Seals

by Kim Richardson

  “They like to relive the crime.”

  “It’s sick,” said Peter coldly.

  “This isn’t your typical serial killer, either.” Ashley moved slowly among the dead, inspecting them more closely, like she thought she might actually be able to help them.

  “I wish we could help them.” Jenny looked like she was about to break down. “We have to do something. Maybe we can find a cure or something? Or maybe find something to help relieve the pain?”

  “There’s nothing we can do for them,” said Peter gently. “There’s no cure, Jenny. These are not normal diseases.”

  He was silent for a moment. “If you want to help them, then we have to find a way to keep the seals from breaking. It’s the only way.”

  Jenny shook her head, her bottom lip quivered. “But that’s like—how many more people are going to die before we stop the knights? Thousands? Millions?”

  “More than we can imagine,” whispered Ashley.

  Jenny nocked an arrow angrily. “I’m going to kill them. I swear I will.”

  “That’s the idea.” Ashley swung her sword over her head and stood in a fighting stance. Her smile grew wider.

  While Kara appreciated Jenny and Ashley’s courage and was grateful to have them by her side, she knew that arrows and swords wouldn’t be enough to defeat the knights.

  Suddenly, Kara felt a cold presence.

  She scanned the scene and saw it immediately. On the flat roof of the hospital she could see the silhouette of a specter sitting on a giant steed. Even from a distance she could tell it was watching her. It sat calmly, waiting, waiting for Kara.

  “It’s up there.” Kara pointed with her blade to the rooftop. And before anyone could stop her, she spread her wings and soared into the sky.

  “Kara! Wait! It’s too dangerous!” she heard David cry out.

  “We don’t know what’ll happen to you!”

  But she ignored him and beat her great black wings. She wanted to kill it herself.

  She hated the knight, and she hated herself. She let her hatred control and fuel her. She didn’t want to think about what would happen to her. Nothing mattered anymore.

  She landed on the hospital roof and folded her wings.

  Like its brethren, the knight was enormous. But unlike Famine, Pestilence wasn’t bony thin and haggard but thick with rippling diseased muscles. Beneath a metal armor, its skin was wet. It was covered in festering boils, rashes, and growths, like it carried every possible disease on itself. It was its own plague. She could see its red eyes watching her from behind its metal helmet, and it held two great swords in its giant hands. The knight was mounted on a tawny colored horse, and like its master the beast’s coat was infected by disease. Kara winced at the rank smell that rolled off of them. It was the stench of a million dead corpses rotting in the sun.

  She kept her distance and tried very hard to hide the fear she felt inside. She watched the knight and waited for an opportunity to draw her blade quickly. The only target she could see was the head. If she could slip her blade into its eye, she might be able to stab its brain. Would that kill it? Could she kill it? Would she kill herself?

  Her friends would be running up the stairs and bursting out onto the roof any minute now. She had to kill it before they arrived. She had to do something. She clenched her dagger so tightly that her fingers ached. There was only one way to find out.

  There was no time to think or figure out plots. There was only time to attack.

  The darkness pulsed inside her, and in that instant she knew she had to use it.

  Like an assassin, she sprang with only death on her mind.

  With a single, great flap of her wings, Kara shot like a missile toward the knight with her dagger aimed at the creature’s head.

  The knight sneered. Its black pointed teeth looked like spikes.

  Just as the tip of her blade was inches from the creature’s eyes, a shadow passed in front of her eyes, and something hard punched her in the chest. Kara went spiraling through the air and crashed on the rooftop. But she was up on her feet again in an instant and attacked the knight again.

  Some kind of steam drifted from its helmet. Its scarlet eyes glowed, and its diseased face showed a smile. But Kara didn’t have time to dwell on how ugly this beast was, she sought only to kill it.

  She leaped from the roof, and with a roar of rage, she flew at him again.

