Caged by Damnation (19 page)

I ignored my snake-like enemy and ran to my friends. Griffin moaned as I prodded his body, seeking the damage. "Leave me alone, woman. Let me die in peace." He coughed up blood.

"If you think I'm going to do that, then you haven't learned very much. Besides, your mind must be crazed if you think I answer to ‘woman.’" Griffin laughed at my attempt at humor. "Where are you hurt?" My gaze moved from him to my stalker and back.

Griffin moaned again. "Everywhere, but the worst is the knife wound in my back." He winced. "You should leave me. Save yourself. You and Liam have a chance, but I'm as good as dead."

I smacked him across the face. "If I let you die, do you think Ash would forgive me?" Griffin's eyes regarded me with a mixture of irritation and respect, but he nodded.  "Look, I need to take care of this jerk and then I am getting all of us out of here. Okay? I will not leave you, but I need you to hold on." I looked at the blood beneath him and realized I needed to hurry.

"Yeah, sure. Just let me sleep a little."

I shook him. "No sleeping! Got it?" I pointed at my opponent. "I need you to watch in case I need help." That got his attention. I didn't really want him to do anything in his condition, but I knew it would give him a goal to help him stay coherent.

"Okay."

Moving away, I met the creature halfway. He smiled, but I knew I would outlive him. There was no way I could allow him to win when someone was relying on me.

"I thought you were trying to run. Pity, I would have enjoyed the chase, but no matter."

I grinned, throwing him off balance with my confidence. "Miss my chance to cut out that vulgar tongue of yours? Not a chance." Kit willed energy to me and I gladly accepted. This jerk was going down and I would get my friends to safety.

I ran, not towards him, but towards a wagon a few feet away. Jumping, I kicked against the wood and landed my other foot into his cheek, as he came after me. The resounding crack was satisfying. He growled, but my blow had shut him up.

The fight was a blur of punches, kicks, and him slamming my face into the concrete. Grabbing a nearby shovel, I leveled it and swung it into his head, . I then thrust it into his abdomen while he was distracted, and then moved my dagger in front of me. The rage in his eyes from his injuries was terrifying, but I wouldn't back down.

"What's the matter? Afraid of a little Anakim? Or is it just because I'm a girl?" I barely finished my sentence, when he rushed me, tackling me to the ground like a quarterback.

The landing was brutal. All the air was thrust from my lungs and I felt his claws tearing into my chest. My one satisfaction was that my dagger was now buried deep within his guts. When I tore it loose, his innards spilt over me. Blood gurgled as he tried to speak, and he finally fell against my body. He was dead, but I was poisoned.

I tried to maneuver towards Griffin and Liam. If I could just get them out, I would be content to pass on. It was not to be. I faded in and out, catching glimpses of Liam's battle. He was taking on two demons, one who would have looked fairly normal if it weren't for an abnormally large tongue, and the other a grotesque giant who looked like he could take on an army himself.

I feared for my companions. My eyes locked on Griffin. I hoped he could see the apology in my gaze before I surrendered to the poison. Lost within the darkness, I relived the most horrific events of my life, but none of them compared to the feeling that I was a failure.

Images passed through my mind: my childhood, my life with Maye and Ash, and eventually, Asmodeus. He spoke to me; his voice was hushed, but assertive. "Live, little Anakim. You are not meant to die here. Your destiny is much bigger than a single battle." His expression was one of love and concern, as he leaned in to brush a light kiss against my lips. "You have outlived horrors most have never seen. You can push through this."

My voice was raspy, as if I hadn't tasted water in days. "What if I don't want to live?"

"Then it was all for nothing. Your friends have sacrificed themselves because they believe in you. If you can't have faith in yourself, you might as well give up on them. Go ahead and deliver them to Hell yourself, because that's the future that will await them if you can't find the strength to continue." His face was fading. I couldn't find it in me to hold onto the vision. Darkness took me once more.

