Chapter 6: Torn Inside
Ms Mowz, Elise and Riley came to a stop on the far north of Rougeport. After running through dense and industrial-age neighborhoods, something Ms Mowz had never noticed about Northern Rougeport, they had come to stop in front of a massive wall.
"The back wall of Rougeport." Ms Mowz breathed. The wall was seventy-five feet high, the tallest object in all of Rougeport and visible from the sea, with an array of statues and flagpoles at the top and decorated with various sketches and artwork showing the history of Rougeport. The wall itself was built out of slick concrete, completely smooth, leaving no holds for climbing.
Ms Mowz wasn't so interested in the wall itself, but as soon as she, Elise and Riley had been out of earshot of their friends, a message had appeared in a building's wall, telling them to scale the North Wall, where they would find something vital in their quest to defeat the demons.
Ms Mowz considered it more of a mission, and she didn't trust the message, considering it had formed out of blood that leaked through cracks in the wall, but it was a lead, it was worth following.
"How do we scale this?" She asked. She was pretty sure she could do it on her own, and Riley could use his chain as a grappling hook to certain areas, but she didn't know how Elise could get up.
Elise smirked. "Not an issue." She said. She reached into her coat pocket and took out two black gloves with Yellow X's imprinted on them. The gloves had razor-sharp fingertips. Elise slid them on her hands and flicked her wrists a few times. She then jumped onto the wall, the fingertips digging into the wall like it was made of wet clay. She slowly started to climb upwards.
"See you at the top." She said.
Ms Mowz nodded, then whistled to Riley. She jumped up as high as she could, kicked off the North Wall and landed on the roof of the closest house, it's roof a neatly arranged grip of red, slanting tiles. Riley bounced up next to her.
"Now let's get to the top." Ms Mowz said. She unlatched Riley's chain and wrapped it around her knife. It was only fifteen metres long, but it would give Ms Mowz a little less climbing to do. "Wait here." She instructed Riley. She threw her knife as far up as she could, holding the end of the chain in her other hand. The knife lodged itself in the wall about twenty-five metres off the ground. Clearly, there was going to be a lot of climbing work to be done. She pulled out a second knife that she had snatched from a nearby house and set to work.
Elise was now almost forty feet off the ground, still climbing, digging her gloves into the wall every time she pulled herself upwards. Years of mountain and urban climbing experience circulated in her mind, giving her motivation to keep climbing.
'The most important part is to not look down.' Elise thought. She didn't have a fear for heights, but the advice had always worked for the better.
Ms Mowz was soon very close to Elise as they continued scaling the wall. By now, she was about fifty feet off the ground. She fought the urge to look down and see if demons were following the two of them.
"So far so good." She muttered. She continued climbing, pulling one of her knives out of the wall and stabbing it into a higher section of the wall every time. She felt exhausted, not just from the climbing but from everything that had happened since she had woken up in her room. The tattoo still burned on her arm, hurting every time she moved her right arm to climb.
'What are we going to do, even if we can find any clues?' She thought. She glanced up. The top of the wall was now only fifteen feet away.
"No point in giving up now." She said, continuing to climb. Every muscle in her arms were straining now, but she refused to give up, physically and mentally. She was going to find out what those demons were planning.
Ms Mowz got to the top of the wall and tried to catch her breath. Elise was crouched on the top of the wall, clutching the flagpole with her left arm, her blank-streaked blond hair glowing in the wind. She didn't look tired, even after climbing seventy five feet.
"We're here." Ms Mowz panted. "Now what?"
"I have a feeling we should wait and see." Elise replied, her eyes fixated on the horizon. Below them, the sea glittered in the presence of the moonlight, the full moon shining more brightly through the mess of clouds in the sky. Thunder boomed somewhere in the distance, but everything seemed so calm.
'The calm before the storm.' Ms Mowz thought grimly. She waited, wiping her knife blades against one of the lowered flags. She was right next to a slate statue of a Chain Chomp lunging at an enemy Koopa, and she remembered when Riley had pounced on Bilic at the Inn. Only then, Riley had done it out of affection, not in an actual battle.
A strange thought swirled inside her mind as she looked at the statue. Could Bilic be an enemy? He seemed very dark, not just in his choice of attire, very focused on working everything in his way, and he always seemed locked in thought.
Ms Mowz tried to get the idea out of her head. Bilic couldn't be an enemy, the idea was insane. She was sure that was something the demons might want her to think. But the thought stuck in her mind, like it was a warning, but Ms Mowz doubted it.
