And Then There Was Hope

by Greg Dragon

  He did neither. Instead, he showed her the stump of his hand, which oozed a disgustingly thick, yellow substance that plopped out as if something from within the wound was pushing it out. She watched the ooze as it solidified and reformed into a hand to replace the former one. That’s different, she thought. This one has some sort of accelerated healing power and is able to shoot guns. He leaned down to recover the fallen pistol and Alysia dashed forward and took his head off, screaming, “KIYAH!” loudly, catching herself as she did this because the noise had come from out of nowhere.

  She bounced back and lifted Euphoria above her head to see if the demon would explode into ashes. The headless corpse fell to the ground, not far from the area where the head had rolled and it lay there twitching as Alysia Knight looked to make sure no other creatures were sneaking up on her. She wished t she could still hear them; it was the one gift of Chaos’s that she would have kept if given a choice.

  The yellow goop dripped from out of his neck just like the arm had done before it and sure enough, a head grew from out of it to replace the former. Alysia rolled her eyes and looked down at the blade. There was no trace of blood, pus or slime from the cuts she had made, and she surmised that the creature in front of her was not a demon like the rest. It was an elite, that was for sure, and her fifth mark for Chaos that would supposedly save the world—though she wasn’t convinced this was true.

  She wondered why this demon was so different from the rest, having no shadowy, monstrous body, or misty cold blackness to terrorize its enemies with. It was slimy and zombie-like, though zombies of lore would die once you sever the spine or pierce the brain, she thought. Pierce the brain. She ran in and thrust the tip of the sword into the soft, developing head of the downed demon and pulled it out, hoping to see it explode or give some sort of sign that her hunch was correct. He merely looked up at her and stood, bringing the gun up with him, ready to resume firing.

  Think, CeeCee, think! Looking around for something that could clue her in on how to defeat her opponent, she focused her eyes on the figure of the demon and it’s sickly, taut skin that barely covered the bones. He had an awkward anatomy that betrayed his attempt at appearing human to her. The midsection was too round for the skeletal arms and legs, and he could barely move due to it, outside of standing and aiming the weapon.

  She timed the bullet, letting the speed of her newfound powers spin her past it. But instead of chopping at the neck like she wanted to do, she disemboweled the demon and then brought the blade back around to cut through his legs. The sound that she had wanted to come from him when she struck his head now emitted from his abdominal as he was split open, revealing a miniature demon on the inside. It looked like a cross between a vampire bat and a large serpent, and it uncoiled itself and took to the air to get away from her as she raised the blade for a killing strike.

  Alysia jumped and slashed at the creature as it beat wet wings to escape her deadly stroke, and she barely missed as it got higher and higher. She scooped up the pistol from the discarded corpse and began to fire at it. Her aim was terrible and the weapon was heavy but she kept on firing until it was overheated.

  One of the bullets caught the wing of the creature and it crashed into the woods beyond the ruins. Alysia sheathed her sword and chanced a glance at the corpse. It was quickly decaying as it lay without its host and she wondered how long it had been used for it to be in the useless state that it now was. She took to her heels and ran to where the creature had fallen.

  There were bushes all over, and the late hour made it hard to see, but she knew it was still in the vicinity, that telltale pulse coming back to her. She stopped and held her breath to listen to her surroundings. There was an eerie silence that made the air seem thick, but she stood like a statue in anticipation of the wounded creature trying to flee.

  When the large wolf came crashing through the woods at her, she wasn’t quite ready for it, as she expected it to be the demon. It was massive, and when it crashed into her she thought that perhaps it was a bear. She placed her armored hand up around its maw to stop the gnashing teeth from finding her face as it brought her to the ground. As she lay beneath its heavy body, she could feel its enormous gut pushing down on her painfully, making it hard to breathe.

  He was like a big, shaggy dog with the exception of his eyes. Where there was once the sad, curious life of a wild animal within those sockets, there now was deep blackness. The demon was within it and Alysia knew. She struggled to get from beneath it and close a good grip around Euphoria, but the way the wolf lie, gnashing and gnashing at her exposed face, she was not able to feel her sword.

