Boundless

Chapter 12

After dropping Lilias and a highly intoxicated Myles home, Emilia made her way home. Dropping off the car a block away before walking the rest of the way. The warm breeze that rolled over Emilia's skin made no sound, as though it was mimicking her. The only thing that made a noise were her thoughts. Crowding her mind and making her want to cover her ears. That was the only thing she could never get used to. The way her thoughts came bubbling over an other, terrible thoughts blooming from sweet ones. Emilia shook her head, as though she could rid of a few. She let out a sigh just as a crackling sounded to her right, a sound like ice. She ducked and threw her hands over her head. A bullet of sharp, clear ice flew over her head flying into the darkness of the woods to the left of her. Emilia rolled away from the woods into a crouch looking towards where the ice had come from. Nothing. She moved to stand but a quiet, sharp voice stopped her in the process.
"Don't move." It was right behind her, she could feel the breath on her ear. A pair of hands stretched out either side of her head from behind, palms pointing towards the front yard of a house. Emilia obeyed, inspecting the hands. The back of the hands were covered in a white, swirl pattern that reached up to mid forearms, like gloves. They were defiantly female hands, no doubt about it. Emilia just didn't know whose. Emilia spotted a dark figure scamper across the lawn. Not a moment later the pair of hands shone and ice shot out hitting the figure. A sharp, inhumane scream cut through the silent night. The hands disappeared from in front of her and gripped her arms and lifted her the rest of the way up. The hands were cold and it pinched her skin. Emilia turned around and was surprised to see who was there. Guinevere stood there in all her icy beauty.
"You should really pay more attention to what's following you." She said, her grey eyes sparked blue before she sashayed off towards the frozen figure. She was short and petty, her thick white hair pulled up into a straight pony tail. She wore a brown holey t-shirt and black shorts, showing off her pale legs. On her feet she wore joggers. It was all very normal Emilia noticed. Emilia followed her towards the figure. It was much larger than she first anticipated. A demon. It looked like an oversize lizard. The tail long and thin and the huge claws dug into the earth. It was all cold stone.
"A Stellio." Guinevere whispered. "They aren't dangerous but they do travel in packs."
Emilia looked towards Guinevere as she said it. The breeze picked up to a blow. Emilia could sense that there were more.
"How many more do you think there are?" Guinevere asked uninterested.
"Enough to be dangerous." Emilia replied with. "And they aren't going to be happy that we hurt their friend."
A humming started up behind them like a thousand bees. Emilia wished they were. They turned slowly not wanting to disturb the creatures, although they knew it was too late. There were at least thirty, lurking amongst the trees at the edge of the woods. Emilia and Guinevere didn't have time to plan anything. Within seconds the demons were on them, rampaging at high speeds. Emilia dropped the bag full of gear behind the frozen creature and dove away from where she was standing landing atop of one of the creatures jamming the heel of her stelleto into the top of it's head. She could feel it crushing through bone, she kept pushing down until it stopped squealing and squirming and diminished in a black shadow back to wherever it came from. Emilia dropped down to the ground and pulled off her shoes so she was bear foot. They were her weapons now. Demon after demon charged at her until one got the better of her. Attacking from behind, it flicked it's razor sharp tongue several times across her back, hard.
Emilia cried out and dropped to the ground the tongue whipping at anything it could get at. Emilia dropped her "weapons" and rolled onto her back, her open wounds throbbing. She grabbed onto the tongue, bitting through the pain splintering her hands she gripped tighter as black veins weaved their way down the tongue and the body started to quiver. She released it, the tongue being sucked back inside it's mouth. Froth formed at it's mouth and the eyes rolled back into it's head. It's legs gave way under it and it disappeared.
"What the hell did you just do to it?" Guinevere asked jogging up beside her eyes almost bursting out of her head. She was smothered with blood and soot. Emilia bit her lip and mumbled. "Poison."
"Neat." Guinevere replied with. "Remind me never to get you angry." She turned back to face the empty street that showed no signs of a messy fight.
