by Danica Rayne
I charged at him, aiming my fist at his jaw, but he moved aside and I fell to the ground. I was about to jump up and go for another punch, when I heard a familiar voice. I spun around to the scene unfolding over the lava, to when I was about seven or eight.
“But I’m scared to go trick or treating with the neighbors,” I said as I played with my dolls on my bed.
“Lydia’s mom will watch over you,” Mom assured me. “You have nothing to be afraid of.”
“But the kids don’t like me. They’ll probably take all the good candy and leave me with the yucky kind. And they’ll make fun of my costume. Why do I have to wear the same one as last year, Mom? I wish we didn’t have to worry about money.”
“I’m sure Lydia’s mom will make sure you all get your fair share of the candy. And about your costume…” With a grin, she disappeared down the hall and returned a few seconds later, holding out a costume of a character from a popular kids’ TV show.
My eyes bugged out as I stumbled off the bed. “What…?”
Mom smiled at the excited and astonished look on my face. “I stayed up late the last two nights making it for you.”
“Mommy.” I ran into her arms. “You really made it for me?”
She kissed my cheek. “Yes, my darling. I did it all for you.”
“I love you, Mommy.” I hugged her again. “No one else’s mommy made them a costume. They’re gonna think I’m so cool! And maybe they’ll want to be my friend.”
“I’m sure they will.”
“And maybe Daddy will get a new job and then we won’t have to worry about money.”
“I hope so, sweetie. Go on, try on the costume.”
“Okay!” I grabbed it and ran off.
The scene shifted to the elementary school building, where ten-year-old me rushed out of the building with my hand clutching Mom’s. “A dentist appointment, Mom? Ugh, my teeth feel fine. I don’t want to go to the dentist.”
With a mischievous smile, she swung our hands. “Don’t worry, I’m not taking you to the dentist.”
I froze on the school steps and stared at her. “Huh?”
She tucked some hair behind my ear. “I’m taking you to the carnival. Today’s the last day they’re in town.”
“Wait, what? I don’t have a dentist appointment?”
With another smile, she shook her head. “Today is a mother/daughter day. We’re going to do this twice a year, just the two of us.”
“Mom, you lied to the school,” I hissed.
She laughed. “I won’t tell anyone if you won’t.”
I threw my arms around her. “You’re the best mom in the whole world.”
She squeezed me to her chest. “You’re the best daughter in the world.”
“Stop!” I yelled at Mergarus as more tears stained my cheeks. “Stop it!”
The scene changed again, to a few weeks before my parents’ murder. Mom took me out of school again for our mother/daughter day.
“Why am I feeling grumpy vibes from you?” she asked as we got in the car and put on our seatbelts. “This is more than the usual teenage grumpiness.”
I sighed as I folded my arms across my chest. “I don’t know. I thought things would be a different in high school, but it’s all the same.”
“What do you mean?” she asked as she pulled out of the driveway.
“Middle school kids suck. I thought high school kids would be more mature, you know, more accepting and tolerant and not so cliquey. And I thought the boys would be more mature and I’d finally have….” I banged my back against the seat. “What’s wrong with me?”
She threw me a sympathetic look. “Nothing’s wrong with you. It’s completely normal—”
“Mom, don’t you dare say it’s completely normal not to have friends. It’s not normal. Not at all.”
She focused on the road. “Some kids have a harder time than others. But that doesn’t mean you’re not normal. And you always have your family.”
I just stared at her. “Mom…I need to hang out with kids my own age. I can’t hang out with you and Dad for the rest of my life. I want…” I swallowed. “I want to meet someone one day…”
“And you will,” she promised. “You’ll meet a great guy.”
“But how can I meet a great guy when I’ve never had a single friend? I don’t know how to be a friend, I don’t know how to get close to someone, I don’t…”
She removed one hand from the steering wheel to rub my knuckles. “I didn’t have friends growing up, either. And I still managed to meet a wonderful man, get married, and have a beautiful daughter.”
