Chapter 2 - The Lion, The Girl and the Monster
Mum wasn't happy. I had to call her of course, but when she found out that I'd managed to land myself a detention on the last day of school she was all set to come down to the school herself to bust me out of here. But when I explained that it was Mr Slattery who had given me detention she changed her tune, and said that I had to be back by five and not a second later. I agreed and hung up, deciding that leaving out how I had got the detention was a good idea. I don't think she'd believe me if I told her the truth, I was struggling to believe me to be honest.
My one-hour detention with Slattery was a form of torture on its own accord, being forced to write line after line of I must not be insolent for one hour in complete silence damn near drove me to madness. Finally, the hour was up, and I wordlessly got up and handed my two sides of A4 to Slattery. He made me wait there for a good five minutes and he didn't even bother to look up.
Finally, he spoke. "You know what I don't like about you Hayden?" Oh god here comes a lecture. Assume crash positions. "You feel like you can get away with whatever you want, and that attitude will hardly get you far in life, now will it?" I honestly didn't think this guy was sane, he certainly wasn't fit to teach children. Adults would struggle with him. "You're a rat, you're disobedient and your grades are depressing."
Okay, hold up. I'd only been in detention three times before this, and two of them were class detentions that weren't my fault. Secondly, every other teacher in the school thought I was alright and my reports were always good and last but certainly not least the only class in which my grades were suffering was chemistry, and we all know who to blame for that.
"To be honest I'll be glad to see the back of you and you never know I might see you again someday, kneeling in forgiveness, but this time you might be polishing my shoes for me." He laughed at his own joke.
I rolled my eyes at him, "Frankly, sir, I don't give a rats ass about what you think of me, in fact I'm glad that I never have to see your ugly mug ever again in my life." Only on the last day would I ever have the confidence to say that to his face, and his face was an absolute picture.
"You're a rat," he said coldly.
"And pardon my French but you're an asshole."
He was beginning to twitch alarmingly. "You have exactly ten seconds to get out of this room before I report you to the headmistress."
I began to walk out but just as I left the room I turned. "And one more thing sir," I flipped him the bird, "you can kiss my shiny ass".
Being the school's best runner certainly helped as he actually chased me from the school, hurling abuse at me the entire time. It must have been a strange sight for whoever was looking at the security cameras at that exact moment as a teenage boy sprinted down the corridors as the slightly overweight shape of Mr Slattery chased him down the hall, wheezing the entire time.
Once I was out of his sight I slowed to get my breath back and spared a cursory glance and my watch and then I was off running again. Slattery had kept me in for over ten minutes longer than he should have, and add that to the five-minute chase around the school I now had only fifteen minutes to get home and that was not going to be humanly possible. I knew for a fact that the roads and the Tube was going to be packed with the rush hour crowd so catching a bus or heading underground was going to take twice as long as usual, so they had suddenly become unavailable as an option. I stopped, sat on a low brick wall and thought about my options.
There just happened to be a dense woody park in-between me and home that was regularly used by the local druggies but other than that it would be pretty deserted at this time of day. Mum had told me time and time again to never go in there on my own, but I also knew that I could run from here to home in five minutes flat if I took the shortcut. No question really, but did I want to be away from the rest of the world for two long? The idea didn't seem overly pleasant, especially considering the recent disappearances. No, I'd walk back the long way round and let Mum know that I was going to be late.
The sound of a metal bin being knocked over jarred me to alertness. I stood up quickly and peered around, I couldn't see anyone but that didn't mean I was alone. Long way round but you feel safer, or the shortcut through the creepy forest. Another noise made the latter become very appealing.
The woods were bleak and dark, leaves crunched under my feet as well as glass shattering and empty beer cans clunking as I darted through the tree line, my heavy footsteps echoing through the woods. I wasn't comfortable with how much noise I was making but it would be over quickly, in a few minutes I'd be back home watching some corny kids show with my little brother and sister, safe and sound in my own little flat, where nothing could get me-
"NICK!" I leapt clear out of my skin as a male voice rang out through the woods.
