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Maynia -- Day Twenty-Nine -- 2,886 words
Mreow..!
I gently shushed Jaden as I scratched him behind his ears, “Easy there lil’ guy, I’ll only be a sec..” I glanced towards the kitchen entryway to see if any of the guys would pass by, before I made to leave through the kitchen’s back door, Jaden made one last attempt at a ‘mreow’ as he tried to follow me out, but I pulled the door close as gently as I could so as not to attract the guys’ attention—I knew they were keeping their eyes on me, lest I decide to head off to the mines alone—but I was not to be caged in like this.
I needed to get more weapons from the basement, I’d already handed Z my Colt and left Luke the extra dagger I had had with me, that only left me with my silver knife..
Not really bothering with hearing the door click shut, I then left the guys’ property through the open backyard..
Something wasn’t right here.. I focused on my surroundings as I passed through my own backyard, I reached the backdoor to my house and stared at it longer than necessary. I spied the bow and arrows I had left here at my open shooting range and quickly took hold of them, not taking my eyes off the door.
I quietly climbed the porch steps, bow and arrow in hand before I leaned on the wall, slowly leaning over as I tried to glimpse movement inside my house. Seeing none, I turned from the wall before I faced the door, bow and arrow firmly in hand, I gave the door a swift kick and prepared to take aim—eerie silence greeted me inside as I cautiously got in, looking left and right and up at the ceiling, I had already reached the dining area when I began to relax my arms—before swiftly turning around as I shot my arrow.
A crack was heard as the arrow shot through the kitchen window, but there Diana stood in the middle of the kitchen, bearing an almost shocked look as her hand slowly raised up to touch the line of blood on her cheek where the arrow had grazed her—A normal person couldn’t have gotten away from that shot, I’d meant to kill with it—I clenched my jaw as I reached behind me for another arrow when—an unseen force pushed me back violently onto the adjacent wall.
The sudden move caused me to drop the bow as the quiver of arrows behind me thumped down to the floor, I was frozen to the wall as I watched Diana furiously charge towards me with a mad look on her face, “You! You think you can stop me when I have this??!” She held up the hand towel that had absorbed my blood that night during a dinner with Jack’s family, I gritted my teeth at the sight, confirming my assumption that she had indeed used it to bypass the protective barriers around the house and had let the Lucinor in—
“I got that demon back under my control with a whiff of this, but what it did to Doctor Alfred in retaliation would make Lucas hate me forever!” She almost wailed and had a petulant look on her face before she turned back to me with a wicked grin, “Oh well, I guess I still managed to catch you in the end.” The was the last thing she said to me before she swiftly raised something that hit me hard on the head before everything went black..
I was then woken up to a sharp slap on the face. “Wake up, Sleeping Beauty!!!” I groaned as I slowly opened my eyes and tried to rub my throbbing head but found that my hands were tied behind my back as I sat on a mostly dilapidated chair.
I shook some of my hair off my face as I glanced up and looked at my surroundings—It looks like I got to the mines by myself after all—I almost snickered before my gaze landed on Diana, I tensed as I saw her studying the silver knife she had in her hands, an almost wistful look on her face—Ah, fuck! I cursed to myself and continued to watch her cautiously as she began speaking..
“I always believed my dad should have been Mayor of this town instead of Uncle Eric, maybe—maybe Lucas would have wanted to be friends with me then, maybe my growing feelings for him wouldn’t have caused me to strike a deal in this dark, dank place..”
I let my eyes follow her as she started a slow pace around me, circling me as if I was her prey as she twisted the silver knife in her hands while she kept talking, “They only wanted something in return from me.. I was lucky Aunt Maddie was so easy to fool—getting her husband to where that signet ring made it easy for me to whisper ideas into his mind, insulting his greed and lust for power only consumed him more.. They wanted you to come here, Shiela.”
Anticipating her next move as I heard the halting of her footsteps behind me, I ducked down just in time to avoid a slice to my face but it still managed to nick part of my shoulder, causing me to wince, “They only needed fear to fuel themselves! Those previous accidents were just petty until—until that tower of yours was built here! I—I didn’t understand why it was only Him that remained, he—he grew more violent the moment you stepped foot in Samheinrock! I just—I couldn’t control him anymore, I—”
“You, shouldn’t have dealt with things you couldn’t fully understand!” I stopped her then and gritted my teeth as I tried to stop the blood that now started to drip down my arm. Shit, this was bad! It could attract—And just as I thought that, a rift started to slowly form just before me, but Diana seemed to have been too lost in her thoughts as she passed by the steadily glowing space, she just held her head in obvious frustration as she shouted, “You don’t understand, Shiela! I only wanted to have Lucas, but then you came along and ruined everything that I planned!"
