Playing With Fire (6 page)

Slowly
but surely, my eyesight came back, revealing the world around me with the least
amount of color possible. Vaze let go of my hand on one side, and I had to pry
Al’s hand off of mine, as did Jake who had made sure not to lose any one by
joining hands with Seth and Darren as well.

“Everyone,
welcome to The Forest of Death,” Vaze said to us. I looked at him. Instead of
his usual pale color, his skin was as grey as a gargoyle’s. I looked at every
one else to find that most of our skin had the same effect, except for Seth,
whose olive skin had gone to more of a greyish tan color. The only thing that
still had its true color was Jake’s fair hair which now seemed to glow in the
darkness and most of our lightly colored eyes, except for Al’s dark brown ones.
The brown hair that Seth, Darren, and I had quickly changed to black in the
light, and Vaze and Al’s hair seemed to disappear entirely.

I
thought from the outside this forest had looked menacing, but from the inside it
was terrifying. The trees had grey gnarled bark and their branches twisted out
like corpse arms. The branches close to the ground bore no leaves, but the ones
higher up were so thick it made it look like night, though I knew from just a
few minutes ago that it was still midday. The soil below our feet was black and
had very few things other than the corpse trees growing out of it. Mist hung
low to the ground, gripping my feet and freezing them as well. A distant howl
rang through the air, making me jump out of my own skin.

“What
was that?” Al peeped out barely above a whisper as he grabbed my arm in a death
lock.

“If
we’re lucky, we won’t have to find out,” Vaze said plainly. There wasn’t a
shred of sarcasm in that statement. I
really
hoped we were lucky. Vaze
started walking away, and the second we all realized it, we followed without
question.

We
passed countless corpse trees and hardly any signs of life. A few bats flew past
rivaling some owls with silvery black feathers. Every time an owl flew over our
heads, a pained cry of a dying mouse always came. I saw a couple of grey and
black squirrels pass overhead and scowled in disgust. I hated squirrels. They
were pure evil and threw nuts at people for no reason. And they’re freaking
hard to catch when you want to see if animals can talk!

The
farther we walked, the creepier the scenery got. We passed bits of scant plant
life but it wasn’t like in the field that we had left for the forest. There
were gnarly little bushes which bore brown berries that didn’t look edible at
all. They had dark green, coarse looking leaves and a closer look also told me
those ugly bushes had thorns. Note to self, don’t touch ugly bushes.

I
trudged ahead of my brothers to approach Vaze. He turned his head to look at me
when I was right behind him.

“So
was that really how it happened?” I asked. “You know—the same thing that
happened to Moraj?”

“I
wouldn’t know. I wasn’t born at the time,” he said. “It happened twenty years
ago Scarlet. I’m only fifteen.”

“Oh,”
I said feeling a bit stupid. “So you’ve never seen your own castle?”

“Nope.
I’ve never been treated like a prince much either. My father lives just like
the rest of the survivors of Moraj, except he’s the heart of it all. We are
always searching for Moraj, because we know that is where Velkire has to be.
Once we find him, we’re going to revolt against him and bring our country,
Castellia, back together. You might not have noticed it because you’ve never
lived when there was peace, I haven’t either, but this country is in turmoil.
Velkire travels everywhere and traps the people he comes in contact with into
being part of chaos, when they never even have a clue that it is happening
until it’s too late.”

“Who
is Velkire?” I asked curiously. Whoever this Velkire was he didn’t exactly
sound like the kind of guy you could get free pastries from. Trust me, I know
those kinds of guys and they were freaking saints.

“He’s
like the devil in human form, but that’s not the case,” He said solemnly. “He
is the devil’s son apparently. According to legend he’s also the very first
demon to force his being and other demons out of spiritual form into a physical
form, so humans can be hurt physically by them. On top of all of that he
created Soul Reaping, which is how demons can devour a human’s soul if the
chance is presented. He is the reason some Guardians have to force themselves into
a physical form, but unlike demons, after they do it once, and once their task
is complete by saving their human partner from having their soul from being
reaped, they cannot return to spiritual form and cannot survive long, so they
merge with their partner.