I fell flat on my face, scrabbling to get back up to my feet. I didn't know that voice, it wasn't Slattery looking for revenge or one of my neighbours out looking for me for Mum. It was a complete stranger.
"Where are you?" Then I heard footsteps, two heavy sets of steps, coming right towards me.
Oh hell.
There was nowhere to hide, most of the trees were too tall to climb and those that weren't were either dead or rotting. I quickly dived behind a large log, pressing myself against the ground, desperately trying to steady my breathing as I heard something coming closer.
My mind was racing with possibilities, but one remained firmly lodged in my head and wouldn't go away no matter how hard I tried to get rid of it. All I knew was that I didn't want to become missing person number sixty. The footsteps got closer, I could make out a distinct pattern now, a heavy four step gait, it became more animal like the closer it got. I could just be a cat or a dog, but it seemed too heavy to be a small animal like that. And was it me or was it getting warmer out here?
Whatever was going on it wasn't a human that was just on the other side of the log. I was terrified, I hadn't been this scared since I went face to face with an alligator when I was in Florida some six years ago, but this was different, I was on my own, no one knew I was here, and if I just vanished no one would know where to look. Idiot. Stupid, idiot boy.
Pull yourself together I thought, there's an even number here, distract them and then run, you know you can outrun them.
I knew I was fast, I had good stamina too so outlasting my chasers was going to be easy. I took a deep breath and gathered my courage, I reached down and carefully picked up a heavy fallen branch and crouched low, ready to take a swing at what was following me and make a run for it as soon as possible. I leapt up, screaming a battle cry, as I drove the branch so hard into its skull that the branch broke in half, and then I saw what I had just hit. I dropped the branch.
The thing that was looking at me wasn't a druggie, or Mr Slattery, or any human at all. It was an animal but much larger than a dog, but it was technically a cat. It was a lion. A huge, male, lion, claws and all, was sat on the other side of the log, its head in its enormous paws, rubbing the spot where I had just hit it. I was hallucinating, I had to be. One, a lion was sat in front of me and two, it seemed to be undergoing spontaneous combustion. It was on fire. The fur around its mane, its tail and around its ankles were completely ablaze, glowing and flickering as the wind rushed through it, not unlike the flames that had appeared in chemistry. Had I eaten something funny? What was happening to me?
"I'm going mad, aren't I?" I said to no one.
The lion looked up at me. "Perhaps, but I must admit you've got a good swing to you."
I have never fainted before in my life, but I was damn near close to passing out in that moment. It spoke. There was no one else in sight, it wasn't a weird trick or hallucination, it had just opened its mouth and talked in a human voice. "What?" I gasped.
"I like a fighter, but maybe not when you're attacking me." It had the same voice as the one I heard calling my name a minute ago, there was no doubt about it.
"What?" I said again, my brain had long since abandoned ship.
"Maybe we'll get along." I picked up the branch and tried to hit it again. It couldn't be real, it just couldn't... But when it tore the branch from my hands it became very real indeed. "Stop trying to hit me," it snapped.
I took a few steps back, "Okay, I'm not seeing things."
"You don't think I'm real?" he asked.
"No, of course I don't think you're real, what sane person would see this scene and think that it was normal?" I was close to hysteria and I was trying not to scream.
He rolled his eyes. "Great, I've got a Rookie. Just please tell me that I've got the right person at least."
"Who do you want?" I asked nervously.
"Nicholas Jonathan Hayden."
That was me. My full name. How? Why? I nodded slowly.
"Good," said the lion, "I'm Flame, and I need you to come with me."
"Excuse me?"
"You're coming with me," he repeated.
I laughed shakily. "No, I'm not."
"Yes, you are."
I took a long look at him to see if he was joking. He really wasn't. "May I ask why?"
"Because you're in terrible danger." He said it like it wasn't the biggest cliché in the book.
"Of course, I am," I muttered sarcastically.
Flame had had enough. With one swift motion, he'd leapt up and pinned me against a tree, his heavy paws knocking the breath out of me as his full weight was suddenly on my chest. I wheezed. "Look here you," he snapped. "On any other day, my priority would be making friends, but I'm afraid I don't have that option. You're in danger, someone is out to kill you and it's my job is to get you to safety, or both of us are for the high jump, you get me?"
