by Lola StVil
“Your dad isn’t okay. He’s awesome. And thanks.”
As we walk down the muddy pathway to the temple, I reflect on my life with my father. The thing that’s always impressed me about him is also the thing that’s pushed us apart—his love for my mom. On one hand, I hated that he grieved for so long and it seemed like he didn’t want to be around without her. But on the other hand, there is something about their uncompromising love that I always admired. I thought that’s the kind of love I want to have with Pryor.
Then maybe you should stop kissing other girls in the rain…
* * *
As we venture towards the temple, something flies by us, leaving a trail of dark smoke.
“What was that?” I ask.
“I don’t know. It was too quick for the Inka to recognize,” Swoop replies.
Without warning, another being flies above our heads. It flies so fast we are once again unable to make out what it is. I signal to the team and we race towards the temple. The faster we run, the more dark entities there are whipping around us. Thankfully our destination is in sight.
The Temple of Furies is made up of burnt colored clay. It has two rooms on either side of it and one large room that serves as the epicenter. There are carvings on the walls that depict the tragedy of Mercy Island and its inhabitants.
The temple is dilapidated and on the verge of collapse. A mammoth sized tree springs from its center and invades its doors and windows with its thick branches. The root of the tree has grown so much it’s actually lifted the temple up from its foundation. The temple now hangs several feet in the air.
We make a mad dash for the entrance, but we are halted by the beings from overhead that have landed and are now standing before us. They have landed on the ground and now surround us from every angle.
They have dome shaped heads, hollow sunken eyes, and veins bulging out from underneath their translucent skin. Their unhinged jaws are pulled apart by their nearly three-inch jagged teeth. Swoop slowly aims the Inka at the beings now only a few feet away.
Current image: Mercy Island Furies
Summary: Revengeful dark beings who were once human and now forever roam Mercy Island seeking to eliminate all signs of angel and human life. They are led by their leader, Queen Melinda, the most powerful among them.
Powers: Furies have the ability to move objects, invade the body of their victims, and to control their movements. They can also tear into flesh with both their fangs and their voices.
Weakness: Omnis has granted the Furies of Mercy Island immortality. They can never die. However, they can be rendered motionless for a short time by rubbing the sap from inside the Gagu plant into one’s body. The Gagu plant looks much like an aloe vera plant except it is carnivorous and only open when human flesh is present.
“I think I saw the Gagu plant on our way here,” Diana whispers to the team.
“We’ll split up and distract them and you go back to get the plant to make them motionless,” I order.
Half of the team goes right while the rest of us head left. The Furies split up and take off after us. One of them waves his hand and sends Bex and Swoop flying backwards through the trees. They slam into a large rock and slump forward.
I run to help, but a Fury with half her face missing intercepts me. She slashes into my flesh by opening her gaping mouth and emitting a shrill noise in the air. I cry out in agony as my previous wound is once again carved into.
The pain going through me is so bad I drop to the ground and the Gain falls out of my hand. Luckily East is able to grab it in time and wills it to become a harpoon. He shoots it at the nearly faceless Fury. It spears her in the gut and rips what remains of her insides out. She slumps down to the ground.
“She will get back up in a minute, we need to go!” East says as he helps me to my feet.
“Swoop and Bex…” I reply weakly.
“I’ve got them,” East promises me as he helps me lean on a tree out of the immediate line of fire.
He then turns the Gain into a net and casts it over the group of Furies surrounding Swoop and Bex’s bodies. Knowing he can’t stop them for long, East rushes over to Swoop and Bex and tries to revive them.
I make myself get up and search for a makeshift weapon. I find a heavy branch with a point sharp enough to cause damage. I send it flying across from me where a Fury is slashing Randy’s arms and legs with its voice. The makeshift spear sinks into the skull of the Fury; it falls face-first at Randy’s feet.
I go over to him as fast as I can, take out the Holder in my pocket, and get ready to place him inside the bubble-like prison.
