Chapter 4: Split Into Groups

Valge's mind went into panic as he was dragged into the shadows, a pale, cold, skeletal hand clamped over his mouth to prevent him from speaking. Fear raced through his head. What was going to happen to him?
He felt himself being spun around, the hand removed from his mouth. His breathing had increased again, the way it always did when he was scared. His vision was blurry, but when it cleared, his breathing increased even more. In front of him was a ghostly spirit, sickly green in aura with the body turning in wisps of smoke from the waist, with a dying, old man's face, complete with jutted bones and barely opened eyes that stared into Valge's. His mouth hung open, showing exactly three teeth, yellow but deathly sharp. All around them, the shadows pressed in, letting in no sign of the outside world.
"What the hell are you?" Valge shrieked, unsure if his friends could hear him or not.
As if reading his mind, the spirit answered. "None of your friends can hear you, Valge." He said in a raspy, light voice that seemed to echo in the shadows, his mouth still unmoving.
"How do you know my name?" Valge asked, voice quivering.
"Spirits know many things, like the message I came to pass to you." The spirit answered.
Valge gulped. If the message came from a spirit like this, Valge was sure it wasn't anything good.
"T...tell me then." He replied shakily.
"Very well." The spirit rasped. "It's a grave forseeing of your future."
Valge stood tense. "Go on." He said anxiously.
"You will die at the hands of the people you lest expect, your friends. Even your closest friends will turn their backs on you when you need it most."
Valge tried to make it sink in, the fact that he'd die for his friends, but it seemed so ridiculous to him.
"No, I won't." He said defiantly. "But I won't abandon my friends for it."
The spirit sighed sadly. "As you wish, Valge Hammeraki. Do not blame anyone but yourself for your death."
With that, the spirit faded, and Valge returned to the real world. Ms Mowz was still walking towards him and his friends, meaning no time had passed during his disappearance. Valge sat down on the ground and held his head in his hands, trying to go over what the old spirit had just said, that he'd die at the hands of his friends. It seemed impossible. His closest friends, Bilic and Felix, they'd grown up together since they were small. They were so close that some people mistakened them for brothers.
"They can't." He muttered. "They won't turn themselves on me." His voice cracked, trying to comfort himself.
A hand fell on his shoulder, and Valge recoiled. It was just Felix, who raised his hands back in surprise.
"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you." He said.
Valge sighed. How could the spirit forsee his fate in such a way? Looking at Felix, and thinking of his crazy, happy, optimistic personality, his proclaimed fate seemed even more ridiculous than ever.
"Dude, are you okay?" Felix asked, clearly worried for his friend. He reached out to put his hand on Valge's shoulder again, but Valge pushed it aside.
"I'm fine." He replied harshly.
Felix backed up, surprised by his friend's sudden hostility. It wasn't like Valge to be so angry and distant. Felix looked at Ms Mowz, who was already calling everyone together.
Felix shrugged. "Okay, buddy." He said. "If you don't want to tell me, that's fine. But we should go greet our new friends." He got up and offered Valge a hand.
Valge didn't look up. "You go ahead." He muttered.


Once everyone had gotten familiar with each other and greetings had been made, Bilic decided to speak up.
"Everyone, it seems we've been purposely kept awake by these demons while everyone else has been forced into sleep."
"Are you sure?" Sharp asked.
Bilic nodded. "Although it's only my theory, I believe it has something to do with these marks the demons left on us." He pointed to his own tattoo.
"So how come these two don't have those marks?" Blazer asked, pointing at Sharp and Riley.
"I assume it's because they're already monsters." Bilic answered. He then realized what he said. "No offense."
"None taken." Sharp said. Riley barked in agreement.
"So what should we do?" Jainen asked.
Everyone thought this over. No one had a clear plan.
"I think we should split into groups and look for hints." Ms Mowz spoke up after some silent moments. "Considering we know almost nothing about the demons or what they have in store, any information we find will vital."
No one seemed very comfortable with the idea, but Elise, Bilic, Felix, Sharp and Jane nodded in agreement.
"Or we can sit here and watch the demon's plan unfold, and I think we all agree that whatever they have planned is bad news." Bilic added.
Jainen sighed. "Okay then, let's create our groups."
"Yeah, it's better than staying here in confusion." Sky muttered.
Bilic started counting everyone. "There's eleven of us." He frowned slightly. "That doesn't split in anyway."
A distant flutter of wings could be heard, putting everyone on alert. Sky pulled out his wooden rod, which morphed into a five-foot, double sided spear.
"Who's there?" He called.
"Show yourself and no one gets hurt!" Bilic commanded.
Nothing moved or even made a sound in the darkness. The only sources of light were the hazy moon and the street lamps that were lined in the town square, while the only sound was the wind that blew through the Town Square.
"Valge, come over here." Felix called quietly to his friend, who still standing away from the group, deep in his own thoughts.
Valge cautiously snuck over to the group, but no one emerged. The entire Town Square seemed to be holding his breath.


