Chapter Fourteen

Ce o zi îngrozitoare

Black tendrils crawl towards me, covering the front of the room I was standing in in complete darkness. They slowly creep, reaching out with their terrifying limbs. I’ve been here before, but it’s not a recurring dream. I recognize what is going to happen, when the tendrils avoid me and enclose me in endless dark. There is no floor, no walls, no sky or horizon. Only darkness.

Time rushes past me, making me feel as though I went into hyper drive, it’s impossible for me to stop it. I can't control my dreams, I’ve never been able to.

Something touches my foot, something small, reminding me of a bouncy ball I would play with as a boy. I cannot look down to see what it is. My body has lost all ability to move and I can only see directly in front of me.

Suddenly, there is a flash of red. Steaming hot, burning red. A little girl tumbles across my vision, blond and petite. I know it’s Coral immediately. I know her " I knew her.

A weird cracking noise sounds to my left, a blackened hand reaches out unnaturally towards me, the creature’s body is twisted strangely, but it’s covered in an old dark cloak, the details are blurry " Coral’s face burns into my mind again.

As the red drips down, I see Ripper’s crazed smile, humming as he holds an arm-less hand, he caresses it. Blaze’s teary gaze, and intense flames, so hot I can feel them burning my skin, melting me, touching my bones. Mark’s pale face, as he stands vulnerably against whatever comes for them.

I tear my eyes away " I hate these dreams. I don’t want them. I don’t want to know.

But as my head turns I see that as the red dripped away, the walls turned white. They are padded carefully, there doesn’t seem to be a door. Someone is screaming. I move my now mobile hand to my face, my mouth is wide open. I’m the one screaming.

My hands begin to shake, I attempt to stop but I can’t. No, my mouth is moving, but I can’t even feel it.

I curl my hands at my sides, glaring at them. I want out now. Now. Now.

But as I stare at my hands, I can see the object that hit my feet. There are two of them, dark and rotted things. Bumped a few centimeters away from my shoes. I toe one carefully, it rolls over. It is a bright green e-

My eyes open to a s****y motel ceiling covered in shadows. I sit up quickly, smirking at the motionless bodies that lie around the room. They seem familiar. I know them. I know I know them.

My feet carry me across the room, landing myself in front of a mirror. I sigh at the poor reflection, pursing my lips, I rub a hand through my flat hair. Tinged with purple tips, a la moi. It seems as though it hasn’t seen a brush in days, in fact that’s probably true. How sad.

I scour around in the bathroom, finding hair gel and eyeliner, perfect. I line my eyes quickly, just as I’ve been doing for the past few years, then practice winking at my reflection. I can practically feel the possibility of a cheap club, filled with cheap people. Though it is in the middle of nowhere, if all fails, I should at least find some alcohol. A nice buzz to wash away the dreams.

The outfit I’m in isn’t much, and the makeup only barely makes me stand out but, as my people would say, calul bun se vinde în grajd, or "a good product doesn't need advertising." I chuckle to myself quietly.

I rub my hands on my thighs, and then through my hair " I’m ready to have some f*****g fun.

-

I do in fact find a bar, though the music is tame, a smile creeps onto my face. I walk with my hips, ready to dance and f**k and drink. The guy sleeping in the motel, (Ripper " My fog filled brain tells me) looked like fun, even the fiery girl with the nice body. But the clock in the bar tells me it’s late, very late. But tonight is my night " mine. That’s what I tell myself as I put down the mediocre beer (I prefer rum and coke) and slip into the small crowd after that sweet looking girl I just saw.

This is my night.

-

I wake up with an unfortunately familiar huge f*****g headache. I groan loudly, causing my head to pound harder. I open my eyes, but I only see black. Did I go blind?! But the blackness is cold and hard, so I realize I’m just face down in the hearse’s backseat.

“Futu-I,” I swear quietly. What a great day this is turning out to be.

After I sit up, the kidnapped girl and I share a few sentences. She still seems incredibly familiar, but my head hurts too much to pry into my memories. Though she seems to share a similar aura with me, which I find more comforting than I might have if we weren’t surrounded by maniacs.

I know I had a vision, but the more I pry into the details the more my head hurts. The last thing I remember is the edge of sleep, and the searing pain of the dream. The alcohol on my breath and bitter feeling of a hangover doesn’t bring back any memories of what I did.

