"Okay, so that hurt." Carina whined and cradled her injured hand. We had landed on shards of glass in the middle of what appeared to be an abandoned warehouse. Light poured through the barred windows at the top of the twenty foot building with a catwalk wrapped around the edge. Large boxes lay stacked and useless around us along with a large open space in the middle. The glass appeared to belong to that of a bulb-- one of the many that dangled above us. Many doors laid scattered among the walls; the lingering questions of which one would lead us to freedom lingered in the air.
"Where are we?" A stupid question to ask, Carina would have no idea. And I doubted a mystical voice would answer me in the first place.
"Most likely a Source. It would mask our magic, but would not explain why we can't simply zap out of here." She looked a bit constipated as she moved her body around awkwardly. What she said was true-- when I tried to step back to Darklight I felt no power. It was if something was tethering me to this place when I truly wanted to return home.
"What do we do?" I asked and tended to her injured forearm.
"Well I mean, finding the exit would be a good start." I rolled my eyes at her sarcasm and gently looked around for any bandage to stop the bleeding.
"This was my favourite shirt too." She whined as she eyed the wound. It was fairly deep and bled profusely, but looked as if stitches were not needed.
"And this was mine." I groaned and picked up a shard of broken glass and placed it gently over the stitching on my right sleeve. Lifting the fabric I pushed the shard through and missed my skin. With a switch curved motion I cut away down to my armpit before grabbing the edge of it and tearing the sleeve off. I then sliced down the sleeve vertically to create a makeshift bandage and tied it tightly around the cut.
"Why can't we leave? And more importantly, why can't we remember anything after you showed me your phone?" I felt like a clean slate. I remembered the kiss with Michael and his confession and I remembered Carina bouncing over to me. Then all I could remember was a lingering shadow and the sensation of falling. Who the shadow was was unclear and why I felt a deep sense of betrayal in my heart was even more unnerving. Whoever it was I had known them firsthand and that disturbed me to my core.
"I'm guessing that whoever transported us here laced the spell with a memory disrupter. They most likely planned this ahead of time and warded the walls. We can either find the ward and break the line or find the exit." Something was not settling with me right.
"What do you think is more productive?"
"Honestly, finding the exit. If we find the warding then great, but whoever did this was a pro. They probably hid it extremely well and I've seen some of the work guys like this do. I met a guy who hid warding in a concrete wall. Like he physically built the wall around the warding, and if this guys like that I don't want to take my chances." She stood up and looked around the area, eyeing the doors with hope.
"What are you doing, pretending to be Janus?" She rolled her eyes at my retort and hauled me to my feet.
"Wow, you're a fucking savage aren't you? Come on, you special little snowflake." I felt a bubble rise in my throat as I suppressed laughter. She was walking us to a random generic door and it felt like an eternity until we reached it. She grabbed the rectangular and shook the knob which refused to open.
"Screw this!" She growled and her leg shot out, stomping on the door roughly. I heard a loud crack from her kneecap but the door did not budge. Biting her lip she began to stomp the ground while clutching her leg.
"Shit! My leg! That door must be made of adamantium!"
"Did… Did you just make an X-Men reference?" She groaned and shook her head violently. I smiled in respect before stepping up to the plate.
"Why didn't you pick the lock? You've done it before."
"Because I didn't think of that!"
��Okay let me try."
"Yeah good luck with that, chicken legs." I took a deep breath and felt the roots of my hair grow to ice.
Open, I thought as I waved my hand. I felt the bones in my wrist crack at the motion just as the lock cracked open and the door swung open. The coolness on my head did not subside and my glasses seemed to make my vision worse.
"Okay, that's not fair." She peered in the door which was a confined space filled with cleaning supplies. A broom fell and smacked her in the face before falling onto the ground. She rubbed her forehead and whined as she kicked the broom in anger.
"Well you're having an off day, aren't you?" I took off my glasses and hung them from my collar.
"Listen here, just because you look like some badass with your white hair and tattoos who can pull some voodoo shit does not mean I still can't kick your ass." I subconsciously grabbed my hair to see some more of the ice spreading through the fibers.
"Is it getting that bad?" I whimpered and pulled it back again. She stood up and shook her leg in annoyance.
