by Lola StVil
“No, don’t touch it. If you do they might close up again. You read what the Inka said. If you try and part it, it will grow back stronger!” Ruin says.
The team begins to argue as Bex faces immense pain and is brought to his knees. Among the chaos and back and forth, Randy manages to get our attention with the tone of his voice—fear.
“Hey guys, what is that?” he asks.
We follow Randy’s gaze and look up. The sky has churned and is now forming a dark massive twister comprised of over a thousand demons.
“This can’t be good, can it?” Randy says, terrified.
Swoop aims the Inka at the sky while we monitor Bex.
Current Image: Swarm of dark entity known as “A Calling”
Summary: An army of dark spirits with the ability to move in and out of hell.
Often summoned by evil to eradicate large groups.
Contact with these beings leads to certain death as they are poisonous to the touch.
Weakness: A Calling cannot penetrate the Gideon Vine barrier.
“We have to get inside the forest, now!” Ruin shouts.
“It’s not wide enough. We can barely fit our hands in there, let alone our whole team,” East snaps.
“More…” Bex says, signaling for the other two snakes to feed on his other arm.
“No, it’ll kill you!” Swoop says.
“Guys, the ‘Calling’ thing um…it’s moving really fast,” Randy says, unable to take his eyes off of the sky.
“We have to go, now!” Ruin pleads.
“MORE!” Bex screams.
We have no choice. We place his other hand out and the other two snakes begin to feed on Bex as well. Bex is now on the floor screaming in agony as his soul is being taken from him. The vine starts to unravel a little faster, but by now the Calling is about to land on the shore.
“We have no way to fight it. We cannot be here when it comes!” Ruin shouts.
Bex mumbles something in the midst of his pain. I get closer to the ground to hear him. When I realize what he’s saying, I adamantly refuse.
“What is it?” East asks.
“He wants us to cut open his chest so the snakes can have direct contact to his soul.”
“That would kill him in ten seconds!” Swoops says.
“Seven seconds; trust me,” Ruin admits.
“Here they come!” Randy shouts as the swarm of demons lands on the shore, all at the same time.
I take out the Gain again, and I will it to be a knife. I then carve it into Bex’s chest. The snakes now have full access inside Bex’s soul. The barrier opens wide, the dark spirits land, and Bex lies dying.
The spirits form a mob and crawl over each other to get to us. They surround us from every angle. I order everyone into the forest while I try to pry the snakes off of Bex’s arms. The team argues that they want to stay with us, but I yell at them to do what I say. They run inside the barrier and call out for us to hurry.
Bex has lost consciousness, and according to Diana he now has four seconds. I pry two of the snakes off of Bex, but the middle one won’t let go. I reach for the Gain to cut their heads off, but it drops on the ground and out of my reach.
“Shit!” I shout as Bex’s only hope slips away from between my fingers and out of my reach.
“Three seconds!” Diana screams.
I manage to extend my foot far enough to nudge the Gain over to me. I pick it up just as Bex’s life is about to be taken forever.
“Two seconds!” Diana yells.
In one swift motion the Gain becomes an axe and I hack the three heads off the serpent. Seconds later the snakes come alive again. I drag Bex’s body with me as the barrier begins to close. But just as we are about to go all the way through the barrier, a demon reaches out for Bex’s limp body.
Thinking quickly, Swoop grabs the Gain and it turns into a torch. She uses it to wave the flames in front of the demon. It does not kill him, but it enrages him and makes him go after Swoop. Thankfully the barrier closes and puts a wall of vine between certain death and us.
We are all weak with relief to be inside the forest. We hear Bex groan, so we know he’s alive. We go over to help him but we halt suddenly when Swoop places the palm of her hand over her eyes and starts screaming. She falls to the ground writhing in pain.
“Swoop, what is it?” East begs.
“It hurts! It hurts!” Swoop cries out in torment.
