Forbidden Entity: The Key ('The Key')

by Pia Philip

  “We were told to go and collect her,” another voice said calmly.’

  “What for! I thought Lucifer had enough minions to do his dirty work for him,” the first man growled.

  “Nick! Do not speak foul of him if you do not want to end up like the rest are soon to be. Dead.” The guy from before said.

  “I just don’t understand why we’re doing work for the devil himself, I thought we were on the good side, “Nick growled, “I wouldn’t have agreed to this plan of yours otherwise.”

  “I know and we are on the good side, trust me,” the first man said his tone almost pleading but still held the strength of a command.

  “Why on earth would I trust a man who was in league with the devil?” Nick spat, fury evident in his voice.

  “Because I’m not, do not go on making assumptions like that,” He said. Alex was surprised at the amount of patients that man had for Nick, if had been her in that situation she would’ve told Nick were he could go stick his accusations.

  “What? But that’s just what you-,” Nick cut off. Alex was almost able to hear the grin that must have broken over his face by now as realization dawned on him and her too. “You’re just using him aren’t you? You’re going to double cross him.”

  The glee in his voice was obvious as he gave a laugh.

  “Do not go around saying things of such so loudly, you don’t know who might be listening in,” the first guy warned in a hushed tone.

  Instantly Alex felt extremely uncomfortable, she was certain that she was far enough that she wouldn’t be detected but she was still eavesdropping into an obviously dangerous conversation. She was not supposed to be hearing it but she couldn’t help herself, she needed to know what was going on and seeing as no one was willing to give it to her she was going to have to take her own measures.

  So far Alex had learned that where she being held prisoner, the people around her were on the good side which was a relief, but yet they had kidnapped her. They were planning on using her as a bargaining chip she realized, but how they were going to double cross the devil himself she was clueless. Alex only knew that they would be handing her over to her father, although she was petrified at the idea she couldn’t help but feel a little spark of anticipation. She had only ever met her father once and that was less than a week ago. Alex remembered when she was younger, she had sat at the kitchen table with just her mom and in those dark periods of her childhood, she had asked her mother where her father was and if he was ever coming back. Alex remembered painfully too well the look that passed over her mother’s face, a mixture of both anger and hurt and her mother had tell her,

  ‘The cruelest thing that God gave us, was the ability to love and be broken,’

  Alex harbored those words like the most precious of jewels, whenever she thought that she might like a guy, she would repeat that phrase until her heart hardened. So over the years she had managed to shield herself from Gods ‘curse’.

  Now her mother was probably with the man that broke her and tore her from her family and life in Latrex. Alex wondered what life would have been if she had grown up in Latrex, daughter of the most prominent Angel in the land. Whatever their plan was, she had every intention of playing along for the time being, she really needed to see if her mum was there or not, she needed something to qualm her worry. She turned to go back to where she was left and stopped dead in her tracks. Staring straight at her, meters away were the red eyes, quickly followed by a body, Alex was so used to him that he wasn’t terrifying anymore, but her eyes were fixed on what was behind him. She didn’t know how long they had been there for but she did know that she didn’t want them anywhere near her. Opening her mouth she gave out a scream, so high-pitched, she expected dogs to start howling. In a flash people were out of their tents branding weapons. They searched the place to see where the scream had emitted from. With hopeless dread she realized that all their eyes were trained outside their camp, it was obvious they weren’t prepared for an attack from the inside.

  Alex’s whole body was trembling in fear; she couldn’t tear her yes away from the beast in front of her, as it came closer. With each step it took the ground shook. Her breath became shallow as sweat started forming all over her body. She could hear the adrenalin rush that coursed through her veins as she stared into eyes that reflected the fires of hell. She was done for. There was no way in hell that she would be able to fight against the creature in front of her. She crawled back helplessly as it stretched out a claw; desperately she looked at the kid who stood watching the scene in front of him unfold. She tried sending him pleas of help but he remained impassive. Alex sucked in a breath and forced her eyes shut when it lifted its sharp claws, awaiting the blow but nothing came. She heard a clang of metal and shouts. She slowly opened one eye to see the chaos unfolding in front of her. The creature reared on its hind legs, exposing his underbelly, not that it did any good, only showed them that he was completely and utterly shielded. It was like The Black Midnight Dragon except 2 times bigger and downright terrifying. Fangs the size of her legs jagged out of his mouth, salivating everywhere its head turned. She could barely see the pupils in its eyes, only red. It was set deep in its sockets. Spikes sharper than any knife she had ever encountered ran down its back in between the metal like scales that covered every inch of its body. Alex couldn’t help but think that she had just met Satan’s pet.

