Blood Stained Wings - Chapter Two

Lexi

I shivered, not from the cold though. The air was moist and reeked of death. The auburn leaves shuffled beneath my feet, sounding like a pit of snakes hissing. It was unnerving. But I pushed my feet forward. It was finally time to see them again. The people I loved. After so long. Because, much to my dismay, I was ordered to stay in the academy for four more days to train. Lucian had noticed how I froze with fear when we’d escaped from Alcaeus’. I’d gone through mental torture after mental torture to get past that fear. I didn’t know the source of it but clearly Lucian did. And he’d projected nightmares I couldn’t even think of into my mind to force me past that.

Even now the malignity of those mental training sessions haunted the corners of my mind.

Lucian had forced me into a small room, not even the size of a broom closet, and devoid of any light. Celine stripped me of everything, even clothes except for a tank top and my underwear and then took away my weapons. With my wrists, legs and shoulders bound, with something that felt like silicon, to a chair and my eyes blindfolded, Lucian started the torturous ‘training’.

I still remembered the very first delusion, so vivid and clear. At first I could only see. The land was pretty with autumn trees and auburn brown leaves dotting the land like central park of New York. On the other hand the sky was pale dull gray-blue with flecks of thin white-gray slivers of clouds. Everyone was there. Lily with Alec, Cyrus appearing to exchange an interesting conversation with Lucas, Annelise who was trailing silently behind, Ian and Demetri as well, just a person across from each other. And there was me, wedged between them both. Only it wasn’t me. But a reflection of me.

I was watching objectively from the sky, like it was all just an old Hollywood movie. Everyone was walking peacefully like they would on any other night out. I was by Demetri's side, our fingers intertwined like any other couple. Though it was dead quiet. And the silence had almost been deafening if not for the images. But then the nightmare started.

The land turned barren, the ground cracked and dry, while the sky was a blanket of opaque stormy gray clouds laced with the dark purple of lightning. Everyone started backing up against each other, the usual back-to-back formation. Then my mirror image, with a shocked half whimper-gasp, dissipated into the air and instead I was expelled on to the hard earth. The sound of the distraught voices of everyone rang coarsely in my ears. I rose to my feet, but found that was all I could do. Each limb and muscle froze in place, panic bloomed in my chest and began to froth and seethe. Then the unearthly hisses and roars of demons broke the flustered noises of wary defense.

The grotesque things slowly, surrounding us, accumulated, hundreds of them. But their target was obviously not me. They ignored me, but almost it was as if they couldn’t see me, like there was some invisible barrier shielding me from them. I stood there, my entire body numb and engulfed with panic and fear as I watched. I wanted to help but there was nothing I could do.

My heartbeat thudded harshly in my ears, its speed climbing higher and higher. I wanted to scream and flail but I couldn’t even lift a finger. I watched as my friends could no longer protect their fronts let alone another person’s back. I watched as the demons slowly tore through them, their claws, teeth and fangs sinking into each one of the people I cared about. Their blood splattered across and pooled on to the cracked earth, seeping into the dead broken land. The booming thunder sounded as I watched, the lightning striking the trees and setting them alight.

Unlike what most movies and books talk about, you don’t lose all your senses, everything doesn’t just suddenly go black, you aren’t suddenly unable to hear anything and you don’t lose all conscious thought and think it’s just a dream. Instead, everything magnifies.

Their screams and shrieks of pain scratched against my ear, the red of their blood dyed everything else in my vision red, but it was all still so formidably sharp. That was when my voice burst from my chest and into the vicious air.

And it didn’t end with my friends, next I was the target of their focus. I could feel my skin tearing, my blood pooling. Each part of me started burning and slicing with excruciating pain, adding on to the pain that already was flaring inside me. This was what everyone else was feeling while I watched. Even after I was sure there was nothing left to destroy of my body or my friends’, I could still hear the formidable screams and the pain embedded within from their voices and mine.

Without stopping, the images and the pain and reality of it all were sent to me over and over, as if I were to live a repeated war. I knew it wasn’t real. I told myself it wasn’t reality and for a period of time I was able to endure it without letting my screams boil over. But soon, after hearing the endless cries of help and pain from everyone, I started becoming hysterical. Time meant nothing because I wasn’t even sure what time was anymore. I wasn’t even sure there was an ‘outside’ from the nightmare I was living. After accepting it as reality, my own screams sounded foreign and inhuman to my own ears.

I could have sworn that it had gone on for months, years even. But gentle whispers started seeping into the cracks of the images. Telling me to save them all, telling me that if I ran out of fight I would lose everything and telling me that this wasn’t real, that I had overcome this if I ever wanted it to end. Pictures flashed inside those dark cracks that had formed in my mind. Real pictures, of the bright warm sun on my face and skin, the taste of delicious foods, soft music that played and reminded me of the music you could sometimes hear from Demetri's room through the wall when it was quiet. All things from the reality outside, of this entire thing I’d thought to have been reality.

"You are different, you are strong Alexia. Confront your fear and let go of them. That is the only you may save them." A girl’s voice whispered urgently, as if she knew of something that I didn’t. My mind cleared and I felt the urge and angst of doing the right thing to get out. The sudden image flooded through my mind again, everything somehow more clear and sharp than before. I was alert and I had to get out of here, even if it meant doing something that would kill me inside.

