Authors: Jordan Mendez
“I’ll
come back for both of you, I swear,” I promised, turning to the iron bars. I placed
my flaming hands on two and melted them into a soft shell of their former
selves, bending back just enough so that I could fit through.
“Scarlet,
wait!” the Bookworm called out to me. “You’re not ready to fight Velkire!” I
bit my lip, and looked back at Draco Hale.
“Have
a little faith, Bookworm,” I said with a slight smile, but the worry lines on
his face deepened. “I may surprise you.”
Before
either of them could say anything else, I jumped through the bars and raced
down the hallway of the dungeon. The only thing on my mind was that my brother was
after Velkire. I knew what I had to do to save both of us. I had to kill
Velkire.
Al
pushed open the doors leading to the throne room the second he came upon them,
and ran in fuming. Alastair followed close behind him reluctantly, knowing
exactly what was to happen. The chandelier hanging far above from the ceiling
was lit in a brilliant display, and the dark grey walls seemed to glow golden
from the uncommon light. Slight traces of blood still stained the floor, but
the pentagram was gone. Outside, the illusion barrier had already collapsed,
and the full moon dominated the sky, ruling like a mighty king against
thousands of stars. One could even see out the massive glass windows to the
calm black sea over the walls of the kingdom that had been etched into the
cliff. The stone courtyard loomed just outside, as if watching the scene unfold
like a neutral bystander.
A
beautiful man sat sprawled out in the large throne across the room, wearing a
coy smile that made him seem rather sly. Al recognized him immediately.
“Velkire!”
Al hissed in a voice that was so alien that even Alastair noticed it was out of
place. “I’m going to rip you to pieces!”
Velkire
burst out laughing, as if Al had made the funniest joke in the world. Al
clenched at the sound of it. Velkire’s laughter was repulsive to him.
“You’re
just as hilarious as your sister!” Velkire barked, while wiping tears from his
eyes. “Or should I say…my sister?” Al didn’t respond, but Velkire seemed to
read his mind just the same. In the blink of an eye, Velkire was by Al’s side,
but how, Al did not know.
“You
didn’t know, did you?” Velkire whispered in Al’s ear, the words sliding off his
tongue in a sickeningly delighted tone. “That your beloved sister Scarlet was
actually
my
sister? Yes, it is true. Our sister is a monstrosity, just
as I am.”
“
SHUT
UP!
” Al swung his arm out at Velkire, and
Gladium Angeli
, the sword
of the angel, solidified in his hand, nicking Velkire’s torso and tearing the
soft silver fabric of his tunic as he jumped back. Velkire bore an insane smile
on his face, and looked to be on the verge of laughter yet again. Al glared at
him, and held his sword up in defense.
Alastair,
still standing by the doors, made a movement to go help, but a cold metallic
hand grabbed his shoulder.
“Neither
of us shall interrupt this fight,” Enzio’s deep raspy voice growled. “Not until
it is our time to do so.”
Alastair
didn’t reply. Instead he looked at Al with a crushing guilt, knowing that he
had not only brought Scarlet to her death hardly hours before, but had
succeeded in bringing her brother to the same fate as well. Velkire giggled
with a twisted glee that could only be owned by a mad man.
“Oh,
how long has it been since I myself have fought?” he cried out, throwing his
hands up in the air theatrically. “It couldn’t have been since the Great War! How
I’ve missed the thrill of a fight!” Velkire snapped his fingers, and the double
doors of the throne room slammed shut. Large curtains appeared from nowhere and
fell from the ceiling, making the world behind the windows disappear as if it
was a magician’s trick.
The
candles lacing the chandelier exploded into bluish grey flames, changing the
golden glow of the room to a menacing silver hue. The grey walls turned black
and the scarlet carpet leading to the throne turned a deep blood red.
“Let’s
make this a little bit more interesting, shall we?” Velkire’s smile widened and
he snapped his fingers again. This time, four glowing blue spheres appeared at
each corner of the room, each with a figure inside them. Al’s heart skipped a
beat when he recognized each figure. Inside the spheres were Gideon, Yuki,
Kyra, and Siren. “If you win, I
won’t
kill them! But if I win…”
Al
didn’t need to be told what came next. With a cry he charged at Velkire, and
the beautiful man’s smile darkened with malice.
