Chapter 6: A Life Saved

"ALICE! ALICE!" Jonathan screamed at the young girl, lying unconscious on the floor. He called in vain, for Alice's soul was far from her body.

"Father?! What's happening?" Elisa asked as she burst into the room. She noticed Alice on the floor and tears sprang into her eyes. "I'll take her, father. She needs to get to a doctor, and you won't make it fast enough." At this, she picked Alice up from the floor and carried her out the door. Jonathan sat on the floor, staring after his daughter.

Elisa sprinted through the village, Alice's limp body in her arms. She made it to the edge of the village, to a dark, dilapidated warehouse. She stumbled through the door, bumping Alice against the frame as she shouldered the door open.

"I've made it…" she panted.

"Good….bring her here…" a deep voice called quietly.

"But what are you going to do with her?" Elisa asked, trembling. "She won't wake up…you never said this…"

"SILENCE!" The voice ordered. Elisa flinched from the strong anger in the voice. "Bring her here NOW." Elisa continued to tremble and carried the limp body to the middle of the large room. The walls were made of crumbling stone, and a few candles were placed around the floor. They weakly illuminated a stone platform in the center of the room. Elisa placed Alice upon the platform; she ran her fingers along the sunken trails carved into the stone. She noticed that some of the grooves were wet; she examined her fingers and began to cry anew. She placed her hand upon Alice's, and felt the warmth return faintly. Alice's breathing evened out and her heartbeat steadied. Suddenly, the shadows began to shift as if they were alive. She whirled around, believing that she was imagining the creatures she now saw projected on the walls by the candles. One of the shadow creatures peeled itself away from the wall at the head of the stone platform. It slid across the floor, with a scratching, slithering sound, causing Elisa to shudder violently. When it reached Alice, it began whispering in her ears and caressing her cheeks with a malicious expression on its sunken, shapeless face. Elisa simply stared in horror as the creature closed its hands around her throat and lifted her up off the blood-stained stone.

"Why…why…WHY?" Elisa screamed. "You promised…you said…you said no one would be hurt!" she sobbed. Out of the corner moved a gnarled, mangled, bleeding creature. Its features were twisted, deformed, and sunken; it dragged its body across the floor, leaving streaks of blood on the cement.

"Elisa, Elisa…" it cooed. "My pet, my sweet, I needed them…I need her, I can't be complete without her…I will keep my promise to you. I will take away your pain…I'll take away your nightmares. But I need her…" It raised one gnarled hand and stroked Elisa's cheek, leaving a long streak of blood across her face. "You must finish it for me…" It handed her a long, sharp dagger. It felt cold in her fingers and shook in her hand; she shifted it and watched it glint in the candlelight. The creature took Elisa's arm and gently guided her over to the stone platform. "Finish it. For me." He commanded gently.

"Now, for the final step," the shadow whispered. "it is time to claim her." Elisa raised the knife, and looked at her friend, still in the air with the shadow-being's hand around her throat. Elisa closed her eyes and plunged the knife into Alice's back, into her heart.

Alice was frantically searching the darkness closing over her eyes. She couldn't feel her body anymore and clung desperately to what was left of her sight. She was giving up when she felt a pain in her heart, so cold that it burned. She cried out at the new pain, and tried to move her numb limbs. She begged weakly for it to stop. She felt her heart burning with the cold from the knife, spreading through her.

Elisa watched in horror as Alice's blood poured from her back, down her body, and into the grooves in the stone. The creature moaned and buckled; Elisa dropped the bloody knife to the ground where it clattered and sent drops of Alice's blood flying onto the creature and herself. The blood caused the creature's skin to bubble and blister, and the creature screamed in pain. It began writhing on the floor, screaming and moaning. Elisa backed away from it and tripped over a chunk of stone.

"Stop…" she whispered. "Stop…stop…STOP. STOP! STOP!!" Elisa screamed. As she cried out, the shadow-creature turned to look at her. Elisa's body gave off a faint red glow. The shadow fixed its eyes on her and dropped Alice's body roughly onto the stone; Alice's metal wings ground against the stone, becoming bent and misshapen. The shadow then began gliding over to Elisa. "Alice…Alice…I'm sorry…I'm so sorry," whimpered Elisa as the creature crept closer. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry…" The shadow grabbed Elisa by her hair and raised her off the floor. It reached into her body and it pulled out a glowing red stone.

"At last…I have it! The Philosopher's Stone…" The shadow said triumphantly in its shivery voice.

Elisa was confused as a new noise was added to the clamor in the room: Alice's voice…screaming. "Alice! ALICE!" Elisa cried. Elisa started to fight against the shadow, adding her own voice to the chaos. The moaning and screaming of the deformed creature on the floor had intensified at the appearance of the stone, Alice screamed in pain from her pyre, and the shadow laughed triumphantly.

As Alice burned from the knife wound, she began to hear a familiar voice screaming.

"It's Elisa's voice…" Alice thought past the pain. The hand removed itself from her throat, and Alice crashed onto something hard and cold. The darkness receded from her eyes and the warmth returned to her fingers. The numbness went away and the pain intensified ten times over. Then, Alice began screaming. The pain in her heart burned unbearably and the stone felt cold beneath her back. Her wings peirced her skin as they were pressed between her back and the stone. She screamed as she heard the creature on the floor writhe and as the shadow took the stone from Elisa.

"The power is mine! Now you will all die!" The shadow continued to laugh as it dropped Elisa on the floor and clutched the Philosopher's Stone. It raised the stone which emitted a red flash, accompanied by a piercing scream from the floor near the platform. The mangled creature was splattered upon the floor, its blood streaked across the room. "And now, for you, Angel-Wing." As the shadow once again raised the stone, Alice gave one final scream.

The stone shattered.