Legions (27 page)

There was a sudden urgency
to her voice. We were all on the same page.

The draftiness of the house
became more evident with her words. Each chill was sending a new
message. Matilda came running down the hall to greet us, followed
by Cyril and Arie.

“This is the last room to
check.” Athen looked at us all.

He pushed the door open.
Our room was empty… actually empty. Free from creatures lurking,
and anything else that once had a home in this room. Our bed was
gone, the nightstands, the chest of drawers. This was truly
bizarre. Unfortunately, it fit my dreams perfectly. The images of
me huddled in the corner ran through my mind. I was in the corner,
not the chest of drawers. Things were beginning to fit like a
puzzle, one that I didn’t want to solve.

“They are coming. They must
be on their way.” I exhaled all of my breath that I must have been
holding in since we came in through the front door. “This is what I
saw.”

“You mean no furniture?”
Athen asked, a bit puzzled.

“Yeah, exactly. I was
actually huddled in the corner.” I said pointing to the far right
corner of the room. Everyone’s eyes shifted.

“I can tell you, I’m going
to do my best to stay out of that particular corner.” I murmured
halfway, hoping they didn’t hear what I said.

Athen wrapped his arms
around my shoulders. “We aren’t going to let it end that
way.”

He knew what I didn’t tell
them. It was my goal to make sure that it didn’t happen like my
dream either.

“So, I guess we wait?”
Cyril looked at me like I actually knew the answer to
this.

“Guess so.” I wanted to get
this night over. They weren’t in their human form, which frightened
me that much more.

“Why would they have put
Matilda outside?” Arie bent down petting Matilda, who was still
feeling slighted from being left outside. She was a girl who wasn’t
used to such treatment.

“Just to mess with us.
Guess they don’t have much else to do.” I don’t know why I was
taunting them. Maybe my fear was turning to anger. I hoped
so.

Athen started towards the
living room to get the fire going for which I was super grateful.
The house seemed especially cold at this moment.

“It’s because they were
here, Ana.” Arie said. “The fire isn’t really going to
help.”

Since the ferry, I realized
I’d never shut off my ability to communicate with them all with my
thoughts. I cursed myself for not remembering something so
important. There were things I didn’t want them to know about my
visions or my decisions.

The house began shuddering
a little bit. The vibrations weren’t coming from the ground, like
when Athen appeared on his Ducati. No, it definitely wasn’t that
kind of feeling. I looked up at Athen and Cyril – they felt it too.
The flicker from the candles started dancing quickly off the walls
as if a breeze was causing the flames to stir. There was no breeze.
Our lights began flickering a little. There was no storm outside.
Arie came from the kitchen, her face ashen.

“You guys feel that?” She
asked, Matilda at her side.

I nodded my head; at the
same time, the lights went out. They didn’t come back
on.

“Good thing we have our
candles going for ambiance.” Cyril tried to add some humor to the
situation. I was grateful. Arie started walking to the office with
Matilda following right behind her. We decided we were going to put
Matilda in there for safekeeping. It was the best place we could
think of.

The vibrations were getting
stronger. The paintings and photographs on the wall beginning to
make slight shifts. The anxiety inside of me was starting to build.
I knew what I saw in my dreams, but I knew seeing it in person was
going to be far worse. They were the same creatures that were
circling in the sky over the ferry.

The air began to get very
stuffy. Each breath felt like I was inhaling dead air. Almost like
I couldn’t get enough oxygen. I looked around at the others, and
they were feeling it too. I could tell the way their chests were
moving. I was actually thankful for the dim lighting at this
point.

“Alright, so we have our
plan. We can win this one.” Athen was a pretty good motivational
speaker. I had to give him that - especially in light of his most
recent situation.

The thunderous noise off in
the distance was getting to us in the same rhythm as the
vibrations. The stronger the vibrations, the louder the rolling
boom became. Feeling like we were bait wasn’t something I liked -
stuck in between four walls. This didn’t seem right.

“Hey, what if we changed it
up a bit?” I asked to a room full of glares.

“I don’t think that’s a
good idea, Ana.” Cyril said as he was steadying himself from the
shaking that was becoming more violent with every minute that went
by.

“Why not? We began the
fight inside in my visions, what about beginning outside? Throw
them off a bit.” I had to holler a little bit over the noise that
was coming our way.

“You’re coming up with this
now?” Arie was a little incredulous.

“Didn’t want to put
anything out in the airwaves, you know?” My heart was pounding with
the thought of guiding us in the wrong direction. Obviously, she
was feeling it too.

Athen grabbed my hand and
squeezed it. He was in. Cyril and Arie nodded at us too.

“Let’s do it. They’re
almost here.” I had to flush the images of the winged beasts out of
my mind while we ventured to the backyard.

They were almost here, and
I had to prepare myself for the second battle of the night. I began
feeling that desire to defeat these beasts again. I needed that
high again.

Chapter 29

The air’s chill was like we
were in Antarctica. The demons were almost to us. Arie leapt into
the air, and in a flash, her body flew away to the nearest fir
tree. Even with my eyes conditioned to see us in our other forms, I
couldn’t immediately spot her. Cyril jetted to the front yard, my
guess was to prop himself in the maple tree. Athen wasn’t budging.
He knew what my plan was. I knew I wasn’t letting any of my
thoughts escape so he just knew because he knew, and he wasn’t
going to let me do it. He stared intently at me, grabbing my arm,
pulling me towards him. I felt him shove something in the back
pocket of my jeans.

“We aren’t going to keep
doing this. It’s not your turn to vanish on us. You aren’t going to
be bait, Ana.” The smirk that I adored surfaced as if he had won a
victory.

“Who said that was my
plan?” I asked.

