Chapter Fifteen: Confrontation
The perfect nightfall.
Soulless creatures stand and wait
for their only foes.
Tonight’s sunset seemed to capture Luis’s eyes. Maybe it was because of the pressure he was under, but he felt that he needed to remember this particular sunset. He watched as the color of the sky transformed right in front of him. He made a wish, simply hoping that if anything were to go wrong, that Luna would at least be able to make it out alive. He would be able to live with a few scratches, cuts, and maybe a few limbs severed from his body, but he wasn’t too sure if he could continue on without Luna. Sure, that seemed too soon to say, but he felt that to be the truth.
Luna had made a similar wish on the same sunset. Holding onto Luis, she simply hoped that Luis wouldn’t do anything foolish or reckless when it came to dealing with the vampires. She looked at him, not even recognizing him as the boy she met earlier that year in the library. Her plan had worked, taking him from being the small boy who could barely speak and turning him into a great young man. She was proud that she was able to call him her boyfriend.
Chelsea watched the two of them, smiling at how close she seemed. It was only recently that she was starting to really become a regular person, instead of someone in the background that everyone ignored. She no longer felt the need to fight for her father’s approval, because she clearly saw that he wasn’t worth that time or effort. For the first time in her life, Chelsea decided that she was going to live life for herself and not care what anyone thought of her. Her wish upon the sunset was to be just like Luna: independent, strong, and have an amazing partner who would do anything for her.
As for Phil, all he cared about was his brother. He imagined Rick in his mind, he was probably angry and waiting around to find his first vampire. Phil wished that his brother was safe and that he would listen to their reasoning when they found him. There was no “if” for Phil; he knew that he was going to find Rick and bring him back home. Phil and Rick had been friends for their entire lives; he didn’t want that to end because of the soulless vampires.
As the sun hid behind the mountain range, Luna, Phil, and Chelsea made their leave from the Medina house. They were to return in the middle of the night for Luis, and begin their exploration. They had so many things to do, and they barely had any time to complete them. Luis wondered if they were truly as strong as they claimed to be. As he waited in his dark room, Luis prepared his body. He wasn’t going to be taken down like he had been the previous night. It was a cheap shot, one that could have been avoided if he was a little more on guard. Luis knew that he had been treating all of this as if it was a game, but now he realized that there were real lives at stake. There was no more time for playing; he was going to do whatever it took to protect his friends.
Luis spent the time in his room meditating and preparing himself for battle. He did this until midnight. He envisioned himself as his wolf form, running with his friends by his side, ready to take down the vampires. He watched his hand move, his brain telling him to bend his fingers at certain times. Luis saw that, in itself, was its own brand of magic. It too, worked with logic, and helped the whole world make sense of itself. As long as he was able to move his arms freely, he knew that he had the power to do anything he wanted. This was his life now, the life of a werewolf, and he had to be ready to embrace it.
At exactly midnight, Luis spotted the trio hop into his backyard. He had dressed himself in a robe with nothing underneath. Luna, Phil, and Chelsea were already in their wolf forms, so he knew he had to hurry. He hurried down the stairs, careful not to awaken any of his family members. After closing the back door, he changed into his werewolf form, careful to take off his robe at the appropriate time. Everyone seemed energized tonight. They all were feeling the same thing: They felt as if they were a part of something important, that they were chosen by the Universe itself to take down this evil.
“I’m telling you guys, don’t doubt the power of magic,” Chelsea informed them as they began running down the street. “All of this can’t just be coincidence, right? You can’t tell me that after all we’ve seen, that all of this happened merely by accident.”
They all knew that Chelsea was speaking the truth. Whatever was in charge of the workings of the Universe must have had a soft spot for them. It made them only feel more empowered on what they were going to do. They felt like they couldn’t be harmed at all because everything was taken care of. The scratch on Luis’s arm was only minor and it had already healed up half way through the day. Luis felt completely revitalized; his running became more ecstatic and his eyes burnt with pride. Phil looked over at the young man, the boy that he had doubted ever since they met not so long ago.
“Looks like you can pick good guys after all,” Phil teased his sister. “It’s a good thing too. I was getting worried there; wondering why you couldn’t get a boyfriend.”
“Shut up!” Luna told her brother as the entire group laughed.
The four of them reached the downtown area, ready to start in the same place they did last time. As they got closer to the middle of the area, they would have to be more careful. It was one of those nights where people let their inhibitions melt away into a shot glass of vodka. Of course, it was also the perfect place for blood thirsty vampires to find some new prey.
