While I stood on the grass and held his hands, I let my instincts take over. I took my father's life force within me and then held it in the center of my chest. In my mind, I pictured it as a glowing blue ball of light, the size of an apple, floating floating a dark, cavernous place.
I could vaguely feel the warmth of Neeva's hands in mine, while I pictured myself standing before this light and reaching out to take it.
Suddenly, a pale hand reached out from the darkness and snatched the ball of light away, and I felt Neeva's life force being pulled from my chest and into somewhere deeper. I could still see the ball, but it was quickly moving away from me. It bobbed up and down while whatever had taken it ran.
"Wait!" I called out and gave chase, not even questioning who or what I was chasing after.
Soon another light appeared before me, this one bigger and brighter than the ball.
I caught a brief outline of the thief in this light; it looked to be a girl with long hair, before it disappeared into it.
Moments later, I reached the light and realized it was an entrance to a cave. I doubled over while I tried to catch my breath.
"Wait, while I'm I out of breath!?" I said aloud. "I'm literally inside my own head!"
I straightened and gazed over a familiar landscape before me. Grassy fields seemed to stretched on endlessly, where flowers where black petals bloomed. In the distance, a large tree grew, its gnarled branches reaching high into the bright blue sky, and running towards it was a pale girl. She had dark curly hair that bounced with every running stride she took, while a thin black dress billowed out behind her.
When she reached the tee, she ducked behind its trunk.
"Son of a banshee, what is the world happening!? Can't anything be remotely easy and not weird?" I mumbled while I made my way slowly towards the tree. The long grass tickled the exposed skin of my legs, not covered by Emily's powder blue dress, while the sun warmed my skin. I stopped when I reached the shadows cast by the tree's branches.
"Hello!?" I called out. "Who are you, and can I have my dad's um life force. I kind of need it right now to raise an army of the dead."
Whoever was hiding behind the tree giggled, and the girl in the black dress glided out from behind the tree holding the ball of blue light in the palm of her hand. I took an involuntary step back out of shock and surprise.
She had my face, but it was wrong. Her skin was smooth and white like marble, but just like marble, it wasn't living. Her violet colored eyes were dull and lightless. She opened her pale lips to speak, and when she spoke, I recognized her voice.
It was the same voice I often heard mind when I was thinking.
"Don't you recognize me?" she asked.
"I mean, kind of, since you look exactly like me. Hey, is my nose really that big in person..." I trailed off while she lifted the ball of light to her mouth and shoved it inside.
"No,"! I yelled, and l lunged forward and grabbed her cheeks. "Bad creepy inner me, spit it out now!" She shook her head and swallowed before backing away from me. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, while I stared at her in dismay.
"Don't worry, it's not gone, I'm just keeping it safe while we play. I have been waiting for you for a very long time, Violet."
Then she grabbed me by my hands and began to spin us around. Her hands felt like I was touching the ice. She turned her pale face towards the sunlight and let out a series of high-pitched laughs. Up close, I can see she her dress was not just black, it looked like it had been cut from the night sky full of twinkling stars that shifted every time she moved. Her long curly black hair hung loosely down her back.
I was too stunned to say or do anything besides letting my creepy twin spin me around and around in circles, while she continued to laugh.
After what seemed like an eternity, she finally stopped spinning us, and she gave me a slow smile, but there was no warmth in it, only hunger. "I finally have you," she whispered in a sweet, menacing voice, "And now we will be together forever."
"As awesome as that sounds," I said, finally mustering up enough courage to find my voice again. "Can you maybe cough up my...our...my dad's life force. People I care about are in danger of dying, so I don't have to for whatever this is?"
Her grip on my hands tightens."You want to leave me?"She asked. She let go of my hand and gestured around us.
"I mean, kind of have to, there's a dead army needing to be raised, and it's kind of up to me to do it.
"No!" she snarled and I watched in horror while her eyes collapsed into her skull leaving behind two gaping holes where her eyes should've been."I won't let you go!"
She flung her arms at me and wrapped her hands around my throat, and squeezed hard, cutting off my air. I tried to step away from her, but she was too strong. With escape not an option, I resorted to clawing at her face, but with no eyes, there wasn't anything good to aim for.
Dark spots began to dance in front of my eyes, and she got on top of me, still squeezing my neck. What would happen if I lost consciousness in my own mind or worse, died!?
That was not a question I wanted answered, and I began to feel around on the ground beside me. At first, I felt nothing but grass and flowers.
Come on, rock, rock, rock! I thought desperately. My fingers did not find a rock, but they found something cold and metallic and thin.
Acting on some primal instinct, I swung it up at my eyeless twin, and she let out an earth-shattering shriek. Black metallic blood, lots of it, poured onto my face, and I shut my eyes, not wanting it to blind me.
I felt the weight ease off my chest, and I could breathe again, and breath I did, filling my lungs sweet, sweet air.
I picked myself off the ground and wiped the black blood from around my eyes. When I finally opened then finally, I finally found Neeva standing me for me.
