Gracepunk
The explosion happened late the next day.
The project Simon had been working on suddenly burst into flames, and before he could extinguish the fire, the thing exploded. It sent him flying backwards, and it nearly deafened James, who was right next to it when it exploded.
The explosion set off an alarm, and the door opened. Two Gracebeasts ran in with fire extinguishers and began to put out the fire.
James coughed and shook his head to try and get the ringing out of his ears, and as the smoke cleared, he saw Simon.
The kid was curled up on the ground, coughing and clutching his arm, which was bleeding from a long deep cut left by the shrapnel from the explosion.
Stumbling to his feet, James went over to the kid, but before he could get to him, the Gracebeasts were in front of him. They laid down a stretcher and put Simon on it, but when they picked it up and began to carry him out of the room, he reached out and grabbed James' arm.
"Will you come with me?" he asked, his eyes wide and his expression pained and terrified.
James looked up at the Gracebeast in front, who nodded. Then the four of them walked out the door and to the medical bay. Simon didn't let go of James' arm the entire time.
When they got there, the first thing James noticed was that the place was bugged. He hadn't noticed it when he was there before, but now that he knew the bugs were there, he sabotaged them with his Grace, rendering them ineffective. Simon must have felt the subtle electric current he sent out, because he smiled a bit at the thought that James was effortlessly pissing off a few dozen Gracebeasts.
Simon was set down on the first bed they came to. One of the Gracebeasts went to go get Ginger, seeing as she was the lead Healer. The other Gracebeast turned to James.
"We'll come back and get you once he's healed," he said before leaving with the other Gracebeast.
Ginger came over and took one look at Simon.
"Another explosion?" she asked him, examining his arm.
Simon nodded, looking embarrassed. Apparently this wasn't the first time something had exploded on him.
"Looks like you got hit by some shrapnel this time," she said. Again, he nodded.
"Don't worry," she said, smiling and gently propping his arm up to keep it from bleeding even further. "I'll send Duncan and the new guy over to patch you up."
She turned and walked off, and a few seconds later, Duncan and someone else came over. James took a few steps back to avoid getting in their way.
A minute later, Simon's cut was healed. Duncan was still working on healing the burns.
Then the other healer stepped away and turned around, coming face to face with James.
It was Ben.
They both jumped back and stared at each other for a minute. Suddenly, Ben lunged forward and hugged him. Then he quickly pulled him off to the side.
"Ben!" exclaimed James. "What are you doing here? What happened?"
Slowly, Ben's expression changed. He looked sad and weary.
"James," he said quietly, "Caleb's dead."
James' eyes widened. "What?!" he exclaimed. He was shocked. When was the last time he had seen Caleb?
He couldn't remember the last words he said to him, or the last thing Caleb had told him.
Ben shook his head. "Right after they captured me," he said. "They killed him right in front of me."
"Oh my god..." whispered James, his voice cracking a bit.
"He left a message," said Ben. He pulled a small scrap of paper out of his pocket and handed it to James. On it was a copy of the numbers Caleb had scribbled on the back of Ben's hand. 1031. "Any idea what they mean?"
James looked at the numbers. It was only because Ben had written them with a slight space between the 0 and the 3 that James was able to figure it out.
"It's a date," he said. "10, 31. October 31st."
"Halloween?"
"Apparently," said James. He looked up at Ben. "What's today's date?"
Ben thought for a minute. He looked at his watch, which showed the date.
"It's the 30th," he said.
"Tomorrow's Halloween," said James. "Did Caleb say anything? About the numbers or what they might mean?"
Ben was quiet for a minute. "He said... it'll happen soon... and then he wrote the numbers on my hand..."
And then he died... thought Ben.
"What do you think is going to happen?" asked James quietly.
Ben was silent for the longest time. "I think..." he finally said, "we're going to escape tomorrow."
They continued to talk for a minute before returning to Simon. Little did they know, someone had been listening.
Silent as a shadow, Warren slipped out the door and escaped into the corridor. Even though he was still weak from being sick for so long, he had news to deliver.
The Seamstress had found the Library around midnight.
