Arise

by Michael Dean

  I remained on my back in the sand for a few seconds longer, trying to pull together the strength to stand. I sat up, dusted some sand off, got to one knee, and swerved to my feet, still groggy from battle.

  “Now I gotta figure out how to get out of here,” I said to myself as I bent over to pick up the Demon Dagger.

  I’ll be damned, which I am, if yet, once again, just as I was about to touch the blade, I was pushed extremely hard in the back, sending me flying forward away from the weapon.

  Once I hit face-first, spitting out a mouthful of sand in the process, I quickly turned to see what in the world had hit me from behind. To my surprise, there stood an agitated Christian, wiping both sides of the dagger against his tailored pants before shoving it back into his cane.

  “You have truly become a nuisance, Leo.” He spoke barely loud enough for me to hear him, keeping his eyes locked to the ground at his feet.

  I jumped back up as quick as I could because I was unsure what Christian might do next. I knew that he was last in the pecking order when it came to winning my freedom, but he was a demon of the highest order. It’s not like rules really apply to him, even spiritual, sacred ones.

  “If you think this…fluke of a victory increases your odds of winning, you are dead wrong. Dead wrong.” He raised his head and looked at me with pure malice.

  “You. Will. Not. Be. Free,” he snarled as he approached me.

  I stood ready, as best as I could, for another fight, but there was no way I could do anything right now. I was much too weak from the fight with Agrelia, not to mention Christian was a more powerful foe anyway; I didn’t stand a chance.

  Just inches from my face, he made his final point. “When you fall, the girl is ours…just because we can.”

  Even though he looked angrier than I have ever seen him, something about his demeanor smelt of worry. My victory against the gatekeeper of Hell shook him a little. But I wasn’t foolish enough to proclaim that in my current condition. Christian tilted his head, glaring at me with those silver eyes before he turned away and started walking, seemingly honoring the laws of Diccitidel.

  “Hey, Christian…” I foolishly couldn’t resist taking a small jab at him. “One down, two to go.”

  Christian stopped in his tracks, but never looked back at me. He just stood there for a few seconds, like he wanted to rip me apart but couldn’t, before opening his wings. He took off into the earth-like sky and was out of sight in seconds.

  I was relieved at his departure and exhaled accordingly. Now I was stuck with the revelation that I had no idea how to get out of this strange plane I was in. I looked around for a bit when all of a sudden a light breeze picked up. That gentle breeze rapidly gave way to a tornado-like wind. Sand got stirred in every direction. I raised an arm in front of my face. I couldn’t see a thing. I was in some kind of sandstorm.

  Suddenly I felt a rumbling. I struggled to see where the source of the noise was coming from in the haze of the storm. Before I could do anything about it, I saw a mountain-sized wave of sand about to overtake me. I didn’t have any time to figure out a plan to avoid being consumed by the monstrosity. Even if I had seen it in time, I couldn’t get away from it if I wanted to. The only thing I could do was brace myself and let it happen. I fell to my knees, closed my eyes, curled myself up into a ball and let destiny take its course.

  The wind was so loud and strong. I could feel my body getting sucked into it. I had no choice but to ride it out and see where it took me. The wind howled as I got rolled and tossed around.

  Thankfully, it didn’t last very long. The wind calmed and everything became still. I was placed upon my back, on something hard and sturdy. I wiped what felt like buckets of sand from around my closed eyelids. Everything was blurry…all I could see was a very bright light. Eventually I could make out some vague shapes.

  The sights and sounds were very familiar. There were trees and the sounds of nature. I was back in the physical world. Not only that, I was laying on my back in the exact same spot where I had touched that mysterious light that took me to Agrelia’s realm. But the bright light I was staring into this time was the afternoon sun shining down upon my face. I sat up to get my bearings. I was most certainly back at the point where I’d left. I realized that time had passed while I was in Agrelia’s world, but I wasn’t sure how long I was there. When I entered, it was night, now it was daytime. Was I in there just a night, or several?