"Not at all, I'm just trying to deflect the situation off me. I'm just fucking pissed off right now," She huffed but her gaze had softened a bit. "You don't have your cards do you?" I felt like smacking myself in the face or clawing my eyes out.
"No."
"Do you have any kind of magic besides your own?" That's when my soul sunk deeper into my heart and my stomach felt like ants were crawling through the lining.
"What can you do?" Carina seemed to freeze.
"Pardon?"
"Besides picking locks and being a smartass, what kind of magic can you do? Because judging by your weak stance and hunched figure you certainly aren't combat orientated." Her eyes narrowed at my words as she shrunk inwards.
"Not much…" Her voice was barely over a whisper but they dug into me like a knife.
"Then I repeat, what can you do?" Her eyes traced the ground in dismay.
"I can summon weak demons."
"That's it?��� I screamed as my anxiety climbed. I gripped my hair and felt tears pouring out of my eyes.
"Listen, I'm sorry that I'm not like my sisters and brother okay? I'm sorry that I'm not some big time warrior, or mystical mage or terrific tamer--"
"Nice alliteration," I shot in.
"--I'm just me! A small and weak little girl who would rather be curled up with a novel than off running a mile!" Something struck a chord within me and my heart felt like a metronome in my chest. She was like me-- born into a world that saw her as weak for wanting to learn and grow, while in actuality she had a hidden potential no one knew about. I let go of a portion of my anxiety and began to walk towards the next door.
"Standing around here and sulking is not going to solve anything." Carina fell into step with me with her head down.
"You know if Michael saw you right now, he would be so turned on." She tried to lighten the mood and I cracked a smile. The door I was heading for held a glass panel for half of it and seemed like the only different door in the warehouse.
"Star-Blood…" A raspy voice bounced around us and I froze on the spot. Carina rammed into me and looked around the room.
"Did you say that?" We said simultaneously and gazed at each other.
"Nephilim!" The voice spat. My blood felt like ice had replaced it and Carina gripped my wrist. The voice had come from above us. I began to tremble as I slowly looked up. This time I was lucky and my bladder held strong at the monster that dangled above us. Pale skin that wrapped around a slender torso and shifted into black and grey round muscle. Ebony hair that drifted around a face that would have beautiful if not for the eight ruby eyes and protruding silver fangs. Her bottom half was a massive rump with a crimson hourglass painted on it with eight large spindle legs gripping onto the ceiling that was covered in cobwebs.
"Run!" Carina shrieked and ran a sprint for the door with me close behind. My legs carried me faster than I thought I could ever run. Something large crashed onto the floor and boomed towards us at an alarming rate. I heard an ear splitting scream and it took me a few seconds to realize that it was my own. Carina gripped the knob and pulled but this time it opened. We slipped inside and slammed the door closed with Carina pressed against it. From behind her through the glass I saw the the creature lunge at the door.
"Carina move!" I screamed as the glass shattered, pouring on me like sharp rain. The monster sunk it's fangs into her shoulder. Time seemed to slow as if the metronome in my heart had stalled. I heard the sickening squish of muscle and crunch of bone as blood spurted from the wound and sprayed onto my face. Time sped up again as the spider reared its head back and started to pull Carina through the shattered glass as it crudely tore at her back. She screamed and clawed at me in terror, tears of pain and terror streaming down her face.
"I don't want to die!" She shrieked and started to writhe. Blood ran down the door like a waterfall as I gripped her leg and pulled back. The monsted wrapped her arms around Carina's throat as we started to play a sick game of tug of war with my friends body, neither of us giving in. I began to sob hysterically, my lungs unable to collect air properly as I wrapped my arms around her legs as she was nearly out the window like the air being crushed from my lungs. My instincts took over; forgetting magic my hand shot out and wrapped around a jagged piece of glass sticking from the door that was still connected to the frame. It dug into my hand and cut deep into my palm but I barely seemed to notice. Using all of my strength I snapped it from the frame and with a wild scream I plunged it into one of the monsters grotesque eyes. It made a sound that reflected a scream and released Carina who was practically limp. I pulled her in and it finally snapped back that I had magic in my system. My entire head went cold and my rage flooded my system.
"Cover!" I cried and pulled Carina close. Desks from within the room flew towards the door and stacked on top of each other, blocking the mutant spider from entering. Carina and I collapsed onto the ground with her on top of me and her breath shallow. I sobbed and pulled her close and clutching her back. She would not stop bleeding.