Walking through the abandoned street didn’t feel any different for any of them. They were all on their guard, ready to fight when the time came. Luis wanted to take down the blond vampire that had attacked him, to show him that what happened last night was simply a lucky strike. Every single one of them seemed to have a specific target in mind, although none of them knew what they were going to do if they faced the orange haired girl. Whoever killed her would probably face a lifetime of hatred. Even Phil was having cold feet about his decision.
They turned the corner, staring back at the abandoned car. All the windows seemed to be completely shattered, probably by those who passed it in the day time to see if they could find something valuable. All that seemed left was the rusted metal skeleton, which was barely standing on its own anyway. Perched on top of the car was a small figure covered in black. Phil knew now not to attack carelessly. They all slowly approached the car, listening to the figure on top of the car humming to herself.
“Jack and Jill went up the hill, to fetch a pail of water,” The voice cooed.
One by one, six more figures jumped from their hiding places. They landed on their feet, creating a circle around the werewolves. They came closer and closer, causing the circle to become smaller. No one wanted to strike first; everyone was waiting for the other side to make the first move. The figure on the car stood up and took off its hood. It was Karin, her face revealing no emotion, yet her eyes were wide open.
“But Jack died as he fell down, and Jill masked her tears with laughter,” Karin taunted.
“Don’t look her in the eye!” Phil reminded his group.
It was Drake who finally made the first attack. He came sprinting at the werewolves, ready to strike Chelsea. Phil intercepted the blow, using the force of his body to throw Drake a distance back. Phil went in to take down Drake as the fight completely broke lose. Chelsea had her sights set on the girl who seemed to be barely floating off the ground. As Chelsea came running after the girl, she barked, causing the floating girl to shiver and fall to the floor. Chelsea was ready to take a bite off of the girl, but the girl narrowly escaped the attack.
“Quit messing around Maka,” Karin told the floating vampire.
“I didn’t mean for it to happen,” The girl told her. “Just hurry up with your side of the deal.”
Luna was caught in a brawl with Light. Every time Luna went in to try to bite the vampire, he would swiftly move out of the way. With every miss, Light’s laughter would become louder and louder. Luna didn’t understand why this guy was laughing; she couldn’t tell if he was simply taunting her or if he seriously found this whole situation entertaining. Light ran head first at Luna
, tackling her to the ground. His laughing became more maniacal as he had Luna pinned to the cold cement. Luna barked at the young man, only to be greeted with more laughter.
“Sorry to disappoint you, but I’m not as useless as my sister,” Light told the wolf.
Luis was caught up in his own battle with Alexis. She was puzzled why the werewolf was attack her in the first place. She was using her power, to emit the scent of the one thing that attracted him. What Alexis didn’t know was that the scent that was flowing into his nostrils was the smell of Luna’s skin. There was only one Luna, and she was helping him take down the vampires. He wasn’t blinded by love; instead, he was being fuelled by it. Luis snapped at Alexis, and latched his teeth upon her arm. He ripped it clean off, tossing it into the darkness. Luis pivoted his vision, and saw that Luna was on her back, pinned down by the vampire who attacked him the previous night.
“Luna!” Luis cried own, diverting his attention from Alexis to Light.
“Stop, you idiot,” Luna instructed him. “I’m going to be fine; do what you need to do.”
Luis paused. “I will,” he told her.
Luis ran straight into Light. The force was so great; Luis threw Light’s body half way across the street. Light had his nails dug into Luna, so when Luis pushed him off, it created some gashes in Luna’s side. Light got the worst part of the deal though; his smashed into the rusted car. His entire right arm was almost completely severed from his body. Light was clenching his teeth, his breathing becoming much harsher. Luna was staggering onto her feet.
“I could have handled him by myself,” Luna informed Luis. “You needed to take care of Alexis. You could have finished her off.
“I wasn’t going to let him hurt you,” Luis told her.
Their conversation ended there. Luis was attacked by Karin, who was pinning him down. He refused to open his eyes, knowing how powerful she was. Karin reached inside her coat and pulled out a small dagger. Swiftly, she stabbed it to Luis’s left side. Luis howled in pain, tears beginning to form. He couldn’t keep his eyes closed any longer. Karin was staring right at him, waiting for her chance to attack.
Reveal to me; show me what I want to know!
Luis was no longer in the middle of the street fighting off the vampires. He was back in his room, breathing heavily. Checking his left arm, it no longer seemed to be bleeding. In fact, there seemed to be no trace of a wound at all. He hurried out of bed to examine the house. It was a dark and stormy night, in the distance, he heard a dog howling. Luis didn’t feel like he was walking through the house. It was like he was gliding, like a ghost across the floor.
