by Lisa Randall
I turned to look at Helen and was glad she had come into my life. If not for her, many humans and even non-humans would still be suffering. I was amazed at her compassion every time we faced an obstacle, and her strength. I let my feelings grow while thinking all of this, and heard a faint crackle in the air. I looked around us and saw that I had put up my electric barrier without thinking, again. I hoped the gargoyles didn’t mind me using magic in their home, but I couldn't help it. Like Helen, the magic inside of me sometimes just wants an outlet, and I wondered if my powers would continue to grow like hers. I hoped if they did they wouldn’t get out of control. I didn’t want to get sick like her, but I didn’t see any way around it either. I could tell I was getting close to letting the magic run wild, and I feared what would happen if it did.
I tried to go back to sleep, but couldn’t. My mind was racing with a thought I hadn’t really bothered to follow before. Helens' powers grew every time she used them. Then she got sick. My powers were like hers, and they were also growing each time I used them. We were drawn to each other, even as she slept in her crypt. I remembered seeing her floating in the air, leading me to where she slept. I realized then that the power that I felt following me around all those years ago, long before the Human Wars, was Helen. She hadn’t been chasing her maker, but had been chasing me. And I had run from her, thinking she was my maker. I remembered thinking back then, that the power chasing me was similar to the one that changed me, and had killed my village. I had thought it was chasing me to finish the job. Now I realized that fate had been pushing us together ever since the beginning. We were meant to meet each other, it was destiny.
I lay there, holding Helen and thinking about how different our lives would have been if we had met sooner.
Are you awake, Rai? Red asked me, I craned my head and found him standing at the opening of the cave, lowering his head to look inside.
Yes I am, but Helen is still asleep. I tell him. He nods in understanding.
The others are fully healed and are all resting. We were able to give privacy to those who wanted it by scattering them throughout the caves. He said, his ruby red eyes sparkling in the dim light of the cave.
Thank you. For everything. I tell him. If it hadn’t been for the gargoyles showing up when they did, I’m sure we would be a few humans short of our group. They didn’t deserve to die that way, especially after we had just freed them from the vampires. Red nods in acknowledgement before shuffling his feet. Its then I notice how big he really is. The cave entrance was pretty large, and I was pretty sure he wouldn’t fit if he tried. He had grown in size a couple of feet. I imagined his wings were even larger as well.
Once everyone is awake, we are to go before the Elders. They wish to speak with all of you. He says. I nod and say Okay. Would you mind letting me know when it’s time? I don’t want to wake Helen up until everyone else is ready, if she is still sleeping. Red nods and quietly leaves, and I barely hear the beating of his wings as he gets farther away.
I turned to continue watching Helen sleep. I wondered if the Gargoyles were either going to thank us for freeing them, or take their vengeance out on us, since we seem to be the closest vampires left around. I lay there with Helen still sleeping, and kept thinking what if…
*****
The strangest thing happened to me today. When I awoke in this room, I remembered. I could remember the last time I saw Hecate, and I remembered everything else leading until this day, including Baal. He had tried to disguise himself in an illusion of Hecate in order to get information from me. He wanted to keep the portal open, bring Hell onto Earth. Well, what was left of it anyways. The Human Wars destroyed so much.
I sat on the bed, thinking of all of the things I knew and remembered, and what I was going to do with Baal. I find a pen and the journal I had hidden away in the room and opened it to make a list of things I knew.
1. Baal didn’t know I had a journal and was remembering. It may not be a lot of what he wants to know, but every day I remember a little more.
2. When I go to sleep, I forget. Each day is like starting over with amnesia. I have to think hard on what I remember and what it means. Some days are better than others.
3. Hecate gave me this journal, and showed me how to hide it. It cannot be found or seen by someone who wishes to harm me in any way. It was a spell she taught only to me, and I had already forgotten the magical words that make it work.
4. Magnus Lockewoode. His family has been captured and tortured by the demons for a very long time. They specialize in portals, but not the kind Baal needs. They specialize in portals to different worlds, like where the Fae still hide and live. The portal to Hell is too strong for the Lockewoode’s to handle. It uses dark magic, and as far as I can remember, they only deal with the good magic of the world. I now regret not helping him earlier. Even now, I can sense he is in pain, but alive. I do not know what keeps their family strong in spirit, for if I were in his shoes I would have surely died long ago.
5. Baal is a demon from hell, sent to keep the portal open in order for the armies of Hell to come to Earth. He knows very little of portals. They can stay dormant for eons until they are activated by dark magic. The only beings that can cross the portal he is working on are the lower ranks. Those who are strong cannot pass through the portal, as it uses mass amounts of dark magic for just one being. I shudder to think how much would be needed for an army.
6. This journal’s previous entries were indeed written by me. Or at least some broken fragment of my mind was aware enough to write in it. The thoughts are those of someone insane.
7. I do not know why I forget everything when I sleep. Someone must have put a curse on me for some reason… or it could be that my mind is so broken that it forgets so that I can live. Even now, being lucid and coherent is very difficult, for I know everything that has happened is because of me.
