Authors: Jordan Mendez
Kyra’s
long black hair was spread across the pillow like a veil, and made her look
much younger than she was. Her gentle features as she slept would have never
suggested she could kill anyone without a moment’s hesitation. Her slightly
golden skin seemed to shine in the faint moon light that made her the only
visible thing in the room. Though she was still wearing her light leather
battle gear, even Matilda had to admit she was beautiful. The witch snarled with
loathing and disgust. Matilda hated anyone who could match her looks,
especially if they were human. The fact that Kyra was a warrior made Matilda
despise her even more. Though the witch could feel the bubbling hatred inside
her, she did not know why she hated this woman.
Meanwhile,
in the room next to Yuki’s, Al was sleeping soundly. The black smoke drifted
over him slowly, trying to find which desire of his would be best. The boy had
so many, and yet none seemed to rise over the others significantly enough. The
boy’s mind was a puzzling one, but the creature was determined to find the
perfect desire.
Frantically
assessing the situation and trying to find a solution, Al’s Guardian raised her
sword over Al protectively, though neither he nor the creature of smoke could
see her. She could not cast away the creature, for it was not a true demon. It
was an Arizule, a shape changer, a creature summoned by a witch or warlock to
rid them of their enemies by either their prey’s deepest fears, or deepest
desires. She knew it was only a matter of time until they found what Al desired
most, though she was hiding it desperately in the very back of his mind. She
knew there was only one thing she could do, but it would mean putting Al on the
front lines of a fight he may not have been prepared for. Not finding any other
way, Al’s Guardian gave into the only solution she had.
“Awaken,
my child, and fight.” The beautiful Guardian pressed a hand on his face and
pulsed energy into him, surging his body with so much adrenaline he could not
possibly stay asleep.
Only
slightly reacting to the adrenaline racing his body awake, Al’s eyes fluttered
open slowly. A second of drowsiness still hovered in his mind, and he stared at
the black smoke with a sleepy look on his face. That second ended when the
smoke shrieked at him.
Fully
awake now, Al jumped back out of the covers and sat straight up clutching his
bed frame but never turning his body away from the hissing smoke. His heart was
beating rapidly in his chest, as though it was threatening to burst right out. The
smoke drifted to the edge of his bed opposite to him, and began to take shape.
The whole time Al was trying to think of ways of escape, or spells that might
help him, but all of his plans were drowned out by the recurring foul phrase
that he would have never said aloud, nor have thought it if he hadn’t been in
that situation. The smoke began to rise, and started to take the shape of a
massive serpent, who even when coiled tightly still grazed the surface of the
ceiling with its head. Its skin looked solid, but like smoke it drifted with
black wisps as it moved. It hissed at Al, opened its large mouth that could
have held a fat goat with ease and revealed its pointy rows of fangs.
Everything about the snake was black like the smoke, except for its eyes. But
instead of actual eyes, the sockets glowed red like a dying flame in a lantern.
‘
If shadows could have a substance, it would be exactly like the smoke was,
and create things just as horrifying’
Al thought to himself, and then
suddenly he had an idea. There was only a slight chance it would work, but it
was the only thing he could think of. The giant snake hissed at Al as it sized
him up, getting ready to strike. Al’s palms began to grow damp as he struggled
to remember the prayer to ask the Healer to use his Guardian’s power.
“
Ego
in misericordia tua cara Medicum patiaris animam meam tecum, custodes, ita ut
mala tristis tueri populum rursus ad tres animae debeo et obediet unam
!” Al
could feel power from his Guardian rushing through him as he finished the
prayer and the snake reared up to strike. Baring its fangs, the beast struck
out at him. Al threw his arms up over his face and shouted the ancient words
that were his only hope. “
Da mihi lumen!
