Ocean Cove

At first I thought I was having the same dreams again—the ones about the Aquamuns attacking Russia back in the fifteenth century. It began just the same way, people running and screaming everywhere, some houses were completely destroyed and others were still burning.

But there was something different about this one. Unlike the others, this dream was completely dark as if it were a starless night. I was still able to see the silhouettes of the villagers running from the onslaught of approaching danger. Everywhere you looked there were mothers grabbing children, family members running with each other, the old, abandoned and unfortunate were pushed aside by anyone and trampled by everyone.

Remembering I had some control over my actions in these dreams, I began looking around for any sign of the Aquamuns that were always here. But there was no sign of them, and now I took the time to properly examine my surroundings. I came to realize a few things.

First there were bodies all over the place, but they didn’t die from any Aquamun

attacks, those were the poor souls who got left behind. Second, even though the villagers were in a panic, I noticed there weren’t any Aquamuns in sight, which meant whatever was happening, the Aquamuns weren’t responsible. So if the Aquamuns weren’t here, who were the villagers running from?

I scanned the area in this weird dream, desperate for any sign of what these people were running from, and really saw for the first time that whatever the villagers were running from was behind me.

Before I could even turn around, one of the villagers, a particularly young and beautiful woman who couldn’t be older than twenty, tripped over her dress in front of me as she tried to escape.

Even though it was only a dream, I still tried to help her up even though I was sure this was a dream I couldn’t interfere in, but it seemed she could see me, because upon seeing me reach out towards her, she screamed as hard as her lungs would allow. There was a look of terror on her face so strong that I actually recoiled in surprise. Why would someone (even in a dream) be afraid of me?

Standing a couple feet away was a young man who must have been with the woman. As he looked at the woman, who was too scared to move, his face was contorted with the pain of making a terrible choice, face death trying to save the woman he loved or leave her and save himself.

It became obvious to me that the creature these people were running from wasn’t behind me, it was me. Somehow, in the dream, I was their rampaging monster. Suddenly he was standing among the crowd of running people. Chris was somehow in my dream. I squeezed my eyes shut in an attempt to force myself out of this nightmare and surprisingly, when I opened my eyes again I was awake. Unfortunately, staying asleep would have been better because from the second I became conscious, my body was filled with excruciating pain that seemed to run from my chest right down to my toes. Every part of my body was screaming in agony as it was attacked constantly and ruthlessly by this unknown force, just like that night when I was with Lyla and Nikolai. The pain was just the same, only somehow if felt worse now, maybe because Lyla’s presence somehow numbed the pain the first time or maybe Chris was just giving it some extra juice.

By instinct I wanted to run away from the pain, just move until it was all gone, but to my horror I realized I was unable to move. I was immobilized, as if my brain no longer had control over the rest of my body. I was completely useless from my neck down. Devoid of movement, occupied with pain. I wasn’t even able to use my mouth, because somehow every sound my mind wanted to produce was lost somewhere before it got there, which meant I couldn’t even scream in my agony.

Just then everything started rushing back to me at once, like tons of water rushing from a broken dam, because for a while all I remembered was that Chris was the one. I remembered

discovering he was a Somorian. I thought of Hilda getting hurt fighting the ghosts just because she was trying to help me. He was the one responsible for poisoning Justin, because like Lyla said, his desperation had got the better of him and made him careless. I still couldn’t believe he was the one trying to kill me.

I had no idea where Chris had taken me. Lying wherever I was, I thought about all the times I was with him, all the time he spent working with my parents and not once had I even considered that Chris might be the one trying to kill me. I never even thought he was slightly dangerous. I was only on the island for a few months now, and during that time I had never offended Chris, at least I didn’t think so. Furthermore, I had just learned of Chris being a Somorian, and he’d been trying to kill me long before that, so it couldn’t be because of that.

Then a thought worked its way into my head; one that didn’t really make any sense but held my interest just the same, because from the beginning everyone connected to the supernatural one way or another had the same reason for being concerned about me: Lyla. She was the only reason I could come up with to explain why Chris would want to kill me. But if it really was Lyla, why try to kill me and not just warn me like Hilda, Kristian and his dad did? Maybe he heard I ignored their warnings because of my love for her and decided to take things further. But if that was true, that he only wanted me safe, then why come after me and not her? Not that I’d want him to do that. I would rather him take me than touch her. That would be the logical thing to do, but no one said I was dealing with a logical person--for all I knew he could be insane. There were just too many possible reasons for his actions for me to guess and I didn’t have time to waste on speculation.

My body might’ve been immobilized and in pain, but my brain was working just fine and at the moment working overtime trying to find a way out of this. I found that the less control I had over my body the more my mind was able to process. The pain cruising through my body seemed to occupy most of my thoughts.

I closed my eyes and concentrated very hard. I felt around for the connection to Lyla. If I could just kind of tug on my end of our bond, it might be enough to let Lyla trace my location. I had no idea just how long I was unconscious for (it was night when Chris kidnapped me, but I

knew it was daytime now because I could feel sunlight almost directly over me, coming through the cracks in the roof of wherever I was) but Lyla would already have grown worried when she couldn’t feel my end when I was out.

