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"So, this is what you all worked hard for! You were all willing to sacrifice everything you ever had... just to get me down like this," Ghost coughed and moved to get back up on his feet, but a foot pushed him back down. Everyone surrounded him now and he went wide-eyed at the figure above him. Now you could see his form. His true self, the one who went to manipulate and hurt Mae all those years ago. He had a near black body, yellow lines glowing like cuts across his body. His hands were bone, no wrinkles or scars. Pure white bone that then went off into his black body. His face was grey and white, patches of lighter grey fading into white by the top of his head. He had no hair, just a bare face. He had two eyes, both sunken into his face as though the face was the skull. He had a sharp smile with sharp teeth, and a number of cracks going from his right eye down his face and to his head.
You rotten piece of shit. Annika was staring down at him as the light rain began to fall, only lightly sprinkling at most. She had no weapon in her hand, yet had her hands curled into fists. "How does it feel to be helpless? Near death?"
He only smiled wider, "reassuring considering the situation. I wouldn't want to die by another's hand."
She punched him in the side of his head with force, making his smile turn into a gritted snarl. The rest of the group had backed up a little, the sound of footsteps getting louder. Noa, Aph, Aiden and Julian pulled up on foot, the other steeds nowhere in sight. He must have put Kigu and Edo in pokeballs... right? They can't die, they faint. Where are Aiden's horses? Did they run off? She turned back to the body beneath her and readied her fist again. "What did you do to Mae when you promised to leave her."
He only barked a hoarse laugh and looked up at her, "you know what I did."
"You did more than that. You had to have done more then... then hurt her that way."
"I'll never tell a wretch like you," he spat out and closed his eyes and his smile remained.
A laugh came from his gut and he couldn't help but try and get back up. Annika kicked him back down and pressed down harder on his chest. "You'll never know."
She pulled a gun out from behind her back and held it against his head, eyes going wide. "G. You are nothing but a scar of blood on this world. It's time you die."
"I thought... I'd get farther than this..." he mumbled as Annika prepared to shoot it. Water fell into his eye sockets and he began to laugh slightly, "if only you all had been smarter than to waste your time on a lost soul like me! This is the funniest thing that I will never get to witness!"
She shot the gun and he stopped laughing, going limp and dead on the ground. She stepped off of his body and backed up, throwing the gun to the side. It slowly faded into dust as thunder rumbled through the sky. All the yellow fire was gone, and the world was back to how it had been before anything happened. The road was still torn up, some rubble was still in the streets, but the helicopters were backed up and preparing to land.
Annika, as adrenaline left her body, fell to a knee and held her leg, seeing how her other ankle was bloody and bent weirdly. Dimitri helped lift her back up and held her close to help her balance. Ramille walked over with Xolo beside her and smiled, her hair messy as she wiped sweat from her forehead. The rain sprinkled down and the students on the rooftops cheered, laughing and hugging one another. They did it. They saved everyone.
Perri walked forward and looked around the crowd of people, her ears perked up and the frills behind them going red. She folded in her wings and continued to scout. Aaron looked up at her and tilted his head. "What are you guys-" Ein interrupted and Aaron held out a hand, still looking around.
"Everyone spread out," He demanded and they obliged, stepping away from one another.
"We won, what's up with you?" Elvadoer questioned and held out a hand, annoyed. How can she be annoyed at a time like this. We won. We won against an impossible force and yet she is upset? "We did it. We can all go home now."
"Where's Mae?" Perri said worriedly and looked at the group, pointing at everyone and saying their names under her breath like this was a roll call. Aiden had shut off the music, but still didn't press the bell to signal that everything was over. "Xolo, Noa, Annika, Dante...me.Where's Mae? She's not here."
"I saw her get thrown. Maybe she broke a leg and can't walk," Dante mentioned and looked at the weapons now tossed on the ground. "I was a little preoccupied with Bruce dipping mid fight since he could only stay so long, but I heard her yell and saw Ghost's arm come back down."
Dimitri's eye widened and he held his breath. Areadbhar was now off, placed behind his cape and his hands free. "We... saw her get cut. Badly."
"Where? Like on her side? Her face?" Ein whispered and walked forward and had his ears and tail down.
He took a breath and put a hand to his neck, "here."
Perri backed up and looked at Ramille, Elvadoer and Dante. The four of them had the same look of fear. "That's... we have to find her now! That's how she can die! Portal had some of the main spirits warn us of the way we will die. That's Maes!" She didn't hesitate and folded her wings all the way in, limping away from the group with her ears up and her tail still broken. "Mae!" She yelled out, the name echoing into the air.
Annika moved away from Dimitri and began going up the street, looking left and right. She put her hands around her mouth and yelled for her friend, looking for any sign of her. She turned around and saw PM flying up into the air with Dante on his back, Aiden pointing towards a group of trees and speed walking that direction with Julian. Aph, Aaron and Ein spread out and walked into the small shopping center to look between buildings or for any sign that she fell through a roof into one. Elvadoer stood there, looking from where she was without moving. Noa was gone.
