A/N: Two updates in a month? I said they'd be coming faster and here they are! Almost at the halfway point, don't forget to drop a review! And if you have a question send me a PM!
The Spellmaster's Mother
Chapter 4: Mind Games
"Did you really expect me to let you simply allow into my domain without some form of opposition?"
"Ethan! Sarah! Can you hear me?" yelled Benny as turned in a circle. A moment ago he was walking through the large gate, and now he was standing in an old-fashioned steam punk designed plaza. At its center rested a large silver and bronze fountain with crystal blue water. "Someone better start giving me answers!"
"I have taken the liberty of separating the three of you, considering you were all so adamant about staying together."
"Where are my friends?" Demanded Ethan as he held up his dagger and slowly walked down the vacant midway. The empty booths and carts left a sour feeling in his stomach. "What did you do to them?"
"You have been flung into three separate dimensions, all ruled by me. Seek a way out if you can."
"Damn," panted Sarah as she ran from the shadows that pursued her. There were to many for her to fight head on, and attempting anything at this point would be suicide. At the moment putting as much space between them and her seemed like the best course of action. "Wait until I get my hands on you Eris."
"But heed my warning: time has no meaning here."
Ethan listened to his footsteps echo through throughout the empty midway and sighed. No friends, no patrons, no workers, just him. He felt his hands began to shake in a strange combination of exhaustion and fear. According to his phone he had only been in the circus for a few minutes, but to his body it felt like it had been hours, maybe even more. His footsteps continued to echo, and for a brief moment he wondered if they would ever be able to escape Eris's grasp.
"Why am I even thinking that?" wondered Ethan aloud. He opened the app on his cellphone and smiled. "If this is anything like Grandma Weir's spell then allI have to do is find my friends and pull them into my own dimension."
He looked up and felt the small spark of hope vanish. The midway was filled with shadow like figures, each and everyone of them wearing a bright white mask. The second Ethan's eyes locked with them they began to mimic him. He reached for his dagger and held it up, the monsters did the same.
"No," whispered Ethan as he took a step backwards. "No." "No it's not possible." "No it's not possible." "STOP IT!" "STOP IT!"
They were copying everything from his actions right down to his voice. He took another step backwards, and they did the same. Instead of putting distance between them the monsters were somehow getting closer and closer. How was that possible?
"Leave me alone!" "Leave me alone." "You're not real!" "You're not real! You're just illusions!" "You're just illusions."
Ethan felt his heartbeat increase, they were thinking ahead of him now. They were talking for him, they knew what he was going to say before he even said it, that couldn't be possible.
"How are you talking before me?" "How are you talking before me?" "S-stop it! Your not real, none of this is real!" "S-stop it! Your not real, none of this is real!"
He tried to say something else and found he no longer had a voice. No it was more than that the world no longer had any sounds, his footsteps were gone, the pants of his labored breathing were silenced. Nothing.
"The one who relies on his friends to be his strength."
He turned. Standing at the far end of the midway was a tall faceless ringmaster dressed entirely in black. Unlike the other he had seen this was one had a dark pale skin with long purple nails. It looked almost sickly.
"Join us."
The creature lumbered towards him and and from behind the shadow performers began to approach. The smell of burning sulfur shocked Ethan back into reality, he needed to escape. He turned to the left and ran as fast as he could. Behind him the performers and faceless creature pursued.
Benny wandered aimlessly around the plaza unsure of where to go, or what to do. He had tried using a magic, and nothing had happened, just a pop then fizzle. He took a seat at the fountain and pulled out his phone, maybe with the help of Ethan's app he would be able to track down the others.
"Let's see," said Benny as he spoke aloud. It echoed in the quiet of the silent circus. "According to this Ethan is up ahead and to the left... and Sarah farther up and to the right... And all the way past them is Rory."
He began to walk using his phone to navigate. "Let's see the fastest way to get to them is through..."
He looked up at the large the tent labeled: Memento Maximus. Following the same color scheme as the plaza it loomed far above him in golden and brown hues.
He shrugged, stepped in and took a moment to admire the scene before him. The entire tent was filled with millions of glass orbs resting on a mechanical claws. At the center two large bronze pillars came to life causing the claws to move around. They created a pleasant humming sound.
"W-welcome to t-the…," said a voice from somewhere above him. "Where memories are a… past!"
He walked along and watched as the small glass orbs came to life, Benny peered into the nearest one and smiled. There was one of Ethan and him playing in the backyard. One of Erica kissing him in the hallway. Grandma giving him a scolding. Even one of with his mom and dad playing with him in the backyard.
He walked up to the orb and picked it up. There they were Celeste and Danielle Weir, his parents, his family. Tears welled up in his eyes, and he did his best to blink them away. The machine began to whir again. All around the orbs were lowered to his level each one with a different memory of his mom, each one showing him how happy his family used to be. He felt content and oddly exhausted as he watched the days of his past flicker by. Then silence.
"The boy who misses his mother's love."
Benny turned and stumbled backwards. It was one of the faceless creatures Ethan had warned him about. It took a step towards him it's black outfit and sickly skin glowing in the sparks of the machinery. All at once the orbs changed to the day his mother died. There he was a young Benny Weir, confused and scared, watching as they lowered his mother's coffin into the ground.
"Join us."
The creature reached out for him and he ducked beneath the orbs and made a dash for the opposite side. The creature smashed through the glass in silence and lumbered towards him. He wrinkled his nose and a familiar burning smell and pulled out one of the bottles from his satchel.
"Eat this," thought Benny as he tossed the container over his shoulder. It shattered against the ground creating a flash of electricity. All around the machines and orbs began to spark. He darted out of the tent and looked over his shoulder, there was a flash of light before the whole thing came crashing down.