Heal, I thought and pressed my hand on her spine. Even though the magic was pouring from my fingertips her skin did not seal.
"Heal!" I screamed aloud with my tears falling on her face as I applied pressure to her shoulder and back. Carina's breath was raspy and sparse as she shook her head with tears identical to mine pouring from her eyes.
"It won't work… it's the venom…" She gasped and some blood began to trickle from her nose. I clung to my friend with my body concaving against her limp body. In that moment of trying to stop the blood pouring from her body I felt truly helpless. More so than my first encounter with a monster or when I was first pinned under Michael's nordic blue stare.
"Michael… save us…" I wept as I tried to mend my friend. In that moment I felt the meaning of fear and it was not from the monster outside. It was from my friend bleeding in my arms; nothing could scare me more.
"So what happened with the boy?" Hannah asked the engrossed bookworm. The girl's heartstrings were twisted in her chest and she tightened her grip on her pencil.
"Exactly what I said would happen." Hannah fell silent at her sister's words.
"Well he was ugly anyways. I mean like I know his brother, and he's the ugliest person I know. He looks like a limp-dick unicorn that got separated from--"
"Okay Hannah I get it!" The girl hadn't grown more confident, she had just grown agitated and depressed. Hannah eyed the beaten up notebook her sister wrote in and her eyebrows furrowed in concern.
"Are you still writing that? You haven't taken a break, you haven't gone outside or anything. You barely have a life outside of school, work and this damn book!" She felt her eyes tear up at her sister's discreetly poisonous words. She did not mean for her words to be so harsh, but they ran so true that they cut deeper than intended.
"You're right, I don't have a life. I don't have friends who want to see me, and I don't have a boyfriend. I'm just that person that people go to if they need help with academics or relationship issues. I'm not girlfriend material. I'm just an emotional sounding board." She poured her sorrows to her sister who seemed more apathetic than sympathetic.
"Stop being a drama queen." She stood up and began making her way to the door. The girl was left shattered with silent tears pouring from her eyes. Nobody took her sorrow seriously and that hurt more than any wound her sister could of inflicted.
"I'm going to go see Kaleb, tell mom I'm going to be home late." She heard the door open as her sister took a step through and pushed the annoying tabby away.
"Stop writing other people's stories, and start living your own." Hannah called out before slamming the door closed.
"Stop referencing movies like my characters and make up your own damn lines." The girl hissed and continued her writing. Deep down she knew Hannah was right. She wanted to write her own story, to live her own life. But the weight of her emotions-- depression, anxiety and duty-- weighed her down like the world of Atlas's shoulders. A weight that she feared she would never lose.
Michael paced outside the marble building, anxiety building in his gut. He had a good idea what was going on in the room. Ever since Salayria was revealed as a Star-Blood the Judges had been at the brink of a civil war. The Saints were mostly in an outrage wanting to lock her up and interrogate her, while the Sins were hellbent on her protection. Now with her disappearing the world was in chaos. Michael watched as the usually gentle and caring demonic folk turned violent against angels. The green haired boy from earlier was standing protectively over the angel girl as three multicoloured demons closed in.
"Hey!" Michael screamed and stormed towards the group. One of the demons was the cashier at the cafe her had been to earlier.
"Stay out of this Michael, we're doing this for you and your girlfriend!" He barked as the girl began to cry.
"It's okay Angie, I'm not going to let them hurt you." The boy whispered and held her behind him. Anger boiled in Michael's chest as he edged closer to the group. One of the boys threw a punch and it cracked against the green haired man's jaw. He crumbled to the ground like a sack of potatoes and the cashier reached over and grabbed the girl. Michael's leg whirled up like a windmill and cracked against the cashier's skull as he joined the boy on the ground. The girl was screaming in fear as she knelt to the ground and cradled her boyfriends head.
"Carter… Carter wake up!" She cried and stroked his hair. The two that were left began to walk towards Michael with their fists raised.
"That is enough!" A voice boomed across the courtyard. The shadows under the boy's feet coiled and wrapped around their legs immobilizing them completely. Michael's head craned around to see Lyon downed in a flowing baby pink dress and floppy sunhat. She edged closer in her brown felt stilettos, her expression brooding and dark.
