by D. N. Hoxa
I’d known this was a stupid idea ever since I had it, but now that I was in that hospital again, lying on white tiles full of dirt and blood, I almost called for the green-eyed man again. I was a goner now, and they weren’t going to give me a chance to reach for the other shot of adrenaline in my vest. Worse of all, I couldn’t see Elisa, and I couldn’t hear her chant.
If I called on him, would he save us again?
How?
Was it worth it?
No. It wasn’t.
Getting the image of his face out of my head was hard when every instinct in my body was looking for a way to survive. But it was okay. I’d tried. I hadn’t stood back with arms crossed. I hadn’t waited for a miracle. I’d taken my chances, and I’d lost, but at least I’d taken some of them with me, even if it was for just a few hours. Because all those heads I cut off would somehow reattach to the demon bodies. They weren’t dead by any means.
The only dead demons I’d seen had been in the ECU research facility, when I’d touched them with the lightning sword.
Now, as they took whatever was left of me without regard, I felt the same way I had then. Helpless. Weak. Dying.
They were going to take all of me until there was nothing left.
All of me…
Something nagged at the back of my mind. I couldn’t make sense of it at first. It was a memory of that night in the facility—my own mind trying to make death even more terrifying than it needed to be. But I remembered how I’d thought that I was going to die that night, too. How I’d known that the demons were going to suck me dry. I’d been so tired, so, so tired that I’d opened myself to them. I’d given them all my magic because there seemed to be no point in trying to hold on anymore.
Just when I’d done that, the sword had appeared.
The nagging stopped. My whole body went numb. My magic left my body like it was natural, like that was what it was made for—to feed the demons. But it wasn’t. Taking in a shaky breath, I pushed it out of me. All of it, until there was no more left.
And while I did, I wished for a sword made of lightning to appear in my hand. I wished it with my very being, to the stars and to the moon, to the lightning and the storm.
The demons stopped drawing magic from me.
Thirteen
Time came to a halt. Nothing existed except me, my left hand, the dragon wrapped around it. Even before I opened my eyes, I knew what I would see. It was so simple, the disappointment for not figuring it out sooner was all consuming. I should have known. I should have seen.
But I saw now.
The dragon took my power, consumed me, just like the fairy Trinity said, because that’s what it wanted. Power. It wanted all of it to come alive like it had now—a perfect sword made of lightning strikes, flashing white and blue like my hand was the sky.
“It’s you.”
A demon graced me with the sound of his voice. I’d cut his face just a few minutes ago, but now only the dried blood remained on his skin. His catlike eyes focused on the sword over my lap, shining more than the lights in the ceiling.
“You know me?” I whispered, and my whisper broke. “I had no idea I was famous already. I’m really flattered.”
My legs felt like jelly, but I had to stand while I still had the chance. The demons were keeping a distance of two feet from me, but I couldn’t see Elisa. I had to know that she was okay. I made it to my feet like a drunk, losing balance every other second, until I straightened my shoulders. She was there by the vending machine, the two demons in front of her now turned to me. Her eyes were open and she breathed, but she was hurt badly, and I doubted she’d be able to stand.
But it was no need now. The sword had come back to turn some demon flesh into charcoal.
“You think you’ve won,” the demon said, taking half a step away from me. A chill washed down my back. Could he read my mind?
“You know I have.” I raised my sword and the blue light reflected in his strange eyes. “I don’t know where you come from, or what you want here, but I’d be willing to spare you if you go back to your hell and tell everyone about me.” If he already knew me, that meant the demons who’d escaped from the ECU facility had told him what happened. They were definitely evolving, but maybe not too fast, otherwise they would have recognized the dragon before.
“You haven’t won, Scarlet Jones. You cannot win. This world is destined for doom, and we’re here to ensure that happens. You might kill some of us, but you will never kill us all.” How the hell did he know my name? He spoke like a robot, with no emotion in his voice, though his voice alone was nothing out of the ordinary. His words scared me more than I liked to admit, because he looked so sure of every single one of them.
“Die.” There really wasn’t much else I could say.
Taking in a deep breath, I pushed my body to the limits, and I swung my sword at his face. My muscles screamed in protest, but I ignored them as best I could. The demon ducked at the last second, and another hit me right between my shoulder blades, making me turn around. To my horror, there weren’t two of them waiting there like I’d thought. There were five.
Spinning around to do a quick count, number thirteen burned inside my head. How many heads had reattached to their bodies already? I’d have loved to check, but I’d rather just kill them for good. They were keeping their distance because they knew what would happen if my lightning sword touched them. It was up to me to get close and personal with them…well, maybe not too close and personal, because the sword was freakishly long—and extremely light—just like the first time. I spun on air and fell on the ground to confuse them, to give myself time to reach them before they fell back. Aiming for the legs now was as good a strategy as aiming for their heads. The last time, even the demons who’d touched the sword without my having to do anything had died. This time was no different.
