Prisoners of Prophecy

Chapter 16

Melany - Friday, July 19th, 2019

Two days had passed normally, even serenely. I had made another trip to the library the morning after the somewhat sobering conversation with Illisha, and grabbed a couple more books. I spent most of my waking hours reading them. I kept my mind busy uninterrupted. There were no knocks on the door, no weird voices in my head. The persistent shadows seemed to have disappeared. Even my sleep was unbroken.
The peaceful ignorance which I had quickly gotten comfortable in had shattered this morning. I came to consciousness suddenly, brutally, refusing to open my eyes. I had felt the presence of the unbearable truth that I had almost forgotten - that I was trapped. Not just in this school, but in something supernatural and much larger than I could understand. There were other things, too, that I were certain were in the room with me. Things that felt sentient. Things that seemed to be waiting. None of them had told me when they would meet in the basement, just that it would be in my best interest to be there.
All the same, though - I had a strange feeling that tonight was the night.
The hours passed on somehow both torturously slow and much too fast all at once. I tried to get lost in one of my books, but my thoughts were so loud that the words only shook and jumbled on the pages until they were indiscernible. I was as sure that one of them would come for me soon as the fact that whatever they wanted me to witness would not be anything any of us could have been prepared for. I felt lost in time; pacing in a room that appeared to get smaller; trapped between an instant of impending doom and the end of everything. I fought a battle in my mind so difficult that I could feel a deep weariness start to settle into my very bones. Do I face the unknown, or do I try to run from the enormous force of it?
My ability to be able to choose my fate dwindled until it was obvious that I had never had one at all. The dull brass knob on the door that would lead me eventually outside slowly became harder to ignore. There were moments where I thought I could see the orange light of a small flame, a candle's flame, flickering in the corners of my vision. Each round I would make through my small living quarters brought more shadows, and they gathered into one abysmal black mass that slithered across the floor at my feet.
The house was crowding my head until nothing else mattered. What was in there was calling me, not in a voice that I could hear but with a magnetism that was gaining control of me entirely.