'It's just my stupid imagination. All those years of paranoia as a badge thief.' She thought. She tried to relax, letting the cool sea breeze wash over her.
Elise kept her gaze on the horizon, trying to suppress a feeling of worry. She remembered the last time she had gotten so worried, and the consequences. She shuddered in the memory.
"Keep it together." She whispered to herself.
"Elise, do you think this is a trap?" Ms Mowz asked suddenly.
Elise shrugged. The breeze from the wind had started to grow stronger. Something inside Elise tensed.
"Elise! Behind you!" Ms Mowz screamed.
Elsie whirled around and ducked, barely avoiding a slash from a whizzing scythe blade, which went straight by her and dug into a statue of a Yoshi behind her, slicing the statue's arm off. She got up and faced what had attacked her, only to come face-to-face with another demon. Elise gasped. The demon was floating in the air, covered in torn black robes, skeletal arms tense, telepathically withdrawing his scythe out of the ruined statue, extremely pale skin on what skin he still had on the rest of his body, his red eyes glowing devilishly from behind the shadows of his hood. His teeth were massive, the top teeth, covering his lower lip a curving into deadly sharp points.
Elise filled up with rage. She was facing the same demon that had attacked her when she tried to wake her brother, before forcing her to kill her own sibling.
"You vile monster." She growled at the demon.
The demon smirked in amusement. "Hello again, Elise. And this monster has a name, I remind you."
Elise recalled his name. "Jarost." She seethed. "You set us up. You made us walk right into a trap."
"Indeed. And I actually thought you'd be smarter than this." He taunted. "But alas, I need to bring you down. Sadly for you, there was a mistake in our foretelling. You are of no use to us. But your mouse friend, I shall take her and her soul with me. The mistress will be quite pleased."
Ms Mowz gasped. Elise stepped sideways, separating Ms Mowz from the demon.
"No, you're not going to take her with you." She growled. "And I don't care if I'm not required for any of your sacrifices or whatever you had in mind. You should just run back to your mistress and tell her that she'll never succeed in whatever she has in mind."
Jarost laughed. "Ah, such defiance and ignorance. What you don't know, dear girl, is that we're already succeeding." He swung his scythe at Elise in lightning-fast swipes. Elise managed to avoid the swings and tried to stab her spike-tipped gloves through Jarost's throat. Jarost's neck vaporized, while he himself clicked his tongue disapprovingly. his neck reformed, trapping Elise's arm in his neck.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk." He chided. "I would have thought you knew by now that we can't be touched." He gripped his scythe. "Farewell, Elise." He swung the flat side of the blade at Elise's head, sending her off balance and falling off the edge of the wall.
"Elise!" Ms Mowz screamed helplessly.
The side of Elise's head was hurting right where Jarost's blade had hit her as she fell seventy-five feet to certain death. 'No, I'm not going to let them win.'
She dived towards the wall and dug her claws into the concrete. A painful jolt shot through her body as she came to a sudden stop, suspended just four feet off the ground. If she had reacted any later, she wouldn't have been able to stop in time. She looked up helplessly. Ms Mowz was on her own in front of Jarost, slowly trying to back up from the advancing demon.
Ms Mowz had backed up into a dead end. Behind her, the top of the Northern Wall dropped off thirty feet below, and Jarost kept approaching her, slowly relishing his victory.
"The mistress will be quite pleased to see you." He whispered menacingly, every word chilling Ms Mowz. "She didn't say you had to be brought back alive, though. But she does want your soul, and would very much like to see your blood spilled in front of the Doors of Midnight." He raised his scythe into the air. "Mowz! Jump!" Elise shouted from below.
Ms Mowz knew she had no choice, but still hesitated.
"What's the matter, Maria?" Jarost said with false sympathy. Ms Mowz shuddered at the sound of her original name. "You realize your playing a losing game? If you surrender to me now, I will spare you your grave consequences. Your friends might even survive our wrath. They will be tortured, perhaps driven insane by what will happen, but they will survive. Especially the white one."
"V...Valge?" Ms Mowz stuttered.
"Ah yes, Valge." He said. "I offered him a chance to escape his doom two years ago. He refused. Now, if you continue to resist, he will surely die."
"Mowz, what are you waiting for?" Elise called from below.
