Demi-God: The Lost

Fourty-One

"The light." The woman rushes out behind Riley and stares in shock. The Skeleton follows quickly after and shouts for everyone to run to the tree. The light has now shortened to a small area around the base of the giant tree. Its once beautiful light is now dull and flickering in many places.

"Quickly! It's almost time for the Nightmares!" Everyone screams and runs as best as they can towards the tree. Dark streaks dart up the bark and block out spots in the warm light. Riley stops and helps an elderly woman, her legs are hanging on by strings of muscle. It's a miracle she can even stand let alone walk.

A loud screech fills the air. Everyone running pauses in fear. Riley whips her head around toward the bridge. At the end of the bridge is the horrifying creature itself, a Nightmare. Not just one, maybe hundreds.

"Run!" Felix shouts and grabs Riley's arm. She pulls her arm free and stumbles back. Her heart is racing and her fingers are shaking with adrenaline. She can't leave the injured people.

"No! I'm not leaving these people!" She rushes back towards the elderly woman and ushers her to move faster.

"Riley! Come on!" Aeo pleads and grabs her arm instead.

"No!" Carver rushes out of the building next to them and picks up the woman on his back.

"Move Princess!" He shouts and grabs Riley's other arm and pulls her forward. The moment his hand wraps around her arm an army's worth of tingles and feelings spread up into her chest.

Now really is a bad time for this.

She looks back at the other people who are still falling behind. "Don't worry about them. We gotta get the ones we can first or we won't save anyone." Riley doesn't argue but can't seem to take her eyes off the people running behind her.

Another loud screech fills the air, the Nightmares are coming. Almost halfway across the bridge now. Riley whips her head back towards the dying tree. Less than half of the villagers are in the circle of light and it's already almost full.

She looks back at the bridge. The people won't make it. She rips her arm free and sprints towards the bridge. "I have to buy more time!" The boys all shout after her in protest but Riley makes it to the edge of the bridge just as the Nightmares grow closer.

"Don't do it Riley!" She leans forward and looks down at the bridge. There's holes everywhere and it's barely hanging on as it is. She looks at the Nightmares, they're getting closer.

She has to somehow stop the terrifying creatures from crossing. That's an insanely dumb idea. But we're all for dumb ideas. Riley looks down at the pillars holding it up, there's three old and crumbling pillars, one on the far end, one in the middle, and one a few feet in front of her.

All it takes is knocking one down and it'll bring the whole bridge down with it. Riley looks at her hands. Just one hit. She takes a deep breath and points her palms at the structure. After the second deep breath she finds the tingle in her body and slowly gathers it all at the tips of her fingers.

Her heart races even faster than before. The sound of the screeching growing closer and closer until it's just seconds from reaching her. She takes two quick breaths and focuses on the pillar just as she'd learned in practice.

One more breath. She pushes the energy out of her fingers, the lightning surging and shooting exactly where she had aimed it. Aeo grabs Riley mid surge and tackles her to the ground. The lightning shoots out of control and instead flies towards the fleeing people and straight into the giant tree of light.

"Aeo!" Riley shouts, rage filling her voice. Before she can get another word out it dawns on her what had happened. Well, more like the bloody teeth of the Nightmare just a few inches from her face.