Chapter 5
Apocalypse
People crowded the doors and my parents were running towards me from across the street.
My stomach tightened in a painful knot and I doubled over with an anguished cry. I felt the cold growing within me, the ice rising and spreading over my body. Tears froze, then fell with a clinking sound. I tried calling out for help, but no sound came out.
Something stabbed into my arm and, instantly, the spreading cold receded back to my arms. By stomach turned and I dry heaved. I felt my mom pull my hair back, but nothing came up.
I was about to thank her, but things got worse. The earth began to shake and cracks began spreading over the salted roads. I heard the explosions from miles away, then the road in front of me exploded boulders into the air. People began to panic, trying to get to safety. I watched as a woman was crushed by a giant rock, and another boulder went through the right half of the theater marquee, killing an entire group.
What I saw next, told me that those who were dead were better off.
Black, misty creatures burst out of the hole in the road, solidifying in the chilled air. They were horrifying, several different creatures, with claws and sharp drooling fangs.
"Mom...?" I looked to her instinctively, though I knew she didn't have any answers.
"It's okay" she tried to soothe me.
"How fascinating" my dad commented, behind my mom.
Then something wrapped around his angle and made him fall into the snow.
"Dad!!!" I gasped.
I reached out to grab him, but I wasn't fast enough. Whatever held him, dragged him through the slush and snow, screaming.
"Get inside!" my mom ordered.
I couldn't take my eyes off of my dad, watching, frozen, as he was pulled into the hole.
'Yes! Yes! My children! Feast!' I heard the woman's voice in my head.
I felt someone grab my shoulders and panic took hold. I screamed and I struggled.
"Kim, Kim, it's me" I heard Jake say in my ear, I still fought.
I pulled free, seeing my mom running into the street, to protect a woman being attacked by a creature with the top half of a woman and the bottom half of a snake. Like the Naga from Hindu mythology. I ran after her, but someone ran into me, knocking me to the ground as they ran from what looked like a panther, standing on its 2 back legs, with clawed fingers instead of front paws. The creature looked at me with blood red eyes and jaw dripping from its last victim.
It watched me, not moving, as if in a confusion.
Somebody wrapped their arms around my waist and pulled me to my feet. I didn't fight, letting myself be pulled toward the theater. The panther creature roared and launched at us.
It all happened n a flash. One second I was being held, then I was pushed to the left of the creatures path. I looked back just in time to see the thing bite into Jake's shoulder.
"NO!" I screamed out.
I looked around me. There was no-one left alive on the streets. Screams of terror had been replaced with chewing and crunching sounds.
'Where is my ice angel?' the woman's voice called in my head.
Several creatures left their victims and circled around me. I was surrounded and the creatures seemed to be having trouble making of their minds on what to do.
Then they split to make a path. At first I thought they were letting me go. And then I saw her. A woman made completely of black shadow and smoke, walking into the gathering. Her long hair and wispy dress flowing in the blood soaked wind, releasing flecks of shadow, that quickly faded.
"My angel" her voice sounded soft and comforting, no longer in my head "Why do you not feast?"
I looked at the creatures with blood dripping from their fanged mouths. I knew immediately what she meant by 'feast'.
"Y-you want me to eat? My own kind?" I asked in horror.
"Oh, dear, you aren't one of them. You're my child of ice."
"You're not my mom!" I spat "my mom ran out to save others and your creatures probably killed her."
Her monsters grunted and pawed at the ground anxiously.
"Relax, my pets, our angel is just being rebellious" she soothed.
She looked at me with her shadowed eyes, with only the vague lines to show her face. I couldn't be sure of her traits.
She looked to be as tall as me, but thinner, and her flowing dressed covered slight curves, the dark form of long hair blew in the wind, reaching just past her shoulders. She looked behind her and I thought she smiled.
"My beautiful angel. He loves you, you know" she said.
I was confused by her comment, until I saw another shadow form appear behind her. There was no mistaking that it was Leo, but it looked like his shadow had claimed control over his body.
"L-Leo?" I spoke quietly, than anger took hold "What did you do to him?" I demanded.
"I simply gave each of my children the power to get rid of oppressors. Our enemies have targeted us for too long. It's time for us to fight back." She watched as shadow Leo approached me. "My shadow warrior truly loves you. You should join us and be with him."
