Portals & Realms

Chapter 12 - Your Best Nightmare

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Perri had a hard time breathing as her and Nadia quickly mounted one of the horses that was waiting in the stable. She felt her arm sting from the marking that Vetomo had given her, but that pain seemed to be receding into the back of her mind as the new danger became apparent. In the sky, there was a crack. A literal crack, as if someone had dropped the realm and it broke like glass. In the crack seemed to be the faint sight of black and yellow flames, like the ones Sif had described. The flames that killed his realm.
And now, the flames were coming for Vesuvia.
The stallion jumped over the river that separated part of the town instead of going over the dense bridge. Nadia steered it with urgency, making quick and very risky turns instead of taking a safer, slower path. Perri held onto her waist as she bounced up and down every single time the horse even moved. People urgently got out of the way of the hurried Countess, and some began chasing her to see what the urgency was needed for. Behind Nadia and Perri was Sif, Ramille and Mae, who were all riding on Kigu. As they maneuvered between buildings and areas, she managed to see all the flaws and great aspects of this part of Vesuvia. There were nice houses, nice people ...but every once and a while you would see a sad face in the corner, hungry... lost.
I'm feeling more lost than ever, but I have a feeling, just a gut feeling.... She felt magic burning in her hands as if it was a rope guiding her somewhere. If the magic was a video game character that lead the main character to a new area, then this feeling would be it. "Go faster!" She spoke loudly to Nadia as they rounded another corner and approached the shop.
"Don't need to!" She called back as she stopped abruptly in front of the shop and hopped off, running inside with such speed Perri had no time to comprehend what just happened. Mae pulled Kigu over beside Nadia's stallion and hopped off as well, trailing Nadia inside. Perri shrugged and rushed in behind Sif, yet ahead of Ramille. She went wide eyed as she saw the hurt figure on the floor who was currently being held by Asra.
"Elvadoer?!" Ramille and Perri both exclaimed at once, both were in utter shock to see their long lost friend in front of them. She's alive. Of course she's alive Perri what did you expect!
"Don't come closer! I'm trying to perform a healing ritual!" Asra warned as there was magic coming from his hands and onto Elvadoer's. Perri caught a small movement out of the corner of her eye and watched as Faust slithered over near the edge of the circle near Elvadoer. However, the small purple snake wasn't alone, which was odd for Perri. A little ways behind her was a slightly larger black python with yellow gleaming eyes, a brown otter, a small dog with brown scattered spots, and a snow-leopard print owl.
"How did- where did she come from?" Perri asked urgently as she crouched across from Asra and on the other side of the circle. She felt as if something was snaking up her wrists and trying to pull her closer to Elvadoer.
"The evil ones' realm. The person who's most likily trapped you all in this endless loop of realm hopping," Asra replied with an angry snap and turned his head to stare right through Mae's soul, which was very unexpected on Mae's behalf.
"Oh boy howdy, what did I do this time?"
"Oh don't tell me you kept another secret, because if so I'm literally going to throttle you," Ramille pointed a finger at Mae and gave her a death stare.
"Am I missing some secret rivalry here?" Sif asked and looked around at everyone inside. Before he could interject again, Nadia put a hand over the masks "mouth" and basically was telling him to "shut up" and that "it's best to be quiet".
"Oh I don't know," Asra said sourly, "maybe you decided to befriend another demon!"
"WHAT?" Ramille twisted her head so fast to snap at Mae that her neck made a cracking noise like she was stretching it.
"Another?" Perri raised a finger, confused. What demon did she befriend before this one?
Mae shrugged her shoulders as far as they could go and looked at everyone with the most confused look in the world. She opened her mouth to argue, but barely had a chance to before Ramille leaped at her to, well, throttle her. Sif stepped in the way and pulled Ramille back with such immeasurable strength that it barely looked like he was trying.
"Don't make me throttle you instead."
"Wait, how did you get to this 'demons' realm? How did you even find Elvadoer then?" Perri asked as both her friends continued to be throttled in the background.
Asra pointed a finger at the small device on his desk. "That thing. I have no clue what it is or how it works, but it connected Dante, the beast and I all together. It seems like a device meant for communication, but I don't know who made it. Muriel had given me this one though because he said something about nightmares and bad people."
"Maybe if you get OFF of me and quit attempting to STRANGLE me I can answer some questions and help!" Mae yelled and basically kicked Ramille so hard in the shins she had to skid to her left to avoid being hit again. By doing so, however, she was right in the range for Sif to pull her back. Ramille yelled so many swear words and food insults it was hard to keep track as Mae rubbed her neck, seemingly checking for any harm. "I don't know what you're talking about, but I can actually try using my brain!"
Perri eyed everyone with a suspicious look and directed her attention to Mae. "I am assuming the first demon you 'know' is Sif, right?"
"Well, I mean, I've known him for like a day...?"
"Ok so, if this is the first one you know, who is the 'other' demon?"
"I don't...know. I only kn-" Mae whispered and then stopped. Perri saw the gears suddenly lock into place in her mind. She went wide eyed at Perri and then turned to Elvadoer, Ramille and Asra. "You... you saw myself?"
"Yourself? Mae that demon was nothing like you. It was huge and had silk garments and scary jaws and it was absolutely massive in size."
"Myself," Mae repeated again, as if layers of betrayal were being stacked onto one another like Jenga. "Did it look like a dog...? Silk garments... a feather headdress?"
    "A feather headdress? That's what the hyena wore!" Sif asked, alarmed, "but she was no demon, I don't understand.. Then that demon must've killed the hyena... it stole the headdress... she swore to me that it was sacred to her and she wouldn't have ever given it up."
"One of the forms did, but it had multiple. The first was ... was like.. the thing the Magician traced around your head," Asra stuttered and whispered the last part, acting as if the name Magician was sacred.
"The African wild dog," Ramille commented.
"The Magician wasn't telling you your familiar after all.." Perri began, anger boiling beneath her skin, "it was telling you who was the danger."
"That's what pulled you awake by the neck. It was yourself trying to attack you," Asra finished, but Perri shook her head. Ramille gave them a puzzled look, the pictures and puzzles in her brain began coming together, slowly yet surely.
Mae hung her head low, "It's name isn't even fucking Ghost...." she whispered again, her hand on her face in shame. How many other things did that strange creature lie about? Why did it try to in the first place when it knew her like an old friend? "I didn't even realize it in the first place when the answer was so obvious."
"Neither did I even come to think of that," Perri commented. "Mae, that one night where you tried connecting me to Dante, we ended up in this strange memory cave. It wasn't mine, it wasn't Dante's.... it was yours. It was yours from sixth grade."
Mae looked at Perri as if her entire life was flipped upside down, like a turtle on its back in the middle of the road, ready to die.
"You didn't pull yourself away.... it was G, and he's coming to destroy every single realm we touch."