by Lola StVil
I order Randy to stay up in the tree where he is as I try to get up and help the others. Swoop and East have been able to injure a few of the Eway that were surrounding them with the help of heavy branches nearby. But they are still outnumbered and in need of aid.
I hurl the Gain at them and East catches it. He turns the Gain into a sword; he cuts it through the air and manages to take three of those bastards’ heads clean off. A few yards away, Bex tackles the Eway by snapping their necks. As I run over to help Bex and Easton, I shout to Diana to get Randy and Swoop to safety.
We have managed to kill a good number of them, but the leader sends out a howl into the air and within seconds a new surge of Eway come running towards us.
“We can’t fight them all, we need to go!” I order.
The three of us start running towards the river along with the other team members; the Eway follow. I have no choice but to use the last item Harris gave us—an orb the size of a ping-pong ball that liquefies anything within its blast radius. It’s called a Sparrow and I wanted to save it for the temple, but at this rate we won’t even make it there. So, I hurl the orb into the midst of Eway.
As soon as the orb lands on the ground, it explodes and a wave of smoldering fire engulfs the forest behind us. What we didn’t expect was that the wave would keep expanding.
“It’s headed straight for us—Go! Go! Go!” Bex yells.
We all bolt towards the river to avoid the oncoming blast. It’s too late; a bright auburn burst of light goes off and sends us all hurling helplessly through the air. We land on the edge of the riverbank.
“Everyone okay?” I shout as I place pressure to my side in an attempt to stop the bleeding.
“Yeah, we’re good,” Swoop says.
Diana, Bex, and East signal that they are unharmed.
“I’m fine. Let’s go again,” Randy jokes as he hangs his head, exhausted.
Diana tells me she’s out of vials to stop the pain, but she still has a vial to stop the bleeding. I insist she save it for the others because while no one is in mortal danger, everyone on the team has wounds. Instead she uses a liquid bandage to seal the hole in my side although she worries it won’t hold.
“Diana, it’s fine, for now. We are almost there. All we have to do is get on that bridge and cross this river. Then we’ll get inside the temple, find the Deed, and rescue Pry,” I remind them.
“Why is the river doing that?” Randy asks.
We all look towards the water and watch as it begins to whirl around in a giant loop. A twister has formed in the middle of the water, leaving a massive cyclone in the center.
“I’m pretty sure I’m gonna regret this, but Swoop, what’s in the river?” Randy asks.
Current image: Anhabay River (Also know as “Stew River”)
Summary: This is in fact the most dangerous river in the known world.
The river feeds on a special kind of emotion: untapped anger.
If the traveler crossing the bridge has an unexplored hatred or rage towards someone or something, the river will exploit that weakness. It will create images and sounds that only the traveler can see and hear. Every time the traveler’s anger rises, a piece of the bridge will disappear.
The End Game: The river’s goal is to make the traveler so furious and blind with rage that the bridge disappears altogether. The traveler is then hurled into a raging vortex and is never seen again.
Weakness: The Anhabay River is perfectly harmless to those with calm minds and spirits. Ironically, those who often show their rage and anger are also safe as that anger has been expressed. This river is dangerous only to those who hide their emotions from others. If a traveler is about to die on the bridge, it is said their only chance is to name the source of their anguish. Most travelers cannot bear to reveal the name of the person or thing they hate the most even with death looming below.
Hence the Anhabay River’s endless list of victims.
“Yup, I regret asking; oh so very much,” Randy says to Swoop.
“When we get on the bridge, we could just make a run for it,” Diana suggests as we make our way towards the water.
“Are you looking at the same bridge I am? That thing is like a thousand years old. If the wind blows, the bridge could fall, let alone if we run across it,” Swoop says.
“I agree with Bird. We need to go slow and be careful,” Easton replies.
“How far across is it?” Diana asks.
“About four hundred feet,” Bex says.
“And um…how high?” Randy wonders.
“I’m guessing about three hundred feet,” I reply.
Randy swallows hard and the color drains from his face.
“You okay?” East asks.
“Yeah, it’s just that it didn’t look that high from where we were. Now close-up…” Randy’s voice cracks.
“I’m sure you can do it, Randy. Just pretend my girlfriend is on the other side waiting for you. Seriously, you’d be able to help her, right? You wouldn’t freeze up like a coward, would you? How would that play out to Key if she were here?” Bex asks, obviously getting Randy back for his earlier comment.
“Fine, I can do this. In fact, I’ll go first,” Randy offers.
“Yeah, that’s not gonna happen. You follow us,” I order.
“You don’t think I can do it?” Randy pushes.
“Yeah, I know you can, but the fact is heights are natural for us and even without our wings we have better balance than humans,” I reply.
“Fine, whatever,” Randy snaps.
I glare at Bex for being a prick and challenging Randy.
“Come on, happy thoughts, people,” Easton says as we step onto the shaky wooden bridge that seems to stretch out forever. The panels are narrow and no more than two feet wide. They’re worn out and many are missing, leaving wide gaps between them. The handrail isn’t a rail at all. It’s just a few cords strung together. One good shake and the bridge will overturn and cast us out into the darkness below.
