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Chapter Ten
I lash out with fire, summoning it into a ball before forcing it forward, the strain in my arms burning just as hot as the flame. “Mara, get back to the courtyard!” I yell as she darts behind me, my flame smashing into the creature knocking it to the side.
Not dead.
“I can’t leave you!” She wails, sobs leaving her throat that forces some to mine. I lift my shaking arms to summon another flame, channeling all my focus there on that I want to protect her from as the others around me rage their own battles. The flame sparks and sputters as my knees wobble, bile creeping up my throat. I snap forward with the flame whip, wrapping it around the snarling creature's midsection. It writhes bucking wildly on the ground. Mara grips me from behind as my knees give out, the pounding in my head drowning out everything else. A flash of white fills my vision, fading back to my dark chaotic reality as I hack. My lungs and throat feel like I’ve swallowed shards of glass as that familiar lapping of icy nothingness creeps up my spine. The blood dispelled by my wet coughs covers the front of my dress as a tiny scream rips through the madness. June stumbles forward, tripping hard over a tree root, sending her colliding into the unforgiving forest floor. I didn’t see it at first, the thing she was running from. I sag to my side bracing myself on the ground, “Run now!” I scream, shoving away Mara’s attempts to pull me to my feet, “Get out of the woods and back to the courtyard. That’s an order.” I direct my stare towards the other women.
“Get the fuck up, Kita! Please!” Mara cries. I ignore her. My eyes still set on the women around us. In an instant, they stop fighting June’s mother halfway to her daughter when she’s cut off by another putrid creature.
“Mara, help her!” I yell, struggling around my dress to stand. She sobs, not giving me a second look before running for June. I don’t take my eyes off them until the little girl is wrapped tightly in her arms and they are on their way out the woods. A million things flutter through the bond, none of time I have the strength to sort through. The warmth of my flame whip is strong and steady in my palm, it’s length burning away at the section of dress it lies on mimicking the damage done to the creature in front of me. Another violent bout of coughs rack through me, more blood following them.
I... I’m not okay.
My heart feels like it’s beating through wet cement, as I draw my attention to the creature watching as it’s midsection separates. Sliding apart as I let my whip dissipate. A sharp pain radiates through my back as I’m knocked forward into the dirt, an alarming amount of wetness pooling at the now exposed skin. I scream, slapping my hands down on the cold ground, giving into the feeling I’ve been fighting for months. I reach out to the void, and it reaches back just the way I knew it would. Swathing me in its empty embrace, claiming me for its own. I lift my head. The sound of my own struggling breath is the only one left as everything around me contorts.
I’m not alone.
“Hello?” I croak, forcing myself to my feet, despite my body protesting every movement. No answer comes, but I feel it all the same.
I feel him and they do, too.
The sound of Milo and Tate’s panicked voices finds me quickly as I brace myself on my knees, taking in the cleared and warped woods. A large, deep crater left where trees and shrubbery once stood. A sob leaves my throat, “Clotho please!” My cries go unanswered as they often do until I’m scooped into Milo’s arms a moment later, “We got you baby. We got you.”
“Tate?” I croak.
“Here kitten. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” He pants as they run back through the woods to the walkway. I sob harder, “It’s okay. I think... I think it’ll be okay.” Milo’s grip tightens on me painfully, my joints screaming, but I don’t care. I want him to hold me tighter. I want more time. I wanted more time. If I thought what was happening in the woods was intense, the courtyard was almost worse, although most all the creatures have been reduced to pungent piles of sludge.
“Kita!” The sound of Mara’s voice drives the stake deeper into my heart. I struggle free from Milo’s arms throwing myself into hers. She grips me tightly supporting my weight as I stand on shaky legs. The outline of Sleepy behind us, throwing shards of metal fast and efficient, taking out more creatures before they hit the courtyard. “The cave... something is going on.” I just nod, squeezing her tighter as she sobs, “I’m scared as hell.” She admits.
“It’ll be okay. That’s what we’re here for.” I try to smile but it doesn’t make it to my eyes, I whimper as she shakes her head, crying into my hair.
“I was hoping we wouldn’t get to this part.” She sobs harder as Sleepy walks towards us. I pull back, letting Tate steady me, “Me too.” Sleepy nods, his dark eyes glistening with tears as he faces us, “I’m not saying goodbye to either of you assholes.”
Milo scoffs but his voice cracks, “Don’t fucking trash our cars.” They laugh, but it’s filled with so much sadness, that feeling only grows in the bond. The bond that, for the first time, feels exactly as it should.
We were so close...
