Well…I didn't get any reviews, but I'm anxious for you guys to see where this will be going! So, after this chapter, no reviews, no updates (unless I get in the mood to do so, which might take awhile without a review ;)
Chapter Three
MY HEAD FELT LIKE it was about to explode. My body was in agony; I was sure several bones were broken and fractured and that I might've had a small concussion. Oh well, I thought as anger swelled up inside me again.
"She's conscious, my lord," a dry voice with a strange accent said from beside me.
"Excellent." The voice was hard and snake-like; the word came out in a long, drawn out hiss.
I opened my eyes and found I was in a dark room; I couldn't see more than a foot in front of me. But I knew I wasn't the only one in the room; not only had I heard two voices, I heard quiet breathin' and had a gut feelin' that I was in serious trouble. Then I became aware that I couldn't move. Lookin' up, I saw my hands were bound together and, somehow, I was hangin' in midair, swayin' to some unseen force, back and forth.
Somebody snapped their fingers and the whole place was suddenly lit up by candle light. As my eyes adjusted, I instantly wished for the darkness again. I would much rather prefer that to what sight met my eyes.
There was a long, rectangular table where dozens and dozens of silver-masked figures adorned in black sat. At the head of the table, lookin' at me with cold, cruel eyes was a pale yet handsome man with dark hair and equally dark eyes who seemed to be in his late twenties. He was very sophisticated-lookin'…yet there was this dark and evil feelin' that I sensed comin' from him. I shuddered involuntarily.
He grinned, a horrible smile that showed white teeth. "Welcome," he said in a silky smooth British voice, "to my humble abode. We are so please you are here tonight on the last night of your life."
I gave him, and the others who were watchin' too, a blank look. "Who the hell are ya sick and twisted bastards?"
He clucked his tongue. "So unbecoming. Such foul language coming from a young woman." He shook his head in mock disgust. He looked at everyone seated at the table. "Come now, my friends. We want this…charming…young lady to see our faces as she dies, do we not?"
There were muttered agreements. Almost simultaneously, all of those seated at the table removed their masks. Among them were the two demons that had murdered my parents.
"So this is what ya resort to?" I yelled at the couple who were seated side by side. "You scared I'm gonna tear ya 'part limb by limb?" Those at the table exchange glances. The man at the head of the table looked amused.
"Well ya better count yer blessin's, 'cause when I get outta these damned restraints you gonna wish ya were dead!"
"You dare speak to me like that?" the woman shrieked, already 'bout ready to blow her top. Good lord, lady. Go to some anger management classes!
"Oh! I get it now! I just made the connection!" I faked a shocked expression. "You're evil spawn is that Bellatrix girl, huh? Explains each of your very nasty habits of screechin' yer heads off. Where's she, anyways? Past little girl's bedtime?"
The man at the head of the table chuckled. "This muggle amuses me, hence the reason she's still alive. Wherever did you find her?"
"America. Bellatrix wanted to take down a big commercial…plane, I think they're called," Orion said.
"Explains the strange accent," the man mused. "I can barely understand a word she says. Tell me, muggle—"
"Hey," I snapped. "Time-out here, man. We need to get a few things straightened out. First off, my name is Evelyn. Second, what the hell is a muggle? Ya know what, scratch that. I don't give a damn. Lemme down from whatever trick-wire you have me hangin' from."
"Trick-wire?" I heard someone mutter in confusion.
"I'll take ya each on, one at a time," I said to Walburga and Orion, starin' at them with hate. "Unless, of course, you scared…"
Walburga stood up quickly, her chair flingin' backwards, the stick out and pointin' at me.
"Stop!" the man at the head barked, voice instantly turnin' cold. "Go get your niece, Mrs. Black. This is hers to dispose of if she's true on joining our elite group." She stormed away, mutterin' curses under her breath.
The man looked back at me, and I fell to the table. My hands were still bound, but it was a start. He leaned forward in his seat to get a better look at me.
"In the end, this is what either leads you to your victory or your demise, isn't it?" he asked in a soft, smooth voice.
"Pardon?"
"Revenge? Plain, simple, yet powerful and alluring. The prospect of the word is dangerous, yet addicting."
"What d'ya mean?" I was startin' to think there wasn't somethin' right in the head with this guy.