“The spirit demon she attacked must have made contact with her eyes. I need her to be still so I can check,” Diana tells me.
“Swoop, you have to stay still so we can take a look,” I reply.
While Diana looks Swoop over, she orders East to get a mixture from her pouch and administer it to Bex.
“We can’t be out here in the open like this. Randy, go find somewhere for us to hide. Somewhere close!” I order.
“Okay, be right back!” Randy shouts.
“Lucky the demon just brushed by her face, but it’s still harmful,” Diana informs me.
“How bad?” I ask.
“If we don’t get her to stay still so I can extract the remainder of the poison, she could lose her eyes—permanently.”
“Swoop, you’re gonna be okay, but you have to let us help you. You have to stay still,” I tell her.
She cries out and begs us to get the poison out from her eyes, but she’s still moving too much.
“Damn it, Bird, please, please stop moving,” I beg as I take her hand.
Diana places a drop from a dark vial into Swoop’s eyes and reminds her not to move.
But Swoop is in too much pain to comply. She sends out a cry from the bottom of her soul. It seems to wake the forest up and call out to all the malicious creatures that dwell within it. We hear howling and moaning coming from different parts of the forest.
“East, is Bex okay?” I ask.
“Yeah, he’s … he’s weak but he’s alive.”
“Good. Go find Randy and a place for us to hide—quickly.”
Swoop calls out again, and Diana warns me that in the next few minutes, if Swoop does not stay still, she will lose her eyes for good. Swoop sobs as the pain continues to rip into her eyeballs.
“Silver…it hurts,” she says, her voice so broken it’s no longer recognizable.
“I know, Bird. I know, baby. But you have to do something for me, okay? You have to think of something else. Something better than this place. Please try; for me.”
“I’m with my mom,” Swoop says as she tries to calm herself down.
“Good, good. Where are you two?” I ask as Diana tends to her.
“Shoe shopping in Tokyo. She lets me try everything in the store. She laughs…when we buy the same pair…boots…My mom, she has the best laugh…” Swoop says as she starts to sob again.
Thinking of something else works. Swoop is still as Diana takes care of her. I hold her hand and vow not to let her go. Swoop is always so happy and energetic it’s difficult to see her hurting. And even though she pretends like she has it all together, deep down she’s still just finding her way. And with all the powers she has, she’s still just a girl who really, really misses her mom.
Once Diana is done applying the mixture, she applies bandages over Swoop’s eyes and tells us she needs to rest.
“How much time?” I ask.
“I should know more in about an hour,” Diana says as she goes over to check on Bex.
East and Randy return and together we get everyone inside the nearest hidden refuge. In this case, it’s a small cave hidden deep in the base of a large rock formation. As soon as we step inside, it starts pouring freezing rain. I sigh and shake my head in disbelief.
Sometimes, I’m really not sure whose side Omnis is on…
Chapter Seventeen:
The Familiar
The rain has turned into an all-out storm. The glacial wind whips through the trees, tearing the branches off and discarding them onto the ground. Lightning carves crudely in the sky and splits
it open. And the thunder announces itself with a deep baritone voice.
There are times when I think I see a shadow moving outside the cave, but I can’t say for sure. What I can say with certainty is that the Forest of Ash and Bone is arguably the creepiest place on earth right now.
There are mysterious sounds echoing throughout the island, making me miss the silence we faced when we first got here. I stand in front of the cave opening and spot movement from small creatures: creatures without names and in some cases without a face. They scurry around in fear of bigger darkness out to get them. Darkness that I know we will soon face.
Inside the cave, Swoop rests against the stone wall. East covers her with his jacket and Diana instructs her to keep her eyes closed until the mixture she placed on them turns into a clear paste. Right now it’s a deep purple, and according to Diana, that means Swoop is not healed yet.
