(IM)MORTAL

15

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THE FIFTEENTH CHAPTER
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༶•┈┈୨ MARIA HARDLY LEFT the house. Never beyond morning walks and picking up a few groceries once a week. She had not stepped beyond the beach—not truly, not freely—in years, but now she was running, running far away from it, following wherever her feet led her.

Something was going to happen.

Something wrong.

She sensed it. In her heart, her soul, her bones, her power.

So she let her power lead her. She let the sparks led the way. The invisible pull, and it dragged her.

It brought her to the park, the grassy square outside the city. Maria was out of breath.

When she finally caught it, she lost it.

She found him.

Maria almost screamed.

         He stood there, beside a tree, back toward her,

(within reach;
all she had to do was step out
and call his name—his real name)

         but standing with him was that demon.

The back of her head slammed against the nearest tree she ducked behind. It throbbed in tune with her heart. The sky was crimson, and there was a very distant melody of screams.

It had begun.

"The Day of Reckoning is soon upon us." Ghastly words. A threat she had heard before, one she never forgot.

Maria was too busy gasping and gaping to listen. She should have been listening. She should have jumped out from her hiding place and showed the demon king the power of Chaos. She should have grabbed Shadow and ran.

But she remained still.

         And who was she fooling? What could she do? Power or no power, she was only a girl, only human, only

(im)

         mortal.

What could she do against a demon? Or his army? She was one person. Her best would not be enough. Just as Sonic had not been enough.

What could she do?

"Something," she whispered. "Anything. Anything but stand here," she begged.

But all she did and could do was stand there. Her soul screamed but her body was frozen. Nothing obeyed. She was trapped inside of herself. Again.

         And then Shadow was

(yet again)

         gone.

The demon disappeared and Shadow took off to complete the mission.

. . . The demon's pet followed close behind. The Eye saw all, and it saw her.

Maria destroyed it without hesitation.