Legions (10 page)

The door was open into
Athen’s room, but the light grey-blue curtain was pulled closed for
privacy. My veins spasming with grief in every part of my body as
the blood was rushing throughout made it almost impossible to walk.
Why would they need privacy? I saw her black boots right next to
his bed. Just like I pictured, she must be nestled up to his
hospital bed sitting in an uncomfortable sterile chair. The thought
almost made me sick. I heard his voice, quietly speaking to her as
any other couple would in this type of setting. I tried to push the
pangs of remorse aside. My decision was set. This wasn’t about him
any longer.

“Oh, Athen.” Her drawl hit
me like a ton of bricks. I stopped dead in my tracks.

“My sister is here now.
What a sweetheart. I thought for sure she would go to the hotel
first.” I saw her black boots get up quickly and swiftly move
towards the curtain. I was frozen.

“Wow, she didn’t have to
come tonight. I’m getting out later today. You know that. I
shouldn’t even have been here today. There is nothing wrong with
me. I told you she didn’t have to fly in to greet me this way.” His
voice floated through the thick air, swirling around my body like a
straight jacket. She knew I was coming and told him I was her
sister to prepare him? I was completely at her mercy.

The curtain was thrown open
with the metal beads sliding and clanking with the force of her
toss and before me was Athen staring directly at me from the
hospital bed that was inclined only slightly. The television hung
in front of his bed and was casting a light blue hue onto the room,
from what looked like a news channel, reflecting off of his white
terry cloth looking blanket that was the only thing covering
him.

“Hi, sis!” The demon of all
demons exclaimed, as she was hugging me with her claws. She was
good.

“Hey!” I exclaimed, as she
squeezed me just tight enough to let me feel her
strength.

“I thought you would go to
the hotel first. You never cease to amaze me.” Her eyes sparkling
as if there actually might be a hint of life to them - too bad only
I knew the truth in this room.

I felt the pull beginning
despite my best efforts to ignore Athen. I had to use his name
again. I had to acknowledge his presence in order to maintain mine.
He was my destiny.

“
So, is this the guy I’m
hearing endlessly about?” I tried my best to not reach out and
crush her neck. Instead, I moved over to Athen’s bed as gracefully
as I could, which doesn’t ever count for much, even in this new
form. I reached the side of his bed and was thankful for its sturdy
sides to keep me balanced.

His smile was radiant, and
I didn’t know if it was because I said she was speaking endlessly
about him, or if it was because he was looking at me. I tried to
push the first thought away even though I knew the answer. I did
the unthinkable and placed my hand on his shoulder.

“It’s so nice to meet you
in person. You’re pretty outstanding if you can look this great
after being hit by a car.” I gave him a wink and felt the all too
familiar electricity begin to run between us. I did nothing to
remove my hand. I needed to be reminded of him. I looked down at
him and saw the same look of recognition and confusion that I saw
in the library. I just might be able to pull this off.

“You know, you look really
familiar to me.” His voice was soothing as ever, but very
conflicted. “Do you come to the island much?”

“I think we’ve connected
before. I was thinking the same thing.”

He nodded his head and laid
back on the pillow. I patted his shoulder and turned to Lilith.
Realizing now that he never mentioned our encounter at the library,
she had no way to know what this interaction could represent. I
couldn’t stop the smile from spreading.

“I should get going. Just
wanted stop by for a quick hello... Want me to buy you something
scrumptious from the vending machine?” I did my best to look over
at her as innocently as possible.

“Yeah, that would be great.
I’ll be right back, Athen.” She turned to Athen and patted his
knee, but his leg jerked away from her.

I wasn’t sure what was
happening, but I hoped it had to do with my touch.

“Uh yeah, Athen. I’ll see
you too.” I locked eyes with him for longer than I should have, and
he felt it. Horror began to fill his eyes, for what reason I wasn’t
sure of, but then they became quickly replaced with another
emotion. One I didn’t recognize. I only hoped it would help me in
my next endeavor in the visitor’s lounge.

As Lilith and I walked out
of the room together, she wrapped her arm around my waist doing her
best to squeeze the last breath I had in me into oblivion. I swung
around to take one last look at Athen, and his eyes were glued to
me, so I mouthed to him the words that only seemed
appropriate.

“I LOVE YOU.”

Lilith and I reached the
lounge in a flash, and before I knew it, my instincts kicked in. I
was in the familiar crouch position that I saw Athen, Cyril, and
Arie exhibit many times before protecting one of us or all of us, -
never completely sure how it worked. A hissing deep from within
began to roll out of my mouth as I leaned deeper into my stance. My
arms were away from my body as if to steady myself. I felt my mere
existence hovering above the ground as if I had done this a million
times before. I was no longer in need of the ground to keep me
steady. To the lame eye, it might even look as if I was on the
floor, but that was definitely not the case.

To feel the level of
emotion running through my veins that I witnessed so many times
before as my family protected me energized me beyond belief. I
began to see Lilith’s form change. Her raven hair began its flaming
transformation to a violent red that was unlike any red I had seen
before. It was dirty. Her legs dissolved and spiraled themselves
into a serpent like appendage. I wasn’t sure if this development
was about to hurt or help me. I chose the latter. Two legs were
better than one.

She glided along the floor
and up the wall in a blink of an eye. I felt a roar build up inside
me that surely would unleash the fury that I’d been keeping quiet
for so long. Her black and scaly tail whipped around to grab me.
The movement was nothing I saw. It was what I felt, and within a
heartbeat’s time, I felt my legs rise up into the air missing the
swipe of the tail as it landed onto the floor, shaking the tables
that were so carefully placed. My heart was racing, but the
adrenaline that was pumping through my veins was only helping me
fine-tune my ability to see things before they happen. A skill I
took for granted, but one apparently my father, Remiel had passed
on. Hopefully his attributes would help me through this.