"She's alright, I know she is." Dimitri reassured Annika as Ramille ran up with them to search as well. The white haired woman paused and held her hands around her mouth again, yelling her name. She ran to a small concrete wall and stood on it, overseeing the golf course.
"I don't see her, do you?" She asked and signalled the two to stand where she was. Ramille gave Annika a hand, helping her up onto the concrete wall and looked back at Dimitri.
"I won't be of help. I only have one eye."
"Yet you have the depth perception of a hawk," Annika exclaimed worriedly and didn't turn away from the course, looking out at it. Fields of green grass, both cut and wildly growing filled her vision. There was no dragon here, nor a human. All that was there was a group of people who had hidden back there by the walls now coming out to see what was happening. "Hey you! Group of bystanders! Did a big dragon crash over here?" She yelled out at the people. There were two younger kids, one around five years old and another about twelve. The five year old was in front of the group along with a burly man.
"No, no one came over here!" One of the three adult women yelled back, the rest of the group shaking their heads. The twelve year old looked especially sad that they didn't know the answer, but that couldn't be helped.
Ramille sighed angrily, "Alright!" She yelled back and hopped down away from Dimitri, starting back into the street. The rain was coming down harder now, drops littering the broken ground and skin of the group. PM was now out of sight, but as silence ensued and they walked away from the golf course, the distant sound of tires and sirens could be heard. They were far away however.
Where could she have landed? Or where was she walking now? Was Mae trying to get back to the group and now she couldn't find anyone? Annika's brain ticked like gears. A shriek broke the air and the trio's heads turned to the sky as a bird came towards them, landing on the ground. It stared at them intently, staying still.
"A bird?"
Ramille walked forward and got on her knees, looking in it's eyes. It was a huge bird, albino white feathers decorating the exterior with bright yellow eyes. Black spots were on it's light yellow feet, along with around it's grey beak. "Asra told me that you can sense the name of your familiars by looking at them, but you can also sense someone else's familiar too. Mae did in the garden when she saw Dante's. This is Mae's bird!"
Annika looked at the large creature as it walked away from them and took back off into the air. It looked back at them and shreeched again. "Follow that bird!" She ordered and began limping after it, the ground they traveled across being torn and broken. People slowly began coming out of buildings, and as they went along, the speakers flared to life and bells began to sound. Loud bells, drumming into their minds as they went. Ramille was running, as was Dimitri, but Annika couldn't. With her ankle and leg hurt, she could only limp along and speed walk.
He turned around and saw as she was struggling slightly to keep up, and put an arm under her shoulder, helping her along. For years I dreamed of a moment such as this. A moment to where I'd live in a fantasy world with the people I love. And now that it's here... how will my life carry on from this? How will I live? She continued and Ramille stopped, stepping carefully over a broken tree that blocked part of the road.
"It flew over the fence here," she pointed and the three of them peered past. Behind the fence was a lake-sized body of water where eagles would nest in the summer months. No one was allowed in except for the health inspectors or the state officials. No one could fish in there. It was a place of nature. "She must have landed in here."
Dimitri stepped in front of them and put his hands around the wood, closing his eyes and tugging. Annika had her hand on a lamppost, steadying herself as her leg throbbed in pain. Her arm, though still bloody and punctured, did not hurt as badly as her leg. She wiped the hair out of her face and a boom of thunder echoed. The world seemed to echo an ominous, yet rejoiceful cry as the fighting was now done. The danger was eliminated. How the public would go about this, she did not yet know. But she did know that it wasn't going to go by smoothly... or maybe it would. Their generation had been in the face of danger and destruction so many times already that this might just go down in the history books and be more of an astounding and glorious event than a panic-filled one. That would be the best outcome. One where civilization came to terms with what happened and didn't ask too many questions or try infiltrating these worlds.
Annika turned to Dimitri as a crack sounded and part of the wood fell away, an opening becoming clear as they now had an easy way into the secluded area. He helped her the same way he had and the three went in. The bird was no longer visible, no cries or shrieks heard as rain hit their heads and the treetops.
"Wait," She stopped and held out a hand, no one moving. Ramille only partially turned back to her as she still looked for any sign of Mae. Something that wasn't the sound of their breathing, or the rain hit her ears. It was faint and muffled. It was a male voice, so it wasn't Mae's. But it was nearby. Annika walked forward through the trees and rain on her own, Dimitri and Ramille trailing behind her. The noise got louder. Crying. Someone's crying. But who? It isn't Mae. Was someone else hurt and got here too?
