A Girl Between (33 page)

“JAMES, YOU TURD!”  What are you doing?”  A man yells.  That
voice!

A loud grunt, then screams . . . . . .

GASP . . . . gasp . . . . gulp for air, precious air.  In
and out, in and out.  Fresh cold air.

My throat hurts so bad.  Feels like a truck’s sitting on it.

Someone lifted my shoulders up and held me.  Tess, are you
OK?”

I peered out.  Sad, miserable blue eyes staring at me.  It
was Ian, beautiful Ian.

“Tessie, I’m so sorry.  It was my brother!”  He indicated
with his head.

I looked over.  It was James, flat on his back, looking like
a dead man.  There were at least ten ice darts sticking in him, his eyes, his
neck, his chest and his legs.  He still had the loose garret in his grasp.

Then, I turned back to Ian.  He didn’t look right.  His head
was shaved for one thing.  Why would he shave his beautiful hair?  I don’t
remember him being so thin.  There was an odd pallor about his face, very pale,
and what appeared to be faded bruises on his face and his neck.

I reached up and touched his cheek.  “Ian, what happened? 
You look . . . . I don’t know, you don’t look yourself.  Are you OK?”  He
smiled grimly.  “I’m afraid they’re all mad at me.”  He vaguely waved around. 
“But, Tess, don’t you worry about me.  I’ll be all right.  How about you?  You
shouldn’t be here.”

“I know.  I’ve gotta go.”  I leaned on Ian, starting to get
up when suddenly he was gone and I had to catch myself.  Someone had pulled Ian
away.  Then, that VOICE again.

“WHAT DID YOU DO?  Did you SAVE her?  Tonya screeched at Ian
while pointing at Tess.  Bully Boy and Red were holding Ian, twisting his arms
back.  “How DARE you!  You’re gonna pay for this, lover boy!”

She turned to me, yanking me by the hair.  “YOU WAIT!”  Then
she pointed her fingernail daggers at Bully and Red.  “Take him away and hurt
him, bad.  I don’t want to ever see him again.”

I felt really weak from blacking out but I wasn’t gonna let
Tonya get me.  I started rubbing my hands together, starting to feel a spark. 
She was about to get a little surprise.

What was that?  I saw a flash of white out of the corner of
my eye.  Something landed on Tonya’s head and she quickly released me. 
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh. . . . . . . . ,” She screamed, then she fell over,
trying to protect her face with her hands.  It was a Siamese cat in a complete frenzy,
biting and clawing all of Tonya’s exposed skin!  I couldn’t help but notice the
inch long claws that were rapidly shredding Tonya’s coat.  They looked like a
rake of daggers.  The cat paused for a minute and looked over at me.  Then I
realized, I KNEW that cat.  I recognized her eyes.  One was blue and one was
green.  It was Princess Hannah, one of the gypsy cats, a real beauty.  Suddenly,
Princess let out an unearthly howl and pounced on Tonya’s face, ripping off her
ear lobe.  She looked at me in triumph, blood dripping from her inch long
canines.

The sounds of human screams and howling cats filled the
air.  There were a number of Siamese cats leaping everywhere, clawing, biting
and scratching their way through the diaboles.  They jumped from one victim to
the next, claws and teeth dripping with blood and flesh.  I turned in another
direction to come upon Bully Boy.  He was rolling around in the snow, a large
cat clawing at his eyes.  I was very familiar with that cat, too.  She was my
own Beauty Queen!!!  What a magnificent fighter she was!  She too had the extraordinary
claws and canines.

Red was also there, just a few feet away.  He was crawling
on his hands and knees, trying to escape the wrath of the other gypsy Siamese,
Empress Stephania, who was screeching with delight as she proceeded to pounce
on his head and tear his scalp to bloody shreds.

I’ve got to find Will.  I tried to ignore the chaos around
me as I searched for Will’s dark green coat.  The Spirit Tree was still about
50 yards away.  I could get there myself, but first, I had to find Will. 

Then, my heart stopped.  There was Ian, bloodied, lying on
the ground.  Ice spears were stuck in his chest and his legs and he was covered
with a layer of ice.  I rubbed my hands together until I felt the heat.  I
slowly ran them over his body until the ice was partially melted.  By then, I
found a faint pulse.  I unzipped my coat and lay down next to him as close as I
could, wrapping my coat around him, resting my cheek against his.  His lips were
so cold they were blue, so I leaned in and pressed my warm lips to his.  I felt
his eyelashes flutter against my forehead.

I heard someone clear their throat.  I look up to see Will,
standing there, looking down at us.

Ian touched my hand and whispered, “I’m OK, Tess.  Thank
you.  You must go.”

I took Will’s hand and he pulled me up.  I didn’t like
leaving Ian, but I knew we had to get out of there.  At least Ian was alive. 
We tightened our hoods and started moving.  The witch cats cleared this area of
some of the bad ones, but we knew it was only a temporary reprieve.  The field
was crawling with hundreds and hundreds of diaboles.  As we got closer to the
Spirit Tree, I noticed something odd.  None of the diaboles were within a 30
yard radius of the trunk of the tree.  Why wouldn’t they get any closer?