Now if anyone else was in my situation they wouldn't judge my reaction as being anything extreme. Any person worth their salt would have done the same thing if they were being pinned against a tree by a burning big cat saying that someone was out to kill me. So, I hit him over the head with the branch, again.
Flame was back on his feet a lot quicker than last time and roared angrily at me and then made another lunge at my chest. I yelled in panic as I felt the heavy weight of the lion slam into me but then he just vanished, he was nowhere to be seen. Now I was sure that I was seeing things as I scrambled to my feet and started running like mad, going faster than I'd ever run before, faintly aware of the sounds of somethings heavy, loping footsteps behind me and leaves crunching all around me. I could almost see the towers above the treeline, just a bit further and I'd be home and tomorrow I would be getting a CAT scan first thing in the morning, or better yet, I'd wake up tomorrow and find that this entire day had just been a dream and there wasn't a lion sprinting after me or that the girl from the street was standing on the edge of the clearing.
Wait a second... Before I even had time to react a force that felt like a rugby tackle to the legs sent me flying off my feet and plummeting to the wet ground. I sat up quickly and tried to push myself to my feet, but I quickly found that my legs weren't working. Had I hit something? Because a broken leg is not what I need right now. I slowly looked down. It turns out that my legs weren't broken, I hadn't run into a log or a rock or anything like that, but I wasn't going to be moving anywhere soon. My legs had been frozen together. Not metaphorically like they'd frozen up from a stich or something, I literally had a band of solid ice curled around my legs.
"Ha... ah..." I took in what I was looking at. I tried to pry off the ice, but it just froze on my fingers and stayed very firmly put. Actual, solid, cold ice had appeared from thin air and had attached itself to me. Nick.exe had stopped working. I screamed, more out of complete hysteria than fear, but it was still a genuine scream.
"Shut up," hissed the girl. She looked around for something. "Where's your beast?" she asked.
"My what?" I asked, eyes wide in shock.
"The lion! Where is he?"
"How the hell am I supposed to know!" I yelled. "He just vanished."
She looked down at me. "Amulet," she said quickly.
"You what?"
"Show me your amulet."
"I'm not wearing one..." but I trailed off as I reached up and felt a gold chain wrapped around my neck. Slowly I pulled it out over my shirt and saw a pendant in the shape of a lion, hammered out of pure gold staring back at me. It looked exactly like Flame from the detailed face to the flickering gold that looked like the flames that adorned his neck and tail. "I wasn't wearing that earlier," I muttered, completely confused.
"Swipe it," she ordered.
I flicked the amulet with my nail.
She glared at me. "No, with your finger. Along the surface."
I gave her a long look to see if she was serious and then swiped my thumb over the amulets smooth surface. Suddenly appearing out of thin air and with a strong smell of smoke Flame dropped out of the sky and stood next to the girl and looked at me with narrowed eyes. I made a funny strangled sound. I couldn't anymore.
"I didn't expect you to be a screamer," she muttered. Out of everything I'd seen today she seemed to be the most normal, but even then, there was something odd about her, her deep brown hair and brown eyes didn't look all that real. She was hiding from somebody.
"What are you expecting me to do. First that thing turns up and now this has happened," I jabbed a finger at Flame and then at the ring of ice. "Can somebody please tell me what's happening."
"It's hardly my fault that you were running off," she muttered as she flicked her hand. Something very bizarre happened next. As soon as she'd waved her hand I swear that I saw white shards of glass glitter around her fingers and a second later the ring of ice melted from around my legs, forming a little puddle where I was sitting.
What just happened? "Okay..."
"If you try to run off again, I won't take them off and I'll drag you up to Camp myself - are you even listening to me?"
I was still trying to figure out what had just happened. "Sorry, but have a few questions myself."
"Like what?"
"Who are you? Who's he? How did you just do that? Why are you following me? What do you want? What's Camp? And what the hell is going on!" My brain was bursting with questions, I'd known this girl for less than a minute and, yet she had already managed to destroy half of my sanity.
She looked really surprised. "You mean you don't know?" she asked.
