Times of War

Chapter 18

Your POV

I crawl through the ventilation ducts, looking through vents in the walls and floor. I stop to hear Zalgo's echoing screams again. The tight corridors of the shafts amplify his cries, making my ears ring in pain. The minute they stop, I continue on. I soon see a vent in the floor with a soft voice singing from below. Like a sailor to the siren, I follow the voice and look down at through the vent. Peering through, I see Blasphemy singing. She wasn't tied up, no green IV hooked up to her, nothing, as if she was a guest.

She stops singing, doctors begin clapping, which I didn't see from my position, but inferred from the white, non-padded walls. She bowed to her audience. "Thank you! And thank you to the director, Dr. Smilie for this wonderful chance of redemption!" She claps as the cruel man steps forward towards her.

"A wonderful subject. You, my dear, will get your reward. Your sister's wings." He chuckles darkly.

I gasp, covering my mouth. Dr. Smilie looks up at the vent. "Someone's in the vents! Quickly!" I scramble away and crawl through the vents again. Shouting from doctors and staff follows me the whole way. I step my hand on a vent and fall through the floor.

"Ow..." I open my eyes and see that I landed right on top of Fear. I sit up and look at her. "Fear!"

She smiles weakly. "Nice of you to drop in. Did you find my sister?"

I tense up. "Uh, yea about that..." I trail off and stop when I hear the shouts from outside the door. "I'll tell you later! Let's get you out of here." I try to open her chains, but to no avail. I huff and hit her chains with two fist, they burst open. I stare at the open cuff in shock.

"You can use your magic now." She weakly jokes. She pulls the IV from her arm, blood spurts out from the wound, but heals right up. She sighs and easily breaks the rest of the chains. Her hair regains its lost shine as she stands. "Much better." She smiles, bearing her teeth as her magic-bound sword blooms from her hand. She stands battle ready as the doctors open the door. She lurches to the group, slicing through the first few cleanly in half.

I break through the group, running into Dr. Smilie and Blasphemy right outside. Smilie grabs me. "You! You troublesome bitch!" He about to punch me when Fear knocks him aside and locks him in what was my room across the hall.

Fear looks at her sister, eyes widening after the realization of her sister's betrayal. "How...how could you turn into one of them?!" She snaps and swings her sword sideways, Blasphemy jumping back away from the magical blade.

"What makes you think that I liked living in your shadow! With you locked up here, I am free to be what I want! Not following you around!" She pulls throwing knives from a pouch on her and uses two to slash at her elder sister.

I run as the two fight. I sprint to where Zalgo was held, hearing his screams as I grow closer. The lights were flashing as the alarm goes off. The aid from earlier rushes out, ignoring me as he runs by. I slip inside the room and go to Zalgo's side. His head was laying off to his left side, his breathing was short and shallow, burn marks were around the sites of the stickers on his skin. It hurt to see him like this, weak, helpless. I pull the stickers off him and cup his cheek and move his head towards me. "My love..." I tear up. I get the IV out of his arm, his gray human skin turns darker. He sits up suddenly with a gasp.

He pants and looks around. His red eyes land on me and he goes to get off the table. He collapses to his knees as he returns to his official form. He starts laughing as I hear doors slam open. "We areF͖̞͕͘͠R̶̬̖̰̀ͅȨ̷͙͕̮̪̭͚͖͞ͅE̴̶̼̭Ḑ̫̮̙͙̫̠." He laughs.

A storm of stampeding feet echo down the hall and past the door. Human screams follow in suit.

I look at Zalgo and watch him rise to his feet. He shrinks in size, to just a bit taller than me. His smile softens as he leans down to me. "You freed us all."

The clashing of metal on metal ring out, signaling the sister's fight drawing near.

Zalgo teleports me with him outside the hospital. The ground is lush with grass, the sky was  clouded over and thunder rumbles overhead. The roof of the hospital was broken open, the rubble floating, suspended in the air around Fear and Blasphemy as they fight.

Fear holds her real sword and her magical one as Blasphemy had her larger knives. With every touch of the blades, lightning sparked from them and dances around the sisters, lighting up the darkening sky.

"They're going to kill each other!" I shout over the thunder and cracks of the lightning. "We have to do something!" I look at Zalgo, who shakes his head.

"This is her fight. All we can do is stay out of the way." He looks down at me.

I look around me and watch as the other Pastas run for cover in the forest nearby. I look back up at the sisters. I hear them screaming at each other, Fear saying about Blasphemy being a traitor, Blasphemy saying how she just wants to lead for once. I realize the fight will not end and it is a bitter stalemate. I shake my head and open my wings. Before Zalgo could stop me, I was flying up towards the sisters. I get in the middle of the two and then use my shielding magic to blast Blasphemy down into the hospital.

Fear dives after her and then lands in front of her. She looks down at her sister's fallen form. "How could you. After all I did. Since you imprisoned us, locked us away and weakened us, you shall get the same as punishment. One THOUSAND lifetimes should do the trick." She uses both her hands to use her magic. Her orange magic flows quickly from her hands and around her sister until a harden cocoon surrounds Blasphemy. Just before the cocoon finished, Blasphemy's face turned to shear horror and opens her mouth to scream, but the spell was complete before she made a sound. Fear steps away and looks at me. "Go. I will find you all later on." She looks around at the destroyed hospital. "I need to make sure that pastas and humans will be safe."

I hesitate before flying off to find the others.