Diana now had a crazed look in her eyes as she slowly dropped her hands from her head and gripped my silver knife in one of her hands as she said to me, “Maybe I had it wrong all this time.. Maybe you just need to fucking die!!” I readied my legs to kick at her as she was about to charge at me when—
“Diana, stop!!” I felt my blood run cold when I looked over and saw.. Luke! I thought he was supposed to be at the Tower! I watched as Luke slowly raised his hands up in peace as he briefly glanced at me and shook his head slightly before he completely turned his attention towards Diana as he spoke in a clear and calm voice, “Diana, calm down. It shouldn’t be like this..”
I tried to keep my gaze locked on Luke as I tried to lean over the chair, using the leverage to slowly start to lift my left foot towards my hands, gritting my teeth as I fumbled with the heel to get a grip of—There! I just as slowly put my foot back down as I steadied the tiny cutter in my hands, anxiously looking towards the rift as I started slicing the ropes that bound me. Shit, that thing’s not getting any smaller. I’ll need a lot of blood to seal it off but first—
I was cut off from my thoughts when another pair of hands quickly untied the remaining pieces of rope around my hands before a voice hurriedly whispered into my ear, “Stay still luv, take this back with you—” Z had just about placed a gun in my hands when he suddenly tipped me to the side as a gunshot rang out, I winced as I landed on my bleeding arm but glanced up to see Luke fighting a gun off Diana’s hands, my silver knife now lay forgotten on the ground.
I only had a second to raise my arm and aim before I fired—a shot rang out and made Diana stumble from the hit she took but I could’ve sworn she had also fired her gun—I looked to Luke as he removed his hands from Diana, seeing blood seeping out of her chest, she stumbled backwards enough for me to finally notice Jack who had stood just behind her with his gun raised, but I was shock to see him slowly drop his arm as he stumbled to the ground, pressing a hand to his abdomen. Jack got shot!
Time seemed to slow down for me as I heard Luke shout at Jack as he rushed towards him, then I saw how Diana still wasn’t going down and just as started to raise her gun towards me again, but I only felt numb when I raised my own gun and shot her right between the eyes, I only watched as she stumbled backwards and fell right into the rift.
The rift began to react then as the mines’ tunnels started shaking, I felt Z start pulling me along with him but I held my ground and placed a firm hand on his arm as I looked up into his eyes, “Get them out of here, Z! You know these tunnels better than they do! You have to hurry!”
Z hesitated for only a second as he looked to Jack who had an arm over Luke as he leaned his weight on him, before Z looked back at me and shouted over the thrum of the rift’s energy, “I’ll come back for you!” He pulled me close and gave me a quick sloppy kiss on the cheek before he rushed towards Jack and hauled him over his back as he lead the way, Luke took a second to glance back at me, “Take him to the hospital, go!” Luke only started to backtrack away from me when I urged him another time before he gritted his teeth and turned back around to run after Z.
Now on my own, it would just be me and my demons.
“Luke, you get Jack outta here! I need to go back to Shiela!” I heard Z say as he placed me on the passenger’s side before he shut the door, Luke then got in and started the engine just as I groaned out, “Get to—the tower..!”
Luke was speeding away from the mines now as he shouted back at me, “Shit Jack, Shiela wants to get you to the hospital first!”
“Not.. enough time—Just go!” I gritted out as I applied pressure on my wound just to slow the bleeding, I heard Luke give out a loud curse as he changed course.
There was no way I wasn’t gonna see this through the end.
I had now managed to pull over an old metal pipe close to the rift, if I calculated the time right after Luke could get Jack to the hospital before he’d be able to leave for the Tower then I had to bleed a lot more to deter any lesser demons that planned to come out of this rift. I just hope I’d have enough blood left in me until Luke gets to the Tower..