She would have attacked them right then and there if not for the fact that the Baron had sent her a message specifically telling her not to attack them without reinforcement.
She traveled half the distance back to the base before the ship finally caught up. She led it to a secluded location about half a mile away from the Library. It touched down, and the drones waited at the open doors.
She would bring them the prisoners.
It was just before the break of dawn that she struck.
Andrew was woken up early by the sound of Jen and Christopher shouting at each other.
"I saw something out there!" exclaimed Jen. "I know I did! I watched it for half an hour, and then it left. We should get out of here before it comes back!"
"And where would we go?" exclaimed Christopher.
"We could probably make it to the city," said Jen.
Christopher ranted for five minutes about what a horrible idea that was. In the middle of his rant, he woke up Josh and told him to go outside and keep watch in case the "sleep deprived hallucination" Jen saw came back.
Josh had been sleeping peacefully until Christopher kicked him awake. He grumbled and reluctantly picked up his machete, put on his jacket, and went outside.
The air was freezing cold and the night was particularly dark, especially because the full moon was shrouded in clouds and falling lower on the horizon.
With a sigh, Josh sat on one of the low stone walls around the courtyard and scanned the forest. After a few minutes, however, he got bored.
Glancing over his shoulder to make sure nobody was watching, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his last pack of Magnet. He took out a match and lit it, taking a deep breath of the smoke. His mind began to feel foggy, and his stress melted away.
If he had been more aware, he would have heard the branch snap.
Suddenly, he snapped himself back into focus when he heard another snap, this time louder. And closer.
Jumping clumsily to his feet, Josh picked up his machete and looked around. Because the drug was still circulating through his mind, his vision was a bit distorted, so all the shadows seemed elongated and solid.
He moved forward, his eyes wide. He was trembling, cursing himself for letting his guard down.
Suddenly, he heard something behind him. Whipping around, he saw one of the stone statues fall over. When it hit the ground, it cracked and its head fell off. The head rolled across the concrete and landed at Josh's feet. He stared at it for a moment before he realized he was being eclipsed by a shadow.
Slowly, he turned around. A split second later, he saw a flashing blue light, and he collapsed.
Christopher had stormed off after fighting with Jen. He knew it was a bad idea to leave. He knew they were in danger, but they just wouldn't listen to him!
That was when he heard the noise. It sounded like a distant scream.
He froze, straining his ears to identify the screamer.
Another scream sounded an he realized with horror who it was.
"James!" He quickly sprinted in the direction of the scream. His mind was racing. What was James doing here? Had he escaped? Why was he screaming?
Christopher rounded the corner, and just before he saw the flashing blue light, he realized he had been tricked.
He screamed.
Andrew and the twins had been listening to Jen rant when they heard the scream. Andrew instantly recognized it as Christopher. Without hesitation, he jumped to his feet and sprinted off in the direction Christopher had gone, completely ignoring the stabbing pain in his side. He could hear Jen following him, but he was much faster than her.
He rounded the corner at full speed and tossed a fireball into the air, where it hovered and cast a bright orange light on the surroundings.
Andrew was shocked at the monster he saw.
The Seamstress stood over Christopher. She had tied him up with thick wires, which were digging into his skin and drawing small streams of blood. His face was completely blank, and his eyes were wide and terrified.
The Seamstress looked up at Andrew, seemingly shocked. She quickly whipped the tail of her suit around and faced it at Andrew. He was shocked at the figure, which looked like a dead body. A bright light began flashing from the eyes of the body, and Andrew stumbled away from it and shielded his eyes.
He heard screaming, and he was horrified to recognize it. He could hear James and Caleb and Ben, all of them screaming in horror and pain.
He closed his eyes in fear, and the Seamstress came closer.
Suddenly, Jen came flying out of the darkness and flung her spear at the body on the end of the suit. It sliced the head right off, and the screams stopped.
The Seamstress whipped around and lunged at Jen, who danced around towards her spear.
While the Seamstress was distracted, Andrew pulled out his dagger and ran to Christopher. He started cutting him free, but this alerted the Seamstress. She swung around, and one of the arms on her suit hit Andrew in the back, sending him flying into a book case, which collapsed on him.
