Forgotten Memories

by Candis Vargo

  “It’s not working. It’s not working!” One of the witches yelled. They began to scramble backwards, stumbling over their own feet. Leviathan stepped forward.

  “Of course it’s not going to work,” Leviathan said in a voice that was as demonic as he was. “You do not possess the power to defeat me. We wouldn’t have to do it this way if you would have simply taken care of each other for me. But no. I will take care of it myself. I will make my father proud!”

  He continued to step forward as the witches ran behind us and tried to cast again. Em was the only witch that stayed put. Her face was stone and I could hear casting a spell of her own. I didn’t know what she was casting, but I wasn’t about to ask either.

  Everyone except the witches stayed in place. We were waiting for either Lord Matthias or my father to let us know when to move into action. I watched everyone around me. I could see them shake with fear, though not nearly as noticeable as the witches. No matter what they did I knew it wasn’t going to work. We knew we couldn’t kill Leviathan. If the witches couldn’t cast him to Hell, we were to fight to try and scare him off. It wouldn’t work for one main reason. Everyone else was scared of him. If someone was scared of me, I sure as hell wouldn’t back down. I knew he wouldn’t either. He was going to destroy us all.

  Father appeared behind him and drew up his sword signaling for everyone to attack. I watched as everyone covered him like a swarm of bees protecting their nest. It didn’t take long for the screams to echo off of the mountains around us and blood to be splattered. I knew it wasn’t Leviathans blood.

  Almost instantly, everyone to started fighting one another, not knowing which direction to go. The thing about Leviathan was that he could turn himself into anyone he wanted. He took full advantage of that. No one could tell which one of the races he became. No one knew who he was or where he went. They were spilling each other’s blood. They either didn’t realize it, or didn’t care. No one took into consideration that he could be any one of us. No one except me.

  Roland was out there fighting steadily unlike anyone else. Even though he was wild, letting his natural nature take over him, he was still the strongest. He was only the strongest because he had no fear. Just pure hatred.

  Em was still standing to the side, looking among the mob of people slaughtering each other, casting her spell.

  I didn’t run into the war. I didn’t raise my sword. Instead I let it fall. I began to summon my powers one by one. I didn’t know exactly what I planned to do or how I planned to use them. All I knew was that I had my powers for a reason. They were giving to me for some reason, so I was going to use them.

  When I summoned Air the wind blew as though a hurricane was coming through. The trees swayed hard as they crackled in the forest. No one seemed to notice but I didn’t care. The wind howled so loud it resembled the whistling of a tornado. I used the air to blow everyone in the slaughtering mob apart. That sure as hell got their attention.

  I focused on air, summoning it to circle around the one I seek. It did as I commanded. It surrounded Leviathan who was now disguising himself as Lord Matthias. The wounded and bleeding backed away not knowing what was going on. The ones that couldn’t run crawled as fast as their bodies would let them. The Pixies vanished and reappeared back by the witches. I spotted my target, so I continued to cast. The smile on Leviathans face didn’t bother me one bit.

  I called upon fire to come to me. Once I felt enough heat surround my body I summoned it to saturate the beast. It wouldn’t kill him, but I knew it would send a shock through his ass. Immediately, Leviathan became a Vampire torch. He growled an unholy growl that could come from only a Demon like him. I don’t know if he did it to scare me, but it didn’t. The flames didn’t faze him; after all he was from Hell. He looked around, desperately trying to find out where it was coming from. It took him only a moment to realize it was coming from me. He stared at me and growled once more before he advanced at me.

  Still holding the power of Air I forced him still with a wall of wind blocking his way. He couldn’t get any closer because the wind was too strong. Leviathan dropped the dagger in frustration with trying to move forward. Instinctively, I had Air blow the dagger over to Roland.

  Standing there with my hands to my side I looked him in the eyes. I suddenly realized what spell Em was casting. She must have been on to my plan before we readied to fight, because she was casting to increase my powers.

  As Em continued to cast near me as I called upon the Earth. It took mere seconds before the ground beneath our feet began to shake. It felt as though the voice of God was shaking the Earth. I knew exactly what I wanted and what I needed. I needed a one way only trip to Hell for this bastard. I summoned Earth to create a portal as close to Leviathan as it could get.

  The ground began to crackle as the air blew pieces of the earth through the sky. I called on Air to force the wind down. As a hole began to form behind Leviathan the wind sucked down into it. The earth around it began to crumble inward creating what looked like a mixture of a black hole and a cycle going into the earth. The ground rumbled as Leviathan let out a fierce snarl. He continued to try and advance on me, snarling the entire time.

  He began to stumble backwards as the hole began to suck him toward it. He was fighting it as much as he could, but to no prevail.

  I knew I needed to force him in there, so I called upon water to aid me. I was never so happy to have a well for our water when I felt the trickling of water under my feet. The water rushed out of the well and under my feet. I called it to my hands remembering what it did at the pond. Once I had enough water in my hands, I didn’t even have to throw them. I willed them to throw themselves at Leviathan and they followed. After each was thrown, another appeared and followed.