“Will, how come the diaboles aren’t any closer to the spirit
tree?” I leaned in and whispered.

“I don’t know.  It’s gotta be something about the tree.”

“Holy crap!  Tess, LOOK at the tree.”

I noticed something strange about how the branches swayed,
but I still couldn’t see what Will was all excited about.  “What are you
talking about?”

“Look closely at those hanging branches.”

I studied the tree and finally saw what Will was talking
about.  It was hard to discern because everything was covered with snow and the
branches were moving around from the wind.  It was an odd movement though,
almost rhythmic, as if to music.  Something long was swinging from the branches. 
What???  It was dead people!  You could tell they were dead because of the
unnatural angle of their necks.  They appeared to be hanging from the ends of
the long wiry branches.  There were at least thirty or forty of them.

Will quietly stated, “Now, we know why the diaboles aren’t
any closer to the tree.”

“Will, how do we know that won’t happen to us?”

“It won’t Tess.  Look around the base of the tree.  What do
you see?”

I studied the tree and noticed some movement.  “There are
people huddled around the tree.”

Will nodded.  “That’s right.  They’re the luminars.”

“Leave us be,” we heard a girl scream.  We looked in her
direction to see two people running in the direction of the tree.  They were
being chased by a group of diaboles.  “Will, we’ve gotta help them.”

“Tess, let it go.  We’re not in a position to do anything.  We’re
surrounded.”

One of the luminars managed to break through to the safe
zone of the spirit tree.  In reaction, a diabole close to the perimeter raised
a long jagged ice spear and aimed it at the back of the luminar.  I couldn’t
just stand there so I started rubbing my hands together to gather the sparks.

Will grabbed one of my arms and whispered hoarsely, “You
gotta stop, Tess.  You’re getting unwanted attention from the group behind us
and there’s nothing you can do.”  I turned my face slightly to get a glimpse of
the diaboles behind us.  One was staring at us.  I folded my arms in front of
me as if I was just trying to warm myself.

What was THAT?  A flash of electricity, from the direction
of the spirit tree, jolted across the perimeter and zipped directly to the tip
of the ice spear.  It jumped around the spear as if engaging in a dance and
then it entered the hand of the diabole.  He screamed and stood rigid, while
the electricity charged though his body.  Then, he keeled over.  The smell of
burnt flesh was in the air.

The other luminar had been caught by the group of four
diaboles who had been chasing them.  They were carrying her to one of those
death mounds.  She looked terrified as they laid her down on the frozen mound
and placed their hands on her, causing her skin to turn translucent.  “Oh no,”
she screamed, her head moving back and forth.  THEY WERE FREEZING HER TO
DEATH! 

Will gripped me so I wouldn’t move.  There were at least 40
diaboles standing between her and us.

“I can’t just stand here, Will.”

Suddenly, a loud CRASH of thunder.  Several bolts of
lightning flew from the Tree.  I glanced around to see the lightning hit the
bad ones who had taken the girl.  And it wasn’t just a quick strike.  The
stream of electric charges continued zapping the diaboles, causing them to jerk
around, as if they were attached to puppet strings.

We were both staring at the spectacle of the lightning
show.  I wonder where it actually came from – the Tree, or from a powerful
luminar under the Tree?

“They’re distracted.  It’s a good time to cross over.” 

“Yeah, I would say that it’s now or never,” Will responded.

There were only a few diaboles between us and the safe
zone.  We walked past them and as soon as they were behind us, we broke into a
run.  We didn’t stop until we were under the arms of the Spirit Tree, panting
hard, hands on knees, gasping for breath.

I heard someone yell behind me and I quickly glanced back to
see a diabole near the perimeter.  She had been whipped up in the air by the
end of a long thin tree branch, entwined around her neck.  She was grasping at
the branch, kicking frantically with her feet, trying to escape.  After a
while, her struggling stopped with a few spastic jerks.  I knew she was dead
for it was obvious that her neck was broken by it’s odd angle.

“She must’ve stepped over the safe zone,” I shuddered.

We made our way to the luminars that were huddled around the
trunk of the tree.  I said to Will, “Do you feel that?”

“Yeah, it feels like electricity in the air.”  Will just
barely touched his hands together and the sparks flew.

“Look at that,” I pointed toward the luminars sitting
together.  There were flashes and sparks in the air all around them.  You could
even see arcs of electricity between the tree branches.  “Will, have you
noticed how the branches of the Tree are moving?  The wind isn’t affecting
them.  It’s almost as if the branches are moving in harmony, rubbing together
to stir up electricity.”

Will glanced at me while nodding agreement.  “That’s exactly
what it looks like.” 

There were about seventy people around the tree.  I thought
there would have been more.  Did many luminars die?  I felt a lump in my
throat, thinking about Mercy. 