“Silver, no!” Randy protests.
“We don’t have time for this; get in the damn Holder, now!” I demand.
“No, you don’t understand. Diana can’t get the plant to open up. She’s a demon. The Inka said the Gagu plant opens for human flesh. Silver, I’m the only one who can retrieve it,” Randy reasons.
“East is half human, that may work,” I shout over the roar of the ongoing battle.
“We can’t take that chance. Please, let me go get the plant. I can do this,” he swears.
“Okay, go with Diana. Go, hurry! I’ll cover you,” I shout.
Randy heads back the way we came in search of the plant. A Fury spots him and takes off after him. I leap into the air and tackle it. I land right on top of the creature. It goes to open its mouth but I gag it with my hand.
“You Furies need to learn when to shut the fuck up.” I rage as I slam its skull into the base of the tree repeatedly. The Fury is knocked out, but within seconds it starts to come to life again.
Come on, Randy, we need that plant!
A few feet away Swoop and Bex have been revived but now have to help East, who is being torn open by a circle of Furies and their deathly sounds. I spot the Gain where East must have dropped it and throw it at Bex, who is closer.
Bex wills the Gain to become a sword and cuts through the air, slicing his blade into the midsection of the surrounding Furies. He pulls Easton out from the middle and carries him to safety. Unfortunately he takes his eyes off of Swoop, giving the Fury behind her a chance to invade her body and control her movements.
Swoop, now possessed by the Fury, grabs the Gain and wills it to become a machete. She swings it at Bex’s unsuspecting head.
“Bex, duck!” I order as I run towards them.
Bex drops to the floor instinctively and misses decapitation by a fraction of a second. I reach Swoop in time and tackle her. She falls backwards but comes up ready to fight. I’m not sure how to lure the Fury from inside Swoop’s body without hurting her.
Thinking quickly, I grab on to the nearest Fury and aim it at Swoop. I then pull its arm out of its socket; that causes the Fury to cry out, which then cuts into Swoop’s flesh and mine. I’m bleeding and Swoop is too, but so is the Fury inside her. It flees away from her body quickly.
“I’m sorry; I had to get it out of you,” I tell her.
“I’m okay. I’m okay,” she says as she presses her hand against the large gash now carved into her chest.
“This is a bloodbath; we can’t hold them off for too long,” Bex says.
“I’ll make a run for the temple,” I reply as I lean against the tree and try to stand up straight.
“No, you won’t make it. You’re hurt badly. You can barely stand,” Bex reasons.
“None of us will make it. There’s too many of them at the entrance of the temple. We won’t make it inside before we’re killed,” East says.
“Well, we need to do something. We have to get that damn Deed!” I rage.
The rush of emotion causes the bleeding in my midsection to increase. The team is right, I’m in no condition to take on the rest of the Furies, but I’m also not about to sit here knowing the only thing that can help Pry is just beyond that door. I order the team to cover me while I stumble forward, headed for the temple.
“Wait, they
’re back!” Swoop says.
I turn around and follow her gaze. Randy and Diana are waving their green sap-stained hands in front of a group of Furies. They are quickly rendered still. Randy runs towards us as Diana attacks more Furies with her now powerful palms.
“You did it!” Swoop says gratefully.
“Yeah, you know; no thing,” Randy replies, trying to smile through the pain.
I look down and there are two fingers missing from his right hand. He’s sweating profusely and the color has drained from his face.
“Randy, no…” East replies.
“The plant was hungry, really hungry,” Randy says, blinking back tears.
Randy gives each of us a piece of the plant and we rub it on our hands.
“If we want what Randy has done to matter, we need to go inside the temple now. Otherwise his sacrifice will have been for nothing,” Bex reminds us.
“Wait, shouldn’t we tend to Randy’s arm?” Swoop asks, concerned.
