Avenging Amethyst (Immortal Eyes)

by Price, Kaitlyn

  The second I spotted him, the world around me completely disappeared. My heart beat increased and I felt an over-whelming feeling of happiness. I wanted to run into the arms of this mystery Nesmyr and run away with him. I felt like I was high on happiness, just from looking at him.

  I didn't want reality to interrupt this joy but it did. I heard someone screaming my name from behind me and after a few moments of trying to ignore it, I pulled my attention away from the Nesmyr. Reality started moving again and this time it felt like it was in fast-forward.

  Once I turned my attention back to the battle that was happening between a few Lovac and the demons, I was tackled to the ground. I was so dazed from the feeling the Nesmyr had given me that I couldn't understand what was happening.

  Where was I? What was I supposed to be doing?

  Then I heard Felix scream and it all came rushing back to me. I snapped out of my daze and looked around me. Lucas had tackled me to the ground but had crawled off of me and was walking in Felix's direction. Felix screamed when a demon cut through his arm with a small sword.

  I could see blood gushing from the wound and see Felix getting dizzy from the blood loss. The demon that had attacked him was now lying dead on the ground thanks to Riley.

  I brought my attention back to Lucas, who was slowly limping towards Felix. Lucas wanted to hurt me emotionally before he hurt me physically. I was still sitting on the ground when I figured out what was about to happen. By the time I stood up and started sprinting towards Felix, I feared I was too late.

  Lucas was already in front of Felix. Felix tried to take Lucas down but he was too weak from the blood loss. He was holding the wound on his arm to try to stop the bleeding, which allowed Lucas to have the advantage of both of his arms.

  Lucas grabbed onto Felix's shoulders, making it impossible for him to escape, and went for his neck. Everything went in slow motion as I jumped to tackle Lucas to the ground and he went to rip out Felix's throat. I hit him just as his teeth scraped Felix's neck. Lucas and I went tumbling down in one direction and Felix fell to the ground in the other direction.

  I landed on top of Lucas and tried my best to keep him from moving when I glanced back to see if Felix was okay. He was crumpled on the ground, with blood leaking out of the wound on his arm but his neck hadn't been hurt. Tears burned my eyes and I prayed that Felix was still alive. I had to kill Lucas quickly and get Felix out of here.

  I turned back to Lucas, raised my stake above his heart and was kicked in the head by a demon, throwing me a few feet across the ground. My anger was increasing by being interrupted again from killing Lucas. I stood up, breathing heavy and ran at the demon, who was helping Lucas up.

  The demon saw me coming and smiled. I launched myself at him just as he and Lucas turned to smoke and floated away. I landed painfully on the cold ground. I growled in anger and slowly stood up to try to go after the two.

  When I turned around, I saw the trail of smoke heading towards the group of Dimidiums that were mere feet away from the entrance to the cavern and their freedom. I screamed and sprinted towards them.

  There were still some remaining Zhulik and Lovac fighting in the center of the cavern and I had to dodge all of them to get to the group of Dimidiums. The Lovac assigned to protect them turned their heads to see the smoke had already wrapped itself around one of the Nesmyr.

  The other Dimidiums that were nearest to the smoke scrambled to get away from it but it wasn't trying to cling itself to anyone else. It was only after one Nesmyr. My Nesmyr.

  I froze in the middle of the room, still surrounded by fighting, when I saw the smoke snake its’ way around the neck of the Nesmyr that had taken my breath away. I was a mix of emotions. Looking at the Nesmyr gave me such an immense feeling of joy but seeing the frightened look in his eyes and the smoke around his neck made me angry and frightened.

  I could see the smoke moving to encase his whole body and I heard him screaming for help. His voice was beautiful, even if it was full of fear. I was back to being mesmerized by the Nesmyr and I couldn't move from my spot. I stood frozen in the middle of the room, while I watched the smoke swallow up the Nesmyr. He looked directly into my eyes before he was completely consumed by the smoke. I couldn’t breathe when I watched the trail of smoke leave through the top of the cavern.

  Once the Nesmyr was completely gone, I snapped out of the daze again. I was about to have a panic attack when I heard a deep voice in my head. Lucas's voice.

  The Nesmyr is not dead, yet. We are only taking him with us. If you ever want to see him again then you'll have to continue playing my game until you can beat me. I look forward to our next meeting, my daughter.

  I repeated the words over and over in my head again until I was sure I was going crazy. I was panting out of anger and my vision was starting to go blurry. I looked around the room again and saw that there were still four remaining Zhulik and three out of the five demons still alive. Out of the eighteen Lovac that had come tonight only seven were still standing. I didn't know if all of the ones that were on the ground were dead or just passed out but it didn't matter. We were outnumbered in available fighters, with three of the seven remaining Lovac helping the Dimidiums escape.

  My gaze slid to Felix's limp body and that's when my rage took over entirely. I shrieked so loud that I could feel the vibration from the sound bouncing off the walls of the cave. Then I started attacking. I didn't think about anything other than killing the Zhulik and demons. A sudden burst of energy flooded through me and I attacked everything in my path. I threw Lovac out of the way, not wanting to hurt them but not wanting them to distract me either. With every kill, my vision got more and more clouded.

