Guardians

⊲ Chapter 2.1 ⊳

Imagine a loud crashing sound, like a whole city's towers crashing to the ground all at once. Now add a violent sandstorm to that and also add an unnaturally amplified sound of a lawn mower. What you are imagining is still less jarring and less eardrum-shattering than the sound that the three of us heard outside my bedroom window. It came in an instant, the loudest noise I've ever heard, and in that same instant, a wave of force, like if air had decided to solidify, slammed into my chest and sent me flying off the bed where I was sitting. My back hit the wall flat. I crumpled to the ground. Ears somehow simultaneously ringing and full of cotton all at the same time, the only thing I could hear clearly was the pounding of my heart. The wall had knocked the wind out of me and given me a splitting headache that made my head feel all fuzzy. Lightheaded, I lifted my gaze to my surroundings as I tried in stuttering attempts to choke down some air. I took in the now rubble-cluttered room with blurry eyes, blinking rapidly to clear my vision. Thankfully, it cleared easily but... what in the hell was going on?

Shakily pushing myself up off of the floor to see over the bed, still in my dazed state, I witnessed Kirya undeniably locked in combat with a creature even more terrible than what I had encountered in the alley way, if that were even possible. It bared its wicked teeth and swiped at Kirya with a set of shiny silver claws. Kirya raised her arm quickly, ice forming on it as she did so, and blocked the strike just in time to keep her from needing a new face. A hunk of ice forming on her other hand, Kirya then drove her fist into the being's side. It howled a primal guttural noise, muffled by my impaired hearing, and slashed at her again, only to be blocked a second time.

As Kirya and the monster were engaged in a vicious fight, another one of the horrible creatures arrived, clawing its way in through the window like some malevolent spirit in a horror flick. It turned its violent red eyes on me and I froze. My head was still fuzzy and everything sounded far away. The demon started to take a step in my direction but, before it could, a giant spear of ice impaled it through the chest from behind. The point stuck out in the middle of its torso, just below its chest like some snow capped peak of a mountain range. A repulsive black blood dripped from it like fluid obsidian, staining my rug. Infuriated, the monster tore out the spear. I watched, horrified, as its body regenerated at a terrifying speed, leaving only a ring of black blood on its pale skin where the edge of the wound had been. It turned on Kirya who was fighting the other demon -- there really was no other word that fully captured them -- with a sword of ice as clear as glass that looked viciously sharp. I vaguely wondered where Kirya got a sword (because that was toootally the most important thing in that moment) before sound started to fade back into my comprehension, my hearing finally returned. I was assaulted by sounds of slashing and snarling and Kirya yelling.

"Jake! Take her and go! NOW!" the likeness of true fear creeping into Kirya's voice.

Her (apparent) brother, who was also having to pick himself off the floor, seemed to have been hit by a chunk of debris when the wall was blown apart, a trickle of blood now running down the left side of his forehead. He stood up and shakily and started to walk towards me.

Even now with my senses mostly returned after being stolen by the earlier blast, I still regarded this whole scene almost sleepily, not fully wrapping my head around what was happening. Kirya's sharp voice brought me back to reality, "GO!"

Jake moved quickly for someone bleeding from a head injury, taking hold of my arm, pulling me to my feet and firmly leading me out of the room. I didn't want to leave Kirya to battle the two demons that entered through the newly-made hole in the wall. It felt wrong, like we should be helping.

"Wait!" I said, trying to pull my wrist out of Jake's grip. It didn't work. He kept pulling me along through the hallway. "Hey, we can't just leave her there--"