The black hole stood large and menacing before us. Around us, fighters from both sides, living and dead, gathered around it.
Henry had left my mom and me on the ground, along with Deception, just moments before, while he had returned to see the status of the battle that was still rocking the castle above us. He assured me that the battle would be over shortly, but I still protested his departure. And had reluctantly let him leave.
Deception was too hurt to carry anyone, it turned out. Those crunching sounds I had heard when Frog had grabbed him had been the bones in his wings cracking. He could barely hold himself up in the air. Henry's quick examination of him had confirmed this.
Speaking of Henry, I wasn't sure if I believed him anymore. Every once in a while, a boom could be heard from above us. When this happened, the invisible castle floating above our heads would become visible for a split second, before the forsaken school would melt back into the darkening sky. To me, those booms didn't sound like a battle that was about to be over.
Abruptly, I felt a hand on my shoulder, and I turned around to see a haggard-looking Peter dressed in what once was a white shirt and a pair of white pants. The fabric was now completely smeared with blood.
"Good, I've been looking for you everywhere!" Emily's new husband said, his face filled with relief.
"Where's Emily?" I asked, wondering why Peter had been sent to look for me. If he was working in the medical tent, as his clothes told me he was, there were far more important things to be doing than looking for me. People were still dying in large numbers, I could feel it.
Peter's face crumbled, and he pushed his glass further up his nose.
"Peter!?" I said, alarmed, "Did something happen to Emily?"
"Oh, please tell me something didn't happen to that sweet girl!?" my mom chimed in from beside me.
Peter's eyes widened, and he shook his head, "Emily wasn't injured during the battle..." he said, and I breathed in a sigh of relief.
"She's not okay, though. Her parents..." Peter's voice cracked, "I brought them in, but I couldn't save them," he said, and began to cry slightly, and I just wanted to cry along with him. Emily's family had been my family too for years, but I couldn't let the grief that the two most important people to me were now gone. At least I couldn't just yet, not until everything was over for good. The last time I had let grief take control of me, I had almost let everyone down, and now I had to go save the other world from being destroyed. Because if it fell, our world was next."
"Where is she now?" I asked, and Peter took a couple of breaths while he tried to pull himself together.
"In the medical tent at Carson's side. He's hurt but not badly."
I swallowed and nodded, "Go back to her, she needs someone, but there are a couple of things I need to do. If that's why you were trying to find me? So she has someone with her?"
He shook his head. " I came to try and find you, to see if there was a chance..." Peter looked down at the ground, "Is you could bring them back?" he asked, "Besides blood loss, their bodies are fine and-"
"Peter, I can't," I said, cutting him off.
"What did you mean you can't!?" Peter said, his face filling with despair, "You raised an entire army of the dead, and you are telling me you can't raise two more people? Could your father do it?"
"My father is gone, like Emily's parents," I said softly. "To bring them back as something close to a living person, I would've had to be beside their bodies right after they died. But even then, they would only have come back a shell of themselves. I'm sorry, Peter, I have to go. I have to lower the army of the dead I raised. And change out of this dress, I'd rather be in something more comfortable while I help save my second world of the day." With that, I turned and walked away.
From behind me, I heard the soft thud of footsteps from my mother following me. I stopped in my tracks.
"I need to do this with no one around," I said quietly and continued. My mother's footsteps did not follow me.
I made my way back to the spot at the bottom of the small hill where a gaping crack now was, a gateway to hell that I had created. The once green grass that had grown here was now brown and brittle, devoid of life.
I sank to the ground and closed my eyes. I had little energy left, but letting the dead be dead again was more about releasing the energy than putting energy in. I spoke in the language of the dead, and suddenly I was not alone beside the crack. All around me, the dead stood. I looked at them and watched them silently, while they stared at me with hollow and decaying eyes, before one by one they crawled back into the crack from which they had come, and I felt their souls take flight back into purgatory. I wondered how many of those souls I had talked to personally. Heard their stories.
The dead army had exploded from the earth in a volcano and invaded the land of the living, but now they returned to the land of the dead at a much slower crawl. By the time they all returned, it was well into the middle of the night. By then, a crowd had gathered a few feet away, although I was sure there was some still gathered around the black hole, crackling with blue lighting. They watched with lanterns burning bright in the night, but even brighter burned the fear I felt from them.
They were afraid of me, afraid of what I was. I could sense it, just like I could sense a soul leaving a body and either slipping into purgatory or the unreachable place beyond that. But they had needed me, they still did, but I had a feeling, when that was all over, that my mother Lilly and I should disappear. History would most likely repeat, and I wasn't ready to be eaten, burned, or sacrificed. The crowd might not know it yet, but they could figure it out. The dead of my kind in purgatory had whispered such. Old stories would be recalled; manuscripts dug up. The way to kill me would eventually be uncovered, and there will be no hesitation to kill the monster that dares to disturb the dead, even if it had been done to save the skin of the living.
The split earth closed with a loud rumble. It was only then that I felt a hand on my shoulder.
"Vi," Emily's soft voice floated into my ears and filled me with the warmth only radiated by the truest of friendships. "Henry and the others have returned. They have been back for a while, and they are resting from magic exhaustion. They came back sooner, but I didn't want to disturb you while you were...in case it messed up the process somehow."
I nodded and turned and hugged Emily. I buried my face in her shoulder, "I'm so sorry, Emily," I said while a few tears made their escape before I composed myself and pulled away. Of course, I was referring to the loss of her parents.
"They died protecting Carson and me on the battlefield, and that's how they would have wanted to go, protecting us, so I can't be too sad," Emily said, but her shaking voice and the ample tears streaming down her face told a much different story.
"Emily, I'm not trying to be insensitive here," I said and pulled away to examine my friend's face in the dim moonlight and the glowing lanterns of the crowd that was still gathered around us. I swiped away some tears, "But can I borrow some clothes?
"Oh, yes!" Emily said and wiped away her tears, "You're all wet, and that dress must not be keeping you very warm. Isn't it!? We can get you dried and in something more comfortable!"
"As long as that something comfortable is easy to move in, I'll be fine," I said.
"Why do you need something easy to move in?" Emily asked.
"No reason," I said, and Emily tilted her head to the side and gave me a curious look.
"Okay," she said with some hesitation, "Follow me."
I nodded and followed her to her tent, where she promptly handed me a pink shirt and a pair of brown pants, along with a pair of boots.
I immediately went to leave when Emily caught my arm. I turned my head to look at her.
"Um," she said, and her golden eyes traveled down to her feet before she lifted her head again to look me in the eye. I could see that her eyes were once again filled with tears, "Would you mind coming to the medical to see Carson with me? I'm sure if he saw you, it'll make him feel a little better!"
"Emily, I...need to do one last thing, and I promise that I'll spend every waking moment beside his bed with you."
"Okay," Emily said, once again breaking out into tears, "You don't even have to come back fast, just come back alive. You're up to something dangerous again. I can feel it in every fiber of my being."
I nodded, " I am up to something one might consider dangerous, but I think at this point, it's the average day in the life for somebody like me if you catch my drift."
She nodded, "I think that recently danger has become everyone's average in this camp. But more so for you."
I held out my pinky finger and held it out to her. "After I'm finished, I promise that danger won't be anyone's average of this camp."
"Except for you," the little voice in my head said softly.
She bobbed her head, but she couldn't manage a smile. I didn't think I could either after the exhaustion with all that had happened today. What was going to happen weighed heavily on my shoulders, simply because I didn't know what was going to happen. All I had was Lacy's vague instructions, and I hoped that would be enough to guide me through the trials ahead. If they couldn't guide me, I'm not sure what would follow.