Cataclysm

by Karice Bolton

  Cyril followed her through the door, with the largest grin I had ever seen.

  “Your smile rivals Athen’s,” I told him.

  “Lots to be happy about,” he replied.

  I wanted my anxiety to immediately dissolve, but it wouldn’t.

  “So you guys are doing okay?” I asked tentatively.

  “She was right. She did the right thing. What’s to be mad at? Besides, I got it all out on you,” he said sheepishly. “Sorry about that, by the way.”

  Athen came down the hall and hugged his sister. “You went through the full change? I can’t believe you’re already back to us – green eyes and all!” Athen exclaimed.

  “We figured the reintroduction process would be almost nothing, since it has only been a few days. And we were right!” she exclaimed.

  “Well, let’s go into the family room. Noah is up in our guest room getting set up. We’ve gotta get him down here. We have lots to discuss,” I said.

  I let the anxiety begin to trickle out of my system.

  “It seems like we’ll finally get to concentrate on everything that’s on the horizon,” I said.

  Athen came up behind me and before I knew what was happening, scooped me up, “Eeek!” I squealed.

  “Don’t even try it, my man!” Cyril laughed, doing the same to Arie.

  “Put us down!” I commanded. “Right there!” I pointed at the couch.

  “Really? You want us to put you guys down?” Athen teased, as he dangled me over the couch.

  Laughter was ringing out from both Arie and myself, creating far too much excitement for Matilda. She was bouncing around warbling and barking, enjoying everything as much as we were. Afraid that Athen might really let me go where I’d bounce on to the couch and then directly off, I squeezed his neck tighter vowing to hold on.

  “What do you think?” Cyril questioned Athen.

  “One…two… three!” Athen hollered.

  I held on hard in my attempt to stay in his arms. I closed my eyes tightly; afraid for when I might be plopped on to the cushion below. What I felt, instead of gravity playing a trick on me, was the warmth of Athen’s lips running across mine. The softness reminded me of a better life that we would someday get again. I knew there’d be a day, when the weight of the immortal and mortal worlds would no longer be heavy on our heart. The hope for a life where love and kindness ruled, rather than constantly battling hate and evil, created a longing deep inside.

  With every kiss I returned to Athen, the love to win the war grew exponentially. I didn’t want this moment to end, but he slowly released his lips from mine, hearing Noah coming down the stairs.

  We had lots to discuss and go over now that things were somewhat back to normal, or at least our version of normal.

  Chapter 9

  We had all decided that now was the best time to make our way to the mountain. The earthquake activity escalated beyond anything natural. It had to be demon made. Having Noah with us, also, made it seem a little safer. We could no longer ignore the training that was going on at the base with Lilith and her faction. The tunnel system that Lilith had constructed was far too intricate to explore entirely with only the five of us, but we might be able to get in a few of the tunnels to see what lurked inside. It was a risky move but a necessary one.

  Pulling off into one of the visitor parking lots, we all hopped out of the Jeep. I grabbed Matilda and placed her on the gravel. I was really nervous about using her, but she was small enough to come in handy if need be.

  “What are you guys thinking?” Noah asked. He hadn’t been to this area before.

  “If we hike in about six miles, we’ll start running into some of the entrances,” Cyril said, pointing to the trailhead that was farthest from where we parked.

  “I think if we walk up most of it and then scale the rest in the air, we’ll get there in good time. We’ve got plenty of daylight.” Noah’s forehead creased.

  I wasn’t sure if it was with worry for what we might encounter, or if he always wondered if he’d run into Vanessa. That was a real possibility in all of this mess. Vanessa wasn’t gone. She was just on the wrong side now, with no memories of a life once lived. My heart was heavy for Noah.

  Athen came over and helped me secure my pack on. Cyril helped Arie with hers. He still didn’t seem to have any anger bottled up from what we put him through. I kept thinking that, at any moment, it would expose itself, but it didn’t.

  Matilda seemed quite excited, but I was worried about her wearing out on this trip.

  “Do you really think we’ll be using Matilda?” I asked, grabbing her so I could carry her for the first part of our hike up the mountain.

  “Better to be prepared,” Cyril grimaced, not wanting to let our favorite family member out of our sight either.

  “You promise nothing will happen to her?” I was not in favor of bringing her with us.

  “I promise! Plus, the worse thing that happens is that she pops back up at our house. Nothing can really happen to our girl. She’s got it made.” Cyril was scratching her ear, as I tried to adjust her in my arms.

  I glared at him. His humor wasn’t what I wanted for a confirmation.

  We all looked like a bunch of hikers out to enjoy the day’s gorgeous weather. I wished that were the case. Instead, we were out hunting the demons again. I know everyone promises me that this isn’t always how it is, but this is all I’ve fallen into since I came back.

  We had only been hiking for about thirty minutes, but it seemed a lot longer than that.

  “Whoa,” Noah muttered. “Are you guys feeling that?”

  The overwhelming sense of evil came at us all, from every direction. The army, Lilith helped to build, had grown tremendously since our last visit.

