Insanity Chapter Thirty-Two

Insanity

Chapter Thirty-Two

~Voice of the Unheard – Part Three~

Day Twenty-Four

“Fang! You’re sure you know where you’re goin’?” Alister looked around, “The floors all look the same.”

Fang didn’t answer. He walked ahead of the group as if he knew where he was going. The fact was that he felt drawn to something. On the top floor he came across a room. It appeared to be an office. It was dark inside and when Fang entered. There was a heavy dark aura in the office yet something about it felt familiar.

He walked behind the desk and sat Thomas. Upon seeing the body, Blue covered Arisa’s eyes. She squirmed of course but Blue managed to get her out of the room.

“How long ago did he die?” Fang asked.

“It’s weird,” Penelope said, “His body’s freezing cold but there is no decomposition and rigor mortis hasn’t set in. Without the strange temperature, I’d say about thirty to forty-five minutes. We sorta just missed his killer.”

“Someone’s been watching too much TV,” Alister muttered.

“I would like to just get it out there that I was a Forensic Scientist for three years,” Penelope said.

“Yeah?” Alister almost laughed, “Doing what?”

“Cyber Forensics,” Penelope said, “I tracked down bad guys through the computer.”

“And how do you know about rigor and decomp and the like?” Alister crossed his arms.

“It’s not like you live in a bubble when you’re assigned a certain department! You do talk to people you know!” Penelope stomped her foot.

“The coroner was your only friend, right?” Alister shook his head.

“Not true,” her voice lost its forcefulness.

“Well the coroner and his assistant,” Alister added.

“Why I aughta—”

“He looks empty,” Fang said.

Penelope looked down, “Well, yeah he’s dead.”

“I’ve seen many dead people before and they still look like they have life. The color in their skin is still there. Their eyes are still wet. In certain cases it looks like they’re still sleeping. But him,” Fang pointed, “he looks completely empty, like something was taken away from him.”

Alister leaned over to Penelope, “The boss is creepin’ me out.”

Penelope nodded.

Fang stood up, “He’s no use to us now. Let’s get out of here.”

Alister and Penelope did as they were asked. Fang stayed behind for a moment. He walked to the window and listened. There was nothing to hear. Fang’s eyes narrowed. Where were the police? They should have been here by now. Keeping the matter in mind he walked out of the room.

In the hallway, Blue, Arisa, Penelope and Alister were trying to pry open an elevator door. When they opened it, Raven climbed up the shaft and stood there. She looked annoyed. Shadow climbed up after her.

“I told him the elevator was a bad idea,” Raven said.

“It worked fine!” Shadow defended.

“Yeah, until it stopped and started to fill with water and we had to scale thirty odd stories,” Raven walked away from him, “I told you we should have taken the stairs.”

“Yeah, but—” Shadow started.

“Shh!” Fang shushed.

Everyone grew quiet. After a moment Fang ran to the stairwell. The others followed after him.

“Care to fill us in?” Arisa asked as they ran after him.

“A helicopter is coming,” Fang said, “We need to get to the roof.”

As they entered the stairwell they heard a door close above them. They ran faster than ever and when they reached the top the door was stuck. Fang kicked down the door and ran onto the roof. A running helicopter sat ready to leave as its passengers situated themselves. He caught a glimpse of Edonya entering the helicopter. Others still stood out of the craft.

“Get them!” Fang yelled, “Get them now!”

Alister pulled out a grenade from his pocket. Penelope picked a handful of black beads from her bag and threw them. Shadow threw his daggers while Fang fired his gun. Raven dashed forward alongside a strip of flame coming from Arisa.

A man in black stared at them with a grey eye. Their combined attacks seemed to meet their mark. But suddenly a grey shockwave sent their attacks back at them in a form of energy. They were blown back and some almost fell off the side of the building. Raven who was the closest to the wave was one of the ones who fell to their deaths but she clung on to the edge.

Fang got to his feet.

“Oh, Fang,” the man said, “You’re always so quick to finish things off. Now, I’d have loved to kill you now but I have a previous engagement,” The man turned and entered the helicopter, “You two delay them.”