"Of course I do, that's why I'm asking all the questions because I have the foggiest idea of what's going on," I snapped sarcastically. "I don't know what's happening to me, first the desk gets set on fire, then he turns up, then you show up and I'm going mad," I whimpered, burying my head in my arms.
I felt a hand on my arm. "You mean you don't know about what you are?"
I looked up, "what are you talking about?"
The girl shared a look with Flame. They both looked equally puzzled. "I thought he came from one of the families," she said, ignoring my meltdown for a moment.
"I think his mother's a Grey, but that doesn't explain his reaction."
"What did you just call my mum?"
The girl turned her attention back to me but didn't answer my question. "You want answers, right?" she said to me.
I nodded frantically, "that would be very nice right now."
"Fire away."
"Alright..." I said. "Who are you?"
"My name's Sheira." I'd definitely would have remembered a name like that, but how did she know me? And more pressingly...
"How did you make that ice go away?"
"I can control it," she said simply.
"And I'm the queen of Sheba."
A look that could kill was fired straight at me. Sarcastic comments for later Nick. "I mean it, look," she held out her palm where a little white light began to glow and then ever so gradually it got larger until it became a perfectly round snowball. My jaw had hit the floor. Sheira then dropped the snowball into my hands. It was real. It was cold and wet and melting right in front of my eyes. It was amazing.
"How did you do that?" I asked in awe.
"I'm an elemental. And you are too."
I raised an eyebrow. "I'm a what?"
"An elemental, and from my notes on you, you're a pretty powerful one as well."
I did my best to ignore the fact that she had notes on me. "Well I certainly can't do that," I said as the last bit of meltwater slipped through my fingers.
"That's because you're a Fire."
"Excuse me?"
She rolled her eyes. "A fire elemental."
Fire? No, not that, anything but that. I shook my head fiercely. "You've got the wrong guy, I'm not that."
"No... you are."
"No, I'm not," I said firmly. I scrambled up to my feet and began to back up slowly. "I don't want anything to do with this."
"Well, sadly you don't have a choice in the matter," muttered Flame.
Sheira turned to Flame and made a gesture that said 'I can handle this'. "Go to Camp," she said urgently. "You can act as a beacon if anything goes wrong." Flame nodded, spared a concerned glance at me, and darted off through the trees heading towards the woods on the hill. Sheira watched him leave and then studied the ground, "I really thought you knew," she mumbled.
I shook my head, "Sorry to disappoint, but I'm going home and I'm getting a brain transplant tomorrow morning," I said walking away.
Sheira didn't let me get far though. "No!" she yelled, grabbing my arm, "You can't go home."
"Look Sheira -"
"What Flame told you was true, you're in danger."
"Oh, come on..."
"That girl, Rose, have you heard about her?"
I narrowed my eyes at her. "She was in the paper this morning, but I don't see what that had to do with this."
"You go back home, and they will get you just like they got her, and I will bet my life on that."
"Who got her?" I asked.
Sheira nibbled her lip, she didn't seem to like the answer all that much. "The Army did." Something about the way she said army implied that it was Army with a capital A.
"Who are the Army?" The more I found out the more questions were thrown up as well.
"The people you don't want to meet." She sighed, and when she spoke again her voice was shaky. "Rose was my friend, and now I'll never see her again, none of us will." She took a sudden step forwards, fierceness glowing behind her brown eyes. "I am not going to let that happen to anyone on my watch, which includes you, so you're coming with me to Camp where I know you'll be safe. Understand?"
I nodded quickly and then started shaking my head. "What about my mum? My brother and sister? I can't just leave them without saying anything."
Sheira's answer was firm. "No, we don't have time, they might be close by."
"My flat is literally a minute away."
"No."
I could see that I was annoying her, but I didn't care. "I'm not leaving my family without explaining to them what's going on."
"If we don't go now you might not get the chance to see them again," she argued.
"I'm not leaving them!" I yelled. Sheira took a step back in shock. Maybe I'd been a little too forceful, but I didn't know this girl and my family were everything to me. I also didn't want Mum to be on her own on the day Dad died, I knew how bad it got after the little ones went to bed. I had to be there for her.
