Playing With Fire (32 page)

Al’s
heart tugged at him to keep going, but the shadow of doubt in his mind was
enough for him to resist barging through the doors. “What is the other path?”
Al asked quietly.

“Your
other path leads to your sister.” Al’s entire body froze. He opened his mouth
to speak, but no words came. The woman sensed his shock, but went ahead to
explain more despite his silence.

“What
the witch said the night you vanquished her is true, Alphonse, your sister is
hidden in the lost kingdom of Moraj and in fact is near the ocean,” the woman paused
as if afraid to continue. “But unless you know exactly where to find the
kingdom you shall never find her. Scarlet’s time is running out. I can tell you
where Moraj sleeps, and you may make it in time. Though the choice of both
paths are open to you Alphonse, know this: you may only choose one, and once
you have chosen there is no possible way to ever intertwine the two. One path
will be gone to you forever.”

Alphonse
wanted nothing more than to save his sister, but the sudden option of his real
family shook his very foundation. For his entire life he had wanted to be
reunited with his parents, and his chance was right in front of him. For a
moment, that was all he wanted.

But
then he remembered Jake taking him in as a toddler. Al had been abandoned for God
knows how long, and Jake was the very first person to show him kindness in his
entire memory. Seth and Darren had made Al laugh and encouraged him even in the
most trying situations. Then there were all the times when he was walking back
to the Warehouse as night fell. Al could always see through the windows happy faces
of families and he always got so sad until Scarlet cheered him up. He could
recall exactly what she had said the first time.

“Don’t
cry Al, we have that too. We
are
a family.”

“You’re
wrong,” Al said quietly, with a new found peace inside him. “Those people in
there—they’re not my family.” The woman’s expression finally changed to one of
puzzlement.

“Alphonse,
they are your real parents, I would not deceive you,” the woman replied, but Al
just shook his head.

“They
may be the reason I was born, but they aren’t my family.” Al looked up at the
woman with a small grin. “I didn’t realize it until now, but what I wanted so
badly for such a long time, I already had it. Jake, Darren, Seth and Scarlet
are my real family, and I’m not about to miss my chance to make my family whole
again.”

To
Al’s surprise, the woman smiled.

“Very
well,” she said. The woman handed him a yellowing rolled up parchment held
closed by a small piece of twine. “I wish you luck, Alphonse.” Al’s vision
began to go white at the edges, like a window fogging up. The woman stooped
down and kissed his forehead. “May the Healer protect you, young one.”

With
her last words, Al jolted awake, greeted by sunlight streaming through the
window. In his hands he could feel the parchment he was given, and he knew that
it hadn’t been a dream. Slight traces of smoke stained the blue sky outside.
Just as Al noticed them, Vaze burst through the door, making Al jump so
violently he fell out of bed.

“Al,
we need to leave soon, we are going to check the next town for clues,” Vaze
said urgently as Al got off the floor.

“I
don’t think we’ll need to go to the next town,” Al replied, staring at the
rolled up parchment. Vaze looked at him in disbelief. Al untied the twine,
opening the parchment carefully. Although he had hardly glanced at a map
before, he was sure it was one.

“Vaze,
I know where Scarlet is.”

After
Velkire found me, Enzio dragged me back up to my room, I thrashed the whole way
in an attempt to escape, but nothing worked. He threw me in, and slammed the
door shut. I could hear the lock’s gears snap shut from the outside. I stayed
in my room, unable to even process any thought besides ones associated with
fear. Night fell before I knew it. I heard the lock being opened, causing me to
whip my head around to face the door.

Alastair
stepped inside, and I gasped when I saw him. He was covered in injuries, and he
hid his face from me as he entered. I embraced him, filled with joy to finally
see a familiar face. His arms wrapped around me tightly.

“I
thought I was never going to see you or anyone ever again!” Then I looked up
into his eyes, and saw devastating sadness.

“Scarlet…”
His brow creased in worry. “I’m so sorry… I couldn’t save you…”

I
shook my head. “You tried Alastair. I’m just glad you’re alright.”  Alastair’s expression
darkened, and he pushed away from me.

“Scarlet,
I need you to promise me something.” Alastair’s tone was dead serious. I forced
myself to regain composure and nod. “Promise me you’ll never lose sight of your
hopes to escape alive.” Alastair turned to leave, but I grabbed his wrist.

“Wait,
Alastair, what’s going on?” I asked, the fear finding its way back into my
voice. Alastair turned, and smiled at me sadly. Without answering my question,
he hugged me once more.

“No
matter what happens tonight, Scarlet,” he whispered in to my ear gently. “I am
glad to have met you, and have had the privilege to call you my friend.” And
with that, he left, leaving me to feel just as alone as I had the first night I
came to Velkire’s castle.

A
little while later, Enzio entered my room, and threw a black gown at me. He
didn’t seem his normal ‘I take great enjoyment in Scarlet’s suffering’ self,
but I wasn’t about to ask what was wrong.