Jen used the moment to grab her spear. She spun around and in one fluid motion sliced the wires binding Christopher.
The Seamstress snarled and lunged at her. She dove out of the way and sliced off one of the arms of the machine. However, the next arm grabbed her and held her up.
Slowly, the hood of the suit came up, and Jen was face to face with the Seamstress. She quickly started struggling, trying to get free. The Seamstress herself was attempting to hypnotize her, but to no avail.
The arms of the suit readied more wire.
Suddenly, something flew out of the darkness and smashed into the Seamstress' face. The horrible Gracebeast reared back and shrieked as the broken glass cut her face and blinded her in her right eye. Jolts of electricity arced across her head.
Jen turned and was shocked to see the twins. Erika was holding Caleb's bag. She was pulling out the glowing glass jars with Skysparks in them an handing them to Sam, who was throwing them at the Seamstress.
Jar after jar hit the hood of the suit, causing it to short circuit and rendering it unable to close.
With a sharp cry, the Seamstress backed off towards the exit. She held Jen close and used a bit of wire to bind her to the body of the suit. Jen started struggling and screaming. She dropped her spear.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Andrew climb out of the pile of books and run towards her.
"Andrew!" she screamed, reaching out her free hand towards him.
"Jen!" he screamed, stumbling forward and picking up her spear. He lunged forward and grabbed onto the retreating tail of the Seamstress' suit. It dragged him along for a few seconds before the pain in his wounded side was too great, and his hand slipped away.
"No!" he screamed, reaching out his hand and watching helplessly as the Seamstress disappeared into the night with Jen in tow.
Behind him, Christopher finally came back to his senses. He blinked his eyes open and came face to face with the severed head. He yelped and scrambled away from it, looking around. He saw the twins, who were huddled behind a book case.
"What happened?" he asked them. He looked around frantically. "Where's Josh? And Jen?"
"They're gone," said Andrew, standing up. He looked at Jen's spear and noticed for the first time that she had wrapped Caleb's key around the end of it.
Without looking back, he began to walk forward into the night.
"Hey!" exclaimed Christopher as the twins pulled him to his feet. "Where do you think you're going?!"
Andrew glanced over his shoulder. "I'm going after them." Then he turned and ran into the night.
It wasn't hard to follow the Seamstress. He simply followed the shallow trench left by the suit.
He finally caught up to her in a large clearing. Hiding in the bushes, he saw the Seamstress standing by a large airship. Three of the drones from the airship were carrying the unconscious and stitched-up Josh inside, and five drones surrounded Jen, who was screaming and thrashing and cursing at them. A drone was laying on the ground with its head caved in. The Seamstress stood watching.
Andrew narrowed his eyes. He couldn't do anything to help Jen or Josh with that monster standing there. She would rip him to pieces.
He had to take her out.
Gripping Jen's spear tightly in his right hand, he sprinted out into the clearing, and shot an enormous fireball at the Seamstress.
She clearly wasn't expecting it, because the blast knocked the entire suit on its side. Unfortunately, her back had been turned, and the suit seemed to be fireproof. If that had hit the human inside the suit, she would have been scattered all over the clearing.
Out of the corner of his eye, Andrew saw Jen frantically trying to get away, but they drones shoved her inside and the door began to close.
Andrew made a beeline for the ship as it started to take off.
The door was almost closed.
The ship was seven feet off the ground when Andrew reached it. He lunged and grabbed onto the partially open door and started to climb inside as the ship rose higher. Two drones ran at him, but he flicked his hand and they burst into flames. If he wasn't so busy trying not to fall, he would have realized that he had never been able to do that before.
Just as he was almost in, something grabbed his ankle and forcefully pulled him down. He let out a sharp yelp as he lost his grip, and he was pulled back and slammed into the ground. The impact completely winded him, but even though he couldn't breathe, he still quickly clambered to his feet.
The Seamstress was back.
And she was pissed.
She stabbed at Andrew with several of the spear-like arms on the suit, and he lunged out of the way. Using Jen's spear, he cut them off while they were extended.
Hissing, she swiped at him, and he again jumped out of the way. He could feel blood dripping down his side from his wound, which must have been reopened when he fell.
