H13: Painful thoughts

Still in the creepy Port, Underworld

Cherit

"Waaaaah, mom, Cathy, help me!"

Cherit startled when he heard a voice scream. Lok!
The voice had sounded very nearby, so Cherit quickly flew into the nearest building. He prayed he had chosen the right one, because it sounded like Lok was in serious trouble.
Please let me not be to late….!

Suddenly he saw him. Lok was pressing himself against the dusty wooden back wall of the room like the opposite wall was going to squash him. A misty human- like spirit with glowing green eyes stretched his or her arms towards Lok, ready to pull out his soul.

"No!" Cherit yelled, and he threw the necklace Delphine had given him around Lok's neck. There was a flash of bright purple light, and with a high cry the ghost shrank back, and merged into the mist.

Heavenly gasping, and visibly very confused, Lok stood up.
"Cherit? Where's the muffin? Where's the bakery? What- what happened?"

"It's okay Lok, it was all just an illusion created by an evil soul- stealing spirit… But I'll explain it later, now we have to go find the others. "

In a building across the street

Sophie

Sophie felt like being in a dream- world, filled with books, books and more books. If Lok was here, it would be completely perfect! She thought.

Blissfully she admired the hundreds of meters long bookcases, every shelf filled with dozens of books in all sizes, colors and shapes she could imagine.
It didn't seemed to ever end. She kept discovering new alleys of bookcases, leading to even more undiscovered alleys. It was book- heaven.

Suddenly Undecim appeared right in front of her.
"Follow me Sophie, I'll bring you to Lok, he's also here!" The little green- haired elf said.

"Oh really? I'm so happy! Now we can read together!" Sophie said joyfully.

Undecim flew ahead and Sophie followed her.
"Not so fast please!" Sophie yelled when Undecim flew faster and faster through the labyrinth of bookcases.

Sophie had to run to keep up with the little elf. Suddenly Undecim flew into an alley on the right, and disappeared. Where'd she go to? Sophie thought. A sudden feeling of impending doom came over her.
"Undecim! Where are you?"
Nobody answered.

"Lok?" Nervously Sophie yelled his name, but again nobody answered.

What do I have to do now? She thought. She tried to remember which alleys she had taken, but failed.
I'm never ever going to find the entrance again….

Desperate she just started walking around, while occasionally calling her friends' name.
Then, a big, thick, dark- green book, on one of the top- shelves, caught her eye. The refined golden letters on the cover seemed to give off a star- like light. Enchanted she walked towards it, to see what the book was about.
Sophie Casterwell
Sophie's mouth fell open when she saw her name was on the cover of the book. Would this book tell things about my future? And my past? About who my parents were?
She went on her toes, and tried to grab it, but couldn't reach it. Frustrated she jumped, and touched it with her fingertips, but she still couldn't come high enough to actually grab it.

"Damnation…" She muttered.

Suddenly she heard a weird rumbling sound. Quickly she turned around, and saw to her horror a tsunami of big dark- green books coming towards her.

"Aaaaaaiiihh!" She cried, and ran away from it, as fast as she could. She heard the wave of books behind her coming closer and closer, ready to bury her alive. Of course she stumbled over a red rug, and fell forward. A bit staggered she turned around, and saw the wave of books forming a gigantic snake (and she hated snakes) which long body slowly started to surround her. The book- snake raised his head with glowing green eyes imminent, and opened its jaws as if it wanted to eat her.

"Go away!" She cried, and she wanted to use her powers to scare it off. But nothing happened, her powers didn't worked any more.
The snake came closer and closer, and its virulent green eyes shined brighter and brighter. The light was all she could see, all she could think of, it filled every vessel of her body, and made her head feel heavy and empty….

But all of the sudden there was a bright purple light, which swept away the green darkness in her mind. It was like she woke up from a bad night of sleep, and panting she scribbled up. Sophie realized she was in a dusty worn out house, and now wearing a necklace with a big glowing purple stone on it.
"Oh my-"

"Are you okay?" A woman's voice said.