“Um…maybe Silver should skip this part,” East jokes.
I ignore him and we take our first step forward. The bridge shakes slightly. Again, I order everyone to pause and focus on something that will calm them. We take another step and the bridge shakes slightly harder. Swoop talks Randy through every step and although the wind is whipping through us and the water below is greedily waiting to consume us, so far we are all okay.
It feels like hours have gone by but in actuality it’s only been a few minutes. We are now heading towards the middle of the bridge. East moves his head slightly as if trying to dodge something. I’m guessing it’s some kind of bug by his ear. I call out and ask if he’s okay and he says “yes.”
Moments later, East starts talking to himself. We call out to him, but he seems to be in a sort of trance; he sees something before him and whatever it is, it’s upsetting him.
“East, it’s just the river, you have stay calm,” I shout.
“No, that’s not true!” he shouts to no one.
Two of the wooden panels under our feet disappear. If Swoop didn’t quickly readjust herself, she would have been thrown down into the water.
“East, you have to snap out of it!” Bex says.
“No, it’s not true!!! It’s not true!!” East screams at the top of his lungs.
“I’m gonna try and walk back over to him,” I tell Bex.
“No, you could make it worse. We have to talk him down from right where we are,” Bex replies.
“East, who are you seeing? Who’s there?” Swoop shouts.
“GET AWAY FROM ME! STAY AWAY FROM ME!” East demands to no one.
Four more panels disappear. The team is rocked by the sudden lack of support and we nearly fall forward. We hold on to the side rail, knowing at any moment we could be thrown to our death.
“East, c’mon man, talk to me. Who do you see? Who’s there with you?” I plead.
“I’M NOT AFRAID OF YOU! I’M NOT AFRAID!” East vows as he throws punche
s at the air wildly. He starts to motion as if he has his powers, which tells me he’s really out of it.
The bridge is rocking back and forth from both East’s movement and gaps caused by the vanishing panels. Yet, the river is determined to heighten East’s rage.
“I’LL HATE YOU! I’LL HATE YOU!” East yells as he lunges at the imaginary figure before him.
Every panel on the bridge vanishes. We grab hold of the rail as a last-ditch effort at staying alive. We all manage to hang on. Now, we desperately dangle on the end of the fragile ropes, three hundred feet from a watery grave.
“I WILL KILL YOU I SWEAR! I SWEAR!” East vows as he lets go of the only thing standing between him and certain death…
Chapter Nineteen:
Queen Of Furies
I use the Gain so quickly I don’t know what I willed it to be until it actually forms into the object: a whip. I use it to wrap around East and pull him up just as he’s about to hit the water. Now East is dangling at the end of my whip, but he is far from safe.
Normally I can support his weight, but the wound I suffered earlier is reopening, causing a throbbing pain at my side. Holding on to East becomes more and more difficult. It’s not a matter of if I drop him; it’s simply a matter of when.
Knowing that I am about to let him fall to his death, I have no choice but to try and hurl him towards the shore. Throwing him is a huge risk because he could miss the landing and he could get sucked into the void despite all my efforts. But there’s no time to debate with myself. I have to the take the risk and hope I can swing East far enough to get him to safety.
I force myself to forget about the wound on my side that is now spewing blood and the burning pain that comes with every passing moment. I gather all my strength and send Easton flying onto the shore. I pray to Omnis my friend makes it.
He doesn’t.
Well, at least not fully. He lands just short of the shore, on the rim of the vortex. He’s holding on by inserting his hands in between two small openings embedded along ridges of the riverbank. He reminds me of a fly trying to save itself from the pull of an industrial vacuum.
Knowing he is running out of strength and will soon be forced to let go, East takes a chance and reaches for the whip that’s tangled around his waist. He turns it into a pick and shoves it into the wall of earth before him. He pulls himself up slowly. Every step is dangerous and could very well be his last. Still East fights to stay alive by slowly climbing away from the void.
When he gets to safety, he signals for Swoop to swing herself over to him because she is the lightest of us and is very flexible. Swoop manages to twist and contort her body enough to get past us and on to the land. The two of them band together and with the help of the Gain, which they turned into a grappling hook, they are able to help all of us on to the shore safely.
Exhausted and weak, we all kneel down on the soft ground to get our bearing. The pain at my side is now at an all-time high and I groan as I press my hand against it to stop the bleeding. Diana drags herself over to me and tries to apply the vial of pain relief she had from earlier.
“No…save it for the team,” I instruct her.
“You’re part of the team. Now, move your hand so I can make the pain stop,” she insists.
“I forgot you were so pushy,” I tease as I remove my hand from the wound.
“You know that’s what you love about me,” she quips as she tends to me.
“Is everyone okay?” Bex asks.
Randy has wandered a few feet away from us and turned his back to us.
“Randy, are you alright?” Swoop asks.
He nods “yes,” but he doesn’t turn around.
“Hey, look at me. What’s wrong?” I ask.
He shakes his head “no,” signaling he will not turn so we can see his face.
Worried now, I signal to Swoop to go check on him while Diana applies the mixture to my side.