  The knight swung one of his great swords and caught Kara in the chest. Pain exploded inside her, and she landed on her side on the roof. Ignoring the pain, she rolled over and leapt to her feet. Her wings beat behind her wildly and echoed the fury that surged through her. She turned and faced her opponent again.

  The knight howled in delight, and his voice boomed above the rooftop like the crackling of thunder.

  “Give up, child of darkness. Why do you oppose us? Why do you fight what you are?”

  Kara spit the dirt from her mouth.

  “I don’t know what you mean and frankly I don’t care. I fight for what’s right. I fight for the fate of the mortals. I fight for the angels.”

  “The angels?” The knight’s sneer expanded and his shoulders shook in silent laughter. Sores on its shoulders burst and festering rivulets of orange pus seeped out of the blisters and over its metal armor like hot wax.

  Kara turned her face away in disgust. The way its sores burst open whenever it moved, and its overpowering smell of sickness and death repulsed her even more than the first knight.

  The knight circled Kara. The steed was graceful and light on its feet for a creature that was diseased. Kara stayed still.

  The knight’s voice echoed in the air again.

  “The fight between angels and man is over. The time for the dark gods is now. It is too late…too late for this world…too late for the other worlds. Our dark gods will make a dominion of darkness. Night and decay and death will hold dominion over all. Death is inevitable. The legion was bound to fail from the beginning. There is no hope for mortals. It is over.”

  “There’s always hope.”

  The knight snickered. “I feel the darkness in you. The shadow world is strong inside you. You will become great. Soon you will not care about these humans or this world, and you will join us.”

  “Never.”

  “You know I speak the truth. You can feel it inside, can’t you? The cold power calls to you, and you have already set it free. Embrace what you are to become. Embrace what you are. Embrace the darkness.”

  “I’m going to cut out your tongue if you don’t shut up…that’s if you even have one.”

  “The angels and all ethereal creatures that do not surrender and bow to the true dark gods will perish.”

  Kara didn’t want to hear words anymore.

  But somewhere deep inside her soul, she knew it was right. Her mutation was nearly finished, and she could feel the cold power flourishing inside as though it belonged in her. She was meant to be on the wrong side, the side that killed innocents. That killed angels.

  “It’s too late now. You know I speak the truth. Soon you will join the darkness.”

  Her memories from the white oracle still haunted her. Kara screamed in rage. She hit her head repeatedly with the pommel of her dagger.

  “I won’t. I’m not evil!” she cried. “I’m an angel.”

  “You are no longer an angel.”

  “SHUT UP!”

  Kara’s hatred throbbed with a cold, dull ache, and she felt the cool, untamed power ripple down her spine and spread to her wings. It clouded her mind with thoughts of death. The dead, whispered in her ears, coercing her, compelling her to believe that all those who had died would have died anyway. She would be showing them no mercy. Kill them all.

  “No, I don’t want this.”

  She shook her head and whimpered at the desperation she felt as she tried to maintain control.

  The darkness had lied to her. It was trying to trick her. She had to make it stop. She had to stop the knights. He
r head cleared momentarily, and she focused all her malice on the repulsive knight. She wanted to shut it up, to stop it from speaking the dreaded truth she already knew.

  “I am an angel,” she wailed, partly to the monster and partly to herself.

  In a wild fury, Kara threw her blade. As she watched the blade lance across the rooftop, she knew it wouldn’t kill the knight, but it certainly would anger it. Maybe it would anger it enough that it would dismount, and then maybe she’d have a fighting chance. The blade flew straight and true and sank deep into the knight’s neck in the unprotected part near the clavicles.

  The knight thrashed about in sudden surprise and pain, but Kara staggered, too, as a searing pain burned a spot on her own neck in the exact same place where she had hit the knight. She pressed on her wound with her hand and looked up.

  A mix of black and orange pus spurted from around the blade where it had hit the knight. She might have hit an artery. The steed neighed and reared up on its back legs, but the knight stayed on. He pulled out her blade and tossed it at her feet, challenging her to try again. It was nothing to him.