“Yes, sir,” Flare and Rose said in unison.

“Who are you?!” Fang asked.

The man smiled, “Ask your beloved Tower. I’m sure they know a few things about me. I’ll see you later, Fang.”

“Wait!” Fang said, there was something familiar about this man.

Rose flicked the black rose in his hand. The ground shook and a large stem of a plant shot out of the roof in front of them. Arisa stood on shaky legs and shot out her arm, setting the plant on fire. It burned and withered. Flare took a deep breath and blew. A raging fire escaped from her mouth and Blue was directly in its path.

“Blue!” Fang called.

Blue seemed out of it. His eyes didn’t seem to stray from the girl in orange. Words seemed to be forming on his lips but his voice failed to project.

“Blue!” Fang ran at the helpless being.

Fang pushed him out of the way just as the fames passed. On the ground, Fang slapped Blue.

“Blue, are you there?! Snap out of this, Blue!” he said.

Blue didn’t seem to hear Fang. His eyes were still on the orange girl. Flare turned around after Rose and headed into the helicopter. When it was her turn to climb in Blue pushed Fang off of him. He stood and ran a little ways. At that moment, Fang and everyone else heard something they had never heard before. Blue’s voice.

“Kyra!” he shouted.

In surprise the girl turned around.

“Kyra!” Blue sobbed.

The girl was pulled into the helicopter and the door was closed. She returned to the window, banging on and screaming something. The helicopter lifted off the ground and started to leave. Blue ran toward the helicopter. Fang and Shadow were at his heels. They caught up to him. Fang grabbed his left arm and Shadow got his right. They held him back and Blue struggled violently.

“Let me go!” Blue screamed.

Just let me go please! I’m begging—”

“Kyra!”

The tears were streaming down his face. As he watched the helicopter leave. When it was finally out of site he dropped to his knees. He wept and cried as if someone had ripped his hear out. Fang looked down at him. He tried to help Blue up hut Blue pushed him away and screamed.

“Get away from me!” the voice was filled with anger, sorrow and longing.

Fang looked at Arisa. She stood there wide eyes, not sure what to do. She had never seen Blue like this and certainly had never heard his voice. Her eyes slowly filled with tears. She felt helpless. Her legs gave way and she fell to her knees. She crawled to Blue’s side and tried to comfort him. Blue pushed her away. His hand hit her face and she flew to the side. She landed awkwardly, sprawled to one side. Tears started to flow down her face faster. She curled up into a ball and cried silently.

“Kyra,” Blue muttered over and over again.

Raven had just pulled herself from over the edge. She seemed to have heard him as well when he first cried out.

There was a noise that Fang couldn’t make out. Suddenly, the ground exploded in front of them. shadowcraft dropped out of its cloak and flew over them. Fang and Shadow were blown back by the blast but Blue barely seemed to notice. Shadow looked around in the sky. There were several shadowcrafts around. Looked like the Tower caught up with them. He looked at Fang.

Fang got up, “Come on! We have to get out of here! Blue!”

Blue was still unaware of what was happening. Alister walked up took his gun and hit Blue in the back of the head.

“‘E’s not comin’ back any time soon,” he said, “This is the best way to transport him. Penelope you can teleport him to the craft right?”

She nodded.

“You do that and get ‘er started,” Alister commanded.

Penelope ran up to the unconscious Blue. She looked over at Arisa.

“What about her?” she asked.

“I’ll carry her,” Raven said, “I can carry her on my back. Lost my last sword when I almost fell.”

“That sound good,” Shadow looked at Fang, “What do you think?”

“It can’t hurt,” he said, “Whatever we’re going to do we have to do it now!”

Everyone nodded. Penelope placed a hand on Blue and they both disappeared. Raven situated Arisa on her back. Another explosion happened on the roof. Their place of standing was getting pretty small.

“You are surrounded,” the voice sounded familiar.

“Sage,” Fang muttered.

“Resistance is futile,” Sage said, “You are in ownership of stolen property. I repeat you are surrounded.”