The first room he entered was Ashley’s room, right next to the stairs. The window to her room was completely smashed in and the posters in the room seemed completely torn apart. His breathing became shallow when he looked across the Queen sized bed. Ashley was covered in blood, her body lying across her stomach, but her head was facing up. He stared into Ashley’s hollow eyes, wondering what she was thinking just before she died. Luis screamed at the sight, running out of the room.
Unable to control himself, he began to vomit in the hallway. It flowed roughly through his throat and seemed to increase in mass every time he thought about Ashley’s body. Weak, he crawled on all fours towards his parent’s room. He wasn’t sure if he could handle, wondering about what he would see in there. His forehead was burning and he began to cough uncontrollably.
Before he could open the door to his parent’s room, a sharp pain was going through the left side of his body. Luis screamed, collapsing to the floor. Everything was becoming blurring, and yet, it was all coming back into focus.
Luis opened his eyes, once again aware of the pain that was on his left side. There was no longer a knife implanted in the left side of his body; it felt as if it had been forced out. The cool air roughly kissed the wound, causing it to burn relentlessly. Karin was no longer on top of him, controlling his mind. He did his best to get on his feet as he saw that Luna had tackled Karin off of him. Luna was swiping at her head, but Maka quickly knocked Luna off of Karin.
“Did you get it,” Maka asked, holding onto Karin as they began to ascend into the sky.
“Yep,” Karin answered with a smug smile on her face. “Let’s go; I can figure out the way.”
Phil ceased his fighting with Drake and began to climb on the car. Desperately, he jumped to take a bite at Karin. He was too slow, with Maka making dramatic turns in the air. The two of them flew away into the night. The fight continued on, but the vampire’s strategy changed. They no longer seemed to wish to fight, but instead to just hold off the werewolves. Finally, Drake jumped onto the top of the abandoned car.
“Let us retreat,” Drake called out to his followers. “We have what we need. We will concur them another day!”
At once, the vampires that were left stopped fighting and ran away from the area. The werewolves followed, leaving Luis in the rear. Luis limped as fast as he could, but he knew that he would be no help at all anymore. Alexis had ahold of her severed arm, making sure that it wouldn’t be left behind and be turned into ash when the sun rose. She would be able to regenerate the arm back onto her body once they were all safe. Luna was the one leading the pack, wanting to take a bite out of Alexis. Her growling and barking became more prominent, wishing to bite off the girl’s head.
The vampires were able to retreat themselves into the hideout. Their hopes in leaving the werewolves in their dust were shattered. They were all ready to fight again, but this time on their own turf. Closed spaces were where vampires always had the upper hand. Light’s laughter became that as a mad man, a way to taunt the werewolves. He clenched his body, ready to attack the wolf that was leading the pack. Luna increased her speed, ready to break through the entrance.
Luna was stopped dead in her tracks. She was right at the entry way of the vampire’s hideout. The doors were wide open and she could clearly see every one of them standing right in front of her, ready to continue their battle. Phil and Chelsea quickly caught up with Luna but were faced with the same problem. No matter how much they tried, they weren’t able to make it through the entry way. By the time Luis was able to catch up to the group, they had stopped trying to force their way in all together.
The ones who were shocked by this the most were the vampires. They knew that they had broken the contract a long time ago, meaning that they were no longer protected under the ancient magic. It should have been perfectly fine for the werewolves to come right in and allow them to continue the battle. None of the vampires dared to venture to the outside; they weren’t suicidal. There was a standoff between both the werewolves and the vampires.
Drake couldn’t comprehend why the shield was still around them. It didn’t seem possible; they had clearly broken the treaty, the werewolves should have been able to come right in and fight to the death. This wasn’t a happy or a relieving moment for him. He was disappointed; all of his plans were breaking down right in front of him. He was going to trap them and exterminate them with ease. Of course, Maka and Karin were gone, to make sure that Plan B was taken care of. This wasn’t over yet, not by a long shot.
The werewolves decided to retreat, knowing that the vampires weren’t going to leave their hideout for any reason. Luna did her best to support Luis up as he limped through the streets. She couldn’t help but feel responsible for what happened to him. He was only trying to save her, and he was the one who took the most damage in that fight.
“What did Karin do to you,” Phil asked Luis as they began a light job back to Luis’s place.
“She wanted me to look in her eyes,” Luis began to explain, doing his best to support himself. “I couldn’t help it; the pain was too much for me to take. Then, she sent me back to my house. I don’t know why I couldn’t tell it was a dream from that point. It all seemed just too real. I walked through my house and went to my sister’s room. I saw lying on her bed, completely lifeless. I was going to go to my parent’s room before Luna snapped me
out of it.”
