by K T Kaye
“What is the point of this?” I moaned, “Your telepathic, you know my moves before I even make them!”
“You need to learn to block your mind,” Roxy laughed.
“I thought I was!”
“You’ve started to. There are parts of your mind you’ve already blocked from me. Now you need to learn to block all of it.”
Willow got to her feet, she went over to one of the weapons sheds and dragged out a large Roman shield. I was almost certain it belonged to Alexander, so I wasn’t planning on touching it. The last thing I wanted to do was get on the bad side of that vampire.
“What’s that for?” I asked.
“It’s a shield! What do you think it’s for!?”
“Actually, it’s not for Jason to defend himself with,” Willow added, “Well at least not physically.”
“You’ve lost me,” I muttered as Roxy nodded with a knowing smile.
“Okay, me and Roxy are telepaths, so we can enter people’s minds, however you can block us out with a mental shield,” Willow explained.
“A mental shield? What’s one of them?”
“To say you’re the Master of Darkness, you’re a real idiot,” Roxy laughed.
“That’s a bit offensive.”
“A mental shield is exactly what it sounds like, it’s a shield that you create in your mind to block out telepathic attacks,” Willow explained.
“Ah okay. How do I get one of these shields?”
“You don’t get one, you have to create it yourself.”
“Okay, so what, you want me to imagine a shield in my head or something?”
“Not just a shield, create a defensive cuboid,” Willow sighed, “No let me rephrase, the historical explanation will only confuse you. Okay I want you to use the shields to create a big box which you can hide inside.”
“Okay, I think I can do that,” I nodded.
“Close your eyes and relax.”
I closed my eyes however the relaxing part was a little bit more complicated. How could I relax!? Paris was in the cells, Mr Jet was still at large, and I hadn’t had my lunch, so all I could think about was how much I fancied a cheese sandwich!
Relax. Anyone else have that problem that when you’re told to do something you automatically want to do the opposite, because I have that problem! So when Willow told me to relax, I straight away wanted to run around in a circle dancing an Irish jig! I’m not sure why that was the first thing that popped into my head, it’s a bit odd really, moving swiftly on. I took a deep breath and allowed myself to fall deep into my mind. My mind was a simple place. It was bright white with doors of different colours leading off into different areas of my mind. For example the red door led to my angry memories, the blue door to my sad ones, the orange door led to a room where I had saved the memories of my favourite foods and the black one led to a dark scary prison in which my demon was locked away, or at least that was what Willow and Roxy had told me. I had never actually spent much time “in” my mind, so I wasn’t one-hundred percent sure where everything was.
Use the shields to create a big box that you can hide inside. Not the most helpful advice I’ve ever received. How was I meant to create a shield? How did I make them into a box? What was I supposed to do? Why hadn’t they given me a diagram? Or a ‘how to build a mental shield’ guidebook!?
‘Okay calm down Dragonheart!’ I thought to myself, ‘You’re standing with two telepaths, if you don’t calm down, they’ll hear your stupid panic-attack!’
I mentally slapped myself. At that moment I felt something in my pocket. I pulled out a red crayon and a folded piece of paper. I unfolded the paper to find, to my surprise, a diagram! The diagram showed several shields lined up next to and on top of each other, creating a cuboid like shape.
But where do I get the shields from? I wondered to myself.
You draw them with the crayon, you idiot! Came Roxy’s mental reply.
The sound of her voice in my head made me jump and realise that the two telepaths were listening to everything I thought. I knelt down and began to draw a shield. I started off by drawing the outline and then slowly I added in the details, making it look more realistic. Well as realistic as it was going to look, I was drawing with a red crayon, so it was hardly going to be a Da Vinci painting!
When I had finished the shield, to my surprise, it became real. A real solid shield! I smiled and drew several more. Once I had finished drawing, I studied the diagram and followed it as carefully as I could. I slowly placed the shields around me in a rectangle formation. Once I had put them in place, the shields remained standing. Not only that but they also joined together so that I had an impenetrable wall made out of shields. Of course, if I was to do this in the ‘real’ world it wouldn’t work, but inside my head anything goes! I finally placed the last shield above my head. Inside the shields was much bigger than it looked, in fact my entire mental world fitted inside it, which either means that I have a very small mind, or the shields were really big! It was a very strange experience. When I opened my eyes, and returned to reality, Roxy and Willow were smiling at me.
“Did I do it?” I asked surprised.
“Yeah,” Willow smiled, “I can’t read or enter your mind.”
I turned to Roxy, “Is it time for a rematch?”
Roxy smiled and raised her sword. I swung my sword down; it was met with Roxy’s. I pushed back and forced Roxy to break the hold. She twisted her sword and jabbed forwards. I jumped out of the way. We circled around each other each trying to guess the others next move. Roxy attacked first; our swords crashed together. After Roxy shoved me with some force, I stumbled backwards. Roxy kicked my knee causing me to fall to the ground. I quickly defended myself as her sword came bearing down on my head. I pushed myself up and broke the hold. I swung my sword and the blades met with great force. I twisted my wrist and forced Roxy’s sword from her hand.
