Chapter 7
Allies
Scarlett’s POV
That creature… I keep seeing it’s face over and over again. The way it’s teeth were covered with blood, and how from its nails dangled gory flesh dripping blood…Screaming. I was screaming, and it was dragging me into the darkness of the caves. I couldn’t see anything, and I’m pretty sure the beast knew that. I remember being flung onto the ground, and ripping sounds. Someone fought whatever it was that held me captive…I only know that because I wasn’t killed. I was lifted into the air. At first I thought it was an angel, ready to take me to a place where pain wasn’t felt. But no, that’s not what happened… I looked up to see an Omn dripping blood from its fangs, as it set me down. Dad… Marie… They were their…They saw me. I don’t know what Omn held me… Now that I think about it, every one of those Omn looked alike.
A sharp sting makes me open my eyes. In front of me is Dr. Antonio. He’s wrapping an handmade band aid it looks like, from tree’s and torn cloth, around my ankle. My arm is wrapped up and the bandage looks like it’s covered in blood. Marie and Dad sit in the corner staring at me.
“Are… y-you g-guys okay?” I ask them. My voice comes out soft, and it hurts my throat to talk. Being smacked around must have hurt me more than I can imagine.
“Scarlett!” Dad yells and he runs over to me. He waits for the doctor to finish what he’s doing before he hugs me. At first there’s a sharp pain in my chest, but it fades away as dad loosens his grip.
“Were alright darling.” Marie says from behind dad. She’s hugging Dr. Antonio.
“Are the Omn o-okay?” I ask. My voice is still pretty shaky and I try to ignore the fact that my dad is crying in front of me.
“They’re fine.” Marie says. There’s tightness to her voice, which would suggest not all of the Omn are fine. Bia stands in the corner. Unlike before, she’s now clean except she has a bandage on her leg and on her arm. She stares at me with clouded eyes, as if she’s not actually seeing anything.
“What happened?” I ask, frowning at those around me.
“Something… attacked.” Dad begins but he’s cut off by Bia.
‘Something called a Dabula attacked us. The problem is the Dabula are spirits; never in history has anything like this happened. Normally Dabula attack in ones or twos, never in such a large group as they were. Something was controlling them.’ Bia says in my head. The others are silent, so they probably heard Bia too.
‘What do we do about it?’ I ask.
‘We need to find him… the leader of all of this.’
‘How?’
‘We set a trap. It looks like whoever’s leading them wants to get at the humans on the ship. I say we empty the ship, or at least everyone who isn’t frozen, and lead them in there.’ Dad says inside my head. Bia’s quiet for a minute.
‘That might work…’ she answers.
‘Who do you think’s behind this?’ I ask.
‘I’m not one hundred percent sure yet… but we must catch them, and fast.’ Bia answers. I nod, and I get help up so I can walk back to the very entrance to the cave. My idea is to greet people as the Omn bring them into the caves, so they’re not frightened. As I approach the entrance, there’s a splash, then a hand appears at the floor of the entrance. Before anyone can react a Sea appears before us, one of the females, and she stares straight at me. She lifts her arm and points at me. My eyes widen, and Bia steps closer to me.
‘I come in peace.’ She says, her voice is high and light in my head. I nod, and tell Bia the message. She stars at the Sea.
’What do you want?’ Bia asks. She opens up the communication so that I can hear their conversation.
‘I want peace. We Se are not at war with the Omn. Those...Healots are the cause of this.’ The Se says, pausing as if Healots aren’t what they call them.
’Why are you telling me this?’
’They attacked us too.’ The Se answers. The Omn looks back us for a minute. He seems to be sizing up our group before he turns back to the Se. They conversation must be closed to me, because after a few seconds he nods, and the Se smiles. She drops down and out of the cave.
‘I think we just made Allies…’ I tell Bia. She nods, and leaves the cave. Marie and the others all wait with me at the entrance. The conversation with Bia chills me a little. What did she say to the Se to make her smile like that and leave? What are the Omn up to? What mess have we gotten ourselves into this time? So many thoughts circle around in my head like a whirl pool, and none of them seem to have answers yet. All I know now is, I’m not quite sure if the Healots are our enemy anymore or if our allies will stab us in the back...