Phantoms of Amity Park
Chapter 11
Anna must have lost consciousness for a few moments. She opened her eyes and saw that things had changed. Mammon was still in his disgusting form, slithering around a group of bodies he had hanging from the ceiling; Sam, Tucker, Danny, and Vlad all tied together in a group and hanging from the creaking remains of a light fixture. All were awake and still alive. Alarmed, Anna tried to get up, but her arm wouldn't allow it, crunching painfully. She let out a whimper of pain, letting herself slump back down on the floor. Mammon heard her and turned, chuckling in amusement.
"Well, good to see you have rejoined us," he said. "I was afraid you had gone and died."
Everyone was calling out to her; panic, fear, all plain in their voices. Anna pulled herself onto her good arm, leaning on it as her broken one hung sickly. Her wound on her side had stopped bleeding, but the blood loss was making her light headed. She doubted if she could even stand, let alone change into her ghost form. She tried anyway, but her power only fizzled at her fingertips and dissipated. She had nothing to fight with. She was nothing more than a human now and what did a human have against a demon?
"Now I can continue with your torture." Mammon was continuing to talk as Anna was frantically thinking of something to do, some way to save them in her weakened state. "By my plan, you are first."
Mammon put the point of his weapon to Tucker's throat.
"Wait!" Anna screamed, causing them all to look at her.
Anna didn't have a plan, but she had to do something. The only thing she could think of was to appeal to the base nature of a demon. Anna pulled herself shakily to her feet and stumbled forward.
"I'll… I'll make you a deal," she said.
"A deal? What makes you think I would deal with you?" Mammon laughed. "I am planning to absorb your soul anyway."
"Isn't a soul more potent after you've dealed with it?" Anna asked, a long shot, but she had to try. "It's why you contracted with my family in the first place. An entire family of souls that are more potent because they agreed to sacrifice themselves to you. Wouldn't that be the same with mine? If you made a deal with me, my soul would become more potent, so you would become more powerful from just me then you would from Danny and his family."
"Hm," Mammon rubbed his chin with his free hand, the other still pointing his weapon at Tucker. "Your point has been made. What is this deal you are purposing?"
"My soul in return for theirs," Anna said. "You let everyone live; Sam, Tucker, Vlad, Danny, and his family and I will take their place."
That one sentence brought on new panic to everyone's yells, Vlad's especially. The look on his face, the tears running down his cheeks made Anna's heart ache. This was unfair and she knew it. But she wanted more for him to live then for them to die in this way. She smiled sadly at the man she loved, crying her own sad tears. Everyone's yells died down at seeing her like that; there was sad understanding on all their faces.
"You would really sacrifice yourself for these humans?" Mammon questioned. "Half of them you have never met, two of them questioned your nature, and one of them questioned your feelings until recently. You have no reason to give your life for these worthless maggots."
"I have every reason," Anna responded right away. "These are my family. These are my friends. This is the man I love. I would gladly sacrifice myself a hundred times over for them."
"Then you are a fool," Mammon glared at her.
Anna tried to laugh, but it hurt to do so and made her want to pass out again, "Then I'll wear that title with pride."
Anna held out her hand, offering a shake, "Deal?"
Mammon didn't move at first, contemplating the offer. Finally, he withdrew his weapon and slithered towards the broken woman.
"It is greedy of you to want to save them all," Mammon said.
"Funny that you would point that out, being the demon lord of greed. Do we have a deal?"
"…Deal," Mammon grasped her hand.
There was a tense moment then Mammon stabbed his weapon through Anna's chest. The yells and screams started up again. The weapon withdrew with a sickly squish and she fell forward to the floor.
"You can all quiet down, I will uphold my end of the deal," he slithered back and cut the ropes above their heads.
Their feet hit the ground and the ropes around them fell away. Vlad was first to run forward, running to Anna to turn her over and pull her up into his lap. Everyone followed him. Her skin was pasty white and becoming cold, she was no longer breathing.
"Anna," The name got stuck in his throat as he said it.
"Now leave," Mammon ordered. "Do not insult her sacrifice by staying longer."
Only glares met him. Danny, who had knelt down to check on Anna's body, stood, changing into his ghost form.
"What is this? You would insult her sacrifice by staying?" Mammon laughed. "She has protected you! Take your lives and leave. Besides, I doubt you would enjoy seeing what absorbing a soul entails. Especially since your precious Anna is involved."
"You won't touch her!" Danny screamed.
"Oh?"