“Give up?” I asked my sword pointing at her chest. Her answer was interrupted by a loud squeaking sound. “What’s that?”
“Means the Colonel is going to give an announcement,” Willow pointed to a set of speakers that hung on the outside of the Lightning Squad house.
“This is your Colonel speaking,” the Colonel’s voice echoed around the base, “The Emperor and I created this base nearly three hundred years ago. Back then it was a small organisation and now we are the most successful unit in the paranormal military. I never expected that I’d have to give this kind of announcement.”
“Stop being dramatic and just get on with it,” Roxy muttered, “We all know what’s coming.”
I didn’t have a clue what was coming. I was about to ask Roxy what she meant by that, but the Colonel began speaking.
“Paris Surf has been found guilty of demon worshipping, attempted murder and terrorism. For the crimes he has committed against the Empire and against you, his friends, and teammates, he has been sentenced to death. I know this news will be distressing to many of you,” the Colonel continued, “Many of you believed Paris to be a friend, but he destroyed that friendship when he betrayed you all. I will not keep you any longer however I wish to see all members of Lightning Squad in the conference room in five minutes.”
With that the announcement ended.
“Sentenced to death,” I muttered in shock.
“Knew it,” Roxy hissed, “Come on, we best not keep the Colonel waiting.”
* * * * *
“I know that Paris’ sentencing will have hit you the hardest,” the Colonel said. I was sat with the rest of Lightning Squad, including Sophie who had finally been discharged from the hospital wing, in the Captain’s conference room. I was still in shock. Sentenced to death, that couldn’t be real. It couldn’t be, it just sounded so strange, so medieval. I looked around at the rest of the squad. They all wore their best poker faces but even I could tell that they were not okay with this situation.
“The Emperor has ordered this personally. He is declaring war on Mr Jet and his followers,”
the Colonel explained.
“How is Paris to be executed?” Ethan asked.
“Bleed out.”
“What?” I had to ask as I had no idea.
“Oh yes I forgot that you’ve lived in the human world,” the Colonel explained, “Basically the prisoner is strapped to a board and the executioner slices them across the body and the prisoner bleeds to death.”
“That’s horrible! That’s just horrible!”
“Yet it’s the Emperor’s favourite method of execution,” Alexander muttered bitterly.
“It’s terrible!” Just the idea made my stomach turn. It was disgusting! How could anyone do such a thing. I couldn’t imagine. I didn’t want to imagine it! It was sick. I had forgotten, until that moment, just how dark and dangerous the world I had fallen into was.
“Yeah the citizens tried to ban this form of execution, but you can’t mess with the Emperor.”
“Enough of that tone,” the Colonel snapped, “You make it sound like we live under a dictator.”
“We do,” Alexander muttered under his breath, just loud enough for me to hear.
“Anyway because Paris was a part of the military the Emperor wants to show that no one is given special treatment, if you betray the Empire then you will pay for it. He has planned for Paris’ execution to take place tomorrow morning; however he doesn’t want it to be an actual executioner who…completes the task. Instead he wants Paris’ captain to do the execution to show that we are stamping out the terrorists in our squads.”
All eyes turned to Angel who had turned a ghostly shade of white.
“That’s not happening,” Roger exclaimed, “Angel has barely recovered.”
“It’s the Emperor’s order!”
“I don’t bloody care who ordered it, my sister is not doing it!”
“Why should she do it!? We have official executioners, don’t we? Get one of them!” Ethan snapped.
“This is an order from the Emperor!” the Colonel shouted getting to his feet.
“Where is the execution being held?” Araminta asked changing the subject.
“The execution house in the city, all the squads will assemble there at eleven-hundred hours. The execution will happen within the hour. It’ll be a quick but forceful gesture against Mr Jet and his terrorist organisation.”
“What about that search warrant?” Angel asked quietly, it was as if it was difficult for her to get the words to leave her lips.
“The Emperor has signed the search warrant. We have also been given permission to go to the Polar Base if we do find anything.”
“What search warrant is this?” asked Sue.
“You’re just checking up on one of the storage warehouses,” the Colonel said lightly, “Nothing to really worry about, just a routine check. You’ll go to the warehouse at fourteen-hundred hours tomorrow. Go fully armed just in case.”
“Armed?” Elsa asked confused, “I thought it was just a routine check?”
“We’re not taking any chances. Right, now I know this is a lot to process but I need you to pull yourselves together and erm, yes well, I shall leave you be. I’ll join you at the execution,” with that the Colonel left the room.
“This is ridiculous,” Danny hissed, “Why does it matter who kills Paris? It makes no sense!”
“Can’t you just say no?” I asked innocently.
“It’s the Emperor’s order Jason! If she refuses, then she becomes guilty of treason! And if she is found guilty of treason not only Angel but the whole Night werewolf pack will be arrested and potentially executed!”
“Why?”
“Because that’s the messed up way this Empire works! Treason is a capital offense, the worst one there is! You don’t deny the Emperor, not if you want to live. Also the people prefer Angel’s dad to the Emperor, and there’s no way that he isn’t aware of this. If Angel was to refuse, he could use it as an opportunity to get rid of the potential competition!”
