Legions (7 page)

I reached up towards the
sky and felt my legs spring off of the ground as the air began
hitting my face as I shot up towards the first set of limbs.
Grateful the method I learned was still working, my body kept
darting towards the top of the tree. My feet were barely touching
the limb before moving onto the next one. The needles were smacking
my legs and poking through my jeans as I bounced off one limb to
the next. My goal was to get faster, think less, and begin to see
how I could apply this to other things I needed to learn. The tree
limbs were bouncing and snapping so quickly as I leapt from one to
the other, I realized that my speed must have increased ten-fold
compared to the bog. The exhilaration was building in my fingertips
as I saw the sky through the treetops. I was almost to the top of
my first tree.

Letting out a scream that I
had been holding in for months, I knew this was what I needed. I
looked around the landscape, enjoying the freedom and the quiet
that was surrounding me. Now was my true time to mourn Athen’s
loss. My lungs hollered Athen’s name over and over and with every
tearful scream, my heart began to feel a little more whole. When my
voice had become hoarse and no more tears were able to come, I sat
quietly at the top of the world, silent. I knew going forward my
mission was to stay strong and learn as much as I could as fast as
I could.

Letting go of the tree, my
body went sailing down to the forest floor. I sprung myself onto
the next tree and shot up the limbs faster than the last and,
again, let myself fall back down to the ground. Ziplining with
Athen back in Whistler entered my mind. The way he held me as we
went flying down the mountain harnessed together. Him wanting to
tell me so badly what I was, and what I was capable of but unable
to. If he could see me now, he would be so proud. I was sure of
it.

I was balancing on the tip
of my latest treetop, when I grabbed my iPhone to look at the time.
I had no idea how long I had been practicing. What I saw shocked
me. I had been scaling these firs for hours, and I hadn’t even
completed the one task I was willing myself to do my entire drive
up here. I wanted to be able to hop from tree to tree before I
left. Shoving my phone into my back pocket, I took a deep breath
and pictured myself landing perfectly on the top of the tree next
to me. Looking over at the tree next to me, noticing how spindly
the treetop looked, I began to get jittery, but I forced myself to
go for it, and I did.

Landing it perfectly, the
giddiness was impossible to hide. I had no one to share it with,
but I was thrilled regardless. My smile was impossibly wide, and
the chill from the rain that was coming down in buckets now didn’t
even phase me. Seeing the next tree in front of me, I hopped onto
it as well. Nothing was interfering with my balance. If I could
ever feel like a being with wings, this was the time.

While arguing with myself
as to whether this would be the last jump or not, I spotted a group
of people walking towards one of the trails. I did my best to not
move one muscle for fear that I’d cause attention. It’s not
everyday someone was 70 feet in the air wrapped around the top of a
Douglas fir. As I rested my head against the bark, doing my best
not to get poked by the needles, my mind began to drift to what I
was planning on doing with my newfound talents. Daydreaming about
saving Athen from the serpent-eyed woman gave me hope and helped to
make the time pass as I realized the group of people wasn’t
leaving. I snapped to and began trying to figure out what they were
up to. Something didn’t seem right. It was as if they were
surveying something down there. They were looking up at trees,
pointing at rocks, arguing, and then it hit me. These weren’t
naturalists.

I kept deathly still and
tried staring as hard as I could and listening as best I could to
try to pick up what they were doing. Watching them deliberate over
an unknown, continued to raise the red flags. To my horror, they
started their way over towards where I was. They didn’t seem to
know I was up in the tree, and I was at least now able to see them
better. Unfortunately, with the close proximity I could now sense
them as well. They were what I expected.

The closer they got, the
quieter I breathed, the slower I blinked my eyes, the harder I
prayed they wouldn’t see me. When they were only about 100 feet
away or so, they stopped. My heart began beating so fast that I was
worried I was going to give myself away.