"Look," I said finally, "we're wasting more time arguing then getting on with something. I'm not going anywhere without saying something to my mum, and I'm certainly not changing my mind on that, but I promise you as soon as I do I'll go with you, how does that sound?"
Sheira didn't look overly convinced, in fact she looked like she was on the verge of despair, but it was a compromise. "Alright" she said finally, "I'm not happy about this, and I just want you to know that I think it's a really bad idea, but we need to make it quick, we need to get out of here."
She didn't need to tell me twice. Within a minute or so we were both shooting up the narrow concrete stairs of the tower, not bothering to wait for the lift in case it slowed us down. I still had no idea what was going on, or where Sheira wanted to take me but I felt like I could trust her, which was very weird all things considered. We made it to the fifteenth floor in a matter of minutes, gasping for breath. I was all set to go charging up there but Sheira grabbed my arm and brought a finger to her lips. She crept up ahead of me and then peered round the end of the railing. She didn't say anything, although her sudden muffled shriek of alarm said a thousand words.
"What's wrong?" I whispered.
Sheira frantically tugged on my arm. "We need to go. Now!"
"What's happening? Who's there?"
"We need to go, come on."
I ignored her. I pushed past her and peered over the side of the wall myself, all the while Sheira was trying to haul me back out of sight. I honestly couldn't see what she was so scared about. There were only two people stood along the walkway, two boys, one about my age, the other was a bit older. They were dressed normally, and didn't seem to be dangerous from this distance. But my gut reaction was telling me a very different story.
I watched as the a dark haired, emo looking kid rang the doorbell to the flat. I watched as I saw Mum open the door, still clearly on the chain bolt and look at the two strangers standing outside her door. I watched as they talked to her, asked her something and then I heard one of them say Nick, that was the moment my stomach dropped into my feet. I leaned a little closer, so I could listen to what they were saying.
"Are you one hundred percent sure he's not home?" said the emo boy. "Are you really sure?"
"Yes, he has detention so he's not going to be back for a while. You're more than welcome to come back later." Mum sounded like she was trying to get them to leave, she was saying it politely, but there was a razor blade attached to every word she was saying.
The taller boy stepped forwards. "Well that's the thing, he might not come back here, if you get what I mean. He might scarper off somewhere. To a Camp, perhaps?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Well I'm pretty sure that you do sweetheart." I winced at the fact that this creep just called my mum 'sweetheart'. "I think we should wait him out for a little bit, if he doesn't come back in another ten minutes or so, we'll just go and apologise for taking up so much of your time. But until then let's go wait inside, shall we?" The boy made a quick step towards the door, only to have it slammed shut in his face. "Hmm, I see you want to make this a bit more difficult than it needs to be," he drummed his fingers on the door. "Now, we can either do this the easy way or the hard way, your choice sweetheart." The door remained firmly shut. The boy's expression darkened. "Fine, have it your way."
For a moment, I was afraid he was going to try to kick the door down. I knew that the locks wouldn't hold for a single kick, a decent push would force it open, a sneeze would do the trick. But then the door clicked, the sound of the bolt sliding open was horribly loud, even from here. What the hell was she doing? The door came open. What happened next went so quickly I could barely process it. First the two boys stepped forwards, the tall one followed by the emo, both expecting an easy way in, but that didn't happen because as soon as the door was open wide enough something long and sharp hurtled out of the opening.
It was a trident. I'd seen it hanging on one of the walls for years now, but I didn't think it was real, but the way it landed in the boy's chest and sent him hurtling backwards over the railing made it look very real indeed. Mum then stepped out onto the walkway, another trident glowing in her hands, only she didn't look like my mum anymore, she looked like a warrior, an Amazon, radiating power and strength.
"You will not have my son!" she yelled before launching herself at the remaining boy who was still too startled to react.
I was pretty startled too. "How long has she been able to do that?" I asked, mouth hanging open in awe.
Sheira didnt answer. "That's our cue to leave," she hissed, grabbing hold of my arm. I almost let her pull me away when a scream sent me sprinting back up the stairs.