~
It
didn’t take long for me to realize that I was lost. In fact, after around the
fiftieth wrong turn and same array of royal dead eyed portraits boring down at
me, I was about to give up. I had made it out of the dungeons in almost no time
at all, but I had never realized just how big the castle was. Hallway after
hallway, corridor after corridor, staircase after staircase—it was obvious that
the place needed a map to it.
It
was upon the third time I had accidentally looped back into the stone court
yard that I heard the first explosion. The ground practically shook as my eyes
shot to the adjoining balcony, where a pillar of black fire burst out of, along
with quickly descending winged figure. Black bat-like wings snapped open a
moment before hitting the ground sending out a current of air that blew dust everywhere.
The winged figure glided towards me with incredible speed.
“Vaze?”
I cried out in shock and surprise, mixed in with slight longing. His head
snapped up with his black hair whipping around in a torrent, his gorgeous blue
eyes boring into mine as his face lit up.
“Scarlet!”
he shouted in overwhelming relief as he grabbed me off the ground midair,
embracing me tightly. I didn’t care, I was so happy that I hugged him back as
hard as I could. Vaze quickly kissed my forehead, but before I could protest a
cackling laughter cut through the air. I looked over Vaze’s shoulder back to
the receding balcony, and saw her—the demon me.
“You
can run, but you can’t hide, little bat boy!” she called out laughing, with a
voice identical to my own. She was far away, but I could see directly into her
red eyes. I only saw malice and dancing blood lust. Vaze looped around and
landed on the balcony of a tower, away from the view of the demon. He set me
down on my feet, and kicked in the glass door leading to a dark room. He
grasped my shoulders so that I looked directly into his eyes.
“I
want you to get away while I’m fighting her, Scarlet,” he said with his eyes
filled with worry. “Find Al and the others and get out of here as quickly as
possible, understand?” I shook my head, realizing immediately what he wanted. I
wasn’t going to let him be the idiot hero. That was my job.
“No!
Vaze, I’m not leaving you!” I batted his hands off me, but he just looked at me
with sadness.
“Please
Scarlet,” he whispered. “I don’t know what I’d do if you died, please just do
what I ask…” There was a moment of silence, in which both our feelings were
plain as day. He wanted to die to save me. I wanted him to live. Vaze turned
away from me towards the balcony, and I snapped. I grabbed his wrist, and he
looked back to me. I pulled him to me quickly, and craned my neck up while
pulling his head down, and kissed him. He seemed more surprised than anything,
but he pulled me closer just the same. His soft lips melded to mine, and for a
split moment our hearts beat at the same tempo. I pulled my head away and
rested my forehead on his, but I allowed him to hold me and kept my arms laced
around his neck.
“You
better not die Vaze,” I said, trying to keep the fear from my voice. “I’ll
never forgive you if you do…” I could feel Vaze’s chest vibrate as he chuckled,
and he lifted my chin back up with a finger so that our lips met once more.
“I
won’t,” he cooed. “I promise.”
He
released me quickly, and ran off the balcony, unfurling his wings as he fell,
then making a sudden arc back up into the sky leaving the only way to see him
by watching the stars disappear. I watched for a moment before I ran into the
room. I still had a job to do, and Al needed me.
~
Vaze
felt more alive than ever before in his entire life. He was flying off to face
certain death, but he couldn’t help smiling like an idiot. Vaze could hear the
demon’s taunting, but it no longer bothered him that the demon’s voice was
identical to Scarlet’s. He absolutely knew the difference now. While the
demon’s voice was filled with malice, Scarlet’s had caring. Seeing her again,
alive and breathing, had revived all his memories of her, bringing them to life
as if they had only happened a moment ago.
Vaze
drew his sword as the demon came back into sight. The beast was torching
everything in sight as it stalked through the stone courtyard. It may once have
been a very lush courtyard, filled with flowers and plants with a stone fountain
at its center, but it was desolate and dry as Vaze returned to it.
Suddenly,
the demon Scarlet stopped in her tracks and sniffed the air deeply, and
somewhat resembling a bloodhound about to start the hunt. It wasn’t much
different either. The demon’s pointed grey ears perked up and she spun around
quickly. Her eyes met Vaze’s and her face twisted into a wicked grin.