Sophie turned around, and looked into the face of a short dark woman wearing camouflage- colored clothes.
"Yes, thank you…. Oh my god I can't believe my soul has almost been stolen by Caligo's!"

"Ah so you've heard of them?"

"Well I've read about them… Oh how could I've been so stupid? I should have realized what was going on!"

"It's not your fault, once they've enchanted you, there's nothing you can do…. Though it was a bit stupid of you to come to this port, to such a dark, dangerous place."

Suddenly Sophie remembered the others.
"Oh no, Lok, Dante, Zhalia!"

A few minutes earlier, in the north of the Port

Zhalia

Zhalia ran and ran, but the distance between her and her parents didn't became less. They were so close, barely six meters, but yet so far away.
Exhausted she stood still, to regain her breath. All of the sudden it stopped snowing, and the thin blanket of snow on the ground melted away, though there was no warmth, nor sunlight in the red underworld sky.
Diffused she looked at her parents, but what she saw made her gasp for breath. Their faces had paled, had became grey and dull, just like their eyes, empty and dead, though glowing with a sinister green radiance.

"No…" Zhalia whispered. A sudden intense feeling of coldness tortured her hart, and she shivered. The last time she'd felt like this was at the day of her parents funeral…

Suddenly more people appeared. Dante, Lok, Sophie, Cherit, Mr Coquees, all with glowing green eyes. They all were dead, she was alone. Everybody she'd ever loved was gone.
Zhalia fell on her knees and put her hands in front of her face, it hurt too much to look at them. But closing her eyes didn't matter. The stinging pain was still there, she could still feel the cold. It came closer, stretched its merciless arms towards her, begging for her soul.

Then, she felt something heavy around her neck. Amazed she put her hands down, and touched the purple stone that radiated a comforting purple light. With a high cry her dead friends turned into ghosts, that slowly merged with the mist. She could still vaguely see their glowing green eyes, before they disappeared entirely.

"Always fun to see that!" A low hoarse voice said.

Quickly Zhalia looked to the right and saw a big, hairy man wearing dark camouflage clothes. He had long nails and long sharp teeth. Without doubting a second Zhalia jumped up, and kicked him right in the face.

"Au, what the- ?" The man yelled, and he put his hand against his bleeding nose.

"You're a werewolf!" Zhalia said, and her hands glowed up ice- blue, ready to attack if necessary.

"Wow wow wow, I'm a vegetarian!" The man said.
"What a way to thank me for saving your life…" He muttered. "There is no such thing as recognition any more…"

Slowly and cautious, Zhalia lowered her hands. Now she had recovered from the shock and horror, she realized this man had to be the one who had given her this necklace, which had expelled whatever those creatures were.
"I'm sorry. I guess I've reacted a bit too hasty. " She said, and she put her hands behind her back as a sign of her not going to hurt him again without reason.

"Yeah yeah it's okay… I would have hit me to if I were you." He said, and she snickered.
"Now let's go save the last guy!"

Oh no Dante!
Zhalia's hart stood still for a moment, and she started running South, with the werewolf- man on her heels.

South of the Port, a few minutes earlier

Dante

"Cool! Dante look over here!"

Daniel was standing on the edge of a small lake, staring intrigued into water.
Dante walked towards him and looked into the water to. He saw nothing special, just his own reflection. But his face was different, it was younger, it was the face of his little brother. All of the sudden he fell forward, into the lake. Dante prepared himself to get wet, but the expected cold dampness stayed off.
Dante found himself standing on the bottom of the lake, surrounded by the vague blue- green darkness of the water. Dry water that felt like air.
Just when Dante started to wonder how the hell this was possible, a person appeared.

"Mom?"

It was his mother, a small woman with big sad brown- green eyes and curling brown hair.
"Why haven't you saved him Dante?" She whispered.

"I didn't knew he was in trouble, I swear, if had known I would have done anything to save him!"