  She let out a whimper as someone grabbed her arm from behind and started dragging her away, not that she was complaining. Right then, she would be glad to be in the sewers of London if she was away from the creatures. To say she was petrified would be an understatement. Alex felt like she was on deaths doors just by looking at it, it made her blood run cold and her limps freeze over like icicles. It had evil and death radiating from its being and just being near it made her feel like she was condemning herself to hells fire.

  It was only when she was shoved inside a tent that shielded her from the gaze of the creature that she felt calm again. She took in her surroundings as she waited for whoever had shoved her in there to come back. She was not about to leave the tent unless she wanted an early death. The tent she was in seemed pretty empty. There was only two roll up mats and blankets to the side, a little stove and a few pots. But that was about it, for a tent that size, she had actually expected more than what she saw. Alex started biting her nails after five minutes in the tent by herself. She had always bit her nails when she was bored or nervous. It had become a bad habit, and it was really hard to break out of. Alex was about to walk out when the flap lifted and a bulky dark man walked in followed by a smaller figure. Neither of them spared her a glance. They started talking in a weird language that Alex could not understand. Alex felt awkward because she was intruding so she slowly backed away towards the door and just as she reached it, the bulk of a man looked over at her but before he could say anything she was out that tent like a race horse. Alex ran as fast as she could, hiding in the shadows until she reached the other side of the campsite, she silently sent up a prayer, that everyone was still on the other side, thankfully they were, and she managed to escape in between the tents and out into the forest foliage. Alex was running blind, not knowing where she was going or even where she was, all she knew was that she had to get out of there, she needed to find Sam. Sam, just thinking about him, made her stomach tie up in knots. He must be worried to sick about her. She kept going because she needed to find them. She didn’t know how long she had been running but after encountering water, she was now sure that she was close to where her group was before. She tried to remember the route to where she last saw them but she only managed to the starting point. For the first time in her life, Alex cursed her stupidity. She knew it wasn’t her fault that she wasn’t academically smart and was terrible at geography but the fact that she hadn’t even tried to remember the map in-case she got lost pissed her off. This was something that she wouldn’t be doing again in a very long time. In the end, she decided she needed to rest up so she sat be
hind a boulder and rested her feet. That was when she heard voices, voices she had heard before, but she was so tired her brain had started to shut down, she wasn’t able to identify if she could trust them or not. She decided to take the safe option and keep hidden. She decided to change hiding places so that she was hidden but could see their faces, maybe she would be able to recognize their faces. Alex crawled behind a bush and hid behind a tree before running around it. She was never one to be very stealthy so she wasn’t surprised when it sounded like several people were there with her but she did suddenly feel very self-conscious. When she didn’t hear the voices anymore, she knew something was wrong, she hid behind a tree she didn’t recognize and peeked over the side and saw no one. Her stomach tightened and she closed her eyes in dread. Alex had a bad feeling that they had heard her and that they were after her. She heard noises similar to that of a boot walking on dried leaves from behind her and she spun round, adrenaline pumping through her veins. She didn’t know if it was the guys from the camp or the people she was, no had been watching. There was a slicing sound and a carving knife lodged itself into the tree she had just been hiding behind at. Her eyes widened in fear.

  She was in trouble.