  The four Zhulik were quickly dead and then I moved on to the demons. By the time I reached them, the Lovac had already moved out of the way. I could hear Riley shouting something in the distance. Whether it was towards me or the other Lovac I had no clue. My rage was too strong to focus on anything other than killing these demons.

  The three of them tried attacking me at the same time. I heard myself laugh as I dodged all of their attacks and killed them. I killed the first two quickly but took my time with the third one. While I had him pinned to the ground I tortured him with my stake until he begged for death. Even then, I didn't kill him right away. I made him suffer for a few minutes longer before I ended it.

  Once I knew all of the threats were dead, I stood up and looked around the cavern. I could only see a group of blurry people huddled together by the entrance. I stood where I was, panting and blinking. I couldn't seem to calm myself down or get my vision to go back to normal.

  I had given in to the darkness and let it take over. My inner self started to panic. Deep down I didn't want to be evil. I didn't want to viciously kill everything in my way.

  But I hadn't.

  I may have gone overboard on how I killed the Zhulik and demons but I had gotten the Lovac out of my way first. I still had enough control to distinguish between friend and foe.

  Then I heard someone calling my name in the distance. My head shot up and I looked around to see where the voice had come from. There was someone standing only a few feet away from me, calling my name, but it sounded like they were on the other side of the cavern. I could see the person slowly moving closer to me but I still couldn't make out who it was with my blurred vision.

  The person was trying to calm me down, which seemed to make me angrier but I tried to reason with my inner self. The threat was gone. It was time to go back to normal. Every time I told myself this I took a few deep breaths and my vision started to clear more. The voice that was calling my name also got louder, until I recognized it as Riley's. That's when my vision completely cleared and I was able to force the darkness out of my mind.

  Riley knew the instant I was back to normal and immediately closed the remaining distance between us and hugged me.

  "You were amazing. Terrifying but amazing. I think your eyes going cloudy was the worst. I didn't know if you
would come back from that," she said.

  "My eyes were cloudy?" I was so exhausted that my voice was barely a whisper. If Riley hadn’t been hugging me so tightly, I would have fallen to the ground.

  "Yes. They looked like you had gone blind."

  "It almost looked that way, too. Everything was blurry and it sounded like I was in a bubble. It was scary. I thought the darkness had taken control of me."

  "I think in a way it did but you were able to bounce back. What made you snap anyways?"

  It felt like years since I had been standing here watching Felix fall to the ground and the trail of smoke taking away the handsome Nesmyr boy.

  "That Nesmyr," I quietly muttered. Why did that Nesmyr have such a strong effect on me?

  "The Nesmyr that was taken by the smoke? Why would he make you give in to the darkness?"

  I shook my head, about to say that I didn't know when I finally understood. My eyes widened and just as I was about to tell Riley my suspicions, I passed out from exhaustion and shock.

  Chapter 27

  I could feel myself waking up but I squeezed my eyes tight and tried to fall back asleep. I was lying in a bed and it was so warm and fluffy that I never wanted to leave it. Especially since I could feel how sore all of my muscles were.

  Unfortunately, my body wasn't obeying my mind. With each minute I became more and more awake and alert of my surroundings. I could hear some people quietly talking in the background. It was virtually quiet besides that. I could smell the antiseptic and cleaning products. When I opened my eyes, I was greeted with the color white everywhere I looked. White walls, white floor, white beds. I was in a hospital.

  But it wasn't a human hospital. All of the people I could see either had purple or sapphire blue eyes. This was a hospital for Lovac and Nesmyr. I was back at headquarters.

  I rolled over in my bed to lie on my back and get a better look at what was around me. My head was throbbing so hard that I hardly remembered what had happened before I passed out but I didn't think any headache could completely erase the memories from my mind.

  I tried to remain calm and not burst into tears but I still felt a few warm drops escape my eyes. None of the staff had noticed when I woke up and rolled over but when I sniffed a little, all eyes were on me.

  "She's awake," I heard someone whisper. "Call the council."

  No one came over to see how I was feeling or offer me a glass of water. In fact, they all avoided me. I didn't understand until the Lovac sitting in the bed next to me leaned over to explain.

  "They're afraid of you. The rumors going around about what you did in the caves have gotten so morphed that a lot of people think you've basically become a Zhulik. A lot of the Lovac that witnessed what happened have been trying to convince the others that you're not crazy or evil. They won't believe us until they hear you officially tell the story and Nia confirms that you’re telling the truth."

  "Great," was all I could say. I appreciated the help from the other Lovac but it was ridiculous that the Nesmyr didn't want to believe them. I was almost positive that my eyes were still purple, so there was no reason for them to believe I was a Zhulik.

  A large group of people came rushing into the room then. I recognized most of them as council members but there were a few others with them. I saw Riley hiding in the back of the group and my thoughts went to Felix. Was he alive? Was he okay?

  Rema was the first to approach me. "How are you feeling?"

  "Like I was stepped on by an elephant," I said, honestly.

  "At least you survived this though. I don't think you would’ve survived being stepped on by an elephant."