“Looks
like the little bat came to play,” the demon said in a sing song voice, her
face twisting into a fanged grin. Vaze only smiled back and laughed. The
demon’s face filled with confusion, and she perked her head to the side
slightly, white hair falling across her face.
“Did
you hit your head boy?” she asked harshly, the sick joy in her voice turning
into irritation. Vaze brushed his hair out of his face chuckling, trying to
irritate the demon further.
“Of
course not,” he replied coolly with a grin playing on the corners of his lips.
Vaze could hear his heart beat pounding in his ears, but he forced his
composure. “Why should I take such a pesky demon seriously, when said demon is
simply a copy of Scarlet?”
The
demon let out an unearthly growl that reverberated throughout her body, making
it seem as if she herself were vibrating. Her smile faded and her jaw clenched
into an animal like snarl. Her scarlet red eyes blazed, making her black pupils
seem more like snake slits. A flaming beacon wouldn’t have tipped Vaze off more
that he had not only irritated the demon, but infuriated her.
“Don’t
you dare call me that, you spineless worm!” the demon shrieked, her voice
seeming to split into two: one that resembled Scarlet, and the other a deep
raspy beast. “I am so much more than that girl is! I am Raven, her opposite! I
shall snuff out her pathetic flames from this world and drown her in the
darkest depths of hell!” The demon Raven thrust out her hand, and black fire
spiraled through the air towards Vaze, roaring like a lion.
Reacting
immediately, Vaze arced down beneath the pillar of fire and swept towards Raven,
flying only a few inches off the ground but remaining parallel. The demon
turned quickly, but couldn’t dodge Vaze as he punched her across her face, the
full force of inertia behind it, knocking the demon off her feet and onto her
back. She hit the ground with a satisfying
thud
, and before she had any
time to react, Vaze was standing over her with one foot on her throat, just
enough to let her breath. Vaze lowered the tip of his sword to her nose and
stared into her evil red eyes. They were filled with hatred.
Vaze
thrust the sword into her head, crushing the front half of the demon’s skull
through her eyes, but the demon didn’t even flinch. Vaze withdrew his bloody
sword and looked down at the dead demon. His wings disappeared back into his
back, leaving only a ripped shirt and two black marks to ever suggest they were
there. Vaze turned away in disdain and kicked away a pebble. The small pebble
clattered across the stones and hit the cracked dry fountain, bouncing off and
skittering to a halt. Vaze felt a small jolt through his spine, and on instinct
he lunged forward—right out of the range of Raven’s claws as they swept out at
him in a deadly arc. Vaze jerked his head back to see the demon.
Vaze
gawked at her in horror as the demon, half of her face only a slit in a skull
and covered in blood, stumbled towards him. Black fire seeped from her wound,
covering it in an inky black haze. Like leaves blown around in the wind, pieces
of skin swirled around the crushed head, and her face began to remake itself.
Bits of skin started to reform and zip back together, and soon there was no
wound at all, leaving Raven seemingly brand new. The demon lunged at him with
an angry cry, and Vaze launched himself back into the air, his wings unfurling
in the blink of an eye.
“I’m
going to rip you limb from limb!” the demon roared, and wings of black fire
jutted out from her back grotesquely. The demon reared down and flapped her new
wings. Immediately, the fire dispersed and was replaced by bloodstained raven
wings.
Vaze
swore under his breath as the demon cut through the air towards him, and he
flew off with her in pursuit, dodging black fire and too close for comfort
swipes of the demon’s claws.
~
“Come
on,
boy
!” Velkire laughed as he danced around Al, dodging all of Al’s
attacks and landing punches. Velkire’s attacked looked hardly anything more
than swatting a fly, but they stung like knives. It was humiliating really,
being beaten so easily by an unarmed man when one had a blade such as Al’s. “Is
this all you can do?”
Al
was covered head to toe in bruises, each on carrying its own personal bite of
humiliation and hatred. Al could feel his entire body pounding as if
constricted with each heart beat that jostled through. Everywhere ached, and
every subtle inch that he moved, pain was all Al could feel. But the very worst
pains were the blows to his pride. Velkire was playing him for a fool, and they
both knew it.