No
Guardians have survived this. Unless a Guardian is originally made into a
physical form by The Healer they are not meant to change into a physical form,
and are only allowed to do it once, but can never return to spiritual form
afterwards. There are some people who can see Guardians while they are still in
spiritual form, and they usually become close with their Guardian. Their gift
is called the Sight. Something similar to this happened a long time ago when
Velkire first came to power a century ago. Only the royal family of Moraj had
remembered the story, along with certain beings that have lived in that time
who are still alive today.”

I
didn’t say anything for a while after that. My brain was processing the flood
of information given to me at the moment. Vaze didn’t add anything and I didn’t
ask any more questions, though I still had a whole lot more. For one, I wanted
to know about the stone I had almost forgotten about, that hung from my neck
nestled in a small leather pouch.

I
wanted to know who The Healer was as well. Vaze and the Bookworm have both
mentioned him without explaining who it was. I wanted to know where the Shadows
came from and especially how there were so many in Laetus when there were none
before. With each question that came into my mind, about five more formed from
them. I was starting to think that maybe I had a problem.

We
never stopped for a break, and no one ever asked for one. I’m sure I wasn’t the
only one wired on adrenaline, and I know for a fact I wasn’t the only one
jumping at every noise that wasn’t made by us. Vaze’s eyes darted from left to
right every so often in a menacing way, as if daring some unseen predator to
attack us and let them see what happens. The first time I had seen Vaze fight,
he wasn’t all that great. But when I saw him the first time he had also been
running from Enzio and the Shadows for who knows how long. He was exhausted
then. When he was fighting Enzio in the town square of Laetus he wasn’t half
bad. In fact, if he were fighting anyone other than Enzio, the fight would
probably be over very quick, with Vaze as the victor. Against an animal going
on instincts alone, I’d probably bet on Vaze. I didn’t give complements like
that lightly—or any complement lightly for that matter. I had to actually be
impressed.

The
more we walked, the tenser the mood became.

Jake
anxiously fingered the dagger strapped to his side that was hidden by his
cloak. Since he was born, he had always been in constant danger. That could
make any one a little bit jumpy, and in this situation, I didn’t blame him one
bit. I made a little mental note to not tap on his shoulder when I wanted to
talk to him.

Al
did his best to keep as close to me as possible. Sometimes, I think of him as a
little kid that I had to protect above all else. In a way that was true. Al was
a negotiator, not a fighter. In contrast, I fought nonstop. Al hardly knew how
to fight, and though he was older than me and it was his responsibility to take
care of me, I still took it upon myself to fight the fights so he won’t have
to, or learn to. Out of all of us, Al was the purest, and had the most chance
of getting out of the hellhole of poverty. Seth would have been able to have the
same chance, but he had a short temper at times, and when he snapped he didn’t
think clearly. I’d always made up fantasies where Al’s quick thinking would get
him places, and possibly even make him into an ambassador one day. It was a
long shot, I know, but I never stopped hoping for my brothers sake that it was
possible.

After
a while, the forest got darker than it had already been. The visibility went
from bad to worse, and I was worried that my lack of direction would cause me
to veer off in an opposite direction by mistake if it got any darker. Vaze
stopped and turned to us.

“We
will stop here for the night,” He said. “It’s too dangerous to travel here when
the sun goes down. We don’t have much farther to go anyway, so it won’t take
long tomorrow to get out of here.” It suddenly occurred to us that we had been
walking for possibly eight hours or more due to the sudden fatigue that
overcame us.

Darren
looked at him with wide eyes. “Wait!” He said with urgency. “How are we going
to know when it’s morning?” I rolled my eyes. Darren was hopeless.

We
stopped and Jake went off with Vaze to try to catch something to eat while the
rest of us went to find wood for a fire. We didn’t want to get lost, so instead
of actually going to look for the wood, we tore off the lowest branches on the
corpse trees near us. After my brothers set the wood down I set it aflame,
comforted by my close inhuman friend made by flames. Fire had always comforted
me, and I had always felt it was a part of me that was as natural as a brain or
a heart, or even a soul.

The
light from the flames cast shadows that seemed to stretch for miles. The trees
shadows were the worst. When I looked behind me, I saw the shadows they cast.
They were long, skinny like people on the verge of death. Though I was
comforted by the light, the scenery just got a lot creepier, and I felt more
vulnerable than ever because of it. However, as if reacting to my fear, the
fire burned a bit brighter as though trying to reach out and protect me.

