CHAPTER 6
JACK'S POV
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Neither Holly's family nor mine returned. We waited an hour, cleaning up her house as best as we could. We eventually sat on her front porch together, huddled in our coats, watching the cars go by, trying to figure out what to do next.
"We have to go after him." Holly said softly. "We can't leave him with them..."
"But what about our parents?" I asked.
"I honestly...don't give a damn, Jack. We need to go after him. I will go without you if you choose." she stood and headed around towards her driveway. I followed.
"Well, you're not going to lose me here. I'm coming with you."
"Then get in." she pulled open the driver's side door on the black van sitting in the driveway. She pulled a key from the overhead visor and started the motor.
I sat in the passenger's side and hurriedly buckled up. I couldn't help but smile as I did so.
"What?" Holly demanded, backing up sharply and tearing out of the driveway.
"I hope you know where you're going." I said.
"I do. Not funny." she growled.
Excitement flowed through my veins. We were seriously going to do this. In the process, we may even be saving the entire world.
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SILVER'S POV
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I was still alive. I didn't know how or why, but I was still pretty glad. Although...the only reason I knew I was still alive was because I couldn't move and my side was still killing me. But I could breathe, at least. Even if it was with machine help. There was something sharp in my side too, sending waves of pain over me with every beat of my heart.
I heard voices. I tried to open my eyes, but the light was blinding. I managed to make out the form of two people nearby, but I couldn't see who they were. I instead tried to focus on their voices.
I only made out a few words, but they sounded important to me: "...lucky...darkness... inside...alive."
But the thing was I had no idea what they meant by this. Someone smoothed my head quills back, saying something about beginning the tests immediately. The stabbing pain in my side suddenly became a lot more intense, making me try and jerk away from it.
I couldn't escape. There was a shout and the pain dulled back to its original intensity. Something was said about 'not touching the oxygen tube in its side' and 'we need it to recover as fast as it can.'
I forced my eyes open a bit, desperately trying to focus on my surroundings. There were three people surrounding my bed, all wearing lab coats and surgical masks as though I may have a disease. One I recognized...
The girl with the tortoiseshell glasses.
She gave me a sad stare and blinked, looking in another direction. One of the other two scientists jerked a thumb behind him, as though mentioning something on the other side of the room. The last one laughed, glancing from me and towards where the other had motioned. The girl with the tortoiseshell glasses cast them a glance but didn't say anything.
She knelt next to my bed, one hand on my back to keep me calm and still and the other feeling along my windpipe. My throat hurt, inside and out, as though I had gargled nails and I tried to move away. She sighed and stood again, relaying some sort of opinion to the other two scientists. One snickered and the other looked confused.
The two of them moved away, just leaving the girl. She knelt at my side again and said something that I just couldn't hear. She repeated herself, but I still couldn't make sense of what she said.
She stood and walked away. I wanted her to stay; to keep those other scientists away from me. But she was already walking out the door.
I squinted in the direction the scientist had motioned. All I saw was a small bed like the one I was on, only this one had short guard rails. Something was on the mattress...something dark, crystalline and unmoving.
Was...was whatever it was...dead...? There were no monitors around it, unlike me. As I watched, it twitched, pushing itself up on shaking arms. He stared at me, and if he had a mouth, he would have smiled.
I could make out Mephiles' voice as my vision began to fade, "Hello again, Silver. I'm glad you've survived,"
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HOLLY'S POV
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Granger Laboratory was heavily guarded.
Instead of pulling into the parking lot with a whole hoard of guards, I drove right on by.
"Uh...that was our stop," Jack said.
"Did'ja not see the guards?" I hissed. "We have to park somewhere else and make our way back here."
"In this weather?!" Jack exclaimed.
"Be my guest and wait for me in the car while I go and save our ONLY DAMN FRIEND!" I didn't mean for that last part to sound so harsh, but with the anger and sadness I felt bubbling up inside of me...it was inevitable.
"Right..." Jack muttered. "Sorry, Holly."
I circled around the block in silence, parking in an abandoned doctor's office's lot. We exited the car, careful not to make any access noise and headed towards our destination in almost complete darkness.
Only the streetlights guided us. Even getting within sight of the lab was a challenge.
Guards roamed within a mile radius, armed with rifles and other weapons. We were forced to stop and keep still for what seemed like hours at a time before the guards would move and we could continue on.
"This is getting nowhere." Jack muttered. "And look...the sun's coming up. We'll be discovered soon without darkness to hide us."