“No, I got this,” Bex replies as he takes off towards Randy. When Bex walks up to him, Randy turns his face away, ashamed.
“What’s going on with Randy?” I ask Diana, who has a better vantage point.
“They’re looking at something on the ground—oh,” Diana replies, wincing.
“What is it?” I ask.
“I think the human threw up—a lot.”
In the beginning Randy is mortified at what he’s just done and signals for Bex to go away. Judging by his expression, Randy is waiting for Bex to make fun of him, but that doesn’t happen. Instead Bex spots a broken jar at the base of a nearby tree, filled with rainwater. He takes the jar over to Randy and holds it up and slowly pours in into Randy’s hand. Randy washes his face, hands, and feet. Bex whispers something to Randy and Randy nods, looking grateful.
The two of them head back to us. I wouldn’t say they are best friends by any means, but for the first time since Randy’s outburst they aren’t throwing icy stares at each other.
“The temple is just up ahead; we should get going,” East says, sounding somber.
“Really, that’s it? You don’t want to tell us what the hell that was back there?” Diana asks.
“I don’t have to tell you anything,” East reminds her.
“Easton, we’re worried about you. What happened on the bridge? Who were you talking to?” Bex says.
“It doesn’t matter,” East counters aggressively.
“The hell it doesn’t. We almost died. We should know the reason behind it,” Diana protests.
“I’d kind of like to know too,” Randy says gently.
“Why? It’s over now. What does it matter?” East snaps.
“It matters because everything in the Angel world is connected to some kind of crazy emotion. Who knows what’s waiting for us at the temple? Maybe it’s a ‘chainsaw of guilt’ that chops your arm off if you have unexpressed guilt.
“Or maybe at the entrance of the temple there’s a three-headed monkey who will pull out your soul through your nose if it finds unexpressed sadness. Hey, it could be a circus clown with a screw loose who will cut your damn head off if you don’t reveal how you felt about the last round of American Idol!
“The point is, keeping emotions hidden away causes crazy damage in your world. So I don’t want to get personal, East, but you need to share because I like my head where it is,” Randy concludes passionately.
East looks around at all of us and sees that we are all waiting for him to reveal his hidden anger. I know he’d like nothing better than to stop this moment from happening. I know that feeling all too well. Yet sometimes there’s no escaping it. Sometimes everyone needs to get a look at your demons.
“The image on the bridge was my father, Frank,” he says, avoiding eye contact.
“I knew you didn’t like him but…do you really hate him?” Bex asks.
“No. I don’t hate him; at least not that I can remember. He’s just always unhappy with me. No matter what I do, it’s wrong.”
“Dads are…weird. They are always harder on us than they should be,” Swoop replies.
“No, this is different. He hates me. I overheard him saying it to a friend of his. He actually hates me. I learned that when I was nine, so from then on I tried to piss him off to get back at him. I guess I had defied him one time too many; one night he had enough.”
“East, what did you father do to you?” Randy asks.
“He broke my arm. My mom was out of town. When she came back I told her that I fell off my Port while I was fooling around.”
“Is this an everyday thing with him?” I ask.
“No. He only hit me that once, but you know what’s crazy? I kind of wanted him to do it again. That way I’d know he sees me. You can’t hit something that’s not there. So if he beat the crap out me, then I’d exist in his eyes.”
“Easton…” Swoop says as she embraces him.
“Is your father stronger than you?” Diana asks.
“No, I have more powers and he’s always hated that too,” East replie
s.
“If you’re stronger why don’t you fight back?” Diana pushes.
“Ruin…getting someone to hate you takes no work at all. But just getting a guy like my dad to smile at me…” East begins but can’t finish his thought.
“Okay, fine. I guess. But if you need me to suck his miserable life from his useless body…well, I have some spare time later,” Diana offers.
“Um…thanks,” he says, uncertain how to respond.
“You have to do something about this, East; you can’t keep living this way,” Bex says.
“I spend most of my time with you guys. That’s my escape,” he admits.
“Okay, well, I never thought I’d agree with the demon over there, but if Frank hurts you again, they will never find the body,” Swoop says.
“You have a dark side; I like that,” Diana replies with a smile.
We laugh and gather our things and head to the temple. While we walk, I go over to East and speak to him low so as not to be heard by the others.
“If you need a father you can always borrow mine. He’ll drive you nuts. He’s overprotective, opinionated, hotheaded, and prone to hugging you in public. But all in all, it’s pretty okay,” I offer.
“Your dad isn’t okay. He’s awesome. And thanks.”
As we walk down the muddy pathway to the temple, I reflect on my life with my father. The thing that’s always impressed me about him is also the thing that’s pushed us apart—his love for my mom. On one hand, I hated that he grieved for so long and it seemed like he didn’t want to be around without her. But on the other hand, there is something about their uncompromising love that I always admired. I thought that’s the kind of love I want to have with Pryor.
Then maybe you should stop kissing other girls in the rain…
***
As we venture towards the temple, something flies by us, leaving a trail of dark smoke.
“What was that?” I ask.
“I don’t know. It was too quick for the Inka to recognize,” Swoop replies.
