Evanescent

by Carlyle Labuschagne

  We followed after Troy and found him standing in a room soaked in his own blood, a spear hurtling straight for his chest. Immediately my eyes found my sister’s, dangling from Enoch’s grip, screaming. Protecting me from the oncoming spear, Rion cupped his body over mine. It flew over us, whistling through the thick, dark air before it slammed into the wall behind us and fell to the floor, landing two steps down. Rion looked at me with big, blue eyes brimmed with concern. I nodded that I was fine as he held my face in his hands, unconvinced. My heart raced to my throat trying to make sense of the scene unfolding before us.

  “I said I am fine.” I wiped moisture from my face.

  That’s when I saw what he was looking at. We were covered in a dark-green, radiant poison, the afterglow unmistakable. Ava had explained something like this to me before. It came from the Shadow. This kind of magic was the first magic. The darkest, the birth of it all. Pure and cruel. It was designed to torture minds and souls. The kind the Zulu king used on his people. On Ava.

  Rion was mad, his blue eyes cut through me.

  “Don’t worry.” I swallowed.

  We had no time to ponder our fate. Suddenly, Rion shoved me to the floor and took on the first droid, a long line of cyborgs eagerly fighting their way to stop us and save their master. I crawled to the room, and shivered in fear when I saw Ava and her clone suddenly going at each other. Troy and Enoch beating each other to death wasn’t a new sight for me. I grabbed what weapon my hands could find and went to Rion’s aid. I ducked a metal arm as it slammed into the wall next to me, dirt and pebbles exploded in my face. I spun, lifted myself by jumping onto Rion’s back as he ducked a flying fist. I took to the air, and came down on the drone slicing into the back of his neck. I spun back, heart racing, pulse burning. Smiling, seeing my training in action was elating. Rion took one more drone out before we simultaneously ran for Troy. A dreadful scream filled the large, stone room, brining my attention to more glowing pods lining the walls in the next room. Those creatures, their limp bodies suddenly afloat. Could we save them before it was too late?

  “Rion!” I shouted, seeing Enoch pin Troy to the wall, a deadly gas escaping his metal arm. We covered our mouths with our shirts, and then ran for Troy as he fell to his knees. He heaved, blood gurgling from his mouth.

  Rion’s eyes flared, illuminating blue irises, his panic was well met.

  “Oh, no.” I choked.

  “What did you do!” I heard Ava shout to Enoch.

  As we lifted Troy from the floor, the clone came at me. I gave her the most hateful, harmful glare I could, resulting in my stare lifting her off the ground where she dangled mid-air. With my mind, I imagined a cord holding her there. Ava was saying something when Rion pulled out a dagger. I had to keep my glare on the invisible rope around the clone’s body, she was a mad force to reckon with. Shifting my weight to hold Troy’s heavy body upright, my stomach twisted at the haggard breath leaving his lungs.

  “Get him out of here!” my sister screamed.

  I suddenly understood why she would even suggest that we leave her there. Troy could not heal when so close to her. I had totally forgotten what Mom had told me regarding the bond between guide and soul, but it’s the bond between the ignited and its flare that was at stake. I could see it in their desperate eyes. Rion’s dagger flew through the air with a soft spin of the hilt. I waited to hear it strike its intended target, while I kept my eyes on the clone, my telekinesis was astounding recently. Somehow, Enoch’s presence changed her. She was not herself. Enoch laughed and said something to Ava. I turned, feeling secure in my abilities to have tied the telepathic rope. I saw the clouds draw in my sister’s eyes, the charge build within in its dark, gray depths. Something was intensely off. Some awful event had taken place between her, Enoch and Troy. I could feel the pain ripple inside her. Whatever she had done, I was sure we could fix it. She didn’t have to feel that way.

  Troy’s fist grabbed at my shirt, frantic to go back.

  I shouted to her, “He won’t leave you!” I didn’t want to either. “I am coming,” Ava’s hoarse voice returned.

