The Darkest One

The Darkest One Ch. 19 The High Demon (Edited)

Chapter 19 The High Demon

Was that smoke?

As soon as the thought entered my head I snapped awake. It was definitely smoke, the smell was unmistakable. I sat up immediately, stirring the leaves around me. I had to wake Kole up; I had to get him out of the apartm- wait... leaves?

I looked around noticing for the first time that I was a forest; not my apartment.  A burning forest to be exact.  I dropped back to the ground and pulled the neck of my shirt over my nose. Why was I here? And how did I get here? You're dreaming Emilia, the deep voice echoed in my head, the words repeating over and over again each time sounding more sinister.

"Damien?" I choked out; I knew I recognized the voice. "Where are you?" I leapt to my feet and stumbled onto my knees, blindly searching for him. I didn't get answer although a dark blur caught my attention in the corner of my eyes.

He was standing there, Damien I mean, looking completely at ease as the fire closed in on us. The lighting highlighted his features and he looked evil with this haunting look in his eyes. He cocked his head to left as if he was examining me.

"Damien?" I gasped and immediately regretted it as smoke filled my lungs. I coughed violently and sunk back to my knees not even realizing I had tried to get up. When I looked back at my brother I saw he had taken a few steps forwards and a somber expression had replaced the haunting look.

"Oh Emilia." He sighed, "I really wish things had been different."

"Different?" I coughed out, why wasn't he affected by the smoke? "What do you mean?"

"I wish I had been stronger."

"We are strong." I reached out for him and patted his arm comfortingly.

"Not strong enough; I should have saved her Emilia." I hated the tormented look I saw in his eyes. I didn't like how I couldn't do anything to bring the light back into his eyes. When we were younger, everything was different. It was just the two of us; before any of the others joined us. We lived in that cabin for seven years together.

We would play games all day before going over to Tim's for dinner. And then we would go home and sleep under the stars and wait for the next day to begin. We were happy and innocent. Back then it was easy to get a smile out of my brother.

But I haven't seen him smile since Cali.

"Cali?" I asked shocked; I hadn't thought about her in while. "We tried Damien! We did all we could for her."

"But she still died!" Damien roared, "We did not do enough. If we had done enough she'd still be here!" He stepped away from me; out of my grasp. I tried to follow him but each time I stood I inhaled smoke and fell back to the ground in a coughing fit.

"Yes! She died!" I yelled after a while, "But the hunter's knew! They would have just come back for her if she had escaped!"

"You don't know that!"

"I do know that! And you know it too!"

"We should have saved her!"

"We couldn't." I mumbled, "It was out of our hands."

He didn't say anything else after that. I could finally see the fire, the flickering orange haze engulfed everything in its path. The smoke grew heavier and more concentrated the closer the fire came. The heat intensified, the usual warm comfort a fire brought, became sweltering.

"We've got to go!" I yelled looking for Damien but I couldn't find him. I looked frantically until I saw dark shape moving away from the fire. I didn't hesitate, It had to be him, I ran after the shape. The closer I got the more pronounced the shape became; it took a more dog like shape.