Chapter 14: Antauri vs. Demon

"That's just great. The stupid page is torn right where it's supposed say what the cure is." Nova was referring to the page Chiro had shown them.

"Well that's oddly inconvenient," said Gibson.

"At least it supports my theory," commented Otto.

"You have a theory?"

"Yes, never trust old things,"

"That's definitely something to live by," Sparx mumbled.

Chiro slumped to the floor. "We're never going to find squat at this rate. Hey Sparx?"

"Yeah"

"What'd Antauri say?"

"Nothing,"

"Nothing at all? He ignored you that much?"

"No, but he didn't say anything important,"

"Did you offend him?" Gibson asked.

"Define offend." He said guiltily.

"What did you say?"

"I mentioned something about him dying,"

"Sparx!"

"I know, I know. I already apologized, I swear."

"No wonder he wouldn't talk to you," teased Nova.

"Well it wasn't like he was going to tell me anything anyway,"

"That doesn't make a difference,"

"Hey, cut it out you two. Okay so we've got nothing, what do we do now?" asked Chiro.

"Keep looking. We've got three days left. We're bound to find something before then."

"I sure hope so," Chiro said sounding worried.

"Well we can't stay up looking all night. So we'll get some sleep and start again first thing in the morning," said Gibson.

"Alright," they replied.

The monkey team went to their rooms. As Nova walked past Antauri's door, she noticed it was partially open. She seemed to be the only one who noticed. Curiosity got the better of her and she opened the door a little more. She quietly went in, noticing a bunch of stuff scattered everywhere. It was pitch-black and she almost ran into something. At first she couldn't tell what it was but soon realized it was Antauri. He looked the same as when he attacked Chiro. Nova instantly noticed the shackles.

Why is he chained up?

He was asleep. He'd tired himself trying to escape his restraints. The demon suddenly awakened startled by Nova's presence. He gave her a murderous look, but didn't try to attack. The demon already figured out he couldn't escape.

"Antauri it's me, Nova." She still didn't know about the curse. Antauri and the demon were fighting for control over his body. For a moment, Antauri won.

"Nova." He sounded like he was struggling

"What happened to you?"

"I can't tell you everything now. You have to go."

"What? Why?"

"I don't want you to get hurt. If my demon gets determined enough it will stop at nothing to kill you. Go, that's an order!" The demon regained control.

"Demon? Antauri, what's going on?"

He answered with a threatening glare. She stepped back and cut her foot on a piece of broken metal. She looked at her foot. It wasn't bad but there was a bit of blood. That was enough to make the demon go haywire. He tried to break the chains and would've succeeded if Antauri hadn't been desperately trying to hold back. Nova saw this and ran before he could break the shackles. She locked the door from the outside and stayed near it to make sure Antauri didn't get loose. No longer able to smell the blood as strongly, the demon calmed down. He would've tried to escape again but could tell Nova was still on the other side. So he waited. Nothing happened so Nova fell asleep at the door. Lucky for her, Antauri didn't know she was sleeping.

Morning came and Nova was awakened by a soft thud. She put her ear to the door and couldn't hear anything. That was a good sign. She carefully opened it to find Antauri panting like he'd just ran for five miles. The 'thud' Nova heard earlier was from him. When the sun came up he gained control again. The demon wasn't gone but Antauri did have the upper hand in the daytime. Fighting against the demon all night wore him out so he sort of fell. Well, he fell as much as someone can when they're chained to a wall.

"Antauri?" she wanted to make sure he wasn't going to try to attack her again. He didn't.

Something caught her eye. It was the key to the shackles. She unlocked Antauri. Nova held him up so he wouldn't hit the ground and set him down on the floor.

"I'm sorry Nova," he said in a feeble voice.

"For what?"

"For trying to hurt you,"

"Don't worry about it."

Antauri couldn't say anymore. He was too weak so he fainted. Nova looked up and saw blood trickling down the wall in between the shackles.

"Why didn't I notice that before?" she turned Antauri's head so she could see the back of it. "Well, that explains where it came from." She checked the rest of him and found multiple cuts. "Where is he getting all these from and why am I just now seeing them?" Nova got up. "Okay, this is not good. Whatever you do Antauri don't stop breathing. I'll be right back." She knew he couldn't hear her but it didn't matter. She ran down the hall.

She skid to a halt, almost running into Gibson. "Gibson I need your help."

"Sure, what's wrong?"

"It's Antauri."

"What happened?"

"It'd be nice if I knew that. Just come on." She took him to Antauri's room and showed him the gash and the cuts.

"How long has he had these?" Gibson asked.

"I don't know, I just recently noticed them."

Gibson glanced up at the wall "Why are there shackles in his room?"

"You're asking the wrong monkey. I don't know, but that's where I found him."

He took a minute to examine Antauri and helped Nova take him to the med lab so he could treat the wounds.

"Hey Gibson, you the only one up?"

"I believe so. Why do you ask?" he questioned while he finished taking care of Antauri's head.

Nova shrugged "Just wondering."

Gibson was done "Thanks for your help, Nova."

"No problem." She headed out the door "You coming?"

"Antauri should wake up soon and I want to make sure he's all right."

"Okay. Just call if you need me," and with that she left.

Gibson stayed in the med lab and carefully watched over Antauri. It was scary the way he was so still. Several times, Gibson had to check if he was still breathing. He had the right to be cautious, at this point anything could happen at any moment.

Note: I didn't think I'd use Nova in this chapter that much, but I did. I randomly picked her. I could've used anyone but for some reason I used Nova. Gibson is used sort of a lot too. Gibson is cool just like…cool stuff. He's my second favorite. For some reason this chapter took a long time and me thinking of one sentence for 15 minutes but that doesn't really matter does it? Oh well. R&R.