As The World Caves In by Sara Cothran
By the time we skid to a stop in front of the cave there’s chaos, members dispatching the overwhelming number of creatures spilling from the entrance. I try not to look at the human bodies scattered among the others, but the sight of their bloodied forms makes bile rise in my throat all the same. The ride here was silent. As Milo drove, they took turns kissing and caressing me. Even now, Tate holds me tightly on his lap before we spill from the car. With one hand curled tightly around my waist, Tate lashes out with air, his whistle filling the air as if it’s being carried along with it. The flash of Carlton’s gray suit is soon joined by grandpa’s and my heart lurches watching the creatures snarl and dive towards them. The brutal way they work together ripping them to shreds seems strange coming from the men. The searing pain in my back forces a whimper from my throat as I head towards them, followed by the twins. Dipping through the chaos on borrowed strength. Strength I know is loaned to me byit,it’s desperation to see me make it to the depths.That darkness that pulls me even now. My eyes reluctant to move away from the entrance. A creature barely catches my grandpa’s shoulder with its pointed neck teeth. “Grandpa!” I scream, making him pause. He shakes his head yelling loudly as he dispatches it.
He’s already grieving for me.
Milo shakes the ground, knocking the creatures off balance before lifting his fist high above him. Bolts of hot lightening tunnel into the ground as the wind wicks up. Rain trickles from the turbulent sky seconds before it opens up, pouring down on us. My stomach heaves as a woman is overpowered, a creature zipping into her flesh like paper. It’s razor-sharp claws close around her skull crushing it like watermelon. “We’ll clear the way!” Carlton yells and with that something changes, we’re no longer a family in the throes of grief. We’re a squad on a mission. A mission we won’t make it out of. That realization strengthens us as we head into the cave. My eyes widen at the walls, lapped with those tendrils as they spasm, reaching out for me.
I want to reach back.
The eerie silence makes the scene around me seem even more horrifying. Grandpa and Carlton rip through the hoard. All the snarls, grunts and screams dampened and half mute. Milo jerks me roughly out of the way, his thorned vines shredding a creature to my left. Tate stalks beside us, lashing out with needle like water, slicing through anything he hasn’t exploded. I catch myself staring at them before I pitch forward, more blood pouring from my mouth so quickly I suck some down into my lungs. “Kita!” Grandpa yells as Tate lifts me into his arms. Carlton falls ahead and grandpa drops the ones coming from behind. His suit is torn and bloody, his eyes snapping back to me in moments they shouldn’t. Earning him a gash to the neck. I scream, but it only comes out as a loud gurgle, my lungs burning as I try to expel the blood. Tate makes a sound I can only describe as an angry sob as I lift my shaking arm lashing out behind me. Tendrils of darkness laced with blue flame surge from the walls, smashing and ripping away the creature set on my grandpa. I feel it... the call stronger than I ever have. My head lolls backwards as Tate adjusts me into a cradle, staring up at the faces of the twins as they fight their way through. They look every bit like the vengeful gods they are, their beautifully sculpted faces slashed with my blood and sludge from gods knows what. Carlton yells from somewhere in front of us, “Now!” They lash out together as they push past him. I roll my heavy head towards the back, watching Carlton fight beside my grandpa. The numbers are growing...
You need to go.
I roll my head again as fire burns in my veins, the walls lighting with blue flame as the cave grows hot. Impossibility hot. I push myself free from Tate’s arms, forcing my weakened body to stand straight beside them. Forcing my aching limbs to be everything they need me to be. I look down at the band on my finger, the diamonds reflecting the flames burning the surrounding walls. Milo takes my hand, giving it a slight squeeze as Tate grabs the other. Chaos rages as if it was bred here just beneath the stone, the sound of falling rock, the squeal of creatures as the men behind us dispatch them. I cough loudly summoning all the strength I can muster, “Grandpa, it’s time to go!” I look over my shoulder as we hold the hellfire flame none of us meant to summon. My muscles strain as my breathing all but ceases. He jerks backwards, making water slice around him like a cocoon. Cutting through meat and flesh, “I would never leave you, sweet girl.” Tears well in my eyes as the weight of his words lay on my soul. Another life I will end today, another death of someone I love. Carlton looks at his sons, “We’re staying.” I open my mouth to argue not that I could effectively at this point, before Tate squeezes my hand firmly, sweat dripping down his cheek.
“It’s their choice.”
My heart shatters for the millionth time today, the men at my sides holding together what remains. He can’t die. Dad would miss him too much, even if he wouldn’t say that out loud. I turn again towards the old man that helped raise me, held my hand, taught me to ride a bike and to swim. A scream rips through my throat as a large, spiked creature shutters, throwing the spikes embedded in it’s own flesh in all directions. One ripping through his throat, making blood spurt around the spike as his body crumbles to the cave floor. A sharp pain floods the bond as my eyes tare from him to Tate who staggers in my grasp.
“Tate!” Milo screams, the broken sound horrid enough to wake the dammed. A spike skewered deep in his thigh. “No.” I whimper, as heat a thousand times hotter than the hellfire burns through my veins. The black tendrils snake their way towards me, wrapping firmly up my legs, tearing the fabric of my dress.
