by Lola StVil
“No, none of them,” Swoop says, horrified.
“But I have to choose a way to die or it will choose it for me. And that will hurt—a lot,” the little girl reasons.
“Okay, well, sweetie, I won’t let the darkness get to you. I’ll protect you,” Swoop says.
“Do you promise?” she asks.
“Yes, I promise,” Swoop says as she reaches out for the little girl’s hand. The two of them make their way past the bodies and head out to the main street. Suddenly the skies darken, and thunder and lightning roar all around them.
“It’s coming! It’s coming!” the girl yells as tears spring to her eyes. Swoop tries to use her wings, but nothing happens. She quickly scoops the girl into her arms and begins to run.
A stream of dark smoke emerges from the sky and fills the street. Everywhere the smoke reaches is suddenly decayed. Soon, the town is ravaged by a black mold-like substance that grows and attaches itself to everything around them. The darkness is coming for them at impossible speed.
Swoop runs with the girl as fast as she can. They duck behind the abandoned post office. The little girl rolls herself up into a ball in Swoop’s arms. She’s crying uncontrollably. It takes several attempts for Swoop to finally get her to calm down. When she does, the little girl thanks her for rescuing her.
“You’re welcome, but we’re not safe yet. The darkness is catching up,” Swoop says.
“Well, of course it is. It never goes away. It just hides until it’s ready to come out. It will kill us, but at least we have a few minutes,” she says.
“We are not going to die,” Swoop assures her.
“Yeah, we are, but this is a very nice dress to die in.”
“No! We will outrun the darkness. We’ll fight it, okay? I promise you that,” Swoop says.
The little girl laughs.
“Why is that funny?” Swoop asks as she watches for any signs of danger. She spots the looming darkness headed towards them.
“We gotta go, now!” Swoop says as she drags her along.
As they run for their lives, the darkness quickly begins to catch up. The ground beneath them splits open; the sky parts, allowing a bigger flow of dark energy to invade the town. Swoop drags the girl behind a bakery and hides under a series of large crates.
“Tell me about the darkness. When did it start?” Swoop asks.
“It’s always been here. It won’t ever go away,” the girl says.
“There has to be a reason why it’s here. I think if we find out, we can get rid of it. Tell me what you know about the darkness, anything at all,” Swoop pleads.
“It kills anything it touches, it hurts everyone, and it won’t ever stop,” the girl cries.
“It’s okay, sweetie, everything will be okay. We’ll get out of this and I’ll let you meet my son. You two can play together,” Swoop says.
“You have a son? Where is he? Is he gonna die here with us too?” she asks.
“No, he’s far away from this place. And you will be too. I just need to figure out how to kill it,” Swoop says. “Everyone in town has been hurt but you. Why is that?”
“That’s because you saved me,” she says.
“What did I save you from? What is the name of the darkness coming for us?” Swoop asks.
The little girl gives her a sinister smile. She suddenly morphs into Swoop’s malevolent alter ego, Raven.
Swoop jumps up and runs into the street. Raven follows. The two of them face off in the street. Raven studies her and shakes her head in disgust.
“Did you really think there could be an end to me? Did you really think you could ever erase me?!” Raven demands.
She holds both hands out and blasts Swoop across the street and right into the front window of the bakery. Before Swoop can recover, Raven jumps down on her and blasts her into the shop. She yanks Swoop by her hair and slams her head into the mailbox.
“YOU WILL NEVER BEAT ME!” Raven rants as she kicks Swoop in the face. She grabs her by the collar of her shirt and drags her to her feet. She rams her into the wall of the bakery. Swoop lies on the ground, bloody and in pain. Raven yanks the handle off the large oven and starts beating Swoop in the head.
As Raven goes in for the final blow, she bends down to the floor and hisses at her, “You never had a chance. You’re weak, foolish! And you will die today!” She rages. As Raven is beating Swoop, Swoop spots Raven’s pendant. It’s shaped like a key and has an inscription on it.