8. Helen and Rai. I created them, not knowing what I was really doing in my fugue state. I regret my actions, but I know nothing can forgive them. They are still alive and have even made contact with me in their dreams. They do not know it yet, but they had both astral projected from their bodies, linking with mine. Only I could see them, since we are linked by blood, and I know Helen has visited me before. At first I thought it was a ghost haunting me, but then I realized it was not her. She looks so much like Hecate that it hurts, and I wonder if it is why I attacked her in the first place. Rai was turned when I was in an insane bloodlust after not feeding for too long. I had forgotten how, and it just got worse and worse every day until I found his village. Someone had been hurt, and I smelled their blood. It put me over the edge and I had blacked out, not knowing of what I had done.
9. I watched throughout the centuries, during the few times I was lucid, the world change over and over again, but one thing didn’t change. Rai and Helen chased each other, thinking they chased me. They were both from families that used magic, but were never taught, so they didn’t have the tracking skills to find me.
10. Helen and Rai were coming to save me. Either from Baal or from life, I wasn’t sure, and I didn’t really care if they killed me. I deserved any punishment they felt to give me, after what I had done to them. I hoped they would learn from the gargoyles I felt them free from the vampires, and I hoped they wouldn’t die when they got here. More than anything, I hoped that I didn’t kill anyone in my fugue state.
11. I remember Hecate. And Rowena. It was a complicated relationship, and I was so young. They were the prettiest girls in the town, and they were also twins. And witches. They were so powerful, working alone or with each other, that the fear of black magic no longer existed in the town, since all knew they would protect it. They were so strong. Everything was going well until I decided to get drunk the week before I married Hecate. I was with friends and it had felt like we had drunk the town dry that night. We were walking down the street when Rowena showed up. She started begging me not to marry Hecate, but to marry her instead. She had been in love with
me ever since she saw me talking to Hecate one day. I had never known of her feelings until that night. I told her I was in love with Hecate, and not her. This seemed to upset her even further, and she yanked some of my hair from my head as she attacked me. She then ran home to cry, or so I thought. The next day, Hecate came to my home and told me the engagement was off, and that she did not love me. It broke my heart. I asked her why wait until now to tell me, but she seemed to think I knew the reason, and was being coy. My confusion angered her and she yelled at me, cursing me for all the little things she hated about me and how I had hurt her sister. This confused me since I remember I didn’t touch a hair on her head, unlike her. Hecate told me that I got drunk and attacked her, and my friends even helped. She was so mad she was crying and then stormed away. I didn’t know what to say to her, but my heart was broken and my mind confused. That day I decided to have too much to drink, again, and even went over to their house to confront Rowena on the lies she told Hecate. I remember walking through the door and seeing Hecate lying at the foot of the stairs leading to the door, her body mangled into gruesome angles. She was dead. It looked as if she fell, but I knew better. Rowena must have done this. I searched the house and didn’t find her. I returned home, hours later, and even more drunk. I didn’t report her body, since people would assume I had done it. I found Rowena in my room, acting like she was Hecate. She had killed her to get her magic in order to cast a love spell on me, but it didn’t work. I was still in love with Hecate, so the spell didn’t work, making Rowena go into a rage. She used the remaining magic she had to cast a curse on me. She made me into a vampire. The first vampire. Ever. She weaved the spell so that if I ever decided to love her back, the curse would be broken. Instead, my own anger rose to the surface. I was so mad at everything she had done. She took Hecate away from me, tearing us apart so she could have me for herself. The moment she had explained the curse, I had sealed my heart. I vowed to myself that I would get my revenge, and I attacked Rowena. She was so surprised I would even think of hurting her that I saw a chance and took it. Before I knew it, she was dead. I was arrested for murder the next day; the evidence was made to look like I killed both Hecate and Rowena, the town’s saviors, and was put to death by hanging. I didn’t fight it. People tortured me until hanging day, where it all changed.
12. When I was killed, Rowena’s curse changed me. I felt it the moment I awoke beside a grave, someone was getting ready to bury me. I attacked and killed him, taking his blood. I escaped the town and never returned. It was years later that I learned I could do magic. Rowena’s curse had left its own special mark on my soul.
13. I later retreated into the woods, far from humans that I could possibly hurt. Years would go by without me seeing a human. I wasn’t sure how long I was alone, but then the world started getting smaller and smaller. Towns grew into cities, which just grew and grew. One day, I woke up and found I had attacked someone, but I didn’t kill them. They later woke as a vampire. I was no longer alone. But this new vampire wanted blood. He wanted gore. And he wanted mayhem. He later became known as Jack the Ripper. He was just another one of my regrets, and I put an end to him. I couldn’t go on knowing he was out there, killing people for the fun of it.
14. As the years went by, my sanity went with it. Either from grief of losing Hecate to her own sister, or from what I had become, I wasn’t sure. But the lucid days were becoming few and far between. I remember waking up the next day after what I had done to both Rai and Helen. I had regretted it instantly, for I had ruined their lives and had changed them into what I had become. I secretly hoped they didn’t lose their sanity either.