Awareness came to me slowly. I was standing in a luminescent room. A seemingly endless light passing from wall to wall created a prism effect. I was suffocating, being pulled at the seams and sewn into a tapestry of distortion. I wasn't supposed to be here! My world had drifted away; I was left with a new dimension that my mind couldn't make sense of.

The insanity of silence descended upon me as I twirled, searching for an exit, a window or another path to familiarity. Frustration rose up to unfurl from deep within me, but my voice was lost too. Pressing my hands to my ears, I hoped the action would make sound seem more tangible. Nothing changed. Grief shadowed my eyes, drawing forth a liquid sadness which crested my checks and fell to the ceramic floor.

I raced to the wall, banging my fist against the hardened ivory material, then I fell back against the wall and sank to the floor. The blood smudged behind me was my witness, declaring that this wasn't a dream. The pain from my knuckles had taken the side of the wall, blaring that this was useless and I was a prisoner in a white fortress.

"Let me out of here!"

Though I screamed the words, I would be better off getting my point across in a silent horror film. I couldn't even hear my breath, and I began to hyperventilate.

Why bring me here? Where were my friends? Shouldn't I be dead? The thoughts reeling through my mind were enough to drown out the worries of my own fate. I had finally began to calm down and sort through possible answers, when I felt a hand clamp around my calf and I was being dragged towards the middle of the floor.

I was alone in the room, but something was forcing me away from the white walls. Whatever it was, I tried to fight against it, clawing at the tiles beneath me. I reached for something to grab onto, anything that would prevent this unusual control over my body. Crying, I begged for it to stop. Hurricane-like cramps carried through my tears and bore into my midsection. What was happening to me?

The dragging stopped. Two hands grabbed me to force me onto my back. I whimpered, knowing my words would do little if my attacker couldn't hear me. Tightening began at my chest, descending towards my middle, hefting me upwards as though braced against this new cruelty. I tore my arm free and shoved my elbow backwards into the hidden enemy.

"Ow! Savannah, stop it!"

The light room was sucked away and I was back in the midst of the battle, held against Griffin's chest. "What?" Dazedly, I looked around and saw that bodies seemed to have exploded from the ground. There were a few skirmishes far away, but they might have been vultures picking at the new meat for all I could see.

We had been pushed into a corner. Only Liam stood between us and certain death. Painfully, Griffin dragged me closer, shielding me from the approaching demons which were surrounding our tiny group.

Griffin's words made their way through the poison quicksand. "It's going to be okay. We'll get you out of here." They were meant to comfort but were less effective when paired with the blood dripping from his lower lip.

With one hand, Liam held Griffin's spear, impaling demons before they made it within arm's reach, and disarming others. With his other hand, he used the talon, performing maneuvers that made me queasy as I watched. He annihilated the closer targets until a pyre of bodies stood as a buffer to the slaughter making its way to us. In life, the demons had sought our death, but now their shells had been forced to trade sides.

"Just hold on! I've got this!" Liam shouted, as if we were awaiting a chariot that would be here in moments to fly us away from here.

Griffin shook me, jolting my eyes back open. "Stay awake."

"Why?" We wouldn't survive, Liam was tiring quickly and help wasn't coming. "Why hold onto false hope? We're all dead anyways."

Personally, I would rather have yielded to the poison and given way to the part that sleeping beauty would have played had her prince never arrived. My prince would never come. I wasn't a princess asleep in an ivory tower, and my life had already required too many sacrifices.

My eyes drifted shut, allowing my loved ones to come into view. This was peace. I just needed to allow myself to be carried away on memories of them. If I held onto their faces, the clashing of weapons would fade away and I would follow.

Suddenly, my cheek stung and ringing clamored through to banish my haven. I was torn from the mercy of drifting away.

"Damn it, Savannah! Stop being selfish! I thought you were better than that!"

My eyes snapped open. Griffin's hand was still poised to deliver another message, but lowered when my eyes narrowed in anger.

