I took a moment to gather my thoughts and pulled my hair up into a ponytail made by a small string I found. Making my way swiftly across to the door I opened it as quietly as I could and walked out silently. I didn't make any noise, and managed to get out of the room without being seen. Walking up to Talon was the fun part.
I stood behind him, put both of my hands on my hips and let them both know I was there by clearing my throat. They immediately went into attack mode, and then look instantly confused once they both realized it was only me standing there. I was sure they couldn't figure out how I'd gotten that close without them hearing me.
"Raine?" Eyloff asked, tilting his head to the side slowly staring at me with a newfound interest. I had a feeling I was going to be getting that a lot from these guys now.
"We have a problem boys." I told them. I knew that I seemed calm, extremely straight forward and strong to them just now, but truth be told? I was shaking inside, I wanted to scream, break down crying, curl up and go hysterical over what was about to happen.
"What kind of problem are we talking about here, Raine?" Talon asked me, he looked as serious as can be, and I frowned at him.
"They're here." I whispered to him, meeting his gaze before I finished what I was saying. "Maldre, Sita and Amamai are here, and they're coming for blood and nothing short of it."
"How do you kno-"
"How I know is not of concern, what is of concern is the fact that if you two don't do something? We'll die." I said sharply to him, cutting off Eyloff without a care and not letting Talon even start. There was no time for any of it and I really could feel the presence of the three, it was like my stomach was flipping and I was going to be sick. "You damn well know none of us are strong enough for this right now, and you can't protect me and Tom as well as fight."
Talon just stared at me for a long moment, studying me. I suppose he knew something was off about me, but without asking anything he just nodded his head. "Eyloff, get the west wing." He looked over his should at the wolf for a moment, without trying to be rude for once. "I'll wake the East Wing, and I'm sure Raine will wake her brother and any of the protectors surrounding."
"Of course." I said to him, nodding my head at the both of them quickly. My eyesight was so much better now, that I could see their every move and expression, but I wasn't telling that to them anytime soon.
Eyloff let out a grunt, and nodded his head. Then took off up the West wing without any questions or statements. I heard a steady howl emitting from him, then shouting that soon followed, after that I could hear him screaming for people to wake up.
Talon looked at me, putting his hand on my shoulder and gave me one last look. I didn't know what to make of it. Then he took off up the East wing, beating on doors and shouting in the most serious voice he'd ever used. He sounded like a true general yelling for people to get up and be attentive.
I went up to the closest door, starting to beat on it, knowing exactly who was inside of it. Kerli and Tom. "Wake up! We have a problem, its urgent!" I yelled as loud as I could at the door, pounding on it with my bare fists not caring if it broke or not. "Get up!"
I continued on from that door to the doors of Kai, Nel, Dolphus and Nickel. Several others as well that I wasn't too aware of, or sure as to whom they were just yet. I just knew they needed to get up, everyone needed to get up and get ready to fight and try to survive, because this was the fight… The one we were waiting for and didn't want to come.
"What's going on, Raine?" I heard Tom shout at me, before he could touch me I had turned around and set my hand on his chest. I held a finger up against my lips in a motion for him to shush for a moment, hoping that he caught on to that, because I'd heard something not a moment before.
He complied thankfully and I listened even more carefully now to our surroundings. I knew I had heard something a moment ago, and I wanted to know what I'd heard. I was going to figure it out one way or another, but hopefully it was going to be quick regardless.
Then it came again and was twice as loud as it had been before. A long drawn out scratching sound, mixed with footsteps… very slow footsteps. Whatever it was it was unsettling, and I knew it wasn't good. We needed to move, and we needed to move now.
"They're here; we need to get somewhere safe where we can regroup everyone." I said in a low voice, looking back at the handful of people who stood behind me. I was hoping someone had an idea of some sort, because I didn't feel like dying from this. "Is there anywhere we can go?"
"There's a room up the hall, it's not too far and it should be safe, it has sturdy walls and is hard to find." Someone said to me, once I found the person I slowly but surely was able to put a name with the face. That was the dragon shifter, Ryu.
"Where is it? Get us to it, we have to go now." I said to him urgently, I was hoping he knew what he was doing, because now it was up to him. All of this was dependent on whether he was telling me the truth or not.
"What about the other's?" Kerli asked me quickly, I could see her eyes clearly. They were as wide as an owl's, if not wider and I truly felt sympathy for her. I knew she was probably worried about her brother, and at this moment in time I knew exactly how that could be. I was lucky that my brother was here, because if he wasn't, I don't think I would've been able to find him.
"They'll find their way, they'll be safe but we won’t be if we don't move now." I gave her a sad look, and then walked closer to her I laid my hand on her arm. "I'm sorry, Kerli. Trent will make it out I promise you that, no I swear my life on it."