  Either way it didn’t matter that much to me right now. All I could think about was getting back home to Shade. I yearned to be held by her and feel her body next to mine. With those warm thoughts of serenity in my head, for the time being, anyway, I took to the upper stratosphere. Thankfully, it was time to head home and regroup. The next thing on the menu was Shimmer. Bon appétit.

  Chapter 9

  RETURN

  I was sure to fly higher than the clouds so as to stay out of sight. It’s also easier to look down upon the land masses of earth when you’re this far up. This helps me get my bearings. Indeed, I was somewhere in the southeastern portion of America. With my current location on lock now, it was just a matter of getting back home.

  When Mountainside was within reach, I made sure to fly within the concealment of the Rocky Mountains to remain unseen. When I saw the vegetative dead zone that was my little plot, I started my descent. Just below I could see Shade’s compact car parked on top of the hill. I felt butterflies in my stomach at the notion of not only seeing her, but also telling her the wonderful news of my accomplishment. My view darted straight to my tree, and there she was, sitting on our limb with Shadow curled in her lap, writing in her little black book.

  Very gently I lowered to the ground several feet from her. One foot hit before the other and I hardly made a sound landing. Neither Shade, nor Shadow, saw me yet. But it didn’t take longer than a few seconds for my best buddy Shadow to recognize his friend. His head lifted up from her lap, along with his ears. His eyes were excited as he launched from out of Shade’s lap and climbed down the tree.

  “Shadow, where are you going?” she called to him, still unaware of my presence.

  Shadow hit the ground running and blazed a trail right to me. This caused Shade to lift her head and when she did, she finally saw me.

  “Leo!” she exclaimed.

  I didn’t have a chance to answer because Shadow was already at my feet, rubbing against them. I reached down and picked him up.

  “Hey, furr-buddy, you miss me?” I asked as he began rubbing his head all over my face, “I missed you, too.” I laughed.

  I watched as Shade flew down the tree at nearly the same pace Shadow did and started running to me. I put Shadow down because my arms were hungry to meet her and I didn’t want to crush my little friend when Shade crashed into me.

  Not a word was spoken when Shade and I collided. Our lips met and we began kissing deep and long, holding onto one another tight. I could tell she was just as excited to be within my embrace as I was in hers. When we unlocked our lips, we just stared into one another’s eyes without saying anything, lightly pecking each other once or twice more.

  “You have been gone so long…I thought you were dead.” She broke the silence. Her voice sounded sad, but relieved as she kissed me again.

  “No, I’m still here, too bad for you,” I joked as we exchanged smiles.

  “So that means…”

  “I won—I defeated Agrelia. She’s dead.”

  Shade didn’t ask how, she only shoved her lips to mine again, kissing me hard over intense breathing.

  “I began to…” Shade looked down to acknowledge Shadow, who was constantly circling us at our feet. “We began to worry when the first month went by and there was no sign of you.”

  “Wait—what? First month? How long have I been gone?”

  “Long enough to miss the rest of winter and most of spring.”

  Come to think of it, it was a lot warmer than when I had left, and much greener, too. Something I didn’t pay a
lick of attention to when I was coming in. My thoughts were so focused on beating Agrelia and then seeing Shade again that I didn’t even notice the change of seasons.

  “You’ve been gone about four months,” she added.

  I was confused and in shock. I knew I had been in Tombstone for a couple of weeks, but the fight with Agrelia felt like it all happened in one night. I must have been battling her, at least in her realm, for several earth months.

  “And look, flowers, leaves, and even grass are starting to come back since you’ve been gone.” She pointed around at the various sprouts of greenery that were indeed beginning to bloom.

  “That’s amazing.” I think Shade thought I was referring to the seeds of life popping up everywhere, but I was still stuck on how long I was in the Goyle Queen’s realm.

  Shade stepped back out of our hug and ran her hand through my hair. “We have just one week until junior prom.”