But these demons weren’t as stupid. They jumped away from me, and I only managed to touch one of them in the thighs with the tip of my lightning sword. He froze in place, a terrified look in his wide eyes, and looked down at his legs before his clothes began to turn to ash. Underneath them, his skin had turned black, in some places orange, too, with the flameless fire that burned the charcoal he was transforming into.
Before I could enjoy the show to the end, two others attacked me, coming from behind. I ducked forward but still felt the kick on my back. It hurt like hell and my muscles screamed for me to stop. The demons were going to make me work for it, and I’d have loved that if I wasn’t so spent already. But the hope was there now, taking over my heart, and in my mind, there was no way I could lose this.
So I fought with all I had. My eyes adjusted to the blinding light of the lightning, and soon, I didn’t even blink every time I moved my hand in front of my face. Two more demons were turning into charcoal when one grabbed my left arm, and another grabbed me by the throat. He didn’t try to suck my magic anymore, but he was squeezing to break my neck. Putting my right hand on his face, I dug my finger into his left eye. He growled in pain, a terrifying sound—another first—but didn’t let go of me. I swung my body up and down and to the sides like a mad woman, until finally, my right arm was free. The demon who’d been holding me was now looking at his shoulder, where the sword must have touched him, because his shirt was slowly turning to ash.
The demons didn’t give me much time to recover. The one holding me by the throat jumped back when I swung my sword at his middle. With all my heart I wished for them to run. To get the hell away from here and the sword. But they didn’t. They continued to fight me until I could no longer feel any part of my body.
And the sword…the lightning didn’t shoot from the handle as fast as before. Not quite. I scratched it as my imagination playing tricks on my eyes, but the light coming from it wasn’t as strong now, either. The fear of it failing me when there were still five more demons standing made me want to throw up. Burning charcoal statues all around me, but that wasn’t enough. My strength was leaving me, what li
ttle I had left, and with it, the sword was shrinking, the light dimming.
Tears welled in my eyes. Death whispered in my ear every time I swung my arm and a demon moved away, and another hit me from behind. All I could do now was straighten my arm and spin and spin, hoping that I’d catch at least one of them.
I didn’t.
Something took my feet from under me and I fell on my ass, hard. The demons were coming for me from both sides. The one on the right wrapped his finger around my arm and wrist, and the other tried to do the same with my left, but I didn’t let him. I moved the sword in a circle as fast as possible, and watched the other demon as he hissed and aimed his fist at my face. If I attacked him with the sword, he’d be dead, but the other would grab my arm. I had no more strength to break free again, but if this guy hit me in the face, I was a goner.
Indecision burned a hole in my chest, whereas fire burned the hair of the demon, before his fist could land on my face.
The view made no sense to me whatsoever. Then, the demon let go of me and spun around. I rolled on the ground with my right arm outstretched, aiming for the back of his legs.
But the sword was no longer a sword. The lightning blade was barely as big as a knife’s, and it was shrinking. I thought Elisa had set the demon’s hair on fire, but when one grabbed me by the ankle and dragged me back, I saw someone else.
Five someone elses.
Using my free leg, I kicked the demon holding me until I hit his face. He fell to the side and let go of me, and I hurried to my feet, desperate to see if my eyes had played tricks on me.
They hadn’t. Five people I’d never seen before were throwing stuff at the demons. Stuff on fire. Sheets, pieces of wood, even a pillow. Elisa was on the other side of the room, looking at them, too, but most importantly, the demons were hissing, trying to get away from the fire. My sword was now barely a kitchen knife, but I was still standing, wasn’t I?
So I began with the one who’d pulled me by the ankle, who was trying to connect his fists to my face. It took me a minute, but I finally made a clean cut on his forearm. I was aiming for the face but he tried to protect himself. Instead, he turned into charcoal.
The others were a bit easier. Of the four demons left standing, two were on fire, so I saved them for last and let them try to put the fire out, while the five strangers kept throwing more stuff at them.
In less than two minutes, I fell on my knees in front of a horrifying charcoal shape, burning orange right where the heart of the demon was supposed to be. Where I’d stabbed him with my barely-there knife.
Did I say barely there?
No, it was gone now. The sword was gone. In its place was the dragon, looking as innocent as always.
I could see Elisa dragging herself closer to me through the corner of my eye, but I focused all of my power on getting that second adrenaline shot from my vest before it was too late. Unconsciousness couldn’t have me yet, but it fought with me until the last second. I spit out the lid of the syringe and raised my arm, aiming for my already numb thigh, when someone grabbed my hand and stopped me.
I was terrified that more demons had come, or that those I hadn’t touched with the lightning sword had gotten back up, but it was Elisa.
“You can’t…” she whispered, breathing heavily. Her face was a mess of blood and bruises. She was holding onto her gut, too. “You can’t handle one more.”
She was as weak as I was, so when I moved my hand, she let go. She had no choice. The needle sunk into my flesh and the epinephrine spread up my body like a flame. Darkness all around me for a very long, breathless second.
Then, everything came back with a jolt. My body was no longer my own, though. It might have been my muscles, or the second adrenaline shot, but I was numb all over. Even my eyelids seemed to belong to someone else, but when I tried to stand up, I managed. I managed perfectly fine.