Had we really been out here all night? I cast a glance at the rising sun, cursing it silently.
We had to move quickly.
"We'll enter from the back of the lab," I decided. "If there's no door...make one. We need to get in."
With that, we sprinted down a couple other streets and ducked behind some dumpsters, waiting for our chance to make a break for it again.
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SILVER'S POV
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Unconsciousness didn't keep Mephiles away. He simply invaded my mind and my dreams, staring into my soul with those catlike, evil orbs.
"Aren't you surprised to see me?" he asked.
I didn't reply. I instead tried to bury myself in my mind, away from him. But he still followed.
"Don't you want to know how I got here?"
I shook my head, stumbling backwards.
I was suddenly on a hilltop covered in snow, Mephiles nowhere in sight.
"Silver..."
I spun around, the voice all too familiar. Standing against a tree was Blaze, that kind smile on her face. I ran to her, something between a cry of happiness and pure joy leaving my lips. I wrapped my arms around her, sobbing; even surprising myself a little. My knees felt weak.
Blaze sat on the snowy ground, holding me close as I bawled my eyes out. I thought I would never see her again...even in my dreams.
"Silver, relax," she said at last. "I'm not going anywhere."
I still couldn't manage intelligent speech though my tears. I just hugged her tighter, refusing to let go, like the child I was.
"How touching," a cold voice sneered.
Blaze went rigid with a soft gasp. I let her go and realized my hands were soaked in her blood. She toppled forward into me, the wound on her back staining the snow red.
"BLAZE!" I screamed. "BLAZE! NO!"
I glanced up to see Mephiles standing beside me, eyes still as haunting as ever. "When we get back to that flame barren world you call home, I will personally kill her in front of you."
I shakily got to my feet, facing the demon. "I won't let you!" I cried. "Never!"
"You and what army? You're weak, Silver! Compared to me, you are nothing!" Mephiles hissed, slowly drawing towards me.
I stumbled back, but he kept advancing.
"But I do owe you answers. Answers to why I'm here,"
He stopped coming closer when my back brushed up against a tree. But his gaze held firm, pinning me in place.
"Your shadow," he began. "served as a temporary shelter. I had never left your side. But as you fell through the rift, I had to find a more durable safehaven."
A few more steps toward me. In instinct, I raised my quills and fur, trying to ward off the larger threat.
"There was nothing at the time to spare me from the time and space distortions. The only thing I had was you...and living as a shadow had its limits. So I bonded myself to your power, letting it draw me inside you. There I remained until you fought me off in the lab."
Still closer. I drew my knees up to my chest and tried another tactic; pressing my ears to my head and lowering my quills to try and appear smaller.
"And because I was with you this entire time, I know everything you know." Mephiles wasn't six inches away from me. I had never felt so panicked...so scared. And yet he drew closer.
"Before we head back to Mobius, I'm going to kill the boy, Jack. Then I will bring Iblis from the rift using the girl. I will kill her as she watches this world fall. And you...I have a special ending for you..."
"...Get away from me!" I shouted, trying to crawl away.
Mephiles grabbed my arm and twisted me around to face him again. "I'm going to send you to your nightmares for an eternity...after watching me kill both the humans and your beloved princess back on Mobius. You will be driven mad from the horrors you have locked away in your mind...the unbearable pain of seeing those you love killed again and again..."
"No!" I cried, struggling against his iron grip. "No! No!"
Someone was shaking me. I became aware of the stabbing pain in my side once again as I was welcomed back from the dream world. I was still shouting, but once I realized I was "safe", I relaxed.
"Just a dream," came the soft voice of the girl with the tortoiseshell glasses. "Nothing to worry about."
She smoothed down the fur on my arm gently, making me relax a bit more. I was shaking as though caught in a snowstorm, but I was calming, however slightly. Just the presence of another person was calming.
I managed to glance towards the bed Mephiles was lying on. Another scientist was examining his crystalline quills, a puzzled look on his face. Mephiles remained still and quiet, unmoving at all. But that didn't block out his voice in my head.
"Enjoy these last moments, Silver. They will be your last."
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Hurray for short, horribly explained chapters!
'And hurray for finals' said no student EVER.
I spent the past three days talking to a wall to try and memorize thirty some dates in history...I had better get an A on this final...
I'm insane now!
Do you know what that means?!
IT MEANS THAT GhostKing Screws up Time and SPAAACE V has its first chapter done! IT IS PUBLISHED!
Hasta la Vista, Readers!
Lordoftheghostking28