Hello everyone! It seems I have been busy doing nothing but college work, as of late. Yep, plain old college papers, exams, research, and applications (most of them done early, btw. ;D) Anyhow, I want you to all enjoy this fabulous chapter I have wrote here, as an apology for leaving you all without more entertainment from moi. I own nothing except this wonderful thing called my imagination. :D
Zora felt her head pound, knowing that she MUST be seeing things as the room seems to be spinning in circles before her. Her mother sat in the black wicker chair next to the bed, holding on to her daughters' hand.
Zim, on the other hand, sat next to her, not leaving her side nor her pain stricken state. Gaz stood on the wall adjacent to the bed, playing her Game Slave 3000. Apparently, she was too entertained by the blasting of zombie pigs on the 27th level, that she hardly noticed Walter floating through the open bedroom door with a tray of refreshments.
"Oh, thank you, Walter. So kind of you.", said Zelda, as she took her mug of hot coffee.
Dib nodded and took a glass of pink lemonade that- to his distaste- had pink flowers painted on.
Ryuu snickered as he looked on to Dib's glass.
"Well, Dib, I always knew there was something funny about your preferences, but I never imagined you were such a sugar plum." Both Zim and Gaz couldn't help but stifle a giggle from the frilly comment.
Dib shot a glare at Ryuu before continuing to drink his pink refreshment. Edmond took an ancient and decrepit flask that held what seem to be a steaming liquid, but it wasn't hot. A skull was engraved on the front of the flask.
Zim passed on having anything to drink, while Gaz took a soda, as always. Ryuu took a nice porcelain cup of lukewarm green tea and sipped before receiving a nasty comment from Dib.
"Well, it seems I'm not the only 'cute' one here with a girly cup, am I?" Ryuu simply raised a brow lamely and took another sip before replying cooly, "For your information, Dib, this is fine china, exported from London and is made of the finest material. Unlike yours, which looks like a three year old painted from scratch with watercolors. Of course, it suits you very well, you twinkle pixie."
Gaz giggled until she was in stitches. 'This guy isn't half bad. He is funny...', she thought to herself.
Suddenly, the room was interrupted by a loud groan. Everyone looked over on the far side of the bed to see Tak stirring from her unconscious state. Dib, of course, was the first to zoom over to her aid.
"Tak! Are you okay? What happened?" Tak blinked a few times before adjusting her vision. As Dib came into view, she jumped.
"Ugh! What the hell, kid? Get outta my face before I rip you a new one!", she seethed through her teeth. Dib backed off a few feet, but his concern remained.
"Where the hell am I? This isn't the black hallway I was in. What the hell? And just where is that blasted Ethereal Darkness at?"
Everyone looked point blank at her, then at Zora. Tak took a good five minutes until she got the memo. "Wait. It's in her? She has the Ethereal Darkness?" Tak slapped her hand on her forehead before collapsing on the bed once more.
Edmond looked over to where Zora was. She finished drinking an elixir that Walter gave to her not long back when he was serving drinks. It seemed that whatever Walter gave her, restored most of her energy, as well as her common sense.
"Zora," he began, making everyone, even Tak, shift uncomfortably, "What exactly happened to you down there while Lord Dante was fighting off Zim? How in the world did this come to be?"
Zora placed the empty elixir bottle on the night table next to her, following by twiddling her fingers. "Um, well, I opened a spell book. At least, I think it was. It had silver writing on the spine, but I couldn't make it out.."
"Yes, the same book that was locked up the that old bedroom in your house, if I'm not mistaken. The house in the human realm.", Walter added, his voice raspy.
"Yeah, that one. But it's kinda funny..", she trailed off, unfortunately caught by Edmond.
"What is 'kinda funny', Zora? Pray tell." Zora then grabbed her bed sheets and shifted around uncomfortably. "I was able to read what the spine on the book said after the smoke got absorbed into me.."
A dreadful silence filled the room, making it more unbearable to endure. Her mother gently squeezed her hand, looking at her daughter with great worry.
