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Audrey
I wasn’t strong enough then...
“Oh love, I’m so glad you are the one who decided to stay behind for your friends. It will be even sweeter to take out my frustrations on you.” Lilith leans over me with a needle. “Your mother must be so proud.”
She lowers her head right over mine and whispers, “And don’t worry about them, darling. I’ll especially take really good care of that red headed man. He still has someone I want. Once I have my love back, the guy will be nothing more than a shell.” She shrieks in laughter.
The brace on my neck must be looser than she thought. I swing my head forward and head-butt her. The needle is knocked from her hand and shatters on the ground. Green liquid seeps from the broken needle.
She hisses at me, “You wretched girl. Learn when you’re beaten.”
Lilith pulls the straps around my neck tight enough to almost choke me. The next needle she grabs is filled with a blue liquid. She rips the tape covering my mouth.
It hurts, but I refuse to let her know that. She won’t get that satisfaction from me. If I could just touch that stupid locket in my pocket, I think it can set me free.
“Computer, keep track of her vitals. I want to know the effects of my new serum.” She jams the needle into my arm.
“Affirmative, Mistress Lilith.” The speakers from the large computer sound.
The liquid burns my veins as it’s injected. The pain is unbearable. My vision is seeing double. I yell out hysterically.
I hear glass break. There’s pain in my head. Lilith laughs.
I shake to my senses. I’m back in the train car heading to the Rocky Mountains. I’m staring at the mirror that I just shattered.
Breathing heavily, “I’ll never escape her.”
It’s a good thing I brought these black gloves to keep from scratching my hands even worse. Still, I trashed another room in my sleep. Will it ever end?
Katie bursts into the room, “Audrey, what happened? I heard a fight!”
“It’s nothing. I just lost my temper.” I say.
“Your temper?” She asks.
“Yes, my temper. I’m still angry about that whole stupid awards ceremony.” I lie.
“So, you’re taking it out on the train car?” She asks in disbelief.
I knock a clock over, “Yes.”
“Uh, okay. I’m going to erm...prepare our plan. You should come out soon, so we can uh...you can tell me if it is satisfactory.” She quickly slides out of the room.
I pick up the clock and sigh. I wonder if she bought that. Oh well, I guess I better go.
Outside of the room, Kaleb and Katie are looking over a detailed map of the area. She may be younger than me, but Katie seems to be well in control of the situation. She has figures representing us on the map.
I turn a chair at the table around backwards, sit down, and rest my arms on the chair’s headrest, “Is this really necessary? I’m not much of a planner.” So much so that I forgot to grab my shadow locket from my room before I left Olympus. I just know I’ll regret leaving it behind.
“Before going out into the field, you should always try to take time to learn about your surroundings. Doing so can give you a greater advantage over your opponent.” Katie says sternly.
“I only hope I don’t slow you two down. I’ve been trying to learn as much as I can about Olympus since you all rescued me.” Kaleb says quietly.
That’s an understatement, and I know it. He locked himself away in the library for three full days. The rest of his time, he spent sparring with Peter and Gabriel. He sure was surprised that his old bus driver turned out to be an angel. We all were.
Luke’s sacrifice must have stirred something in him. Then again, I think it did in all of us. Carla asked me to help her train. I think she may have regretted that.
“You’ll do fine, Kaleb. You’re as smart as or smarter than Luke. Even though you haven’t completely found control over your power yet, I know we can rely on you.” I say.
“I agree. Now, on to the mission. We’ll hire a carriage to take us to the closest town to the research base. They don’t have many cars out where we’re going, so carriage is our only option. From the town, we will travel this path up to an abandoned mineshaft. The base has a hidden entrance in there.” Katie draws a line on the map.
“Should we expect any resistance at the base?” I ask.
“No. The base has been abandoned for some time. The forces of Hell shouldn’t have any reason to be there. The research conducted was geothermal energy use. It would be almost useless to them.” Katie explains.
Geothermal, huh? That raises more questions. I ask, “I see. Why was it abandoned?”
“Classified. All research was deemed useless and destroyed. Staff were transferred to other posts.” Katie says.
“Listen to yourself. Why was useless information destroyed? And on geothermal of all things. What’s the point of that? Sounds fishy.” I say.
“Olympus knows best. They had their reasons. I’m sure.” Katie says plainly.
None of that sounded weird to her at all? I didn’t realize she is such a diehard. I’ve seen Kaleb’s thinking face enough that I can tell his mind is running circles. I wonder what he thinks of this. I suppose I should let this go until we get there. Maybe I’m paranoid.
“Fine, any other outposts in the area we should know about? In case we need somewhere to retreat to?” I ask.
“Not really. The next outpost would be over forty miles away. We would need to return to the train station.” She says.