“What’s in a name?”
“What’s in a name…name…her name,” Swoop mumbles to herself.
“It’s time to die once and for all!” Raven shouts.
“I KNOW HER NAME!” Swoop shouts just as the rod is about to crack her head open.
“WHAT?” Raven says, stopping midway angrily.
“The little girl was just a smaller version of you when I was a kid. That’s why she had the same toys I did. That’s why she wore her hair the same way I did. I felt you in me, but I denied it. That gave you power. Not anymore. The little girl has a name. The darkness has a name,” Swoop says.
“You don’t have the guts to say it out loud!” Raven says as she sends a large double-door refrigerator down on Swoop’s head. Swoop barely gets out of the way in time. She quickly gets up and tackles Raven. They both roll around on the floor, each trying to get the upper hand. Raven is too powerful to be controlled. Time is running out; I can tell because the world around Swoop is starting to disappear. The town outside the window is fading, the post office is gone, the street and the park are both gone. I look at the clock on the screen. Swoop has only ten seconds left to get the key from Raven and escape.
“Swoop, hurry!” I shout, knowing she can’t hear me. Dylan is in shock at what’s taken place and can’t talk, let alone shout. Swoop now has five seconds remaining.
Four seconds…
“YOU’LL NEVER GET RID OF ME. I’M ETERNAL, BITCH!” Raven shouts as she rams Swoop’s head into the floor. She comes close to Swoop’s face and gloats for the last time.
Three seconds…
“I told you you’d never have the guts to say it!” Raven laughs.
Two seconds…
Raven gets Swoop in the corner and is about to finish her off with a final blast.
One second…
“KIANA! THE GIRL’S NAME IS KIANA!” Swoop yells as she rips the necklace off Raven. Raven lets out a shrill cry as the darkness engulfs her and carries her away. Swoop’s vision starts to blur. Moments later she wakes up on the forest floor in front of the red door, key in hand. Admitting to herself that she has a dark side saved her life, but what about the others? Will they be as lucky as Swoop?
The next being to show up on the device is East. He’s been dropped into a one-room cabin in the woods. It’s sparsely decorated with a table and two chairs. On the table there are bottles of Coy and East’s favorite brand of flavored snack chips. The room has low lighting, so it takes East a moment to realize he’s not alone.
There’s a tall, lanky male angel, with almond-shaped eyes, perfect eyebrows, and spiky red hair, standing in the corner. I recognize him at once from the pictures in my mom’s photo album. He’s Rio, a former member of the Guardians’ team.
“Dad?” East gasps.
“You don’t know how long I waited to meet you,” Rio says. Rio hugs his son tightly and refuses to let go. When the two finally break apart, Rio and East are both noticeably emotional.
“I don’t understand. How are you here?” East asks.
“You know there are a million mixtures in the angel world; I finally found the one that allows me to come back to you. My son. My greatest joy,” Rio says.
“This is some trick,” East says.
“Maybe it is, but I’m here. So we might as well get to know each other.”
“I can’t. I don’t have time. I have to find a key and get back to the forest,” East says.
“I’ve wanted nothing more than to get to know you. Please, give me a few min
utes,” Rio begs.
“Yeah, yeah, I guess,” East says, pulling up a seat at the table next to his biological father. “I have dreamed of meeting you. I have so much to ask you.”
“Me too! There’s a lot that I want to say to you. And a question that I wanted forever to ask.”
“Ask me anything,” East says, excited.
“How does it feel to be a walking disappointment?” Rio asks.
“What?” East says in disbelief.
“I’m a powerful Guardian. I battled and killed thousands of demons. I saved the world every other day, and my offspring is you?”
“Dad, I have done a good job. I have helped the Noru team.”
“Helped them? They are doing you a favor by letting you stay on the team. You are the weakest member; they only allow you on the team because of who you are related to. Had you not been my son, they would never even talk to you.”
