Elle

Wrath of the Wraith

"Elle..just...GO", he struggled yelling to her. Nic's friends strive to take her away, only for her to resist and fight back. After several moments of thrashing around, Elle breaks free, and takes off to the Cubix. She attempts to operate the machine, desperately trying to get it to function, even hitting it on the side, merely out of frustration. The creature finally releases Nic, with him falling on the barren ground, and gasping for air. It makes way towards the cube, whilst gazing at Elle, but something strange begins to happen with her. Her mood seems to change in an unnatural manner, that it halts the creature midway, forcing it to retreat into the nearby tree. Everybody goes over to Nic, and drag him away a short distance, until he finally gets up. They run back to the corridor, only for Nic to fall back down out of exhaustion. He catches his breath, and sits up.

" Nic oh my god, are you alright??", Elle asks worriedly, rushing to him. Everyone stands around the two, and they observe the purple bruise that spanned around Nic's neck from where the creature strangled him.

"Dude... You could've been killed", Barry says with an upset tone.

" I know...", he replies, coughing. "I have to try again, we can't have that thing in our world."

"Nic, no, we saw that it almost killed you, you can't do that again", Leo steps in. " We need to tell someone about this.."

"And what?", Nic interrupts him, " Who are we gonna tell? First of all, they won't believe us and second of all, even if they did, who do you think will be involved?", Leo steps back alongside with the rest of boys.

"I..I don't know...", he responds ashamedly. 

"Exactly, we don't know who's going to be involved, whether the cops or the government or someone else, we don't know what will happen to us or most importantly, what will happen her, what if they find out she's not from here?", Nic explains angrily. He sighs, then leans his head back on the wall.

" Come on Nic, we can't do this", Barry adds in.

"We have to try again, if it's not that thing, it'll probably be the people that will come pay us a visit", he responds. Everyone is speechless, observing Nic's bruise as it appears to worsen. Leo goes deep into thought, sighs, and steps out once again.

" You heard him ", he says boldly, causing everyone to turn towards him.

" What?", Barry asks shocked.

" We have to try, no matter how many times it takes", Leo responds.

"But, what about-", Elle was about to ask before she's interrupted.

" Elle, you know I been close to Nic since day 1, he's doing this for us, and most importantly, he's doing this for you. I would like to think that he would want us to keep trying, ESPECIALLY if it's for you", Leo rationalizes, while he looks at Elle. "I know, he almost got killed, and I know you're worried, but you know I'm in on this one, I trust that he would know what to do", he adds in calmly, pulling Nic off from the ground. Barry hesitates for a moment, but comes to his decision.

"I know I kind of chickened out a bit, but I'm in this one as well", Barry replies, patting Nic on the shoulder.

" Yes, I'm with them also", Link replies, joining in with Barry and the others. Elle looks at them, distressed about Nic's condition, but soon comes to join them.

"You remember my promise right?", Nic asks Elle. Her expression immediately grew sad, and she tries to hold back her tears.

" Don't say that", she replies with a broken voice.

"I'm just saying, if it comes down to that." She nods at him while giving him an upset look. As they all begin to walk towards the machine once again, Elle pulls Leo aside forcefully, catching him off guard.

"Leo, please promise me that nothing won't happen to Nic, please promise that you bring him back to me alive", she commanded, as her mood changes again. Leo notices the change about her, and struggles to form words.

" Elle, I- um.."

" Promise me", she says outloud, scaring Leo a bit.

"Elle-", he replies somewhat frustrated.

" Promise me damn it!", she yells to him. Leo inhales deeply and rolls his eyes a bit.

"I promise", he replies swiftly. She nods, and they continue their way to face the creature again. As they arrive, they watch as the particles form just behind the machine. Once the particles solidified, this wicked black figure stands under the moonlight, scratching the oval plate of the Cubix, seemingly taunting the group of teens. Nic begans to lead the way, with the group following just behind him. The creature slowly approaches him, while the group quietly splits off to the sides, going the long way around. As Nic is face to face with the Wraith again, the group safely make it to the Cubix. It then turns around suddenly, darting towards the other way, just before Nic grabs it by the arm. He tried to hold it back for as long as he could, only for his hands to slip through the Wraith's arm, as if it were made of sand. Unexpectedly, it extends its arm, constricting it around Nic's neck once more. As he thrashed around, the machine grew hyper with its energy, powering up rapidly. The Wraith raises its other arm towards the cube, drawing the energy out from within, causing it to spark immensely during the process. The machine grew weak, forcing itself to deactivate, when suddenly, the Wraith disappears as a thick, dense cloud, leaving behind a reminisce of dark fog. The shadowy cloud rapidly charged towards the friends, and instantly reappears just in front of them. Everyone stops in fear, all while Barry tries to rush the process of the Cubix.

"Guys! Just forget it, get out of there!", Nic yells to the group. As they all ran away, the creature grabs Barry, making him squirm and panic.

" GUYS, HELP", he yelled. Nic came running to the creature again, but this time, snatching Barry away from its grip. As he pushed Barry to the opposite direction, the Wraith strikes Nic, making him fly across a short distance until he crashed into the tree. Leo jumps in to try to help Nic up, but gets thrown from the impact of the Wraith's hit. Leo almost goes over the ledge of the area, until he catches himself on a deep crack of the ground. Elle quickly tries to work the Cubix, only until the Wraith moves to her direction. Nic grabs the creature again, for it to respond by slamming his head onto the tree, then onto the sharp corner of the cube. He collapses onto the ground, spewing up blood, and crawling away from the malevolent entity. As it kicks him continuously, he began to move further away, crippled and bleeding, only as he grew weaker to defend himself.

"Elle....forget it....just go...take her..", he says struggling. Barry then grabs Elle, only for her to resist.

" Barry let go of me! He needs our help!", she yells at him. Link then joins in, assisting Barry.

"Guys let GO of me! We can't leave him!", she cries out loud, while tears began to escape from her eyes. As Nic makes every effort to get up, Leo runs in to pull him away from the creature, when it began to form a slender mist out into the distance. As Leo strains to carry Nic to safety, Nic looks over in the distance, just in time to see a large blade of scrap metal charging towards him. He turns around, pushing Leo out of the away, until the metal pierced through Nic's right side of his chest. He collapses onto the floor, all while Leo quickly scurries to him.

" NIC!!!", Elle screams, breaking free from the boys, and running towards Nic.