by Kade Cook
“Gabrian, wake up!” Shane’s yells become frantic. He clenches the muscles in his hands so tight the colour is drained from his flesh, turning his fists white. He paces the small perimeter between them wearing a thin path in the dirt beneath his feet and feels helpless to advance, knowing he is stepping on live wires.
“Please, do continue,” Adrinn encourages, laughing as he chimes out his cruel words at Shane’s persistence. “Your voice only adds to her delusion.” Shane turns to glare at Adrinn, fighting to keep his anger under wraps with the hopes that help arrives soon.
“You said she cannot hear me.” Shane’s eyes burn as he stares down the evil soul that taunts his control on his emotions, confused by his insufferable riddle. “How does that add to anything?”
“Forgive me.” Adrinn stops his entranced admiration of his creation before them and turns to smirk at the young Schaeduwe. “What I meant to say was that she cannot hear your true words,” he jeers, watching Shane’s frustration grow by the second. “I am the only one that can touch her mind. What she hears from your voice are the words that I choose for her to hear,” he says, tapping the center of his own chest. Then raising his hand, he swirls his pointed finger around the edges of his temple and finally lets it come to rest on the fleshy part of his earlobe, executing a cheery, widespread mouth. “So, right now as you bellow out your heartfelt pleas,” he continues folding his fluttering hand just beneath his chin and returns to stare gleefully at his muse. “All she understands is that you are here to kill me. And Gabrian, being the benevolent fool that she is...” His daring eyes glance over to engage Shane, taunting him, taking pleasure in his suffering. “…will sacrifice every ounce of her life essence thinking that she has saved me from the evil Shadow Walker—you. With her generous contribution to my cause, I will be able to live for a thousand years or as long as it takes in order to find my key.”
“Key?” Shane’s eyes pinch tight, wrinkling around the edges in distress. He twists his torso, and his eyes flash a brilliant green as he yells at him, horrified that Gabrian’s worth is being compared to that of an inanimate object. “You are going to kill her for some key?”
“Essentially.” He shrugs, taunting his guest with a quick and unconcerned glance. “You are brighter than you look, Schaeduwe.” Adrinn face loses its pleasantry, and he wipes an imaginary piece of lint from his jacket. “I hate to be rude, but I grow tired of our trifling conversation...”
Knowing that his time is dwindling, Shane launches himself through the air toward the man but passes through him and falls to the ground, rolling to his feet on the other side of his target empty-handed and helpless to stop Gabrian’s captor.
A sharp pain slices through the middle of Adrinn’s abdomen where Shane tore through his fleshless body. He looks down in shock of this unexpected sensation.
“Interesting,” he mutters, wondering about the viability of the Shadow Walker ruining his evening. “It is a good thing I do not travel alone.” Adrinn waves his hands through the air, and Gargons begin to rise and swirl around Gabrian in a counterclockwise motion. “I have had enough of you for one night!” he says as he steps inside the darkened mist of Erebus, not wanting to deal any longer with this unpleasant circumstance.
Shane charges after Adrinn, and attempts to grab hold of his arm before he can escape, but his hand makes contact with the mist. A blinding sear of pain jolts through his hand like it is caught in a hot waffle iron, and he wrenches it free from the Darkness.
Orroryn, Ethan, Cimmerian, and Matthias step out from behind the rock where Rachael hides, crouched down between the Earth and the stone. She points to the other side of the rock, toward the sound of sizzling flesh that fills the air between them. They all rush toward the sound and find Shane standing breathless while holding his hand as he observes the scene of zombie-like humans kneeling on the ground at the base of a wall of blackened mist before them.
“What kind of nightmare is this?” Orroryn questions, sliding toward his son.
“Some crazed apparition thing has all these humans in a trance and has Gabrian trapped behind this wall of Gargons. He is planning on draining the life out of her if we don’t stop him.”
Cimmerian’s brow furrows, and he regrets his attendance at the party already, knowing exactly who it is that they have to deal with.