“Put
it on,” he said flatly, and slammed the door as he exited. Unable to find my
will to rebel, I did as I was told. The gown wasn’t much different than the first
gown I was forced to wear. The only difference was that it was just plain black
like a raven’s feathers. When I was done Enzio entered again and tied my hands
together and yanked me out into the hall, and I was forced to follow him.

I
did nothing to try to free myself. I had neither the will nor the power to do
so, and I decided to go without a fight. Only when we were we entering through
the double doors of the throne room did I start to get nervous.

Velkire
stood in the center of the room, and on the floor surrounding him was a giant pentagram,
drawn in blood. Five black flame candles rested at each point on the star,
making it seem more evil with every passing minute. Velkire smiled and bowed to
me, and Enzio forced me to move forward towards him. I wanted to run, but my
legs would not move. I knew whatever was going to happen would not be good. Out
of nowhere, Velkire produced a long, curved knife, and cut my bindings.

“Sister
dear,” Velkire said mockingly as he walked away from me. “I’d really hate to
force you, so would you please lay down right where you’re standing?”

Before
my smart-mouth remark even came, Velkire whipped around with a crazy sadistic grin
and blood red eyes. A demonic voice protruded from his lips as he hissed a word
that seemed like it was spoken by the devil himself. “
Sel-rha!”

An
invisible force slammed me against the ground, and held me there with a
crushing power. Velkire danced with glee just outside the circle like a child
about to receive a present. In a language that was unknown to me, Velkire began
to chant demonically. The chains that laced my body as a seal began to burn
furiously, causing me to writhe in pain. I could only guess that it was how a
cow felt when being branded, except a thousand times over.

 Out
of the corner of my eye, I saw Enzio leaving quickly. It would have puzzled me
if I didn’t have bigger problems to worry about.

Velkire
progressively got louder as he chanted, starting first in mumbling but then
escalating his voice slowly, and as his voice raised the pain slashing across
the chains lessened and spread more throughout my body. For a moment I thought
it might be a sign of relief, but I was dead wrong. Pain exploded throughout
me, causing me to thrash involuntarily. My agonizing cries ripped through the
night, and I had no doubt in my mind that Enzio could hear me no matter where
he was in the castle.

I
could feel something inside me—something that wanted out badly. Beneath the
flesh of my belly, something pounded against my flesh from the inside. It
pulsated with life, and I could feel it getting stronger, because at the same
time, I was growing weaker. Sharp claws slashed around within my stomach,
scratching my organs slightly, allowing the blood within them seeping into the
rest of my body.

Suddenly,
the pounding turned to jabbing, and the jabbing became tearing. Velkire had
stopped chanting, and had begun laughing hysterically as a grey, clawed hand
ripped through my flesh and the fabric of my dress as it worked ruthlessly to
free itself. My hot blood spilled across the floor, surrounding me in a pool,
and I wondered if I would drown in my own blood before I died of whatever was
happening.

Then,
it stopped. The hand retreated back into me, leaving a gaping gash where it had
tried to break through. My breathing was lessened to short painful gasps, and
my head ached from the lack of air. My eyesight was turning fuzzy, but I could
still see Velkire slink back towards me with his creepy grin.

“I
sure hope that didn’t kill you,” he sneered as he put a hand over my wound. “because
we haven’t even gotten to the best part yet.”

The
minute he touched my wound, any doubt in my mind if he was lying was gone. A
ripping sensation went through my body, and I let loose a cry of agony and pure
terror. Black aura mixed with my own blood flew out of my wound, encircling the
air above me.

I
could hear Velkire’s maniacal laughter as he pulled away, leaving me to be
subdued by the pain. It had seemed as though he found another interest. At the
edge of a circle, a new figure had begun to form. The black aura and blood
circling my body in the air receded towards the figure, and it absorbed it into
its body.

The
demon smiled at me, but I was unable to make another scream. My body still
ached in pain, but slowly, it began to fade; not in a good way. I could feel my
life flickering like a weak flame, and as I stared at the new born demon, I
could do nothing.

Her
bare, stony skin glistened in the candle light with my blood, and horns poked
through her forehead slightly. Her long, snowy white hair was stained red, and
a slightly forked tongue licked her white fanged teeth as her face twisted into
a grin. Velkire cloaked her with a black robe, and her clawed hand slipped the
sleeves delicately over her broad shoulders. I realized who she was
immediately. It wasn’t just a demon. It was
my
demon—the exact one that
I had become when I killed the bandits.

She
caught my gaze, and for a moment we both held the same exact thought.

I
was going to die.

“It’s
a pleasure to meet you, Scarlet, my lesser counterpart,” my demon said with a
toothy grin. Her voice was exactly like mine. “I am your greater half, Raven.
And must I say, it’s even more of a pleasure to take my first breath, the same
time as your last.”

And
with that, my heart’s pulse stopped.