“You weren’t alone,” I muttered as I leaned my head on the window. “You had Aunt Bea.”
“And what a nuisance she was,” Mom joked.
I didn’t smile.
“Chin, up, sweetie. Life has a way of working itself out. Now stop moping or you’ll spoil your surprise.”
That piqued my curiosity. “Where are we even going?” I looked out the window and saw that we were on the highway.
“Look inside my bag.”
I opened it and pulled out two tickets to my favorite band. “No way! How did you get these? They’ve been sold out for weeks.”
She winked. “Sometimes a mother can be quite persuasive.”
“Oh no. Who’d you kill?”
She laughed. “My coworker’s son got them for his birthday and he doesn’t like the band.”
“Well, he sucks.”
“So I begged him for the tickets. The concert’s in southern New Jersey, so we’ll be home late. You might have to come in late tomorrow.”
“This is so awesome.” I couldn’t sit still in my seat.
She rested her hand on mine again. “You see? Life has a way of working itself out.” She smiled warmly. “I’m already working on our next mother/daughter adventure. I think you’re going to love it.”
The scene faded away and Mergarus pinned me with a mocking look. “Too bad you never found out what the special surprise was.”
“You bastard!” I lunged at him, but he once again avoided my fists. “You ruined my life!” I slammed my hand into his jaw, but it was like hitting a stone wall. I yelped as I shook my wrist, then glared at him. “You’ll pay for what you did to my parents.”
I kicked off the ground and stretched out my leg. Something strange happened as I soared in the air, my foot ready to smash into his chest. A burst of energy passed through me, and when I looked to my left, I saw the nine slayers there. It was their energies flowing through me.
When my boot made contract with his chest, he shot back with such a powerful force that he cracked the ground. But he was on his feet a second later and flung out his palm toward me. I collapsed to the ground as pain exploded in my head. It felt like someone had sliced a chainsaw right through my skull.
We’ve got you, the voices of the slayers said. A second later, the pain evaporated.
I leaped to my feet and held out my fists. I wished I had my weapons with me. But wait a second, this was all going on inside my head, wasn’t it? I willed my daggers to appear, and I nearly jumped for joy when they did.
I pinned my eyes on the demon lord. “Prepare to die!” I rushed toward him just as he raced toward me, and then he hurdled himself off the ground and landed before me, the force so strong I fell on my back. But it didn’t hurt like I expected. Maybe because of the Power of the Ten?
I was about to get up, but snakes appeared all over my body, poisonous ones. I yelped as they sunk their fangs in me.
This is all fake, I chanted to myself. This is all fake.
Then why did it feel like my life was being drained out? My body slumped to the ground, my eyes fluttering shut.
The faces of the slayers skipped before my eyes, followed by Aunt Bea, Dr. Caldwell, Ryker, Kayden, Liam, and Finn’s. And then finally, my parents. They each held hope in their eyes, and unconditional love was flashing in the eyes of my parents and the Magnetic Four. No, I couldn’t give up lik
e this. I broke through the pain and exhaustion, shooting my arms outward and tossing the snakes away.
A look of surprise took over Mergarus’s face. “Stronger than I thought.”
I felt them all with me, the slayers, the boys I loved, my parents, my aunt, and Dr. Caldwell.
“You wanted to break me,” I say. “You thought playing all those memories would destroy me. But there’s something you don’t understand, Mergarus. The power of love. The memories of my parents make me stronger. They remind me of how much love they had for me, how much they sacrificed for me all those years. They struggled in the beginning, barely making ends meet, but they never made me feel like I was missing anything. They made sure I had a happy childhood. You want to bring hate upon my world, demon. You want to bring destruction. You want to break us. But humans have an unlimited capacity to love. And it’s love that will bring you down today.”
Releasing a cry, I bounded for Mergarus with my daggers poised to kill, but he leaped over me. I kicked off the ground and tumbled backward, landing right in front of him. Before he had a chance to react, I stabbed my daggers through his chest.