  “Huh?” My mind was still stuck on my time gap.

  “You know…junior prom? That little dance at Mountain View that you promised to take me to?”

  “I almost get shredded by the Queen of all Hell Sirens and you’re worried about prom?” I sarcastically added.

  “You think she was bad? You’re lucky you didn’t return to me after next week. I would have killed you myself.” She leaned against my body with a hug and a laugh.

  “Oh really, now?” I chuckled.

  “Yeah, besides, you haven’t even formally asked me, anyway. I’m not sure I want to go with you now.”

  I giggled at her playfulness. “Have it your way, then.” I teased back.

  “Ask me, dang it.” She looked up at me, pulling on my hip.

  I smiled, raising an eyebrow at her to aggravate her a little further. “Will you go to prom with me, Shade?”

  She smiled, leaning up to my lips and kissing me once more. “Yes, of course. I love you, Leo.”

  “I love you, too.”

  We hugged for awhile, rubbing one another. When we finished embracing, we decided to hold hands and take a short stroll through the woods to catch up. Shade asked me what happened and I delighted in telling her all about the battle, even going into full reenactment mode purely for her enjoyment.

  “Now you’re going to be impossible to be around.”

  We traded stories about what happened to me and what she did while I was away. She filled me in about how Scruffy and Sandra had been asking about me during my disappearance. She told them I was having some “family” problems and would be out for a bit. She also informed me that Scruffy was still very sore at me, acting as if he wasn’t interested when Shade talked with Sandra about my whereabouts, even though she caught him leaning in with an open ear to hear the conversation over folded arms.

  “You think they’re gonna buy four months’ worth of family troubles?”

  “Hey, what was I supposed to tell them? I think they, of all people, would notice you being gone…I had to tell them something. How was I supposed to know you’d be gone a third of a year, ya goof.” She poked me in my side.

  “Good point.” I grinned.

  “Yeah, next time, clean your own porch, demon boy.” She bit her bottom lip playfully. “So…since I covered for ya while you were out screwing off, you kinda owe me, right?”

  I rolled my eyes when she said screwing off, huffing playfully as I did.

  “And what exactly do you have in mind?”

  “Veitoni’s.” She smiled from ear to ear.

  “Great. Expensive food that tastes just like pig sludge to me.”

  “That’s your problem, lackey. It’s good to be human.”

  Veitoni’s was the nicest, and most pricey restaurant in town. It was the best Italian food, according to reports, for miles around. That could also be because it was the only Italian bistro around. Now I hadn’t been there before and even after I do go, I’ll just have to believe the reviews about taste on that one.

  “That’s only fair…I guess.” I continued to play with her as she unlocked our hands and walked in front of me back into the clearing by our tree.

  “You guess?” She turned around and started walking backwards.

  “Sure. So what time should I pick you up?”

  Shade paused in front of me, reaching out with both of her hands and grabbed mine, swinging them back and forth between us.

  “Ummmm…that’s gonna be a problem.” She winced.

  “What do you mean, that’s a problem?” I reconfirmed.

  “Yeah, uh, your Mustang, it disappeared.”

  “You mean someone stole it?” I yelled.

  “No, no, it…disappeared.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Well, I was sitting here one night, looked over at it, and your car just…vanished.”

  My confusion quickly turned to certainty. “Christian,” I suggested, “I guess since the Darryl job is done, he decided I didn’t need the car to role play with anymore. He’ll do whatever it takes to make sure things remain hard on me.” I shook my head in frustration.

  “It’s not like you need it, anyway.” She released one of my hands and patted me on the back, making her point that my wings pretty much take care of getting me around.

  “Maybe I don’t need the Stang, but I sure did love that car.”

  “Yeah, well, that may be the case, but now I’m your only girl.” She winked. “You still have access to money?”

  “One of the perks about changing into shadow form.” I smiled, raising my eyebrows.

  “Then buy one and quit crying,” she teased.