Bilic stood tense, his hammer clenched in his left hand. Whatever was hiding from them, he wanted to see, not sure if he or she was friend or foe.
"Show yourself and no one gets hurt!" He shouted again. He glanced to his sides, expecting something to move. Then everything went completely silent. Bilic instantly knew something was going to attack. He drew his hammer upwards, then was suddenly blown backwards off his feet, a sharp claw digging into his arm. He dropped his hammer as he flew backwards, smashing into the Inn's wall, causing bricks and dust to fall everywhere.
"Bilic!" He heard Felix shout.
Bilic could hardly move. His vision was swirling, his ears were filled with uneven sounds, and his left arm had been sliced open, red, painful and bloody. A figure towered over him, shrouded in dust. He didn't have his hammer to defend himself, even if he could get up. If whoever was standing over him decided to kill him, he'd be powerless to stop it.
The figure standing over him was human-shape, tall and female, but her some of her features didn't seem human. Her eyes seemed to glow purple, her nose and mouth were shaped into a beak, her dark purple dress was torn, with a similarly colored pouch slung over her shoulder, and she had two eagle-like wings on her back.
"Stop hurting me!" She shouted at him.
Bilic was confused. He'd never even met this person before, and his head was still swimming.
"W...what are you talking about?" He asked groggily.
She looked ready to kill him, her eyes glowing harshly and her hands ready to choke him.
"Don't play with me, spirit!" She yelled at him. She tried to grab his neck, but was grabbed backwards with a surprised shriek. Elise had grabbed her from behind, with the rest were right behind.
"Listen to me, he's not an enemy or a spirit." She said to the half-bird gently, trying to calm her down.


Jainen slid down to his knees right next to Bilic and examined his arm carefully. He winced at the bleeding arm and torn skin, but quickly pulled out a wrap of cloth, a needle, some thread and three pills from his black waist bag. He offered Bilic the pills.
"Take this." He ordered gently.
Bilic didn't resist and swallowed the pills. Instantly, his body and mind went numb, dulling the pain in his head and his bleeding arm. Jainen set to work with his needle and and thread, with furious concentration and partial worry in his eyes, and started to stitch up Bilic's torn arm. When he was done, he tied the wrap of cloth around Bilic's patched, bloody arm and let out a massive sigh of relief.
"Thankfully the cut wasn't too deep." he muttered. Everyone was looking at him with obvious, surprised, relieved and impressed looks on their faces.
"Jainen, that was...amazing." Ms Mowz breathed.
Jainen only shrugged. "Well, I spent a lot of time in Medical School, in both medicine and surgery, so I guess just knew what to do."
Bilic winced next to him and tried shakily to get up.
"Don't worry, it's just the anaesthetic wearing off. You'll be back up to strength in a few minutes." He said.
"Thanks." Bilic said gratefully.
"Don't thank me." Jainen said, embarrassed. "That wasn't actually in my training."
"Well, it certainly looked like it was." Ms Mowz noted.
Jainen blushed slightly. He didn't want to tell the others, but he hadn't been thinking when he stitched up Bilic. It was as if someone else had taken over and used his hands. But his mind had been completely focused, as if he was still in control. He shook his head, trying to shake the thoughts from his head. It only confused him even more. He straightened his Ice Blue helmet and helped Bilic up.


Elise had managed to calm and convince the half-brid that Bilic wasn't a demon. While they walked back to the group, having been aside with Jane to calm the half-bird down, she asked the half-bird what her name was.
"It's Violent Jo." Was the reply.
Jane didn't think that was a suitable name, but said nothing. She noticed the tattoo on Jo's arm, and her story about thinking Bilic was a demon made sense. After all, Bilic was wearing black and his skin was a little more paler than his friends.