9:25pm
I was making my way towards the door for what felt like the thousandth time today, still unsure of what to do but losing my fight with the basement's pull, when it was slung open. The sound of it hitting the wall rang loudly in my ears.
Kai was storming into my room. His bright orange hair was ruffled and his green eyes blazed with anger. When his gaze landed on me, my body was instantly and uncomfortably warm. The rage that came off of him in waves was practically debilitating in its force. He looked nothing like himself. His face was red, his handsome features contorted. The muscles in his large arms rippled as he opened and closed his fists. It like he was debating on hitting me.
He spoke through his teeth, his jaws clenched tight. "Some nerve you have, in here like you don't have a responsibility. I know the others have told you," he snarled.
I could sense the shadows surrounding me without pulling my eyes from his own, though I had noticed that they had scurried into hidden places after Kai's noisy entrance. I could clearly feel their restlessness, our emotions linked as if they were just an extension of myself. And if they felt they needed to, they would protect me. I could feel that just as strongly. The unnatural connection I had with this intelligent darkness went far back. They held the memories I could not bear the weight of. And they were mine.
"You're coming with me," Kai hissed, taking a few stiff steps closer to me. He was now near enough to grab me. I could see on his face that he was thinking about it.
I forced myself to stay still despite the frightening intensity of the hate that had taken him over. "What makes you think I wasn't planning to?" I tried to keep my voice calm, afraid anything might send him over the edge.
It seemed though I kept my posture relaxed and my tone even, just hearing me speak made him more furious. "You won't ruin this for me," he growled.
     I could feel the heat coming from him at such a close distance. It was like standing next to a campfire and the breeze suddenly blows it in your direction. I fought the urge to run, knowing it would only provoke him more; knowing that there would be nowhere to go. I was terrified of the determination on his hardened face. He had been possessed by the house, too, but he had fallen deeper into its temptation than I had. And for this petrifying moment he was the house, the basement, the thing that lurked there. And the worst thing was, was that he seemed to welcome it.
     "Hey," I muttered softly, taking a small step back. "Don't -"
     His rough voice caused my words to die off weakly. "You'll come with me. You'll listen."
     He was slurring a little now, as if he was drunk with the power in the house. I realized with horrible clarity that he could not hear me at all. Kai was there, but his hunger to be in that basement was strong, and it seemed to prey on his fragile temper. I debated on how to escape his anger without getting hurt. The house was still calling to me, too, and getting stronger with every passing minute. He would get me to that dark room in whatever way crossed his mind first. And I could see an idea sparkling in his vibrant eyes that sent a chill through me.
     He held out his hands, palms up, and studied them with a menacing yet empty smile. The warmth that emanated from his proximity grew unbearable alarmingly quickly, and I stumbled back another step.
     My movement startled him out of whatever he had been thinking about so deeply, and he glanced up at me. His long arms were reaching for me in a movement so fast I had hardly seen it. That dead smile was still there. That bright emotion in his eyes had dimmed. I staggered away from his grasp, away from the sudden smell of something burning.
     I tripped over my own feet in my haste to escape and fell to the floor. Kai stood over me, still grinning that evil grin, still reaching for me. I must have gotten knocked out when I fell, I hoped. That's what happened. Now I'm dreaming and he's going to carry me there.
     It had to be a dream, for orange sparks leaped from the tips of Kai's fingers and danced in his eyes. I blinked once, slowly, like it would make that impossible sight go away. But, in an instant, his hands had been engulfed in flame. The fire climbed leisurely up his arms. He didn't appear to feel it at all - and if he did, it wasn't painful, but euphoric. And he planned to embrace me in those burning arms, maybe hold me until I was nothing but ash and bone.
     A comforting and familiar numbness fell over me before the shock could take my rationality. That voice, the one I would forget until it would come back again, the combined memory of it and the energy it forced into my bloodstream taking my breath away. I tried to fend off the confidence and power that voice gave me, which troubled me more than Kai, who was about to grab both of my arms with his huge, flaming hands. I knew what would come with that strength. Even though I felt my skin starting to burn and blister, I did not want to experience anything as gruesome as the last day I had seen my best friend. I didn't even want to hurt Kai, who was under the influence of something that neither of us would be able to resist much longer.
     This is nothing to you, that booming voice echoed in my skull. His arrogance might one day possibly get him killed. But not now. You both need to go.
     Those words solved the battle that had been clouding my mind. At the same moment, a sea of shadows came from somewhere behind me and ran around me and over my lap like the smoothest, darkest water. They crashed against Kai, swallowing his legs and immediately beginning to slither up his waist in thick tendrils that resembled snakes. Even though, by this time, that blazing fire had covered his arms and was licking the nape of his neck, he didn't scream until those shadow-snakes began to extinguish it. They were both full of agony and defeat. They were pleasant noises to my ears with the surge of whatever divine feeling that voice and those shadows sent through me.
Once the fire was gone, the ropes of shadows that were imprisoning Kai's struggling form relaxed their grip and slipped to the floor in the same huge form that it had appeared in. Then, they were gone - disappearing between the small cracks in the baseboards and walls, down the hall into dark rooms and secret nooks until they were needed again. The enticing yet malevolent power went with them, as did the feeling of that disembodied voice's presence in my head. What replaced it was fear and a fleeting sense of hopelessness.
The pity and anger that washed over me once I could really focus on Kai again soothed me. It was a more human reaction to the shock and pure horror on his expression than the evil excitement that had possessed me. The rage that had almost completely stolen his rationality was gone. His large and muscular form had somehow seemed to shrink. His gaze flicked back and forth from me to his still outstretched arms, mouth agape and eyes so wide they looked like they might fall out of his head. He looked at me like he had seen his worst nightmare come to life, and that it was about to pounce and tear out his throat.
But, despite the terror on his face, he helped me to my feet. His hand was still impossibly warm. Once I was standing, though, he took a few steps away from me. Like I had a disease. "I - what - What was that?" He stammered.
I took a deep breath, but it did nothing to soothe my racing heart. The absence of the unnatural strength the shadows brought upon me made me remember the reason Kai had come in the first place. The house wanted us there; demanded us there. Now. And though the rage that had turned Kai into some fiery monster was gone, it could come back. Or, worse, whatever haunted the house could come at any moment to retrieve us personally. I had no time to explain to Kai that a sentient darkness had followed me for longer than I allowed myself to remember, much less time to explain to myself that I had really just seen Kai create fire from nothing but his own anger and some abandoned building's ghost that insisted we come visit it's cold basement.
"I will come with you," I murmured in a voice barely above a whisper, suddenly overwhelmed again with the impossible things to come in my near future. And they were coming too fast. "Not for you, and not for the thing down there." The words were hard to say at the same time the force of its pull practically dragged me towards the door. Kai was watching me with a mixture of fear and concern. "I'll come for the sake of all our lives and our sanity, and whatever other Hell might happen if we don't."
He nodded slowly, like he had fallen under some sort of daze. But, it was broken quickly as his eyes focused on something and cleared. I followed his gaze to see that the sleeves of my shirt were burned and tattered, the skin of my upper arms red and blistered. I could not feel the pain now, and for that I was grateful. This was no dream. I kept trying to come up with excuses, but in the end it was simply this - it was happening. No tricks, no secret cameras or special effects, no hallucinations. This was real.
I followed Kai, who had tried to attack me only moments ago, to where I was sure that the rest of my unlikely alliance would be waiting.