Vaze
and Jake came back shortly with and owl and a few squirrels. It was our jobs to
skin them and Jake’s to gut them. We had done this before so the whole process
only took around five minutes. Soon our meal of bird and evil squirrel meat was
roasting on skinny branches over the fire. In all honesty, the smell of the
meat roasting was about as attractive as the guts we had buried. It was foul,
and the smoke was just as bad.

Though
it wasn’t attractive to any of the senses, the meat cooked quickly, and we
split the meat evenly. When we finished, our stomachs were as full as they
would be—which wasn’t much at all. Both the squirrels and the owl tasted like
dirt and a mixture of other unmentionable things. However, I was so hungry that
I was afraid that if I didn’t eat, my stomach would eat me.

After
every one finished eating, we decided for one person to be on watch at a time.
First watch was Jake and the rest of us nodded off, each of us desperate to get
away from this horror forest, if only for an hour or two. I was the last to
fall asleep, though I tried harder than anyone. I wish I never did.

I
woke up with a jolt, but still remained half asleep. I looked around drowsily
at my surroundings. Everything was pitch-black, except for a small beam of
light that came from above me, flooding a small circumference with white light.
I tried to bring my hands to my eyes to rub them, but my arms wouldn’t move.

I
tried moving them again, with the same results. I started to panic, which woke
me up enough to see the whole situation. I was sitting in a little wooden
chair. The problem was that I was tied to it from my shoulders down to my upper
torso. I tried to wriggle free, but my attempts were futile. The ropes were too
strong for me.

Finally
coming up with a solution, I concentrated on the ropes, and sure enough, a
little flame popped up and began to eat away at the binds. But almost as
quickly as it came, it died with a hiss. Okay, I admit that then I was really
panicking. I didn’t know where I was and for the first time in my life my fire
wasn’t working. Someone chuckled from inside the darkness. Their laughter
sounded beautiful like silver bells. My frightened eyes shot up staring and
groping for the source.

A
man walked out of the darkness, and my breath was caught in my throat. His pale
skin seemed to have a silver glow, and his hair was jet black like raven’s
feathers. It fell to his shoulders, but unlike most people with long hair it
was clean and looked like soft silk. His features were cut like a granite
statue, but instead of being over bearing, they were pleasant. A quick guess
told me he was around seven feet tall—but then again, to me every one looks
seven feet tall (don’t comment on that). But what surprised me the most were
his eyes. They were grey, alive, and almost completely identical to mine. They
had a tender look to them, but I couldn’t help but feel like there was much
more to him than that.

“Hello
Scarlet,” He said. His voice was as sweet as honey and as beautiful as a harp.
I had no doubt the laughter from before was his. “I’ve been waiting so long to
meet you.”

“Who
are you?” I asked ignoring his politeness and how he knew my name. He only
laughed again.

“I
guess Vaze didn’t tell you about me yet,” He said as a coy charm danced around
in his eyes. He leaned closer, as if to make it more dramatic. “I am Velkire.”

Realization
hit me hard and fast — really fast and unfortunately literally. Out of the
darkness, a new guest arrived. It was Enzio. The minute he saw me his hand shot
to my throat. Or rather, the minute I saw
him
I found his hand had shot
to my throat.

“I’m
going to enjoy every moment of your death, you worthless rat,” He hissed into
my ear, hardly above a whisper. “I’m going to make sure you feel every grinding
second of it and go through as much pain as possible until your very last
breath leaves your body.”

“Now
Enzio, can’t you tell she’s scared enough already?” Velkire said with a hint of
pleasure in his voice. He wagged his finger at him as if it were a joke. “If
she faints before she hears everything we’ll have to come back all over again.
And if my memory serves me right, you hate taking this form, so that would just
be a nuisance for you.”

Enzio’s
eyes shot back to Velkire. A faint look of fear harbored in them as he looked
at the handsome man, as if his small joking was hiding some sort of vile
threat. I didn’t notice at the time though. I was too busy choking and turning
a slight shade of purplish blue that would have made blueberries proud.

Enzio
released my neck and walked back to Velkire. Sweet air flooded back into my
lungs and when I had my fill of it, I looked back up at Velkire.

Velkire
walked closer to me with curious eyes, poising his chin between his pointer
finger and his thumb in a way that may have very well been practiced.
“Fascinating,” He said in awe.  I tried to look like I was calm, also trying to
add the aura of not even having the least interest in him, when in reality I
was so scared I wanted to run away and hide in a hole. I probably would have if
I wasn’t tied up.