Great. I knew this would be pointless. I haven’t learned anything useful except this base is suspicious.
“Where is the base actually located at?” Kaleb asks out of nowhere.
“Inside of one of the mountains.” Katie says confused.
Kaleb takes a second and asks, “Is it really far underground?”
“No. I wouldn’t say deep underground.” She says.
“Hmm...I see.” Is all Kaleb says.
He has something. I know it. He just doesn’t want to say it in front of Katie. He’s too considerate.
The train stops, and we disembark. It doesn’t take Katie long to find us a carriage that is going out to the town of Ward. It’s not a smooth ride, but it will work.
After a while, the carriage stops. We hear the driver climb down from his seat. He says, “What has happened here?”
I open the door and jump out of the carriage. The town...is destroyed. Almost all of the buildings are on fire. Giant slash marks are running along the sides of the buildings like a sword was carved right across.
I signal to Kaleb and Katie. We begin to run towards the town. The carriage driver moves to follow.
“No. Just stay here.” I tell the man.
The pain in his face is obvious, “This is my home. My...family is here. I must find out what happened.”
I’m not going to try and stop him. I wouldn’t want anyone to stop me. I’ll make sure he doesn’t get hurt.
Everything outside the town is perfectly normal. The land in the town is charred from what was probably a large fire. Pieces of debris from the buildings are scattered around the ground. What could have caused this? It had to be big.
But...there are no bodies outside. No people. I don’t like this.
“Go check the buildings.” I say to Kaleb and Katie.
“That won’t be necessary. I’ve already looked. There’s no one here.” A voice calls from a building to our right.
It’s a bar that was for the most part unscathed. The door is the only broken part of the building. There are shattered bottles at the bottom of the stairs leading to it.
A middle-aged man walks through the broken entrance. He has a scraggly beard and unsteady, yellow-colored eyes. An empty bottle is in his hand that he throws down with the other pieces of broken glass.
“What happened here, old man?” Katie asks.
The man sways as he walks. He tips his cowboy hat and blows a puff of his cigar, “Old man? The name’s Roth. Oh lass, you’ll never believe me when I tell, but it was a dragon.”
“A dragon?” Kaleb asks incredulously.
“See? I knew it. Yes lad, a dragon. Its green scales glistened in the sun. It was as large as a plane, and its breath set the buildings ablaze. The most fearsome thing of it were its eyes. You could see its thirst for blood.” He hiccups.
“Croatoan.” I say under my breath.
I must have said it louder than I thought because Katie says, “That name. He attacked the lunchroom all that time ago.”
“Yes, he has the ability to turn into a dragon. This has to be him.” I say.
My skin grows cold as that awful voice says, “A dragon? Oh, my dear, he can do so much more than that. I should know. I created him.”
In Roth’s place is Lilith. I didn’t even see her transform. I mumble the spell for a sword into my book.
“This is all your fault too? I won’t let you get away with this!” I yell.
“You have no choice. The work is already done. Just as the lost city of Roanoke was sacrificed to increase his power, this town will be as well!” She shrieks in delight.
I attempt to swing my sword at her, but my arm won’t move. I look to my right, and Katie is holding my arm. I struggle to break her away.
“What are you doing?” My voice is filled with rage.
“Audrey! Stop!” Kaleb grabs my other arm.
Lilith is laughing at me. Her eyes looking down on me... I mumble into my sword. My arms glow red. I knock Kaleb and Katie away and turn back towards Lilith.
She’s gone...Roth is standing back in her place. I...did I imagine her?
“Have you gone daft, woman? How can I control a dragon?” Roth asks confused.
“I-I’m sorry.” I turn away and walk outside the village.
“Audrey?” Kaleb yells after me.
“I need a minute.” Is all I say.
Lilith... What kind of serum did she inject into me? Kaleb was flushed with one of her serums for days with what seems like no side effects. I was only subjected to a tiny amount of a different kind. Maybe I should have had my body cleansed like he did.
I mumble into my book. My hand glows red again. I punch a tree, and it shatters into pieces. I’ve come so far in the past few weeks only to be held back by that woman.
Wait...that Roth guy. How did he know so much about the dragon, but wasn’t taken away as well? He also wasn’t even a little surprised at my book transformation... Oh, no.
I run back into town. Nobody is here. There isn’t any sign of a struggle. Did they follow him willingly?
I wasn’t gone long. They can’t be that far. I climb up on top of one of the rundown buildings.
I don’t see them, but I do see smoke coming from a trail at the opposite end of town. I’ll have to hope that’s where they were taken. Even further away in that direction is an enormous tree that is sticking out of a mountain. I think that’s the mountain where the base is located.
I run as fast as I can to where the smoke is coming from. A fight had to take place here. The trees in this area are sliced clean through, and the ground is scorched.
