How The Soothsaying Started

Dream? or reality?

Part Two

The Fall

Lily Belle woke with a start as Snow shook her awake, yelling, “Breakfast! Come on, Lily! Kaza made oatmeal cakes!” She slowly sat up, rubbing her arms, feeling the sand of her dream. It all seemed so real, she thought. Should I warn the others?

Undecided, she left the caravan, and ran smack into Nicklaus, who had a whole oatmeal cake shoved in his mouth.

“Nicklaus! I need to ask you something.” Lily Belle said as she pulled him into the caravan.

“Muffleumph mer ferph” He said through his food.

“Do you know anything about possession?” Lily asked him, before recounting the whole of her dream. Nicklaus’s eyes grew bigger and bigger, and when he swallowed, he said,

“We need to do something! Come on, Lily, I have rope.” He ran out of the caravan, with Lily behind, regretting her choice to tell him.

“Nick!” Kaza shouted, running over to where he was tying a screaming Charles to a tree. “What in the name of Dead King Lucan are you doing!? Untie him! We cannot turn on ourselves!” She grabbed his shoulder and pulled, but he pushed her away, harder than he meant to. She landed in the dirt, looking angry and hurt. “Snow! Come help me! Nicklaus has gone mad!” She called, glaring at him. “We need to tie him up.” Snow, Admin, and Lily came running up. They all grabbed his arms and pulled him away. Admin tied him to an oak tree, and shoved a piece of cloth in his mouth.

“What in the Gods possessed you, Nicklaus?” Snow said, bending down in front of him.

“Um, I can explain.” Lily said sheepishly. She told the others about her dream, staring at her boots the whole time. “I thought Charles might be in danger, I never meant for him to get tied up.” Kaza glared at Nicklaus, who looked away defiantly.

“Why didn't you ask me, Lily?” Snow said gently, squeezing lily’s hand. “I would have sensed if there was a spirit besides Charles’s in his soul.”

“Can someone please untie me!” Charles screamed and shook his leg warily.

“This was obviously a ruse,” Kaza said. “I have seen it before. He wanted us to turn on each other, to abandon all sense of reason and loyalty. We must always remain true to one another, no matter what we discover about each other. No matter what, we are a team.” She gave Nicklaus a hurt look, and stormed away.

The group enjoyed her loyalty speech, but the warm emotions with Charles bringing up mayhem.

“Yes, Nicklaus! What the h-.” Charles cut his sentence off and went slack in his binds.

The group all looked at Nicklaus.

“What the f*ck did you do to him?” Snow gave out.

“I didn’t do anything! I wa-.”

“YOU ARE ALL FOOLS!” Charles was grinning wildly and he had a kind of demeanor about him that was not at all healthy.

“See! I told you!” Nicklaus struggled out of Admin’s shocked grasp.

“You all believed that fool of a girl! What does she know about loyalty? Ha! Her father was a murderer and a traitor to all. He was a member of the very organization you wish to destroy! She continues to hide this from you, knowing you wouldn't trust her.” Charles cackled, in a different voice, not his own.

“What is he saying?!” Nicklaus said. he felt betrayed. He had trusted her, and she had chosen to lie to them all.

“His spirit, it’s being overrun!” Snow gasped, clutching her head. “If we don’t do something, Charles could die!”

“What do we do?” Admin asked, his forehead covered in sweat.

Charles laughed, and passed through the ropes as easily as a knife through butter.

Kaza stormed into the caravan, and sat down hard, her eyes filling with tears. Nick’s reaction had been so harsh when he thought that Charles had been possessed. How would he react when he learned of her father? Her eyes squeezed shut as a waterfall of tears cascaded down her face. She didn’t want them to hate her. She hated the Weght as much as any of them, and maybe even more, since they had taken her father. She wanted them gone. She wanted to kill every single one of those traitorous bastard- Her head shot up. A scream had sounded from the forest, where she had left the others. Oh no, she thought as she pulled out her knife and bounded back through the woods.

Discord, or rather Charles, had been peacefully musing over his evil and diabolical plan, when he was interrupted by something rather hard. It hit him in the back of the head and nearly killed him. The stupid boy was fine, but Discord was left sprawling under a pine tree. The group looked at who had kicked Discord. Charles had fallen to the ground unconscious, and in his place was a boy. He looked perfectly normal, and about their age. His dark hair stuck out in small tufts, framing his angular face.

“Brother! H-How good it is to se-.” Discord stammered out.

“Shut up.” The boy said, rolling his eyes.

“It hasn’t been 400 years already, has it?”

“Go.” The boy began to lift the spear out of his back.

“Okay! Okay! I’m going!” Discord dissipated in a cloud of darkness. The boy slid his spear back into its scabbard, cracked his knuckles, and with a smile on his face greeted the group. They tried to ignore his skin, which had scars all over them, and he had black rings that circled around his wrists. Nicklaus looked extremely worried and whimpered slightly, “But, that aura, it can’t be.”

“The gatekeeper to Hell, who got his limbs cut off? Yes, and?” The boy still had that confident smile on his face.

“Those are shadow limbs…” Nicklaus looked stunned and stared at the boy’s hands in fear.

“Straight from Hell! The only place where they are truly perfected!” The boy flicked his wrist, and his hand went from being on his wrist to the tree where Nicklaus cowered in fear. Shadow-like skin covered the length of it. The boy laughed at his discomfort and retracted his hand.

“So how are you folks?” He said, cackling at their discomfort.

Kaza ran into the clearing, brandishing a knife. The sight that awaited stunned her. Discord was gone, and in his place was a boy her age, with beautiful, deep, brown eyes, and tufty hair.

“What the hell happened??!!!!” She said, not looking at Nicklaus. “Who are you?”

“The gatekeeper to Hell, or rather, previously was, and you are?”

“What the Hell happened. Can someone please explain!”  

“He killed Discord and he muttered something about 400 years.” Snow piped up, Lily was trying to get Charles to wake up.

“Kaza. Discord said something about your father.” Nicklaus said angrily. “Would you care to explain?” The group looked at Kaza, all except the boy, who was staring at a butterfly.

“No, I wouldn’t. I am not ready to. This is exactly why I didn’t tell you. I knew you would get angry. All I can say is that I am not my father. I am happy that he is dead, and I hope all of you can get past it and remember me. The one who traveled with you for so long. You are my friends, and without you, I have nothing.” She said, looking straight into Nicklaus’s eyes. Then, she walked into the woods, crying.