Authors: Micheal Kostura
Chapter Twenty-Two
Allison
Allison moved faster than she ever thought possible as she made her way over to Nick’s limp body. She crouches down and holds her teammate up in her arms as she checks for a heartbeat. The pulse was faint, but it was there- and that was all that mattered.
“He’s alive, but he needs medical attention ASAP!” Allison yells at her captain.
“What was he thinking by using up all of his energy like that.” Isaac says shaking his head.
“He was giving us an opening.” Damon says flatly. The Void boy walks over and grabs onto Nick’s torso, pulling him off of the ground and out of Allison’s lap “You three go on before these guys break out of the ice. I’ll stay back and take care of Nick.”
Allison shakes her head. “But what if he-”
“Allison.” Isaac says her name firmly. “Damon is right. We need to get in there and stop Gerald before it’s too late. Nick did this specifically to help us out, we can’t let his efforts go to waste.”
Allison takes a look at her unconscious teammate. She wanted to slap Nick for doing something so reckless, but was too impressed by his resolve to look down on him. She looks at Damon with mixed feelings. A couple weeks ago and Allison would have said she couldn’t trust a Void. But Damon has managed to prove himself time and time again as her ally. First by rescuing them from Valus back on earth, then by helping them fight in Eros. And now, here in Allison’s own home, the Void was offering to guard her teammates life. As much as her father would hate to hear it, she couldn’t deny that she truly considered Damon a friend.
“Take care of him.” Allison says softly. Damon nods and picks Nick off of the ground, cradling the boy in his arms. He begins walking away without speaking another word.
“Now let’s go in.” Isaac orders. Hector and Allison both grab onto one of their captain’s shoulders. Together the three of them walk through the gate of the Pit. As soon as Allison steps into the darkness beyond the doors she feels the sensation of shadow jumping come over her. Though this time she didn’t feel like she had any sort of control over where she was going.
“Hold on as tight as possible. I don’t know if shadow jumping works the same now that we’re invading the Shadow Realm.” Isaac says.
Allison and Hector both use their free hand around their captain’s arms. The three of them slowly move through the Shadow Realm, seemingly floating along to nowhere in particular. She wasn’t used to being in the Shadow Realm for such a long period of time, and the darkness was starting to creep her out. For a moment she wonders if the three of them and Gerald were the first people to ever explore the Shadow Realm.
After what seems like a few minutes, Allison spots a green light that glows brighter and brighter as time passes. Isaac notices the light as well, and the three of them start moving towards it. A few moments later and Allison had drawn close enough to the light to make out it’s surroundings. Never in her life did she think that there would be solid ground in the Shadow Realm, let alone a torch hanging on the wall of a castle.
The three of them land on top of a small platform made of black bricks. The torch offered a green fire that lit up the area just enough to gaze at the castle. The victorian style building was constructed with dark bricks of varying colors. Besides it’s style, the building showed no signs of old age. A drawbridge was lowered that connected the platform they were standing on to the doorway of the castle. Allison was having a hard time taking in the beauty of the castle.
“What in the world is a castle doing here in the Shadow Realm?” She asks with her eyes glued to the dark walls towering above her.
“Don’t know.” Isaac responds. “But let’s go in. It looks like Hector’s wolf left us a little trail to follow.” He points towards the castle's entrance. Allison was so interested in the building upon landing that she didn’t even notice the thin silver trail of smoke hanging over the drawbridge.
The three of them begin running across the drawbridge, following the silver trail left behind. Upon entering the castle they are greeted by darkness. But after a few seconds of silence, purple fires are suddenly lit up on the torches lining the castle walls. And now that they could see, Allison was once again amazed by the beauty of the place. Statues lined the walls, expensive looking carpets were under their feet, and a chandelier with black candle light hung from the ceiling above.
Isaac stops walking. “Wait, where did the trail go?” Allison looks around in confusion, and sure enough the silver trail was gone. Her captain looks at Hector. “Can you pinpoint Gerald’s location with your tracker powers?”
Hector shakes his head. “Nope. And for some reason I can’t even pinpoint either of your locations. What’s going on?”
Isaac scowls. “There must be some other power at play that’s preventing us from pinpointing Gerald’s position. Be on your toes, we have no idea what could be inside this castle.”
Allison’s stomach tightens. She couldn’t shake the feeling that they might be walking directly into some kind of trap. Just as she was preparing to voice her concerns, Hector points ahead.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” He asks. Allison follows his finger and see’s that, at the back of the room, there was some type of symbol engraved in the wall.
The trio stops walking only a couple yards away from the wall. They look up and study the strange image in front of them. Allison was sure that she had never seen this symbol before. There was a diamond engraved in the wall that surrounded a more intricate design. On the inside of it, there were two lines that intersected to form a cross. At each edge of the crosses four points, there was a circle. The circles were each placed near the corners of the surrounding diamond.
Allison notices that the four circles had much more detail behind them than the rest of the symbol. The top circle was completely carved into the wall, while most of the left circle was protruding from it. On the left one there was a line that split the circle in half, and on both sides of that line there was a small square carved into the wall. As far as she could tell, it was perfectly symmetrical. The bottom circle resembled a ring. The majority of it was carved into the wall, but there was a thin line which shaped the edge of the circle that was sticking outwards. And the last one, the right circle, had half of its design carved into the wall and the other half protruding from it.
After a few seconds of trying to analyze the symbol, Allison determines that she had absolutely no idea what any of it was supposed to mean.