  After a time she gave up on the sword and closed both gauntleted hands around its muzzle, squeezing it shut and digging her fingers into its flesh. The wolf felt the pain and backed up off of her, shaking its head to free its mouth from her grip.

  Once her hands were free she found her sword and then thrust it through the stomach of the creature. That audible scream that had come out when the bat flew now came from the mouth of the gigantic wolf. She scrambled to her knees and stabbed it again, stabbing and stabbing in hopes of killing the demon. It was after the fifth stab that the blade struck home, and the wolf’s body tore open as the demon climbed out to try and escape.

  “No, you don’t!” Alysia screamed and then cut it in half as it took to the air. The creature became like oil, splashing thickly from her cut, and then the familiar rush of its life energy took her over. There was nothing special about this rush like the one she experienced with the Chinese demon. She wasn’t lifted into the air, and her body didn’t damage itself in order to grow back stronger. What she felt instead was a feeling of release, as if a great weight had finally been lifted.

  What was that gift? she wondered to herself as she walked over to the large wolf’s corpse and sat down next to its massive head.

  “I wish he hadn’t corrupted you, you majestic creature.” She spoke to it, stroking its fur and feeling remorseful. “They take, and take, and take. That is all that they do; they corrupt our kind, ruin the land, and force us to join their number. Do not hold it against me that I had to run you through. Understand my intent and know that I would never had done that if you were you.”

  She stood up and whispered a prayer for the animal, and then jogged back into the ruins of the castle. She climbed the fallen stones to the top of the highest remaining tower, and once there sat down and waited for the moon to rise.

  ~ * ~ * ~

  “JAIME!” Tracy yelled as she walked behind James, who was using Jaime’s tracks to try and find him. Isobel and Jasmine hung back behind them, saddened and sickly in some strange new state that had come over them since Koko had disappeared. They pushed into the dark woods, the trail telling a tale of Jaime’s quest a few days before when he had disappeared.

  “Have we considered that he and the girl may have eloped?” Tracy asked, glancing back at Isobel to see what she had to say.

  “I can no longer feel Koko,” the tiny girl said, and wiped a tear.

  Tracy looked away quickly, knowing it meant bad things for Jaime’s fate.

  “Jimmy, stop,” Tracy announced suddenly. “I’m not safe here. None of us are, and we need to turn back.”

  “What about Jaime? We can’t leave him behind,” the big man said, but the three girls didn’t look as enthused as he was to find their friend. “Izzy, Jazz?” he called at them, using the pet names he knew they liked. The two girls looked up with tear-streaked eyes and stared at him as if awaiting instruction. “Take Tracy back to the barracks and wait for me,” he said. “Try to contact CeeCee. Let her know that we’re in a lot of trouble.”

  “Jimmy, you can’t—” Tracy began, but he touched her face reassuringly and kissed her lips. “I can’t leave our people behind, Trace. It’s not right. I know how to find them, trust me on that, but I need you to be safe, so you can’t come with me.”

  Tracy wanted to object and argue to go with him, but she
knew it wouldn’t work and would only delay him further. She held the kiss for a long time, and then when she was certain she could handle the separation, she broke away and jogged behind the two girls.

  James Knight held his pistol up and pushed forward through the woods. He glanced back to see the last of the girls as they exited the woods and he pushed on into the area that seemed as if it shunned sunlight. When he got to the shadows, he stopped and closed his eyes, letting them adjust so that he could make out the trees and anything strange that might pop out of them. He twisted his watch one click to the right, forcing it to emit a fluorescent light in hopes of picking up on Jaime’s clothes if he was lying nearby.

  He followed the path for the better part of an hour until he came to a clearing that was so alien in its appearance that he lowered his gun. It looked as if a bomb had exploded in the woods and left a perfect circle of flattened trees where he stood. It was empty but stunk of rotted flesh, and as he walked out toward the flattened branches, the ground felt soft and made a whistling sound with every step he made.

