Eyes of White

Chapter 18: Meeting

Penelope sat in a circle with the ragged group for hours as they spoke. Penelope learnt to shapeshift - with the help of The Evil, of course. She became a cat, a dog, a wedge-tailed eagle, a boa constrictor, and many other animals. The others were impressed, and soon The Evil taught her to storm-twist and use her darkness as well.

++Good job, troubletwister. Were you on the Wardens side, you wouldn't even know what your Gifts were.++

Penelope smiled and thought of Persephone, who barely knew anything about this new world of Gifts and Wardens and The Evil.

++We now have something to ask of you, girls. Do any of you know what the rhyme is for the wards?++

Coco put her hand up. "It goes like this." She cleared her throat. "Something growing, something read, something living, someone dead."

++Correct, Coco. That is the mnemonic for remembering the wards. One ward is growing, another is read - please take note that it is r-e-A-d - the third is living and the fourth is a person dead.

We want you to break an already-fading ward. The Living Ward of Queenstown. For those of you who do not know, a ward is the barrier between this world and us. We sensed that this particular ward has been dying for months now, and now is the time to act. Regina, Coco, Cassia, Tammy, Iris, Penelope, all of you will slay this beast tonight. And we will make sure that it happens.++

Penelope had no idea what was coming, but she was the only one in the sewer who didn't know. So when The Evil flowed into her mind, she let it. She felt her self become squashed beneath it, but she didn't care. The feeling of hundreds, thousands, millions of minds acting as one was bliss. Penelope loved it.

She felt her body get up and walk, synchronised with everyone else. They weren't separate beings anymore. They were one joined being, controlled by one mind.

They had marched along for about an hour when they found Persephone, practising her water gifts at the beach. Penelope felt her heart sink at the thought of leaving her sister behind, but The Evil hissed, ++Leave her. When you joined us any ties with her were lost. She is no longer your sister. When you joined us you renounced fear, pain, love and happiness in exchange for bliss. She is of no importance.++

Persephone looked up at the blank-eyed women standing by the road, and in one quick scream Zania was next to her.

Penelope felt herself shapeshift into a wildcat, snarling and growling but with her eyes still that blank white. Coco raised two rocks out of the earth, Regina caused two giant Venus flytraps to raise from the ground, Tammy summoned every animal in the vicinity, and Cassia and Iris stood by, watching the battle.

Persephone watched Zania try to fight the three women in front, and heard The Evil whisper, ++Our war is not with you, Zania. Let us through!++

"No!" Zania shouted. "You are going to break the ward, and I cannot allow that. If the war is with the ward, then it is with me, as I am its protector!"

Persephone caught a glimpse of a black wildcat, a panther or a cougar. It had white eyes, eyes that showed the work of The Evil. It seemed to hang back, like it was afraid of Zania.

Or like it didn't want to hurt her.

Persephone gasped. She knew that the cat was not born a cat.

It was Penelope.

Penelope didn't want to hurt Zania. Somehow her will stopped The Evil from rushing forward and attacking Zania, but when she saw Persephone was unhurt, she felt a surge of rage towards her sister's cowardice and how she was letting Zania become overwhelmed. A plan began to form in her head, and she let it blossom into a full tapestry before she slowly whispered it to The Evil.

++That is a good plan, Penelope. A chance for you and your sister to be reunited!++

Any doubt left Penelope as soon as those words were whispered. She wanted, more than anything, to have her sister by her side. So she let The Evil make her slink away, behind Zania, to Persephone.

Persephone stared at he sister's white-eyed cat form, and as she opened her mouth to shout, the white ebbed in her sister's eyes. She heard a very faint whisper, ++We must focus on the fight, Penelope! Find the ward! Find the gryphon!++

Penelope seemed to nod, then started to talk. At first Persephone understood none of it, then, as if she was listening to a staticky radio, she heard her sister's voice, very faint and far away.

"Sis? Persephone?"

Persephone wanted to tackle her sister to the ground and punch her for deserting her, but that would have been a bad idea, considering Penelope was a panther.

"Persephone? ...you...stand...e?"

Persephone only heard half of what her sister was saying. The other half was a bunch of cat growls, making it even more like a staticky radio.

Persephone shut her eyes and imagined herself as a cat, then she spoke. "Sort of," she said, and half of what she said was a yowl. "Human?"

Penelope nodded and Persephone watched as the cat on the ground stood and morphed into her sister. "You know what you said just then? You said, 'Of sorts, English?' But I got the gist of it. Anyway, since when do you speak Cat?"

"Same time you could turn into a cat!"

Penelope laughed. "Not just that!" she said, like it should have been obvious. "I can turn into anything! Watch!"

Persephone watched as her sister became a dove, a dog, a snake, even a chimaera.

"It's kind of second nature if you've been taught," Penelope said as she became human once more.

"Who taught you?"

"Who do you think?"

Persephone shuddered as her sister froze mid-laugh and white lashed over her eyes, half-covering her irises, but she still seemed to be in control.

"Yes," she whispered, in her own voice, although it was tinny and small, "I will go there. Of course not."

Persephone expected her eyes to go back to normal then, but they didn't. Instead Penelope marched right by her and entered a nearby cave.

When Penelope froze mid-laugh, her head was full of The Evil's whisper.

++Stop these trivialities. Find the ward.++

"Yes."

++It's in the cave over there.++

"I will go there."

++Do not fail us.++

"Of course not." All of a sudden, Penelope had no idea who the girl in front of her was. So she just marched past.

**Hey! I'm so excited as the book draws to a close! We're almost done, and there's only three, maybe four chapters left, not including the preview to 'Eyes of White 2: Excision' - which I have already written! I can't wait for the end and this chapter has still left questions unanswered, like:

-will Penelope stay close to The Evil?

-will the ward fail?

-what will become of Coco, Tammy, Regina, Cassia and Iris?

Tell ya later! (after you vote.)

P.S: don't forget to take your daily dose of meow so I can abduct you! Use it for seven days and results are guaranteed! Simply say 'Meow' brightly and happily once a day and it won't fail!

P.P.S: DIE DOG-ALIENS DIE!!!**