The Silent Soldiers

by Travis Stinnett

  “Use the mirror goofy,” she replied. I opened the compact with the sword still grasped firmly in my hand and looked at my reflection in the mirror. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. My hair was no longer the blonde shade that it had been all my life. Instead it was now as white as snow, and my eyes were as blue as the ocean. Then I noticed my arm holding the compact and jumped a little in surprise as I noticed my clothes were different as well. I was now wearing a solid white leather jacket. I spun around looking down at what I was wearing. I realized my pants and shoes were white as well.

  “What the hell happened to me?” I asked as I looked back up at Ava. She was still staring at me as though I had turned into a ghost. I wasn’t completely sure I hadn’t the way I was dressed in all white with white hair.

  “I-I-I-I don’t know,” she stuttered.

  “Ava, snap out of it. It’s just me,” I told her.

  “It obviously was something to do with the sword,” she said.

  “Where are the faeries? And how did you get back to your regular size like me?” I asked.

  “When I opened my eyes, after the flash of light, I was like this. I have no idea where the faeries went. How in the crap are we going to get out of here now?” She asked with a touch of panic in her voice.

  “I don’t know, but we definitely need to go NOW!” I exclaimed.

  “Yeah I don’t want to be anywhere near this place when Nhados returns. I really can’t understand why he isn’t here,” she said.

  “Me either, but we need to get moving. Jenna described the way to the cave from the entrance. Maybe we can find our way out,” I said as I grabbed the swords sheath and put the sword inside it. I attached the sword to my back and headed for the door.

  Ava and I ran down the corridor toward the cave entrance. When we reached the first tunnel that branched off I stopped dead in my tracks.

  “Did you hear that?” I asked.

  “Hear what?” asked Ava. I suddenly realized that the sound I heard must be too far away for Ava to have picked it up. I motioned for her to be quiet as I listened with all my might.

  “HELP!” I heard a voice yell from the tunnel.

  “Someone is down there,” I told Ava.

  “Dude, I still don’t hear anything,” she said.

  “It’s too far for you to hear, but someone is yelling for help down there. We have to go see about them,” I said.

  “No way! We are getting out of here right now!” Ava exclaimed.

  “It will only take a second. Maybe it’s the woman from my vision. I can’t leave her here if it is,” I said as I darted down the tunnel. I heard Ava sigh as she said;

  “Wait for me.” We ran down the tunnel as quickly as Ava could move. I listened closely as we made our way toward the voice. I could hear the woman’s plea for help as we made our way closer. The tunnel was just light enough for us to find our way through. We could see light ahead of us and I knew we must be getting close.

  “HELP!” the woman yelled again. We slowed down nearly to a stop as we realized how close we were to the voice. The tunnel made a sharp turn. I slowly took a peek around the corner. I was looking at the end of the tunnel we were in. There were torches lighting the area. I immediately caught sight of the woman from my visions. She was chained facing the wall with her hands raised toward the ceiling just like in my vision. I was very happy to learn that she was alone down here and not being whipped by Nhados.

  I grabbed Ava by the hand and we darted into the area where the woman was.

  “Hello?” I said to the woman.

  “Who’s there?” The woman asked, horrified to find out she was no longer alone. She slowly turned her head to look at us. The woman was truly horrified as she anticipated who she would find. I could see that her cheeks were stained with tears. The dress covering her back was now torn bloody threads.

  “Who are you?” the woman asked in a shaky voice.

  “I’m Luke, and this is Ava,” I told her. I heard the woman inhale suddenly.

  “I knew you would come,” said the woman,

  “I have been calling out to you for days. I sensed you could hear me.”

  “You know who we are?” asked Ava.

  “Well, by looking at you I can see much resemblance to Rachel. I am guessing you must be her daughter. And I definitely know Lucas,” the woman told Ava.

  “Who are you, and how do you know my mother?” asked Ava.

  “I am Elizabeth Carrington. I am your grandmother, Lucas,” the woman said. I immediately drew the sword with my right hand as I grabbed Ava’s hand and pulled her back away from the woman chained to the wall.