He pointed towards Liam, who was losing more ground. "We might not live through this, but are you really ready to give up on him?"

I groaned. "What am I supposed to do? What can you do? Neither of us can fight. We're a liability to him now."

Griffin coughed, an ocean of red velvet declared the truth behind my words. "Then we get help."

I lifted my quaking hand to smooth away Griffin's fresh blood before the poison weighed me down once more. "How? Who could possibly help us?"

"I don't know, but maybe we can send out a signal that we're still here and need help? There were guards helping others cross through the battle before. Maybe some of them are still around?" Talking was too hard on him, he was losing his fight to loss of blood.

"Okay." What else could I say? This could be Griffin's last wish; how could I deny him? "We just need to get someone's attention, right?"

He nodded and sagged with relief.

Liam was thrown to the ground at our feet, stalked by what could have been the twin of the giant from earlier. However, this one seemed angrier, and more dangerous. Its lips were stitched shut, its biceps as thick around as my waist, its fist larger than Liam's head. The other demons backed away, waiting with wicked smiles for Liam's death.

Liam rolled over, narrowly avoiding the boot that crashed down where he had lain moments ago. His breathing was unstable as he jumped to his feet and held the spear in front of him.

Trails of dread found their way to me and I realized that the connection from our circle was still tentatively open. If only I knew how I could use that to help us. I turned to ask Griffin what we should do, but he was succumbing to his wound; his pulse was barely perceptible. The poison was working through my system and I too was fading. Soon I would be forced back to the white room, and if I gave in to it, we would all die.

Eyes open, I focused on the circle, sensing Isis. I could tell she was safe and unaware that my consciousness had sought her out. Before I could falter, I tore strength from her. My will overpowered her when she tried to fight back. Ordinarily, I would never resort to these methods, but this was a matter of life or death. Her strength was absorbed into my aura, fueling me with power and anger.

Liam stumbled, making the cuts and bruises scattered about his body that much more profound. He couldn't take anymore. Steeling myself, I allowed Isis's power to slow the effects of the poison.

It was my turn to enter the ring. Liam desperately needed to be tagged. My steps quickened until I stood between him and the giant. "My turn."

Liam's eyes broadened. He nodded and collapsed beside Griffin's immobile body.

Grasping a double-bladed axe from the hands of nearby corpse, I faced the demon. I held it at an angle, prepared for a coming attack. The giant’s club swung towards my abdomen like a deadly bat aiming for a baseball. I jumped over it. Just as my feet hit the ground, he brought the lopsided weapon back, nearly battering my head before I ducked. My hair whipped around at the disturbance. Taking a card from a mouse, I began darting and zigzagging to avoid my version of an aggressive cat.

The giant stumbled, trying to keep pace with me, as I slid between his feet. I followed by slamming my axe down onto the hide of his back, with minimal result. My abnormally large opponent spun on his grimy feet, his weapon in sync with his body, but I threw myself to the side. On impact, the giant stomped on my left hand, crushing every bone. I bit my lip and let out an agonized scream. Blood and filth flooded my mouth as I cradled my hand to my chest and tears washed down my cheeks. Anger swept through me. I had broken my rule. I had allowed a monster to see me cry.

I stood, stumbling at the pressure on my ankle. Apparently, I had twisted it when I’d willingly thrown myself at the mercy of the dirt. Before I had a chance to brace myself, I was backhanded, sending me flying towards the waiting army of demons. They were eager to have a piece of the fight. Their hands clawed and squeezed, their teeth sank into various parts of my tattered body. As one, they passed me to the front of the group.

Suddenly, I was standing in front of them with blood trailing down the side of my face. I fell to my knees, exhausted and wondering how I could go on. I was laden with pain; my soul was grief-stricken with helplessness. Griffin didn't look like he could last much longer, if he wasn't dead already. Liam was lying on his side, facing me with an obsolete gaze. We were going to die and all had accepted it.