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Maynia -- Day Twenty-Two -- 2,168 words
I can’t believe he’d just decided to come up and just ask her out like that.. He even managed to convince Z into whatever it was he was planning.. I let out a frustrated sigh as I kept my eyes on the road, hearing a soft ‘mreow’ come from beside me made me briefly glance at Jaden as he sat despondently inside his carrier. “Don’t worry ‘lil guy, at least she’ll come back for you later..” Now where did that leave me?
Jaden stayed silent the whole drive back to gramps, by the time we got there and I had already carried him out of my car, I heard the main door open and out came Diana with gramps in the process of sending her off. I didn’t have time to hide away from her as she turned around and had already spotted me, “Lucas!”
I fought the urge to cringe as she said my name in a sing-song voice and almost seemed to skip her way towards me, I then raised Jaden’s carrier in my arms when I saw her about to get a little too close than was necessary, “Oh! Whose cat is that?” She noticed as Jaden let out a hiss, probably due to the abrupt movement I had caused him.
Before I could answer, gramps called out to me from the doorway, “Luke! It’s about time you got back, I’ve got some things here I need your help with.” He gave me a meaningful look as he slightly gestured his head to Diana before he made his way inside.
Getting what he really meant to say, I stumbled for an excuse to get away from her quick, “I-uh look Diana.. I’m sure your dad’s gonna be fine, and I’m sure he’ll be happy to see you the first time he wakes up so.. I’ll just see you around..” I already started to pass by her as I said that when Diana tried to stop me by holding on to my arm, but then instantly let go of me as Jaden let out a low growl. Now this was odd..
“I—only want to see you, Lucas I—” Diana stopped as she gave Jaden a brief reproachful look and I used that break to cut her short.
“Diana, know that I’m worried about you, as a friend but.. it can’t be anything more than that. I thought I’ve made myself clear about this every time..” I tried to gently tell her but she seemed to have a sudden change in demeanor.
“Is this about that new girl in town? You know she’s not staying! And I—I’ve been here all this fucking time! Why—why do the three of you need to be so fucking crazy about her??!!” Diana stormed away from me, not really giving me a chance to explain myself. It was only when gramps called out to me again that I turned away from Diana’s fast departing car.
“I take it she’ll be coming back for you?” I heard gramps ask once I got inside, thinking he was asking about Diana as I thought about her sudden outburst, I looked up to see he was actually asking Jaden as gramps leaned towards the carrier. Jaden himself suddenly had a shift in mood as he was now purring through the carrier and kept rubbing himself on its sides, gramps looked at me then and gave me a pointed look.
“You should have tried a little harder, my boy. Ms. Shiela seems to be good for you..” He trailed off as he leaned away from me and Jaden, then turned away from us as he proceeded to keep himself busy with shuffling some old papers by the reception’s desk.
I could only shake my head at him as I placed Jaden’s carrier on the raised part of the desk beside him as I spoke, “She’s not staying, gramps. And.. I’m not really sure if I want to leave with her..”
“And why the hell not??” I could only blink back at gramps in reply, not quite used to hearing him curse out loud. He then seemed to have immediately composed himself as he took in a deep breath and tried to say in a much gentler tone, “Lucas, my boy, it’s time you stop living in your father’s shadow. I’ve lived a full life by now and I don’t want to be the reason to pull you down in this place.”
I smiled at what he said before telling him good-naturedly, “I think that’s for me to decide whether I should stay here or not, right gramps?” He only looked back at me with his wizened eyes before he thumped down a stack of brown envelopes in front of me.
“Well, making you decide now would help. I need these delivered to the addresses written on them, bring Jaden along if you can, an old man like myself can only do so much!” He tried to look at me sternly but then let out a loud chuckle.
I grinned back at him then, suddenly wanting to keep this moment in my memory..
I stared at the signet ring on Jack’s left pinkie finger as I sat stiffly from the backseat of the pickup, I then raised my eyes to the rearview mirror and saw Z briefly glance at me with a worried expression on his eyes before he turned his focus back on the road.
“Where exactly are we headed again?” I asked in a sweet voice but was really trying to burn a hole in Jack’s head as I stared at him from behind, he glanced back at me then and I was forced to feign interest at the view outside the window.
“We’re going to the mines. I remember you were supposed to have business with my father there, right? As the soon-to-be Mayor of Samheinrock, I should take up my dad’s end of the partnership he had with you. It’s lucky we have Z here to lead us into the mines, he knows his way round the tunnels better than I do.”
I saw Z briefly tense before he let out an awkward laugh as he spoke up, “Yeah ‘bout that.. you remember the time when we were kids and built a secret raft there just to take it out to the waterfalls? That was hella fun, right Jack?” Z tilted his head towards his friend as if waiting for a response, but Jack only glanced back at me and almost seemed to leer as he said, “I think we can come up with more fun ways to show Shiela there at the mines..”