  As we exited the room, Troy’s breathing almost stopped. Over my shoulder, I stared into Enoch’s back. Dark blood dripped from the dagger pinned beneath his shoulder blade. I stared at the familiar black hair, wide shoulders, and deep angle of his cheekbones, of a brother I once had. I couldn’t hate him, because he was gone – replaced.

  I blew out a deep sigh for a loss I will never understand.

  “Let’s get Troy to safety. As soon as he heals, we can come back for her,” Rion said.

  Nodding, I let the clone go with a pull of my mind and we turned, suddenly rushing to get Troy to safety. We would then return for Ava, I was not going to leave her. I knew what Enoch was capable of. Ava’s mind was weak for him and I had to protect her, I hadn’t the first time around. I would now, followed by me killing her for not listening to me – ever. Troy’s arm hung over my shoulder, barely keeping it together as we moved into the corridor.

  “Thank you,” Troy breathed, hardly audible, but it was a sign his healing had begun. His warm blood had seeped through my cloak and shirt, the warmth and stickiness caused me to gag. I was never one for blood, could never stand the smell, or the sight of its goriness. I swallowed deep tears, wanting so badly to cry. I had never seen Troy so broken before. We walked over the metal bodies of immobilized drones, blue light fractured and turned in their reflection. The glow of the tubes faded as we turned the corner. We started down the stairs. Ava’s clone followed silently behind, and only the hasty shuffle and scrape of our boots against fine, golden sand and the grinding of small, gray pebbles, echoed down the narrow passage. Rion grunted, readjusting Troy’s arm around his neck.

  “He is heavy,” I said.

  “Where are Dave and Tatos, I thought they were right behind us?” Rion asked out of frustration.

  There was silence for a while, and my thoughts were all that kept me from the aching stitch in my side.

  “How did you manage to get away from Enoch?” I asked Ava’s clone.

  “I don’t know what you are talking about,” she retorted, harshly.

  I snorted, carefully stepping down the stairs in the grimly, lit, descending tunnel.

  “I know, okay, I am not stupid. You’re haltered to him, just like she is. You are all connected through the disease.”

  “How do you know this?”

  Her boots shuffled, her breathing suddenly heavier as she sped up.

  “I am just trying to state the obvious. You made a decision to follow us, to not kill Ava, who you obviously need to in order to take her place beside Troy. That’s what you are here for, isn’t it. For Troy?”

  “What are you saying?”

  Rion’s eyes met mine. He shook his head.

  “You can’t be that stupid, can you? You just demonstrated once again that your mind is stronger than your tie, than the Shadowing disease. You can withstand it, and so can Ava. There is hope.”

  “There is none. It is inevitable. The only antidote is in Troy’s blood. I will turn, and so will Ava. He can’t possibly cure us both.”

  “It’s not in his blood,” I corrected her. “It is him.” As I spoke, the knowledge was instant. The Ignited one was a part of the White Devine. They were of one, two pieces that needed to find their way back together in order to… They were the weapon. I caught my breath as the puzzle pieces fell into place. Troy coughed, haggard and painfully, bringing my attention back to him, fueling my need to get back to my sister. To let the two be together finally, as it was intended to be. We slowed to a stop, finding a smooth wall beneath a faint, golden lamp, to rest and recuperate for just a moment. Every second that passed grated at me, tearing at the seams of the very fabric that held our fate together.

  “I feel better now,” Troy said.

  But when he tried to stand, his knees buckled.

  Rion caught him. “Give it more time,” he said, leaning him back against the wall.
>
  Troy took one more deep, unkempt breath. His head turned to meet my concerned glare. “Let’s go.” His eyes glossy and distant, but the fire behind them was slowly returning.

  “Not yet,” Rion insisted.