“A
mere child defeated not only one, but dozens of Shadows, and possesses a power
that even the most powerful witches and warlocks can only dream of,” He said
acting as if I were a test subject. “Even in the Forbidden Lands, nothing has
ever amounted to this one gift—this one little girl.” He turned to Enzio with a
smile on his face that resembled a small child about to receive a present.
“Isn’t it just brilliant Enzio?”

“Mystifying,
my lord,” He said emotionlessly. I was starting to get annoyed. The fact I that
was most likely in mortal danger left me for a moment. Yeah, I had an
interesting temper.

“Hey,
I’m still here,” I said. “If you’re going to kill me can you hurry it up? I’m
getting kind of bored.”

Velkire
laughed. Enzio shot me a look that said he wanted to kill me. Maybe he just
wanted to make sure I knew. Nice guy.

“And
she’s so amusing!” He said with glee. He turned to me. “I’m not going to kill
you yet. It’s been too much fun to watch you struggle. I want to see how long
you’ll last in this game of mine. If you get far enough, I’ll reward you, but
not yet. Shadows are just the vermin of the army I have under my thumb. Although
they are stronger than regular humans, you are too. You also have one other
thing besides your gift that they don’t—a will. Unfortunately they can also be
cowards. I’d send some after you to test your brothers as well, but the forest
scares them so much, they do not obey their master. Hmm… no matter, there are
other things I can send.”

Fear
for my brothers came into my mind, and I scrambled for an idea. The only one
that came was to keep talking.

“It
won’t matter what you send, I can stop them before they get within twenty
feet,” I said while forcing a confident smile onto my face. “You know that,
don’t you Enzio? Oh, how’s your hand by the way?”

“Take
a look for yourself.” He lifted up a bandaged hand and unraveled the black
bandages. As they fell to the floor, a terrifying site began to unfold before
me. Enzio’s hand was no longer flesh and blood. It was mechanized, like an
automaton owned by a cheap magician. But it looked far more advanced than anything
I’d ever seen (even though that wasn’t much). The hand moved like a normal
hand, but where the joints were revealed the strange contraptions spinning
around inside. Enzio seemed to sense my distress.

“That’s
not even the best part,” He said slyly. In the blink of an eye, the fingers
extended into sharp black claws like those of the Shadows, but they looked like
they could do ten times the damage. I tried my best to keep my cool. I whistled
in awe.

“Shiny,”
I said in a mocking tone. “Do they come in anything besides black? Or is that
just your pet peeve; red with black or nothing?”

   
Enzio growled, but a stern look from Velkire made him decide not to choke me
again. Velkire turned to me.

“That
is true, you probably
could
stop some of my slaves within twenty feet,”
Velkire said in disappointment. “That won’t be even the least bit interesting
at all. And on top of that your father was the best weapons master that walked
the earth, so even without your gift, you are a formidable foe. Fighting just
seems to run in your blood.”

“Wait—what?”
I cut in, but I was ignored.

“I’ve
got it!” Velkire said with glee. He took off a black glove from his hand to
reveal his long pale fingers. “This may burn, but it should be much better than
the alternative way.” He held out his hand to me, and revealed the pattern on the
palm of his hand. It was a pentagram—a five pointed star within a circle. He
started to move his hand toward my forehead. I knew whatever he was going to do
couldn’t be a good thing, so I did the only thing I could do in this position.

When
his hand was close enough, I snapped my jaws down on it, and bit as hard as I
could. The iron taste of blood tinged my tongue, but I refused to release his
hands from my jaw. Velkire spat a curse uncharacteristically and hit me over
the head. A trickle of blood ran down my forehead but still I would not let go.
I would have held on until I passed out if not for Enzio.

Reacting
to his master’s cries, Enzio snatched me up by the back of my neck and rose me
off the floor, chair and all. He squeezed so hard I thought he might break my
spine. Instantly my jaw released as an involuntary action, and Velkire pulled
back and clutched a bleeding hand.

Enzio
released me and my chair hit the floor. The second it landed he back-handed my head
with his metal hand. I didn’t react beyond jerking forward. I didn’t want to
give either of them the satisfaction of seeing me yelp in pain. I looked at Velkire,
who seemed to be surrounded by stars until they cleared within a few seconds. His
expression and mood changed from relatively happy to dark and evil. I smiled
cockily. I enjoyed pissing off people I didn’t like. That may get me killed one
of these days.

