Argathripe - Book 2 ~ (The Dead City Series)

☆.｡.:* Chapter 18 .｡.:*☆

The first step of getting us out of there was to split up. Scarlet had protested greatly, and A. decided finally that she would go with her. Katrina would be staying somewhat close to Theo, but they would still be apart. A. would eventually gather us all up once we got outside, and hopefully we would just be able to get back to the castle peacefully, leading the followers of It away from the crowd that contained almost every single species and added up to at least a thousand people.

We split up, acting as casual as possible, but not too casual. I slowly made my way to the door. I passed a pool table with some players that seemed very into the game. I decided to act like I was watching. I felt someone brush up against my back, but then continued to keep on walking. I glanced in the person's way. It was a follower. I slowly drifted away from the pool table, and no one seemed to even notice. None of the players, at least. I eyed the door. I felt myself becoming dependent that nothing interrupted my path to the door. But suddenly there was something blocking the door. A person in all black. They were staring at me. They were just standing right in front of the door, alone. I stood there, staring at them. I walked up to them, somehow having the bravery to talk to them.

"Excuse me," I said to them.

They didn't move or answer me. Their strange cloudy, spotted eyes just stared at me. I stared right back. We were eye level, so it wasn't hard. I knew it would probably be some sort of a trap. I stared at the person in front of me, but I used my sixth sense to be aware of my surroundings. I paid attention to every single footstep, where they were, and who was probably doing it. Then the person's hand slowly went up to their ear. They seemed to press a button.

"Yep. I've got one right here. The angel," Their strange oily voice informed whoever was on the other side(s) of the headset.

I took a step back. The follower didn't take it's eyes off me. I took two more steps back. We now had about two feet in between us. They leaped for me. I jumped up about six feet into the air, and landed on their back, making them crumple to the ground. Then I dove for the door, but as soon as my hands touched the handle, I felt something grab my ankle, and started pulling me in. I kicked at their hand, and they loosened their grip. I looked back at them, and realized I heard people screaming. I wondered what was happening with the other prophets. Soon there were people running all over to the place. I quickly jumped to my feet and started pushing on the door. It wouldn't open. It was somehow locked from the outside. I didn't even know that those kinds of doors did that. I saw other people at other doors, and saw the terror on their faces with the realization they couldn't get out, and were stuck in there with who knows how many followers of It.

Suddenly I felt myself being knocked to the ground, and rigid pain ran from my head to my torso. Someone had just bashed my head with something hard. I felt myself being lifted up, and suddenly I was face-to-face with the follower that had been blocking the door. Suddenly I was in a fist fight with this guy. They got multiple good blows on me, but I didn't fall down, and I hit them every time I tried. I was able to block a few of their punches, but every time they kicked at me I wasn't fast enough. I had a feeling they were somehow able to figure out my weaknesses. I heard someone scream my name, but I didn't dare turn my head. Suddenly I was pushed into the follower I had been fighting, and my head hit the floor. The follower grabbed my arms and pinned them behind my back. I felt them being twisted and I let out a muffled cry of pain. Then I felt the worst type of pain you could feel. One of the followers grabbed my wing, I heard a snap, I saw stars, and suddenly I heard snipping. They're clipping my wing!! I struggled the best I could. There had to be at least two of the followers on my back, pinning me down so that I couldn't move. I heard them stop snipping, and felt my wing being put down. I prayed that they were done, but I was wrong. I felt my other wing being pulled out of the fold I had it in. I used all my strength to keep it down, close to me. I tried flapping at them with the single wing, like maybe I could push one off. But then they just grabbed it in a tight grip, and there was a second snap. Then a third. I cried out in pain, but you could barely hear me over all of the screaming from the other people that were in pain possibly as great as mine. Then I heard the snipping again. I had felt that on both wings, they were clipping too close to where the feathers actually grew, so that I would bleed. I imagined my face a bloody mess, but I also imagined that my wings and the rest of my body were a bloody mess as well. I didn't want to think about what would happen to me if I was taken back to where they came from. Wherever that was; but I knew that no matter what it wouldn't be a particularly pleasant place. They finished clipping my right wing, then put it down. I felt one of their hands grasp the back of my neck, and I struggled some more. This time I was actually able to get out of their hold, and I felt their weight fall off of my back, so I jumped up without falling over the best I could, and dashed anywhere but with them. I didn't care where I was headed, I just needed to not be around them. I looked up at the ceiling. There were no windows, as the place was basically a warehouse-looking building. But there were pipes. I grabbed my gun out of it's holder in my belt, and aimed for one of the pipes that identified as a water pipe. I shot it just as I was barreled into by someone. It was Theo. The pipe burst, and sprayed down on everyone. Everyone was momentarily confused, but distracted. People took this to their advantage, and started getting good blows in on the followers they were fighting. Theo carefully grabbed my arm and bolted up, with me trying to figure out what in the world he was doing. His wings were unfurled.

"Theo don't do what I think you're about to do!! You can't lift the both of us in your state!!" I shouted at him over the fighting and screaming of the people around us.

"I can do it!" He shouted back at me, trying to be reassuring.

I didn't feel very reassured. I noticed there were cracks in the ground. When in the world did that happen?! Then I noticed what seemed to be a freaking ravene in the middle of the place. He tightened his grip on my arm, then jumped once we got to the end of the ravene. I shut my eyes, just to feel a tiny bit better about maybe being about to die. I heard a few flaps, then my feet were on the ground. I opened my eyes to see some strange sort of force field-like shield around us. I saw that Scarlet, Katrina, and A. were also in the bubble. Scarlet looked at me horrified, Katrina was focused on something. Then I saw that she was the one keeping the force field up. A. was attending to Scarlet, who's leg didn't look exactly normal. Everyone's clothes were covered in dust and were somewhat wet from the water pipe I burst. A. immediately came over to us to look at Theo and I. Theo didn't seem to have anything other than a bloody nose. She looked at me for a bit. Then she sighed. There was a small flash of light, then the three Royals were inside the bubble with us.

"You five go. We can handle these partycrashers," The Royal Jesse said in a very serious tone of voice.

King Salhom looked at me with sympathy. I averted my eyes from his. Then there was another flash of light that seemed to consume my whole field of vision, and we were suddenly back at the palace. I didn't feel good, and Theo immediately looked weaker, same as Katrina. The force field went down, and Scarlet ran over to me with great concern on her face.

"What the heck happened to you?!" She said in a worried tone of voice, looking me up and down.

"I don't... I don't feel good..." I felt myself go limp, then everything went black.