Danny started running forward, screaming in rage, Sam and Tucker tried to stop him, "You will die fir…"
There was a rumbling, throwing Danny off balance and causing him to stop. The floor was shaking, lightly at first then growing in intensity as the seconds passed, and causing the rest of the house to shake. Dust and bits of wall and ceiling fell on them. Vlad leaned over Anna, shielding her body from the debris. A white glow was starting to come from somewhere, bright, blindingly so.
Vlad was first to notice the source, as he was leaning over it. He leaned back in alarm. Anna's body was glowing bright white and was now starting to float upwards slowly towards the ceiling. As her body left the floor, the rumbling stopped.
She pivoted until she was now straight in the air. The light grew too bright; everyone had shielded their eyes, no longer able to look straight at her. There was the sound of rustling, flapping, and the light finally dimed.
Anna was still there in midair, but not aided by ethereal light anymore. On her back was a pair of great white angelic wings. What she wore was the same as what was usually worn in her ghost form, but pure white. Her hair was her normal orange, up in her high ponytail and her eyes were open. In her hands she grasped her weapon, she was ready to fight.
"Anna?" Vlad whispered, hardly able to believe it. Just a moment ago she had been dead in his arms. Was this really her?
Mammon was not as pleased. He snarled and cried out in outrage.
"How are you alive?! I killed you! You were dead!"
"Now it's your turn," was all Anna said and she flew at him, weapon pointed straight at him.
It was like watching an eagle swoop and its dinner. Mammon was barely quick enough to dodge the oncoming assault. She landed and he attacked, but she didn't move. The attack seemed to hit, but then she attacked. Had he hit her at all? There was no wound, no sign of damage. What had happened to her?
Mammon was becoming blinded by his rage. He had dealed with her! Her soul belonged to him and for the second time he had been denied it. Who had done this? Who was responsible?
His distraction and rage worked against him. Suddenly, Anna had blinked behind him, a power she didn't have before, and stabbed downward, pinning his tail to the floor and making it so he couldn't slither away. Mammon cried out in pain and swung wildly at her. She caught his weapon, summoning another of her own with only one hand.
With one swift swing Mammon had no hands. The cries became screeches. Anna held both weapons now, her own and the demons. The evil one turned to ash in her hands. Mammon had crumpled to the floor in pain, the first time he had truly suffered any kind of defeat, floundering like a bleeding beached fish on the floor. It was a revolting sight.
Anna knelt and grasped his head in one of her hands, her touch burned him and he screeched in the added pain, "You poor disgusting creature. Stepped outside your boundaries and now look at you, nothing more than what you've always been. Now, release all those you have inside and go back to where you came from."
White fire spread from her hand to cover Mammon's entire wreathing form. As he burned, the wisps that were contained within him were released, floating up and through the ceiling above. A few stopped to float around Anna, caressing her head before continuing upward. When the fire finally died, there was nothing left of Mammon, undistinguishable from the piles of ash around where he had lay.
Anna stood and sighed.
Everyone had watched the display, unable to speak, both stunned and amazed. Anna turned to them now and took a headcount, all there, all safe. Her eyes trained on Vlad and she smiled and started forward.
A great flash of white light stopped her and they all were blinded briefly.
ooooo
When Anna opened her eyes, she was not in the burned living room of Danny's house. She was instead floating above the house, the city below frozen in time. Clockwork was with her.
"You!" She said surprised. "Did you do this?"
"Freeze time and bring you out here? Yes." Clockwork chuckled. "Give you those wings and your new powers. No. That I did not do, my student."
"What am I doing out here?" Anna asked.
"My superiors would like to meet with you," was all clockwork said, then looked up at the sky.
Anna raised an eyebrow at him then did the same. There were three bright lights coming down towards them from the sky. They stopped in front of her and took shape, each three different people, a child, an old man, and a young woman, all with pure white wings like Anna now had. When they started speaking, they spoke together as one.
"Anna Van Ratten, we honor you with our presence," they said.
"You're… angels… aren't you?" Anna asked. "Did you do this? Did you give me these powers?"
"We are," they answered. "And we did. Clockwork instructed us to watch you on this day at this time and make our ultimate choice regarding your fate. We were… impressed by your decision, just as we were 200 human years ago."
"So you brought me back then too?"
"No. We pulled you from Mammon's stomach and took you to clockwork. You had a choice to make then and you had chosen wisely."
"If I hadn't taken the offer back then?"