”
Al
felt the little prickling needles in his skin that he always got when he cast a
spell as the power of his Guardian surged through him. Blinding light blasted
out of his hands as the creature came with only a hairs width of his skin. The
deadly creature reeled back as it shrieked in pain. Al looked at it astonished,
as if he couldn’t believe his plan had actually worked. The giant snake reeled
away from the light, and when Al noticed this, he hoped out of bed and ran
towards the creature, hands still alight with the holy light. The beast thrashed
out as he neared, but Al held his hands out closer to it, burning the creature
with its light. Al pressed his hands hard on the creature, and though it was
solid and felt like a snake’s skin, he could feel the wisps of shadows licking
his hands as they disappeared.
The
creature’s shrieks were blood curdling and maddening at best, but Al stood his
ground. Light began to peek out from inside it’s body as it’s cries grew
louder, and the red glow of its eyes were replaced by rays of light bursting
through its skull. And then, all at once, the creature burst into little wisps
of disappearing smoke and ash. Dazed and astonished, Al put a hand to his head,
brushing his long black bangs out of the way to look around with his now wide
brown eyes. He let out a sigh as he saw that there were no traces of it left,
and he collapsed on his bed. The power of his Guardian still rushed through his
veins, though the light had dispersed from his hands when the creature was
killed.
“I
just defeated something all by myself using my Guardian’s wonderful power,” Al
chuckled as he reflected his first victory. “Who could’ve predicted
that
to happen? I want to see any one of my brothers try to do
that.
”
Suddenly, Al’s breath caught in his throat. If he was attacked, who’s to say
that the others weren’t attacked by shape shifting shadow smoke as well?
With
a rush, Al darted out of his bed and to his door, throwing a hand on the cold
metal. He jiggled the handle, but to his horror, it was locked from the
outside. Scowling at his stupidity, he hit his head on the door lightly, which
gave him another idea. Al took a few steps back and examined the door, hoping
it wasn’t as hard as it looked. With a deep breath, Al charged towards the
door. The frame rattled as he rammed it and loosened a tad, but did not open,
to Al’s disappointment. He repeated it three more times, even though his
shoulder was beginning to ache, and finally the door swung open, letting Al
rush into the hallway. The sound of muffled screaming caught his ear, and he
ran to the door it came from.
He
tried opening it, but found once again it was locked. With a curse that was out
of character for him, he rammed against the door with all his might.
Oblivious
to the sounds coming from the hallway, Vaze clutched Scarlet closer as she
kissed him. He was so happy and full of joy, he could have thought it was just
a dream, if Scarlet hadn’t felt so real. Everything about her felt real, the
touch of her lips, the texture of her hair, the heat of her body, even the way
she smelled was exactly the same. Her arms were laced across his neck and he
held her head with one hand while the other rested on her back. He didn’t even
notice when her hand slid onto the hilt of the dagger beneath his pillow.
“The
only thing I could think about in that horrible place was you Vaze,” Scarlet
whispered into his ear, and the sweet sound of her voice made chills go down
his spine. But what she said made him stop for a moment.
“Only
of me?” he repeated, hardly more than a whisper. Scarlet looked at him with her
gorgeous grey eyes and smiled.
“Yes,
I never thought of anything else.” Scarlet moved her head to kiss Vaze more,
but he held her back.
“What
about your brothers?” Vaze asked with his hands on her shoulders. “Didn’t you
think about them?”
“How
could I, when I’m in love with someone as amazing as you?” She bent her neck
closer and kissed him again, but Vaze was still staring wide eyed, even when
her lips were on his. He pushed her away.
“Did
you go mad?” he asked, now on edge with suspicion. “Were you tortured until
your mind couldn’t bear it?” Scarlet looked at him in disappointment and
confusion.
“No,
I’m perfectly sane.” She drifted closer to him with one hand still remaining
under the pillow. “Vaze, what’s wrong?” He didn’t seem to hear her as his mind
was flooding with questions and doubts. He could feel his heart throbbing in
his ears like a drum, and the sounds outside his door were lost to him.
With
one last desperate slam against the door, the wood splintered as it broke open
jaggedly, and Al jumped inside. The first thing he saw was Siren bound to her
bed by vines, thrashing and trying to escape desperately. Whenever it looked
like she could free herself, the vines tightened, and before his eyes Al could
see they were crushing the life out of the little Guardian. The tiny wisps of
black smoke coming off the vines were all the reassurance Al needed to know
this was the same kind of creature that had attacked him only moments before.