  “It’s bigger than I thought it would be. There’s no doubt they call this place home. I only wonder how many there are now,” I sighed, not wanting to let go of Matilda at all, but her heaviness became apparent once I thought about what we might be about to encounter.

  Athen stood still, waiting for me to catch up to the group. He grabbed Matilda from me and allowed the blood flow to start up again in my arms.

  “Thanks,” I said, kissing him on his cheek. “Do you think we should stick to our plan?”

  “I think at this point, we need to play it by ear. We might get enough answers wandering around before ever trying to enter their tunnel system,” Athen answered.

  “Let’s get off the path and start exploring!” Cyril’s voice was brisk. He wanted to get the show on the road, and I didn’t blame him.

  There were sticker bushes snarled in about every direction that we wanted to go, which made scaling the trees the best option. Looking over at Athen carrying Matilda, I was thankful it wasn’t me who was going to attempt to jump from tree to tree holding a bulldog. I don’t think it would matter how much practice I had, the outcome would be sketchy at best.

  “Wanna hold our girl?” Athen teased.

  “Very funny!” I called back, as I began bouncing from limb to limb. The sense of freedom this brought, never got old.

  Cyril stuck closely to Arie, and I knew she didn’t mind.

  As we made our way deeper into the forest, the lichen-drenched trees were entangled with one another. The bark was no longer visible on most of the trees. I sprung from one tree to the next. If we weren’t headed to view some very ugly things, this trip would be one of the most enjoyable we had experienced in a while.

  The negative energy got stronger with every leap towards the center of the forest, which only meant one thing. An entry into the tunnel system had to be near.

  Athen stopped on a Cedar tree in front of me, motioning for me to hop over to where he was.

  “Think you can handle holding her for a sec?” he asked.

  “Yeah, totally,” I said, as he handed me our little snorting bundle of joy.

  Athen grabbed a little camera out of his pack and began strapping it onto Matilda’s collar. Noah perched himself above
us on another limb, taking in our little undercover setup.

  “Nice work, Athen,” Noah commented.

  “Thought we might as well try it, since I bought it last year. We might only catch videos of Matilda running through the weeds or something, but who knows.” Athen beamed. He loved getting to use his gadgets.

  “Ahead of us about fifty yards, it looks like one of the entrances is accessible.” Athen pointed towards the left.

  “I’m surprised we haven’t seen any activity since we’re so close,” Cyril mentioned.

  “True,” Athen replied. “Maybe, they already know we’re coming.”

  Athen grabbed Matilda back from me, and he sailed to the ground, placing her next to him.

  I let my body slide off the limb that I had been perched on and landed rather gracefully. Cyril, Arie, and Noah all landed near us, quickly taking off their packs.

  “I’d be more than willing to take a look in that first one over there,” Noah said pointing to the entry.

  “I’m sure you would be,” Cyril replied.

  “Seriously,” Noah said. “I’d like to be the one to take a look.”

  I looked over at Athen who shrugged his shoulders in agreement.

  “Well, I’d like to come with you,” I blurted out.

  “Whoa,” Athen replied. “That’s not part of the plan.”

  “I know, but I’m dying to see what’s underneath there and if I happened to run across Lilith well then…” I argued.

  “It’s like you two are on a suicide mission all the time.” Athen wasn’t happy, but he knew there was nothing he could do. I was going to go in.

  “I think it’s good for us to quickly look in there, and if anything happens, we’ll rush out, and you can take them all down,” I said smiling.

  “Let’s just get this over with, “Athen muttered.

  I started towards the pile of boulders, crunching on the twigs and pebbles below. Even though it was the brightest part of the day, being in the forest this deep made it seem like evening. The glossy green Salal leaves were thick in our path as we marched our way to peer into the underworld.

  Everyone was right behind me when I stopped short of the boulders. There was quite a pile of them, and suddenly, my nerves got the better of me. My imagination started going crazy as I pictured hundreds of dark demons, with eyes glowing red, ready to attack me. Images of lifeless bodies began flooding my mind, as I worried that rituals were also happening underground.

  Athen came up behind me and hugged me.

  “Be safe,” he whispered.

  “I will.”

  Cyril stood over by the boulder that had the mud trail, from being moved.

  “Are you ready?” Cyril asked, grabbing the edges of the rock.

  Looking over at Noah, I nodded. Matilda sat at the entrance, and I scratched her ear as I went by, hoping she’d be my good-luck charm.

  Noah and Cyril slid the boulder to the side, and I went in first. What I saw was nothing that I thought. The dirt walls still had roots dangling down from the other side. There was no one in sight, which provided a little bit of relief.

  Noah came in behind me and placed his hand on my shoulder as we gauged what we were staring at. We stopped in a large room and from every direction, another dark tunnel had been carved out, leading away from where we were standing. The evilness seemed to be everywhere, but we saw no one.

  The only source of light seemed to be from an oil light in the twelve by twelve room we were standing in. Not really sure what I was or wasn’t hoping to see, I headed to the nearest tunnel, with Noah right behind me.

  The tunnel was dark, and I let my hand glide along the dirt wall, running over twigs, pebbles, and roots, trying to guide us to wherever this tunnel let us out at. So far, what I’d seen was nothing near what I imagined. Everything was poorly constructed, and the deeper I went in the more I worried the walls might actually collapse on me.