"Honey, there was no way that even I could read that. Not even your father, even if he is the Demon Lord. Are you sure you're just tired?"
"Mom, I'm serious! It read something like.. 'Demonica Necrosis Exmortis', I think?"
A loud shatter of glass grabbed everyone's attention, as Edmond dropped his flask, which was already empty. His eyes were wide and filled with heavy horror. Walter looked very much the same as Edmond as well, with pity welling in his own eyes.
Ryuu stared at Zora, looking like he just saw a newborn puppy get run over by a tractor. Zim didn't like where this was going, and turned to Zelda to ask what that was. Zelda closed her eyes slowly, taking in a deep, sharp breath before exhaling.
'This can't be happening..', she thought, as though this was all a nasty nightmare to awaken from. But it wasn't. This was reality.
Walter removed his eyepiece and rubbed his eyes before coming to a harsh and rather quick conclusion.
"Lord Dante must not know of this. This must remain in this room, am I clear?"
Everyone looked at him in shock, even Zelda. Edmond, with his book of death in his arm, glared at Walter.
"Are you crazy, Walter? Do you know what this means? Do you know what that book is?"
Walter remained firm, replying calmly, "Yes, Edmond. I am fully aware of the circumstances of the situation. This, however, cannot be told to Lord Dante, not even the slightest. He may be the father and ruler of all of Hell, but this certainly cannot be gone and told, am I clear?"
Edmond remained steady, not able to believe what he just heard. Tak just looked at them in an annoyed and confused manner, and so did Zim.
Zim finally piped up, aggravation getting the best of him. "Well? What is the meaning of all this? Wasn't this book made clear to us all that it was nothing but trouble? I don't see how this is a danger to us all."
Zelda got up and hugged her daughter before turning to Zim. "Zim, dear. This book was locked away for a reason. I couldn't read it, because it's language was old and unused, much like the ancient Latin language in the human realm. But since my daughter was able to decode it after that – thing- was absorbed into her, well.."
"I assume it's like some 'end of the world' schtick, then?", Gaz blurted, putting her game away after losing on level thirty six (she works fast).
"Somewhat, but not exactly.", Walter replied, a grim look shadowing his countenance. He placed his eyepiece back on, as his see through body floated closer to Zora's bed.
"What do you mean, not exactly, Walter?" Dib inquired, becoming curious and yet, excited.
"What I mean is, that this book was locked away back in the early fourteenth century, not long after the
Crusades. After the search for the Holy Grail came to a close, never able to retrieve it, the crusaders
found this book. It was locked away and found years after their search in an abandoned wasteland, in an abbey in northwestern Italy, if I am correct."
"What does this history have to do with this book and the smoke that possessed Zora?", Zim questioned, getting impatient.
Walter shifted his eyepiece uneasily. "This book was long created back when they first established the first... unholy church, if I may say so. This was established way long before Lord Dante's time."
Dib started to sweat a little, feeling anticipation. Gaz shifted slightly, making herself well known as to how uncomfortable she is getting about all this.
"Recollections of various voodoo and black magic have been conjured and recorded into that book, including the red writing in that book, which of course, was certainly written in blood. Human blood.", interjected Edmond. Zim's face finally fell in sheer terror.
"And that human was..?"
Walter sighed. "No one knows to this day, really. Some rumors were said that it was the blood of a young maiden with holy abilities. But alas, it couldn't be so...there was no way a girl like her could have been able... not after that atrocity..."
At last, it was Zora's turn to raise her brow. "How come, Walter? What do you mean?"
Walter looked over to her in a sad way. "Because that girl, was a victim of a massacre that took hold for the sake of sealing one of the many gates of the underworld."
"What? What do you mean?" Zora started to sweat a storm like no tomorrow. Was it getting hot in here?
"Here. This is a picture of the young lady whose blood was apparently in that book. The same girl who fell victim to the whole disaster."
Walter discarded an old photo of a beautiful young girl with long black hair and a seemingly black dress with a white apron. Her facial features, however, shocked everyone the most.
She looked like an identical twin of Zora.