“What do you mean?” He let
go of my arm and stared at me, as I looked up into the sky seeing
the first demon begin its decent. As the wings of the creature
began their final push of air, I looked back at Athen and winked at
him. We were going to be bait.

I readied myself for what I
wasn’t sure of, but whatever it was, it had to be ended with us as
the victors. My fear had completely subsided, and I was ready to
fight. All I felt was the anger of being taken away from Athen for
over half of a century, and then him being taken away from us. The
lifeless bodies on the ferry were an added accelerator to my anger.
The demons did us a favor by laying that trap. They just didn’t
know it. I was angrier than I’d been for a long time. With that
last thought, the first winged creature swooped in, attempting to
knock Athen over with his unfolded wing as he landed. To the
demon’s surprise, Athen shot into the air towards the second
winged-demon that was emerging from the clouds.

I looked the demon straight
into its eyes. The creature looked back at me waiting for my move.
I did nothing, which only angered the lifeless eyes that were
staring back at me. Another demon converged onto the roof, kneeling
down, surveying the land. We weren’t giving them the fight they had
anticipated. I was expecting three more demons to make their
appearance. I didn’t know if I’d be able to hold off the fight
until then, but I was going to try.

The creature in front of me
took in a deep breath, making his chest appear as if his lungs
might be at capacity. It was hard to believe that we shared the
same air. I shook my head at him and took off towards the sky. My
skin burned as it glided into the atmosphere. His eyes were
tracking my every movement. To my relief, the other three demons
emerged below the fog, ready to engage in the fight they thought
had already started. I smiled as I watched the demon, my demon,
take off after me unaware that one of our own was going to
pounce.

Arie dropped out of the
Douglas fir tree, graceful as ever, landing directly on top of him.
A glistening piece of metal was sticking out of her boots, scraping
his flesh as she landed on him. The screams of pain began to make
their way through the yard. It was exhilarating. I looked up and
saw Athen darting around the winged creature he first went after.
My heart began pounding with worry, hoping that he could handle
it.

Something grabbed my ankle
and pulled me to a stop. Looking down, I saw the demon who had been
on the roof, now holding on to me with his gnarly fingers wrapped
around my flesh. Arie had almost finished the demon that I’d come
to know in my short time waiting, so I felt like if help was needed
she would be there for me. Athen would have to wait for assistance,
not that I knew if he needed any, actually.

I somersaulted backwards,
kicking towards the sky releasing the demon’s grasp, surprising
myself as the demon went flying towards the sky. Either my strength
had grown tremendously, or the demon wasn’t very strong. I would
like to think it was the first assumption. Before I was able to get
too cocky, the demon came barreling towards me. My hand searched my
back pocket for what Athen had shoved in there, feeling a closed
knife, I was thankful, even with as tiny as it felt.

I flung it open, releasing
the blade, barely in time, as the demon arrived in front of me
hovering and laughing. I charged toward the wretched being, blade
in hand, as he moved quickly to the side dodging me and my attack.
I swirled around, quickly gaining my bearings, and shot myself
directly towards the creature, only to dive upwards where Athen was
located. The demon was chasing after me, but I knew I could make it
to Athen before it got to me. With my blade exposed, I shoved it
directly into the back of the demon Athen had almost finished off.
My knuckles had gone in so deep that the warmth of his insides were
drooling over my hand. I unstuck my blade and hand, releasing the
creature to fall to the ground.

Thankful that I’d lured the
other demon with me, I watched as Athen grabbed the demon’s wing,
throwing himself onto it and crushing the stem that he was sitting
on. The tiny cracks from the cartilage breaking from Athen’s hands
began calming my fears about this battle. The demon was wincing in
pain, and I knew this was my opportunity. My blade would do little
to quicken his demise at this point. We had to wear him out first.
Our odds were better if we paired up with our lack of strength
compared to Arie and Cyril.

I flew behind the demon
quickly, and wrapped my arm around his neck in a chokehold, doing
my best to crush his neck. His energy was getting low. I could feel
his strength slowly begin to deplete. I kneed him in his spine,
hearing success as he howled out into sky. Athen crushed the wing
he had been working on and it crumpled as nothing was left to
support it.

Now was the time. I stuck
my already dripping blade into this demon’s back. I didn’t
understand what was coming over me, but I found myself wiggling the
blade back and forth for extra effect. It was gratifying thinking
this creature was suffering with every twist and tilt of the metal
inside his body. In that moment, I realized there was a fine line
between good and evil. I was doing this for good, yet it was a
really bad thing to do. I liked it. They probably liked it just as
much. Our justification was to eradicate evil. They didn’t need a
justification. They only acted on their impulses. The adrenaline
was pumping, an addiction had formed. I promised myself to stay on
the right side of that addiction as I pulled the blade from the
inside of this creature.

That made three demons gone
that I knew of. Arie took care of the first one. Athen and I had
managed to down two. My excitement level began building as I
realized, Cyril probably had taken care of one as well. I finally
spotted Cyril, now on the side of the house, fighting one of the
larger creatures. Cyril looked exhausted. His shirt was tattered
with claw marks. His face hadn’t missed the claws either – blood
had already dried up on his cheek and forehead. Arie jumped onto
the creature, and I knew instantly that they were going to be okay.
Not seeing any other demons, a sigh escaped signaling for Athen to
come over to hug me. His eyes were evaluating the same scenes as
I.

“I think we would be a
nuisance at this point. Don’t you?” Athen asked hugging me
tightly.

“Yah, I think we would
probably screw it up. I can’t believe it, but I think we actually
defeated these Legion members, and we’re pretty unscathed, I’d
say.”

“We probably shouldn’t be
tooting our own horns. But I think you’re right.” He said grinning.
The welcomed chilly air was finally because of the weather and not
the impending doom that I’d been worried about.