He cried out in pain, his hand wrapping around my neck and sweeping me off the ground. With his free hand, he plucked one of the daggers out of his chest and stabbed it through my heart. I didn’t feel any pain, though, nor did I bleed. Mergarus stared down at the wound with bewilderment.
“The power of the slayers,” I said as he released me and dropped to the ground, blinking in total loss and confusion. I stood over him. “You’ve lost, Mergarus.”
A sinister grin captured his lips. “You haven’t defeated me. My kind can never be killed. I’ll still live on in my world, and I’ll return to finish the job.”
“We’ll be here waiting,” I promised.
His eyes rolled over and his body slumped to the ground.
Chapter Twenty-Three
My eyes shot open to many pairs of eyes staring down at me.
“Alivia.” Aunt Bea helped me sit up. “What happened?”
“I…” My voice trailed off when something staggered in the distance. Everyone spun around to find Mergarus swaying like a human who had just gotten smashed.
“Is that…?” Callie started.
“Mergarus,” I said.
Except, he looked nothing like the demon lord that had invaded our world. He was a ghost of himself, bony with hardly any meat or muscle, his face long and narrow, his eyes and cheeks sunken, and the blisters and warts all over his body had quadrupled. His skin was no longer red but ashen and his wings were broken.
“He’s weakened,” Marny said. She flicked her head toward me. “You know what to do, Alivia.”
With a nod, I stood up and reached behind me for the jeweled sword. I made my way over to the demon, who continued to sway and stagger as though he could barely keep his body upright.
“Slayer,” he begged when I drew close. “Don’t kill me. Please spare my life.”
“So you could return to your world, regain your strength, and launch another invasion?” I held the sword before me.
“No, no!” he continued to beg. “I won’t invade the human world again. You have my promise.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’ll never believe a demon’s promise.”
His empty yellow eyes suddenly blazed with fury. “Wretched slayer!” he cried. “I’ll end you. I’ll end you and everyone you love!”
“Not if I end you first.” I stabbed him right through the heart.
His jaw opened wide as a demonic scream echoed all around me, and wind started blowing from all different directions, nearly throwing me off my feet. Black smoke tore out of his chest and blew away with the wind, toward the school building, to the portal.
“I’ll return!” his voice cried as the wind carried him away. “I’ll get you, slayer! I’ll get you and everyone you love!”
Elisa grabbed my arm. “We need to close the portal and restore the pillars.”
We raced toward the school building, still fighting the wind, though it died down a little. The demons who hadn’t been knocked out by the device, due to distance, were swept in the wind and taken back to the demon world along with their master. We finally made it to the building and hurried to the lab room.
I stuck my hand in my pocket and took out the blue vial. The wind was stronger here, and every so often another demon was swept inside.
“Should we wait until they’ve all been taken back?” I yelled over the wind.
“We’ll take care of them,” Callie said. “Just focus on closing the portal.”
I sliced my palm and added my blood to the potion. All that was left was to drink it and chant the words. My body was beyond exhausted—when was the last time I had gotten any sleep? But I pushed past it and drew on every ounce of energy I had.
I brought the vial to my lips, tipping my head back and guzzling it down. It burned my throat and esophagus as it went down, and then I felt a warm glow in every part of my body. When I looked down, I noticed I was bathed in a golden light.
The chant appeared in my mind, just as the witch promised it would.
“Cherid limsha uterla shahed, greela numka xerni ashee, duna herka veru zimna!”
Powerful wind swept through the room, so strong that I was thrown off my feet and had to grab onto the back table. Finn clung onto Ryker in his wolf form. Aunt Bea, Liam, Kayden, and the slayers held onto the lab tables around the room, too. Then, with a burping sound, the portal vanished, spraying us with blue and green light.
My head knocked into the lab table in the back when the wind suddenly died down. Kayden was at my side in a second, helping me to my feet and gingerly touching my head.