"I believe you... I'd have to believe a veri'zulentic." She said to me. I didn't know what she called me, and I didn't have the time to ask right then. I just nodded my head and walked briskly up to Ryu staring at him.
"Lead the way, Ryu."
He nodded his head and started forward quickly. I followed him knowing that everyone was following us. If they were stupid enough not to then it wasn't my problem, I had to do this, or else I'd be killing more than just one person. I'd be letting down so many around me, and letting millions die all because of my own stupidity. That wasn't going to be happening.
Pushing away any thoughts of If's or maybe's about the death that I'd never see, or have to know about, I pushed myself on and followed Ryu down the hall's as fast as I could. I watched as he made each turn, keeping an ear out for any strange noises, but so far I hadn't heard anything that was close to us, and to me that was a good thing.
The farther away the noise was, the safer we were. But, it had been coming from the West wing where Eyloff had gone. All I knew was that I was hoping and praying that he was safe and not in trouble, and that anyone who was with him was alright. I didn't want anything bad to come to that grumpy old wolf, he was growing on me.
Chapter 16
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We got there in a short amount of time actually. Ryu knew exactly where he was going, and what he was doing when he started to feel around on the stone wall that kept us from safety. In just a few seconds though he pushed something in, and the wall opened into a door that swung wide for us to all walk in. I felt a bit calmer knowing that we had some form of safety, at least for the moment we did.
"Hurry, it won't stay open long." Ryu said, ushering us inside. He was holding the door open for us and none of us gave it a second thought as we rushed in.
I could hear the others hurrying in behind me, and let out the breath that I'd been holding for a long time now. Ryu came in last, making sure the door was shut and then walked up to a wall of torch's, I was lucky I could see in the dark now, or else I would've lost my balance.
"We don't have any matches." Tom announced, and then cursed himself almost instantly.
"Don't need any." Ryu told him, looking at the torch's for a long moment. Then I saw a thin stream of fire slipping from between his lips, lighting each of the torch's that he was close enough to. Once he was done the room was lit enough for us to see the faces of one another, and that was good enough for me.
/> "What now?" Nel asked no one in particular.
"Now, we wait and hope for the best." I said to her, letting out a soft sigh.
"The best isn't something you can hope for now." I nearly jumped a foot into the air hearing the voice. I looked over into a corner we'd all ignored and squinted my eyes to get a good look at who was over there.
Fang stared at all of us with a vacant looking expression. Without missing a beat he leapt up and was next to me, standing up straight. He had a grimace pulled tightly across his face, and didn't plan on fixing it any time soon. "Though, I supposed we can try to hope."
Dolphus and Nickel came forward and I couldn't help it at that point. I latched onto Dolphus and Tom both, hugging them in the tightest death grips possible for a hug. Tom returned the hug, and once shock wore off Dolphus he carefully pushed hair back from my face, murmuring to me before hugging me back.
"It'll be alright sis... I have to do something." Tom muttered to me and backed away walking towards the other side of the room. I was left standing with Kai, Dolphus, Nickel and Fang. The others were scattered about the room trying to comfort each other and hang on. I knew everyone in here was safe, at least for now, and that was all that mattered.
"We just want you protected right now, who knows what is going on out there." Ryu said to me, his head cocked to the side as if he was listening in on something. Then I heard something. It was so far away I couldn't pick up on it yet, but I heard something move. "It's here."
Kai stepped over towards me quickly; his dark eyes seemed to be pitch black now, as he looked around. He seemed scary for some reason, his black hair was everywhere, practically lifting off of his body, and his skin looked like it had a slight glow to it. His hand sat by his sword's sheath and tapped slowly at the hilt of the blade, ready to draw it and attack anything that came too close.
I could hear it almost perfectly then, it was worse than before.
Scratch.
There was something outside of our room, and it didn't sound right. It sounded undead, and ready to kill, but I had no clue what it was.
Groan…
It was starting to sound extremely weird now, it was too silent outside, too eerie, but I could hear that thing almost perfectly. It was making me think of a Zombie, and if they existed we were screwed without a gun.
Scratch. Scratch. Scratch.
Then I heard a yell proceeded by the loudest thud I'd ever heard. My eyes grew three times their normal size as I stared towards the door of the room. I watched to see what was going to happen, and when the scratching passed us by I wanted to fall to my knees and start crying like a little child. It'd passed us, which meant for now we were okay.
"What was that?" I stuck with that, instead of what I really wanted to shout. I was stared at by each of them for a long moment without a response, and I was starting to get creeped out by it.
"That, was what we have to make sure doesn't come near you." Kai said to me, in a harsh whisper. I just stared up at him and it dawned on me that, that really could've been one of Maldre's zombies… the ones that don't die no matter what.
I stared over at the door and then heard something that was even worse. It sounded like breaking glass, then iron being ripped from its hinge's. My eyes began to widen once again, and I sat up as straight as I possibly could. "Guys..." I whispered out loud to them, actually pressing back into Fang for help.