Fang looked at the undamaged side of the wall.

“What does everyone think about free falling?” Fang asked.

“Sounds good,” Shadow said.

“Anything to shut him up,” Raven said.

They all ran to the edge and jumped over. Raven ran down the side of the building. Shadow merged with the wall and went down that way. Fang and Alister fell. Alister landed on a parked car and Fang landed on the sidewalk*. Raven jumped off the side of the building and onto the street where she continued running.

They ran down the street. Shadow was nowhere to be seen but on one of the streets they passed a car started. The car drove up to Alister and Fang.

Shadow smiled, “As awesome as you three think you are; you can’t out run a shadowcraft. I’m sorry but that just isn’t happening. Hop in.”

“Everyone buckled?” Alister asked inside.

“You’re kidding,” Shadow said, “I think that this situation can be an exception.”

“Safety first, is all I’m sayin’,” Alister said.

They got in and Shadow sped up. The army of shadowcrafts followed close behind him. Alister sat in the back of the Hummer assembling a rocket launcher*. He looked at the skylight and smiled. Alister broke through it. He propped the weapon on his shoulder as Shadow did some evasive driving.

“Any idea where Sage is Fang?” Alister asked.

Fang rolled down the window and tilted mirror so it looked up. He heard the strange sound that he heard before.

“Shadow, dodge left,” he said.

Shadow did as the ground where they had just been exploded.

“Try the one just to the left of two-o-clock,” Fang told Alister, he looked at Shadow, “Right.”

Shadow drove the vehicle right and the ground to the left of them vanished in flames.

“Is that my two-o-clock or your two-o-clock?” Alister asked Fang.

“Yours,” Fang sighed, “Take this next left, Shadow. Stop!”

The car jerked to a stop, slamming Alister’s back into the edge of the sun roof. The round in front of them blew up. And temporarily they were surrounded by flames.

“Now you can go,” Fang said when the flames dissipated.

“Ow,” Alister muttered.

“Suck it up, Alister,” Fang said, “Three-o-clock, go.”

Alister aimed the rocket directly to his right he fired and watched the rocket reach its target. The shadowcraft exploded in midflight. Alister whistled.

“Look at that,” he said, “Prettier than fireworks.”

“Where’s Raven?” Shadow asked.

“Stay close to the buildings on the left,” Fang said, “She runs faster that this car does. But I’m sure she’ll wait somewhere down the line. Good job Alister.”

“No problem,” Alister ducked down to get another rocket.

“Nice try Fang,” Sage said, “you will have to do better than that.”

Fang closed his eyes, “Twelve-o-clock.”

“There ain’t anythin’ there,” Alister said.

“Turn right,” Fang said.

The ground exploded behind them, almost knocking them over as they made the turn. In front of them was the view of the lake.

“What was that?” Alister asked.

“It’s cloaked,” Fang said, Now Shadow, just survive a few more minutes, okay.”

Shadow looked at him, “Why wouldn’t I?”

“I’m just saying,” Fang said, “Dodge left.”

Shadow did and as usual they barely missed their deaths. Alister ducked his head inside the vehicle.

“Can I drive?” he asked.

“No!” Shadow answered.

They saw Raven just ahead of them. She looked over her shoulder. Her eyes found Fang and she seemed to be asking a question. Fang nodded and she continued running toward the water.

“Fang?” Shadow asked.

“Keep going,” Fang answered, “Left.”

Another explosion.

Fang unbuckled, “Right.

Shadow looked at him in the red glow, “Should I—”

“Unbuckle? It might be easier in the long run if you do,” Fang pointed, “Alister get in the car. Right.”

Alister sat down. Shadow shook his head.

“No, I mean do you want me to—”

“Drive through the railing and dive into the water?” Fang shrugged, “Yeah, that’s pretty much what I had in mind. Increase speed, please.”

“How can you be so calm?” Shadow asked, he was obviously starting to freak out.

“This will work,” Fang said, “If you speed up. This is in no means fast enough. We’ll just end up like pancakes at this rate.”

The car sped up.

“I’ve already almost died once today!” Shadow said.