They were spreading out
and, before I knew it, fighting began amongst them. The females and
males were going at it regardless of gender. Another one of the
demons somersaulted and missed their intended target, landing on
their back. Another one of the demons came over to help him up. One
of the females attempted to jump on the shoulders of another,
missing as well, landing with a thud on her side. I couldn’t
believe what I was witnessing. These demons were horrible. There
was no way they could be this bad. Unless it was a trap, and they
knew I was here, luring me down thinking I could take them and then
they could finish me off.

I didn’t get that feeling,
however. I think they were truly this bad. They must be minions or
newly-formed - not sure which one. Either way, it was fascinating.
I couldn’t believe my good luck or bad luck, depending on how I’d
want to look at it considering I was stuck up a tree like a cat.
The fighting actually seemed to be getting worse by the minute, and
I was worried that I might not be able to stifle my laugh. I hoped
I wasn’t going to be that poor in my battles.

The confidence began
growing lightning-quick inside of me, and that’s when I decided to
do it. These were about as unskilled as I could get, and I took it
as a sign. I think it was time to practice. Cyril and Arie would be
furious, but that thought only popped in after I had already let go
of the tree, flying down to the soil awaiting my
arrival.

Landing with one knee on
the ground, and the other ready to lunge, I looked up at the group
of demons: a smile across my lips appeared as a laughter I didn’t
recognize began coming from deep within. A sound I didn’t know was
possible began oozing out of my soul. Pointing at my first victim
and curling my finger to welcome her, I imagined she was the
serpent woman luring Athen. She didn’t have a chance. I snapped her
in half without thinking. Her body’s black smoke already lifting
towards the clouds, I was thrilled to welcome my next
victim.

The larger demon, who was
dressed completely in black and a ridiculous-looking cowboy hat,
charged towards me with a barreling effort. My body jumped up into
the tree just as he was about to collide into me. I was almost
embarrassed about even trying to fight these creatures. I already
knew I was horrible, but seeing that I could outwit and outfight
them was even more puzzling. He began scaling the tree at such a
slow pace, that I let my body fall to the ground to begin my next
fight. The other demon girl ran towards me, but stopped right in
front of me. Her fist landed right in my side as I stepped
backwards, dulling the ache of the potential force that could have
been. I grabbed her neck with my right hand and swiped her knees
with a left kick, pushing her onto the ground. The cowboy hat guy
dropped behind me with a thud, and I spun around with a quickness
that surprised myself. I jumped back into the tree, breaking off
one of the branches, and let go back down onto him, feeling the
point penetrate his flesh. He never saw it coming, and it was just
enough to have the other two run off back towards the
trail.

As I let go of the tree
limb, the demon fell onto his knees and flat on his face. It was
ridiculous. The black mist slowly began releasing into the air.
Feeling more confident than I had in a long time, I grabbed my
things and went back down towards the beach and parking lot. It was
time to get home and explain what happened to Cyril and Arie
because I honestly didn’t know.

Chapter 10

We were all in the kitchen
playing with our food rather than eating it, knowing the choice
that we were making carried a heavy burden. It carried consequences
I wasn’t sure I could handle but had to do my best to try. The
quiet tapping of Arie’s spoon hitting the ceramic bowl began to get
on my nerves. I did my best to squash the annoyance. It wasn’t her
fault.

The Legions were making
themselves known to as many of us as they could. Arie was getting
endless texts and emails with updates on family members who had
either been recently returned from the Awakening and reintroduction
processes, or who had just been taken away. We were all being
scattered around trying to find our loved ones, or were helping
others who were searching, leaving us to possibly fall right into
the demon’s trap. Yet, there was nothing we could do about it.
That’s how we were wired, unlike them. We had emotions. We were
easily distracted, compared to them. We had to find our loved
ones.

Even though I’d been on a
high from the day before, the heaviness of the situation wiped the
slate clean again. It was hard to revel in the tiny successes when
hearing about new people experiencing the heartache that I had now
been feeling for months.