“
Da
mihi lumen!
” Al shouted the spell as he aimed his hands at the beast. It
shrieked as the light touched it, and released Siren from her bounds, drifting
to the far corner of the room as the black smoke now formed into something
else. Siren gasped for breath as she saw Al jolt across the room at the half
formed beast. It was already starting to take the form of a soldier and it was
forming rapidly, but Al was quicker. Before the smoke could become entirely
solid, Al shoved his hands into the heart of the forming soldier. An inhuman
shriek cut through the air as the beast exploded in light, leaving nothing
behind but a few wisps of smoke. Without pausing to be pleased in his work, Al
went back to Siren.
“Are
you all right?” he asked. Siren looked at him in amazement. He did not look
like the child he was when he left on the journey with Scarlet. He looked more
like a man, and on top of that, a fighter.
“I’m
fine,” she replied as she grabbed for her sword. In reality, her bones and body
ached from being squeezed and restrained like that, but she would manage just
fine. “Where are the others?”
“In
their rooms, I think. You were the first one I heard who had been attacked
besides myself.” Siren burst out of her bed and bolted to the broken door way.
“We
probably weren’t the only ones,” She said as she brandished her sword in hand.
“Go and get Vaze, I’ll get Yuki.”
“But
what about my master?” Al was worried for him because he was the closest thing
to a father Al had ever had. Siren turned her head back to him and smirked.
“I’m
not worried about Gidian one bit,” she said with a sly smile. “If you can do
that, what do you think the man who trained you can do?” Without waiting for a
response from Al, Siren bolted down the hall to Yuki’s room. Noticing he was
wasting time, Al did the same and ran to Vaze’s door. He didn’t even bother
checking if it was locked this time before he threw himself against the door.
“Vaze,
are you alright?” Scarlet asked again, this time catching his attention. She
stroked his cheek with one hand, but he slapped it away.
“Get
away from me,” he hissed. He couldn’t believe he had been so stupid.
“Vaze,
what are you saying? It’s me, Scarlet.” Vaze would not be fooled again.
“You
are not Scarlet,” he growled, and even he had to admit his words could make
venom seem harmless. “And it was a foul trick for you to pose as her.” For a
moment Scarlet looked hurt. That moment was gone almost as quick as it came. Her
mouth twisted into a devilish grin as her hand tightened around the dagger.
“Took
you long enough, you brain dead buffoon,” the Scarlet imposter said still with
Scarlet’s voice. There was a bang against the door, and Vaze’s eyes shot to it.
In the moment he wasn’t paying attention, the Scarlet imposter yanked the
dagger out from under his pillow and brought it down in a viscous ark. Slightly
dazed, Vaze caught her wrists just as the tip of the blade was an inch from his
bare neck.
He
struggled to force her back, and the dagger hovered dangerously close to his
neck. She was stronger than an average human, and it was difficult to keep her
from slicing his neck open. There was another bang on the door again, but this
time the door started to crack and splinter. The imposter shot a look at the
door and hissed, then looked back at Vaze. The beautiful grey eyes it had
copied before were gone, and instead of eyes at all the sockets glowed red like
a dying flame.
“I
am going to finish what my master told me to do before I’m sent back into the
black of nothingness, in which I will have the pleasuring thought that I sent
you back to your dreadful God.” The thing’s voice was inhuman, and came out
more as hisses and shrieking than words as the imposter shoved the blade closer
to his throat. Vaze struggled under the pressure, his muscles straining.
At
the same time, in Kyra’s room, Matilda was oblivious to the commotion outside
the door. She was too busy thinking of all the ways to kill Kyra, whether she
should paralyze her and kill her slowly, or if she should just kill her
quickly. She was leaning more towards enchanting her into stabbing herself to
death. Deciding on a slow and inevitable death, Matilda poised the dagger a bit
above Kyra’s heart, intending to stab then slowly rip down into her heart,
little by little.