  One by one the balls of water flung into the air and straightened out like a sword. Every one of them hit him, and with every hit he growled. The water sliced straight through his flaming body and exited the other side. With every hit his body jerked back a little more. Every time he jerked back I summoned wind to help force him back. Slowly, he was staggering closer to the hole with every gash the water sliced through his body.

  Finally I felt he was close enough to the cyclone in the earth. I released fire and water and used all of the strength I had left to force every ounce of air I could down into the hole. He was snarling and growling like a rabid animal in a cage as he began to descend backwards. He was losing his balance and started to fall backwards. It wasn’t long before the force of the wind sucking him into the earth took over.

  With his arms flailing like he was trying to grasp onto something, anything he could, he was sucked down. His satanic growl echoed one last time before I released Air and summoned Earth to close the gaping hole. Earth did as I asked and piece by piece the ground was placed back together.

  I sent water over to the part of the ground where the hole was. It was kind of trivial, but after everything Earth did for me, I thought I should somehow thank it. With water covering it I summoned Earth to heal. The grass began to grow once again and soon it was covered.

  I thanked the Elements before I release them. It seemed only right. I was finally able to breathe again. I had so many emotions running through me. Most of all, I felt relieved.

  Chapter 23

  I had a lot of explaining to do. Roland and Em helped me the best they could but the Coven was still angry, especially Em’s mom. They said if I would have informed everyone sooner about my magic we wouldn’t have ended up with so many wounded. They thought we could have used my powers from the beginning. I knew they were just saying that because they were pissed off that I had the ability to send Leviathan back to Hell. I did what they couldn’t manage to do.

  My father was trying to figure out how I managed to have such powers. He was like me, he didn’t understand how I received magic we haven’t had in centuries. No one knew the answer and it looked like we were never going to get one. I stopped caring why I got my powers, I was just glad that I
got them.

  Of course, during the explaining, I left out the parts about Gram, my mother, the bracelet, and especially Adrian. I also made sure I didn’t mention about my mission to get Chace out of hell. It was bad enough Roland already knew. The Fallen really didn’t say too much. It seemed as though they were beginning to accept the death of Chace now that Leviathan was gone. I hated that, to me…he wasn’t dead.

  We did, however, have to mention how I managed to get my enhanced magic before my birthday. The Coven already knew about it which helped my case with my father. The Fallen didn’t really seem to care about that. They really didn’t seem to care about anything at this point. I was just glad that those of us who were injured were immortals, so they healed fast.

  With the Coven still going on about how I should have let them known about my powers, I was getting really pissed off. I kept my temper in check, for as long as I could anyway.

  “You know what,” I said as I stared down each member, each one except Em of course. “Maybe if you weren’t so secretive all the time we could have prepared a little better. You had an idea of who it was for a while now. But no, you didn’t want to say anything.” Once I said those words they all scowled at Em. “No, she didn’t tell me. She didn’t have to. She stuck by your little Coven rules and didn’t tell me who all of you thought killed my mother. It’s easy for best friends to see when one is hiding something. She didn’t have to fucking tell me. Luckily I managed to figure it out or we would be sitting here with him in the same damn room as us having him try to ‘help’ us figure out who the Demon is. To me, he’s not the only one who played us. You did too.”

  Everyone except the Coven looked at me wide eyed. The Coven members scowled at me now.

  “Think whatever you want or say whatever you want,” I continued. “I don’t give a flying rat’s ass! Just know that if it wasn’t for me, Leviathan would still be in this fucking room! While you were all too busy wetting your pants Em and I managed to actually accomplish what needed to be done. No thanks to you.”

  I was surprised no one tried to stop me from speaking my mind. I really felt like I was becoming my mother. And I must say I enjoyed it. The Coven stormed out of the house leaving Em behind. Everyone that was left stood speechless and in awe. They were all staring at me and I started to get pissed off yet again.

  “What!” I yelled as I looked around the room.

  They all stood silent for another moment. Father finally spoke up.

  “Karmalita,” he said. “You are turning into your mother more and more every day. I am proud of you.” He walked over to me and put his hand on the side of my face as he smiled.

  “Um, thanks?” I didn’t know what else to say.

  “I do wish you would have told me about your powers though. Not for the same wishes as the Coven. Simply because I am your Father and I would have liked to know. You never need to hide anything from me my dear.” Father gave me a knowing look, one that made my stomach uneasy.

  “I’m sorry,” I said to him. “It wasn’t that long ago and I didn’t even get them at first. I didn’t even find out what my power was right away. Well, now we all know.” I shrugged my shoulders.

  Everyone began coming up with their own theories on why I received such strong powers. One theory was the easiest. That it was a fluke, a onetime accident that wasn’t supposed to happen. Another theory was I received such powers because of the spell Em cast for me to receive them early. I didn’t really care what they said about that, I knew it wasn’t true. My mother even knew I was going to receive such strong powers, she just didn’t know what they were going to be. As far as I was concerned, everyone could say whatever they wanted. I really didn’t care.

  One theory held my attention above the rest. It was suggested that I received my powers for a much bigger purpose. The Fallen and Pixies thought maybe God was beginning to forgive us and was offering up some sort of a second chance. He was blessing me with the powers my race lost long ago, so of course they would think that.