Bex, on the other hand, is recovering nicely. Had he not been a Para, I think he would have died back there. Paras have stronger souls than most angels. And even though Noru are more powerful than them, Paras’ souls are very strong and durable. Bex isn’t ready for a full-scale battle, but his wounds are healing, thanks to Diana’s mixture, and he’s able to walk around the cave.
“Could I really lose my eyes?” Swoop asks Diana.
All of us exchange a worried glance. Swoop is deathly afraid the mixture Diana used won’t work. She has to wait for the mixture to change color and that wait is killing her.
“Your eyes will be fine, Swoop. Stop being such a baby. We need to focus on more important things--like what kind of cell phone plan I need to get in order to call my girl from here,” East jokes.
We know it’s an attempt on East’s part to keep Swoop from worrying. She loves a good piece of gossip, and East knows she won’t be able to resist the news that he has a girl.
“What girl? Who are you seeing, Easton? I want details!” Swoop demands.
We smile as Swoop finds a new focus.
“I’m seeing Marisol,” East replies proudly.
“The cute girl in the hallway you blew our cover to?” Swoop asks.
“Yeah, I was supposed to Mind wipe her but I didn’t—and before any of you say it, yes, I think I did the right thing. And no, I’m not wiping her mind,” East says firmly.
“It’s a shame, you just got a steady girl and now Pryor’s gonna have to kill you,” Bex says.
“I am not afraid of Pry. I will proudly admit to her that I disobeyed her orders and that I did not Mind wipe Marisol.”
“So in other words, you’re gonna text her what you did from an undisclosed location and then go into hiding?” Bex says.
“Exactly,” East replies.
We laugh at the look of fear on his face. He starts to go through the countries we’d most likely get lost in where Pry could find him and give him her “Do what I say” stare.
“Okay, all jokes aside, East. How serious are you about Marisol?” I ask.
He takes out his phone and shows us the screen.
“You made her your wallpaper on your cell? Damn, that’s commitment,” Bex replies.
“She’s just so great, you know? She likes to work with a bunch of different charities and she knows how to have fun and she’s so courageous. She stands up to people for the greater good. To quote her, she hates bullies.”
I tell them about the fight I witnessed earlier, when East and Marisol were at the shelter.
“She sounds like my kind of girl,” Swoop replies.
“Yeah, she’s also been through a lot. Her mom died in a car crash when she was a kid. She was in the car too. She had to watch as they used the Jaws of Life to get her mom out. She told me her mother lived for ten whole minutes as the blood drained from her body…You would think after witnessing that she would be bitter, but she’s not. She’s a fighter. In fact, I’m pretty sure she’s at a rally right now trying to save something or someone.”
“Maybe she can start a rally to help put your wings back on when Pryor rips them off after finding out you didn’t Mind wipe her,” Swoop teases.
“She sounds great, East, but I can’t believe you didn’t wipe her. But then again, there’s so much I don’t get about you angels,” Randy admits.
“Oh yeah, like what?” Swoop asks.
“Like how come you guys don’t ever pee?”
The whole group starts laughing. None of us expected Randy to wonder about such a trivial thing.
“What? It’s a fair question!” he counters.
“Anything else you don’t get?” Swoop asks, trying not to laugh.
“I don’t get how there’s no traffic in the Angel world. I mean, don’t a group of you guys ever head to the same place all at once? And if so, who has the right of way?”
“Seriously, human, what takes place inside your head?” Ruin asks, amused.
“I guess that’s just who I am. I’m a nut. And there are things I will never, ever understand: like Bex. No matter how hard I try, I just don’t get you,” Randy admits.
“What don’t you get?” Bex asks Randy, intrigued.
“Well, you seem kind of smart,” Randy says.
I suppress a smile. Swoop and East exchange glances. Ruin looks down at the floor and shakes her head slightly as if she thinks this conversation may take a wrong turn. Bex studies Randy and waits for him to finish his thought.
“Never mind,” Randy says.
“Randy, you have something to say; say it,” Bex replies in a calm voice.