~

Velkire
looked down at the dead girl for a moment, bewildered. He almost thought it was
too good to be true. The grey eyes that were identical to his stared back at
him in a glassy trance, and then he began to laugh.

“I
did it!” he said joyfully as he looked down at his dead half-sister. “The one
threat that could stop me is gone!”

The
demon girl beside him looked at the human she was born from in disdain, her scarlet
red eyes glowing with enmity. The demon possessed no other emotions besides
anger, hatred, and insanity, and she despised the dead human.

Enzio
burst through the double doors of the throne room, and stopped in shock when he
saw the dead girl. It seemed so unreal that the girl who stopped him from
fulfilling his master’s wishes lay dead on the stone floor before him, but he
knew it was true. He could not feel her life like he could every other living
thing.

“Enzio!”
Velkire chimed like a small child on his birthday. “Take the body down to the
dungeon and show those two leathery bags of skin how much their last hope was
worth!” Enzio paused, and stared at his insane master in a tad hint of
disbelief.

“As
you wish, my lord,” Enzio finally said, and he retrieved the body. It still had
faint warmth to it, as if inside Scarlet’s body flames still burned. But she
did not burst to life and fight when he picked her up, and with slight remorse
Enzio would not throw her over his shoulder like he had when he delivered her
to the room where she would die. He instead carried her in the crook of his
arms, and out of respect he closed her eyelids.

The
trip to the dungeon was a short one. Enzio tried his best to block his thoughts
from his mind until he reached the cell he hated most. The man and woman inside
the cell looked nearly dead, and in their age they might have been. With one
quick motion Enzio tossed Scarlet’s body inside and both Draco Hale and Madam
Gale turned their heads to the lifeless girl.

Tears
began to well up in Madam Gale’s eyes and she touched the dead girl’s face with
a shackled hand. Draco’s expression was grave and heart broken. Enzio could see
he had done his job to perfection. Nothing stood in the way of his master.

Everything
was falling into place—and for everyone else it was falling apart.

~

It
was baffling to Vaze how close they were to Moraj, and just how close they were
to missing it as well. It was in fact, between the town they were previously
at, and the one they were heading to for clues. To most it would it seem
foolish of Velkire to hide so close to civilization, but Vaze knew without a
doubt how genius it was when he saw Al’s map. The castle slept in Death’s Kingdom,
a mountain range so deadly and inhospitable that the original path cut through
the mountains was abandoned.

Death’s
Kingdom was not its real name. The locals only mentioned it in hushed words for
they feared the mountains and the beasts that roamed them. Unknown horrors
lived among the rocks of the spiraling mountains, but no real record of them besides
the shredded remains of those foolish enough to wander to the mountains
existed. It would have been certain death for any normal humans wandering
through the old abandoned path into the heart of the mountains with night
falling quickly. Luckily, Vaze and his company were not what one would categorize
as ‘normal’ humans. It had taken them all night, but eventually they had found
the only tunnel passage illustrated on the map that could get them to Moraj.

“We’re
so close,” Al whispered to himself as he stared into the dark passage way that
Kyra uncovered. His tone was that of excitement, but his feelings did not rub
off on the rest of the group. Solemn looks were exchanged between Kyra and
Siren, while mixtures of worry and anxiety dominated Gideon and Yuki’s faces.
Everyone knew or had at least some lingering feeling that the worst was yet to
come. Finding Moraj would mean finding Scarlet, but it would also mean finding
Velkire, along with all his pawns. No one decided to mention this as they began
to slip into the darkness, as though keeping it only in their minds would keep
it as some impossible nightmare.

They
filed in one at a time. First Kyra, then Yuki, Gideon, and Siren. Vaze was
about to enter after her when a deep, ferocious, unsettling sound from above
found his ears. An unearthly growl sent a shock through him that made time
seemingly stop, though the terrifying scene only lasted a few seconds.  The
four inside the tunnel screamed orders at Vaze and Al to jump into the tunnel
quickly, but they were slow and far away as Vaze’s gaze drifted up, and rested
on a beast of Death’s Kingdom as it stalked down towards them from a shelf of
rock directly above the entrance to the tunnel.

It
had dark tan scales and a long, heavy spiked tail that made a morning star look
like a baby’s rattle. Its body was bigger than a war horse with four trunk-like
legs with claws for grip and an oval shaped head that was dominated by a large
mouth of rows upon rows of dirty pointed teeth. The only other feature on its
head was two large nostrils. It had no eyes or ears. As Vaze’s eyes widened, it
seemed to grin, as though it had found a rather nice meal. The abomination
slammed down with its massive front leg, and the ground shook as the shelf of
rock it was on collapsed, sealing off the entrance to the tunnel as it leapt
with amazing grace straight for Vaze and Al.

It
was in that moment that Vaze made a snap decision. He realized immediately he
only had two options: risk fighting the beast and try to use precious time to
re-expose the tunnel or escape with Al and increase their chance of survival
while sparing their precious energy. He chose the latter.