“Danny stop! Everyone go back to the house,” Angel ordered, “Go back home and rest up. Tomorrow is going to be a long day.”
“Angel? Are you…?” Fern began to ask.
“Squad dismissed,” Angel muttered before she ran out of the room.
“I’ll go check on her,” Roger excused himself as he exited.
“Do as Angel said,” Alexander continued, “Go home. Get some rest and try to mentally prepare yourselves for tomorrow.”
* * * * *
The next day came far too quickly for my liking.
The squad travelled to the city in a battered old truck. No one could offer me an explanation as to why we weren’t teleporting but instead using a horrifically uncomfortable small truck. The road we were taking was bumpy, so we ended up falling on top of each other. I was squashed next to Ethan and I spent most of the journey tumbling into him. I don’t think it had really hit me that I was on my way to the execution of someone I had considered a friend. That I was going to an execution. I don’t think I had properly processed the fact that Paris was going to be executed. And executed by Angel. Angel was sat in the front of the truck with Alexander who was driving. She hadn’t said anything the whole journey, she just stared out of the window, lost in her own thoughts. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what was going on in her head. I crashed into Ethan, landing face first into the werewolf’s belly, as the truck stopped.
“Ouch,” the wolf squeaked.
“Sorry,” I muttered pulling myself up, “You should really get seat belts for this thing.”
“Let’s go,” Alexander got out of the truck. I climbed out and found myself on an old fashion cobbled street. There was a grey church at one end and rows of small cottages on either side. The people looked as if they had stepped out of a black and white photograph. They wore long Victorian style clothing; women in long dresses and men in full suits with a top hat. I have to admit I was slightly tempted to steal one of the hats…they just looked so cool! A horse and cart clattered down the street which made me jump back in surprise. That was when I noticed the huge old miserable building behind me. It was tall and towered over the rest of the street, its long shadow covering the road. Its sandy stone columns and heavy wooden door stared down at us. While the building gave off a grand air, it also made me feel extremely uncomfortable. The butterfly pit at the bottom of my stomach started fluttering fiercely.
“That’s the court and execution house,” Willow explained, “Welcome to Gallows Way.”
“What?” I squeaked; the name sent shivers running down my spine.
“That’s the name of the street, Gallows Way. Prisoners are brought here from the prison, which is down there,” Willow pointed to another building that could only just be seen in the background. It was like the court and execution house but much bigger and more terrifying. A high metal fence ran around the outside of it and guard towers were posted at each corner. The building, while it had similar architecture to the courthouse, lack the grandeur, it was instead simply terrifying.
“Scary, isn’t it?”
“Jason, Willow, stop talking,” Araminta called, “We need to get a move on.”
“Coming!” Willow muttered as we began to walk up the steps and into the execution house.
The entrance room was lit only by candlelight. Dark daunting shadows stretched across the floor and strange cold paintings littered the walls. The walls were red and white columns were posted, like prison guards, around the room, giving the place a regal vibe. A freezing chill raced up my spine as two figures walked towards us. When the figures finally stepped into the light, I realised that they were not the revengeful ghosts I had expected them to be. To my surprise, one was a nun dressed in a long plain dark blue dress, whilst the other figure was a priest, dressed, like the nun, in a dark blue habit.
“I didn’t think paranormals would be religious,” I muttered to Araminta.
“Many paranormals are. Some believe in the same religions that humans believe in, but most follow the paranormal religion,” she ex
plained.
“The paranormal religion? You have your own religion?” Araminta nodded.
“Sister, Father,” Angel greeted the nun and priest respectfully.
“I am Sister Odetta,” the Nun bowed her head, “And this is Father Paul. Captain Night please come with us. The rest of you go down that corridor, one of the sisters will be waiting there to take you through.”
“Right,” Angel turned to us. Her face was sickly pale, and she looked as though she was about to faint, “Alex is in charge of you until I come back. You do as he says, okay? Right, see you when this is over.”
With that Angel followed Father Paul and Sister Odetta out of the room. We followed Alexander down a long corridor. Despite the candles that floated above our heads, the corridor was incredibly dark. So dark in fact that I ended up crashing into Fern.
“What the hell!?” Fern hissed, “What was that for? I haven’t even done anything to you today!”
“Sorry I’m not really used to the dark,” I spluttered.
“Ha! The Master of Darkness isn’t used to the dark!”
“Hilarious Fern.”
“Hold out your hand.”
“Why?”
“So I can plant it in the ground and grow a sunflower, what do you think!?”
“I don’t know that’s why I’m asking.”
Fern grabbed my hand and pulled out her wand mumbling, “I try and be nice and this is what I get.”
She flicked the tip of her wand and sparks flew onto my hand. They tickled like a thousand feathers stroking my skin. The sparks joined together and formed a blue ball of light in my hand. I went to thank Fern, but she had skipped off down the corridor. Now that I could see, I realised that the walls of the corridor were red and covered in horrifying paintings, that I quickly wished I hadn’t seen.
