Arisa, Part 1:Dusk

-Chapter VI: Second Attack-

Late in the night, Keith awoke form a scream. It was not Arisa. It was an alarmed man’s voice. Keith soon realised this was Dimitri’s voice, who was warning Arisa and him for the intruders that were about to break in to the farm. Keith quickly rushed into clothes and came down to see what was going on. He was the last one to arrive. Dimitri hadn’t been sleeping, for he was on watch and Arisa probably never slept due her insomnia.
Once his eyes were accustomed to the darkness, Keith saw....nothing! He was about to ask Dimitri for what purpose he had awoken them, or actually, him, as he saw them; An army, about a dozen soldiers in full uniform! Keith almost choked out of surprise. They were here! He looked at Arisa and Dimitri, who didn’t seem to be in panic. ‘What do we do?’ Keith silently whispered to Arisa. Arisa didn’t look at him. She thoughtfully stared at she soldiers outside. She gave Dimitri a quick glance, who nodded in agreement. Then Arisa turned around to Keith and looked him in the eye; ‘We do nothing.’
Keith was amazed by this answer. It was not by far the plan he had expected. ‘You mean give up?’ He asked unsure. Arisa nodded. ‘Yes, we give up’ She took a deep breath. ‘There is no other option.’ Keith was shocked, but before he could argue he was pushed outside by Arisa and Dimitri. As soon as they were outside Dimitri gestured Keith to follow their lead. He and Arisa raised their hands in surrender and slowly walked towards the soldiers. Once there they were taken in custody by the soldiers. Keith could feel the cold metal of the handcuffs being slit roughly around his wrists. He looked questioning at Dimitri. ‘What is this all about?’ He asked him unsure. ‘Just do as we say, Keith’ Dimitri faintly replied. He did as they told them and walked along with the guards. What else was there to do… right?
The soldiers took them to one of the barracks in town. They walked in a straight line, a couple of soldiers in front, a couple back and some in between them, the three cuffed people. At this point Keith just took everything as it was. They were led into one big cell in the middle of the building. Once in the cell they were chained to the walls. The soldiers left without having said a word. Keith imagined it would be strange for the demonic vessels to talk to mere mortals. They just executed the orders of their boss. Someone suddenly entered the room. As Keith tried to make out what shape belonged to the wall and what belonged to the person entering, Arisa gasped for air. Keith could now see the difference between shades and wall. He could clearly see a figure coming from the shadows. The figure of a man…with horns. Lord Akuma elegantly walked into the cellblock and stopped right before Keith, Arisa and Dimitri. He slowly raised his voice. It was raspy, like the other vessels, but Keith could hear Akuma tried to hide this by talking as smooth as he could; ‘Well…what do we have here…’ He almost sang it. He didn’t get an answer to his rhetorical question, ‘Two of you have their heads on a wanted poster and the other one was seen helping these two criminals’ He held his face awfully close to Keith’s as he said this. As none of the three spoke, Akuma continued. ‘Well, this is easy isn’t it…?’ He turned his attention to one of the guards: ‘Make sure they hang by tomorrow’ He quickly spoke. Then he left the room again. Keith petrified. H-hang? Was this the end of it? That was by far the fastest process he had ever heard of. Keith had known the consequences of helping Arisa, but did the end come this soon? He looked at Arisa and Dimitri, who were still, just like at the beginning of this evening. Keith kept glaring at them until he couldn’t stand it any longer: ‘You’re not going to do something about this?!’ He asked them. Dimitri rolled his eyes. ‘Not so loud, Keith. There is nothing we can do right? We are captured. This is the end.’ Keith could not believe what he had just heard. Give up like this? He could not accept it! It was just impossible. He now focussed to Arisa. Perhaps she would have something to say about this. ‘Aren’t you two the escape artists here?-’ he was interrupted by Arisa kicking his shin. ‘Be quiet’ she angrily hissed. ‘Shut up! I’m losing count!’ Now Keith was completely confused. He tried to ask more, but was soon kicked once more. ‘What the hell was that for?’ He hissed back. Arisa looked steadily at Dimitri. Keith could see they were both counting in silence. Suddenly Dimitri nodded to Arisa. In one fluid motion he yanked the chains around his wrists loose from the wall using a steady beam of light. Keith looked at Arisa to see she had already melted her chains with the same blue silver light. Dimitri grabbed the cell door and blasted it out of its handles while Arisa gave a short yank at Keith’s chains. Before Keith knew what was going on he was pushed forward by Dimitri and Arisa, who now whispered to him: ‘Don’t make a sound’ Keith couldn’t even properly respond to this, let alone make a sound. They rushed out of the barracks, killing everything in a uniform that stood in their path. Once outside the barracks Keith could hear a yell and heard the trampling of soldier boots. Once they were fully out of reach of the barracks, Keith finally asked his question again: ‘What the hell was that all about?!’ He still hissed it since they were close to the barrack. ‘You almost blew it, you idiot!’ Arisa hissed angrily back at him. ‘Blew what?’ Keith asked in confusion. ‘The escape!’ Arisa added. ‘We were lucky they didn’t know Dimitri and I were light creatures’ She responded ‘I thought you didn’t have a plan!’ Keith interrupted ‘Of course we had a plan! Arisa snapped at him. ‘We had one right from the start. It just wouldn’t do us any good if someone said it out loud to those guards!’ ‘Did this include getting captured?’ Keith was now almost furious. ‘Yes, Keith. As a matter of fact it did!’ Arisa hissed. ‘If we hadn’t surrendered they would have set the whole place on fire! And we wouldn’t want that to happen to your precious little farm, now wouldn’t we?’ Keith was stunned. ‘Just like that?’ He asked. ‘Yeah’ Arisa responded. ‘Just like that. We had no opportunity to tell you the whole thing, but we at least hoped you could keep your calm until it was all over!’ Keith stared ashamed at the floor. ‘Sorry’ he mumbled. Dimitri looked at him and Arisa. ‘Come now Arisa, You must admit he could not have expected this to happen.’ He looked At Keith. ‘We got out, so you did great too. It couldn’t have worked out better’ Arisa sneered: ‘Yeah, except for the fact they now know where the farm is and that we are light creatures!’ Dimitri rolled his eyes. ‘You just can’t admit something went right, can you?’ Now it was Arisa’s turn to laugh: ‘I’ll admit something went right, when it actually did. Not when things could turn out worse!’ Dimitri sighed: ‘Oh, please! you’re just upset that Keith got tangled up in this frustrating situation!’ Arisa went silent at once. Keith knew Dimitri was right. Everyone continued walking towards the farm in silence.