  “What in the hell?” he said out loud, and then glanced around to see if there was an answer to his question.

  A number of black figures began to step out of the woods from the far side and he realized it was Maria’s team of men. He eyed them curiously, wondering why it was that they wore masks even though everyone knew that the chemicals that permeated the air were meant to hurt demons and not human beings. Next came Maria; her hair was out and it draped loosely over her shoulders. She was still in the clothes she wore on the first day and every day afterwards, and he wondered where it was that she had her camp.

  “Hey, Hope,” he announced as she walked into the clearing.

  “Hey, Mr. Knight,” she replied, showing her fanged teeth in a sort of smile.

  He could feel the presence of more of her soldiers walking up from behind him. They seemed to be coming from everywhere, pouring out of the woods like freshly strained coffee through a filter. He didn’t bother to look at them, knowing they were there, and he felt a familiar calm come over him.

  “Have you seen Jaime?” he asked her, pretending that the numerous masked men that surrounded him threateningly were not there.

  “Jaime? Is that the young guy with the Asian girlfriend?” Maria asked, pretending to think about it as she played along with James’s aloofness.

  “Yea, that would be him. He came in here looking for her a while ago, but we haven’t seen him and I know that he came in this direction,” James said.

  Maria licked her forefinger and kept her smile as she did it. “Mhm, he may have come this way. But as you know, Mr. Knight, these woods are very dangerous. With all the demons running around and whatever else, I think he may not have reached our camp.”

  “Where is your camp?” James asked, keeping his eyes locked on hers and refusing to move a muscle.

  “We’re set up back here,” she said, indicating with her thumb the area behind her.

  “Nice sword,” James said finally, looking at the decorative scabbard that hung at her waist and recognizing it as Koko’s, a weapon she would never willingly separate herself from.

  Maria looked down at the sword as if it was the first time she had noticed it. She cocked her head and looked at James Knight as if she was sizing him up.

  “One last question,” James said as he kept on staring at Maria with the masked men looming ever closer to where he stood.

  “What?” Maria asked, her patience seemingly gone, along with her smile.

  “Was that sweet, innocent girl whose name you claim ever inside that wicked body I’m about to burn?”

  He didn’t wait for her to answer as he raised the pistol and shot her between the eyes. The men hesitated for a second when it happened and it was all the time he needed to jump, roll, and rob Maria’s fallen body of the sword.

  The men came in at him, unable to open fire due to their proximity with one another, and James Knight used the opportunity to cut them down one after another with Kenjutsu muscle memory that, unlike his daughter, was not the product of organized tournaments. James had been in a situation like this before, but he had been a lot younger and the weapon he had at the time had been a knife.

  He caught the first man rushing in by the throat and shifted his leg to go between his as he pulled him violently forward, snapping his leg across his own and then thrusting him backwards into two more. He spun and swung the sword down in an arc, cutting into the hand of one man reaching for him, and catching the face of another who had gotten in too close from the side. He was a maelstrom of fury, and while his moves were not as crisp and impressive as his disciplined daughter, they were strong and effective, and his attackers fell in droves.

  The masked men rushed in from all corners, threatening to swarm him, but Koko’s sword was of Yalem and its edge stayed true, helping James Knight keep them off him. While the fighting went on, the form of Maria climbed to her feet and retreated back into the woods. There were tears of pain pouring from her eyes as the bullet pushed further and further into her head. The wound would heal; it always did, but it didn’t make the pain any easier to deal with.

  She beat a path through the trees to get to the area of the clearing James Knight had come through. She found the trail and walked its length, heading towards the barracks and away from the dangerous warrior and the demons that were under her control. The bullet had stopped its burying and the healing was pushing it out, so she quickened her pace to reach the outside of the woods, hoping she would be there before her demons finished off James Knight.