“That’s not true. I have helped. I am important to the team,” East shouts as he stands up and backs away from the table. Suddenly East’s stepfather appears in the corner of the room. He sees East and starts laughing.
“I told you before, you are nothing! You are a mistake! I told you that, and now your own biological father is saying that to you!” Frank rants.
“No! This isn’t real. This is some kind of trick! My real father would never say that to me,” East shouts.
“You are a total letdown. Your mother is disappointed in you, just like the team. Don’t you get it, Easton? You are worthless,” Frank says.
“No! No!” he blares at the top of his lungs.
“What are you gonna do? You gonna shut me up?” Frank demands.
“Son, drink this. It will give you everything you don’t have: inner strength, power, and respect from the angel world. Drink this and you will finally be someone worthy of love,” Rio says as he hands East a bottle of water.
However, as soon as he touches the bottle, it turns into a Soul Chaser. The more East drinks from it, the more soul is being drained from him. But East must be hallucinating because he keeps treating it as if it were a bottle of water. East’s desire for acceptance is about to kill him.
“East, put it down!” I yell. But he continues to drink and his energy starts to diminish. Soon, East can no longer stand up. He’s on his knees and the color is draining from his face. Yet the bottle is securely latched onto his lips. East is going to die.
The other males in the room laugh at East as death comes closer and closer to him. East is starting to realize what’s happening. He tries to pull the bottle away from his lips, but he’s too weak. He desperately looks around the room for some way to get out of the mess he’s in. He looks at the ceiling, the floor, and all around the cabin; he can’t find anything that can help. Just as he is about to close his eyes forever, East spots the label on the wrapper of the snack that has fallen to the floor. The company is called “Key Stone,” and there is a quote at the bottom of the bag.
“I am not bound to succeed; I am bound to live by the light that I have…”
East starts to smile as the last sign of life is being drained from him. He reaches for the wrapper, clutches it in his hand, and chokes out his last words:
“My light. Not yours, Dad, mine,” East says. The moment the words come out of his mouth, the Soul Chaser disappears, as do Rio and Frank. The wrapper transforms into a key, and East is back in the forest, safe and sound in front of the red door.
Dylan and I watch with bated breath as the third screen comes on. It’s Diana’s turn. She finds herself in a small boat floating on a river located deep inside a series of caves. There are dozens of other boats like hers, each with a person inside. Everyone around Diana is paddling furiously, trying to get away from whatever they left behind. They try desperately to reach the shore, where angels are eagerly waiting for them.
Diana keeps looking around in search of the danger that is causing everyone to flee. She looks back in the direction they came from but doesn’t see anything other than the dark river. She looks off to the side, and still, there is no danger. Yet the people around her are scared to death.
Diana is out of ideas. She can’t understand why everyone needs to go ashore so badly—that is until she looks in the water. She sees a blue light glowing from beneath the surface of the river. The bluish glow is coming closer and closer to the surface. People are now screaming for their lives.
“What the hell is in the water?” Diana asks out loud as she tries to make out the danger below. She puts her face right up to the surface of the river and comes face-to-face with the fire-blue eyes of an Egan!
Oh shit!
Egans are the demonic equivalent of Paras. They have blue flames in their eye sockets, a skeletal frame, and can’t be killed. If they catch you, you are as good as dead. Suddenly all around Diana are hundreds and hundreds of Egans; their bony skulls peer out from under the water. Diana starts to paddle as fast as she can, but there is no avoiding the Egans.
All around her people are being dragged off their boats and thrown into the water, where they are being devoured. They scream as they are dismembered and mutilated. The Egans reach their cold, bony hands into Diana’s boat. She manages to kick them away, but soon more Egans latch themselves onto her vessel.
“Get away from me!” Diana shouts as she tries to steer away from them. It’s no use; they are everywhere. Diana is spinning her boat around in circles, trying to fend them off.