15. The Human Wars were a complete blur to me. I remember hearing about it in the beginning, then I wake up one day and it’s over. The world is beyond repair and everything seems to be dead. Then the demons found me. They beat me and treated me like a pet they could kick until I had a lucid day. Then I would get my revenge by killing them. Only magic worked against them. I wasn’t strong enough. Not then. But I am now. It has been so long since Baal found me. He treated me like a guest, never letting another beat me, even when he wanted to do it himself. He knew I knew more about magic than I was letting on. The only problem was my sanity. My lucid days became even fewer, and I seemed to watch the furniture around me age as time went by in what seemed like days. When I was in a fugue state, I barely remembered the days. It was beginning to feel like every time I woke up lucid, years had gone by.
16. There were a few times I pretended to be insane for Baal. He didn’t seem to notice. His patience with me is begging to wear thin. After all these years, it seems the other side of the Hell portal is getting impatient. He was running out of excuses and was looking weak to his boss, so he was pressed for time. He began resorting to tricking me into giving him information by pretending to be Hecate. Sometimes he would remind me of Rowena and I wouldn’t talk to him, and he didn’t even know why. He didn’t know about her. This seemed to be in my favor, since he didn’t seem to know I also knew magic. Hecate had taught me before we were even engaged. She had said she saw the potential in me and that one day I would need to know how to use it. Sometimes I wonder if she knew what was going to happen to her. I wonder if she blames me for what happened.
There was a knock at the door and before it opened all the way to reveal Baal standing there, the journal was stashed away and protected by magic. I had only seconds to decide if I wanted to pretend to be insane for another day, or to end it all and tell Baal I was sane today, and to get him to kill me. I almost went with the latter, but then remembered Helen and Rai. They were coming. If I wasn’t here to help them when they got here, they would probably die. Making my decision, I looked at Baal and said “Who are you and why am I here?”
Chapter 20
I woke in Rai’s arms again, which still seemed to come as a shock to me. I still wasn’t used to his presence completely yet, but I was glad he was here. He was looking at me and I got the feeling that he had been awake for a long time. I swear the way he was looking at me would have made me blush if I was able. He seemed to notice as his mouth formed a light smile.
“Everyone else is already up, and I was just about to wake you. Red said that once we were all awake we were to go before their Elders. He said they wanted to talk to all of us.” He said, the smile still present. I wondered what they wanted to talk to us about, but the only way to find out was to go to them. I moved to get up and Rai beat me to it by pulling my hand up with him. He held on to my hand as we left the small cave to go find the others.
As we stepped out of the cave, I realized we had to wait for Red or some other gargoyle to come and get us. We were over fifty feet high and there was a steep cliff right in front of us. I almost fell down it but Rai seemed to know it was there and caught me in time. He must have seen it last night when Red dropped us off. I had been so tired I didn’t even notice.
“I told Red we were ready and he will be here in a minute.” Rai said. As we stood there waiting for Red to come get us, I took a look around. It was quite beautiful where we stood. Although we couldn’t exactly see outside, the low light coming in from different angles lit up the inside of the mountain we were in to show how big it really was. It looked as if the entire mountain was hollowed out, and inside was this rock-made city of sorts. There were spires coming from the ground and even the ceiling, and there were other caves visible from where we stood. “I wouldn’t want to get lost in here.” I said, looking to Rai. He nodded and said “It wouldn’t be a good idea to go wandering about on our own.”
Gargoyles were flying all around, each one flying into a larger looking cave near the center of the mountain. It was huge, and looked as if a spire from the top and bottom of the mountain grew together and formed one huge column in the middle of the city. There were holes all around it, allowing gargoyles to fly in at all levels of it. I wondered if that was where we were headed. Suddenly, Red’s eyes were in front of me and he had a huge smile on his face. He seemed to b
e excited about something, and as he landed in front of us, he couldn’t stop fidgeting. What’s up, Red? I asked.
Everyone is already up and we are almost ready! He said excitedly. He held out his arms for us to grab on to. He was so large now that his arms were like massive pillars, no longer resembling the smaller version that we first saw at the vampire city. I was glad that he seemed to be doing okay, and gave him a smile back. His eyes flashed quickly before fading, and we grabbed hold. Taking off, we were brought to the huge column in the center of the city. While other gargoyles were flying in at the top, we landed at the bottom and walked through one of the entrances leading inside. We were greeted by Selena and Alice, while the humans we had freed all huddled together, as if terrified by the gargoyles. Before I could say anything to calm them, a huge gargoyle in the center of the floor let out a huge roar, catching everyone’s attention. Looking around, I saw that this was similar to an arena. We were on the ground floor, while the walls were completely covered with gargoyles of all different shapes and sizes, as well as colors. All were clinging to the wall with their huge talons, and I knew they wouldn’t fall.
We have much to discuss today, so everyone settle down! The gargoyle roared. He had a scarred up face and body, but his eyes were so kind that they contrasted with the rest of him. The humans flinched as he roared, and I could practically feel the fear coming from them. I was sure everyone else could tell how terrified they were feeling, and the big scarred gargoyle turned to them and smiled. It is okay, little ones. We will not hurt you. He said to them. It seemed to calm them a little, but they were still on edge. They had gone through so much already, and I hoped they would get through the fear somehow.