“I’ve seen this symbol before.” Isaac whispers. Her captain marvels at the image for only a moment before shaking his head. “But it doesn’t matter right now. We need to stop Gerald.” Allison doesn’t need to hear any more for her to look away from the symbol on the wall. She hated knowing that there was something she didn’t understand right in front of her. Upon turning around, she is greeted by a woman in a blue gown. Allison shrieks and backs up a couple of steps. Her teammates both turn to see what was going on, and are both visibly startled by the woman standing before them.
“More visitors?” She asks. Her voice was hollow, completely void of any emotion.
“And who are you?” Allison asks. The woman’s ominous presence startled her, but she had to show no fear in the face of her enemies. And this woman was no exception.
“Quick to ask questions, young lady. What happened to introductions first, Allison?”
Allison’s body begins trembling. She didn’t realize it at first, but she
did
know this person. It’s been eight long since she’s seen this woman, and she almost forgot what it was like to have her standing right in front of her.
“Mom?” Allison’s voice cracks as a tear rolls down her cheek.
Her mother smiles, showing off her beautiful white teeth. “I’m glad you remember your mother’s face. It’s been too long.”
“Wait Allison, something isn’t right.” Isaac says putting a hand on her shoulder. “This woman couldn’t possibly be your-” The captain is cut off once a new voice comes from behind them. The group turns to look at the woman now standing where they were looking only seconds ago.
“What’s next Isaac, are you going to act like I’m not here either?” The woman says as she runs her hand through her red pixie haircut. Isaac’s hand falls from Allison’s shoulder.
“Fiona?” He says, his voice trembling.
“Guys, what the hell is going on?” Hector aks.
“Don’t be so negative, Hector.” Allison’s mother says smiling. “You’ve got a friend here too.” As if he was waiting for an introduction, a third figure walks out from behind Allison’s mother. This time it was someone that all three of them were familiar with.
“Damon? What are you doing here?” Hector asks. Allison does a double check, and sure enough, she was looking at their Void friend. And just like the other two new arrivals, his appearance was shimmering and ghost like.
Damon walks towards Hector and holds out his hand. “What’s wrong Hector? Quit acting so suspicious of everything. You know me.”
Hector cocks his head, obviously just as puzzled as Allison. But after a few silent seconds pass he shakes his head and smiles. “Yeah, you’re right. Sorry for being so jumpy.”
Damon smiles and extends his hand out. “Come on, I wanna show you something cool.”
Hector looks hesitant at first, but he nods his head.
“No, Hector, don’t grab his hand. Something is fishy here.” Allison shouts out. She had a bad feeling in her stomach telling her to be careful.
“Allison, sweety, you don’t trust your friend or even your own mother?” Her mom asks with a hint of rejection in her voice.
The redheaded woman cocks her head and puts her hand on Isaac’s arm. “You still love me, right? Let’s go get married!”
Damon grabs Hector’s hand and pulls the boy closer to him. “C’mon Hector, I thought we were friends. Don’t tell me I was wrong about you.”
Hector shakes his head. “No, that’s not it. I just don’t understand how this is happening.”
“We came back to meet you guys!” Damon says grinning. “Come on, let’s go somewhere more private.”
“Don’t do it Hector!” Allison yells. Isaac and Hector both turn to look at her. For some reason, the two of them were buying into whatever was going on. But Allison could tell that something was wrong. “Don’t go with them.” She says firmly. That’s when she feels a hand grasp her shoulder.
“Then how about we go somewhere instead?” Allison’s mother says with a devilish grin on her face.
Allison pushes off of her mother and stumbles backwards. She bumps into an altar that has lit candles and a large crystal resting on top of it. The symbol on the wall was gone, and the fire from the torches now burned green. Hector and Isaac were nowhere to be seen. Even though the scenery was different, Allison could tell that she was just in another room of the castle.
She turns to the woman who looks like her mother. “What is this? You might have been able to fool Hector and Isaac, but I can tell this whole thing is some type of trap.”
“And we expected as much from you, Allison Marxon. Good job at seeing through the allures of life.”
Allison steps back as the woman walks forward. “Now who are you, and how do you know my name?”
“We know all of your names, but that doesn’t matter. You see, this entire illusion is just a trial left here to challenge those who enter this castle. The fact that you passed it only confirms our suspicion about you, Allison.”
“
Our
? Who are you people? And why take the form of my mother?” Her back was pressed tightly against the altar now, and she was debating on whether or not she should make a run for it.
“To test your willpower. Those who can step away from what they love most are often considered to be the strongest of their kind. They possess the ability to look past what they
want
in life in order to get what they
need
. You may have wanted to see your mother alive, but you also see the mission at hand as more important than your own happiness. And that’s what makes you, Allison Marxon, the strongest Shadow Walker. Congratulations.”
The rebuttal that Allison had prepared get’s lost in her throat. Ever since her team has been on this mission, Allison has felt utterly useless. Between her, Hector, and Nick, she has had the least amazing feats during their journey to save the Pit. The pride that she had held in her family name up until these past couple of weeks practically gone. She thought she was a disgrace to her ancestors.
Now this stranger who was pretending to be her mother- who she hadn’t seen in years- was telling her that she was supposed to be even stronger than her father? Allison had a hard time taking everything in.
“And as for who we are,” The woman continues, “Well, that’s unimportant information. We take great interest in the things that all of you do.” She pauses for a second. “Tell us Allison, why do you think it’s okay for you to kill the Void, but not for them to kill you, the humans, or the Inverts? Why do you and the Inverts not fight each other any more? Can you really accept a man like Hector Avern, who befriended the Void that you’re meant to destroy, as your comrade?”