  CHAPTER 16

  Alex ducked low as she dodged another attack; she spun round and fled before she could be skewered. As she ran through the forest she couldn’t help but remember a scene from ‘Tarzan’ unfortunately that didn’t end very well. She grimaced as she nearly fell over a root. She swung her body to a tempo as she ran; it was easier if she pretended she was listening to music. She felt like her heart was about to burst through her chest, it was beating so fast and loud it sounded like timpani’s. She would’ve been surprised if whoever or whatever was chasing her, didn’t hear her first. She hooked her arm around the friendliest looking tree and spun round as she changed direction, it seemed like everything around her was against her. The trees seemed to be getting thicker when in fact they were thinning and exposing her to her pursuers. A razor sharp object went flying past her waist; whoever was throwing the weapons, Alex was grateful didn’t have perfect aim, though they were close enough that her shirt had ripped. She went to suppress the cut on her waist when she felt a searing pain through her elbow, this time, the dagger had met its target. The dagger was lodged firmly in her elbow and when she tried to straighten her elbow, hot white pain flashed through her arm. She grimaced in pain as she twisted her arm before she stopped behind a tree with a trunk wide enough to conceal her. Alex braced herself before taking the hilt of the dagger and dragging it out. She bitten down on her bottom lip so hard, she drew blood, but that was all she could do or she would’ve screamed so loud she would’ve alerted every single thing in the forest of her presence. After she wasted a good few minutes of precious escape time to regain her strength Alex headed out, only stopping briefly when she heard a low rumble that sounded all too familiar. It was the sound of running water; she slowly dragged her now aching body towards the sound until the stream came into view. Grabbing the biggest leaf she could find she bent over the stream and used the leaf as a sort of cup and poured it over her elbow as she tried to clean out her wound with one hand. It was unbelievably difficult but she couldn’t stop because for all she knew, the knife could’ve had a poisoned tip. After thoroughly and painfully cleaning out her wounds she took a drink from the stream and washed her face before getting up and walking up the stream. For there to be a stream, there had to be a source and if she could find the place where the kraken was last time she could hopefully re-find the starting point and then hopefully the door out of the worse subject of her life. Why the idea hadn’t come to her sooner she had no idea. It would’ve spared her a lot of injuries. She walked for only god knows how long until she finally reached the lake, she was not going to take any chances with the Kraken. She stayed as far away from the sea as she could, not that it was much. She had to get to the other side which would mean, taking the path that was not shrouded in trees, ‘just my luck.’ she thought to herself. Holding her breath, she slowly tip toed across the path before thinking better of it and ran, and thank her whiskers she did, because just at that moment she heard the shriek of the kraken and the screams of human being, the sound was not pleasant to the human ears. She made the mistake of turning around to see who it was and her heart froze. Sam’s face was covered in blood and sweat, his t shirt was ripped to shreds and his hand had an unholy gash running from one side to the other, but the fear in his eyes was what scared her. It was not fear for himself, or even from the Kraken. It was fear for her.

  Alex switched her gaze from Sam to the Kraken who was looking at her as if she hadn’t ate in years. A tentacle flashed out and Alex just managed to jump back in time. She turned and ran towards Sam who was waiting for her despite the danger she held. He would’ve ran out to help her if she had not shook her head telling him otherwise but even as he stood waiting for her, she could see that it was killing him to watch her run for her life. The kraken wrapped a tentacle around one of her legs and yanked her up. Alex’s hair fell over her head as she was hung upside down like a pig when it is slaughtered. The necklace her mother had given her was barely staying on. It was dangling from her chin and Alex just managed to grab it with her hand before she was jerked. She held onto it tight as she was dragged further and further out to the middle of the lake. If the Kraken dropped her she would drown but if it didn’t, it would eat her. It was a lose-lose situation. Alex lifted her head and flung her hair away from her face and twisted so that she could see Sam. He was no longer alone. Max and Zara were standing next to him wearing the same horrified expression. Max turned to Sam and even from a distance she could tell that they were now arguing. She wouldn’t expect anything else. Zara however was in tears, her pretty face streaked with tears and her eyes almost broke Alex’s heart. They were in so much pain. She knew what she had to do even if she was going to die, she would do the best she could to protect Zara. Mustering enough energy for the one chance she had, she twisted her body round, and lifting her arm she flung the necklace her mother had given her towards Zara.

