Behind My Shadow - Book Three

55. Fear Comes Creeping In

OMG! My animal soul spirit should have been an omen! I mean, it's been fabled that a three-headed Jabberwocky will battle an Angelus Reprobi for the fate of all magic. I just can't believe that my Angelus Reprobi is the one that must face this threat.

I numbly take a step back with terror as my eyes struggle to process the enormous monster that hovers before me. This creature is somehow even bigger than the volcano I stand on. Jabberwockies have the uncanny ability to fill whatever space they're in and this one seems to be taking up the entire sky.

This monster has inky black scales -each one looks like it has been dipped in glowing gold- and black and golden poisonous spikes line every impossibly muscular contour. A web of glowing neon red, purple and yellow tattoos cover every inch of this monolithic demon, its claws and fangs glow neon too and its otherwise empty eye sockets are full of soulless fire blazing with three different colors.

This colossal Dark creature has two sets of wings lining its long, winding back studded with spikes, and has six legs beneath its huge body. I have never seen a creature so petrifyingly terrifying in all of my life. I feel so helplessly small and powerless facing down this extraordinarily imposing demon.

The Vorpal blade trembles in my hands.

The Jabberwocky takes a deep breath and all of its bulky muscles swell and look like they are going to bust as the skin stretches so tightly over its rope-like veins, I can literally see the veins pulsing with blood.

And now one of the heads speaks.

"Promisssed Alice," its voice sounds like thunder and lightning flashes between its fangs as it speaks. "I have been waiting for you..." Its voice is so powerful, it fills the entire sky and rolls into me like shockwaves.

I force myself to take a breath, willing my power and strength not to fail me as now I slowly put my Vorpal helmet in place over my head. Inside my helmet, all suddenly goes quiet. It's not eerie though, it's a calming silence, a steadying silence. All I can hear now is my heart beating, it softly echoes in my helmet and fills my ears like a soothing lullaby.

This is it, this is it, this is it.... I keep hearing with every beat of my heart.

Every moment of my life has all lead up to this one right now.

I will my hands not to shake as I take up my sword and position, sliding my shield down to my left arm. I may not have any clue how to fight this thing -at alone kill it- but suddenly and rather unexplainably, all of the skills, prowess, power and conviction I've earned throughout all of my death-defying Labors rampantly come washing over me, filling my bones with a strength I've never known before now.

It's time to do the impossible, I tell myself. It's time to kill this Jabberwocky.