Ms Mowz slowly walked towards Jarost, her body being forced to surrender while her mind struggled to choose her fate. "Yes, this is good, just a little closer." Jarost encouraged.
Ms Mowz slowly reached forward to Jarost's hand, but recoiled, eyes shut.
"No, I can't give in." She muttered weakly. She could feel Jarost influence her mind, the same way he had with Elise, forcing her to give in. She was torn between her two choices, but she knew what she had to do. "I can't leave the others."
"What do you see in them?" Jarost hissed. "They are only going to drag you down, and you will all die eventually. Do you think it is worth delaying the obvious for the sake of false hope? Surrender yourself to me immediately, or I may reconsider sparing you of your torture."
Ms Mowz could feel tears building in her eyes. Jarost had played his words to perfection. Ms Mowz felt hopeless.
'No, these thoughts aren't yours. You're being influenced.' She told herself. She pulled herself away from Jarost.
"I won't give in to you." She said, drained from her internal struggling.
Jarost gritted his teeth. "Fine, I shall take it by force." The storm clouds seemed to swirl above his raised scythe, rapidly spinning in a vortex. A bolt of lightning streaked through the sky as he brought his scythe down. A blast of uncontrolled energy burst through the concrete, causing a miniature explosion and forcing parts of the wall to shatter into millions of fragments. Ms Mowz was blown back by the blast, then found herself falling through the air, falling to the ground towards her own doom.
Jarost had reformed ten feet off the ground, his scythe raised, ready to slice Ms Mowz in half. Ms Mowz closed her eyes, accepting her fate, when another force collided with her, carrying her sideways. She crashed onto the flat roof of another house, scraping herself against the hard, uneven cement. She laid still, unable to muster enough energy left to even open her eyes
Elise had flooded with relief when she had seen Riley jump and knock Ms Mowz onto the rooftop. Jarost bellowed with anger, lightning flashing across the sky.
"This is an outrage!" He roared in anger. "I will let you all survive for now, but your destinies are sealed. You will all fall before the Doors of Midnight." Lightning flashed across the sky so violently, it temporarily blinded Elise. When her vision cleared, Jarost had vanished, his threat hanging in the air. Dust and debris rained down on Elise, but she hardly noticed.
"We'll see who gets the last laugh." She muttered defiantly. "You won't get away for killing my brother."
Riley barked from the rooftop. Elise's emotions quickly switched from anger to worry. She immediately started climbing the wall of the building Riley and Ms Mowz were on. When she reached the top, she bent down alongside Ms Mowz, who wasn't moving.
"Mowz! Are you alright?" She called, trying to rouse Ms Mowz. Ms Mowz's eyes remained closed. Elise desperately fought down her increasing worries, forcing them down by reminding herself of what had happened in the past. She hated those memories, but it was all she had to prevent herself from from panicking.
She turned Ms Mowz over and made a thorough check on her. She wasn't breathing, her arm and chest had been cut open in various areas and were slowly dripping blood and her tattoo was glowing a deep crimson.
Elise fought down the urge to lose control of herself and took out a small pouch from her coat. Jainen had given each group a small first-aid kit before they had split up, and Elise furiously set to work with her provisions. She gently wrapped up Ms Mowz's cuts and leaned back, trying to give Ms Mowz have some breathing room.
Slowly, Ms Mowz opened her eyes weakly, and she saw Elise collapse with relief, tears in her eyes.
"You're alive." She said.
"Barely." Ms Mowz rasped. She noticed her glowing tattoo. Her incident with Jarost flashed through her mind. She winced in the memory, trying to stem her growing fears. Jarost had mentioned the Doors of Midnight. It was one clue to the puzzle.
"Do you know anything about the Doors of Midnight?" She asked.
Elise shook her head. "Never heard of it. Why? I heard Jarost mention it, but I don't know anything about it."
Ms Mowz nodded, shivering. She felt weak and powerless, feeling that she couldn't do anything. She was more worried than ever about herself and her friends. How would they be able to survive? The demons were much more powerful and knowledgable than they were. Jarost had even known her real name, something that no one else but Ms Mowz knew. "Elise, I need to tell you what happened up on the top." She said.
End of Chapter 6.
A/N: No, Maria is not Ms Mowz's real name, but it seemed pretty suitable. I created the idea for my friend, who will probably use the idea soon. This chapter was the hardest to write yet, so I hoped you enjoyed it, because it really sapped a lot of energy. Don't be afraid to lend constructive criticism.
Until next time, Para Zackovic.