  “Let’s go,” I said as the woman stared at us in horror at the thought of us leaving her there.

  “Luke, we can’t leave your grandmother here,” Ava said with nearly the same horrified look as my grandmother held.

  “She is a traitor,” I said with disgust. Ava and I looked up at the chained woman as she began to sob with tears running down her cheeks.

  “Oh, Lucas, that is so very far from the truth. I could never betray my family or my pack. I have been a prisoner here since you were born. Nhados captured me shortly after I told your mother about all the visions I had of you. I have wondered all these years why your grandfather never came to rescue me,” The woman explained.

  “How can we know you are telling the truth?” I asked.

  “Lucas, you have to believe what I am telling you. Please don’t leave me down here to be tortured any longer,” my grandmother said as she began to cry again.

  I let go of Ava’s wrist and in one swift movement I moved close and sliced through the chains with the sword. I grabbed both of the chains and wrapped them around my hand and turned the woman around toward me.

  “I am taking you back to Grandpa so he can deal with you,” I told her.

  “We have to find a way to get back to the mansion,” I told Ava. I pulled the woman with me as I walked back over to Ava and returned the sword to my back.

  “We must hurry back to the mansion. I overheard Nhados talking. He said they were going to attack tonight. I can show you the way,” said my grandmother as she followed us down the tunnel.

  “That explains why nobody was guarding the sword. We have to hurry. Our family and friends could be in great danger if she is telling us the truth,” I said. We broke into a run and in no time we were at the cave entrance looking out into the very strange looking forest.

  “We must follow that stream back to the entrance,” Grandma said. We ran through the forest following the stream for a while before Grandma told us to stop. Ava and I turned around to look at her.

  “Between those two huge trees that are close together is the entrance to our dimension. All we have to do is walk through those trees and we will return to The Devil’s Den in the Earth realm,” my grandmother explained.

  “Let’s go,” I said. We ran over to the trees and slowed to a walk as we went between them. Everything went dark like Jenna had described and then we were in another cave. We walked down the tunnel and out into the crisp night air.

  “We are not too far from the mansion. I want you to stay here with her, Ava. I’m going to run home and bring a car back to pick you up. It shouldn’t take more than a couple minutes to get back here with my speed and all,” I told them.

  “We can’t stay here. What if they come back while we are waiting for you?” asked Ava.

  “Good point. I hadn’t thought about that. Let’s do this then. Walk along this highway but stay just out of sight in the woods. We don’t want any passersby seeing you pulling her along by chains. And we definitely don’t want Nhados or any of his men finding you. I will text you when I get here with the car,” I explained.

  “That sounds a lot better,” said Ava. I took off toward the mansion running as fast as my super speed would take me. It felt amazing running so fast. It was the first time I had used my speed out in the open. I made it back to
the mansion in no time. I didn’t bother going through the gate I cut through the woods and jumped over the fence. When I got to the house there were people everywhere outside. I noticed Matt standing by the front door and I stopped running only inches from his side. Matt jumped at the sight of someone appearing out of nowhere so close to him. He calmed a little when he realized it was me.

  “Luke, where have you been? And what happened to you?” asked Matt as he looked me up and down.

  “It’s a very long story that I really don’t have time to tell you right now. What happened here?” I asked.

  “Nhados’ army attacked us while you were gone. And on top of that Adriana is gone,” said Matt.

  “Sounds like we both have long stories to tell. I need you to do me a favor while I go and talk to Grandpa. Take a car and go to The Devil’s Den and pick up Ava. When you get close text her, and she will come out to the road to meet you. She is walking in the woods following the road back here,” I explained to Matt, “We can talk about everything later. Do you know where Grandpa is?”

  “Last time I saw him he was in the great room,” replied Matt. I left Matt telling him to please hurry to pick up Ava as I walked in the front door of the mansion. I sprinted through the foyer and into the great room. I found Grandpa sitting in a chair with his head in his hands. He looked up as I approached him. I saw relief spread across his face as he jumped up from his seat to hug me.

  “Luke, you have no idea how worried I have been. I have half the pack out looking for you. I see you have