Phil’s’ jaw clenched as Luis finished explaining the ordeal. Luna sympathized with Luis, knowing full well the power that Karin had over someone’s mind. She remembered how real it was to be faced with that Luis, and how afraid she was when he wanted to kill her. She knew that your common sense wasn’t something that followed you into the daze. That didn’t mean they were weak, it only meant that Karin knew how to manipulate illusions, and she was getting better and better with every passing day. There was no way that they were going to make any progressed as long as she still existed in this world.
Maka had carried Karin the entire way. This all had been a part of their plan all along, the Plan B that they needed in order to make sure that they held the werewolves in their place. They both were surprised by how simple it was to do, how easy it was to manipulate the mind of their enemy. Maka was following Karin’s directions as closely as possible.
“How do you know where to go,” Maka asked as they glided through the night sky.
“He told me,” Karin explained, “and he doesn’t even know he did it. I told him to take me where his family was, and what would terrify him the most inside that house. As soon as the illusion beamed between us, it was like his mind traveled back to his home. Manipulating the mind of a weakling like him doesn’t take much effort.”
“Clever,” Maka told Karin.
As they approached the house that Karin saw in Luis’s dream, she instructed Maka to descend. They landed on top of the roof, already knowing what they needed to do. They were going to find the best way to hurt the werewolf. The two girls prepared themselves for anything to happen; they expected the people to be awake as well, unknowing of the fate that would happen to them.
Karin found the window that resembled the one in the room that Luis woke up in. She smashed it open, ready for an ambush. Seconds passed, and nothing happened. No one came running inside the house, asking them what business they had. There was no security alarm to protect them. The two girls made their way to the hallway. Maka walked straight to the end, passed the stairs and to the master bedroom. There, she found Luis’s parents, sleeping peacefully.
“What is this,” Maka said to herself. “Karin, are you sure you got the right house?”
“I’m positive,” Karin answered, frustrated. “Here, come look! This is the same girl that he saw.”
Maka made her way back towards the room closest to the stairway. Karin had recognized the room almost perfectly. Slowly walking in, Karin knew that she was in the right house. His sister was sleeping peacefully in her bed without a care in the world. There was no visible stress on her face, looking as if she had the perfect life, having to go on without any worries.
“They’re humans,” Maka muttered. “They all carry the scent of the human, but they’re connecting to that boy.”
“Curious,” Karin added, “very curious. We’ll have to tell Drake about this when we get back. But first, let’s finish the job.”
Maka went back to the master bedroom and hovered over the sleeping couple. She didn’t want any of them to make any noise and causing attention to be drawn to them. She knew that the quickest way of killing them was to simply stop their breathing. She started with the man, holding his neck between her hands. In a single, swift movement, Maka crushed his windpipe. The man made a coughing noise and then breathe no more. Maka moved on to do the same thing to the female. Maka became apprehensive with the woman, but was swiftly able to end her life. The couple died in their sleep, only clinging to each other’s hands.
Karin was always the risk taker, which was why she wanted to handle the fire. She laid out all the flammable substances she could find across the house. Karin wanted to make sure that this place would burn to the ground, leaving behind nothing but ash. Once everything was perfectly laid out, she lit a napkin using the stove. Carefully, she threw the burning napkin onto the floor, lighting the ground on fire. Karin had made the trail to go the opposite way of the stairs, to give her enough time to get away.
The two girls met at the top of the stairs, right next to Ashley’s room, to implement the final part of their plan. They were grateful that the girl appeared to be a heavy sleeper. They knew that there wasn’t much time left for them to escape. Karin had underestimated the power of the flames, which were about to start burning up the stairs. They ripped whatever clothing they could from the girl’s room and tied up her arms and legs. They covered her mouth; the force causing her to wake up. She wanted to scream, but it was dully muffled by the shirt that was covering her lips. Ashley’s eyes were screaming as her muffled voice was begging for them to leave her alone. That was when she noticed the flames, which were rising much quicker than Karin expected. Ashley was now crying, her muffled screams becoming louder.
Maka moved over to the girl’s window, breaking open the glass.
“Let’s go,” Maka instructed Karin, who was keeping a good hold of Ashley.
grabbed onto Karin and picked the two of them up. Ashley couldn’t believe that she was flying through the air by a girl who seemed to be much smaller than her. She looked down, terrified by how far off the ground they were. She quickly fainted, bringing relief to the vampires who had to carry her. Their job was finished, and it was done very well. They began to wonder how important their Plan B would be; neither of them had any knowledge of what happened after they left. As they were instructed, Maka flew Karin and their hostage back to the hideout, prepared for further orders.
Waxing Darkness Page 16
