My phone rang and I lazily dragged my hand to pick it up from the table. Economics bored me anyway, and I couldn't even bear not seeing Beca today at school.
"Aus...Austin, help...call the others! Co-come here! She's going crazy!" I distanced the phone from me due to how loudly Organa shrieked. I slowly bought it closer, only to hear a commotion banging in the background. My muscles tensed; I stood up, freaked out when I heard the last screech before the call cut off. Tensity fluttered in my stomach and a sort of fear gripped me.
I looked up at the professor who glared at me for the interruption.
"I...I need to go to the washroom," I stuttered, and hurried out without hearing his reply.
I scanned the corridor for the classes I reckoned to be of the others.
Without any haste, I pushed open the door for Joey's class and shook my head right as the gesture. The teacher uttered something I decided to ignore and Joey being Joey, came running out.
"Beca's up again. And-"
"I know. Organa called. Was just coming, so basically you didn't have to show up as the hero." She rolled her eyes and took the lead to the front door, and me following her.
"What about the others?"
"She probably informed the others, so nothing to get tensed on." She said casually, far calmer than in what I was.
"And what if not?"
"Lord you Ass-tin! They'll come if they are so-called 'destined' to be. And if not, we do have our own phones."
-
Fear clawed up in my throat, I gulped and shoved the door into Organa's cottage, jaw dropping the moment my eyes fell on the chaos. The couch's fabric was ripped off, leaving massive holes, as well as the curtains. Tables and chairs were toppled over each other while the decoration appliances were smashed to smithereens.
"Organa...she's in super danger," I muttered under my breath and rushed into the other hall, Joey following me.
As I expected but far worse, Beca was in her dark shadow form again while Organa was helplessly lying on the floor, dragging her body to reach out to a stick- that was her staff with which she walked on.
Beca turned her head to face us, and once again that spine-filling appearance of her made me wince.
"OH look who's here!" She tilted her head creepily, and an unearthly smile etched across her face, "Now audience or clowns? Which position?"
"None girl."
"Well, that means there has to be 'none' Joey, you know?"
Joey only rolled her eyes in response and she grimaced at us before giving a sarcastic smile, "Oh lovelies. The others are on their way, I suppose? Well, till then I'll give you my demands, and you two will fulfil it ASAP. And you know the or-else's and otherwise's, whatevs."
"What do you want, you ugly shrek's belly? Cause of all, I know you're not Beca."
She gritted her teeth, totally offended, yet she refused to attack us. Not like we were ready either. But it has been a habit to act all Herculean in front of enemies since I can remember.
She smiled yet again, bitting her nails, "Well. Give me your weapons right now."
Joey scoffed, "As if we will."
"Except you want it the hard way."
"Bad cops aren't that bad." Joey retorted, "I mean like dude. We're not exactly babies, you know?"
"And we will fight you if we have to- I mean that's what exactly we have to do but...whatever. We are not giving you our weapons." A new voice appeared from behind, and I looked back to see the other three, forwarding till they reached a sequenced line beside each other.
I smiled genuinely. It felt good to have the team back. Team- yeah, a thing that only described football players for me. Until then.
I took out my sword and maximized it to its original massive size, drawing it in front of me as an indication to confirm that I was far away from handing it over.
The other did the same with their weapons, except Adeline, but she did have a menacing intrigue within her.
We stood next to each other with more or less confidence, waiting for her to launch her first attack. She only grinned evilly, before slowly arising in the air; her arms spreading out in a manner of enchantments. The shadows darkened its appearance and she looked at the unbroken vases aside, which then began floating mid-air, speedily approaching us, particularly me. I held my sword in front for defense, which then broke the vase into two. I dropped my chin in a haughty bewilderment.
Out of the blue, scads of other home appliances were thrown at us. During the first blows, I wanted to concentrate on my defense and letting a small glance set at the other, I realized we actually had to let our muscles settle into the rhythm of the defense play until Beca's next game.
Joey's nunchucks were able to move around like a persistent circle to block the objects, while Travis- quite the way in the last lane - shot arrows towards any object that were blown in his direction. Clay surprisingly used his hammer in the continuous big-to-small and small-to-big formation like the way Adeline showed her. As for Adeline, she either ducked or moved sideways to ignore the throw and sometimes necessarily Clay blocked those for her.
It got tiring for around 5 minutes and Beca, fuming with anger, used her shadows to grab Addy's neck, choking her to her last breath. I froze, yet the panic seizing my brain.
With some villainous dialogues, she brought her to the balcony.
"Now let's see. Your weapon is shielding, right? Now gimme the armour as much as your alive.
Addy kicked her legs up in the air, rocking back and forth but the hand on her neck slowed her vigour. I scanned the room- like Beca would do. I won't deny- she was a great leader. And her ways of thinking were far advanced.
What would Beca possibly do in that situation?- I thought, the situation leaving in a dither, frozen with cold feet.
She might have looked around the abilities of our weapons and - that's it! I chuckled lightly at my idea and immediately shared it with the others, basically Clay. He drawed back his mini hammer and moving it forward, he racheted up the hammer's size, further throwing it with all his force in Adeline's direction. She got the hint immediately and though struggled to get hold of the hammer, she caught it tight. Before things could go haywire, she banged the hammer to Beca's side profiled face, knocking her down on the ground.
She managed to jump right with the hammer, totally alright in her hold. It confused me as to why Clay being a jock couldn't hold the hammer while a skinny gymnast could do that. But however, I was more than relieved to not get to witness an unfortunate death. I breathed out, releasing the haze of terror inside me.
She came to our side, but Clay possessively snatched the hammer from her but he fall on his face holding the weight.
