It’s her fate. I decide against pointing that out, and instead, I venture down what I feel is a safer conversational path.
“I know from firsthand experience that Summit has no idea who she is. Her parents sent her away when she was only a toddler, and she has no knowledge of the Angel world.”
I know this is true. My parents have talked about it often enough. And I’ve seen the pain on Pryor’s face when Summit comes up in conversation.
“That may be true,” Blade says, “but she is close to learning the truth, and we must ensure that doesn’t happen.”
That throws me. How could she possibly be close to the truth? Powerful people have done everything they can to ensure that can’t happen.
“That’s impossible,” I say.
Amelie cuts me off.
“It has come to our attention that someone from the Angel world has taken a keen interest in Summit and her well-being, and we fear that he will let her know more than she should if we leave this situation as it is. It is of the highest importance that we don’t allow that to happen. We need your help to make sure it doesn’t come to that. You must make certain that Summit never finds out about her true fate. Whatever the cost.”
“And how exactly do I do that?” I ask. “I don’t even know what she looks like, let alone where she is or who is contacting her.”
Amelie stands up.
“Follow me,” she says.
I follow her across the clearing to the monitors. She sits down in a chair and motions for me to sit beside her.
“Do you understand the implications of Summit learning the truth?” she asks, her voice gentle now we are alone.
“Of course,” I say.
“And will you go to any lengths to make sure it doesn’t happen? To protect the innocent?”
“Yes,” I say.
And I mean it. I will. I’ll find out who is risking blowing everything and make sure they stop interacting with her. Whatever it takes.
Amelie reaches out and presses a button, and one of the monitors comes to life, casting a soft eerie glow onto our faces.
I watch as she clicks around
a bit.
“This is footage one of our members captured on his cell phone,” Amelie tells me.
I watch as a video begins to play before me. It is clearly amateur, but it’s good enough quality to make out what is going on. A girl is sitting alone outside of a café, sipping from a cup. She has long dark hair with intense purple highlights that match her deep purple eyes.
She is gorgeous in an unassuming sort of way, and I don’t need Amelie to tell me who I am looking at. Summit Avery Case in all her innocence.
As the view pans out and shows me someone watching her, I don’t need Amelie to tell me who the angel with an interest in her is either.
It’s someone I know. Someone I know very well.
A bone-chilling cold spreads across my entire body, settling in the pit of my stomach as I watch Lucas staring at Summit.
My little brother is about to end the world.
So much has happened since my meeting with the Shadow and Serpent that I can’t believe it was only yesterday.
The pain I felt in my stomach when I saw Lucas on the screen was quickly replaced with relief. He’s my brother. I only have to talk to him and make him see this has got to stop. How hard can that be?
Harder than it sounded, that’s for sure.
I returned home last night and couldn’t manage to get Lucas alone. Once we went to bed, I debated going to him then, but there was something more important I had to do. I still had to work out which Snap to give the Runner for the game.
The fate of the world seems to have landed on me, and I’m more concerned about winning a game of Runner Ball. So sue me.
I figured this was our one chance of winning the game and showing the Daraquins that we are better than them. Lucas wouldn’t be going near Summit, he’d be too busy preparing for the game, so I told myself another day wouldn’t hurt.
I managed to grab him just before the game started. Our conversation didn’t really go as I’d hoped.
“Why are you hanging around Summit Case?” I asked, getting straight to the point.
“How do you know about that?” Lucas asked, shocked.
“It doesn’t matter how I know. It only matters that I do know, and I’m not the only one. People are talking, Lucas. What are you trying to do? You know what will happen if she finds out who she is.”
Lucas shrugged.
“She won’t find out, I’m only watching her. She doesn’t even know I exist.”
I had a million questions. A million ways to tell him to stop this stupidity. But I didn’t get a chance to say any of them. Before I could go on, I saw Nikki bouncing over.
I rolled my eyes as she ran into Lucas’s arms and hugged him tightly. It’s not that I don’t like Nikki. I do. It was just really bad timing.
“Good luck with the game,” Nikki said, her voice full of excitement. “You’re both going to be amazing.”
She kissed him and he kissed her back. It was a long passionate kiss, and I cleared my throat, reminding them they weren’t alone.
Nikki pulled back, wiggled out of Lucas’s arms, and started heading over to the other cheerleaders. “You got mud on my uniform,” she shrieked, frantically wiping at a mark so small no one would ever notice it.
“Sorry,” Lucas mumbled with a smirk.
Nikki laughed.
“Never mind, you better win the game now and then all will be forgiven,” she said, walking away backward, blowing him a kiss.
“Good luck,” she shouted back over her shoulder.
Before I could speak to Lucas again, the coach called us over.
I pushed aside all thoughts of Lucas, Nikki, and Summit and concentrated on the coach’s last-minute tactics and how we were going to thrash the Daraquins.
I sit now, surrounded by the team. RJ and Ryder are joking and screwing around about a bet they had on the game. Parker and Dylann are downing shots of Coy and chanting. And Lucas is sitting wrapped up in Nikki.
The drinks are flowing and people keep coming up and clapping me on the back.
