A creature in the form of a woman, black and magnificent, levitated before us. Her skin was as black as the night's sky and tattooed with bright stars. She vocalized a melody sweeter than sugar itself. Her arms that were handless and her legs were without feet. She elevated above our heads, seven feet tall, her aura infesting everywhere. Our eyes squeezed out fright and amazement.
"What the fuck is that?" General Singh blurted out.
"Is that supposed to be the Serakib?" Captain James faced squeezed out confusion as he looked each of us in the face to confirm his thoughts.
"That's not what the demi-guard described," I replied, my stance as distraught as my eyes.
"We should get out of here," Aubrey said, looking at the Captain.
Captain James nodded, about to take Willow and make a run for it. But she resisted, they all did. Their trance had deepened. Each one of the women present saw the creature differently. While we saw an immense godlike monster, what they saw was the spirit of their dead loved ones.
"Peter?" Mom asked, looking up. She walked slowly towards the creature, her gait hesitant and her inquiring eyes hopeful. "It is you!"
"Dad," Willow gasped. "You're alive," she laughed.
"What the hell is this?" Captain James angrily asked. He had a vivid understanding of what it was…. the songs of sirens. Like the stories of old where sea men were put in a trance by the sweet singing of sirens, the women had been placed in an identical condition. "Stop this. Let them go!" He yelled to the creature.
But his screams seemed unheard. The creature did not flinch. The harmony continued. Her aura gained motion, becoming like ghosts circling around and guiding the hypnotized towards the edge of the palm.
"Hold them back!" Singh exclaimed,"don't let them reach the edge!"
Eddie immediately grabbed Isoken's arm. The more we tried to pull them away, the harder they resisted. A violent wind sprung up abruptly, doing its best to separate us from them. I pulled back mom, assisted by Aubrey. Singh and James used all their strength to keep Willow from getting to the edge.
The wind was relentless. Eddie and Isoken were pushed by it to the edge. Isoken was over the edge, Eddie was the only thing keeping her from falling into the abyss.
"Hold on!" Aubrey yelled, doing his best to pull mom and I away from the edge. I don't know how but he kept me steady while I held on to her.
Then like a rude surprise, I saw on my left, James and Willow dashing down into the abyss like a pair of rocks thrown into a well. I gasped. I looked to Eddie and saw that he was half way over.
"Eddie!" I screamed. I lost focus, letting go of Mom for a split second but I caught her by her wrist. We were almost over the edge ourselves now, it seemed I wasn't the only one shocked by the loss of Willow and James. Aubrey had me by the legs. At this point, he too was close to the edge.
Then, suddenly, the wind stopped. And so did the noise. The end of a storm. The trance was lifted and the ladies quickly gained consciousness. Aubrey and I exhaled in relief as we pulled mom away from the edge. But Isoken's scream left us in despair once more.
"Don't let go!" She exclaimed, looking at Eddie with frightened eyes.
"Wasn't planning on it!" Eddie replied, trying to pull her up.
He was struggling. My sister's hand was slowly slipping out of his, and we could see that he was going down too.
"Guys help!"
His stern plea echoed through the deafening silence left by the wind. We immediately ran over, grabbing hold of his legs. Singh was still out of it by the shock of what happened to James and Willow.
"You're okay," Eddie said to Isoken, staring at her eyes, "Osayi will pull us up."
She looked on at him in silence, giving him a short smile as her eyes slowly poured out tears. We did our best to pull them up but for some ungodly reason, pulling Eddie was more difficult than pulling a freaking boulder. Isoken was almost out of Eddie's hands, all he could feel were her fingers barely clipped onto his.
"Hey Eddie" she said softly.
Eddie looked at her, his tears dropping on her face as he tried to pull her fingers and draw her closer. She gave a short smile, her lips quivered as the tears in her eyes slowly stopped.
"You've gotta hold on Isoken!" His voice whimpered. "They…they're gonna pull us up. Just hang on!"
"I don't think I can," she sobbed.
"What's taking so long?!" He screamed trying to look up.
"We're doing our best here!" Aubrey exclaimed in reply.
Singh who had finally joined us grunted.
"It's like trying to lift an anchor," he said.
"Hold on Eddie!" Mom cried.
"Eddie…" Isoken said once more, her calm exhale of his name sounded louder than the voices of those trying to lift him up, he instantly looked at her swollen eyes. "Yours was the best kiss ever," she smiled.
Her fingers were out of his. She was falling, He didn't even have time to respond, she was out of his reach before he could grab a hold of her once more.
"Isoken!" He screamed, trying to push himself down to catch her.
But as soon as she disappeared into the darkness, he was pulled up swiftly. It was like he had become as light as a feather, as if our strength returned to us the moment Isoken was taken out of the equation. We immediately realised what had happened, their body mass had increased exponentially while we tried to pull both of them up. Isoken was never meant to be pulled up with Eddie. This was the creature's doing.
Damn that freaking demi-guard! He didn't tell us this was how it was going to be. Damn it, damn it all! How did we even get to this point? Angry and flared up with eyes screaming rage, Eddie turned towards the creature and yelled:
"Bring them back!"
That's right, we weren't leaving there until she brought all of them back. This was not part of the plan! We just wanted to save the planet. Now we were face to face with an abomination! Little did we know that things were about to get alot more…complicated.
But this is me going ahead of myself again. Let's start, from the beginning.