Valge had watched the whole incident between Bilic and Jo unfold with an unusually calm silence. He would have felt terrified to see Bilic be attacked, but the old spirit's proclaimed fate about kept him silent. If it was true, Bilic might be the one responsible for his death. Now, he stood aside from the group in quiet frustration at his confusion.


Jainen came up to Valge, trying to get away from the attention about his miraculous medical abilities, allowing Ms Mowz and Bilic to hold a discussion about their plans. To him, it seemed that Ms Mowz and Bilic had been silently appointed as the leaders. Seeing Valge stand on his own, he was reminded of some of his time in medical school, the time he had visited one of the Mushroom City's hospitals. He was sure he had seen Valge before.
"Valge?" He asked cautiously.
Valge didn't even look at him. "What?" He asked angrily.
"Do I seem familiar?" Valge looked at him through the corner of his eye, examining him carefully. "Maybe."
"Was it in a hospital?"
Valge tried to remember. "I think it was, why?"
Jainen shrugged. "I just thought I had seen you before, in a similar behaviour."
The memory came rushing back to had been hospitalized two years ago after colliding with a cyclist when Bilic and Felix had been sightseeing the city. The cyclist had somehow disappeared, and no witness claimed to have seen him. The confusion that had followed, along with the feeling he had gotten when no one had believed him, had brought him into a similar mood, close to what he was feeling now. What had scared him at the time was what the alledged cyclist had said to him.
'Your time is short, Valge Hammeraki. I have foreseen a bleak future for you. Come with me now, and I can spare you from future pain and loss.'
What had scared him then was how the cyclist knew his name, or had supposedly foreseen his future. It was chillingly similar to what the old spirit had told him a few minutes ago.
Valge let out a quiet growl and turned away, hating himself for his feelings.
"Let's just go back to the others." He muttered, and walked back to the group, not bothering to look back at Jainen.


Ms Mowz looked uncertainly at her friends. She barely knew anything about them, but now they were all here together, as if they were all pieces in a jigsaw puzzle.
'It must be a heck of a puzzle.' She thought to herself. Everything seemed so vague to her. Not just her friends, but the constant darkness, the demons and their plans as well.
It had been her idea to split up into groups and hunt for clues. Now, she was reconsidering the idea.
"Should we try a different idea?" She whispered to Bilic.
Bilic shook his head. "No. Splitting up into groups is our best bet. We'll cover more ground, and more demons might attack us."
"How is that a good thing?" Felix asked in surprise.
"If a demon tries to attack us, there will be three of us in each group. You know how well groups of three work together."
Felix nodded in grim agreement. "Three does work together well." He agreed.


Bilic knew Felix was thinking about the times they and Valge had been together, exploring and hanging out as friends. But now, the stakes were much higher for all of them. Bilic was sure that if they didn't stop the demons or their plans in time, the entire world would be doomed. Felix had often called him pessimistic, but there seemed to be a ring of obvious certainty around the idea. The question now was how much time they all had. That meant that answers had to be found soon.
Bilic clapped his hands together, snapping himself from his deep thinking. His friends were his priority.
"Okay everyone. It's been our decision to split up into groups to find out what's going on." He announced. "Since there are twelve of us now, we'll spilt very easily. I recommend four groups of three."
Everyone looked at each other, trying to find their partners. Bilic already knew who he'd be with. It had been clear to him from the start. He called Felix and Valge over.
"We'll be group 1." He said.
Felix gave out a quiet cheer, while Valge nodded, his expression still distant. Ms Mowz had joined with Elise and Riley. Jane teamed up with Sky and Sharp, leaving Dragon Blazer, Jo and Jainen as the fourth and final group.
Bilic looked at Ms Mowz, then everyone else with a stern nod.
"May luck be with us all." He said to everyone. They took off in groups, each taking a different direction.
'Of course, luck has not been very dependable of late.' He thought bitterly to himself.

End of C4.


So, with that, I am closing the window for OC submissions. Twelve characters is a little bit over the top for me, as you can see since I'm constantly moving between POV's, hopefully with some good explanations, but since I've split them into groups now I'll be much more able to keep track of them.
I also plan to delve a little deeper into the character's personalities and pasts. But that will have to wait until next time. Shouldn't be too long though, since I've gotten a week off from school, so expect chapters at a little faster crank.

Remember:

1. Bilic, Felix and Valge

2. Ms Mowz, Riley and Elise

3. Jane, Sharp and Sky.

4. Dragon Blazer, Violent Jo and Jainen.

Until then, stay patient. -Para-Zackovic