We drive towards another shifty motel, I quickly go to our rooms. Passing out on the scoliosis-inducing bed.

I wake up to madness. Loud cracks of energy sound from outside the motel room, the curtains are drawn but I can see recurring sparks of light and hear the yelling and screaming.

A gasp comes from my right side, I turn quickly; it’s Coral. She’s standing in her makeshift sleeping clothes and peeking out the smallest window in the room, on her side.

“What’s going on?!” I yell so she can hear me over the noise.

Her eyes are wide when she turns to face me, “I don’t know.” But her face is sickly pale, giving me a sense that she has some suspicion.

I run over to where the closest window is, moving the curtains and checking outside.

“What the hell.”

Coral nods in my peripheral vision, “That’s definitely what it looks like.”

Dark cloaked creatures rush towards an incensed Blaze, moving so quickly it’s hard to catch a clear shot of what they look like. She sends flames flying towards their unnatural bodies, their screams echo through the glass of the window.  

Ripper stands in front of a shocked and terrified Mark, who’s more pale than usual and is quivering like a hairless cat. Large strikes of lightning repeatedly hit one of them, one with a large detailed sword. The creature lets out a sound probably akin to a chuckle.

One thing that catches my attention is that the sward bearing creature’s cloak falls away to 2 strangely proportioned juts on its back, one of them is longer, stretching out to create a strange bone-wing type thing. Feather-less and broken. Deja-vu hits me like a strong gust of wind. I knew this would happen.

I knew they would come. The angels fallen from grace.

“Come on!” I grab at Coral’s cold hand, pulling her out the door and into the awful horror behind it.

Only then do I realize I don’t have a weapon to protect us. Well, f**k.

Even if I had a weapon, I know we could not win this fight. The angels are strong, killing a few does not affect them. If we stay we die.

“Blaze, Ripper, Mark, grab on to me!” I yell as loudly as possible, hoping that the angels are too distracted with the fire and lightning that they won’t bother with me. I hope Coral’s human signals can throw them off.

Blaze send me a confused look, as she exhumes more fire onto the bodies that continue to get closer and closer to her.

“Hurry up!”

I have a plan. Though slightly s****y and prone to disaster. It’s still a plan.

I would love to leave Ripper here, even his powerful blows could not stop these creatures, and he would die. Unfortunately, he seems to be the only way Mark could escape from the fighting. And even though Mark is untrustworthy and a little weird, he doesn’t deserve to die here.

Blaze creates a path of fire for her to walk through, making it to my side. She grabs on to my arm, her skin is boiling and I wince at the probable burn. I can hear Ripper sigh as he gives up on the fighting, he pulls Mark into his arms despite his squirming and carries him through the cess pit of angels. Any creature that comes near gets sucked into a large wind tunnel, which if not contained may become a hurricane. He grabs onto my arm as well.

I’ve never teleported more than myself, I can feel their hands on my skin.

They are me. They are me. They are me. They are me. They are me. They are me.

Time warps around us. I picture the inside of the hearse. The cracks in the leather. The ugly paint job. I can see our bodies in there. I just need to-

I collapse on someone. We land directly in the backseat.

“Hurry the f**k up!” I yell. We need to get out of here now. Teleportation may confuse them for a bit, as our direct persons in that moment ceased to exist there anymore, but staying here for too long would allow us to be surrounded.

Mark clambers into the driver’s seat, putting the car into gear and squeaking away.

“This car has to go faster than this,” Coral says. Mark gulps loudly then puts more pressure on the gas, the tires leave tracks on the pavement and the car makes a strange whining sound. But the air whips around the car as we pull onto a nearby highway.

Blaze groans. I turn to her quickly, using her powers so much exhausted her, and she was slightly injured. A deep gash in her forehead shines with blood. I tell her to get some sleep, she passes out immediately. 

Ripper as well, took a clean cut to the arm, though it isn't very deep. And he doesn’t seem to be bothered.

I look around at all of us, tired and injured or just plain in shock.

“We need some goddamn weapons.” I say. Some of us may be able to protect with just our powers, but the rest of us need some more help, “And some money.”

I can see Ripper’s eyes shining from the backseat. Just great.