The Furies of Lethra

Chapter 41

"She's escaping! Tara we need to get her!" Erin yelled. She leaned over the rail and banged her fist against it hard, feeling the cold vibration of metal throughout her arm. Dia's bright silk gown slowly faded behind the blackness of night in the distance.

Tara hung her head and turned around to go back inside, "there's no way we'll be able to get her now."

     "Jump down Tara! You can do it!"

     "First of all, I can't possibly land that far down, and second, she's already ran so far," Tara rested her face against her right hand and leaned against the wall just inside from the balcony, "I'll never catch her now."

Gwen walked over to Tara and placed an arm on each shoulder, "don't worry," Tara looked up at Gwen meekly,"do you really think she's going to last out in the real world?" She grinned. Tara started chuckling softly until it built up to a hearty laughter. Both Erin and Gwen joined in, holding on to their stomachs with reddened faces.

~*~

The crunching of fallen leaves rippled in the night, and the soft skin beneath her feet grew colder, the numbness making each step sting. She nearly cried at the thought of having to ditch her shoes for the sake of speed, but the windburn on her face made expressions painful. The downward terrain of the mountain helped her gain momentum until the rough sharp rocks further down the mountain dug into her toes. She felt the punctures in her perfect feet  and the scraping away of skin that accompanied it.

      "Ow!" Dia grabbed on to her right foot and hopped, moaning at the combination of near frostbite and bleeding gashes. She paused and looked up at the balcony on the mountain, her balcony, occupied by the silhouettes of the furies. Their laughter echoed and reached her ears, making her snarl as she clenched tighter to her bleeding foot, ignoring the pain.

     "You think you've won? Just you wait, you vile witches," she muttered to herself.  

     Dia rubbed at her toes, until some of the feeling came back into them and pressed on in the direction away from the fortress. She smiled to herself, looking towards Lethra and navigating to the last candle that wildly flickered in the night.

     ~*~

     "So now what?" Gwen asked Tara. The three of them sat sluggishly against the soft chairs in Dia's room entirely exhausted.

     Erin rubbed her hand against the arm of her chair, intrigued by the feel of it, "these are really comfortable. Why don't we have any?"

     "Because Dia is a selfish beast, remember?" Tara said. Erin rounded her mouth and nodded, then went right back to feeling the fabric rub against her fingertips, "I haven't heard much fighting outside, but we need to go assess the situation," Tara rose from her seat with a groan.

"And the casualties," Gwen said softly. Tara turned to look at her and nodded solemnly. The three of them made their way to the door and took a deep breath before opening it, revealing a hallway drenched in black capes and blood.

     Gwen nearly vomited at the metallic taste that found its way to her mouth. Erin, on the other hand, ignored it and ran past them down one floor to find Damien. It wasn't difficult to find him; the only light surrounded by a sea of black. Erin sprinted over to his lifeless body, careful not to kneel on the fallen furies surrounding him. She felt the cold blood beneath her soak up in the knees of her pants.

     "Oh, Damien," Erin let her tears fall. She wrapped her arms around his limp body; the warmth from it had already escaped leaving a frigid vessel behind. She looked to his face seeing the same expression he had moments before he died, but watered down and slowly fading as each moment passed. His dark eyes were still just as beautiful, even staring off with a certain blankness to them. Erin's tears fell to his cheeks.

"Erin, we need to check on the others," Tara said, careful not to seem too insensitive to her situation. Erin continued bawling over Damien, her back moving up and down rapidly with her cries.

"We can't leave him here," Erin muttered into Damien's white shirt.

Gwen walked over to Erin and bent down to comfort her, "we'll come back for him and take him home. I promise." Erin wiped her hands over her eyes, nodding. She rubbed a hand against his unmoving chest one last time before rising up and following Tara and Gwen.

Gwen looked over the railing of the second to top floor of the fortress. Each floor matched with caped figures and nones strewn throughout, dripping pools of red gloss that coated the floors. Others walked alongside them, assessing the casualties.

"Tara, are we still furies?" Erin asked while walking along the rest of the floor, stepping over the dead and avoiding the mournful living still in mid sobs.

"I'm not sure," Tara replied, stepping over a lifeless none.

"So then without Dia do we keep living here with this same life?" Gwen asked.

Tara stopped suddenly and looked at both Gwen and Erin closely, "we need to gather the others and reach an agreement for what to do next."

"Should we each take certain floors to--" Erin started before Tara bellowed loudly over the edge of the railing.

"Everyone, I need your attention," her voice carried down the spiraling staircase and echoed against the fortress walls. Hooded figures and nones walked to the edge of the railings on each floor and looked up to Tara, waving frantically. Black and white stared up at her in a non distinct pattern.

"We've done it! And now I need everyone to report to the dining hall!"

Almost in unison the people lining the stairs below cheered and clapped, sending a rumbling throughout that resonated in the pit of Tara's stomach. They had succeeded, but there was much more work to be done to ensure the bright future they all deserved.