"The rest ran off into the woods." Guinevere said hands on hips. She had thick slashes around her wrists and one across the side of her face. Clothes torn up. Emilia noted that she herself was also damaged. The clothes that hung off her were close to nothing, simply rags handing off her open wounds.
"Now I need something off you." Emilia said walking as well as she could back towards where she left the bags, picking them up she half jogged back towards Guinevere.
"I'm going to say no." Guinevere said leaving with a tight grin and walking off back towards the woods.
"Guinevere I need you." Emilia said opening up the bag with Guinevere's and Rhys's clothes and weapons in it. She pulled out the fabric with all the knives in it and the clothes, dropping them in her hands.
"You need to come to hell with us." Emilia said simply.
"I just got away from there." The other girl said as calmly as she could. "I am not going back there. These disgusting marks just started to go." She said pulling down her sock to show red lines spreading out over her ankles, like a million tiny hands trying to hold her down in hell.
"So just imagine that." Guinevere gestured to the rest of her. "But everywhere."
"I know the consequences, Ever-" Emilia started saying but was cut off by a knife at her throat.
"Don't you ever, ever call me that." Guinevere said in a strangely tender voice. "Only people that I like get to call me Ever."
"Got that." Emilia said smiling sarcastically. "Now would you mind pointing that thing elsewhere, it's sharp."
Guinevere gave Emilia a hard stare before flipping the knife around her wrist and flicking it into the waist of her shorts.
"Are you going to take me up on that offer?" Emilia asked again.
"That's a no." Guinevere said coldly. Emilia sighed. "Guinevere-" Emilia stopped speaking feeling something wrap around her ankles. Her feet were pulled out from under her and she went plummeting towards the ground. Her head smashed against the ground. Darkness and screams rung out around her. The screams got louder until Emilia came to again and was being dragged along the ground by her ankles. Loose gravel ripping her dress and sticking into her thighs and stomach.
"The bag!" Emilia screamed. "The bag!"
"Emilia!" Guinevere cried out throwing the a bag in her direction. Emilia was moving faster than she first realised. She was a good twenty meters away from Guinevere already. The bag fell just short of her. She used all her strength to dig her nails into the ground, a few being ripped off in the process, and pulled herself closer to the bag. She gripped onto the strap and was being pulled back again at alarming rates. She blinked repetitively, one of her eyes stung. She felt the surface of the ground change, she was being dragged into the woods. She looked up to see Guinevere running towards her. Emilia gave one last effort to throw a thought out to Guinevere. Emilia saw Guinevere stop in her tracks her eyebrows pinching together, she shook her head mouthed no at Emilia. She looked back at the bag. Emilia watched the opening and Guinevere shrink away. Emilia gritted her teeth and tried not to concentrate on the sticks and roots cutting her skin. She was almost unrecognisable. Blood and dirt covering her head to toe. Emilia felt the pace slow. She felt something like fire snake around her feet, the heat quickly changing to a coldness, hitting them in a burst. Only her feet were cold, the rest of her burning like a severe burn. Emilia pivoted her body around to look at what had swallowed her up to her knees. It was a fire. Not just any fire. Hell fire. She wriggled and screamed grabbing onto the roots protruding from the ground. Not a moment later she gave up, but before it sucked her the rest of the way through she ripped her necklace off and dropped it on the ground. She breathed heavily sweat dripping into her eyes, or was that blood? She looked around desperately for something, anyone. She couldn't hear anything except from the roaring fire. But what she saw was unbelievable. She lost her grip on the roots and the fire breathed her in like she was oxygen. The portal blew up and crumpled down and the woods was left in peace. A hush still pressed down on it, as though nothing wanted to awaken the danger again. A figure pushed itself up from the leaning position it was in on the bolder and stared at where the portal once was. All it was now was a black circle on the ground. The figure was humanly shaped. A boy. The boy walked towards where the necklace laid and picked it up, examining the simple silver circle. He tucked the necklace into his pants pocket before walking off out of the woods, not once looking back, the moonlight shimmering on his brown hair creating a silver halo.