  Kara absorbed all of her pain and anger and fury and let it fill every inch of her. Then she picked up her blade, screamed, and threw herself toward the knight like a bullet.

  The knight sneered and flicked his hand. The shadows rose up again and slammed Kara to the ground. She fell, rolled, and tried to get on her feet, but another shadow wrapped itself around her waist and yanked her sideways. The knight flicked his wrist again, and Kara was lifted and hurled back onto the rooftop. The impact crushed her wings, and she lay in a heap on the ground.

  As tendrils of black shadow cut through Kara’s skin and made furrows in her flesh, her screams grew louder.

  Another shadow tightened around her ankle, and she groaned as it lifted her off the ground. She dangled upside down, swaying, trying to breathe. White light exploded behind her eyes, and then the shadows vanished.

  “Stay down, if you know what’s good for you. I don’t want to destroy you, but I will if you do not cooperate.”

  Kara screamed in rage. She snarled. And then she was back on her feet, running as fast as she could toward the knight, her wings dangling behind her like useless baggage. She lunged and smashed into the steed.

  The blunt force of the impact threw the creature sideways, and it stumbled. The knight slipped off his ride and crashed to the floor.

  Kara was on top of the knight in seconds. Just its smell was enough to knock her out, but she threw herself at it wildly and hit it over and over again in its unprotected face.

  More shadows sent Kara sprawling, but she clambered to her feet and threw herself at the knight again.

  The creature raised its arms, ready to shoot out more shadow tendrils, but Kara was faster.

  With incredible speed she dodged, spun, and hurled herself at the knight’s head again. She thrust her blade into any unprotected space she could find around its neck and face, slicing, stabbing, and cutting, over and over. She cried in fury and in pain as she desperately attempted to kill it. She didn’t care if she killed herself in the process.

  Pain exploded in her head, and Kara was thrown in the air again.

  She landed with an agonizing crack, but she ignored the deep wounds and the searing pain in her own face and neck, staggered to her feet, and faced the knight.

  More orange and black blood oozed from deep gashes in the knight’s face and neck, and as he advanced, he staggered. It was hardly noticeable, just a slight pause, but Kara noticed. She had injured it, which meant she could kill it.

  “You think you can destroy me?” laughed the creature. “You think by destroying me you can stop your transformation? I know what you are…and what you’ll become. You cannot stop what is inevitable. The final stages of your transformation have commenced. You are no longer an angel. Accept it. Embrace your fate.”

  With her blade still clasped tightly in her hand, Kara screamed in fury and ran.

  But she hadn’t taken more than three steps when something crashed into her from the side, and she went tumbling. Her head hit the ground hard, and she heard a crunch. Her chin scraped the metal roof, and she skidded to a stop. For half a second she lay there, dazed. Her head throbbed. She could barely think. What had happened? Had the knight’s horse kicked her?

  When she rolled over and pushed herself back to her feet, she thought for sure that she must still have been stunned from her head injury because she stared straight into the identical faces of three higher demons.

  Chapter 11

  Convicted

  Kara cursed under her breath and then turned on the demons. “Are you stupid? What are you doing?” she hissed.

  A higher demon raised his eyebrows with an evil sneer on his pasty face. “Saving you, of course.”

  “Saving me?” Kara staggered forward. Her head throbbed more than ever as the pain from her injuries finally reached her and ploughed through her body like a hundred death blades stabbing her at once. She could hardly stand. Did she just hear them laugh? She blinked the black spots from her eyes.

  “I don’t need saving, you fools!”

  The higher demons looked amused. Their pallid faces and cruel black eyes stared at her coldly.

  She pushed past the higher demons. “Get out of my way. Move I said! I’ve got him. I can kill him. I’ve got the knight—”

  But she stumbled when she saw that the knight and his steed were gone.

  A few speckles of orange and black liquid were the only signs that the knight had existed at all. He was gone. She had failed.