“Um, guys,” Alister interrupted.

“Now you will almost have died twice,” Fang looked at him, “Speed up.”

“You are going to kill us!” Shadow shouted, “Is this like some form of mass suicide?!”

“Hey um, you might wanna—” Alister tried again.

“You’ll kill us if you don’t go faster,” Fang said still keeping a cool head.

“This is pretty fast already,” Alister stared ahead, “The railing is coming really fa—”

“We still have a ways,” Fang interrupted.

“Like heck we do!” Shadow shouted, he looked forward, “We’re all going to—shi—”

They drove through the railing and into the lake below. Raven jumped over the edge and plunged in with Arisa. From above there was no action as the shadowcrafts tried to find any signs of life.

Moments after the Hummer plunged into the cold waters another shadowcraft shot out of the water. It cloaked itself and disappeared into the night before the other crafts could fire at it.

*I know, I know, not realistic. So sue me.

*Don’t ask me where he keeps them. Just go with it

Insanity Chapter Thirty-One

Insanity

Chapter Thirty-One

~Voice of the Unheard – Part Two~

Day Twenty-Four

“What do you mean you had to fall back?!” Thomas shouted into the phone, “Why?!”

“I’ll tell you why!” Zorah yelled on the other end, “We’re being flooded out, that’s why!”

“A little water never hurt anyone!”

“A little? A little?!” Zorah was losing her patience, “There’s enough water here to drown a great whale! The first two floors are flooded and my knees are gettin’ wet! There are barely any survivors while you sit there rather comfortable like!”

“I want Fang killed!” Thomas shouted, “I need Fang killed!”

“Well, it ain’t happenin’ today, dear,” Zorah said.

Thomas frantically looked for a solution, “How many of you are there?”

“As far as I know,” Zorah paused, “just me.”

Thomas felt his heart sink to his stomach, “But that’s still a chance.”

“What was that?”

“Kill him,” Thomas said.

“I’m sorry, thought I ‘eard you say kill ‘I'm,” Zorah said in disbelief.

“I want you to kill him!”

“By myself?!”

“If you have to! I want him dead!” Thomas hung up the phone.

Zorah stood by the phone for another minute. She couldn’t believe what she had just heard. The water was already up to her waist and he wanted her to kill Fang all by herself. In anger she hung up the phone. There was no point in standing around anymore. She needed to get to the stairs. At the stairwell she came across a surprise.

“He’s gone insane,” she muttered, “He’s gone bloody insane.”

“There she is!” Edonya waved at her from a floor above.

“I thought I heard her muttering,” Thae said

“Come on up, up, up,” Edonya said.

Relief washed over Zorah and she ran up the stairs to meet them.

“So this is where you blokes were hiding!” she hugged Edonya, “I thought you were dead!”

“Thae saved me!” Edonya chimed.

“Is ‘at so,” Zorah looked at Thae.

Thae crossed his arms and looked away, “Yeah, so what.”

“Nice to know someone has a heart,” Zorah’s smile disappeared, “At least half of one! Why didn’t ya save me too?”

“Look at her,” Thae said, “She can barely make it through this story let alone a current.”

“We’re in a story?” Edonya asked.

“Never mind,” Zorah glared at Thae.

Thomas breathed heavily. There was a chance. Not a big one but a chance is a chance. He started to breath normally again and even began to laugh.

“Thomas,” a voice said in the room.

Thomas’s half chuckle stopped. He felt cold all of a sudden. A hand came up behind him and touched under his chin. The hand forced Thomas to look into another man’s eyes. He trembled as he looked into the man’s eyes.

A pair of eyes looked into his. One was grey and the other was a dark glowing purple. A thing smile appeared in the darkness. The man had flowing black hair.

“Thomas,” the man said, “You failed me.”

“No. no,” Thomas shook his head, “There’s still a chance. There’s still a chance!”

“Oh, Thomas,” the man placed one finger on Thomas’s lips to silence him, “Let’s be logical now.”

Thomas hit the man’s hand away, “No! Stay away from he!”