The Seamstress lunged at him again, and though he tried to deflect the arm with the spear, the Seamstress broke the spear in half and the sharp end of the arm sliced his leg open. He cried out and stumbled back, not putting any pressure on his injured leg. He had dropped the spear when it shattered.
The monster backed up a bit, and then, much to Andrew's horror, the hood of the suit fully opened, as did the chest. The horribly ugly old witch controlling the suit stepped out. She was holding something.
Andrew realized with a sharp spike of fear that she was holding a crossbow, and it was aimed right at him.
She shot the crossbow, and he sent a fireball to meet it.
The fireball hit the arrow with such force that it shattered it and sent bits of burning crossbow bolt everywhere.
The Seamstress looked shocked.
Grimacing and doing his best to ignore the pain in his leg and side, Andrew sprinted forward, so much fire in his hands that the sleeves of his shirt and jacket started to burn away.
The Seamstress shot another crossbow bolt at him, and he lunged to the left. Then, jumping and going nearly parallel to the ground, he shot a duel-handed fireball at her.
The fireball hit her directly in the face.
There was a loud cracking and splattering noise as the fireball took the Seamstress' lower jaw off completely. The body was flung out of the suit and across the clearing. The suit, which had been open and exposed, also was hit by the powerful fireball, and the delicate machinery and circuitry inside burst into flames. The suit fell sideways and began to burn, lighting up the dark predawn air.
Andrew looked up and saw that the ship was only a speck in the distance. There was no way for him to catch it now.
Breathing heavily, he painfully pushed himself to his feet. Looking around, he saw the Seamstress laying on the other side of the clearing. He limped over to her, pulling out his dagger.
She was still alive, barely. The lower half of her face below her nose was nothing but a bloody gaping hole with muscles and bones and teeth sticking out at all angles. Her eyes were wide and sunken, and her body twitched with pain. There was an ocean of blood around her head.
She stared up at Andrew, her eyes alive with anger and hatred. There was no fear. Her breathing was raspy and stuttering, the noise coming out of the bloody open mess of her face.
Andrew didn't say anything. He simply observed her, his eyes cold. She was smaller than he expected, and she looked to be over a hundred years old.
That was when he noticed her cloak. It was made entirely of human skin, stitched together with various sizes of thread and wires.
If it hadn't been for the light of the fire, he would have missed the fact that one patch of skin on her cloak was covered in a very distinct set of scars. He recognized it.
Anger boiled up inside him, and the fire in his hands slowly spread and covered his hands and arms. His dagger became white hot, and his sleeves below his elbows burnt away completely.
With a primal scream, he drove the white hot dagger into the remains of the Seamstress' neck. She let out a wet hiss before her head fell to the side and she died.
Andrew stepped back, leaving the dagger in her neck. Slowly, the fire died away.
Looking around, he saw half of Jen's broken spear. He walked up to it and saw that it was the end with Caleb's key tied around it.
He slowly picked up the key and held it up, inspecting it closely.
Caleb was dead. Jen was captured. The key had been passed on to him.
He heard Caleb's voice in his head. I guess you're the Keeper now...
Andrew didn't even flinch at hearing his dead friend's voice. He was drained of energy.
He turned the key a bit, and he saw something inscribed along the side. The words "Our Last..." were carved into the key.
Behind him, he heard footsteps. He didn't need to turn around to know that it was Christopher and the twins.
"What happened...?" gasped Christopher, hiding the twins' eyes so that they wouldn't have to see the body.
Andrew didn't answer him. Instead, he put the key around his neck and turned to the others. Erika was holding his bag, which he had left at the Library. He went and took it from her, slinging it over his shoulder.
"We're going after them," he said to Christopher.
"With just the four of us?" asked Christopher incredulously.
Andrew shook his head. "Four of us alone won't be enough. We'll need a bit of extra help."
"What do you mean? Who could possibly help us now?"
"Not who," said Andrew. "What."
Christopher shook his head. "What are you talking about? What do we need?"
Andrew turned away and looked in the direction of the Dead City.
"We need to go back to the Source."
End of part 2