“Hm, I see you have brought your friends,” Adrinn’s voice blares out in an ear-splitting hiss from within his impenetrable wall. “Well, that just will not do.”
Without warning, a blast of energy tides out from within the toxic shroud and sends them all flying backward into the air in different directions and slams them onto the Earth.
“What was that?” Shane shouts, shaking his head and staggering to his feet.
“I think he is using her as a weapon,” Ethan replies, wiggling his fingers in reflex as he recalls Gabrian’s experimental parlor trick of abstracting energy and propelling it. “She must be drawing in electricity from some nearby source in order to push out with that much force.”
Ethan’s memory is jogged back to another instance of when he had experienced a similar occurrence. He contemplates the possibility of a connection between these two interactions and out of curiosity, he listens for thought patterns within the black toxic orb in front of them, finding not only one but two familiar minds.
“Ethan, can you help her or at least, do something to wake her up?” Shane pleads loudly, jarring Ethan from his enquiry.
“I don’t know, Shane. I will try.” Ethan runs through Shane’s mind and grabs the details of the events that took place previous to his arrival. “I am going to try to connect with her mind. Maybe I will be able to reach through the compulsion and make her see what is going on.”
Ethan pushes through the Darkness that clings heavily to Gabrian’s consciousness and searches for a link. He finds her, but her thoughts are confusing and distorted—nothing more than a delusional smear of colours and emotions at war with each other. Her face remains clear of expression as her mind remains lost within her reality. She does not recognize his friendship and strikes out at him violently with a blinding light, burning through his mind which sends him to his knees, reeling in pain.
“It is no use; she is under some kind of mind compulsion. She does not even know who I am and somehow sees me as a threat. I can’t help her,” he chokes out, holding his head. “I am sorry, Shane.”
Shane’s attention lands on Cimmerian, who tries to fade into the background of it all. “This is your department, is it not? He is an apparition—summon up some of that black Magik stuff of yours and take him out with an energy wave or something. There must be a way to push this monster back into the Darkness.”
Cimmerian stands up straight and steps out from behind Orroryn’s shadow. His eyes wash over the people on the ground, helpless within their trance before him. He studies the swirling sphere of death that holds the root to all this evil.
“I could, yes, but if I do that it would take everything encased within it down into Erebus. Gabrian would be consumed by it as well.”
Through the layers of Gargon vapor, they see the silhouettes of the inhabitants and the motion of Adrinn moving his lips. A bright greyish light leaves Gabrian’s body and begins to saturate Adrinn. His head rises in exhilaration, and he glares over at the group of onlookers standing outside the wall. His hands begin to glow, revealing to them the orbs of energy he has created.
Ethan, knowing who it is they deal with, bellows out a warning to them in remembrance of what comes next.
“Get down!”
But it is too late.
A massive surge of energy blasts toward them, knocking them with the force of a hurricane, flinging them helplessly into the trees behind which knocks Matthias out cold. Shane’s ears ring from the harshness of the impact but through the ringing, he hears Adrinn’s evil cackle as he focuses back on Gabrian.
She cries out in pain as the light between herself and Adrinn burns brighter.
“We have almost won, my little Vampire.”
Her upright stance begins to waver as she begins to drain of energy. The Gargons fester around her, moving in quick erratic jolts like that of a shark that has gotten the scent of blood. She screams again from somewhere in the Darkness.
Shane forces himself to his feet and reaches down, grabbing Cimmerian by the collar of his coat. “Do something! He is killing her!”
Cimmerian understands his fear and focuses his eyes back toward the frenzy. An image of Symone rushes to the forefront of his mind, tormenting his judgement, but he is being watched. If he does not do the right thing, he knows suspicion will follow him, and things will get ugly.
He crawls up onto his feet and raises his hands. Deep violet light glows within the palms of his hands. Cimmerian closes his eyes to concentrate on the task at hand. The crusaders watch without a sound as he applies his efforts but nothing happens. The walls of the sphere stand firm, not wavering in the least.