“But you have something that belongs to me,” the man smiled.

The man’s purple eye stirred into a bright purple. Thomas screamed. When the room was quiet Thomas’s lifeless body fell in a heap on the ground. The man’s eye returned to its normal dark purple. He smiled.

“Now, now, Thomas,” the man looked down at Thomas, “We did have an agreement. Your soul for failure and life for Fang. You did fail, didn’t you?”

The man looked around the office. He left the room.

“Come on!” Zorah said as she ran up the stairs.

Edonya was fast asleep on Thae’s back. She had grown tired after the first or so flight of stairs and complained continuously after that so Thae let her on his back. He looked up Zorah.

“Try running with this lazy on your back,” Thae said.

“I wasn’t the one who decided to help her,” Zorah smiled.

Thae’s stance suddenly got defensive as he looked at something past her. Zorah grabbed her staff and looked at the threat. Two people stood on the landing just ahead of them. One was a man and he wore red. He smiled sweetly while smelling a black rose. His black hair hid part of his face as he looked at the three below with red eyes. He wore a red cloak with black roses on them. The other was a girl. She stared blankly at them with orange eyes. All that she wore was orange. Her hair was orange and short. She just wore orange leather and high heeled boots.

“Look what we have here, Flare,” the man said.

“Three survivors,” Flare said.

“That’s right,” the man said, “Right where Master said they’d be.”

“What do you what?” Zorah raised her staff.

The man bowed, “My apologies, we haven’t introduced ourselves, have we? I’m Black Rose but you can call be Rose. This is my associate Flare. Say hello, Flare.”

“Hello,” she said.

“That’s nice,” Rose said, “We are here to offer you the same invitation that our Master offered to us a long time ago. He asks if you would be interested to join us, the Zeta of Darkness.”

“And why should we join you?” Zorah said.

“We’ll have to kill you then,” Flare said.

“Hold on, Flare!” Rose said with a smile, “We should at least give them reasons why.”

“But Master said—”

“Master also said they’re valuable assets. If you kill them, they aren’t valuable anymore,” he looked back at the tree, “Again, my apologies. My partner here is a little too good at her job. She takes everything literally. You don’t have to join our team but you would be missing an opportunity to go down in history.”

“Really?” Edonya woke up.

Rose smiled, “Of course, my dear.”

“What would we go down in history for?” Thae asked, “The three stupidest people to fall for a line like that?”

“How about you name’s in the book for reforming this world?” Rose’s eyes narrowed.

He was really beginning to hate the one in black.

“What do you mean?” Zorah said with her weapon still raised.

“We Others have been put down enough. The humans hate us and wish we were all dead. They will continue to make our lives miserable. So we’ll have to either turn them all into us Others or kill them off,” Rose smiled, “There’s no need to worry though. Our Master is giving humans a chance. When we finally take over this world, we’ll be like kings!”

“And what makes you think we’ll join?” Thae asked.

“We’ll have to kill you if you don’t,” Flare said.

“We can also help you get Fang,” Rose nodded, “We want him dead. He is honestly the only one that can catch on to what we’re doing and stop us. It’s so sad how naïve people will be. We’re doing what we’re doing for a cause.”

“The end justifies the means, is that right?” Zorah asked. She lowered her weapon, “I do have a beef with Fang and his band of merry men.”

“We all do!” Edonya said, “And I don’t wanna die.”

Thae rolled his eyes, “So you guys are buying into this crap?”

“I don’t see why not,” Zorah said, “It’s the logical choice.”

“I’m in!” Edonya said.

“Great,” Thae said sarcastically, “Someone has to look after you. That forces me to join.”

“I have Zorah,” Edonya looked down at Thae.

“Yeah? Well look what happened,” Thae said, “You nearly burned to a crisp, got pulled into the floor and drowned in less than an hour. Face it, you need an army of people to look after you.”

“Thae, you’re mean!” Edonya jumped off his back and went to stand with Zorah.

“So you’re all joining?” Rose asked.

“Looks like it, Flower Boy,” Thae said.

Yeah, he was really hating this Thae.