It seemed the demons that
I’d run into the day before were newly turned, easily destroyed.
Even with hearing that though, my happiness couldn’t be swayed. It
felt pretty good to kick butt like that. It also showed just how
weak these new demons truly were. If they were building the Legions
with lots of new members, it could really be a benefit for our
side.

Because of the run-in at
the library, we decided to do something pretty unprecedented and
move things along a little quicker than the normal process. We were
going to force contact. The thought that he may have seen the waves
of prismatic colors from my soul bounce off the library walls gave
us enough hope to pounce on things.

A battle was looming and
the sooner we could get Athen back the better for us all, or even
come to the realization that it might be a lot longer than we
thought and prepare for the battle without him.

“Well, we’ve got some good
news and some bad news.” Cyril offered up, grabbing his glass of
ice water.

“Yep! Think we are on the
right track.” Arie agreed, nodding her head.

“Okay, want to share it
with me?” I was completely puzzled. We hadn’t really been
surrounded by much good news lately, so I wasn’t sure what it could
possibly cover.

“Athen and that serpent
woman you keep seeing in your dreams do seem to be together. To
what degree, we don’t know yet… But tomorrow they are likely going
to be together at that Starbucks we’ve been avoiding for so long. I
think it’s time to meet up with them both.”

“So what’s the good news?”
I looked at Cyril while waiting for his answer, but he was just
stirring his soup in circles.

“That was the good
news.”

***

Looking over all of my
notes from my recent dreams made it pretty hard to stay focused on
just one idea. I never wanted to miss something that I should have
told my family when it came to my dreams and premonitions, so I
made it my mission to take notes. Placing my journal back in the
drawer, I looked at my wonderfully inviting bed, pushing away the
sadness knowing I’d be climbing into it alone yet again.

It was pretty hard to
imagine life as a typical nineteen year old any longer. I had given
that notion up. Even when I thought I was one, I knew I wasn’t deep
inside. I was plugging away up in Whistler and everything, but even
then, things didn’t fit. Everyone would go out wanting to party,
and I just wanted to curl up with a good book and Matilda snoozing
by my side. The drinking age being what it was compared to the
states made most of the under twenty-one crowd go crazy, and it
just didn’t do it for me.

Always thinking I bored the
heck out of whoever I was around, I tended to do things I enjoyed,
by myself. I knew I wanted someone to love, but didn’t think that
was possible, especially at my age. Little did I know I wasn’t
really that age, in the normal fashion. It was like the best
present in the entire world to find out that this life was waiting
for me and had always been mine for the taking. To have Athen show
up, offering me a world that was beyond perfection and allowing
myself to believe, truly believe in what was being offered, only to
have him taken away so quickly, made me question everything. The
worst question of all that I kept fighting became was it even worth
it? In my previous existence, I didn’t even know our love existed.
I got through all of the days just fine. Knowing what I was missing
was the most excruciating experience ever.

I fell asleep as soon as my
head hit the pillow. We didn’t come up with much of a plan for the
next day, but I hoped sleep would bring one to me. Only time would
tell.

My body jerked up with a
sudden start as something awoke me. Realizing that my cheek carried
the sensation that someone was running their finger along it, began
my heart pumping wildly with the knowledge that someone had to be
in my room. Scanning my room, the darkness provided the
uncomfortable stillness that managed to make me dreadfully aware
that I wasn’t alone, only I couldn’t see my visitor. I started
panicking as I looked all around. I saw no one.

I reached up and retraced
the tracks of the strange feeling on my flesh, not understanding
what I actually felt. I tried to calm myself down, but the sound of
my heart beating so quickly made it impossible – that and the surge
of the adrenaline that was running thought my veins. I slowly moved
my body from the side position to flat on my back thinking I had a
better shot of protecting myself if I could see the entire room at
once, darkness or not. I did my best to move slowly, fearing that I
might frighten whoever was in my room to act in haste and possibly
hurt me.