The wind ruffled his black hair, while he gazed intently at my hand. I followed his gaze to find I now held a black hilted knife. Its blade glinted in the sunlight streaming in-between the branches of the tree. Where it had come from, I did not know, but I knew what I had to do with it, and I didn't like it.
"Did you just see a girl around here? Looks exactly like me, but very creepy?" I looked around, afraid she was about to lung at me again.
"She's gone," Neeva said, and I stopped my search, and my eyes flew to him.
"What was she?" I asked him.
"She is...was part of you. Your guard can be lower; she is not a threat to your wellness because you ended her. When you sacrifice part of one's soul is splint offs, she was that splinter."
"Seems like I am better off without that splinter, I mean, she did try to kill me."
"Daughter, we could talk endlessly about this occurrence, but you must do what you came to do. If you delay longer, you will be unable to. Take that knife, with remembrance that this is what I wanted."
"I see," I said and took a deep breath. "We'll I guess here goes everything." I ran at Neeva, raised the knife, and plunged it into his chest. Neeva's face twisted in pain, and then he crumbled away to ashes.
Dark clouds rolled around the sky, and raindrops hit my cheeks, but I ignored them and stared down at the pile of ashes that had once been Neeva. My father was dead and gone. I opened my hands, and my ash poured for my fingers.
Then I realized I was no longer under the tree or surrounded by the black flowers.
All around me, I could feel men, women, and children dying, while their souls slipped into the gray place.
I was back in the real world from wherever I had just been, while a battle raged just out of my line of sight. Deception, having never left my side, stood over me, while I fell to my knees, my hands pressing hard into the moist, wet earth. I there was a tornado of pure energy whirling around my body and it would make me feel like I could do anything, like raise an undead army.
I closed my eyes and forced all my energy into the ground. I many things stir, and then the earth around me began to shake under my feet. I stood up and began to stumble back before the shaking of the ground knocked me onto my butt. Cracks began to form in the earth, and from it, the dead began to emerge.
Suddenly, the sunlight above my head was blocked out by something. I just had enough time to let out a cry of surprise, while two rough arms wrapped around me and pulled me off the ground and into the air. Deception's roar echoed in my ears while I heard him take off in pursuit of whoever had snatched me.
My captor flung me onto the dragon saddle in front of them like a sack of potatoes, and I caught a glimpse of a blood red uniform and champagne colored hair.
I struggled into a seat position, despite my captor's best efforts.
I tried to turn and face my kidnapper, but as per usual, my long curly black hair suction-cupped itself to my face, making it hard to see. I swore if I survived this, I was going to cut it all off.
"Let me go," I screeched and managed to grab a handful of air.
The rider elbowed me in the chest, and I let out a small gasp while I lost my balance and fell off the dragon. While I felt my hair, damp hair, finally parted, and I was able to catch a glimpse of the half-burned face of Shirley, glaring at me from the back of her orange dragon.
Instead of screaming, while I plummeted towards the ground, I inhaled deeply and let out a long whistle. A second and a half later Deception was speeding towards me, he grabbed me from the air, and I climbed onto his back.&
A large shadow fell over us, and I looked up, alarmed, only to breathe a sigh of relief when I saw John, one of Henry's mentors from back in his days in the academy, on the back of his massive green and brown dragon, Frog. He lowered himself until he was hovering right beside us. His hood was pulled up, and it covered most of his face. I could just barely see his eyes.
Frog's scales were covered with numerous scratches and burn marks. It was obvious that the two of them had just been fighting.
"What are you doing up here, you're supposed to be on the ground..." he shouted over the wind and the rain, but he trailed off when his eyes fell to the ground so far below us.
From where we sat, hovering in the air, the army of the dead was visible, and a few undead creatures with wings were beginning to take flight. They were still far below us, but they were steadily climbing their way upwards.
"Anyways," John said and gave me a look of apprehension, "I will land you safely on the ground, come with me."
I nodded my head, but something behind his head stopped me in my tracks. A rectangular black opening had appeared in the sky, and a familiar figure, dressed in all white, was standing in it.
The rectangle was large, large enough for Frog to fly through no problem. It dwarfed the figure standing within it.
The woman smiled at me, her gray eyes flashing before she raised her hand and pointed it at John.
John's eyes rolled back in his head, and his whole body went stiff, and with a jerky motion, John's hands yanked the reins upwards.
I turned my attention from the women to John, "John!? Are you alright!? Can you hear me!? John!?" I cried out while I watched the dragon rise into the air until it was hovering above us.
"Frog grab!" I heard John's voice shout, only it wasn't John's voice. This voice was flat and monotone, and devoid of all emotion.
The dragon descended and wrapped its claws around us. I let out a scream, and Deception let out a roar. My ears were filled with the sound of cracking bone, and Deception moaned in pain.
I looked up to see the woman, who was the last person on earth I wanted to see, back slowly into the darkness of the rectangle and disappear.
"Frog throw!" John yelled over the wind and rain, and just like that me Deception and I were tossed into the rectangle and into whatever awaited us inside.