The Oracle

Chapter 18: Just Like the Stories

AKARI

It's about two in the morning whenever I wake up with a sense of dread filling my body and the hairs on my arms standing on edge. I frown and glance around the room to see Isabella sleeping in the bed across from me, one of her arms draped over the side of the bed as she snores softly into her pillow, her brown locks splayed everywhere.

"Isabella," I whisper across the room.

I frown whenever she doesn't wake up after I call her name a few more times and I end up climbing out of bed to shake her lightly.

"Huh?" She mumbles in her sleep and eventually opens her eyes to furrow her eyebrows at me. "What's going on? What time is it?"

"It's two in the morning, Isabella, and something isn't right. Come on," I say before I rush around the room to grab my coat and Isabella slides out of bed to do the same while I grab my scythe.

Once we're out in the hallway, I'm surprised to see Sora exit his room at the same time as the two of us do. However, he seems a bit more confused than us.

"Sora?" Isabella frowns.

"Have either of you seen Shae?" Sora frowns. "I woke up with chills and an eerie feeling and he wasn't in our room. The place feels like it's twenty degrees inside."

"No," I shake my head. "The two of us just got up. I had a bad feeling too and I woke Isabella."

"Come on, motherf—"

The three of us look at each other with wide eyes upon hearing Gambit's shouting and sounds of gunfire coming from outside.

"Come on, let's go!" I shout and race towards the entrance of the inn with Isabella and Sora.

Once we're in the doorway to the inn, we find that the door is already wide open and Gambit is outside fighting Nightwalkers in her pajamas, her gauntlets rapidly firing off purple bullets as she kicks, twirls, and punches. As soon as I'm about to exit the doorway to help, Sora throws an arm in front of me and I collide with his body, but Isabella's already summoned her spell book and has ran outside to help.

"Sora, what—"

I trail off whenever I notice a faint aura of white and green energy radiating around the two of us and Sora's necklace is glowing bright green, its magic at work.

"Your necklace...it's keeping us from being affected," I breathe out and watch as Isabella struggles to stay on her feet and Gambit's movements gradually become slower and slower.

"Come on, and don't let go of my hand," Sora says as he grabs my wrist and takes off in a run with me.

I switch my weapon into its gun mode so that it's easier for the two of us to stay together and I begin firing bullets into the crowd of maybe fifty Nightwalkers, which is unusually high, especially for one place. Although, they do like to stay in herds.

"Shae and Clea are out back! I need you to cover so that I can bring them back in to safety!" Gambit shouts.

"Got it!" I shout in return and switch out my bullets for explosive ones.

"Go!" Isabella shouts as she casts a spell, a red rune appearing in the air above her spell book as a red rune circle spins beneath her feet on the ground and a red aura shield appears around Gambit to increase her attack power and to shield her.

Gambit slams down three more Nightwalkers before she takes off in a run and shoots them down as she runs by to the back of the inn to get Shae and Clea.

"Why were they drawn here?!" Isabella shouts over the fighting as she works on casting another spell.

"I don't know!" I shout back as I shoot down five more before I have to reload, "But we've gotta keep going! We can't let them get into the inn!"