by S. B. Niccum
The clarions stop their call for a moment, and the pause holds a static kind of tension. Then, in unison, they start to trumpet a call to arms—a loud, reverberating sound—that calls to me. All at once, those who are holding swords set them ablaze, and with a yell, start pouring down toward the surface of the water.
“Bind them!” some shout. “Stop them!” and “For Mother Earth!” others roar.
They split into two groups; some go for the dragon and some for the snake. Those who go after Agatha waste no time in plunging their swords deep into Agatha’s slinky, red, torso releasing oozing spirits from her like putrid blood. Those who come out of her are promptly apprehended, tied with a thin golden rope, and then escorted back to their Prison.
I feel a pull, and sudden anxiety grips my frame. They’re fighting! Without me! My family and friends are out there. What if they somehow get hurt? It’s happened before, the first time we faced Legion, Henry almost got sucked in.
“Alex!” I scream. If I know Alex at all, I know one thing: He’s going for the jugular.
Chapter 20
Looking all around, as I race toward the half-snake, half-human Agatha, I realize that there are so many spirits that finding just one is like looking for a needle in a haystack.
All the Open, bright spirits, are trying to pull Agatha apart by different means. Some are using the swords, while others are tying her up with ropes. Some spiritual animals are flying, or running on all fours through mid-air, attacking Agatha anyway they can. Prehistoric creatures and contemporary creatures alike have joined forces. Wolves, vultures, eagles, and all kinds of predatory animals are biting, scratching, clawing, stinging, pecking, and doing as much damage as they can. An elephant wraps its trunk around an escaping soul, and after letting out a loud wail, it starts marching the spirit back toward the realm where he belongs. A whale swallows a few and does the same thing as it swims through the air back to Spirit Prison.
Some of the human spirits are wrangling escapees and tying them to the backs of horses. They gallop them back to the dark gates of Prison. I can’t help but smile at the sight of this unified effort. I bet Katie is loving this! I wonder where she is? I wonder what team of wild animals she’s heading into battle? And Alex, where is he?
“Does this please you, Tess? Do you think that a handful of spirits will tear me down?” Agatha’s voice sounds deep and sonorous, like it’s coming from the bottom of a barrel.
“Yes, actually,” I say, looking at her square in the face—her huge, ugly face. Perhaps she hasn’t seen how many spirits are really involved here.
“Don’t under estimate him,” she says boisterously and nudges her head toward Legion, who is heading toward us in spite of the efforts of the spirits who are attacking him. Apparently, they are not being as successful as the spirits who are attacking Agatha. “Earth is under our control! I finally get to do what I’ve always wanted to do.”
“There’s no glory waiting for you, Agatha. It’s over.”
“Oh yeah?” She swings one of her arms unnaturally around and grabs me. Her long, thick, sausage fingers wrap tightly around my torso, totally immobilizing me. “What do you think Legion will do to you?” She smiles venomously and a snake tongue slithers out of her parted lips and whips me in the face with its split end. “You might have overcome the Hellhounds from Spirit Prison, but I bet you’re still not strong enough to resist Legion. He has as special way of handling spirits. I might be able to fill you with hate, but he’ll suck the soul right out of you. He’ll lobotomize your spirit and leave you nice and empty for me. Then I can move in and do my part.” Her snaky tongue whips me again and I flinch at the grossness of it. The thought of being lobotomized by Legion is certainly more than just unpleasant; it’s downright disturbing, and a very real possibility.
Legion is the combined forces of all the cast-outs put together with the Second One, the devil himself at their head, working in one accord. The cast-outs are the original devils that chose to follow the Second One before the world began. They have had thousands of years to perfect their moves, to unify their wills, to work together, and this is their last chance to wreak as much havoc as possible.
“Tesssss,” I can hear Legion calling from the distance. The dragon is fast approaching, beating its leathery wings, and unsheathing its huge, sharp talons, as they eagerly reach for me. Agatha smiles at me, pleased and self-satisfied, and licks me again, taunting me, savoring this moment.