I saw Z frown and shake his head from the rearview and decided to smile sweetly at Jack as I stared back at him evenly, “Now you got me looking forward to the grand reveal.”
I wondered at the faux marble pillars that lined the outer parts of the mines as we walked deeper into the tunnels, the lights on our safety helmets the only thing that illuminated our path.. “The town was actually planning to turn some parts of these mines into some sort of museum when we were in our teens, but it didn’t push through..” Z spoke up amidst the bleak darkness as he kept his eyes trained forward.
“Father actually lost the funding he needed for it.” I heard Jack say in a toneless voice and watched as he turned a corner ahead of us, it was then Z immediately turned off his headlight as he pulled me into a narrow side tunnel, motioning for me to keep quiet as he turned my headlight off too.
Surrounded by darkness, he quickly whispered close to my ear, “I think something’s wrong with Jack!” I heard the urgency in his voice and my mind suddenly formulated a plan, I took hold of his shoulder and leaned up close to his ear as I whispered back, “Z, I need help in getting that signet ring from Jack.”
I felt his skin jump at the close proximity we had in this darkness, almost picturing the questioning look he had on his rugged face. I held him close as I pushed my Colt into his hand, “Use this just in case..”
“In case of what..!” I quietly voiced out his shock at what I could possibly be implying but I only held his hand firmly around the gun, pushing it closer to him—before a light suddenly shown on our faces, “Starting without me?” I heard Jack ask as I blinked away from the sudden illumination, hoping he didn’t catch a glimpse of the gun.
It was Z who spoke up to distract him, “Yeah man.. but she’s actually putting up a fight here..” I caught on to Z’s gist as I felt his incessant tapping on my hip—Morse code: Affirmative—before I decided to play along by putting up a struggle against Z.
“You just don’t know where to get ‘em first, Z.” Jack then pulled me roughly away from Z and pushed me to the hard floor, the force of the impact made me see stars for a moment as I felt Jack straddle me before I briefly caught sight of something glinting in the darkness, giving me only a second to stop the blade from plunging into my heart. The fucker had swiped my knife before he pushed me down!
I gritted my teeth, feeling the sharp edge pierce the skin of my hands as I tried to hold it steady, my blood then started to drip out before I felt the thrum of a rift’s energy. I stared up at Jack’s now crazed eyes and pulled at the knife he had aimed on me, enough to make it graze my shoulder as I pulled a hand back and gave a sucker punch to his face.
The move disoriented him enough that I kicked him off me and I switched our positions, now I had Jack facing the floor as I wrestled his left arm to his back, intent on getting to the signet ring. Jack however was still putting up a fight and tried to keep swiping at me with the blade before it was shot right out of his hands. “Jesus Shiela! What the fuck?!”
I briefly glanced up at Z to find that he wasn’t quite focused on Jack and me now, instead he seemed to be focused on the glowing space that appeared out of nowhere. Shit! I didn’t have enough firepower with me to stop whatever demons wanted to come out at the scent of my blood!
“Just shoot at anything you see that starts coming out of that hole, Z!” I shouted as I mentally kept track of the bullets still loaded in the Colt. “You got it, sweetheart!” Z shouted back as the rift’s energy began a deafening whistle, before I heard a shot rang out. Five.
I was growing tired of Jack struggling beneath me so I straddled his back and reached for my knife that was well out of his reach. Four.
I used the knife’s handle to strike hard at Jack’s head, enough to knock him out cold before I reached for the signet ring on his left hand and pulled. Three.
I raised the ring to my eyes and watched the engravings on it glow a fiery red, inwardly cursing myself at not having the summoner here so I can end it all right now. Two.
I looked back at the rift and decided at the next best thing that I could do to momentarily seal it. If only to get Jack and Z safely out of here.. I clenched the ring in my hand, coating it with as much of my blood as possible before I pulled my hand back and threw it at the rift just as Z fired his last shot at the next incoming demon. One.
The rift burst out in huge flames as it sealed up almost instantly, causing a vibration to course through me and for a second, I saw Ms. Chip as she lay on her bed screaming at.. someone.. I only had time to glimpse the nightmare person that plague Ms. Chip before—
“Shiela! Come on! Let’s get out of here!!” I heard Z as I felt him pulling me along, slowly feeling my senses come into focus as I now looked up and saw Z had Jack’s unconscious form draped on his back. I then looked back at the dark tunnels as we headed closer to the exit. I didn’t know how I could explain this all to Z and Jack— but what I did know was, that whoever summoned that Lucinor had another thing coming for them.
It was going to go against them now that it had possession of its summoner’s soul that was locked into that ring. I just pray no innocent would be involved in its taste for revenge.
to be continued...
Image from Pixabay, by Phan Minh Cuong An: https://pixabay.com/users/minanfotos-9565064/ (edited with dreamscopeapp)