“Okay…I don’t get how you could be so reckless and so stupid. You have this remarkable angel in love with you. And that’s what Key is--remarkable. She’s intelligent, kind, funny, and Omnis himself could not have made her any more beautiful than she already is. You are lucky enough to have her in your life and what do you do? You wreck her! You slice her heart open, watch her insides fall out, and then stomp on it. And you shouldn’t have done that because Key’s amazing. She’s…she’s just so…amazing.” Randy concludes his heartfelt rant and no one is more surprised at his words than him.
Bex looks at Randy in a way that tells me I will have to run interference. But much to my surprise, Bex doesn’t attack Randy. Instead he gets up and addresses me.
“I’m gonna scout the area,” he says as he walks out into the rain.
I would have ordered him to stay with us, as splitting up in a place like this is dangerous, but I know if I don’t let Bex take a walk, we will have Randy’s blood all over the cave. I am very familiar with the look on Bex’s face. It’s the look a guy gets when he is trying really hard not to pull someone’s spinal cord out with his bare hands. Every time I have seen that look on a guy’s face, whether the guy was human, demon, Quo, or angel, it always involved a girl.
“Twenty bucks says Bex takes Randy out before the day is over,” East says.
“I have fifty that says the Para will take him out before the rain stops,” Diana replies.
“I’ll get in on that,” Swoop replies.
I shake my head and look over at Randy. I am also familiar with the look on his face. It’s the look you have when you are supposed to regret doing something but you don’t. And no matter how foolish or dangerous the move you made was, you’d do it all over again.
That’s exactly the way I felt when I kissed Pryor for the first time. I try not to go back there in my head because it will only make it harder to focus. Yet try as I might, I can’t stop the flashes from appearing in my head. Suddenly the team around me starts to blur and their voices fade. And in my mind’s eye, I am back in my room with Pryor like we were before. She had come by my room and wanted to talk. What I did was brave but mostly risky.
“I lied before, when I said I didn’t know what I wanted. I know exactly what I want. I just don’t know if it’s what you—fuck it,” I said as I reached out and kissed her.
She pulled away. I stepped back, fearing I had upset her. Feeling like a complete jerk, I apologized for trying to kiss her.
“N
o, I want to kiss you. I’m just not sure how,” she admitted.
Then she started blushing. Silver colored blood surfaced on her cheeks.
“Pryor, am I your first kiss?” I asked.
She bit her lower lip and looked off to the side.
“Oh,” I replied.
“This is so embarrassing. I better go,” she said.
“No, wait,” I begged.
She turned back towards me. I leaned in and whispered softly in her ear.
“When you’re kissing the right person, there’s no way to do it wrong,” I assured her.
Then I leaned in once again and pressed her lips to mine. I don’t think I’ve ever felt such a rush before or since. Her touch stayed with me long after she left the room.
“So, how was your first kiss?” I asked.
“Better than I ever thought kissing you could be.”
“You’ve thought about us being together like this?” I wondered.
“Only every minute of every day…”
A cold gust of wind enters the cave and brings me back to the present. I know I should not have let my mind wander--especially about kissing Pry. The pain in my chest tightens and spreads throughout my body. The pain isn’t just coming from the virus the Center placed on my chest. It’s the genuine ache that comes with her absence.
Pry, what are they doing to you?
Suddenly I want nothing more than to leave the cave. It’s as if getting away will somehow help me stop missing her. I know it won’t, but still, I need to get out of here. I look over at the team; everyone is resting.
I inspect Swoop’s wounds, and like Diana said, they are healing but the color has yet to return to Swoop’s eyes. Bex has not returned, but I’m not worried because I can see him from where we are.
I head out into the rain and go far enough that I get some space to myself and yet I’m close enough I can run back should they need me. I sit on a large rock under a makeshift awning of leaves and branches. I don’t know how long it is before she comes over to me, but I feel her before I actually see her.
“Diana, what is it?” I ask.