He checked his cellphone and ran. His needed to find his friends.
Sarah found herself both thankful and unnerved as she wandered endlessly through the hall of mirrors. She had managed to escape the shadows chasing after her, and now she faced a new problem: herself. Resisting the urge to sit down and rest she pushed on.
"I shouldn't have one," mumbled Sarah as she touched the nearest mirror and examined her reflection. "I can't have one."
"Can't or shouldn't?" She pulled her hand back as the reflection glared at her. "Just like you can't be a vampire or shouldn't be a vampire?"
"I-"
"Because there's a fine line between human and vampire." Said the reflection behind her. "But you wouldn't know that. You don't know what you are."
"I'm a vampire-"
"Are you sure? Because it seems like you want to be human." Another reflection spoke up: "No that's not it, you're afraid of being a vampire." Then another: "Or are you afraid of becoming a monster just like those shadows?"
"Shut up!" screamed Sarah as she drove her fist into the nearest mirror. It shattered under the blow and she looked down at her hand. She was cut, but no blood poured from her wound. "You don't know me."
"Look, she wants to bleed. She wants to be human." "No she wants to feed on humans." "We don't know her, we ARE her."
They stopped talking as an unearthly silence filled the hall.
"Do not fear we shall purge the sin from your soul."
A tall faceless creature dressed in black appeared behind each one of her reflections. It placed a hand on her shoulder, and she turned wildly expecting to see it looming over her. Nothing. The mirrors were lying to her, they had to be. She pulled the stake from her pocket and drove into the closest. One by one she shattered them until nothing was left but broken shards. She turned around trying to locate the monster, and when she saw light at the far end of the tent she ran.
From the darkest part of the building the faceless creature emerged, its dark purple nail brushed against her arm as she closed her eyes and jumped for the exit. A burning smell, a sharp pain in her arm, and it's voice were the last things Sarah understood before colliding with the ground.
"You cannot escape from what you are."
Ethan stopped and looked up, he was now standing in front of a large white tent with a thin layer of mist emerging from the opening. But more importantly looking equally exhausted was none other than Benny, and at at his feet Sarah. Letting out a laugh he helped her up and pulled them into a hug.
"Are you guys ok?" asked Ethan as tears of happiness rolled down his cheek. "I'd never thought I'd see you again."
"I thought the same thing," whispered Sarah as she gave him a weak smile. "Physically I'm exhausted but ok. Mentally… I'm not so sure."
"This place is insane," said Benny looked around. "One minute I'm at the gate, them I'm in some strange robot place, and then memories and orbs and monsters!"
"I know," said Ethan as he finally let them go. "I was being attacked by a ringmaster dressed entirely in black, and the next thing I know I'm here."
"Same," said Benny. "I was in a tent and it just appeared out of no where, luckily I had Grandma's potions to help."
"I saw one too," mumbled Sarah. "It was in the Hall of Mirrors when it tried to grab me, I think I may be been scratched."
"What?" asked Ethan worriedly. She held up her arm and he looked at the dark purple burn, it wasn't healing like it was supposed to. "That's more than scratch."
"That's definitely not a normal burn," said Benny as he examined it. He sniffed it, opened his satchel and began to read labels aloud. "Counter potion, smoke potion, wind potion... firework... here we go!" He pulled out a small green bottle. "Hold still."
He poured a small amount of liquid onto the burn and she hissed in pain. The wound quickly healed. "That was magical injury created solely to hurt vampires."
"What do you mean?"
"I think I get it," said Ethan. "It's like the Breath of Death, it's designed to affect vampires and not normal people, like you or me."
"Thanks," said Sarah sarcastically.
Ethan flushed red. "Sorry, that's not what I meant."
"Exactly," said Benny as he crossed his arms. "Whatever these things are, they can seriously hurt vampires if they touch them."
"Who is this person?" asked Sarah suddenly. "She shows up in our town with a circus that she can change at will, an entire staff of people willing to do what she wants and a bunch of faceless things that can apparently hurt vampires just by touching them."
"Not to mention she can move people in between dimensions. She must be a powerful Spellmaster," added Ethan as he thought about his own Eris theory. "We shouldn't be worrying about this now, we need to find Rory and Erica."
"E's right," said Benny as he opened the app on his phone. "We can worry about her later, according to this they should be... right in font of us."
Together they all looked up at the white tent. They each shared a looked, silently recalled the horrors from the past hour, and interlocked hands as they entered. Everything was frozen, animals, people and plants were all made of ice. In the lighting it almost look as though they were alive, moving as the the ice glistened. The trio let go of one another to get a better view of the attraction.
"Whoa," said Benny as he reached out to touch a bird. "I don't even…. Ow!" He pulled back his hand and stuck his finger in his mouth. "Don't touch them. They burn."
"I don't believe it," whispered Sarah as she passed a woman clad in an ice gown. "It's incredible."
"Guys," said Ethan as he looked at the statue in front of them. "I found them."
Benny and Sarah were at his side in an instant. In front of him, in the exact center of the garden, trapped within two large frozen globes were Rory and Erica. Both of them were looking up and reaching out with their hands, fear clearly written on their faces. Underneath the stature the plaque was labeled: "Humanity Lost'.
"Oh my..." whispered Sarah as she covered her mouth. "Are they?"
"When I get my hands on whoever did this," growled Benny as he clenched his fists. "They're gonna pay."
"Do you like it?" asked Eris in a clam and collected voice as she emerged from behind the statue. Unlike there previous encounters she was dressed in a bright white cloak, her face masked, and in her arms a large golden staff with a large orb surrounded by several smaller ones. "Is it not divine?"
Three faceless creatures dressed in black, and looking sickly appeared behind Eris. From the front of the tent several more more clad in a red and white ringmaster's uniform appeared. They were surrounded.