They broke the clearing and in the darkness of the day, she spotted the hunched body of Ein on the ground. Mud was on his knees and the soles of his shoes, a dirt area becoming softer with the rain. He was by the shore of the lake, the water not far away from him. A roar echoed through the air and a white creature flew overhead, stopping and landing on the other side of the lake.
Annika walked forward cautiously, not seeing what he was crying about. She walked to his left and rubbed the water from her eyes, stopping. She pushed her foot down into the ground, keeping her placed in that spot like a tree that just placed its roots. Mae was on the ground on her back, Ein's head on her chest as he listened to her heartbeat. His hands were empty and limp to his sides.
"No..." Ramille muttered and stopped as well, looking at her without saying anything more. Dimitri walked up as well and put a hand on Annika's shoulder. It was shaking, no, he was shaking.
"Wake up wake up.... Please.." He cried and lifted up his head and looked down at her closed eyes and face. Though the line that was drawn on her neck as a dragon had been thin, the one now was wide and jagged, condensing the wound onto the smaller form. Ein had wrapped a blue bandana around it, the same one she wore when she had lost her eyesight and needed healing. The bleeding soaked the bandana as it ran down into her shirt, making it bloody too. "I told you that you wouldn't die! You can't!"
More footsteps broke the clearing and PM walked through with Dante still on his back, walking briskly past the group until he saw the damage. With wide eyes, he stopped and backed up. Almost everyone else filed in slowly, standing away from Ein, Annika, Dimitri, Ramille and Mae's unconscious body.
"We did it Mae," Annika whispered as she stayed where she was standing. If she could hear her, then great. If she couldn't, then nothing she said would be missed. "We won. We killed him! Y-you're free!"
One last set of footsteps came by and the white wyvern peered over Ein, it's tail and feet in the lake's shore. Silence took over the area as sirens got closer, the bells having ceased minutes ago. PM lowered his head, as did Julian, Aph, Xolo, Aaron, and Aiden. Ein backed up from her body slightly and the wyvern looked down at her. It had yellow eyes and nostrils like a snake, also yellow in color. It sniffed her body and looked back to see someone else walking up. With a whimper, she turned back to the body and nudged it softly with it's snout. Mae didn't react, making the wyvern nervously nudge her again and again. It opened its mouth and pulled its head back, making a sad, bear-like noise.
The other man walked up slowly and got down on his knees as well, putting a careful hand to her heart and had a saddened, confused look on his face. "This was the real one... she was real. I was too late."
"Claude, there was nothing we both could have done," Dimitri clarified, feeling his gut drop at the sight of his friend leaning over the body of someone he thought he knew.
"It impersonated her, and now it's killing her," he looked down at her and put a hand on her face, rubbing the rain out of her eyes. "She didn't deserve this... " he mumbled and his head dropped, closing his eyes and taking in deep breaths. Claude's wyvern let out a sad cry into the air and seemed to cry. I don't know what happened with fake me, or with fake Mae to them. But we were so important that Dimitri started crying when he told me only a few things. Claude missed his chance to meet Mae. And now he's seen her die twice.
As Ein rubbed his eyes and nose with his sleeve, a hand touched his knee. He jolted and watched as Mae's hand patted his knee. He started crying more and put his hand on top of hers. "I'm here. It's Ein."
He didn't know if she could hear him or not, but she stayed still beside that. Her thumb moved left and right and her chest hitched. Her eyes didn't open, but it felt as though she was looking at him.
"I... I'm very proud of you. I'm very proud that you saw good in me and made me who I am. Thank you for being my friend."
"I imagine that she is very proud of you right now, even if she cannot say it," Perri murmured and her eyes widened as Ein stepped away, seeing Mae's hand touch the dirt and still feel for something to hold onto. He grabbed Claude's hand and put it in hers. She stopped, squeezing it and trying to understand who this was.
Annika limped forward and kneeled down where Ein had been, Dante coming closer as well. "Mae, you might not be able to hear me, but that's Claude. He wanted to see you. He's everything you ever would've imagined." She's dying. Mae's dying. I'm losing one of my best friends. "I'm sure that... you know it's him."
The sirens got louder as he sat down fully and held her hand. Mae's eyelids were twitching, like she was looking around wildly or trying to wake up. Her grip stayed tight, and the rain didn't stop. Lightning cracked through the sky as a small flickering light bounced by their feet. It was as if it was a frog, hopping and landing on Mae's neck, not moving. One siren stopped moving, red and blue lights reflected on the trees. A loud horn blasted through the air as an ambulance was coming closer down the street.
"Wake up... please..." Claude finally spoke again and held her hand with both of his. Briefly, it seemed as though she would, but her grip started to loosen on his. "No no no..."
"Shh shh it's ok... don't make her panic more than she might be."