“I don’t understand it.” Cimmerian’s head rocks backward, only for a moment then slips ahead to gather a closer examination as he gazes at the ball of unrelenting beasts from the underworld, refusing to obey.
“What?” Ethan asks with wide eyes, not understanding his falter.
“The Gargons, they are not responding at all to my requests,” Cimmerian reveals in confusion, his hand still out-turned and flaring with the dark Magik that stirs within, awaiting their next command. “It is like he is controlling them from within.”
“There has got to be something you can do,” Shane yells, leaping the distance between them to stand next to him, his soul wearing an intense shroud of flesh that towers over the Black Mage, desperate for action. “If you can just find me a way in, I will get her out!”
Cimmerian’s eyes flinch, and the corners sting with the dew of sadness as he registers the pain surfacing within Shane words.
“Please,” Shane’s voice cracks as he forces out the word, his last plea—his only chance for saving her.
“I will try to make an opening.” Cimmerian pulls himself together, looking away from the boy and readies his hands. He shakes them in quick snaps and dark violet sparks explode from their centers, alight with new vigor and reason. He glances over his shoulder beneath his damp lashes then returns his focus to the task before him. “Get ready to move, because I am not sure how long I will be able to hold them.”
“I am ready. Just do it.” Shane nods. His body flexes and vibrates in anticipation of even the slightest breach within the wall, desperate to get to Gabrian before it is too late.
Cimmerian’s palms crackle and spark dark violet fire as he extends his hands out and reaches inward toward the Gargons, pulling at the intricate web of Darkness. Sweat appears at the top of Cimmerian’s brow from the pressure of the feat. Suddenly he sees it—a crack in the wall. Shane strikes like lightning and disappears, injecting himself into the sphere.
Gabrian, barely alive, is curled into a ball on the ground, having succumb to her debt of sacrifice. Shane slides his arms around her waist and secures them then pulls her free from her entrapment before Adrinn even knows what has happened. They slip back through the fissure in the sphere and disappear into the night’s shadow, heading for safety.
Cimmerian releases his grip on the wall, falling backward for a moment, but continues his grip on the Darkness. He knows he has to send Adrinn and the Gargons back into the Darkness, but his heart is torn. He does not want to lose Symone again. He cries out in frustration but does what he must. His Magik crackles again within his hands as he thrusts a circular motion at the Darkness, creating a force field around the sphere. He seals Adrinn inside his Gargon’s tomb, heading back to Erebus.
Adrinn scream as he begins his descent back into the Darkness. Pieces of his body pull into fragments of space. He glares at Cimmerian and mouths a heart-wrenching sentence that is meant for only one.
“I will remember this.”
And with that, Adrinn disappears. The swirling mist of Darkness sinks into the Earth, taking the Gargons home.
Cimmerian, looking defeated, slumps to the ground on his knees.
Orroryn cocks his head to the side as he recognizes who it was that Cimmerian sent away. “Was that...?” He stumbles with the words.
Cimmerian stares blankly out into the center of the circle of unconscious humans that lay motionless on the ground before them then turns his head to the side, looking up at Orroryn beside him.
“Yeah, it was him.”
“But how did he get out?”
“I don’t know, you tell me,” he says, pushing himself up off the ground using his left arm for leverage. Cimmerian brushes his hands across his body and dusts off the dirt from his clothes. “But there is something I do know.”
Ethan walks over to stand beside Cimmerian. “Yeah, and what is that?”
Cimmerian turns to Ethan then turns to stare blankly at the spot where his last hope to save his daughter had stood only moments ago. “I think I just pissed him off.”
Chapter Fifty-Four
From the Dream Awake
SHANE LOOKS DOWN at her small fragile body covered in bruises. Her clothing is tattered and torn from her ordeal. He watches helplessly as Gabrian continues to fight violently against the war inside her head. Tethered and bound by her arms in order to keep her from harm, she lets out a loud cry filled with suffering.
