In the light, the subway was horrifying. Worse than on the streets, blood stuck to the walls and the floor and there were even bits and pieces of human bodies. I fought against the bile in my stomach and Ryan actually wretched, somehow keeping his food down. While Leo looked around in what looked like boredom. When this was over, I would have to help him understand the wrongness of the whole battle.
I took a step and heard the squishing of my shoes landing in a puddle of red that instantly began to freeze under my foot. A shiver crept through me and I grimaced at the fact that this once belonged inside of a person. I forced myself to look away and walked on. At first I didn't hear anything, but then Ryan and Leo began to follow me and it was reassuring to know that I wasn't alone in this. The light moved with us, lighting the subway train with its doors still open. I walked past it, the small opening to the tracks. It was useless to look in a train that would probably just have more corpses. We had to focus on priorities. I jumped down and kept moving. Leo was at my side in an instant, but Ryan took a moment. He had been an art kid, so physical activity didn't come naturally to him. But once he was on the tracks, he jogged to catch up to us. The walls were covered in what looked like claw marks. Like what you would see after a cat has taken its position in a living room. The claws matched the sound of a loud rumbling. My first thought was that it was another blob thing, which I really hoped it wasn't.
"Anyone else hear a cat?" Ryan whispered.
"That's a cat?" Leo responded quietly.
It made sense that it would sound like a cat. The claw marks and the sound seemed to fit together. Then, another couple yards passed and there it was. A cat the size of a semi-truck was laying on the tracks. Solid black that could easily be mistaken for actual fr. It laid curled up and I quickly noticed that something was off. Laying against its side were 2 humanoid figures. One was covered in white fur and the other in what looked like black scales. Each of the pair had wings that more than likely just made them more dangerous.
"This is bad..." Leo hesitated.
'How do we handle 2 of them with the cat?" Ryan hissed.
"I hope you guys are ready to fight." I pulled the knife out of its sheath.
The 2 figures stirred from their positions, looking half-asleep and seeming confused. Then they opened their eyes fully. They each had blue eyes that reminded me of an innocent animal.
'Sister...Brothers...join us' I heard their voices.
I took an unintentional step back, then tensed myself, trying to will myself not to let fear get to me.
I resolved myself and pressed the knife into my hand. The 2 figures didn't seem to understand what I was doing. The cut was deep and the crystal that formed was at least a foot long. The figures seemed to catch on and the cat stirred from the movement. They had taken the position of defense and the cat followed their lead. Two tails swayed behind the cat, long and thick black, swaying from side to side.
I broke the crystal off of my hand and broke it into 2 pieces.
"Ryan, Leo" I looked between them, "I'll handle the cat. I need you to get the points into their skin" I gestured to the 2 now flying humans.
"Seriously?" Ryan looked scared.
I smiled at him "I know you can do this."
I seemed to have made an impact on him, because he locked his back and nodded. Taking the small spear that I was offering. Leo had already taken his crystal and was already in battle position. The cats ears fell back and it hissed louder than any car horn.
I ran at the cat, past the 2 forms that were intercepted from flying at me, knife firmly in hand. I honestly didn't know what I could do. It wasn't like me or the others. We had real form long before this happened. Mother had created the cat and all of the other creatures. At least with the blob, I knew I could freeze it.
Cats were completely different, and one of the only animals I couldn't handle. I loved cats, but I'd never had one before and all that I had seen kept a distance from me. It was as if they were seeing into my soul and seeing who I truly was.
The cat raised its front paws up and I barely dodged the claws falling toward me. I ran close and switched to its side, my blade entering into its left side, leaving an opening for black ooze to come out of. It honestly could have been blood if it hadn't quickly evaporated into the air.
The cat lout a loud growl and its tails swung at me. I ducked the first one, but got hit by the second one. I landed back on the side of the tracks and the cat was looking at me with glowing red eyes. It let out another hiss and it pounced at him. I shot to the right to avoid its claws, but I wasn't fast enough. It scratched my leg, tearing into my jeans and leaving a wound that would probably scar. The ice from the wound caught in the cats paw and it moved it up, dragging me with it. It shook its paw for a moment before the ice finally broke off, and I fell. The backpack with the meat landed first, to my side, and I prayed that the box was okay. I looked past the cat, to where Leo and Ryan were trying to get the ice into the 2 altered kids. The black scaled one attacked Ryan, who threw balls of light in an attempt to distract it. Leo and his shadow dodged razor sharp feathers that the white one was launching.
I dodged another swipe of the felines claws, wincing as I landed hard on my injured leg. The cat hissed and leaped at me, and I forced myself to move through the pain. A scream echoed down the subway tracks, making the cat distracted. I looked past the cat, where Ryan stood over the black scaled person, with the small crystal dipping into the person's skin. The cat turned completely to face Ryan, hissing In pure anger. I knew what it was thinking and I knew I had to do something.
I formed a ball of ice in my palm and I threw it with the full force of my strength. The ball landed on its back left leg and that cat almost whimpered. It looked back at me, turning with a pained expression. I formed another ball and threw it, hitting just below its throat.
Another scream roared loudly in the emptiness. The white figure was on the ground with Leo standing over the limp body that was slowly turning from white fur to light skin. Ryan was helping the figure that was now clearly male, get to his feet, I threw 2 more balls at the cat, each freezing over the shadow. The cat hissed and ran further down the subway, realizing that it was a losing fight.