“Well, that’s good news,” Rose said through clenched teeth.

Flare turned away slightly to hide a faint smile.

“That’s very good news,” a voice said.

Everyone looked up. A man with different colored eyes looked down at them.

“Master?” Rose asked, “What are you doing here? I had everything under control.”

“I’m sure you did,” the man said, “I never doubted you. I just got board of waiting. Come on, let’s get to the roof. Nest is waiting.”

Insanity Chapter Thirty

Insanity

Chapter Thirty

~Voice Of The Unheard~

Day Twenty-Four

“Come on, come on! This way!”

“Move it people! Get into position!”

“Keep it down! Their coming through the front!”

Edonya did her best to keep up with Zorah but the older woman’s strides were much longer than her own. They made their way the entrance way of the building. Zorah ducked down into her hiding place behind the railing of the balcony that overlooked the lobby below. Edonya joined her, breathless.

“Now don’t tell me your tired before the fun begins,” she said jokingly

Edonya didn’t answer.

“Everyone ready?! This starts now!”

Everyone quieted down. There was silence as they waited for the enemy.

Edonya looked over at Zorah, “Why are we hiding here? Couldn’t they pop up some other place?”

“Chances are they’ll pop up here. They don’t know where their goin’ so they’ll ‘ave ta go room by room. No place ta start like the beginin’, wouldn’t ya say?”

Edonya nodded.

Everyone silence completely when they heard something; someone was walking down below.

“Well, what are we going to do now?” a deep voice said.

“Oh, I don’t know,” there was a high feminine sounding voice.

Zorah flinched, “She sounds as ugly as a troll.”

Edonya struggled to cover a laugh. Zorah reached for the staff on her back. It looked identical to her old one and looked almost brand new. She moved to a crouch as she prepared to attack. Edonya did the same.

“Oh, what are we going to do,” the deep voice said.

“Well, there is no one here, what are we going to do?” the squeaky voice said.

 Zorah looked around, “On my mark. Ready, set, go!”

Others everywhere stood and aimed their weapons down into the lobby. For a good minute there was constant gun fire. Slowly however it stopped when people realized that the lone thing in the lobby wasn’t human. Upon closer inspection it was a poorly made dummy. Soon though, someone stepped out from behind the sorry excuse for a dummy.

“That’s what I call choosin’ the short stick! What if I’d been killed? Would they ‘ave cared ‘bout that?” Alister complained as he looked himself over for bullet holes.

“What the—?” Zorah started before she felt some hot air blow past her.

Edonya turned to see what it was. Zorah turned around quickly, extending her staff as she did so. Her staff hit Edonya in the stomach, sending her over the edge. Others started to notice the heat and turned around. Zorah looked at the flaming inferno headed their way. She bent backward over the edge and fell over. Zorah landed on her feet as flames soared above her. Edonya sat sprawled on the floor as she looked up at what could have been her demise.

Glass shattered from above as Raven fell through purposefully. Her cloak made her look like a bird of death as she reached for one of her long swords. The Others who were unaffected by the fire shot at her and Alister. Raven used her blade to protect her form the deadly bullets while Alister pulled out an automatic weapon from the back of the dummy and started to aim and shoot.

Thae grew his wings and went to engage her in battle. Raven unclipped her cloak, pulled her other sword and prepared for the impact. The two practically ran into each other. Thae grabbed her leg and flew higher. Raven was whipped around and in the shock of the force she dropped one of her weapons. She took her other sword and cut at Thae’s wrist. The cut didn’t faze him he threw her into a beam in the wall. He flew at her and used his powers to go through the beam and take her along with him.

Edonya screamed. Zorah looked and saw the girl being pulled into the ground. The older woman dashed and grabbed Edonya’s hand. Edonya was already half pulled into the floor. Zorah’s staff was back on her back when she dashed to save the girl abd now both her hands were keeping the girl from unknown harm.

“I need ta reach my staff, Edonya!” Zorah yelled over a sudden gust of wind that was Alister’s doing, “I’m going ta have ta let one hand go!”