Katie’s sword is lying on the ground. Since there are marks in the ground leading to the tip, I think this was meant to be a sign. I almost want to say she was being carried. Probably dragging her sword for a moment before letting it drop.
I pick it up. At least I know which direction they are in. I hope they’re still okay.
It doesn’t take me long to reach a tiny fort. It’s surrounded by a wooden wall. I mumble into my book and punch the wall of the fort with my glowing red fist. A hole shatters into the wall. I’m horrified when I step inside.
The townspeople are all in cages. A lot of them look sickly. The cages have lines running to some weird machine. Croatoan is strapped into the machine. Needles are sticking into him. I think he is sucking the life of the townspeople. Katie and Kaleb are in a cage suspended into the air by a side attachment to Croatoan’s machine. They’re both unconscious. Lines are running from their cage to Croatoan as well. This is sickening.
Croatoan’s eyes are closed. Is he asleep? That doesn’t make me feel any better. I remember when he almost crushed Luke’s head with his hand. Then there was the time he basically swatted us out of the sky like we were flies in his dragon form. He truly is a force to be reckoned with. However, Croatoan has a scar on the left side of his chest. Is that where Carla blasted him with her rainbow knife during the last mission?
“I’ll admit, lass. I didn’t think you’d make it so soon. I figured the townspeople would have been consumed by that time.” Roth’s voice calls out.
A bottle flies from above and smashes in front of me. It came from the top of a building that has powerlines running from it. Roth is standing on top with a sword larger than his body.
“You monsters aren’t very subtle.” I say.
He hiccups, “Monster? I’m just a traveling bystander. I didn’t want to get mixed up with this silly war, but I was already in the area. Hard to refuse an order from Lucifer. Besides even Astaroth likes to have a little fun.”
“You call this fun? You’re slaughtering people.” I say angrily.
Astaroth chuckles and points over his shoulder at Croatoan, “He’s the one consuming humans.” He jumps from the building and runs towards me at incredible speed, “Little lady, you have a lot to learn about the commanders of Hell.”
I use Katie’s sword to block. The weight of his sword is bearing heavily on me. I punch him with my hand that is still glowing red with power.
He catches it in his own hand, “Too bad I watched you demolish the wall with that fist of yours. You might have caught me off guard otherwise.”
He blows out a puff from his cigar. The area around us is smoky. He lets go of my hand.
“My turn.” He punches me in the side.
The force knocks me back into the building he was standing on earlier. I cough up blood. If I weren’t a demigod, there’s no way I would have survived.
The machine is still sucking the life from those people. If I don’t hurry, there won’t be anyone left to save. To destroy the machine, I would have to get past the demon cowboy. Unless... yeah that might work.
I punch the wall behind me and crawl inside. This is the building powering that machine. I’m almost certain of it.
Sure enough, there is a generator in here. I mumble into my book. My body is covered with a purple glow while my fist is red. I punch the generator as hard as I can. It explodes, knocking me back.
My body is okay except for my hand. It isn’t broken, but it is burned. The purple glow is used more for protection while the red is used for power. I’m still learning about all these new powers I developed.
I mumble into the book, and a bubble surrounds me. It makes me invisible. This is a smaller version that I can move with. I need to hurry this up. I’m growing exhausted.
A loud roar is coming from the direction of the machines. I hear metal being smashed to pieces. I don’t know how I’m going to help the people and my friends. Astaroth is way out of my league and Croatoan...
Astaroth says in the distance, “Great, now she woke up the big guy. Did she turn to ash from that explosion? Hmm. Ah well, I have other matters to attend to. I’ll let the dragon take care of this.”
I watch Astaroth leave through the hole I made. That makes things easier for now, but I have a bad feeling. I hope I’m wrong.
Croatoan is still in his regular demon form right now. He’s angry and destroying equipment. I need to get Katie and Kaleb out of that cage before he takes this out on the people.
I make it over to the part of the machine that is suspending the cage in the air. The controls are unusable because there’s no power. I need to figure out something soon. My invisible dome is about to fall.
Croatoan sniffs in the air. He turns and faces me. His eyes have the same bloodlust as last time. He roars and rams right into the machine.
He completely demolishes it. The suspended cage falls to the ground and breaks, but Croatoan has me in his hand. My invisibility is gone. Not that it matters.
His breath is warm and smells like death. He’s squeezing my waist with just one of his hands. I feel like he’s even larger than the last time I saw this form.
I try to cast my protection spell, but it’s no good. I’m too weak. I think there is still one thing I can do.
I mumble into my book and shove it into his face. It glows with a blinding light. Croatoan bellows in anger. He throws me across the ground and rubs his eyes. He blows fire in all directions.
