Taken

Chapter Twenty

Anna could feel the anger radiating from her mother. She knew what Ava thought before the words were even said.

"You foolish child!!! You've killed us all!!! You might as well have delivered us into the hands of the Blood Demon!" Ava shouted. They could feel the sense of urgency that enveloped their environment. The Blood Demon knew where they were, and he was coming.

"Do you even know what you've done, child?!" Ava pushed her. "I can feel his presence approaching and we're not ready!!"

"As long as we work together, we can..." Ava cut her off.

"We can what huh? Do you think that the Blood Demon's army is merciful? They don't care who you are. They'll take what they want from you by force if they must and kill you right after. We're just energy cells to that monster..." Ava started to sound defeated.

Anna had never seen her mother this way before. It almost frightened her to hear the anger turn into pure fear. She turned to her father and saw him staring in space with a blank expression. She didn't know what he was thinking but she had a good idea of what it could've been. There was too much fear cutting through that moment.

'We're all going to die', echoed in her mind repeatedly.

'You foolish child!'

'What have you done?'

'We're going to die. We're going to die. We're going to die '.

Anna felt like she was underwater. She could feel her throat tightening up. It felt like she was being suffocated. She found herself gasping for air and pleading with her mind to make it stop.

A loud crash brought her out of her state of panic. The entrance to the cave was collapsing. There was no escape for them now. They had to fight for their lives.

Monstrous howls echoed throughout the beautiful scenery. Soon after, the Blood Demon's army made its appearance. They were fast and agile. It was like being attacked by mutant demons moving at twice the speed of a normal vampire.

Anna and her parents were shaking. She knew that much but she had to pull herself together to fight.

"We need to get to higher ground! Now!" she urged them. She teleported them to the top of the waterfall. Peering down at the multitudes of demons, they could see the Blood Demon's arrival. He was dark-skinned, and his face had inky black scars with melting flesh. It was the most unpleasant sight, but Anna knew that despite his rotting flesh, he was lethal. He could kill them if he so desired, but she would never let that happen.

"Keep your guard up!" she warned, taking a battle stance.

The demons were haphazard. They attacked in every direction. Anna felt a surge of power as she killed demon after demon. There was something almost satisfying about slicing into the Blood Demon's army that felt...addictive.

She pulled back for a few minutes and noticed the same energy that was illuminating from her, reflecting on her parents. She peered out into the battlefield at the Blood Demon. He was staring right at her, unmoving. Something was immensely wrong. She could have sworn that she saw his melted, deformed face grinning up at her. That was when she noticed the aura surrounding her parents. It was crimson red, and they were both shining so bright. It was as if they were burning right before her eyes. Her eyes widened in realization.

"Stop! Stop! Stop fighting! It's a trap!" she pulled her mother away, but it was too late for her father. He turned to ashes immediately after. Anna gasped, trying to regain some of her strength to continue. Her fear turned to tears shortly after as she touched the warm ashes of her father. Time seemed to have ceased to exist at that moment. She felt numb. A numbness that she had never felt before. It was almost like she didn't care about anything anymore. As she sat there, anger bubbled in her chest and that was all the motivation she needed. She rose to her feet and emitted a strong semi-circle of fire, torching every demon in the vicinity except her mother and the Blood Demon.

Her mother was stationed behind her, standing against the wall. She almost seemed lost and spiraling into insanity. All she did was stare in space, constantly battling facial expressions.

Meanwhile, all Anna could see was red. She wanted to kill the Blood Demon for everything that he had stolen from her.

Her eyes locked with the Blood Demon once more. Her body was raging. It felt like her entire being was set aflame, but she didn't care. Her hand turned downwards, and a long blade manufactured itself out of thin air in her grasp.

Her heels dug into the ground as she pushed herself up into the air, seemingly flying for a few seconds before diving onto the ground mere steps away from him. Her blade dragged against the ground, lighting everything it touched on fire. He didn't move an inch. In fact, he looked impressed. As she lunged forward to strike him, another blade met hers.

Shocked enveloped her eyes as she saw her mother standing before her. Her eyes were completely red, and she moved reluctantly. Amusement covered the Demon's expression and Anna could see it. He was controlling her mother.

Anger bit her again as she haphazardly attempted to strike the Demon repeatedly, but every attempt would be blocked by her mother's blade. After a few minutes, she was breathing heavily. She wiped the sweat from her mouth and stared at her mother in contemplation.

She finally launched forward and aimed at her mother. Her mother dodged and dug her blade into Anna's leg.

Anna screamed in agony and knocked them both off balance. They went plummeting to the ground, crashing into each other. Ava's blade dissolved and Anna moved to knock her out with the pommel of her blade.

Ava caught her arm before she could hit her and twisted the blade out of her grasp. They rolled around on the ground, each trying to grab the blade. Ava kicked it farther away from them and they rose off the ground. Anna raced towards the blade, not noticing that Ava had reformed her blade. Before she knew it, Ava had impaled her stomach with the blade.

Anna clutched her stomach, spitting blood as she collapsed to the ground.

The last thing that she saw was a single tear falling from her mother's eye before she passed out.