  I appreciated her trying to lighten the situation but it was a failed attempt. I tried to give her a full smile but I just couldn't manage it in this situation. She saw that I wasn't in the mood for jokes and got right down to business.

  "I know you've had a long and exhausting night and are nowhere near being recovered but we need you to tell us everything that happened last night. Everyone has heard bits and pieces but you're the only one that knows the full story."

  "I need to know if Felix is okay first."

  Rema nodded. "We managed to save him. He was almost dead when we found him but he's recovering in intensive care right now. We can take you to see him after we hear what happened."

  "What about the others? How many Lovac survived?"

  Riley stepped up to my bed this time and took my hand. "We lost three Lovac total. Axel was one of them." I saw tears in Riley’s eyes and my heart sank. I knew some Lovac had to have died but I was selfish and hoped I hadn’t known any of them. I nodded and took a shaky breath before I told them what happened.

  Starting with Lucas's plan to create me, take over the world, his joining up with Kamila and what she had been doing over the past twenty or so years with Dimidiums. All of the Lovac that were huddled around my bed shed some tears at the thought that their Dimidium might have been murdered by a crazed demon but a lot of them looked relieved to know that the "curse" had been broken. I guess Riley was right about my involvement in that.

  I told them about the fight and how Felix and I managed to kill Kamila but she created a spell to bring an army of demons to this world through a portal made of her ashes. I told them about getting the portal closed and having only a few demons to fight as opposed to hundreds.

  Then I told them the worst parts. Felix passing out and a demon running off with Lucas and taking a Nesmyr with them. When I spoke about the mysterious Nesmyr boy, I could tell my voice changed tone and my eyes were wet with tears. The council seemed to notice the change too.

  "There is something special about this Nesmyr to you, isn't there?" Rema asked.

  I blushed and considered lying to them about my suspicions but I knew Nia would call me out. She had been nodding in agreement with everything I had said and I planned to keep it that way to clear my name. "I think he might be my Dimidium."

  Everyone was speechless. They weren't expecting a Lovac to find a Dimidium so soon after everything they learned. Riley was the only one would didn’t look surprised.

  "What did the Nesmyr look like?" Gladys asked, breaking the silence.

  I described the boy to her as much as I possibly could. With each description her eyes widened even more. Once I was done, an angry and almost frightening expression was on her face. That’s when I realized who the Nesmyr was.

  "Ivan," we both said at the same time.

  "That Nesmyr your Zhulik father stole is my grandson," she said, spit flying out of her mouth with every word. "And because he just happens to be your Dimidium he's going to die now. You should have stayed in Wyoming to rot."

  Then she stormed out of the room and left the rest of us in another round of being speechless.

  "She's wrong," I finally spoke up.

  "What?" Rema asked.

  "She's wrong about Ivan dying. I won't let it happen. Lucas won't either. If he wants me to keep playing his games he'll keep Ivan alive and I plan to keep playing until I can kill him. I know I can beat him."

  "And how do you plan on finding Lucas? He's the oldest known Zhulik alive and no one has been able to defeat him yet or even find him in hundreds of years."

  "I don't think I'll have a hard time finding him. I have a feeling he'll come to me or lead me to him."

  "That reminds me," Riley interrupted, pulling a small envelope from her pocket. "This was delivered to you this morning."

  I stared at it in confusion, afraid to touch it in case it was rigged to explode or produce another portal of angry demons. When it didn't do anything and everyone pestered me about what was inside, I finally opened it.

  Inside was a single photograph. It was a picture of Lucas, with his arm wrapped tightly around a terrified Ivan, standing in front of a dilapidated castle. Written on the back of the photograph were the words: Catch me if you can. My eyes were burning again and anger made my stomach ache. I couldn’t stand to see how scared Ivan looked and I almost hopped out of bed
to start going after Lucas immediately. The reasonable side of me won, though. There’s was no way I would make it out of this room without someone tackling me and dragging me back to bed.

  I showed to it to the crowd around me. The uneasiness in the room grew. Nobody was comfortable with a power crazed Zhulik on the loose and it seemed like none of them had any confidence in me being able to defeat him.

  I stared at the picture for a long time, trying to figure out where they might be but decided to let it go for now. I would have to wait until I was deemed fit enough to leave before I could go after him. Right now, I just wanted to see Felix.

  The crowd around my bed was ordered to leave and they all scurried off to do their own things. Riley and Rema helped me out of bed and led me to the intensive care unit. There were a few other Lovac in here from the battle, most of which looked much worse than Felix. He sat up in his bed, eating some food. He was still pale but not as chalk-white as the last time I saw him. When he saw us coming he put his food down and smiled brightly.

  "Hey, Avery. How are you feeling?"

  "I'm sore and tired but I'm alive. You?"

  "About the same except with a good portion of blood missing from my body. I'm recovering well enough though that I should be moved to the normal infirmary in a day or two."

  "That's great. Are you going to be well enough to help me track down Lucas in a few days?"

  The confused look on Felix's face told me that no one had the chance to inform him of everything that happened last night while he was passed out. "You didn't kill him?"

  "A demon helped him escape. He took a Nesmyr with him to try to force me to find him and battle with him again."