The Immortal's Gamble

Chapter 20 Crates Have Eyes

10:10pm

During the 5 minutes that elapsed since Lynn arrived, my screams waxed and waned leaving my throat feeling like sandpaper. My nose felt sore from the never ending nose bleed that Lynn was desperately trying to stop.

"Laura, speak to me. What's happening, oh god it's not stopping." Her hands trembling, as though the blood weighed her down. "I need to get an ambulance, I need to -" She didn't finish her sentence before she sagged to the ground like a bag of potatoes. Despite the chaos and pain, I was still able to see what was going on in my surroundings. Behind her fallen form a stock still Soren stared at Lynn and his own shaking hands, behind him stood Alex with a hand on his shoulders. 

"Soren, let's see how much you've learned." Alex spoke while shrugging off his jacket and folding up his sleeves. Arden made his way towards me but stopped short and turned around. 

"Oh Laura.. Well honey if you can hear me blame the boys for wanting to stop for the milkshake." Her voice started out upset, but turned into accusing as she spoke about the boys. Hearing that, I just wanted to laugh, but the pain was overwhelming.

"Bri catch, use this to wrap her and carry her to me." Arden reappeared with a blanket, he must have known that Lynn's touch had set me off. I mean duh, the amount of blood dripping from my nose is proof enough. As Bri moved me onto the blanket, a pair of eyes blinked at me from under a crate of onions. It widened with realisation that I could see it.

Forcing myself to move, I tried raising my arm and pointed at the crate, wanting to alert Arden or Bri about it. With a nosebleed and immobile frame, I was quite a sight. But what happened next, took the cherry off the cake.

A bolt of blue fired from my finger towards the crate, as onions went flying my body shut down on me and the pain came back full force. My body was twitched as though I was being electrocuted. I watched as a flurry of black started to shake and bolted around the room.

"Bri don't let it get away!" Alex shouted in panic while Lynn casually walked out of the cafe and Soren lay on the floor with beats of sweat running across his forehead. What happened? Bri jumped around the table tops with ease while chasing the black fluff and disappeared into the kitchen. Arden then took over wrapping me in the blanket and gently placed me in between his legs, holding me close. 

A few bangs and clashes later, Bri emerged dishevelled but the grin on her face and the netted ball of black fluff with eyes in her hands indicated her victory. As she approached us, I could feel the paralysis fading away together with the pain I felt. 

"Arden, I'm fine now. I won't electrify anyone." I spoke softly, my voice slowly returning. 

He turned me to face him instead of just letting me go. Lifting up a hand, he placed a hand on my cheek and I flinched, thinking that I might get electrified, or worse, electrify him. "You're okay now, I'm sorry I left you alone." He whispered, his eyes full of guilt. I dove in for a hug, burying my face in the crook of his neck.

"It's okay now." He patted my head and I nodded. Each time they weren't around, things happened. 

"What happened to Soren?" I asked, gesturing to his body on the floor where Lynn lay earlier. 

"He's fine. He just cast his first spell, which went exceptionally well might I add, but he's only mortal and it took drained him." Alex pointed to him, "Now, he's just sleeping." At which a snore erupted from his mouth, causing him to jolt awake.

"Whaa.." He slurred, then dropped back to the ground sleeping again. Silence lapsed for a few seconds before we all burst into giggles. 

"What's this?" Bri breathed out, holding up the netted black fluff. Bri turned it around to take a good look, but its eyes kept themselves trained on me, as though it was seeing through me and not at me. 

"It's a messenger, someone had a message for us or maybe for Laura. Hand it to me." Alex instructed.

Gingerly, he removed the net from the creature but still kept a firm hold on it. The black fluff was completely relaxed and wasn't even resisting Alex's hold. As Alex explored the creature, its eyes seemed to retract into its fluff, an audible click sounded and Alex's hand froze in place. 

Walls have ears
Doors have eyes
Beware the man
You think won't lie

Like a broken recorder, the black fluff repeated itself over and over until it started to smoke.

"Alex let go!" Arden shouted in panic, turning me away, but not before I saw Alex throw the creature into the onion crate and covered Bri with his body.

Expecting some form of explosion, I squeezed my eyes shut but only to hear a small poof. 

"What the..?" I heard Alex muse, and I peered over the arm that Arden kept over me only to see the crate of onions had been covered in black soot instead of the explosion we all expected. 

"Here, drink up." Soren groaned as he sat up, accepting the hot tea Alex made for all of us. We were still on the ground in the middle of the cafe. 

"Why do I feel like I just had 20 shots." Soren winced, rubbing his temple. Bri rolled her eyes at him and turned to face us. Seated in a circle, I was in between Arden and Bri, Alex next to Bri and Soren on the other side of Arden and next to Alex. 

"So, what was that all about?" Bri started, looking at Alex for answers.

"That black fluff was a messenger. We seldom use that now, with technological advances, even us Immortals are too lazy to conjure up a spell to send a message. Whoever did this, is probably ancient, someone who wouldn't follow technology. Which brings me to this, Laura do you remember what happened?" Alex questioned and suddenly four pairs of eyes were on me while I paused while bringing my cup of tea to my lips. 

Al I could do was blink back at them. 

"Uhh.. No.. I don't. It seemed like just a normal attack, only thing was that Lynn was around when it happened." I shrugged looking at Arden who had a thoughtful look. 

"Let Alex read your mind, we'll see if anything else happened," Arden suggested, everyone nodded except for Soren, the boy was out again. 

A few minutes later, Alex stood up and walked away into the kitchen.

"What do you think he saw? I can't remember anything." I whispered to Bri who shook her head, Arden had a weird look on his face, so I grabbed his hands and gave it a light squeeze. But even that didn't lighten the mood. 

The moment Alex disappeared into the kitchen, several expletives and crashes were heard from the kitchen. Once it got quiet, Alex walked out with a face so calm it freaked me out. 

"I'm calling Alastor." Alex announced than walked back in. A while later, he walked out with the said man, only thing was a girl was with them. 

"Arden!" The woman, scratch that, the girl went up to him and gave him a kiss smack on the lips. 

This time, it wasn't a pink or black haze I saw. 

It was pure red.