I looked over at Beca who was yet battling her weakness to get up.
"What's her weakness, Adeline?" I asked, most directly.
"How would I know? Besides, she's much stronger and advanced, you know?"
"Exactly, I'm her best friend. I would know!" Clay protested and I sighed, "Just tell me."
"Motion sickness!" Both of her so-called friends yelled in unison, shooting daggers at each others, and hm, the word motion made me wonder about someone related to that. I looked at the others who were waiting for my statement, just when an idea snapped out at the sight of Joey. Joey, of course.
She nodded with an impish grin after I dished out my idea.
"But the skating board?" She cocked an eyebrow. With that, my eyes fell on my sword which was peculiarly wide enough for the slides and stunts.
"And the bait?"
-
She looked at us and once again but worse darkened her aspects. And looked more angrier. Too much angrier.
Travis launched his first strike on Beca from a corner but Beca caught it a jiffy. She focused on Travis and the shadows creeped out. Before Travis made a run, he shot three arrows at the bottles of wine, causing all the fluid spread on the floor. He gave a thumbs-up before the run, turning behind once a while, aimlessly at her.
The shadows on the wall grabbed his shoulders, as for a halt. He fought for his will but Beca quickly floated towards him. She took off his glasses and broke it into pieces, causing his vision turn blur.
I nodded twice at Joey before she set off on the slippery floor, rolling sideways for the turn in Beca's direction. She circled Beca and Travis, making Beca confused at who to attack. One of her shadow strips approached Joey but she kept on riding.
"It's ride or die, babes!" She yelled enthusiastically, grabbing Beca's hand successfully. She pulled her along from the air, speeding up slowly. Gratitude to her perfect skills, her speed was too fast to catch up and I chuckled at our success. Well half of it.
Beca's face balanced while I was unable to get a distinct look for the surprising speed. At a limited point, she stopped, her legs sliding to the end of my sword, causing it to go up in her grip. The sword was glided to me and Beca fell on her knees, panting, trying get hold of her breath.
She brought out her nunchucks and extended the string, wrapping it around tight Beca. For the while, she was weakened. I took out a napkin and tied it around her mouth. It felt nauseous to do that, but I resisted the urge to call her the actual Beca.
She raised her head, gritting and struggling to get out. Her shadows darkened again and it clasped my legs, making me topple down. Before things could get violent, I called out to Addy.
She, yet unknown of what to do, seized Clay's hammer and threw it all up the staircase. It hit the small pillars of the upper floor, which sooner or later, crumpled down the floor, aiming on top of Beca. She removed her shadows' grip from me and used it to act as a barrier between the hard rock pieces and herself.
While she was busy getting her shadows to remove those blocks, I moved the handkerchief from her mouth and after she got most of the bigger blocks out on the floor, I tied it around her eyes. Well, that should help it.
As her sight got blocked, her shadows did the same, and with no protection, some of the smaller blocks fell on her head. I winced, filled with guilt.
Her body teetered until it fell on the ground. I exhaled in relief.
"Maybe we could have done it earlier? Like you know, make it fall and..." Joey suggested but I just stared at her fallen body. The atmosphere eased up a bit with the shadows vanishing and Beca returning to her humane form.
As we gathered in a circle, I felt a swift breeze whooshing past me and my eyes fell on the direction where it was headed to. Right behind Clay, a vague body appeared, slowly enhancing the view into what I reckoned to be, Casper Allen. Lord, that guy creeped me out.
I gasped at his sudden appearance and saw him proceeding towards us with a hardened expression. He tried to tone down the look after all of us shot him curious glances, except me who had another side of hidden anxiety.
He shot me a look of absolute loathing before trailing off with words, "Look. I- it's cool that you guys knocked her off, which had been tough for me...since. Never mind. I just want to remind you guys that she is only defeated. Not finished."
"What do you mean? We can't kill her!" Clay retorted.
"Of course not. We just need to...need to bring out the positivity, the generosity inside her, that is yet enwrapped with pure evil. Her soul, which is cornered with dark magic."
"Ho-how do we that?" I asked, gathering the courage to face my hater.
"By love. We don't have any other option. And I know most of you don't know her, and unfortunately don't even like such a gem like her. But at least you are aware of how generous, how innocent the girl is. So all you have to do is remind her. I don't know which ones of you are flattering masters, but please remind her of who she is."
"But wait. You are- to say- the closest to her. So why don't you go do that manipulative thingy?"
"If I could, you all wouldn't have to face all this." he lowered his gaze, as if ashamed, "She...she won't let me talk to her."
I had to scoff, "Like what the hell do you mean? She told you, 'hey my best friend, don't talk to me,' and you obeyed her. Or-or that she put earbuds in her ear so she couldn't hear you? Oh lord Casper, you are a spirit! Aren't you supposed to have abilities much more powerful than hers?"
"Oh, I wish, Austin! You don't know what she...she did to me! It's unexplainable! I don't know where she got all that crap from, but she did go through my head and fucked it up! All I know is that I can't talk to her, and you being the 5 wildfires are ought to!" he breathed out after the freak-out show and massaged his temples.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to. It's just after I controlled her emotions for a bit in the bathroom, the next time the black magic took over, she...she did something to my head even before I could get a damn hint." he paused, looking up to face us all, "But I have a chance to try to talk to her, or do some changes that might convince her to fight the magic when Organa chants the necessary enchantments for the black magic to wear off. Just make sure of 3 things from now onwards- first- You are the always-wanted backup. Second- always keep Organa with you, as in wherever you go with Reccy. Third- you only have 30 minutes to get her home and figure out stuff."