“Ugh, you’re so disgusting! You are going to regret this for the rest of eternity, you know,” I say, not as a threat, but as a warning. Then I turn my face once more to avoid another lick.
“Regret, eternity, blah, blah, blah…you sound like a broken record. Do you know what I’ve done? I have managed to control not just one nation, but all of them! Like puppets, I’ve moved mortals to do my bidding. They have prayed to me like a goddess. I have been worshiped, made into statues, placed in sacred shrines throughout the world. I am the goddess of this world now! Me!”
“Yessss, and I their god!” Legion says, opening its mouth and breathing out that foul dark smoke that clings to me like the spray from a skunk. Immediately I feel like a wilting plant. My surroundings take on a new, more desperate feel. It’s a lost cause, I think hopelessly.
A Novocain-like numbness starts to spread through me, like someone is anesthetizing me with a small needle, before the big shot comes, the one that is sure to hurt in spite of the numbness. As expected, the big shot comes in the form of harrowing doubt and fear. “We are going to lose,” I think, or is it a whisper? “Alex is not here like I thought he would be. Maybe John was wrong, and not everyone came? Maybe he doesn’t care. Maybe, he’s joined them. Yes! He has joined them! He’s currently part of Agatha. He is fighting, but not with you. He’s fighting against you!” Desperately I start looking for signs of Alex inside of Agatha. “What if he fell in love with Eugenia? What if he realized the he had more in common with her than with me? What if together they left Heaven and joined Agatha?” Thoughts of doubt and fear start to take root and they sound more and more logical.
As I look around, I see no one I recognize. Where’s my family? “Oh wait! I have no family, I’m a foster child, I have no one.” Now, I’m in that place again—small, alone, and afraid—mortal Agatha sneers at me, Charlotte doesn’t care. I’ve been deserted. I refuse to think of my parents, so I forget them entirely. I feel cold, hollow, and my head feels dizzy.
Someone is shouting, but I can’t tell what they’re saying. Something’s blocking my ears, or my hearing. A bright swooshing light slices the air in front of me, and I find myself being released from Agatha’s grip, then falling, and falling…
Next to me, I see three huge fingers falling with me toward the water. My mind struggles to identify what these huge log-like fingers are doing. Then I remember—Agatha is big! Those are her fingers! Someone cut me loose!
Right before the big fingers hit the surface of the water, they explode into a shower of confetti made up of dark spirits, who zoom out in all directions. Some are captured right away, while others look like they’re in a hurry to go back to Agatha, and re-enter her mass.
I’m dazed and disoriented and from what I can tell, still falling. Or am I? No, I’m not falling, but rather hovering right over the ocean in a horizontal position. Nothing makes sense; I still feel drugged or something, I no longer seem to care which team to join, or which way to go, who to believe, or even what to do.
“Go! Get away from here Tess!” A voice orders. I turn towards the sound and see him. The way he looks takes me back to another time, another place. I smile like a drunken schoolgirl, I feel silly—giggly. He opens his eyes big, like I’m an idiot. “Go Tess! What’s wrong with you? Go!”
But I don’t obey. I feel firmly rooted to this particular spot in mid air, in his arms. “Ha!” I laugh. “I’m floating above water!”
He shakes his head and purses his lips like he’s mad, and releases me from his grasp. “Stay here,”
he commands, with an admonitory finger, and starts to float backward, away from me. I smile goofily, his face is so pretty, so nice to look at. Suddenly, something strikes me as funny and I start to laugh. It’s Agatha; she’s so big and ugly! As I look around me, everything looks funny, even that huge black dragon that is trying to…to…. “Alex!” I shout, sobering up all at once.
Alex is now looking back at me with a muddled look on his face, like he too just got numbed, and doesn’t see that the dragon is opening its mouth and is about to swallow him whole. My newly cleared mind snaps back into action, even though I still feel a bit woozy, and I zip straight for him.
“Oh no you don’t,” I hear Agatha’s booming voice say, and I see that she’s trying to catch me with her other hand; but she looks clumsy, like a toddler trying to grasp a tiny raisin with thick, chubby fingers.