"How dare you attack an innocent girl!" She barked as the shadows clamped tighter around their legs. Michael's hands itched to started throwing punches but he held himself back. Instead he knelt next to Carter and checked his bleeding jaw. It was beginning to swell and darken, but the boy was starting to open his eyes.
"Hey pal, you okay?" Michael asked as he helped the boy to his feet. Carter swayed and held onto the shivering girl for support. Michael peered over to Lyon and nodded in appreciation.
"Now get going before I sic the archangel on you." Lyon let them go as they began to scramble away.
"Meihui has been teaching you some interesting techniques." Michael grinned and patted Lyon's shoulder. Angie cowered behind Carter and stared at Lyon.
"Sweetie I'm not going to hurt you. Now take Carter north towards the Nephilim part of town. You'll be safe there." The two began to limp to the north.
"Thank you!" The girl called out, her eyes shining a little bit brighter.
"The world is going to shit Lyon." Michael spat as soon as they were out of reach.
"It's been like this since this morning ever since she went missing. I've seen couples break up, demons attack angels and nephilim be attacked by angels. There's talk that Saint Bell wants to raise the wall again." Michael's arms prickled in fear. The city of Darklight was circular, with gates that lead outside the walls and into the wild. Crystal Forest was inside the demonic part of town, just on the brink of the crystal gate. The wall cut right through the middle which meant that the only way to access the opposite side was to venture out into Purgatory-- the land outside of Darklight. Monsters were repelled by the walls made of nephilite, a stone commonly found in the Inner Circle. Like ether light it was infused with magic, only this kind was a mix of demonic and angelic essence. That meant one of three situations if it was raised-- Michael would be on one side and Salayria the other, they would be on the demon side and be cut off from his family, or she would be on the angel side and be targeted by aggressive angel Guardians. Those scenarios all revolved around the premise that Salayria would be saved. Lyon pressed her hand against Michael's arm to soothe him.
"You are always welcome here Michael. Everyone here welcomes you," She offered him a weak smile.
"And the Nephilim?" He asked automatically, fearing the worst for Carina.
"The Nephilim part was built on the demon side of town incase something like this happen. There may be some animosity to them, but we'll diffuse it. Everyone will be safe-- I promise." Her words did soothe Michael a little bit, but his mind was still focused on Salayria's safety. The door to the cathedral swung open violently as the bickering judges came out. Eclair spotted her son and Lyon and frowned, switching sides over to the Sins who welcomed her with a hand on her shoulder. Saint Bell had a huge grin pasted on his face, his beady eyes smoldering in glee. Michael's blood heated in rage and Lyon and him made their way over their parents. Meihui beckoned her daughter over while Bell intercepted Michael.
"Good to see you my boy! How is my son-in-law doing? Did you hear the good news?" Michael was disgusted that this man's hands were resting on his shoulders in a friendly manner. He couldn't react violently so he shook him off.
"Fuck your news Colin, and I'm not your son-in-law." He jabbed his shoulder into Saint Bell's, crumpling his pristine suit as he made his way over to Eclair.
"I'm sorry Michael, we tried!" Eclair's eyes began to tear up as she placed her hands on her son's face. He felt his own tears brimming in his eyes as he bowed his head.
"Please don't tell me--"
"It���s a civil war." Lark spat and glared daggers at the six Saints with smug smirks painted on their faces.
"I got to find her. I've got to find her." Michael began chanted as he embraced his mother in his sadness. The Sins and Lyon reached out and placed a hand on Michael each as reassurance.
"We're going to help you sweetie." Meihui promised and clutched his shoulder.
"We're going to find my daughter-in-law." Eclair hugged her son and stroked his hair.
"I'll start researching. Lyon, I'll need your expertise." Lark motioned the girl to follow as they stormed away towards the Medicamentum District. The other five-- excluding Meihui-- started their way towards the Daemonium and Nox Districts of town.
"What are we going to do?" Michael sobbed as he grasped his mother, looking teary-eyed at Meihui.
"I have a hunch that someone in the Incantatio section can help us. We'll start our search there." Meihui laced her fingers through Michael's and gave him a nod of encouragement. Michael's hope lifted but his heart sank as they weaved their way through the town. He was never the praying type, but today he prayed. He prayed that he would find Salayria alive and well. Clutching the silver whistle around his throat he brought it to his lips and blew. If he was going to find her, he was going to need help.