I don’t get it. Why isn’t she trying to reach the shore where the angels are? Why doesn’t she seek shelter like the others are doing?
There are beings that have made it to the shore and are now being greeted by the angels. They are taken to the safety and bliss of the light. But while some beings are saved once they step on the strip of land, others escape the troubled water just to end up bursting into flames as soon as they pass the large boulder at the water’s edge. Dylan turns my attention towards a message carved into the boulder next to the angels.
“Only the virtuous.”
So according to the rock, if anyone steps foot on land but isn’t pure in spirit, they will burst into flames. That must be why some of the people on the boats are hesitating to get off and go ashore, people like Diana. Yet the ones who stay in the boats are being devoured by the Egans. If Diana doesn’t get off the boat, she will die like the others.
“Diana, you can go on land! You can do this!” I shout at the device.
Diana uses her oar to bash an Egan in the head; it slows him down but not for long. Soon the Egan is crawling onto the side of the vessel. While she’s fighting to keep him at bay, another five latch on to the back of the boat.
“C’mon, Diana, go ashore!” Dylan shouts.
An Egan sticks his hand out of the water and grabs on to Diana’s ankle. He tries to drag her into the water, but she kicks and punches her way out of his grip. Diana’s victory is short lived, as the Egans are now in the boat with her.
Diana strikes one of them with her paddle again, but this time she misses. He grabs it away from her and tosses it into the lake. The boat is now overrun with Egans, and they are seconds from ripping into Diana. There are angels on the shore, calling for her to come to them. But that offers Diana no comfort because they called the others who ended up bursting into flames too. Diana is deathly afraid of going onto shore and finding out she is not among the worthy. The boat is now rocking so hard, there is no doubt about it: Diana is about to go overboard.
The boat shifts quickly and is upside down in seconds. Diana makes a big splash as she lands in the water, surrounded by an army of predators. She has no choice now but to try to swim to shore. But the Egans will not allow her to get away so easily. They paw and grab at her from all sides. They tear at her clothes and rip into the flesh of her hands and feet.
Diana keeps moving despite being brutally attacked. She fights her way through the mob of vicious creatures and frantically makes her way to the water’s edge. She is now only a few feet from touching the
shore, only a few feet away from the large stone where others have turned to flames.
All she needs to do is run from the edge of the water and right into the arms of the awaiting angel. But in order to do that, she has to get past the boulder. Diana’s hesitating. Fear and doubt are preventing her from getting any closer. Dylan and I yell at her to hurry and run, but the fact is, she’s afraid. To be fair, Diana only pauses for a few seconds, but it’s one second too long. An Egan leaps up from the water behind her, grabs her, and pulls her back into the middle of the lake.
The Egans pull Diana to the floor of the murky river. She struggles to break free, but the longer she’s down at the bottom, the weaker she gets. As she starts giving in to her inevitable death, she looks at her right arm and glides her hand over it. She’s heartbroken and sad. She must be thinking about what she’s leaving behind: Nix.
Realizing she would be turning her son into an orphan, Diana tries one last time to fight off the Egans. She struggles with the rage of a Kaster. She manages to make a small opening in the dense mob of Egans around her. She swims for dear life and reaches the surface. This time she does not stop. She does not hesitate. She jumps out of the water and bolts past the boulder. Diana does not encounter any flames or any fireworks whatsoever.
“YES!” Dylan and I yell at the same time once Diana is safely on land.
However, the Egans are not done. They come out of the water, and unlike the other beings, they follow Diana onto land. Suddenly the angels who were there start fading away. The bright light begins to dim. The river is now gone. Diana is running out of time. Everything is fading except the Egans.
“The key! She hasn’t found the key,” Dylan cries out. Diana realizes her error at the same time that Dylan does. She looks all over the cave and the strip of land but can’t find the key. The Egans are now all out of the water and coming for her once again. This time there is no escape. There is nowhere to run to.