I weave my way through her fat fingers and barely reach Alex, but Agatha’s pinky brushes against me, knocking me just out of Alex’s grasp. I regain my balance and duck to avoid another swipe of her lumbering limbs, not a second before Legion opens his mouth again, and starts to blow his Novocain toward me as well. I’m barely able to grab the stunned Alex by the hand and pull him down, straight down, barely missing the dark dragon’s breath.
I pull him to me and hug him tight, but he still has that bewildered look to him, like he’s drunk. I don’t have much time to sober him up, though, because Legion’s claw is fast approaching and it doesn’t seem to suffer from the same awkwardness that Agatha’s hand did.
Clutched in one fist, Alex has managed to hold fast to his flaming sword. I try to pry off his fingers, but he’s got a death grip on it. “Come on Alex,” I croon. “Let me have the sword,” I say as I would a child who is unwilling to share. I barely have it in my grasp before I get to use it on the descending claw. I slice it right at the talon, then again at the ankle—or whatever you call that part in a dragon. A loud shrieking noise issues from the creature and wispy dark forms start oozing out from the cuts, like tar blood. The screeching is so loud and awful, it’s haunting—like something out of a horror movie. This noise seems to finally snap Alex out of his drunkenness and he looks around, startled, like he’s just waking up from a nightmare.
“W—what happened?” he asks looking all around him, then checks his hand for the sword.
I start to explain, but I see Agatha reaching for us again. “No time! Fly!” I order. But in the second that it takes for Alex to look back and see what’s going on, Agatha stretches and lunges forward, with her mouth wide open, gleaming teeth bared. Her canines are oddly long and sharp looking, and her slit tongue unfurls right before us.
“That’s disgusting!” we hear someone yell, who seems to be flying at top speed. We back out of the way and see, to our amazement, Eugenia raising a Flaming Sword with both hands high above her head, and then forcefully brings it down on Agatha’s slithery tongue. “Take this, you revolting creature!” she says, and her voice reminds me of when she used to complain about her acrylic nails breaking.
Right behind her, Henry is hacking away at other parts of Agatha, like he’s having the time of his life. Each blow from his Flaming Sword delivers a devastating gash that oozes spirits out of the snake-woman. Behind him, unarmed Open spirits are waiting to apprehend the unlawful inmates, bind them, and send them back to Spirit Prison.
“…And that!” Eugenia keeps swinging and looks so hilarious to us, that we have to laugh at her. She looks just like she used to, devastatingly beautiful, but with a new vendetta.
“Eugenia?” Agatha’s voice sounds odd, like a record that is set at the wrong speed, low and distorted. “Wha-a-a-at?” Agatha growls in surprise.
“That’s right! I’m on their side now,” Eugenia boasts smugly, then smiles. “Thanks to someone,” she smiles toward Henry, who can no longer be seen.
“And so am I!” Henry yells from somewhere behind Agatha’s head. He only comes into view as he floats around Agatha’s shoulder, sword held at three o’ clock, ready to strike at her neck. What he doesn’t see is her snake torso rearing up with her scorpion’s tail, ready to strike.
“NO!” Russell yells from a distance, and like a flash, he flies straight for the tail. On hearing this, Eugenia turns and looks. She, too, yells and goes toward the unsuspecting Henry, who has already started his move.
Henry strikes Agatha’s neck, right when her stinger is about to crush down on him, then turns distractedly to see who objected to his move. Upon seeing his estranged son ready to protect him, Henry smiles, and instead of moving, he takes another swing at Agatha. Eugenia reaches Henry just as the stinger drops down, but instead of falling straight on his head, it tumbles inert to the side thanks to Russell’s timely blow.
As the scorpion’s tail falls, hundreds of dark spirits pour out, and a horde of Harpy Eagles swoop down, capturing each one with their claws. They fly their hostages straight back to where they belong, as if the prisoners didn’t weigh any more than their usual meal. On seeing themselves being picked up by the huge birds, they writhe and squirm but to no avail.