  “You do realize that I steal that money from bank vaults and places of that sort, right?” I said, reminding her of how I get “paid.”

  “Well, how do you like that…a demon with a conscience. Maybe you should get a job and quit stealing.”

  I shook my head again and laughed. “Yeah, Leo the employed demon,” I joked, causing us both to giggle.

  “Better than taking it.” She put her arm around my waist and started walking me to her car. I returned the sentiment and wrapped my arm around slender frame.

  “You’re on point today, chick.”

  “I’m always on point, baby.” She pulled me to her. “So that means I’ll be picking you up around six?”

  “I guess it does. Why so early?” I added.

  ”Because you’re treating me to a movie, too.” She released her hold on me and opened her creaky car door.

  “Glad you have my first day back all planned out.”

  “That’s my job!” She flashed that adorable smile again.

  “You’re good at it…bossing me around, that is.” I smiled and closed her door as she sat down.

  “You make it easy, sweetie.” She reached up and pulled my lips down to hers through her open window. “Dress nice! I’ll be back a little later.”

  “See you then.” I kissed her again, watching her drive off.

  I turned my attention to my tree and decided to wait for Shade there. As silly as it sounds, I felt like I needed to take a couple hours to catch up with my cat-buddy as well. So, with that notion, I grabbed Shadow and glided up to our branch. When I went to sit down on the limb, I noticed that Shade had left her diary there.

  “Man, she really needs to be more careful about leaving this thing lying around.” I fanned it in front of Shadow and then petted him on the head.

  I must admit that I was very curious about opening it up and reading it, but I thought that to be in poor taste and let it alone. I pretty much knew what she wrote in that thing anyway from what she’d told me. With the extreme sensitivity and confidentiality about our situation contained within that book, mainly about my little secrets, I figured that she’d be a bit more careful about concealing it. No matter, I’d have to give her a little talking to about it when I gave it back to her. Knowing Shade, she’ll laugh me off and forget about it minutes later.

  Six o’clock came fast and before I knew it I saw Shade’s little car struggling up
my driveway. I hopped down off the tree and began walking towards her. She pulled up in front me at an angle and scolded me. “You haven’t changed yet?”

  With a wave of my hand, purely for effect, I instantly changed into more “distinguished” attire.

  “Better?” I grinned with sarcasm.

  “You’d think I’d learn, but I never do.” She shook her head. “Get in.”

  “Be back later, bud.” I waved at the tail curling Shadow, who was sitting at the base of our tree.

  “You forgot this,” I said with concern, tossing it in her lap as I got in the passenger seat.

  “There it is! I was worried about this all day.”

  “Shade, I can’t tell you this enough; I mean, it’s bad enough you keep a documented record of what’s going on in our lives and who I really am, but you can’t leave this out for anyone to get their hands on. It’s very dangerous, for both of us, that you have this.” I glared at her. I was serious, and I wanted her to know that I wasn’t joking.

  “I know, I know. I’m sorry. I’ll make sure to be more careful.” She nodded as she leaned over and placed the book in her glove box.

  I sat forward and opened it again, taking it back out, “Shade, I’m serious. Keep this on your person at all times, or in a safe place locked up in your home. You could seal your own fate along with mine if Christian, Shimmer, or any other entity knows you have this. Humans finding out what you know could also be disastrous. When you’re done writing in it, which I wish you wouldn’t, put it up…please.” I handed it back to her.

  Shade smiled reassuringly, raised her butt up off her seat, and placed the book in her back pocket.

  “I will, Leo, I promise. I’ll be more careful. I’m sorry,” She said sincerely.

  I leaned over and gave her a soft kiss. “All I want is for you to be safe; at least, as safe as you can be at this point. If anything happened to you, I would lose the strength to carry on.”

  “Well, I’ve got you protecting me, the Siren Killer.” She grinned, inches from my lips. “So, I should be fine.” She concluded with a kiss.