“We will as soon as we get out of here. But right now we have to go; we don’t know how long the Furies will stay still,” I reply.
“I’m fine, Swoop. Let’s go.”
Swoop nods reluctantly. I signal to Diana that we are headed to the temple and stand by just in case the Furies start moving again.
“I don’t want her out here alone. East, stay with her while we go inside and get the Deed.”
We race towards the temple. The Furies go to attack us, but we quickly raise our hands before them and they too remain motionless. We run inside the temple and search for the box. The search only takes minutes, but for us it feels like days.
“Got the Deed!” Bex says.
I take the dark box from him and examine it. It has all the complex patterns we were told about. The circular seal on it is intact, meaning no one has yet to pry it open. I say a quick prayer to Omnis and look at the bottom of the box. There are small digital numbers blinking. They are coordinates to the location of the Deed’s maker.
“We have the location of The Center!” I reply, weak with relief.
“Good, let’s go get our girl back,” Swoop says as we run out of the temple.
We run past the Fury “statues” and call out for Diana and East.
They run towards us; together we race past the temple and make for the shoreline. That’s when we see her—Melinda, Queen of the Furies. She sent her Furies ahead to kill us but waited at the shore just in case we made it out of the temple alive. We know it’s her because she’s more powerful than the others; when we raise our hands up, the sap does nothing to stop her. She continues to fly towards us.
Melinda’s skin looks like it’s made of porcelain with cracks rippling throughout her face and body. Her long raven hair floats wildly around her and a scarlet colored mist engulfs her slim frame. There is a crudely cut hole where her belly and a fetus should have been. Inside the hole is an infestation of maggots and worms.
Melinda waves her hand casually and sends the whole team flying into the air. Bex goes to tackle her, and she throws him up against a large tree; blood oozes from his temple. East wills the Gain to become a hatchet and hurls it at the center of her forehead. It lands and splits her head open.
Melinda laughs sardonically.
She then pulls the weapon from the middle of her forehead, opens her mouth, and consumes it. We watch, stunned at what we’ve just witnessed. Melinda lets out an earth-shattering cry and all of us scream as our skin starts to tear open.
Melinda enjoys our agony so much she stops yelling and comes closer to us. It seems she wants a front row seat to our suffering. At this point we will die before we leave the island; determined not to let that happen, I desperately search for a weapon.
Randy whispers in my ear that he has more sap with him. I remind him the sap does not seem to be working on the queen.
“Maybe if we force her to ingest it instead of just waving it in her face like the other Furies. She may be resistant to a few smeared drops of sap, but maybe she’ll react to a concentrated amount, placed directly inside her,” Randy says, placing numerous aloe vera-like pieces inside my hand.
“This is a big risk,” Bex replies as Swoop is sent flying into the air by Melinda. We rush to help Swoop, who has badly twisted her left arm.
“Look, we don’t have a choice. Bex, you distract her. And we’ll tackle her and get the sap into her mouth,” Randy says, as if he’s the leader.
I have no issue with that at all; anything to get the hell off this Omnis-forsaken island.
“Randy’s right. It’s our only chance,” I reply.
Everyone agrees. I give Bex the signal and he positions himself in Melinda’s path.
Pissed that he would be so brazen, she calls for Bex’s body to be lifted several feet in the air. She toys with him by twisting and turning his body at will without ever having to go near him.
I signal to the team and we all smash into the Queen of Furies and beat her to the ground. She is stronger than us but together we are able to keep her down long enough to shove the Gagu leaves in her mouth. The plant has no effect on her.
She gets up even more pissed off, and from the look in her midnight soulless eyes, we know she is about to kill us all. She opens her arms wide, ready to bring our lives to an end but then she stops, frozen mid-strike.
“I was right! It worked! She’s not moving,” Randy says, nearly in tears.
“Randy, we will throw you a big ass ‘thank you’ bash later; right now, let’s get the hell away from this place,” East says.