"Don't try and fool with me," the man said. "I know what they did to all those people. What they did to your parents…"
"Shut-up!" I yelled. "You know nothin'! Any of you!"
"My Lord." Bellatrix bowed to the man as she entered the room with Walburga, who looked at me with pure and undisguised hatred.
"Get on with it before I want to see just how much fun she can be," the man said. "Show us what you can do."
"My pleasure, my Lord," Bellatrix said as she bowed to him once again. She stepped up on the table, movin' right in front of me and took her stick out, levelin' it at me.
"Get up!" she barked, her face in a snarl.
"Mmm…nope. Not yet. See you, here, have a very unfair advantage, considerin' my hands are kinda tied together, so it's like pickin' off deer in a five by four fenced in area."
She blinked at me, momentarily confused, and that's when I made my move. I rolled and lashed a leg out, sendin' her on her ass and her stick-thing flyin' in the air. It landed just behind me, so I got up and ran for it, kickin' it far away so it landed against the wall, where, even better, it snapped upon contact. There were several gasps 'round the table. I turned to look back at the girl, slidin' my hands loose from the ropes, rubbin' my wrists where I had rope-burn.
"Now we're evenly matched," I said, grinnin' devilishly. "Well...maybe you need to find someone who isn't quite as skilled as I am, then you'll be evenly matched."
Her eyes were wide in shock and embarrassment, but it was soon replaced with anger. She stiffly got to her feet, shootin' death looks at me. "Fine. You want to do it your way, so be it. It matters not to me how you die."
I shrugged, then swerved to the left as she rushed at me. I smirked as she stumbled, not expectin' empty air.
"Tell me, is that the best you can do?" I raised an eyebrow, and that's when she threw a punch at me. I ducked away from the first one, but she threw another one shortly after, catchin' me in my arm.
"Hey! Lookie there! We're gettin' somewhere!" I let her land one more punch to my other arm before I attacked back. I caught her next fist in my palm and twisted her arm 'round behind her back, forcin' her to her knees, causin' her to hiss at the pain. She tried to claw me with her other hand, but I just pushed down on her arm even harder, makin' her hiss again, quittin' her efforts. Satisfied that I had her where I wanted her, I used her arm as leverage and shoved her off the table, where she landed on her face on the floor, where she laid, stunned.
I brushed my hands off and turned back to the majority of the group. "Well," I said, "that was fun! Who's next?"
The leader-dude looked at me with renewed interest. "You are perhaps the strangest muggle I have ever laid eyes on…Evelyn. Maybe…just maybe, you would like to try your hand against me?"
I looked him over. Sure, he looked crueler than the Bellatrix girl, but he didn't look as strong. I figured in hand-to-hand combat it'd be much easier to take him down.
"Sure," I said. "Why not?"
He grinned cruelly. "Excellent," he said, drawin' out the word. The rest of the group all looked at me, grinnin', in a way that made me feel I had screwed up in agreein' to go against him. Thinkin' 'bout it…he wasn't their leader fer no reason at all…so he probably had more skill than the rest.
"Crap," I muttered.
"Oh yes," he said. "'Crap' indeed." He pointed his wand at me and yelled, "Crucio!"
All of a sudden I was engulfed in tantalizin' pain, knockin' me off my feet to my knees. I started to convulse and screamed as the pain took over my whole body and mind. I was on fire. My bones felt like they were bein' cracked into little-itty-bitty pieces, then bein' rebuilt, then smushed all over again. It was pure agony, by far worse than death could ever be, and soon death was exactly what I was wishin' for. I was close to loosin' consciousness when the pain stopped, and all that was left was me thinkin' my body was on fire. I was pantin' like hell.
I heard his soft footsteps get closer to me, but I couldn't move at all, not even to lift my head. I hurt so bad, or if I didn't actually, my mind sure as hell thought I did.
"Congratulations," he said in a cruel voice. "You have made it past phase one. Are you ready for phase two?"
"Why?" I managed to get out, my throat parched and crackin'.
He laughed, which sounded like ice. "'Why'?" He laughed again. "Because you are an abomination to our world. You and your kind need to be wiped from the face of this world…unless you choose to serve me for eternity."