Shadow Leo reached down and grabbed the neck of my shirt and pulled me to my feet.
"Tell him, Angel. Tell him how you feel" she pressed.
"I won't like to make either you or him happy" I stated, knowing that I was honestly not in love with Leo.
My crush on Leo had been on his bad boy persona. He'd shown his true personality, and it simply wasn't one I felt a connection with.
"I see" the woman looked at me quizzically.
The fabric stretched as Leo pulled me against him. His shadow form produced a level of cold that I actually shivered. He forced his lips onto mine, and I felt his chill entering into me. The darkness fogged my mind and my self-control began to fade.
Then it stopped. The shadow Leo jerked back, dropping me back into the snow.
"What?! What's happening?!" The woman hissed.
I stared in numb amazement, as the darkness flowed down Leo's body, leaving behind his now ghostly pale skin. His hair hung from what I hoped was sweat and the fires caused by the lights of the marquee exploding, reflected in black irises. He fell to his knees, his shadow now standing behind him.
"What have you done?!" Nails dug into my arms.
I was pulled away from Leo by mother's too sharp nails, as her dark fingers wrapped around my throat.
"Tell me" she lifted me with unnatural strength "who has tainted your blood/"
I panicked, feeling her energy surrounding and filling my mind.
I fell to the ground, Mothers' fingers suddenly gone. The black mist in my mind clearing in to for me to see Mother fallen bag against her 'pets', and Leo between me and her.
"Leo?" my voice squeaked, rough from my screaming and the grip she'd had on my throat.
Leo looked over his shoulder and smiled excitedly.
"Hey, um, thanks for the kiss and all, but you'll have to fill in the missing pieces for me."
The creatures groaned in the defense of their parent, or whatever she was.
'Relax, my dears' her voice was back in my head 'your siblings are just being rebellious. They'll be with us soon enough.' She looked from them to me, then spoke aloud "Soon we'll all be together."
Her body dissolved into a mist, before disappearing completely. The monsters looked around in confusion, then separated, going in every direction possible.
Leo sighed and sat down next to me in the snow.
"So that was Mother..."
"W need to call her something else" I stated defiantly "Calling her 'Mother' implies that we accept her as a parent."
"What do you want to call her?" Leo asked, eyeing me cautiously.
"How about mega-bitch?"
Leo burst into a short laugh, then rested left and on my right. Despite his confusion, he clearly remembered hissing me, while lacking the reason, I couldn't let him know the details yet. I couldn't risk him running off just to return to being Mothers' puppet again.
"We should head back to my place" I thought aloud, then added "I think my parents found an answer to fighting mothers' powers over us.
"They made a cure?" Leo asked with clear anxiety.
I held up my hand, looking at my frozen fingers.
"No. I think this is permanent, but whatever my mom injected me with kept Mother from turning me into a man-eating snow-angel.
"I thought you didn't want to call her 'Mother'?" Leo teased, relaxing as if the world hadn't just become a giant buffet for shadow monsters.
I sighed "It'll just be easier for when we find the others. We have to figure out how I brought back your humanity, and how I can save the others."
"How did you save me?" He asked, filling me with dread.
If I told him my theory, that his kissing me had actually cured me, and that it hadn't actually been consensual...It could create a dangerous rift in our comradery.
"I'm not sure yet, but it's a good guess that my parents will have a theory written down somewhere."
"Why don't you just--" he seemed to be looking around for the first time. He looked at the carnage in horror.
Cars were going off under rocks from the earth, alarms and horns echoed across the city. Fires from broken power-lines and broken lights. Blood soaked snow and the remains of countless bodies covered the streets.
"Oh..." Leo turned from horror to guilt.
His hand left mine and felt his hair, pulling it away with a red palm.
"You didn't do anything" I stated defiantly. "Your shadow took possession of your body and that's all there is to it.
"But-"
"No 'buts'" I warned "You re not a monster!"
I stood up, almost wishing I hadn't just earned the look of admiration that he was giving me.
"You're completely amazing" he stood up, never taking his eyes off of me.
"I'm just doing what I have to, to survive."
I started walking, stopping when he grabbed my hand. I looked back at him, sanding with him to my right, rather than turning completely.
"When this is all over, remind me to ask you out. I want us to have proper first kiss, first day, first everything."
"Survive first. Then think of dating" I spoke softly, careful of the words I used.