I run over to Katie and Kaleb. Kaleb just woke up. There isn’t much he can do in a fight yet. I need Katie.
I shake Katie vigorously, “Come on. Get up.”
Kaleb coughs, “I don’t think that’s going to work, Audrey.”
“Do you have a better idea?” I ask.
He squints and runs off towards the building with the broken generator. I’m glad he decided to share his plan. I dropped Katie’s sword when Astaroth punched me, and I don’t have the strength left to even turn my book into a sword.
Croatoan is almost able to see again. He looks straight for me and charges. A rock is thrown at him on his way towards us. His eyes are enraged.
Kaleb throws another rock from the generator building. Croatoan changes his course to him. Fire is spewing from his mouth. Kaleb runs into the building. Croatoan crashes through the wall, and the building blows up.
Kaleb is standing on the opposite side of the building unscathed. He places his hand on his head, “I-I didn’t really think that w-would work. It’s a good thing he’s like a wild beast.”
He runs over towards us. We move Katie to the way I came in. She’s beginning to stir, but she doesn’t have her bearings yet.
“What did you do?” I ask.
“U-uh, you see. I saw the broken generator and thought that it might be powered by gas. I was right, so I gathered as much fuel as I could behind the wall. When he rammed through spewing fire, he blew himself up.” Kaleb says like it was no big deal. I’m lucky I didn’t blow myself to pieces earlier.
Kaleb came up with all that in such a short amount of time? Right after gaining consciousness? Luke couldn’t have even done that. Definitely none of that would have crossed my mind. I almost gave up.
Katie is back on her feet. We break the locks on the cages holding the townspeople. Some of them have already begun to wake up as well.
The carriage driver, whose name is Dan, is leading all of them back to town. Many of them are still weak but relatively okay. From there, they will head to the train station. Katie gave them a device that will warn Olympus of the situation. Hopefully, they will send a squad to protect the people until this is over.
We watch the last group depart back to the village. We’re about to head out towards our own destination when the ground shakes. The still burning generator building is crumbling to the ground. In its place is Croatoan in dragon form. He towers above us and roars into the sky.
“Uh...Audrey. What did it take to defeat this monster last time?” Kaleb asks.
I drop to my knees, “All five of us, and as you can see, we couldn’t even kill it. I think it’s over.”
“Not quite, but we need to run.” Katie places her hand on the ground.
The ground around Croatoan begins to glow brightly. Chains are springing from the dirt and wrapping around him. The dragon is flailing, but it is being tied to the ground. Two giant spikes also rise through the ground and pierce through Croatoan’s wings.
“But how?” Kaleb asks incredulously.
“We can talk about that later. Let’s go. Follow me.” Katie pulls me up. She grabs the map from her backpack.
She leads us in the direction of a mineshaft. We are heading towards that huge tree that I saw earlier. Croatoan’s furious roars can still be heard from this far away.
Once we’re inside the shaft, Katie is still breathing heavily but says, “I didn’t think that beast would go down easily, so I made a plan. After all, he took out twenty angels during the raid of our lunchroom. My mother is Enyo the goddess of war. I may not have the power my sister has, but war tactics are my specialty.”
I’ve seen something like that before. It was very brief though. Ares, the god of war, tried to attack us with chains right before entering Hell.
“I still don’t see what kind of ability you have.” I say.
“While you guys were helping the townspeople, I was setting the battlefield. I can create constructs of war, but it takes me a lot of planning and time. In a head on battle, it would be almost useless. My constructs are all mainly for defense. Brittney’s are for offense, and she can use them on a moment’s notice.” She explains.
“I feel like we should have come together to share our powers and learn about each other’s strengths before the mission.” Kaleb sighs.
“We were all too focused on getting stronger. At this point, it doesn’t matter.” I say.
Katie’s face is more serious than usual, “Audrey, I have to apologize. You suspected something about Roth from the beginning. I thought you were having some sort of outburst.”
I’ll take that. It’s better than telling them the truth. I say to her, “It’s fine. We’re all safe for now. That’s what matters.”
“What happened to him anyways? Where did he go?” Kaleb asks.
“He left. I don’t think helping Croatoan was his objective. He said something about the war and that he had other matters to attend to.” I tell them.
“Do you think he knows why we’re here?” Kaleb asks.
“That is the most likely scenario. Kassidy did say something about that in our last briefing. I didn’t think they would already be here. Regardless, that doesn’t change our objective. We must push forward.” Katie says.
“Agreed.” I say.
Katie places her hand around the entrance of the mineshaft, “If anyone tries to come in after us, they will be captured in a cage and chains.”
We set out through the abandoned mineshaft. Hopefully Astaroth isn’t waiting for us. I don’t think we would stand a chance against him.
