Lesley grabbed Gusion by the waist as he collapsed, and for the first time she saw the blood on the side of his shirt, spreading slowly.
Lancelot dashed over in a second and helped her lower him to the floor and Lesley removed her hands, her right palm slick with blood.
"Anyone mind telling me what that was?" Lesley asked, picking up her rifle. She had seen Dyrroth mangle the metal like it was paper, yet the rifle was now as good as new.
"Uncontrolled magic," Tigreal explained. "Everyone has a bit of magic in them that can be used-your invisibility-"
"My speed," Lancelot interjected.
"And my durability," Tigreal nodded. "Mages can harness the magic and multiply it far better than others."
"Gusion came from a family of mages, but he was kicked out because he started using blades-he eventually fused the magic into his dagger, imbuing it with special powers and indestructibility," Lesley continued.
"My guess is that Gusion attuned a portion of his magic to the house and lost his control over his magic in a stressful situation-though why he was stressed when he's no stranger to battles is beyond me," Tigreal mused.
"Maybe Dyrroth broke his horror movie CDs. Gusion's obsessed with those."
Lancelot pointedly gazed at her. "Maybe because he wanted to help someone?"
Lesley frowned. "We were doing fine, other than me getting strangled by Dyrroth. Or did you ask for help or anything?"
Lancelot threw his hands up in the air. "Jesus Christ, you two are as thick as doorbells."
"Call me thick one more time and I'll put a bullet through your head."
Tigreal looked between both of them confusedly. "Are you going to ignore the fact the Gusion is bleeding out on the floor?"
"Right," Lesley nodded. "I'll get the bandages."
She sprang up the staircase and pushed open the door, and immediately stopped in her tracks.
The room was literally reeking of shadow energy, similar to what she had sensed back when Dyrroth had wounded Gusion at her own house.
She readied her rifle, and cocked it. "Guys?" she shouted. "You might wanna get up here?"
There were the sounds of footsteps and then Lancelot and Tigreal entered the room.
"There's an entirely dark feel to this room," Lancelot instantly said.
Tigreal drew his sword. "Whatever is causing it is still here," he said softly, and Lesley gripped her rifle tightly. "Weapons at the ready."
Lesley closed her eyes and tried to remember what she had been taught in sensing energy. Gord taught her this every fortnight and she now applied the technique he'd taught her: block out everything, and find where the trail led to, and where the energy was strongest.
She turned, and fired right into the cupboard, and the door splintered.
Almost immediately, the suffocating darkness seemed to fade.
Tigreal breathed. "It's gone." He strode over, pulling open the door, and ash fell out.
"There's the bandages," Lesley said, grabbing them. She turned and walked out of the room.
What Lesley neglected to mention was her inaptitude for sensing dark energy, and in all fairness, it was very difficult for non-mages.
She had gauged the location of the source to a surprisingly accurate degree, but it was not enough.
The source, as she had mistakenly assumed, was not in the cupboard, but rather on top of it, hidden behind Gusion's unpacked suitcase.
Helcurt had shadow-travelled to the ceiling right as Lesley's shot hit the door, and the lucky coincidence led to the trio assuming that the monster had vaporised from the shot.
Helcurt, as of now, was pacing on the roof.
Dyrroth had attacked them twice now, and twice, Helcurt had failed in his murder attempts.
Next time, the Shadowbringer swore to himself, he won't walk away.
Not after what he'd done to me.
Gusion woke up to see his bleeding area somewhat bandaged.
"It should heal in a day or so, Dyrroth didn't hit it too hard," Lesley's voice rang out, and Gusion turned to see her.
"March really isn't your best month, is it?" she pointed out, and they shared a weak laugh. Gusion did seem to have extraordinarily bad luck in March. He'd been homeless in March, he'd nearly gotten his bones broken in last year's March, and this year was not unfolding in the best way it could have.
"Maybe I should just lock myself in next year. Bad luck can't hit me if I stay in bed the whole time."
"You really wanna test that?"
"Fair point."
"Also, what happened that day?"
Gusion frowned. "Which day, Lesley? It's 25 days into March, you're going to have to specify that one."
"When you got injured," Lesley probed, and for one moment, Gusion caught regret flickering across her face. "While babysitting Harley."
"Nothing much," Gusion deflected, and Lesley's eyes narrowed. "I saw the monsters coming, threw Harley out of the window, killed a few monsters, then Dyrroth showed up and beat the living hell out of me, which I have yet to get back at him for."
"Your chest was opened up, Gusion. That's more than getting the living hell beaten out of you. How did Dyrroth even do that?"
"Poisoned knife."
Lesley raised an eyebrow. "Knife? More like a bloody chainsaw."
"He, uh, tried to cut my heart out."
"If I wanted lies, I'd ask for them. The truth."
Gusion remembered a line he'd read once: the best lies are often close to the truth.
"There was this monster," he spoke. "I don't know what it is, but it just blasted me with some pink thing and boom."
"Shadowbringer," Lesley snarled.
"What? Shadowbringers are extinct."
"There was Shadowbringer venom in your body-that was why Rafaela was so confused."
"Again, Les, they're extinct. Non-existent. Gone. Wiped off the surface of the earth." Gusion felt like he was committing murder with every lie that rolled of his tongue. Damn you, Helcurt.
"Evidently the history books were wrong."
"It's not history. Alucard and you hunted down the last one yourself, remember? Harley was so worried when the two of you didn't contact us for a solid month before you dragged yourself in, half-dead with the cloak of the beast." Gusion swallowed a lump that formed in his throat as he recalled how worried he had been too when he'd seen Lesley lug the cape back, barely conscious and refusing help and insisting to join the frontlines-I'm fine, guys, now let me shoot some more monsters-until Gusion and Harley forced her to rest before she collapsed from starvation, dehydration and probably a whole lot of other things.
"Maybe we were wrong," Lesley spoke, frowning, and Gusion could just hear Helcurt's raspy disapproving voice. I gave you one job, you incompetent fool. Literally one job, to keep me undiscovered, and you've botched it.
"I know what a Shadowbringer looks like, and that monster wasn't it."
Lesley opened her mouth to continue what would probably have been Gusion selling a pack of lies to his friend, but a shrill scream erupted from behind Lesley.
"I cannot believe you made that your ringtone," Gusion grumbled as Lesley laughed, grabbing her phone. That was a recording of Gusion screaming after Harley popped right in front of him just as the clap scene from Conjuring played out.
It was one of the only times Lesley approved of her mischievous younger brother's pranks.
"Ah, it's time to get Harley from Nana's house," Lesley said, shutting off the alarm and stuffing her phone in her pocket.
"He confessed his feelings for her yet?" Gusion grinned.
"Nope, still mum on that," Lesley said. "See you around, and don't get yourself killed."
"I see we're ending on a positive note here," Gusion jokingly called out, and Lesley's pink hair bobbed out of view as the door slammed shut.
"Come out, you dark bastard," Gusion called out, swinging his legs off the sofa to a sitting position, and he felt the mild chill of shadows as they coalesced to form Helcurt.
"Fat lot of good you were, fighting Dyrroth."
"There's three of your friends, what was I to do?"
"Cut his damn head off, maybe."
"I tried, and I'll succeed."
"Anytime in this century?"
Helcurt showed him the back of his claws, before using his other hand to fold down most of his fingers until only the middle claw stuck up.
SO after a bit of rereading, I have realised that my line breaks do not show until until I put _LINE BREAK_ or something of that sort.
Should I put that? Or should I not?
Please leave an answer in the comments. If its more of a no, then whenever I switch POV's, just imagine a line break.
Any other ideas?