Again I was thrown on to the hard dry earth. It wasn’t long before I rose to my feet and saw the beginning of everyone’s ends, so I closed my eyes as I stood. I stood there for a few cruel moments, their pleas for help tempting my screams of agony. I breathed in and focused. They were in danger in reality. This was not reality. I had to let them go. Slowly I lifted my eyelids and took in the scene. They were exactly as I remembered, slowly dying, their eyes wild with fear and agony and their voices brimming with pain.

"Lexi! Help me!" Lily whimpered, her voice on the verge of sobbing.

"Save us Lexi!" Alec pleaded, screaming at me.

"Lexi!" Cyrus called, his usually detached voice was writhing in misery.

"Help, Lexi!" Lucas yelled, his childish voice coming out with his strong emotion.

"Miss.Lexi!" Annelise begged, her gray eyes shining and brimming with unshed tears.

My heart dropped to my stomach wretchedly, almost breaking into a million pieces, as I watched them. I turned to Ian and Demetri.

"Lexi, please." Ian whispered. His voice was hoarse with tormented woe. His face twisted in sheer pain, his navy eyes pleading.

"Lexi…" Demetri. My heart throbbed and sped up achingly. His face contorted with tortured despair while his midnight blue eyes blazed with sorrow and pain.

The faces of those two almost split my heart in two and caused me to give in again, but I didn’t. My hands filled with the familiar grip of knife hilts. I felt my skin go tight over my bones as I gazed at them all.

"I’m so sorry." Was all I could manage to whisper. Loud thunder roared above as lightning struck the sky. Rain plummeted down to the ground and onto everything else.

I turned my back on them and started towards the other direction. The demons attacked me forcefully, more vicious than ever as I tried to escape from them. Their black venom sludge flew everywhere as I dodged ethereally and killed airily as I always did at my best. The bodies of the demons scattered without another trace as soon as they died.

Once it was silent, I panted heavily, my chest rising and falling easily. The water put out the fires of the somehow still burning trees, which were now black. My wet hair clung to my face, my soaked clothes stuck to my skin and drenched me with them. I could feel the burn and sting of injuries and cuts all over but I didn’t care. I inhaled deeply and exhaled. I turned and looked over my shoulder. What met me were the cold bodies of the people I loved lying in a sea of their own blood. Slowly the rain mixed with the blood.

I stood there, not moving but not frozen in place either. Just gazing down at their lifeless bodies, their open eyes distant and faraway. As the seconds ticked away, the blood drained and washed away into the cracks of the ground. The rain ceased and their bodies slowly faded to silver ash. In their place life began to grow. The dry earth started healing, the cracks started knitting themselves together, the hard beige ground turned into healthy soil and grass, the black trees fell but in their place healthier and greener trees grew back and flowers sprung into life at their feet. The sky also cleared and became the warm blue sky I’d felt on campus from what seemed like a lifetime ago.

I breathed in again and let my eyes fall shut. My clutch on the knives loosened and they clattered softly to the ground. As I exhaled I opened my eyes again. My eyes met with the comforting darkness of my cotton blindfold and the strange binding of silicon around my skin. I could smell the musky brisk air of the small room once again.

When I had asked Lucian how long I was gone, despite it feeling like it had been years, he’d told me it had only been six hours.

I shivered at the painful memory but was grateful for it, as I was absolutely certain there was no way I would freeze up again. The remainder of the time at the academy was spent on physical training, on becoming stronger. And no matter how much Celine and Gabriel had to throw at me, it was, by several miles, better than the mental ‘training’ I had with Lucian.

Celine and Gabriel had pushed me through gruesome training sessions to make me stronger. I’d torn my skin until it was raw and snapped bones until they were broken several times and never took a break except for meals and short cold showers. Celine had me spar against many of the senior students at the academy, it wasn’t a breeze but I managed pretty well, considering the only person I had a half defeat against was Matt and it had been a draw. Gabriel also taught me how to wield Michael’s sword. I knew how to wield swords but this sword was different. As if it had a mind and soul of its own. It was like I wasn’t fighting anyone with the sword, instead it was fighting and struggling against me. Its flame had blistered and burned me. But after hours alone fighting it, I finally, as ridiculous as it sounded, had it obey me.

The sharp hoot of an owl snapped me back to reality as it was actually a signal from the other hunters to say they were all now present. Gabriel was quiet as the night beside me, not even glancing at me. The halo of wavy golden summer hair contrasted sharply against the thick forest of naked black tree trunks. His profile seemed to shine even in the darkest spot. I was taken aback when he stopped his marching and turned to look at me for the first time in hours.

"We are near. You must go on without me." He murmured. I stared at his dazzling face for a moment but then slowly nodded. Swiftly I continued walking, but, without facing me, Gabriel held on to my arm.

"Do not allow yourself to be harmed, Alexia." He whispered. His voice was so quiet that I barely caught it. Something in me screamed and screeched and wanted to throw myself at him. Lucia. No! I told myself, this isn’t Cassiel. I fought the tears threatening to spill over.

"Okay." I murmured back. And with that the tug on my arm vanished and there was no flaring presence of the angel behind me anymore.

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Hey everyone, here's a new chapter. I hope it's not very late and since it's nearing the holidays, I'll do my absolute best to try finish editing (If I ever can be definite about each paragraph, the new chapters I have!) So enjoy and comments are always encouraged! I love hearing what you all think!