“You
really are dull witted like Enzio said, aren’t you?” Velkire’s voice sounded
especially hollow. “Now we’re going to have to do this the hard way.”

He
motioned with his good hand to the darkness and a young girl walked into the
light. She was beautiful, yet terrifying at the same time. Her hair was pure
white and her features where soft and gentle. She wasn’t human though. Like
Enzio, her eyes were red. But unlike him, instead of normal eyes with red
color, they were completely red, with no pupil or iris. Her skin was grey like
stone, yet it had the look of youth and vigor. Her ears were slightly pointed
at the end, like a gargoyle’s.

“Yes
master?” she said to Velkire. Her voice was sweet and high, but at the same
time was steely and low, as if two people were talking at once.

“This
is the girl,” he said. “You know what to do.” The girl smiled sweetly.

“Indeed
master,” she said in response and then walked over to my chair. She lifted up a
hand, but unlike Velkire, she didn’t have any designs on her hands. However,
she had something a lot worse. Instantly, her nails turned into black claws
like the Shadows’.

“Please
sit still,” she said politely in a sick cheery attitude. “This will only hurt
more if you struggle.”

Yeah,
right—as if I was going to listen. She put a hand on my shoulder and leaned
down to eye level. I tried swaying back and forth, in hopes that I would fall
and break the chair to give myself a shot at freedom, but she forced me to be
still. Before I had the chance to brace myself she jabbed her clawed hand into
my lower torso, and began to slice the same design as on Velkire’s hand onto my
stomach. I screamed in agonizing pain. It was unlike any I had experienced
before. I kept begging my body to let my mind pass out, but it never happened.
The girl’s claws continued to etch the design onto my stomach, seeming to cut
my insides up in the process. I coughed blood onto the girl’s hands and onto my
pants. She didn’t seem to care.

Finally,
she stopped. She rose up from me and returned to Velkire with my blood dripping
from her fingers. Unfortunately, the pain didn’t leave with her. It felt as if
she was still tearing through my flesh.

“Anything
else, Master?” she asked in her cheery little demonic voice.

“No,
that will be all,” he said cheerily, as if it were contagious. Enzio stared at
me with a smugly. Velkire slinked toward me like a cat to a trapped mouse.

“Don’t
worry child,” He said in an exaggerated insincere tone. “In time this may prove
to be a gift, if you use it well.” He cocked one foot up onto the top of my
chair and stooped his face down to mine until we were staring eye to eye. I then
knew what was underneath the fake tenderness. It was bloodlust. “Who knows?
Maybe you’ll like this power so much, you’ll decide to come and join me.”

As
the last words slithered off of his tongue, he kicked my chair back towards the
ground. I couldn’t react. The pain proved too much of an obstacle for my
thoughts. The only thing I could think of was that I was so tired, and I just
wanted to shut my eyes, never to open them again. The only thing I could do was
stare blankly at Enzio and Velkire as I sailed towards the ground. Velkire’s
smug smile stuck with my sight as the light faded. It was over soon enough,
though the impact never came.

~

I
jumped out of the cloak I had used to cover the ground. I was drenched in a cold
sweat and my heart threatened to burst from my chest as I looked around
frantically.

My
brothers were all sleeping in a ring around the fire. I released a relieved
sigh. Though we were in the Forest of Death, we were still safer than being
wherever Velkire was. The dream had seemed so real, but my one reassurance was
how I felt. Though my shoulder was still sore from my previous injuries, there
was no pain from whatever happened in my dream.

“Are
you all right?” A voice from above asked. I clenched with fear. A quick look
told me it was Vaze on his watch. I took a deep breath to satisfy my racing heart.

“Just
had a bad dream,” I said, trying to avoid going into details. There was no
reason to make a fuss over it. “I’m fine now.”

“You
know,” he said while hopping down from his perch to sit by me. “I was taught
dreams can sometimes be more than dreams. Like for people with the Sight, or
people like you— demons in spiritual form can torment them in their dreams. Or
sometimes in dreams the Healer can give you visions. For me, dreams are never
just dreams. Even the most bizarre of them hold some importance.”