  The thought of me bringing out some sort of peace and redemption didn’t sit so well with me. I knew my magic was special, but it sure as hell wasn’t that special.

  With the Fallen now gone too, Roland took it upon himself to try and talk to me about my mission for Chace.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t have let my rage get the best of me. I could have been more help, but I wasn’t. I am sorry for that. I swear I won’t let that happen during the Blood Moon.”

  “It’s okay. Don’t worry about it. I can’t think of anything else you could have done anyway.” That came off harsher than I intended. “I mean, you did what you could do. At least it occupied him so I could use my magic.”

  “I didn’t know what you wished done with the dagger. I set it upstairs underneath your pillow. I figured you might want to keep it. I hope you don’t mind.”

  “No, thank you. I don’t know what I’m going to do with it yet either. But I do want to keep it. Thanks.”

  Em must have noticed the awkwardness between us because she suddenly jumped from the sofa and rushed over to us. She didn’t even pause for a beat before she began to talk.

  “So, I thought you should know that the Coven wants to celebrate,” she said.

  Roland and I looked at her with the shocked expression.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Well, they’re happy that Leviathan is gone. Everyone is. So they want to have a small shindig to celebrate. To relieve a little tension you know,” she said as she slid he hands into the back pockets of her jeans. “Yeah, I know it’s stupid to celebrate something like that. But no one ever said my mom was the brightest crayon.”

  “It’s not just stupid. It’s rude. Don’t they have the least bit of courtesy about who it might affect? Didn’t they think about who he pretended to be for the past few years?” God it seemed like I was getting pissed off by the Coven a lot lately. I felt bad because one of them was Em’s mom but at the same time I didn’t. I knew Em didn’t care and it’s not like her mom was part of her life anyway. I still held a grudge against that woman because of that. I guess some women lack maternal instincts. Or just a heart.

  “Yeah, I know. But the Coven will always be the same. Besides, I’m a little relieved too. Once I put two and two together I tried to steer clear of him as much as I could. It’s kind of nice to know I won’t have to be on edge anymore. It’s not a party per-se, more like an ‘I’m glad that shit is over’ shindig.”

  “Em, you two were together for a long time. It’s going to take you a while to get over it.”

  “I know, but I need to start sometime right?” She shrugged her shoulders but I could see the pain that was still in her eyes.

  “She’s right,” Roland said as he looked at me. “If she locks herself in her room it isn’t going to help her.” Since when did a man know so much about women? I guess if they hang around for thousands of years they do finally manage to learn a thing or two about us.

  “Okay. When and where?” I asked after finally giving in.

  “Hate to break it to you Karma, but you didn’t really have a choice to go. There where is here and the when is tomorrow at two.”

  I groaned. “Whatever. I’m getting some damn sleep. See you two tomorrow at the lovely celebration we’re going to have.”

  I was too drained to use my magic to transport myself to my room, so I was forced to walk up the steps dreading every single one. It seemed like it took a half hour to make it to my room. When I finally made it, I locked the door behind me because I did not want any more conversations tonight. I just wanted to sleep.

  I stripped off my pants and fell on to my bed. It seemed like a chore to roll underneath my blankets. As I lay there getting comfortable I felt something underneath my pillow. It took only a second to know what it was. I remembered how Roland said he put the dagger under there.

  I pulled the dagger out from under my pillow and I laid there on my back. I laid there holding it, running my
finger across every single detail. The memories of Chace began to flood my mind. They weren’t the good memories either. The dagger I was holding went through his heart. It is the one that sent him to hell. I wasn’t crying and I wasn’t so depressed anymore. I was more determined than ever, especially after sending Leviathan to Hell. If my powers could do that, I knew they could bring him back.

  I slid the dagger in between my mattress and my box spring. I didn’t want anyone to find it and I really didn’t want to walk with it. I was paranoid I might trip over my own two feet and might stab myself in the heart with it.

  At first I was worried that if I fell asleep I would have another nightmare. It seemed like I could never get a break from them. First they were about my mother, now they were about Chace. I held off for as long as I could until the softness of my pillow top mattress and my comforter overtook me. Once I gave in to the comfort, it wasn’t long before I fell asleep.

  Chapter 24

  The next morning I woke up to the sound of my cell phone buzzing on my night stand. I received a text message from Em that read ‘On my way over. Your ass better be up!’ I let out a groan as I looked at my alarm clock. Once I saw the time I groaned again, only louder. It wasn’t even eight in the morning and I was already awake. I began to force myself out of bed so I could get ready before Em showed up and I realized I didn’t have a nightmare. Not only didn’t I have a nightmare, but I didn’t even dream at all last night. At least, not one I could remember. It may be something simple and minute but it sure as hell made me happy.

  Once I realized I didn’t dream it felt like I had a double shot of a Frappuccino. I was running around my room to find clothes. Some would say I looked like ‘a chicken with his head cut off’. I was just pumped. I would finally have my opportunity to get Chace back from Hell. I would gladly deal with this party the Coven was throwing if it meant a little freedom to get him back.