I stood on shaky legs, taking one step at a time, working each muscle as they screamed for me to just lay down until the wound healed. Leo was helping a girl to her feet.
The two that had just been released from Mother's control were obviously siblings. Each had blond hair, the girls reaching to the middle of her back, and her brothers was medium length, in a mess.. They shared the same blue eyes, the boys only slightly darker than his sisters. The girl wore a long-sleeve, light blue blouse, black dress pants, and short healed, black shoes. Her brother wore loose black jeans, a black short-sleeve shirt over a blue long-sleeve shirt. The siblings were polar opposites.
"What's going on? Where am I?" The girl asked in a panicked voice.
I moved to the girls side and held out my hand, knowing that she needed someone to support her. Ryan helped the boy too his feet and the boy looked around blankly.
"Do you guys know where we are?" He asked, without the slightest anxiety.
"This is the subway" I answered. "There' a lot going on and you both need to hear us out, before anything else."
I looked at Leo, who was now leaning against the wall, next to his shadow, on the edge of the lit area. Ryan watched me, clearly waiting for me to say something.
"My name is Kim, this is Ryan" I gestured to him "And that's Leo. We're like you."
"You were at the hospital" the boy spoke to Ryan.
Ryan nodded, not making a sound. He really wasn't good with people he didn't know.
"Something happened, and it's not going to be easy for you both to accept. You've heard her voice, haven't you?" I asked.
The girl looked from her brother, then to me "you hear her too?"
I smiled softly "we all do. She thinks of us as her children, and I hate to admit it, but we can only refer to her as 'Mother' because anything else would be too hard to explain. She created some creatures, which infected us. That's why we are what we are now.'
"Can it be cured?" The girl asked, looking scared.
"I am the cure, only, it just keeps Mother from controlling us.
"She was controlling us? Is that how we got down here?" The boy asked, still showing no emotion.
"Yes" I answered "she controlled both of you, Ryan and Leo and an entire army of these dark creatures. They don't like the light, which is why this was the first place we searched.
"What does she want?" The girl asked tensely.
I hesitated for a second, then said "Revenge. She wants revenge on all humans. For something they did to her."
It almost liked like the siblings paled, though I couldn't be sure under the light that Ryan kept glowing.
The girl looked around and saw the scratch marks on the wall, and the blood ingrained in each slice.
"NO!" She screamed, her body trembling as she stepped away from the walls.
"It's okay. You are safe now" I tried assuring her.
"It's not okay! She used us to hurt people!"
"It wasn't you who did it. You were in no control, she only used your other forms, not your humanity."
"We killed people, didn't we?" The boy asked, finally showing a real expression.
"No, Justin, don't say stuff like that" the girl begged.
"We did though, we can't deny it" he stated.
"People were hurt, many have died, but it wasn't you who did it. It was Mother." I stated "And that's why we're going to fight back."
That got both of their attention.
"You want to fight back? How?" Justin asked curiously.
"We need to build up our numbers a bit, but we are going to find her and we'll kill her."
The girl looked at me with a cross of anxiety and interest.
"Can we do that? I mean, is it even possible to kill her?"
"I don't have the evidence I would normally require, but her shadow creatures are obviously vulnerable to physical attacks, which makes me thing that she should be as well.
"Then we get our revenge" Justin nodded his head.
"Yep" Leo stabbed back into the light, his shadow not moving from the wall. "We'll kill her and end this carnage."
A scream roared in my head and I watched the others cringe and fall to their knees.
'Bring her to me!!' Mother's voice roared.
Silence fell into the tracks, and I knew that we had to move.
"We need to go. She'll have her army here any moment."
I turned to run, but a creatures stepped into the light in my path. I turned quickly, only to run into another creature, the same as before. It was like a canine, only it didn't have any eyes, just a large squared mouth, with a large fang at each corner. They growled like dogs, and the girl squeaked and fell back on her backside.
"Mariah!" Justin called and ran to her side.
"What do we do?" Leo was at my side.
"Get them out of here. It's me she wants right now" I instructed stiffly.
"No way. I'm not leaving you."
"Just do it, find a safe place to make a plan. I know you can do it." I smiled
He hesitated, then nodded. He ran to Justin and Mariah and pulled her to her feet with more force than was probably necessary. Ryan ran to him, and I tossed him my backpack. He looked at me anxiously, then nodded in an attempt to reassure me, and probably himself.
A ball of light filled the room with blinding light and the creatures flinched away from the light. The a ball of shadow engulfed the four of them, and the light went out. I knew that the 5 of us could probably handle them, but Justin and Mariah needed the time to accept the situation, and if I had run away with them, they would only be targeted. They needed to figure out a way to protect themselves until I could return to our journey. I climbed into the platform and the canine creatures followed behind me. The creatures were large and bulky, but moved with a certain level of grace. Up the stairs I could see the blurred light from the clouds that were releasing white fluff of snow. The blood had stained the ground and was soaking into the snow as it landed, but it no longer fazed me. As I reached the top of the stairs, something changed. The sky was no longer visible, blocked by the white ceiling of the hallway to my room.