  “ZARA! CATCH!” She shouted as the necklace flew through the air and landed in Zara’s outstretched hand. Zara wrapped the necklace around her arms before she broke down in full blown sobs. Alex could hear her from where she was, it was the loudest sound she had ever made and it broke her heart to listen to Zara’s tears so she turned away and faced the Kraken who was looking at her greedily. It opened its mouth and gave another shriek exposing its horrid black and yellow teeth. The stench that attacked her senses made her eyes water. It was a mixture of rotten fish and raw flesh, it was disgusting. There was no way she wanted to be eaten by the creature, she would rather drown.

  Driven by the urge to escape Alex managed to muster enough energy to slip out of the clutches of the kraken, his tentacles being covered in water made it easier for her. She slipped her last leg from the grip and her body plummeted to the waters below.

  The shock of the cold sent Alex in a panic, she couldn’t tell which way was up. Paralyzed with fear, she let her body slowly get dragged to the floor. Her throat burned with the lack of oxygen and she remembered the bathroom incident where she was almost drowned. It seemed like everyone wanted her dead, so she wouldn’t really be missed would she? Her mother was probably dead, no matter what Sam had said, she had seen the blood on the day of the attack. They day her father had demanded her as if she was some kind of object only to try and kill her when she refused. She would be doing everyone a favor if she just died there and then. Almost instinctively her well known stubbornness butted in. There was no way she was going to die just for them. She still had a full life in front of her, hopefully. She had every intention of helping the Angels in the war, she would do everything in her power to help them defeat her twisted father, if that meant giving her life, so be it. But there was no way that she was going to die out there not like that. Even as her need to survive kicked in, Alex was already feeling tired as her legs f
lailed wildly beneath her. Her thinking became slurred as she sank deeper and deeper under the water. Her short but eventful life flashed through her mind like a movie and as she watched herself, Alex felt disgusted. She was not proud of anything she had done. She had acted selfishly and others had paid the consequences. She had to get out there alive. She had to do something worthy with her life.

  ‘you must believe that you can do it, you must be willing to sacrifice everything for the ultimate goal.’

  The words her mother had spoken in her nightmarish dream came to mind. Right then and there she needed to right all the wrong doings in her life. That was her ultimate goal. And nothing was going to stand in her way. She slowly slid into a deeper and she thought that maybe she was wrong. That death was going to stop her but she saw something. Faint as it is, she saw a crack in the veil of darkness that covered her eyes. She reached for it as more cracks appeared, she didn’t know what was happening but she wasn’t scared. She felt a total kind of peace form deep within her. Something was happening, something good for a change and it warmed her whole body from head to toe. She clung onto consciousness as the rays of light became thicker and more vibrant, like rays from the golden sun. She felt her body got lifted out of the water. Her clothes weighed her down but still she felt weightless, she felt like she had finally found herself. She smiled at the thought before taking a deep breath and surrendering to the light.

  Sam watched from the beach as his best friend slowly drowned in the middle of the lake. He felt useless; he had already tried to jump into the lake to help her but had been stopped by Max. He should’ve known she couldn’t swim, she had always avoided going to the swimming pool with them. How stupid could he get and now he had gone let her kill herself. Tears ran freely down Sam’s cheeks as he tried to picture his life without Alex beside him. He found none, just a void in his heart. A place only she could fill. He was in the midst of grieving for not only his best friend but a part of him that had died with her when the first rays of light broke the surface of the water. He quickly wiped away the tears as he looked at the rays that were appearing from the water. He didn’t dare hope that Alex could’ve caused it. After all, she had given the protective necklace to Zara. Sam silently resented Zara. He blamed her for Alex’s death. If she had refused the necklace she might have been with them right then. He might’ve still been able to hold her and comfort her but she wasn’t and he couldn’t. Sam was jerked out his dark thoughts when the lake exploded. Water showered everything within a five hundred meter radius. Where the lake once has been stood an empty crater. The Kraken nowhere in sight and neither was Alex. He looked at Max with bewilderment and saw that he was already on his phone talking to Thomas but he had his eyes fixed on one specific place. Sam followed his gaze and saw Alex’s body floating in a ball of light. He almost died with shock.