I had just taken out my silver knife, intent on making a cut to my palm when I heard it—the slow gravelly voice that felt like it crept into your soul—“Shiela…” it called out my name and I gripped my silver knife firmly in my hand as I let the big black shadow start to take shape in front of me, “What are you most afraid of?”
I mentally prepared myself as I saw it start to take the form of the man who plagued both Ms. Chip and my mother before.. it stopped..? I furrowed my brows at this as I only looked upon the silhouette of the nightmare the Lucinor had tried to mimic but then it sounded frustrated as well as it screeched out, “You do not know this man.. WHY??!! WHAT. ARE YOU. MOST AFRAID OF??!!!—”
I stabbed the retched thing right into what looked like its fucking head with such force that I used the momentum to shove it back into the rift, its shadowy hands tried to grip the seams of the rift but I only kicked it back and proceeded to slice through my palm to bleed on the metal pipe, making it act as a makeshift protective barrier to keep the Lucinor locked in the rift.
The demon however tried another tactic as it then began to take a different form as I watched from the other side of the rift, slowly it began to take a female form, wearing a night gown like she used to before singing me to sleep, then the sorrowful face of my mom stared back at me, “Will you run away again from me, Shiela? Will you not save me from this horror?”
My hand kept dripping blood on the floor as I stood there and stared back at the memory of my mother, I didn’t quite remember her face anymore but.. Ms. Chip was right, how I did look a lot like my mom.. ”She didn’t want me to run. She wanted me to fight and protect—and this time, I’m protecting my memories of her from the likes of you.”
I said that with finality before I stabbed the ground where my blood had mostly formed and the amount of my blood near the metal pipe seemed to have electrified the rift as the Lucinor screeched out in pain. I held my ground and let more of my blood flow as I shut my eyes tight, waiting for the screeches to abide—then I saw images of my mom’s gentle green eyes as she sang me to sleep that last night before her death—and I felt a single tear trail down my cheek. May my lifeblood be enough..
It was when I felt like I’d die there, stiff from too much blood lost, that I felt a pair of warm strong arms wrap up from behind me as he held my silver knife firmly around my hands, the sticky warmth oozing from his own hands had me dazedly opening my eyes as I leaned my head back to find Z, “You’re.. bleeding..?"
He only grinned down at me as he placed a soft kiss atop my head before he adjusted me enough so I’d lean on him, his words vibrated through me as he talked, “Thought you needed the extra juice..”
I felt a smile form on my face as I began to close my eyes again, maybe my brain was fast losing blood too when I started speaking softly, “Z.. I’m sorry if—I can’t commit to you.. Luke or Jack.. I—care too much about you.. guys to come between the friendship that.. you have.. I’m sorry I can’t choose..”
“Who says anything ‘bout choosing?” Z leaned close to my ear as he continued, “Once we get outta here alive, maybe you could.. broaden your taste in guys, how ‘bout that sweetheart?”
I could only smile at his suggestion before I felt the familiar vibrations that could only be caused by the Lancaster Tower having been jumpstarted, the rift now started to fizzle out as it grew smaller before it sealed shut. They made it.
“Jack! There aren’t enough blood packs here! How do we know if we jumpstarted it at all??!” Luke called out to me as I glanced up at Lancaster Tower, we had smeared every last drop of Shiela’s blood on its metallic base but it only barely made a thrum.. I gritted my teeth as I held my wound, feeling some of my own blood ooze out as it went dripping on the ground—wait, maybe we could just—
“Luke! How much are you willing to bleed??” I huffed out to him as he came closer to me and had a ‘what the fuck are you talking about?’ look on his face, I could only demonstrate to him my idea when I put my own bloody hand to the Tower’s metal base.
“Ah fuck it—what the hell..” It always did still come as a surprise when the good doctor would curse, but I found myself more shocked at what he did next as he took out a dagger holstered on his belt and just sliced through his palm with a wince before he squeezed out as much as he could, “You really think this is gonna do?”
I could only give him a thumbs up in agreement as I started to wobble from where I stood, and just as I crashed down on the ground, I felt a strong vibration run through me before I heard Luke shout out my name… I hope we made it, Shiela..
Then everything went black.
to be continued...
Image from Pixabay, by Phan Minh Cuong An: https://pixabay.com/users/minanfotos-9565064/ (edited with dreamscopeapp)