“But—”

“Promise it’ll be betta’ for the both a us!” Zorah did her best to smile.

She let go of one had and Edonya sunk deeper into the floor. Zorah reached for her staff and situated it as she prepared for a one handed lunge. The point of the staff unraveled into two deadly points. She trusted the staff fairly close to Edonya’s body. The staff point sailed through the floor. There was some resistance as the two points his something. What or whoever grabbed onto her leg let go and Edonya flew out of the floor. Zorah pulled her staff out.

There was an explosion and glass shattered everywhere. Penelope ran in the red glow laying down time bombs that she had invented and made herself near the front doors. She flipped to dodge the bullets that were fired at her. When she did, she pulled out a handgun from her belt and fired back.

Fang stood somewhere on the higher level in all the chaos watching the events that transpired. He kept close tabs on everyone and was worried about Raven. There was no sight of her after her disappearance with Thae. Shadow appeared beside him, clutching his shoulder.

“What happened to you?” Fang asked during another explosion.

“I got a nice massage,” Shadow said, “I got speared! What does it look like!?”

“Find Raven,” Fang said, “Thae got to her.”

“Not even an ‘oh sorry to hear that Shadow. Now go find Raven’?” Shadow asked.

Fang glared at him. Shadow nodded and shifted into the wall. Inside the wall Shadow looked around. He saw a white figure laying above him. It looked like Raven and Shadow ran to her. He was about to get to her when he felt something around his throat. Thae’s arm was around his neck like a grey snake slowly killing him. Shadow reached for one of his many daggers. He found one strapped to his chest and cut the arm. Shadow fell to his knees and gasped for breath. He got up quickly and turned around to see where Thae ended up.

Thae came at him. Shadow raised his dagger to defend himself. He was pushed back and ended up on his back, the dagger thrown from his hand. Thae’s hand sealed its grip around Shadow’s neck. He struggled and tried to pull Thae’s arm away from his neck. Thae didn’t seem to approve. He raised his other hand. His nails lengthened and he shot his hand forward pushing his nails into Shadow’s shoulder wound. With Thae’s other hand around his neck Shadow couldn’t even scream in pain. Shadow was starting to get dizzy. That was when Shadow’s survival instincts kicked in. He tried to scratch Thae anywhere trying to find a weak point. His vision started to blur and his efforts became weaker and weaker. Eventually, he was too weak to raise his hands. He stared into Thae’s eyes as his life was being squeezed out of him.

This wasn’t like how he thought it would feel. Death. He had pictured maybe blowing up in some situation, getting shot, stabbed, heck; getting killed by Fang had even crossed his mind a few times. But strangulation hadn’t made the list. He lay there looking into his killers eyes as his eyes slowly closed.

Though the slits of his eyes he saw something graze past his attackers face. Thae let go suddenly and Shadow’s lungs suddenly filled with air. A white blur darted across his vision knocking Thae off of him. Shadow rolled over to his side gasping for air that his body hungrily desired.

Thae easily threw off the white figure. By the way it was fighting it was quickly getting weak. It fell to the matter-less ground and stayed relatively still. Shadow pulled out three daggers hidden in his pant legs and threw them at Thae. The daggers missed; Shadow’s head felt light and almost made him sick to move, but they kept Thae away. Angered, Thae’s grey figure turned white as he left the dimensional space. Shadow grabbed the figure and exited as well.

He pulled Raven out of the wall in a deserted hallway. Shadow leaned against the wall and collapsed. Raven lay unconscious beside him with her head on his shoulder. Shadow breathed heavily. Slowly, Raven woke up. Her head felt like it was filled with led. She looked at Shadow at an angle.

“You’re bleeding,” she stated in her usual monotone voice.

Shadow laughed, “I’m glad you noticed!”

“Are you hurt that bad?” she asked.

“Nothing that can’t heal,” he said, “Thanks for the rescue back there.”

“I’m not the sort of girl that waits to be rescued. I fight as long as I can even if it kills me. I saved you so you could get me out of there. Besides, I wasn’t going to watch you die,” Raven closed her eyes for a moment, “Is there any water nearby?”