The five people across from me looked positively terrified. They were young, younger than even me, and dressed in white clothes that had turned grey long ago. They were thin, with purple bruises under their eyes and hollowed cheeks. The three girls had hair full of grease, stuck to their faces in a very uncomfortable way. The two boys stepped in front of them, as if they were trying to protect them from us.
“We need to go,” I whispered, afraid to even think at this point. They were the kidnapped witches, no doubt about it. They looked like they’d been through hell already, but why were there only five? Were the others still alive?
“Who are you?” one of the girls said.
Elisa grabbed my hand. “Help me up,” she whispered, and I did. Supporting her weight felt like nothing to me now that I didn’t even feel myself. “We need to leave, right now. The ECU…”
“Where are the others?” I asked the strangers. They looked at each other for a long minute. “Look, the ECU is probably on their way here right now. If we don’t leave soon, we’re all going back there again.”
“I don’t know you. I haven’t seen you before,” the guy to the left said, his dark skin shining with sweat.
“You’ll never see me again if we don’t leave.” I took a step forward with Elisa hanging onto my neck. “We have three vans waiting outside. Take us to the others. Please.”
I don’t know if it was that last word that made up their mind, or if it was the promise of freedom, but after another look at each other, the strangers nodded, and waved for us to follow. The double doors swung open when we approached them. Two guys were on the other side of the hallway, holding them. They looked at me and Elisa like they’d never seen anything stranger in their lives.
The hallway we were in now had seven doors—one of them marked with an Exit sign. The six other doors were wide open.
“We’re leaving,” one of the guys who’d helped us said. “Get everyone ready to go, right now.”
Just like that, the other six ran, one to each room.
Beds and people were in them. They all looked just as bad as the rest. They looked…broken. My heart raced as we stopped in the middle of the hallway. My eyes were bleeding to see inside each door, to go to each of them and help them to their feet, but I couldn’t push myself too hard, and I couldn’t let go of Elisa.
The rooms were dark, save for one light in each. There were cans on the ground, close to each bed, and large tanks of water. At least the demons had kept them fed. Maybe they’d realized that we needed more than magic to survive—unlike them. The witches began to come through the doors, most holding onto each other, unable to walk on their own. I started to count and got lost in the empty faces too many times. Their eyes were big, their shoulders hunched. They all were different, but the same.
A tear or two slipped from my eyes but I doubted anybody noticed.
“Where to?” the guy said, wiping the sweat off his face.
Elisa squeezed my hand. “Follow us,” she said, and we turned around and left right where we came from.
***
Reality seemed funny. The night air was colder than I expected. I could barely feel the rain falling lightly on our shoulders. It had been a challenge to walk down all those stairs—for all of us, not just for me.
Eddie’s men were hiding behind trees when we came out. Once they saw us, they rushed to our side to help. I don’t remember much of what it was like to walk that wood again, terrified of slipping and falling, and begging my body to let go at the same time. It was a very strange feeling that had taken over me. The rain washed away some of the dirt and the blood from the fight. I smiled while I cried, both happy and sad, and something else, too.
“Hurry up, people! Come on, we’re almost there,” one of Eddie’s men shouted. He wouldn’t have, had he gone through what we’d been through, but no one commented. He was in a hurry, naturally. We all were. If the ECU found us, I was going to shoot myself in the face.
The vans seemed like a country away, but when we finally reached them, it was like we’d never left them in the first place. Or maybe it was just me. Probably. The
men made sure that every witch was in a van, and they put Elisa and me in the back with the rest because it was obvious neither of us was capable of driving. Two of them were in the middle van with us and seven others. We sat on the floor, squeezed together but with enough room to breathe.
“They’re going to find us,” one of the witches said. She was really young, her dark hair cut just above her shoulders, her bitten fingernails bloody. She was crying in silence. The image of her and the rest of them was heartbreaking.
“No, they won’t,” I assured her.
“We need to hide. Quickly,” another said. He was a big man, but his skin was so pale, he looked like a corpse.
“The vans are protected,” Elisa said, coughing. “Nobody’ll find us.” She was still holding onto her gut.
“Why aren’t you healing?” I asked her, pushing her to the side so I could see the wounds better, but she wouldn’t let me.
“All my Pretters flew out of the vest when he slammed me against that machine,” she said through gritted teeth. Shoot! The spell stones! I’d had an explosive spell stone on me all along, and I hadn’t even remembered to use it!
But I didn’t. When I checked the vest, both my protection stones and the explosive were gone from my left pocket. They must have fallen off me during the fight. But the one on the right, the healing spell stone, was still there. I gave it to Elisa. “Thanks.” She pressed the stone to her chest, and I finally saw her stomach—cut wide open and with some pieces of glass still hanging on her clothes. I suppressed the fear by reminding myself how strong she was. Much stronger than she looked.
I, on the other hand, could barely hold my head up. Something was going on in there, something that was turning my thoughts into dust, but refusing to drag me under. I couldn’t go yet. We had half an hour of driving ahead of us, and I wanted to see that we were safe before I allowed myself to rest.