  At that moment a door on the roof exploded open and David, Peter, Jenny, and Ashley rushed onto the roof.

  “Where’s the knight?” David eyed the higher demons that stood sneering at them.

  “Where is he? Kara?”

  Kara looked to the last spot where she had seen the creature. She felt warm liquid roll down her face and neck. It trickled down her arm until it dripped from the tip of her blade. She blanched. It was not the brilliant white essence of an angel, but the black blood of a demon.

  “Kara, what happened here?” David came up by her side.

  “You look like you took a beating. I hope the knight looks as thrashed as you do.”

  He paused and then he added excitedly. “That’s it. You got him, didn’t you? You killed the knight!” He sounded so pleased and proud of her that she felt even worse.

  “What? Did you really destroy it, Kara? How did you do it?” Jenny sounded elated.

  But Kara couldn’t look at them. She could barely hear them all. All she heard were the words from the knight. They echoed in her mind as she stared at her black blood.

  You are no longer an angel.

  “What’s wrong with her?” Ashley walked slowly around Kara and then faced her.

  “She looks...a little off.” Her eyes widened. “And she’s bleeding. She’s bleeding black blood.”

  So now they all knew. Kara opened her mouth, but the words would not come.

  “Kara?” David slipped his hand in Kara’s free hand and squeezed it gently.

  “You’re hurt. What happened here?” he asked tenderly.

  When she didn’t answer, he turned from her and eyed the demons.

  “And why are you three douchebag demons here? And why do I get the feeling you’re to blame for her injuries, eh? What did you do to her?”

  “We did nothing to the female,” said one of the higher demons smoothly. He sounded innocent, but Kara felt the deceitful undertones.

  “We were ordered to come here. That is all. We were ordered to help.”

  “That’s right,” said another higher demon, “we were charged to help you.”

  “Help? Why?” David glowered. “We never asked for your help. How did you even know we were here? Did you follow us?”

  The three higher demons watched David, but didn’t answer.

  “Kara,” said Peter as he made his way over to her. “Did you kill it? Did you
vanquish one of the knights?”

  Kara raised her eyes to Peter, but still she couldn’t find her voice.

  “Everybody, check your rings,” said Jenny suddenly. She wiggled her fingers. “I still got mine—”

  “My ring’s gone,” said David. Everyone looked at his bare hand. “We were too late. Another seal is broken.”

  Jenny looked at Kara thoughtfully. “So you didn’t defeat it. It defeated you. It defeated us. This bites.”

  “It seems that luck is not on our side,” said Ashley as she circled the higher demons with her sword in her hand. “We’ve only got two seals left. These odds suck.”

  “At this rate, it doesn’t look like we’re going to make it.” Jenny shook her head. “And from what Mr. P said I get the feeling that the last two knights are the worst. How are we going to beat them?”

  “We’re not going to make it,” said Ashley gloomily. “It’s over.”

  “Don’t say that,” said Peter. “It’s not over, there’s still a chance,” but the quiver in his voice betrayed him.

  But when he spoke next, his voice was full of valor, as though it had been there a long time and had suddenly awoken.

  “We still have time, there’s a little more than two days left. We can still defeat the remaining two. I have to believe. No. We must believe we can do it. If we don’t have faith, then this mission has already failed. The fates of the worlds depend on us succeeding. There’s no room for failure.”

  “I hear ya, Pete,” said David. “But I hate to burst your bubble. I have to agree with Ashley on this one. These things keep slipping away from us and time’s running out. They’ve got superpowers from the dark gods, and all we’ve got are these…”

  He waved his soul blade.

  “If Kara had defeated this one, then maybe we would have been on the winning side. As of now, we’re on the loser’s team.”

  Kara had heard enough.

  “They did this,” she snarled as she eyed the higher demons and gripped her soul blade in her bloodied hand.

  Jenny watched Kara carefully. “Who did what, exactly?”