Shadow looked around. There was a drinking fountain down the hallway. Shadow helped Raven to her feet and the walked to the drinking fountain. Raven pushed in the button. At first there was a lot of flowing water but it slowly waned away to nothing.

“What are you waiting for?” Shadow asked.

“There’s no water,” Raven said.

There was a bathroom nearby and Shadow helped her inside. All of the toilets were emptied of their water and none of the faucets worked. Shadow smiled into the mirror.

“I wonder what Fang told Blue to do,” he said.

“The only thing we can do now is to do what they expect us to do while we do something they don’t expect but what we really intended,” Raven stated, she looked up at Shadow, “In the circus I used a phrase that describes the situation because it sounded really nice and naïve people don’t know its real meaning. It’s called a Cleansing By Water.”

“That’s just a fancy way of saying you’re going to drown,” Shadow interpreted.

“It’s nice to know you’re not a naïve person who doesn’t know the real meaning,” she said.

“I try,” he smiled, “It’s good that we got out of there when we did.”

There was a loud creaking sound in the pipes.

“I think we should go up higher,” Raven looked a little worried.

“Yeah, sure,” Shadow nodded, “What about the others?”

“Fang’s got this all figured out,” Raven stood up as their watches beeped.”

“Why do I have the feeling that Fang knew we would be here at this time talking about going when our watches would tell us to do just that?” Shadow sighed.

“Possibilities? Probabilities? Chances? Odds? Likelihoods? Does it really matter?” Raven walked out, “We’re 5.3 seconds behind schedule.”

“You’re their leader! I’ll—”

Fang wasn’t in the nicest of moods when his thoughts were interrupted. A blue bullet fired into the man’s head leaving him in a heap on the ground. Fang placed his gun back into its place. His ears picked up a groaning sound from inside the walls. It creaked and moaned.

“Fall back!” Zorah’s voice cried out.

Her voice stopped suddenly as she listened to the creaking of the walls. She looked around for Edonya. Zorah called for her when the water came. It fell from one of the higher levels and down on the lobby below. Almost instantly the water swept everyone on the lobby floor. Zorah was lifted off her feet and pulled away from Edonya. Edonya tried to reach for Zorah but was submerged by the water. A wave of water pushed Zorah under the water. She swam as hard as she could against the current. When her head popped back up she grabbed her staff. The two spikes uncurled and this time shot forward. They hit the railing of one of the stairs. As they retracted they pulled Zorah to safety.

She was still waist deep in water when she got to the stairs and it was quickly rising. Zorah ran up the steps as fast as she could. She glanced back at the rising water. A whirlpool developed and shot up to one of the higher levels before dissipating into mist. Zorah ran up the stairs with the water at her heels.

Some of the Others that survived rad down the hallway they had just come only to get a face full of fire. Zorah was about to go down the hallway too when a blast of fire escaped the hallway again. She stood to one side of the door as the flames snaked out. The flames stopped and Zorah waited a moment. A girl skipped out onto the balcony she couldn’t have been older that twelve. She looked at the rising waters and smiled. Then she burst into flames. She jumped and propelled herself to the same level that Zorah noticed. Zorah scowled. She glanced around the corner; the water was already at her feet and still rising. There was no one there and she ran down the hallway in search for the stairs.

“Good work, Blue,” Fang said as Blue walked up behind him.

Alister flew over the balcony. He was soaked and out of breath. Penelope appeared suddenly. She too was soaked.

“That was way before when it was supposed to happen!” she complained.

Try holding back more than 28,500* gallons of water.

Arisa came up and landed on the floor. When she saw Blue she jumped of the railing and ran to him. She jumped into his arms.

“Blue! I did a good job, right?!” she asked.

I’m assuming you did.

Blue smiled.

“What are we doin’ next again?” Alister asked.

“We’re finding the leader of this building and put an end to him,” Fang said as he walked back down the hallway.

The others followed close behind him.

***

To be Continued…

*I don’t really know how much water is in a building if its less just imagine Blue stole some water from neighboring buildings if its more well…oh well.