  Troy shoved Rion from him, wiped blood from his bruised and torn mouth. The poison had ripped his very skin, and cut into his lungs. I was glad we had rushed him out when we did. His gray, long sleeve, almost a total blood-soaked rag, hung in tatters from his wounded body. The clone came closer. His body grew rigid. “Not you,” he uttered, looking down at his ruined shirt.

  She stood back, clearing our path back up the stairs. I hoped our few seconds was enough. Abruptly, a piercing shrill rang out. Our hands covered our ears in futile attempts to drown out the ear-splitting siren. Once we recovered from the paralyzing effect, Rion and I threw punitive glances at each other. The ground started to shake beneath our feet. I looked up to find Troy already at the top of the stairs we had just come down from. Rion and I sprinted up with every ounce of energy we could muster. My pendant glowed as I drew in more vitality from around us, but the glow was also warning me. It was calling to her. As I entered the room, it was so dark it looked like a black wall had suddenly risen up before us. I called for Ava, and turned to Troy who tried to hold himself upright against a pillar. His healing had suddenly stopped as he came near the room again, the effect of Ava’s proximity immediately visible. I smelled it, the dark, before there was a flash of light, or warning. As Troy suddenly grabbed on to the wall to steady himself, he shouted something, but the rumble in the walls and the caving in of the roof was deafening. I lifted my arm, sheltering my eyes from the blazing light and flying debris, riding the wave of some invisible force. It came at us, radiating from a solid, black, smoky figure. The smell was choking, the wave rippled, bent and shoved the air into us, growing as big as a tidal wave; we flew back as it overpowered everything in the room. I grabbed on to Rion as an anchor, my nails tearing back from his flesh as I tried to hold on to the wall to stop us from flying down the steep stairs. Ava’s clone managed to use a drone’s body to block the passage. We all smacked into each other, and then landed three steps down with loud moans. With a lot of cussing, Troy was back up and heading into the room. I pushed the clone from me and we were up, trying our very best to get back into the room. I pushed past them all, noticing more drones and cyborg creatures coming toward us from the other side of the narrow hall. The entire place shook, and very faintly I heard Tatos and Robert call to us. I pushed on, eager and desperate to get Troy out of the room, as well as bring my sister with us. I watched through falling rocks and gray, chalk clouds as pillars of falling wall came down, powdering everything in a dull shimmer. The dark, smoky figure in the center of all the destruction was Ava; Enoch was pinned to the ground between her legs. She lifted a shard into the air and screamed again, her eyes locked on ours, dark, liquid tears burned down her skin. The scream pierced our ears. We had been too late, she had shifted. As the shard hit Enoch straight through his metal, chestplate, sparks flew, a golden glow turned gray, and the room turned cold as the pulse-wave brought down the roof between us and her. Seeing the Shadowing disease possess my sister was an ugly image, one I would not easily forget. Her very skin changed color, her eyes dark and empty. I pushed my hand out to stop Troy from running right into the falling boulders. As they struck the floor, the pounding was so loud I couldn’t think at all. Swiftly, Tatos was through the wall of cyborgs blocking him, and pulling us all into the safety of the tunnel.

  “Now!” Tatos shouted, and pushed an image into my head.

  I grabbed Rion’s hand for extra strength, grit my teeth and felt the tingle turn to a sting, and then it almost felt as if something was trying to force its way out of my throat and through my chest. Another pulse-wave rippled through the air as I screamed, feet anchored to the ground. I just needed to get past the first barrier of pain, and push the invisible wall I held back as hard and for as long as I could, acting like a shield. A tidal of pulse-waves forced its way over, into and through everything in its wake. Walls shook and stone started hailing down on us, the entrance was blocked, but my ability allowed me to push the upsurge back into the echoing darkness. The fortress rumbled like the inside of a beast’s belly in aching turmoil. I turned to see Troy leaning against the wall, drawing sharp, ragged breaths.

  Rob held him up as best he could. “You are bleeding.”

  “Obviously,” Troy sneered.