  We reached a dirt wall in front of us that only allowed either a left or a right. I stopped and turned towards Noah, who I really couldn’t see, and grabbed his hand.

  Standing still, I focused on each tunnel and decided that I saw more of a flicker to the one on my left, so that’s where we went. This tunnel seemed to be angled downhill more than the others.

  Finally, a glow rippled ahead of us, indicating some sort of activity. Slowing my pace, I tried to calm my heart rate, as my mind went wild again, picturing what I might see in front of me. Part of me wanted to run into Lilith just to get it over with, and the other part of me wanted nothing of the sort.

  Getting to the end of the tunnel, I slowly looked around the corner relieved with what I witnessed.

  I could feel Noah’s breath quickening as he tried to gauge my reaction.

  The room that the light came from had about thirty dark demons in it. Some were talking to each other. Some were sleeping, and others not doing much at all. The ceiling was low, so much so, that many of them had to bend down when they were walking or standing. The soil on the walls was exposed, crumbling with too much pressure from the earth’s movements or the slightest touch from the dark demons. Makeshift tables were placed in each of the corners, where it looked like the demons were studying maps and other items that I couldn’t quite see. There was another tunnel at the far end, presumably leading to another set of tunnels and rooms.

  The relief crept over my entire body as I realized that these tunnel systems were nothing more than carved areas in the earth. No technology was being used to their advantage, and things looked pretty disorganized. I slowly stepped back, so that Noah could sneak a peek. As soon as he caught a glimpse of the scene I witnessed, his shoulders completely relaxed. He felt the same as me. They were under-planning and far too sure of themselves.

  We slowly turned back the way we came and decided to leave while we could, without any of them noticing us.

  Climbing back up through the tunnels was a lot more work than going down. We followed the light flicker of the one and only oil lamp we used as a marker for our exit. I was beyond excited, as the glow danced on the tunnel walls. We were almost out.

  When we were only about twenty feet away from the entrance, I heard Matilda barking and growling. I had to get out. I darted as fast as I could, out of the tunnel’s entrance, with Noah right on my heels.

  There was a group of dark demons, laughing and smiling. One of them held Matilda. I saw Athen high up in the tree, waiting for his chance to get Matilda back.

  “We thought we heard a couple of intruders down below. I didn’t think it could only be this thing,” the demon said, looking straight at me.

  He took off in the direction that we had originally come from, with his demon cohorts right beside him. Athen was already shooting from tree to tree. I knew he’d be able to cut them off. Cyril climbed the nearest Douglas fir, attempting to do the same.

  Noah, Arie, and I ran after them. We would be able to catch these guys in a matter of seconds. Our only mission was to get Matilda back, safe and sound.

  Athen and Cyril descended from the sky directly in front of the demons, turning the anxiety I had to excitement. These demons never should have crossed us. The demons stopped running. They saw that they were surrounded by us on all sides. Matilda wiggled and moved, trying to get free from the demon’s tight grip. I couldn’t let another second pass.

  “When you look at my face, what is it telling you?” I asked coldly. “Do you see fear, happiness, contentment? What is it? What do you see?”

  The demon looked nervously around at the others.

  “What kind of question is that?” the demon scoffed. “I see anger.”

  “Do you think it’s good to get a group of seasoned demons angry, regardless of what side they’re on?” I enjoyed toying with the uncertainty that filled this pathetic being.

  “White demons can get just as nasty as the dark ones,” Arie chimed in.

  Noah quickly glided next to the demon who had been holding Matilda hostage.

  �
��So this is the deal. You and your friends can hand over what belongs to us in a civil manner, or we can take her from you,” I told them.

  Matilda was the quietest she’d ever been. Her brown eyes were bouncing from mine to the dark demons surrounding her. The anger ran through my veins. Regardless of what they chose, I knew I was going to fight them. Judging by the looks on everyone’s face, they felt the same way.

  Cyril and Athen moved closer to the other demons, their pure size intimidating them enough.

  “Come on, man. Just put the dog down. Let’s get out of here,” one of the demons closest to Athen hollered.

  The demon holding Matilda, nodded his head and began placing her on the forest floor.

  “Okay, I’m putting her down. You better not touch us. You gave us your word!” he yelled at us.

  The moment Matilda’s paws hit the flora littered soil, she took off towards Arie who grabbed her and held her tightly, but not before Noah already had the instigator in a head lock.

  “Hey! We let her go! You can’t do this!” he screamed, his legs flailing around and kicking in a feeble attempt to get released from Noah’s embrace.

  “Rule number-one, never trust a demon,” I said, laughing.

  The other demons began fleeing through the trees, darting as best they could on foot. They were no match for us. I decided to scale the nearest tree, which was a beautiful vine maple that was ready for my latest gymnastics’ moves. I reached for the nearest limb and somersaulted onto the maple’s dainty structure, leaping from one tree to the next looking for the perfect spot to pounce on my victims. Athen was right behind me. With every movement, the leaves fluttered and released, dusting the forest floor with more of Mother Nature’s beautiful litter.