Mum was on the floor, her arms pinned behind her back by the emo boy, but the other boy was now leaning on the railing, his hand holding a bloody rag over the wound where the trident had pierced his chest. The two had been joined by another three people. Two young boys and a girl who had her back to us. The littlest boy, a kid of about eight, with wild white hair was patching up the tall boy, while another kid with dark glasses on was consulting a tablet in his hands while the girl looked at the wall. And then she turned. And I tried very hard not to scream.
It wasn't a girl, it wasn't a boy either, it just wasn't a person. It was hideous, a Frankenstein amalgamation of body parts all linked together by jagged lines of black thread, its long red hair was peeling away from its scalp, and its skin looked waxy and fake. Its eyes were flat and glassy, I could see that from here, and when it smiled I could see its foul yellow teeth.
"Hello Aleena," it cooed in its flat monotone voice. How did it know her? "It's nice to see you again."
"Go to hell," Mum spat.
It chuckled, "That's not a very nice way to treat an old friend, now is it. And this old friend requires a favour of you." It reached down and grabbed a handful of Mum's hair, and pulled her head back, but she didn't cry out. "I want to know where your son is. Nicholas, isn't it? You did a very good job at hiding him from us. Fifteen years you shielded him. I'm not saying that it's not impressive, it is, but you're out of time now. All the world can see him now."
Mum gritted her teeth. "You touch him, I swear to God -"
"What will you do to me Aleena? You're nothing but a Grey, you're powerless, it was your precious Jackie that had all the power, but I got him all the same." An ice-pick just went through my heart, he wasn't... he couldn't have been... The monster turned back to the rest of the group. "Search the flat," it barked, "search every nook and cranny. Find anyone that's hiding." The three boys except the emo all filed into my home.
Sheira was getting more desperate to leave. "Nick, if we don't go now I am going to knock you out and drag you out of here myself, I refuse to be here a minute longer."
I barely heard her as a sudden high-pitched scream caught both of us off guard. I flipped around, even Sheira poked her head around the corner to see what was happening. My little brother and sister were kicking and screaming in the tight grip of the older boy. I felt like I was going to pass out. Mum was screaming, begging for Maxie and Lilah to be spared but the girl simply stood there, a cold, cruel smile on her face, like she was enjoying my families pain.
I watched her kneel next to Mum. "I am going to ask you one more time, where is your eldest son?" her voice was edged with barbed wire.
Mum just sobbed, "I don't know. He's probably already at Camp, but please let my children go."
The girl shook her head, "pity, he would have made a good soldier. Cut the little one's throats."
I couldn't stop myself, before Sheira could even yell a word of warning or try to pull me back I was sprinting down the walkway, the burning sensation flowing through my hands. "Get your filthy hands off my family!" I yelled as the flames erupted from my fingers. The continuous jets of flame raced down the walkway top where the group was standing, it was like I had two flamethrowers attached to each arm. The flames died down, and through the smoke I saw all five of them standing there slightly singed but still alive. The girl was laughing like the Joker.
"Bravo, bravo," she was clapping with gusto. "I have to admit I thought that you were going to have a bit of a kick behind you, but you definitely have real potential."
"Let my family go."
She stopped laughing. "Where's the fun in that? I've wanted to get my own back against your family for years so I'm not about to give up four Haydens on one day."
"I thought you didn't collect Greys," said Sheira. She had just run up beside me, ice circling her fingers and a snow leopard was snarling by her side.
"Sheira. How nice to see you again." The girl muttered coldly. "Here to take another soldier away from me, are you?"
"All Vets are collecting the Rookies, you just picked the wrong guy."
The girl shrugged. "Or the right one, if it means I get to kill you to, and believe me," she gave Sheira a death stare, "I would take immense pleasure in making it slow and painful."
"As would I," growled a cheetah standing by the emo kids side. Mum was still in his grip, her eyes never leaving me for a second.
"Don't worry Mum, everything will be alright," I said as gently as I could even though my own voice was trembling.
She shook her head frantically. "Don't bother about me, just run. Get out of here. Get to Camp and stay there, you'll be safe."
"I'm not leaving you..." I whispered.
Mum turned away from me, "Sheira, please keep him safe."