Ethan hurries into the room, hearing her struggle.
“She is still unconscious,” Shane whispers to him. “She has been like this for days. When is she going to wake up?”
“Be patient. She is still in there, fighting her way through whatever kind of compulsion Adrinn had her under.” Ethan closes his eyes for a moment and searches for her thoughts. He finds her spark. It is weak, but it is definitely hers.
“What if she does not recover?” Shane’s voice falters, revealing his fear.
Ethan opens his eyes and places his hand on Shane’s shoulder. “She is strong. She will find her way back,” he says and cracks a smile. “Besides, she is too stubborn to give up.”
Kaleb Dimiri enters the room, holding a large wooden bowl filled with herbs, flowers, and a few small vials filled with a number of different coloured liquids. He sets the arrangement down on the nightstand beside Gabrian’s bed.
Taking out one of the vials, the colour of mud, he opens it and lets it hover above the opening of her mouth. Gently, he pulls at her bottom lip with his index finger and opens it just enough to create a small crevice. He tips the vial upward, allowing a small amount of the liquid to escape and drip onto her full lips—down onto her tongue.
“This will help her sleep more peacefully. I will come back later to apply some of the other herbs. She has been depleted and since her body insists on pushing out the IV in her arm, I have to administer an alternative means of giving her sustenance to help her heal.”
“Thank you, Kaleb, for all your help,” Ethan says, grabbing a damp cloth from the dresser and hands it to Kaleb to wipe off the excess medicine from Gabrian’s mouth.
Kaleb takes the cloth and nods. “It is no trouble. From what you have told me, the poor thing seems to be destined for hardship,” he says, cleaning Gabrian’s bottom lip. “I will do all that I can to help.”
Shane glances over quickly at Kaleb. Hearing his words stings Shane’s conscience with the bitter reality of knowing he is partially to blame for her struggles, and it tears him up inside. He thanks Kaleb as well for all he has done to comfort Gabrian then watches in silence as Ethan walks Kaleb to the door. Shane reaches out, gathering Gabrian’s small slender hand and cups it between his own, hoping his warmth will find her. He lowers his head and rests it lightly on top of their entwined fingers.
Gabrian twitches as she struggles to open her eyes. Everything is blurry and bright, making it hard for her eyes to focus. She feels heat coming from her right hand and looks over at the dark figure hovering over it. The pounding in her head thuds against her skull like booming
canons as she strains, trying harder to see who or what, is touching her.
Realizing it is Shane, Gabrian quickly rips her hand back to get it away from him. She teeters between realities. In a frightened state, she turns her head from side to side, desperately seeking someone.
“Where is she?” Gabrian demands. “Where is she?”
Shane looks up. She is completely awake, panicked, and staring at him. He yells loudly for Ethan.
Gabrian retracts her body to put as much room between herself and Shane as she can, but when she does, pain shoots through her everywhere. Every inch of her body screams at her to stop moving.
“Where is she? I have to find her, she is weakening.”
Ethan rushes into the room, immediately pushing his thoughts out to find her mind to try to send her into a calm state before she can hurt herself more.
“I can’t leave her there. I need to save her!” She pulls and rips at the tethers, trying to squirm her way free.
Ethan firmly places his hands on her, holding her down by the shoulders. He feels her fear taking over her, disorientating her logical senses which makes it hard for her to coherently grasp what is happening.
Prying harder, he finds the familiar connection he is looking for and bombards her mind with euphoric-like emotions, setting off a chemical reaction that floods her with endorphins and releases some of the hold the compulsion has on her. She stops fighting and lies completely still. She blinks, her eyes widening—still filled with caution—as she tries to understand what is going on and where she is. Her eyes drift around the edges of her surroundings and for the first time quiets herself. She recognizes her room in her parent’s house, and her world slows down enough for her to focus. A soft familiar voice wafts its way in through the tangled web that now is her mind and settles the last remains of her nerves’ jagged ends as it whispers to her. Just breathe.