I felt her next move and
saw her slither down the other wall next to the exit sign. I spun
around with my right leg jetted out, and my arm extended to reach
for her hair. My world had become a slow motion version of
instantaneous events as I grabbed her hair to bring me quickly to
her side. Now side by side with this creature, I used my other hand
to grab the knife out of my pocket, which I jabbed into her side,
leaving a huge gash, oozing out nothing but a mist of poison into
the air. I took my knife out of her and then penetrated the tip
deep into her chest as the screech of wickedness entered the room.
I knew the fight had only begun.

I flipped the knife back
into my pocket while she slithered down to the floor, towing me
alongside her with her free hand as she nursed her two fresh wounds
with the other. I looked into her ugliness and was no longer
threatened by her fraudulent beauty. She was pulling me along with
her as she quickly slithered from one corner of the room to the
other, not realizing she was creating an opportunity for me to
break free.

I grabbed the metal chair
closest to me and ripped off the legs creating stakes that I thrust
immediately into her. I took the opportunity and grabbed her neck
as I squeezed with an enormous amount of hatred that had built up
since getting off the ferry. Her neck began turning to a silvery
sheen. Before I could congratulate myself, her hand reached around,
and I was thrown to the floor with such a crashing force that I
wasn’t sure I’d be able to move again. It felt like every bone in
my body was shattered - until the images of Athen flashed into my
mind. Pushing her away my legs filled with fury, I was ready for
round two.

“Is that all you’ve got?” I
hissed at her as my body began to spring to life again spiraling
into action. Feeling the same energy as in the bog, my legs began
to strengthen and prickle, readying myself for my next move. I spun
around on the ground before lifting myself to the ceiling, grabbing
one of the stakes out of her chest as I went. My body was hanging
from the ceiling like a spider, but my hand was outreached and
ready to attack. She rushed towards me with her arms flailing as I
fell back down to the ground, ramming the other homemade stake into
her tail, letting another wave of shrill screams echo through the
building. My arm began to feel as if it were on fire and before I
could stop the pain from spreading, I realized it was her digging
one of the lonely stakes into my arm that she removed from her
chest. I saw bone - my bone revealing its’ ivory self. I fell to
the ground instantly wishing I had told Cyril and Arie what my plan
was. I needed their help.

“You didn’t think I’d let
you win that easily, did you?” She wailed to the world more than to
me. Her laughter was reverberating against the man-made
walls.

I took in the spectacle
that was before me. Her chest was seething with every breath. The
gashes were continually oozing black mist into the air, but it
didn’t seem to accomplish as much as I’d hoped. Her strength wasn’t
weakening, at least that I could tell. I inhaled as deeply as
possible to gather my strength as the pain in my arm began to
subside.

“I saved my best for last.”
I uttered, not knowing where the strength came from, but welcoming
it with every ounce of my being. I surged into the air landing
directly in front of her. Her tail lifted from the floor, and I
knew to watch for it. She grabbed my arm and twisted it behind my
back. I noticed she had the same ugly nails that I had seen time
and time again on these beasts.

My revulsion turned to deep
seated anger, and I spun myself around escaping her embrace, while
jumping on her back squeezing her as tightly as possible,
attempting to crush her neck like I had seen Athen and Cyril do so
many times before. I was out of her tail’s way as long as I kept in
this position. Her energy began to escape. The black mist rushed
more aggressively out of her wounds. I could possibly win this. The
excitement began welling inside of me. But then her face spun
completely around, mouth wide open, exposing several rows of teeth
ready to engulf me in my wildest fear. I slumped to the ground,
afraid to move as the cavernous opening came to swallow
me.

I sensed movement from the
other side of the door and glanced over to see the familiar shoes
of Arie and Cyril running in. Relief flooded my body. More hissing
circulated through the air from all of us, and I knew that in order
to defeat this monster, I was needed as well. I instinctively
returned to my fighting stance and began to follow Cyril and Arie’s
move. Arie had jumped to the ceiling and was hanging in wait, while
Cyril jetted through the air grabbing Lilith’s neck. Arie fell from
the ceiling to face Lilith so she couldn’t apparently do what she
attempted on me. I grabbed my knife and jumped on her tail slicing
it away from her body. The shrill shrieks of pain rang through the
air as her gangly body began to swirl away into oblivion. Cyril was
crushing her neck with more force than I ever could have attempted.
Lilith turned to nothing, the mist escaped. I could breathe. My
family saved me, again.

Suddenly, I heard the metal
from the door handle scrape and felt Athen’s eyes taking in the
unbelievable scene that was before him. I refused to look at him,
and before I knew it the door slammed shut, and Athen was gone,
long gone. The others did nothing to stop him either.

Chapter 13

We quietly rode back to the
house. The pain in my arm was beginning to throb more and more as
the adrenaline wore off. I wasn’t sure whether to fill them in on
my earlier encounter before the fight just yet or not. I was
leaning to the side of divulging everything but was afraid of their
reaction. Cyril drove our Jeep into the driveway, and I decided to
broach the idea.

“Thanks again for coming to
my rescue. I don’t think I’d have lasted much longer.” I was rather
blunt in my delivery.

“Don’t be hard on yourself.
I’m actually quite impressed. The fact that you held your own with
her for as long as you did was pretty amazing.” Cyril’s tone was
completely recovered from the day before, and I couldn’t detect any
hostility from my latest escapades either.

“You never know. You might
have been able to finish her off yourself. You just got a silly
little scratch.” Arie’s always optimistic spin made me feel
instantly better.

“Let’s not get ahead of
ourselves. I think we need to continue training with her ASAP since
she insists on doing things her own way.” Cyril spoke every
syllable very slowly, as if that was my punishment in
itself.