  ~ * ~ * ~

  The moon was large, full, and bright amidst the blackish blue of the night above the tower. Alysia Knight crossed her legs, closed her eyes, and clasped her hands, letting her mind go through the ritual that would bring her into the realm of Yalem. The familiar blackness took her over and the feeling of weariness and ultimately sleep made her drift within her own thoughts.

  She thought back to a time when her mother was with her. They were in a kitchen, and from her tiny hands she could tell that she was about fifteen. It was Thanksgiving, and she was seasoning the turkey. Her mother, ever the professional, was near the sink, cutting up vegetables and talking to her about doing better in school.

  “You will want to transcend me and your father,” she was saying, and Alysia recognized the lecture as the reoccurring one that she would hear whenever she got a grade that was lower than a B.

  “Okay, Mom,” she replied, and as she reached for the turkey, it grew translucent. Her hand passed through it and she was back in the blackness, feeling around for something solid. This was the part of the travel between realms that she hated most. When she prodded the air with her hands, there was nothing there, and when she stomped down to feel the ground, there was nothing there, either. It was just the darkness and it would stay for a time before making her unconscious.

  Alysia went to sleep after a few minutes and then woke up in the familiar field of flowers in Yalem. Blue lilies were everywhere, so tall that it appeared as a vast blue ocean, broken only by a bright yellow path.

  “Okay, gotta get to the girls … and Dad,” Alysia mumbled as she stood up and dusted off her hands.

  She looked up into the yellow sky and then the mountains in the distance. It was always so peaceful there that she wished that she had time to stay and enjoy the scenery. She wondered if access to Yalem would still be open once she killed the sixth demon elite. She hadn’t felt the demon after killing the last one and she didn’t feel it now, which she found odd. I wonder if there even is a sixth demon, she thought as she walked towards the yellow pathway.

  When she got to the path, she clasped her hands, focusing everything on the idea of the barracks and the feelings she had for her father. It was always an effort to put other thoughts aside in order to focus, but the worry she had for her friends made it easy and the path began to shimmer the way it did whenever she was returning to the world. The
path went from shimmering to writhing and bucking, like a wave of gold, moving as if it meant to throw her from its surface, and before long it did and everything was black.

  The darkness appeared again, but this time there was the sensation of floating. Alysia readied herself for what she would appear into and after a few minutes, she was standing in front of a battered stone building—the barracks. It was late evening, and she saw that Jasmine was walking around with her sword out.

  “Jazz!” Alysia shouted, and the tall girl glanced at her wickedly before recognizing who it was and running over to give her a hug.

  “They killed Koko, CeeCee! She went to go spy on Hope and they killed her. Now your father is there and is in trouble, too. Isobel went to go help him but she hasn’t been back in an hour. I can still feel her, CeeCee, but if I leave Tracy and the baby…” Jasmine said in such a fast bout of rambling that it took Alysia a few seconds to absorb what she was saying and break it down into meaningful information.

  “So my dad’s in the woods, captured or in trouble, Isobel went to help him but has been gone for a long time, and Koko is dead,” Alysia said, trying to see if she got it all or if something was missing.

  “Yes, we are in a lot of trouble. I tried to call lord Chaos, because Hope seems to be very powerful. He doesn’t respond, CeeCee. I think we are all alone.”

  “He will not answer because we have betrayed him,” Alysia said. She ignored the part about the baby; her intuition had told her as much when she saw that her father had chosen to run, looking for safety instead of staying to help her fight. “So you’re guarding Tracy and Izzy’s gone hunting?” she asked and Jasmine nodded. “I can feel her. Wait for me, Jasmine.”

  She took off sprinting towards the area of the woods where Isobel’s life force had screamed out to her for help. She came upon the path that led back into the blackness, and she saw traces of blood, Isobel’s blood, splattered across the tree trunks that bordered the path leading back. She pulled out Euphoria and took to the branches, skipping across them with light steps, the way Isobel had taught her to do, a technique mastered by the lord of Chaos.