We run to the edge of the shore and I summon the Ports. They appear instantly. We hop on to them and just as we are about to take off a Fury zooms past us. It knocks Diana off her Port. As we float up to the sky, Diana goes tumbling back down to Mercy Island.
“DIANA!!!” I cry out, as if some piece of my soul has been taken from me.
I demand that Bex and the others keep going as I jump off my Port. I land not far from Diana’s body. I run to her, but I’m too late. Melinda is now free of the sap and grabs hold of Diana’s shirt. She yanks on it and drags Diana’s squirming body across the rocky shore.
I watch, horrified that this is the last time I will see Diana alive. I reach out to help her again and Melinda waves me away, casting me out into the water. Melinda grabs hold of Diana; she struggles but can’t break free of the Queen of Furies’ grip.
I use the last bit of strength I have to swim back to the shore towards Diana. I emerge out of the water and find Melinda studying Diana intensely as their hands touch. Melinda looks deeply into Diana’s eyes. She sees something in there that shocks her.
Suddenly the rage that was on Melinda’s face begins to soften. Not sure what’s happening, Diana pulls her hand away. Melinda does not fight to get Diana’s hand back. Instead she allows Diana to take several steps away with no retaliation.
I reach out for Diana and am able to get to her with no interference from Melinda. I call for the Port and it appears. We get on and start to take off, expecting the queen to attack at any moment, but she doesn’t. Instead a glow appears on her face and spreads throughout her body.
She makes eye contact with Diana and we watch the impossible happen: Melinda the Queen of Furies smiles. Her body then transforms into a burst of light. And as Diana and I take off on our Port, we watch Melinda’s newly formed spirit leave the island and ascend…
* * *
Despite what they promised, the team did not leave without us. Instead they hovered above and waited for us. When we catch up to them, I demand that we go straight for The Center.
“No,” Swoop says.
“What? We have to go get Pry,” I remind her.
“We are all injured, we have Randy with us, and it won’t matter if we get to The Center if we are too weak to help Pryor escape,” Swoop says.
“She’s right. We need to make a stop—a quick one. We need to get some supplies so I can fix you guys up and Randy will
need more than a few mixtures to get his fingers back,” Diana says.
“Yeah, okay. We’ll drop Randy off so the Healers in the Clinic can fix him. Meanwhile we will load up on supplies,” I tell her.
“Randy, are you okay with staying behind?” East asks.
Randy is not paying attention. He is too busy studying Diana as she wraps his bloody hand in bandages.
“Randy!” East says.
“Oh, sorry. I wasn’t listening. I just can’t get over it,” he says as he studies Diana.
“It’s no big deal,” Diana replies.
“Yes it is! You are learning to be good and stop your evil demon ways. That has given you inner peace. And when Melinda touched you, she tapped into that inner peace. She is a free spirit now because of you. That’s so damn cool. C’mon, admit it!” Randy pushes.
“We don’t know for sure that’s what happened, but if it is, then yeah, whatever,” Diana replies dismissively.
“C’mon guys, that’s cool!” Randy pushes.
“He’s right. It is kind of cool,” East says.
Diana smiles slightly but does not say anything. She and I exchange a quick look and she turns away bashfully.
The team is as quick as they promised to be. We gather the supplies Diana needs and drop Randy off with the Healers at the Clinic. The whole time Randy was with us, he was in shock. He never really processed the fact that his index and middle finger were gone. But once we get to the Clinic it starts to sink in and he panics. The Healers sedate him and as he closes his eyes he makes me promise to bring his best friend back alive. I vow to do just that.
The team is not one hundred percent better, but with the help of Diana and the other Healers, we are strong enough to travel. And now that we have our powers back, our bodies can withstand more pain than before.
We get on the Ports and program them to take us to The Center. And as I look around at the faces of the team, I know the moment I have been dreading has come. I turn to my team and address them with a pained, somber voice.