“Will, I do see Nadya and Dika, and there’s Sam and Doug.” I
pointed to them huddling under the tree.  As if he heard me, Sam looked up and
saw us watching them.  They came over and hugged us.

“I’m so glad you guys got here,” I exclaimed, a sense of
relief washing over me.

“It wasn’t that easy getting through the gauntlet, but we
managed.”  Sam looked like he had to grit his teeth to talk so I tried to turn
him around to get a better look at him. He was obviously in a lot of pain.  He
tried to stop me so I stepped behind both of them.  I was shocked.  Their coats
and the back of their legs were covered with puncture holes and smeared in
blood.

Doug said with a big grin, “They tried to stop us with their
stupid spears, but it didn’t work.”

Sam added with an evil smile, “In fact, two of them are
swinging from up there.”  He pointed to the hanging bodies swinging from the
tree.

Will suddenly shouted, “What’s that noise?”

We turned around.  It was the diaboles.  There were hundreds
of them encircling the Tree, standing right up to the perimeter, pounding ice
spears against the ground.  Screaming something; a chant, getting louder and
louder.  “What are they saying?”

“THY BLOOD SHALL RUN

THY BLOOD SHALL RUN

THY BLOOD SHALL RUN”

“Tess, they plan on rushing the tree.  Something’s gotta be
done.  There’re so many of them.  They may be able to get through.”

I stared at the diaboles, while answering Will.  “I know
what to do, even though I don’t exactly know why.  I just know that we have to
do this.”

I walked over to the crowd of luminars.  By now, everyone
was standing up, watching the diaboles with great trepidation.  “Everyone,
please listen to me.”

Immediately, complete silence fell over the group.  They all
turned toward me.  As soon as I saw their eyes, a feeling of déjà vu came over
me.  I realized I had seen many of them before, not just around town, or in
school.  No, I had seen them the last time this conflict came to a head, when
the good witches were fighting for their survival.  It was in the woods of
France prior to the
Karmic Apocalypse of the Wiccans
in 1345.  Many of
them were the same souls that were with me 666 years ago.  I could feel the
magic in them.

“I am very grateful for your presence here today.  I know it
was difficult to get here.  All is not lost.  Please do not be discouraged.”

A young woman with long red hair asked, “What do you mean? 
There are so many of them.”

“That does not matter.  We have other things in our favor. 
You must do as I ask.”

The chanting of the diaboles and the pounding of their
spears was getting louder.  I knew they were just trying to drown me out. “You
must position yourself around the tree as closely as you possibly can. While
you are there, you must rub your hands together to generate static
electricity.  Do not stop rubbing until everything is over.”

“How will we know when it is over?”  An old man with a gray
beard asked.

“You will know,” I answered.

So, we all crowded around the base of the Tree of the Living
Spirits and started rubbing.  I’ve never seen the aural color of different
shades of purple swirling in such abundance.  It indicated the presence of
sensitives, intuitives, and visionaries and, of course, the magic that was
building in its intensity.  They continued with their rubbing.

The diaboles chanted:  
“THY BLOOD SHALL RUN, THY BLOOD
SHALL RUN”

As the intensity of the rubbing increased, I begin to sense
a rhythmic pulsing in the ground.  There was a shower of sparking which morphed
into circular arcing between the luminars and the branches of the tree.  The
wind around the tree picked up its own intensity, further increasing the rapid
movement of the swirling branches.

The diaboles continued,
“THY BLOOD SHALL RUN”

“
NO EVIL WILL HAPPEN TO THE JUST
”
, an
unearthly shriek that sounded like it came from the bowels of the earth.
 
Did
I imagine it?  It reminded me of the haunted voices I had heard sitting under
this tree that very first night a short while ago, only those voices were
filled with terror.  These voices were filled with wrath.

The diaboles, again,
“THY BLOOD SHALL RUN”

“
I WILL POUR MY FURY UPON THEE
”
,
the
screaming voices emerged from the ground around the Tree with the howling
wind.  Under the branches of the tree, the sparking around the luminars was so
intense it appeared to be filled with dense iridescent light.

“THY BLOOD SHALL RUN,

THY BLOOD SHALL RUN,

THY BLOOD SHALL RUN
.” 

The frenzied diaboles started running across the field, huge
ice spears in their hands, heading directly at us.

By that time, the pulsing felt like a vibration running from
the roots of the tree through the trunk and the branches.  It was shaking the
earth around us.

“
THOU SHALT DIE THE DEATH OF DEMONS
”
,
the
screeching voices yelled into the wind at the approaching diaboles.  A
massive streak of lightning crossed the sky and made a direct hit on the Tree
of the Living Spirits.  Every branch of the tree stood straight out, sparks
spraying from the tips.  Thunder
CRACKED
from
the instantaneous collapse of the air.

And then, an ear splitting . . . .
BOOM
. . . .
the long, sharp branches of the Tree of the Living Spirits exploded from the
mother tree, flying toward the center of the life force.  Directly towards the hearts
of the approaching diaboles.