Dimitri walked up and put his cape around Annika as he let go of her hand, it falling limply to the ground. They all sat there in silence, the white wyvern making a "mow" sound as if it couldn't believe what was happening. Claude backed up slowly, his boots in the water and Mae now separated from everyone else. Slowly, the light that had bounced on her neck faded into her body, and she began to sink into the ground. Nothing happened after that except for Ein falling to the ground, sobbing.
Pink blossoms began to bloom beneath his form and he sprung up, wiping his eyes as Xolo put a hand on his shoulder. They popped up similar to little raindrops that made noises like a high key on a piano. From where she had sunken, a small tree began to grow from the ground. It had dark brown bark and erupted with the crunch of leaves and the formation of cellular chambers and such.
"What is happening...?" PM asked, astonished at what was before his eyes. From sprawling branches, pink cherry blossom leaves flashed open and became grown. The image of a ladybug landing on one was before their eyes, for despite the rain, this was a safe place for the creature. As it had finished growing, and the flowers were all down spralling, something began appearing in the tree.
Aaron walked up and looked at it, "in time. That's all it says."
"If you are not injured, you may return home now," an echo resonated across the lake and everyone stopping to look around, "this tree will take you home. You need not say where your home is, for it knows. Some will be blessed to return here, others will find their true purpose back in their world without correlation to what occurred."
Before the tree, a wooden plate appeared with yellow flowers surrounding it. "Everyone can go home, but only some will be able to travel. The original five shall, and many of you as well. Use this power as necessary, or as seen fit. You will find trees such as this in your worlds. Do not abuse the little power I had left to give."
PM walked forward first once the disembodied voice that was Portal faded away into the shaking trees. "I... I can get healed when I get home. I won't forget any of you, but I do expect visits. Don't make me bring you scavengers there against your will." He gave an unlikely smile and walked onto the plate, disappearing in the blink of an eye with a small flash to follow.
Police officers broke through the brush, along with a paramedic and they stopped a little ways away. "Who's hurt? We have vehicles standing by to take whoever is to a hospita-" he paused after seeing the large tree and the flowers, confusion on his face. "What happened here?"
"Mae is dead. Ghost killed her," Dimitri explained to the officers, still hiding Annika in his coat. She was having a hard time grasping everything that happened in the span of just two days with her involved, and then the entire two and a half weeks of them being gone. Her friend, the one she still had from kindergarten was dead. She just watched her friend die.
Julian wasn't hurt, so he stepped up next. Without a word, he gave Ein a pat on the shoulder and walked onto the pad, head hanging low. He vanished.
"Ein, are you hurt?" Aaron asked him and he shook his head.
"Nothing I can't fix," he grumbled and walked up to the pad behind Xolo. The four of them filed on and looked back at the group. "Thank you," Ein said solemnly as they faded as well.
Dimitri revealed his cape to show Annika and walked away from the diminishing group towards the officers. "She's injured. Her leg is hurt really bad as well as her arm," he put it simply. Two of the officers nodded and let them pass.
"This way, we will take you two to the hospital once the rest of the injured are counted for," the older man spoke hurriedly and they exited the forested area. The rain lessened slightly, but shocked and amazed faces were peering out of buildings and two people were on the road, watching in sadness. Annika only met one of them, and didn't get to say a word to her mother before the doors to the ambulance opened and Dimitri helped her up. As soon as she had stepped up, the lights turned on and she laid down on the stretcher, two paramedics tying ropes around her to make sure she didn't fall. As soon as it was locked in place, they stepped out. Before the door's shut, small taps entered the room as a familiar bird walked in.
"Are you going to be alright?" He asked in a low voice as shouting was heard outside.
"Not mentally for a while. I will be ok physically."
"I'm sorry all this happened."
"I'm sorry everything that has happened for you also did. But neither of us could prevent the events the other has gone through..." she felt like passing out... but she was bleeding, she couldn't! What if she woke up hurt? Did she have a concussion? She didn't even know how hurt she was.
He stood up as more footsteps came by, sirens kicking back up again. "I know you told me about you not wanting to consider your emotions due to different circumstances, but just know this is hard for me as well. I'll just stay here as long as you need me to be. I won't let any dead ghosts haunt you the same as me."
She couldn't stop a smile.
That night the five adults were announced missing was neither a faithful, nor faithless night. But a glorious one. One that was decided by fate, and one that amounted in devastation and glory. For now, Annika had to relish in her glory. It's what Mae would want.
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A figure now sitting on the log, suspended in sleep as a realm crumbles beneath her feet. Time is ticking and if she cannot be saved, her entire essence will be gone, and she will once again be the slave. A man visits often, sitting beside as he lacks a body too, and continues to ask the woman questions: "how did you die?" "Who were you?".
YOU ARE READING
Portals & Realms
Adventure"Save the world, and join the fight, or else the entire world will die tonight. Take up arms, protect your neck, or else it'll be you who is another body in the wreck." - - All that the five friends wanted to do was explore their old school in the d...