  It wasn’t, but it only took a moment when Troy was totally cut off from Ava that he started to heal again, his breath growing stronger and deeper. I looked to the clone and then back, not quite understanding how he was healing with her so close. Now that he knew the truth, could he sever his connection to the clone? The tricks a mind could play on a person.

  “No!” he shouted, pounding fists against a barricade of rock. Whatever gas he had inhaled was rotten, acidic and ghastly smelling, it clung to his skin and clothes, turning his blood dark and ichory.

  “Cheater!” Troy shouted, banging his fist on the wall of boulders.

  “Coward,” he cried out through coughs, moisture soaking his entire face.

  “Enoch, this is no fair fight. You can’t use her like this, let her go, it’s just you and me, it always was,” Troy kept on rambling, desperate to get anything back from behind the thick, falling boulders that entombed Ava and Enoch in the cave of ruins. With a sudden loud roar, the floor beneath our feet vibrated deep and violent. We stood on the top landing of a narrow stairwell looking down, hoping the tunnel didn’t cave in on us. As the building shook, the lights threatened to ebb out all around us.

  “This place is coming down!” David shouted, as he ran up the stairs. “This is the only way out.”

  “Are you okay?” Rion called to me.

  “Yes, fine.” I stood back, holding my head as stones came tumbling down.

  “We need to go,” Tatos said, stating the obvious.

  “I’m not leaving without her!” Troy slammed Tatos into the narrow tunnel wall, more stone and sand showered down on us.

  I heard Bongi’s voice calling up the stairs.

  “They are here!” he shouted.

  “Who?” I bellowed back.

  “The Council.”

  Troy swore. “I will not leave without her.”

  “Fine, stay!” Tatos pushed past him. “You are just about to undo everything we have been fighting for.”

  “I don’t care,” he spat back venomous, stupid words.

  I turned and gave the clone a sad stare, she was responsible for the mission going sour. I turned back, punching Troy in the arm. “You saw what they are, what the Shadowing disease does to people. You’re telling me you don’t care to stop it spreading?”

  “I. Just. Can’t. Leave. Her!” he scorned.

  “I know.” Tears burned my throat.

  “What is the Council doing here?” Troy shouted. “Of all the bad timing.”

  Ava’s clone stood, holding her head.

  I shoved her against the wall. “This is why I knew I had to kill you, you did this!”

  Rion pulled me from her, but not before I got in one good slap across her face. “What is wrong with you!”

  She just stared, all glossy-eyed, disdain suddenly brimming behind cloudy, gray irises.

  “I never asked for this,” she returned.

  Nobody had asked for any of this, I was ready to punch her in her rotten mouth.

  “Not now,” Rion said, and pulled me to his chest, trying to calm me.

  Walls shook with more urgency. We turned and headed down the steps – a ball of fire exploded at the foot of the stairs, dark, yellow flames reaching for our faces. I screamed, clinging on to Rion as he held my head in his arms.

  The heat faded.

  David swore. “That was close.”

  “Come on! What we waiting for?” Robert yelled back.

  “You go. I’ll stay,” Troy said to us.

  “Don’t be stupid, boy
!” Tatos barked.

  “I’ll stay with him,” Ava’s clone said, so sure of herself.

  “Shut up!” I shouted to her. “You only care about yourself. You just want to stay so you can finish what you started – to kill your prime.” My eyes shot daggers at her.

  She didn’t deny it.

  “Ava!” Troy shouted up the stairs, into the collapsed wall separating us.

  I made my way back to him, pushing the clone toward Dave. “She said she will see us on the other side,” I said, trying to convince him. Truth was, I tried to convince myself.

  “She’s strong, she is a survivor, that is what she does.” I leaned over his shoulder trying to reason with him. “Your father told you not to interfere, to have faith that you will be with her when the time is right.”

  “She’s not herself. She’s scared and confused, she needs me!” he argued, not turning to look our way.

  He shouted her name over, and over again. In all my time, I had never seen him so out of it.