"Then you would have gone back to Mammon's bowels. The order of things must not be disrupted."
"But you disrupted it to bring me back the first time! What if I hadn't been brought back? What would have happened?"
"Time is complicated."
"You're saying there would have been another path? That Mammon would have been defeated another way? Or maybe Mammon wouldn't have come after Danny and his family at all? Things would have just gone as… planned?"
"Time is complicated."
Anna rubbed her temples, "You're telling me. This is all kinds of complicated."
"But that is not why we have come. Events have happened as they were supposed to in this time. We have come to offer you another choice."
"Another choice?"
"Yes. For your sacrifice, we offer you a place among us."
Anna blinked, "You mean, become an angel?"
Clockwork chuckled, "Technically you already are one, but this is the highest seat of power in the ghost realm. You would go back with them and live in their realm for the rest of time. You would be able to watch over all living humans from there and guide them."
"Why?"
The three angels looked at each other mournfully before answering, "We have been lost. We lost our faith many years ago have been unable to fulfill our duties to mankind for centuries. We need guidance. We need you to teach us how to watch again, how to guide."
"Why me?"
"You have shown what we have forgotten how to do; a pure and unaltered ability to protect your fellow man, no matter how they had treated you in the past, no matter the sacrifice."
"And my other option?"
The angels seemed surprised she was even asking about it, "You can return to earth and protect from the ground. You will, of course, maintain your new powers as a gift from us."
Anna looked down at Danny's home, thinking about everything she had gone through over the years, everything she had given up and everything she had gained.
She didn't need to think long.
She turned to the angels with a large smile, "Okay! I've made my choice."
ooooo
The light faded. When vision finally returned to their eyes, they viewed a very unusual sight.
Anna was still there, walking towards them in her new white dress. But her wings were melting off her back. What was like white ink splattered onto the floor and spread over blackened floorboards like paint on an invisible paintbrush. It spread up the walls, under their feet, up the stairs, farther then they could see until it covered all the damage Mammon had caused. Then the white cracked and chunks of it fell away and dissolved, revealing unburnt, undamaged walls underneath.
As the last bit of melting wing dripped of her back, she ran the last few steps and into Vlad's arms. Vlad's only reaction was to hold her. She was warm and alive.
"Anna," was all he said as he hugged her tight.
"What just happened?" Danny asked, watching as his house was repaired right before his eyes.
"I turned them down," Anna said into Vlad's chest.
The rest of the group looked at each other, confused. Vlad pushed her back so that they could all see her and hear her.
"Turned who down?" He asked.
Anna was crying happy tears, "The angels came to me and offered me a place with them but I turned them down. I told them that'd rather be here with all of you then up in some stupid cloud world where nothing ever happens."
They all laughed, Anna too, almost choking on her tears.
Vlad pulled her into another hug, "You won't be alone again, I promise. No matter how long you live, you'll always have someone…"
"I'll have you," Anna interrupted. "For the next forty years of my life."
Vlad pulled back again, confused.
Anna continued, "I gave up my immortality and my powers, all of them. I'm just a normal human now."
"Anna, why?" Danny asked.
"I've spent so long fighting I've forgotten what it was like to live normally; to just have a family and friends. I don't want to fight anymore." She explained.
Vlad took her hands, still so much like the age she appeared to be, but looking into her eyes betrayed her true age. They looked tired, too mature for a 25 year old. Vlad tightened his grip on her hands. There was no threat anymore, no one to take her away. He could do now what he had wanted to do in his first life.
"Anna?" Suddenly there was a lump in his throat.
"Hm?" She looked up at him, as if expecting the question, expecting it for 200 years.
"Will you marry me?"
There was that smile, the one he loved, "I'm surprised you have to ask. Of course I will!"
There was no chorus of gagging noises as they embraced to kiss. A moment that had to wait over 200 years deserves its quiet reverie.
"Anna, I love you."
"And I never stopped loving you."
There was a pause.
"You realize this means you're fired."
Anna laughed.
ooooo
Ten months passed and there was a new picture on Vlad's desk. He swears that he looks at it more than he does his actual work. It's the most recent picture of Anna, taken in the front parlor of his… no, their mansion; a candid picture, yes, taken when she wasn't paying attention, but beautiful.
She was sitting in the bay window reading a book. It was one of the few mornings she didn't immediately put her hair up and she was still in her long blue nightgown. The title of the book was clearly visible, "Motherhood for the First Time Mom." Also clearly visible, was the eight month along baby belly she was sporting.