“I’m okay,” I assured him.
“Is it done?” Aunt Bea asked. “Is it really done?”
“Almost,” I said. “We still need to restore the pillars.”
“That’s where we come in,” Elisa announced. “Come on, ladies.”
The fifteen of us formed a circle, holding hands. My eyes shut as soothing energy passed through me. It was the energy, the life force, of all the slayers. And then it got drawn out of our bodies and surrounded us. In my mind, I saw the pillars stand, one by one, and then a barrier was stretched over all of Edgewood.
“Alivia,” a voice said from behind me.
I turned around and came face to face with my mom. She wasn’t a wraith but looked like a human. Except she was surrounded by white light. I drank in her beautiful brown eyes with flecks of gold and violet, and her wavy hair with golden highlights. The kind smile on her face. She wore a simple white dress.
“Mom?” I whispered.
She nodded with tears in her eyes. It was just the two of us in the room, with everyone else faded into the background.
“Mom!” I raced toward her and threw myself into her arms, expecting to fall right through. But my body didn’t pass through her. I felt my mom, I hugged her. She was flesh and blood like me.
“My darling.” She showered kisses all over my face as she squeezed me tight. “You did it. You closed the portal and restored the pillars.”
“But how are you here?” I asked. “Where is here? How come I can touch you?”
She smiled at me with love and pride shining in her eyes. “You freed me, honey. I’m no longer trapped in the shadow world.” She caressed my cheek when she saw the confusion on my face. “You fixed my mistake, Alivia. My slayer side clung onto the barrier when I tried to leave, but what you did just now? It didn’t come out of a selfish place like mine did. You’re not escaping your destiny like I tried to do. You’ve given your heart and soul into protecting Edgewood, and that love is what’s protecting the city.” She pressed her lips to my forehead. “And it was that love that set me free.”
“You can cross over now,” I said.
She nodded.
I bit my lower lip as tears swelled in my eyes. “Is there any way you can stay here with me?”
“Alivia—”
“I
can’t do this without you, Mom. Half the time I have no idea what I’m doing and the other half is just plan rotten luck and—”
She placed her hands on my cheeks and lifted my face to meet her gaze. “Alivia,” she said as she gazed into my eyes. “You’re doing fine. You’re growing up to be a remarkable slayer, and an even more remarkable person. You don’t need me.”
“But I do!” The tears pooled down my cheeks. “I need you in my life, Mom. Not just for slaying but for life stuff.”
She shook her head. “My body was killed, sweetie. You can’t bring me back to life.”
“Maybe if I go back to the witch and—”
She tightened her hold on my face. “No, Alivia. It’s impossible to bring back a life. It’s time for me to move on. But I’ll always be in your heart, honey. I’ll never leave you.”
“Please,” I begged as I clutched her. “Don’t leave me, Mom. You died too early. You were snatched away from me!”
“Part of my sacrifice was to die young,” she said as she stroked my hair. “I knew my time would come one day. I’m grateful for my life on Earth. Grateful for having you as a daughter. You’ll make a great mother one day, too.”
I shook my head. “I just want you.”
She pressed another kiss to my forehead. “You’ll be fine,” she assured me. “You’ll live a happy, full life. Life has a way of working itself out.” She tweaked my nose.
More tears leaked out of my eyes.
“It’s time, honey,” a familiar voice said from behind me.
I turned around and saw a man standing there. “Dad?”
He was also bathed in white light. He strode over as I untangled myself from my mom’s arms. I stared at him, then slowly lifted my hand and traced it over his face, soaking in the features that were etched in my memory. “It really is you. But what are you doing here?”
“I’m here to escort your mother.” He gathered me in his arms. “Alivia. Oh how much I’ve missed you.”
Fresh tears slid down my cheeks. I clung onto my father, never wanting to let him go.
“I’m so proud of you, sweetheart,” he whispered in my ear. “I love you so much.”
“Dad,” I cried on his chest.