Dolphus then put one of his hands on my shoulder; I gripped the wrist on his other hand for dear life. That was no monster, no God, Demon, anything like that it was something else completely. It was something disgusting, and something that sounded as if it could kill every one of us in here, especially with the way they were all acting.
It was what was here to separate everyone's lives, and send us where we were all doomed to go. For some of us that just meant our deaths, for others that meant a new world, with new worries and new problems… Or the place we grew up. It was how we were being sent back to my home, one way or another.
I could feel the room we were in beginning to shake harshly, like we were in the midst of an earthquake. The ripping and breaking sounds that I heard further up the hall were growing louder and louder, until it almost sounded like a horrible windstorm surfacing outside of our little safety zone.
It was only a moment before the door to the room was ripped off of its hinge's, and pulled into what looked like a dark, purplish whirlwind in front of me. In front of all of us. I could feel the panic that spread like wildfire in the room, and my grip on Dolphus tightened more and more until I could feel my nails pressing into his flesh.
There were shards of glass and bits of things flying around within it, even what looked like the left overs of a bedroom, and other things. The walls in the room started to crack from the sheer force of it, and I could see stone and wood breaking off and sliding into it and disappearing. That was when I realized we were sliding forward across the room.
"It's ok Raine; you'll be fine, just hold onto me and close your eyes. You'll be home soon." Dolphus murmured to me, I could feel his breath against my ear and I turned around facing him and held onto him with a death grip. Kai and Fang moved in closer to me for a moment, and then Kerli and Nel, the rest of them were standing behind the others. Everyone. "It's ok."
I started shaking my head back and forth, and I could feel myself being pulled backwards now. I lifted my head and met the eyes of my twin brother, just staring at him for a long moment. He seemed more terrified than I'd ever seen him before, and worried. But, in the end he just nodded his head at me slowly and tried to slide in closer to where I was.
"Go!" I saw him mouth towards me, and then he moved in towards Kerli's ear and whispered something to her. I squeezed my eyes shut as tight as possible, forcing back the tears of pure fear that threatened to leak out. I could feel myself being tugged more and more, and wanted to scream.
Fang grabbed hold of my hand, slowly sliding something into it. Before I could look at him he was moving back away from me once more. His eyes were completely focused on the portal that was growing bigger behind me. I clasped my fingers around the object tightly, holding onto it. Dolphus looked down at me, and then I felt his grip on me starting to loosen slowly.
I started to yell at him, moving my hand to grab onto him only to have him find a way to push me away again, and get me farther away from him. When he was finally satisfied with how far away I was from him, he let go of me as fast as he could. My eyes grew in size and I just stared at him for a moment.
My screams started almost immediately. I didn't want him to do that, and I didn't want to be separated from any of them. I was pulled back with more force than my small body could fight against, and before I could yell for help I was pulled off of the floor beneath my feet.
Suddenly I was spun around, and I saw that everyone had already begun to seem farther and farther away when I tried to look back at them. Squeezing my eyes shut seemed like the smart thing to do now. So that was what I did, I squeezed them shut and hoped for the best in this situation, and tried to keep my mind as clear as possible.
When I let my eyes open again though I let out a loud shriek, a large piece of glass came flying at me and narrowly missed my face. I was moving faster and farther through the portal. Dodging so many different things. I saw jewels fly past me and burst into shards as they hit something, a table smacked me in the back roughly a few moments later, clothing flew past me, and even weapons.
I had to keep looking ahead to where I was going, even though I didn't want to, but I didn't want to die either, so I tried to focus. Then I realized it was thinning out, there was a small area that seemed to no longer be dark, but a white color and it was growing brighter and brighter before it completely opened at the end.
I was launched towards it, throwing my arms up I tried to shield myself against anything that came my way. I squeezed my eyes shut once more, taking in a deep breath and was ready for the worst.
*****
I had hit somethin
g sturdy and hard. Opening my eyes I was blinded by the light that was streaming in from somewhere for a moment. Then I saw the blurry form of someone standing over me, just standing there, not moving. I couldn't get my eyes to focus for a few seconds, and could only stare.
"Raine? Can you hear me?" The voice echoed around me. I saw at least four of whoever the person was, and after that I couldn't even move my body. It took me about ten minutes before I could even register who the voice belonged to, and wheezed out a quick and simple name. Smiling to myself when I actually heard it out loud too.
"Christie?"
Almost as soon as I got it out though, everything around me started to grow black, and I was swallowed by one of my own dreams. I was becoming so used to this that it was like having a friend come over and visit. Well I mean that was if your friend was an extremely sexy God, and intruded into your dreams on a near daily basis. Then yes, it'd be exactly like having a friend come over.
Book of Curses (The Renning Chronicles) Page 21