Uh-oh, I thought, here comes a sarcastic remark. Shut-up, Evie! Shut! Up…! "Well it's kinda hard to get followers, ain't it, if you go right on 'head torturin' and tryin' to kill them before ya even give them the freakin' choice to follow yer evil ways. I would think so, at least." Great job, I told myself.
He stared at me for a moment, then knelt down to my level and touched my face, lookin' me over. He ran a hideously long nail down the side of my face, somehow makin' a deep cut. I felt the hot blood run down and into my eye as he said,
"You are starting to annoy me, muggle. I liked your screams much better than your words." He pointed the stick at me again, opened his mouth to say another word, then…
BOOM!
There was a huge explosion and the buildin' shook in its foundation. There were several loud poppin' sounds and figures appeared from swirls of blackish-gray smoke, pointin' sticks at people and firin' off strange words. The cruel man had a pissed look to his features, but when he saw somethin', it momentarily turned to fear before quickly bein' replaced by a blank look.
"Tom," a wise and stern voice said, in yet another British accent. I was startin' to think that maybe I was in the United Kingdom. Maybe.
"Dumbledore," the man, Tom, said in a toneless voice. "So we meet again, so soon."
An old-lookin' man walked into view. He was tall and had long silver hair and a long silver beard. His face had lots of laugh-lines, and he wore half-moon glasses over bright blue eyes. He wore strange white robe-type-things, and he, too, carried the ever-popular stick.
"Not soon enough to save all the innocent people you murdered," the older man, Dumbledore (huh. Strange name…), said tiredly. "Why don't you just quit while you're ahead, Tom?"
"My name isn't Tom anymore, Dumbledore," Tom said tightly. "It's Voldemort, and you shall forever fear the name!" With that, Tom (Voldemort? What was with the weird names?), yelled out a word, and a flash of light shot out of his stick at Dumbledore, who somehow blocked it and shot some different colored light at Voldemort.
While they fought, all around them there was chaos.
Voldemort's followers were fightin' with the people that had arrived in the smoke, and it looked like it was a loosin' battle for his people, even though there was more of them then the ones fightin' them. Bellatrix, I saw, had left, probably afraid to face far more experienced fighters after her last butt-kickin'.
Ignorin' the screamin' of every fiber of my bein' I started to crawl away, but when I looked back, Dumbledore seemed to be havin' some trouble fightin' the Voldemort-dude off. For some reason, I knew that if the old man lost, all would be over, endin' badly, most likely. Suddenly, a brilliant but probably suicidal thought popped into my head. A distraction. That's what Dumbledore needed. I just had to trust my life in some total strangers hands. No big deal, right?
Seein' that Voldemort was preoccupied, I crawled slowly towards him, noticin' he was gainin' more ground in his fight. I crouched, puttin' weight on my achin' haunches when I figured I was close enough, then, counted to three to catch some courage. I mean, what did I have to lose?
One…
Two…
Three!
I lunged at Voldemort, grabbin' him 'round the waist, bringin' him to the ground off the table, tryin' to use all my weight to knock the breath outta him, and most of my strength to keep him from beatin' me to a pulp. He was surprised, but only momentarily. He grabbed my shoulders and flung me off of him, sendin' me flyin' into one of his men, who was fightin' with one of Dumbledore's men. We crashed to the ground, each of us stun momentarily. But if was enough for the woman on Dumbledore's side to best the other guy, who disappeared in a gust of smoke.
I looked over at Dumbledore and Voldemort, and was happy to see that their fight was much the same as this one. Dumbledore had gotten the upper hand, and, realizin' that he didn't have a chance, Voldemort sent one last death-glare in my direction, then turned into a mist and flew towards me.
"I'll be back for you, Evelyn. Run and hide all you will, but nowhere is safe for you. Your life is mine." There was this bloodcurdlin' scream, then the mist passed through me. I felt pain, another presence in my mind, and then I passed out.
A/N: Is it makin' more sense now? I hope so…
So, not much to say except keep up the reviewing please! It really motivates me, and, not to mention, it gives you a really good feelin', doesn't it, all my fellow authors?
Oh, and since I'm a curious soul...I'm wonderin' what all of you picture Evelyn lookin' like, or is it too early for you guys to tell? You wanna let me know through a review or PM? That'd be great!
So, R&R people! Please and thank you!
Nike
