Eternal Subconscious

Chapter 9

Feeling the Deja vu scramble my nervous brain, Rose, Josh, and I sat in the small comforting lobby, awaiting Sonja to give us the coordinates of the being we were supposed to subdue. Once Sonja had returned to the waiting room with us, she confidently held a small envelope, which I assumed had the coordinates inside. She carried a small, light-hearted smile presented on her face, in an attempt to keep the rest of us calm.

"Are you guys ready?" She asked, folding her fist over the holsters meant for her pistols.

All of us seemed to nod our heads in approval of her assumptions, preparing the same weapons we had on the day of the massacre. I took a deep breath and followed the trio out of the grand entrance.

"Alright, let's see where we are headed," Sonja muttered to herself as she tore open the envelope and Rose placed down a portal to the Overworld. She didn't seem shocked at all; instead, she started hysterically laughing. "Of course this is where we are supposed to go." She spat out, lifting up the envelope for the rest of us to read. The only words on it were...

'Behind you.'

"So this whole time, we were being cared for by the one who started it all, of course," Sonja whispered in amusement, whipping her pistols out of their holsters and quickly firing at a tall, shadowy figure standing in the near distance.

She then growled and lunged after them, each doing everything in their power to hit the other, but not succeeding. Sonja slung her pistols around her finger to adjust the position quickly before firing at the figure once again. Suddenly, a dark wolf leaped into the battle, attempting to nip at the enemy. I turned my head to notice that Rose had deployed a few of her familiars to assist Sonja. Josh seemed to have been frozen in fear when he had finally tried to play a note in the magical instrument; it was briskly ripped out of his hands, causing him to fall backward. I was able to catch him, but not able to retrieve the ocarina for him to continue to fight. I decided to do the next best thing and create a barrier of raw earth around him while I went to find the instrument.

While Rose threw every familiar she could conjure towards this guy, Sonja was just a blur of light, firing at every angle she could find. However, with the figure being just as fast as she was, Sonja was unable to land a hit.

"Would you stay still for one moment while I fire a bullet into your skull?!" She screamed, ripping the hood of the mysterious figure downward. Expecting to see a human being under this hood, all of us were stunned when we were faced with a robotic bunny mask.

"What the fu-"

"Seems you're rather surprised Sonja dear? Haven't you ever seen a mask before" The demonic robot voice spoke.

"Well it you seem to look like a bad horror movie villain," she sassed back as she punched him directly in the jaw, "and don't call me dear."

As she socked him in the face, he danced his fingers over her holsters, causing the pistols to disappear. Sonja jumped back gracefully and gawked at the fact that he had a unique ability.

"Are you suggesting you cursed yourself?" She growled, creating a tight fist with her hands.

"Seems you are rather quick-witted for a moronic teenager." He laughed, dashing past all of Rose's familiars, causing them to vanish. He applied one quick uppercut to Rose's jaw, knocking her out. I attempted to throw him out of the way before he got to Josh but he merely dodged me, causing me to tumble to the sharp, red stone bridge, nearly falling into the abyss.

Josh was quickly ducked underneath the oncoming blow to his head, but in doing so, the demonic rabbit knocked him to the floor with his elbow, causing him to pass out as well.
   
I drew my wide eyes toward Sonja and noticed her deep within her own thoughts, and before I could process it, she wrapped her arms around my waist and shoved me back inside the castle lobby. She began panting and rested her back against the massive doors she had just slammed shut.

"I don't think we are going to land a hit on him if we try to hit him again he might make us disappear as well," I grunted, dropping down to my knees in frustration.

"Liam, did you notice anything about him when you looked at his face. For some reason, I went into the moment of shock, and I remembered him slaughtering my parents, I thought they didn't want me, but instead, I forgot the very night they were taken from me."  She stated, staring at the ceiling in shock.

I thought back to the face of the robotic demon, but instead of seeing him surrounded by a red bridge and abyss-like sky. I saw a house, with my family's lifeless bodies strewn about and myself, passed out directly in the middle of it.

"Oh my god," I muttered, "My parents didn't die when I  was young, they were killed before I became a Grimelkin."
Sonja gripped my shoulders and forced me to make eye contact with her. "Listen to me; I need you to trust me, I have a way out of this." She stated with the kindest tone I've ever heard her use.

"What is it?" I asked with extreme interest.

"Don't overthink about it, but I think my unique ability might come in handy at this point," She sighed, "All I need is for you to go out there and back attack him. Once I get into your line of sight, run to the other edge of the bridge and get yourself, as well as Rose and Josh through the portal, I'll take it from there. Just before we commit to this, I want you to remember that you were a pretty great person and that I thank you for helping me out of all the dumb shit I did to myself." She said with a small number of tears rising to her eyes.

Before I could respond, she gave me a meaningful embrace. "Now go out there and let's avenge our Grimelkin comrades." She said before rushing up the staircase to what I assumed to be the castle roof.

I created an extensive underground tunnel, leading directly to our foe. Without hesitating, I powered myself up through the ground with a pillar of earth. I swung my sword downward toward his neck, but instead, he grasped my weapon, making it vanish. I cursed in my head and sprung backward, staying out of his reach.

I was about to summon another earthy weapon, but before I could, Sonja swan dived off of the top of the castle while the demon had his back turned. I began to sprint to the end of the bridge, where Josh and Rose were still positioned. I threw each of them over a shoulder and lept through the portal. Once I had turned around, gazing back at the battle scene, I noticed Sonja smile at me, mouthing a 'thank you' before a vast explosion had commenced, and the portal sizzled out of existence.