"He drowned, he drowned because didn't paid enough attention to him…"

This can't be happening… She's right, it's my fault… No, she would never say these things to me…. I know she blames me, I can see it in her eyes, and she's right to blame me, I should have paid more attention…. But still this can't be happening….

All these different thoughts struggled in Dante's mind, made his head throb. He wanted these painful thoughts to go away, he wanted to free himself but couldn't. Dante realized something was seriously wrong.

"Dante." The voice of Zhalia said. His mother was gone and now Zhalia was standing where she had stood.
"Don't try to free yourself… surrender."

Another person appeared, it was Rassinov. He walked towards Zhalia and started kissing her, and she kissed back passionately.

It was too much for Dante. He wanted to look away but couldn't. It felt his hart was slowly getting ripped out of his chest.
"I can't take this anymore…" He said with a trembling voice, and he fell on his knees. He wanted to surrender, he wanted it to be all over.

On that moment

Zhalia

Zhalia and Vern ran through the misty street, towards the little green lights at the end. It were the glowing eyes of two Caligo's, who had put their arms on Dante's chest as if they were trying to pull something out.
Dante was on his knees, visibly shocked and pained by an illusion only he could see.

"Dammit where's that extra necklace…" Vern muttered, as he searched through his pockets.

"No!" Zhalia yelled, and she fired a beam of ice towards the evil soul- stealing spirits. Of course it went straight through them, but it did distracted them for a moment. They looked furiously towards Zhalia and emitted a deafening high cry to scare her off.

"I've got it!" Vern said, and he quickly put it around Dante's neck.
In a bright purple flash the Caligo's disappeared, but Dante was still on his knees, staring blankly into the distance.

"Dante, Dante!" Zhalia jolted him.
"You think he still has his soul?" Zhalia asked to Vern with fearful eyes.

"I think I have…." Dante said.

"Oh thank god." Zhalia said, and she hugged him. Still a bit dazed Dante stroked her cheek.
"Zhalia… you're not-"

"Heeey guys!" Lok yelled. He came running along, followed by Cherit, Sophie and another woman.

"Ah, seems the others have already taken care of Dante… Is everybody complete now Clerit?"
the woman asked.

"It's Cherit actually…. But yes, everybody's save now."

"Sorry but… who are you people?" Dante asked.

"Yeah I would like to know that to." Zhalia said.

"That can be settled." The woman said. "I'm Delphine, and this my friend Vernelucio."

"But please call me Vern." Vernelucio said. "And yes, I am a werewolf, but I'm a vegetarian, I don't eat humans, and can control my transformation." He said quickly when he saw Sophie's suspicious glance.

"We're both rebels, who have revolted against Lord Rassinov's cruel dominion." Delphine continued.

After everybody had properly introduced himself, Delphine suggested they'd best could come with her and Vern to their camp.
"We don't get much visitors from the upper world down here." She said.

"Thanks, but we don't want to bother you." Dante said.

"It's no trouble at all, besides, if you continue travelling now, you're not going to make it. If it isn't from hunger and thirst, than by Rassinov's soldiers or some monster."

Lord Rassinov's castle

Scarlet

Queen Scarlet's high heels made a tapping sound on the big, dark- grey stone tiles of Rassinov's enormous dining- room.

"Good evening, my Lord." She said to the black- haired man sitting behind a ten meter long wooden dining table.

Lord Rassinov was drinking a glass of wine, and stared preoccupied to a letter which was lying in front of him on the table.

"Queen Scarlet, it's a pleasure to welcome you, as always." He said, without looking at her.

"I've got important news." Scarlet said.

"Ah, me to." Rassinov said with something of a smile. "Please sit down"

Oh god he's even more handsome than I remember… Scarlet thought. Would he propose to me tonight? Is that the important news?
She could already hear the wedding bells jingle.

-This chap the longest I've ever written I think xD Though I found it really hard to write this… so hope it was ok.
Reviews are being extremely appreciated! ^^

So, next chap the team will go to Rassinov's castle…and many many unexpected things are going to happen. Will there be wedding bells jingling?