Sheira nodded, "I will..."
The girl was getting bored. "Marx begin building the portal," she barked. The white-haired kid ran to the open-door way and began to frantically scribble markings all around the frame. "Leo, Jack, you're with me." Mum, Maxie and Lilah were thrown to the ground, beside the feet of the dark-haired kid who barely registered their presence as the big three advanced slowly on me and Sheira.
"What are we going to do?" I hissed to Sheira, backing up as fast as I could.
"Run."
"I'm not leaving my family." I looked over the crowd's shoulders and saw Mum holding my terrified little brother and sister in her arms. My stomach twisted, I had promised to keep them all safe after Dad died, and I was going to do that until my dying breath.
"Well unless you've noticed there are five of them and only two of us, I say the odds are against us."
"Only three of them are fighting," I argued.
"And you don't know how to fight, so technically there's only one of us who knows what they're doing."
I couldn't feel the burning in my hands anymore, and I certainly didn't know how to conjure them back, but I felt like I could do something. These monsters were going to hurt my family, kill them if they wanted, and they just expected me to join them. Two years ago, I'd promised that I would take care of them, keep them all safe, no matter what. And I had kept my promise, I'd become a dad to the kids and I had kept Mum safe throughout the dodgy flats and bed and breakfasts we'd stayed in even if it meant I got hurt myself, but I never cared. I clenched my fists, I wasn't about to break that promise now, not today, not tomorrow not ever. I could feel the warmth spreading again, flowing through my hands from my fingertips to the heel of my palm. I'd fought every day for the past two years and I wasn't about to give up now.
I took a step towards the group.
"Nick what are you doing?" said Sheira, her hand was on the back of my blazer, trying to drag me back.
"I'm fighting Sheira, I'm not about to roll over and let them do what they want." My voice didn't sound like mine anymore, it was far too confident, too brave.
"You're going to be killed," she said frantically.
I shook her off me. "One way or another I'm not going without trying to get my family back."
Sheira was silent for a few seconds. I heard her cursing to herself before she stood next to me. "I have a feeling that I'm going to really hate you," she muttered as white crystals glowed in her hands. The three had realised that they were going to be fighting us by now, as their own hands were rippling with energy and three animals, a cheetah, a frog and a parrot were stalking next to the group.
"Here goes nothing," I muttered as I released the flamethrowers again.
They were more powerful this time, burning brighter as they surged towards the group. All of them were closer to me this time so they couldn't leap out of the way in time. The emo kid, Leo and the girl managed to dive out if the way of the main blast but the tall kid, Jack, wasn't fast enough. The flames caught him straight in the chest, sending him flying and sprawling to the floor, frantically pulling off his jacket to avoid being roasted to a crisp. Leo and the girl snarled in anger and ran towards us, Leo priming an attack, while the girl pulled a long sharp blade from a bulge in one of her legs. She swung the bloody blade at my head, but I ducked and swiped her legs out from under her, as Sheira sent an ice blast at Leo freezing his hands together, before snapping a kick up into his jaw. Sheira's snow leopard was busy dealing with the cheetah and the frog at the same time, ripping and tearing at fur and skin while blood poured from the wounds on all three of them.
The girl swung her blood crusted blade at my neck, giving me the space to catch hold of her her wrist. I instantly slammed my other hand down on the joint, causing her to bellow in pain and reflexively release the blade (This wasnt the first time I'd been held up at knifepoint and living on these estates you learn how to avoid being carried off in a body bag). I caught it swiftly and aimed a few good swings at her, slicing her arms and she fought to get the blade back. Her eyes were filled with murder, saliva jettisoned from her lips with every breath as she snarled and snapped her teeth like a dog. Eventually, with pure brute strength, she tore the blade away from me and launched another attack, but Sheira conjured a wall of ice to separate us from them.
"Now what!" she yelled over the booms of the crazies trying to get through.
A squawk stopped me from answering as the parrot dived round the wall, talons outstretched to get us. I reached into one of the bins and pulled out a broken frying pan and swung it as hard as I could at the bird. It shrieked in alarm as a satisfying clang revealed that I'd hit it square on and sent it flying out of the air like a baseball after a homerun swing. Another bang distracted me as the group had brought down the wall and all three of them, including Jack who was back on his feet, minus his jacket, full on sprinted towards us.