Meanwhile, Alex reaches for the sword I’m holding, and with a wink, takes it from my hands. “I think it’s time for the three of us to do some male bonding.” And soon, Henry, Alex, and Russell are all hacking away at Agatha’s neck, as if they were cutting down a particularly thick tree.
Eugenia and I watch mutely, looking out for other possible dangers that might assail them while they decapitate Agatha.
“By the way,” I say without turning. “You look better than you did the last time I saw you.”
“Thanks,” she responds frankly, and whips a strand of hair off her forehead. “I’m trying something new.”
“Oh yeah?” I say with interest. “What’s that?”
“Selflessness,” she says matter-of-factly. “I heard this revolutionary idea, that if you lose yourself in helping others, you’ll find yourself.”
I smile. Then I pat her shoulder amicably. She looks at the spot where I touched her, not with disgust, as she once would have, but with something else. Gratefulness.
“You know, I am really sorry for all I’ve done to you and Alex. I know that you won’t—”
I turn to see why she stopped talking, Legion, who has been engaged elsewhere, has now come back to us and is sweeping spirits into its grasp in a desperate, heedless, manner—Eugenia among them. The Dragon is bound by golden cords on all sides and is being reined in by a host of Open spirits, one of them Dorian.
“Genie!” Henry screams, when he sees her being taken.
“I’ve got her!” Katie responds, perched on the back of a brachiosaurus, of all creatures.
Rearing up, the prehistoric beast swings its long tail at the claw that is holding Eugenia and several other spirits captive. At the same time, Katie releases a golden rope that lassoes one of the dragon’s claws. Several similar lassoes are released and trap the other five digits that make up that claw, and now the Dragon seems to be quite incapacitated. “Hop on!” Katie says to the group that was just released. And they all do, by jumping on the brachiosaurus’ back with Katie—Eugenia among them.
All those who are holding the golden cords fly around the beast, effectively bringing that leg flush with its torso. With desperate sweeping motions, and filled with fury, Legion twists and thrashes about in frantic attempts to free itself. But more, strong, golden cords are being thrown at it from every angle, rendering it immobile. Meanwhile, Agatha is literally being torn apart piece by piece, and her constituents are being marshaled, much against their wills, back to Spirit Prison.
Below me, the mortal realm is still in upheaval. A noisy battle is raging, complete with the unceasing noise of all kinds of firearms; planes dropping bombs, and fires…fires are everywhere! They dot, almost in a polka-dot-like pattern, the whole face of the earth. People are running about desperately, fighting with what they’ve got. I don’t know where Sam is, but somehow I know she’s okay. Alive or dead, she’s okay.
/> I look back at Alex. He’s still working on Agatha’s head along side Henry and Russell. Eugenia and Katie are busy tightening their grip on Legion. Dorian, too, is holding his ground right over Legion’s head. Behind him I see two little fairy wings—Luz—who no doubt is holding another cord. I don’t see where the rest of my family is, but I know they are fighting. A great sense of relief comes over me, and for the first time in…well…ever, I feel peace for them and peace for myself. It’s a foreign thought, especially given the current situation, but I feel it. We are all okay. It’s over….
Chapter 21
It’s not over.
That blissful, peaceful moment doesn’t last very long; it’s abruptly snatched from me by a foreign, frantic feeling. Rage. A desperate frenzied kind of fury, like I’ve backed myself into a corner and I can’t get out. I want an out, but I can’t have it. It’s too late!
In confusion I turn, and look all around me, I need an out! I have to get out of here! I hate to be bound! Bound. Agatha! Somehow I’m her—or in her mind, or she’s in mine—I don’t know. Turning my head sharply in her direction, we lock eyes. She’s pleading with me, genuinely pleading for help. “This is new,” I mutter. I’ve never seen sincerity in her eyes before so I’m taken aback.
“What do I do?” she implores. She knows her time of reckoning has finally come and now she wants leniency.
Anger wells up inside of me, and I’m about ready to tell her, tough luck, when another thought—a command—comes to mind.
“It’s never too late.” And I see a way out for her.