“I don’t know how you pulled that off, bro, but it was epic,” says a boy from my Mortals and Morality class.
“I can’t believe we won!”
I fist-bump him, and he moves back into the crowd. It looks like I’m forgiven for being who I am, at least for now.
I should be ecstatic. I am. But there’s a darkness hanging over me that is stopping me from really getting into the party. I might be forgiven in the school now I’ve led the team to victory, but I made a promise to Amelie. A promise that feels big, and I don’t think I’ll be able to fully relax and enjoy the after-game party until after I’ve talked to Lucas.
A couple of guys on the team managed to persuade their parents to let them have the party at their place. I don’t think they would have been expecting this. There’s a load of kegs out back on the deck and the Coy is flowing fast.
Powers float on the air as the jubilant crowd celebrates our victory, and people are already dancing to the pumping beat.
I watch as Lucas whispers something in Nikki’s ear and she grins at him. It’s clear that she adores him and he adores her. Her face beams with pride as people approach him and congratulate him on scoring the winning goal.
I know I have to talk to Lucas, but I need to work out what I should say first. I need to make him see how important it is that he stays away from Summit. I still can’t figure out why he is watching her in the first place, but the reasons don’t matter. It only matters that he stops.
I think back to the meeting I had with the Shadow and Serpent. They weren’t messing around.
Their talk of the blood of one for the blood of many keeps coming back to me. Were they telling me I had to take serious action against Lucas? No, it can’t be that. He’s as innocent as anyone else in this, and that means they should be trying to protect him.
I can’t help but think of the promise I made to Amelie. I will stop this, whatever it takes. I know I have to make good on my promise.
Not just because it will show them all that I’m not like my father, but because if I fail, the next person they recruit might not be as quick to talk it out with Lucas. They might take more drastic action.
But how can I get him to listen to me? He dismissed me earlier, making it clear that he thought I was overreacting. I will have to play the brother card. The card that means I don’t need a reason for asking for something of him. I hope it’s enough.
I reach down and do a shot. Then another. I can feel the heat in my stomach and some of my concerns start to fall away. I let myself enjoy the moment. I start lightly swaying to the music.
Parker and Dylann come back to our corner, their faces flushed with the combination of drinking and dancing. They are giggling. As Parker reaches out for a shot from the table, she stumbles and falls. She lands sitting on my lap.
She blushes and her cheeks turn a glimmering silver for a second, then she shrugs and takes the shot with a giggle. She clumsily clambers back off me, and I laugh along with the others.
“Feeling it a bit, Parker?” Ryder laughs.
She tries to throw him a dirty look, but it ends up more like a nod of agreement.
“Come dance with us,” she slurs at me.
“I just have to talk to Lucas first, and then I’ll be right over,” I tell her.
She grabs Dylann’s hand, and they head off back to the makeshift dance floor.
Lucas hears me say his name and looks up from his conversation with Nikki.
“A word,” I say, nodding towards the double patio doors.
Lucas disentangles himself from Nikki, who looks disappointed that he is leaving her side for a minute.
“If you’re not back in five minutes, I’m coming to find you,” Nikki says to Lucas.
She has a twinkle in her eye as she says it, but I think she means it.
I follow Lucas through the patio doors. We move through the crowd that has spilled into the garden and leave the party. I look around as we leave and pull Lucas
into a nearby alley.
“Listen to me,” I start. “Lucas, this is important. I don’t know why you’re watching Summit, and right now, it doesn’t matter. But I know this. You have got to stop.”
“It’s not a big deal,” Lucas says, his voice angry.
I raise my eyebrow. His anger is unexpected. It clearly is a big deal to him.
“I know what I’m doing, Nix, and it’s harmless.”
I know he’s lying. His mouth twitches slightly on the left-hand side as he speaks, a sure giveaway he’s lying, though whether to me or himself, I’m not sure.
“I’m asking you, as your brother, to leave this alone,” I say.
I’m certain he’ll agree, and I’m shocked when he doesn’t.
“And I’m telling you as your brother that I know what I’m doing and you need to mind your own business.”
I can see his face turning angrier, and I can feel my own anger levels rising. Why won’t he listen? What’s so special about watching Summit that he won’t just agree to stop?
He has everything. A good family, a lovely girlfriend, and his whole life ahead of him. Why is he risking all of that?
We stand, facing each other, neither of us willing to back down. I know this is out of control, and it’s not how I planned it, but I can’t see any way back now.
A noise behind me catches my attention but I refuse to look away from Lucas and have him think I’m backing down. Whoever it is can go back to wherever they came from, and they will if they know what’s good for them.
“Lucas, listen,” I start.
His eyes dart away from mine for a second.
“Duck,” he commands.
I do as he says. Something in the urgency of his tone penetrates my anger and lets me think straight. Lucas fires a white fireball over me while I crouch, and I hear a muffled oomph sound as it makes contact with whoever was behind me.
I spin around and see that we are blocked into the alley by a group of demons who have taken advantage of us being distracted.
“Look who we have here.” One of them grins.
I glance at Lucas, and he meets my eye. This time, our mutual anger is directed at the demons. We nod at each other and spring into action.