"Oh hell." All three of them restarted their vicious attack on me and Sheira, both of us fast running out of room to fight back.
Sheira couldn't charge up her attacks fast enough and now with the snow leopard distracted, we were running out of options. I looked down the walkway and saw a purple light flare up from the doorway, along with a loud snapping sound. Our attackers all turned to look at it. I seized my chance. With another swing, and a sudden burst of heat, I slammed the frying pan against the tall boy's head while molten metal sailed towards the other two, leaving them to recoil in pain, sending all three of them to the ground in a heap, before I leapt up onto the railing and swung around the edge of the ice wall with Sheira following close behind. We could take on the two little ones no problem, we just needed to get there before-
"DUCK!" yelled Sheira, tackling me to the ground as a compressed wave of sound sailed over our heads ripping apart the walls that were in its path.
I glanced over my shoulder to see all three of them running down the walkway towards us. I pushed myself to my feet and ran to my family, but two animals blocked my path. One was a zebra, its metallic fangs bared, its eyes glowing red and smoke billowing from its nostrils, the other was a bizarre hybrid of snake and crocodile, sewn together at the waist and forced to survive as an experiment creature. I took another swing at the creatures, but they were having none of my tricks. The hybrids crocodile jaws slammed down on my wrist leaving bloody shreds as it raked its way down my skin. I howled in pain as Sheira tried to conjure up another round of ice, but I could see that she was exhausted and there was no way my flames were going to return.
"PORTAL!" screamed the girl, finally running up to us. I watched, I could only watch, as the two little kids picked up my family, my mum with tears in her eyes and her arms wrapped around Maxie and Lilah who were screaming for their big brother, and shoved them through the deep violet gateway, a ghostly image flickering behind them as all three of them screamed my name.
"Where are they!" I yelled. "Where have you taken my family!" I couldn't run after them, not without the hybrid taking another bite out of me and already the wound on my hand was beginning to bubble with venom, as the bloody mess began to pulse in and out of focus. It grinned wide where I saw its mouth was lined with teeth including two long snakes fangs jutting out of the front, and I could make a pretty good guess that those fangs were packed with venom.
The girl had blood dripping down the side of her face which was contorted into a hideous snarl. "No more games," she spat. "You're coming with me now, and you'll count yourself lucky if I don't rip you apart myself, but let's make this very clear, you're out of warnings now and I'm going to take great pleasure in torturing every, bleeding member of your vile, unatural, Grey family!" She spat every word, her own venom practically flying from her lips.
My legs were beginning to feel heavy and dark clouds began fogging at the edge of my vision. Dear god that was strong acting venom. I pushed myself upwards, forcing myself to stand straight. "I'd rather die," I said weakly.
Her face contorted even further. "Well that's what you're going to get." Sheira pulled me backwards until both of us were standing pressed against the concrete rail, and a thousand-foot drop waiting for us. She looked at the fear in both of us and smirked. "You have nowhere else to go, only a long drop and a sudden stop, quite a pitiful way to go."
"Rather my own hand than serve with you," Sheira said. She pulled me up onto the railing, a gentle push would send both of us tumbling. What was she doing? We couldn't survive a drop that far down, we'd be smashed to pieces on the pavement.
"Sheira..." I turned to her, she was completely calm, still as a statue, her hand clamped around my wrist.
The girl's smirk was beginning to fade as she realised that Sheira and me might actually jump. "Come on, you aren't really going to jump, you're both mad."
Sheira smiled for the first time since I'd met her. It was a knowing, victorious smile. "That's what you think," she said as she stepped back overthe edge, pulling me down with her.
I screamed in alarm and then in pure terror as we both plummeted towards the ground, the three figures by the railing becoming smaller and smaller as the ground grew wider and wider. The wind screamed in my ears as the final dark clouds of unconsciousness filled my eyes,my mum and siblings terrified faces filling my head. The wind silenced, and the world fell away, letting me slip into blackness before I hit the floor.
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