I remembered when she told me she can still feel our connection even when I slept and that’s how she got into my dreams. So hopefully, since I was out cold, she would probably check my room and find me gone. Once she picked up on Chris’s aura trace mixed with mine, she’d figure out what happened. She’d know he was the one after me.

Knowing Lyla however, from the second she lost my end of the connection, she would have started investigating, so why hadn’t she already found us? I doubted Chris had done something to her, because if he could, he already would have. My best guess was that he was somehow stopping the Morgans from being able to pick up our aura trails, which meant they had no way of finding me. The only option left was for me to reach out to Lyla.

It sounded simple enough in theory, but the thing was, ignoring the pain so I could focus on the bond was a lot harder than I thought, because every inch of my body felt like tiny little claws were pinching away relentlessly at my flesh from the inside. But it was either withstand the pain or let Chris kill me.

Mustering all the strength I could, I concentrated on opening the bond while my own body was punished for some crime I couldn’t remember committing. With my eyes closed and searching deep within myself, I felt the power of the bond, alive, deep inside me. It was there, I could feel its power, but something was wrong. Usually when I felt it, it was two-sided, something like a water current flowing back and forth. But now I only felt the energy from one side—my side. It felt like our bond was a cord and Lyla’s side was cut but my side remained up. I tried to pull on the connection but there was no response. I tried desperately to feel for Lyla’s emotional state but it felt I was running into a wall, which was leaving a pain in my head like my skull was splitting from the inside out. Reluctantly, I let go of the connection.

What did this mean? That I couldn’t connect with Lyla? From the day we became bound I’d always felt her emotions. Even when we were apart, she was always still with me, so what

could have happened to block off her end of the link? I suppose Chris could have been doing something to block it, but there was no way to be sure, or maybe while I was unconscious Lyla did come, but… I didn’t want to think about it much, but what if the reason I couldn’t feel Lyla was because, she was dead? Could he do that? I wondered. Could Chris have already killed Lyla? The very thought sent chills running through me. It was bad enough I was here, but it was unbearable to think about living in a world without Lyla.

She did tell me magic couldn’t kill Aquamuns over a hundred years old and I knew Lyla was past that age. So if he couldn’t kill her maybe he had done something to her. The fact that he’d already done all of this was proof that I didn’t really know him.

Maybe Chris used a spell to stop anyone from locating or commutating with me. He had been doing something similar to himself when he was hiding his whereabouts from Hilda. If that was the case--and I was hoping it was--the fact that I couldn’t feel Lyla simply meant we were being blocked and she was safe. That would mean, however, that I couldn’t count on the Morgans or anyone finding me, which left me with no other choice concerning my escape: I’d have to do it myself.

I looked around, trying to discern anything from my surroundings, and it was easy to tell I was in a small bedroom in a very old house, though it wasn’t very bedroom-ish. In the corner there was a very old wooden table and chair, and it seemed I was lying on an old, red sofa Chris probably brought into the room. The wood in the roof and walls was so old, it looked like it was actually starting to turn grey, and from examining the roof more closely, I saw they were a lot more cracks than I originally thought. There was only one window in the room, but its shutters were firmly closed. I could clearly tell I was on the second floor.

I listened intently for any sound of the sea or something recognizable that would give me a clue about where Chris had brought me, but all I heard was the wind blowing through the cracks in the house. Not at all helpful in telling me where I was. I knew I wasn’t near the cove or not close enough to hear sea anyway.

It looked like once again Chris had everything planned out. I couldn’t escape and not even the one that had an emotional connection to me could find me. I was starting to think there might not be a way out of this.

If I was going to die, is this how I was going to spend the time I had left? I questioned myself--alone, paralyzed and in pain, both physically and emotionally. I couldn’t help but wonder about my parents. Would they ever know what’s happened to me? Would Chris just bury me and go back working for my parents, pretending to be sympathetic as they mourned the loss of their only child, a child they probably would think ran away based on my earlier expressed feelings towards the island. On the other hand, what if he left my body to be found, would that be worse for them, to see me devoid of life? And then what about Lyla, my love, my very life? Would she feel responsible for it, even though I’d told her she isn’t responsible?

No. I told myself. I pulled my mind away from those thoughts because at the moment tears would just be a pain. I knew if Lyla was here she would tell me to fight this, she would say there had to be something I could do, and I did have too much to live for to give up so quickly.

Suddenly the bedroom door opened with a horrible noise that sounded like the hinges were in pain. There he was, standing just outside the door. I realized he was wearing a fresh change of clothes (black jeans and a sleeveless green shirt) which meant I could have been here for a while. I noticed when he looked at me that he was wearing a sad expression. He mumbled a few words and to my surprise a small grunt escaped my mouth. He gave me my voice back.

“Chris, why are you doing this?” I asked softly. The constant burst of pain was now starting to take its toll on me, but I didn’t want Chris to know that. Any satisfaction he was denied was a small victory for me. But the way he looked at me told me he knew I was in pain.

“Why are you doing this?” I asked again, this time a little of the fear I was holding back filled my voice “Let me go.”

Chris finally walked into the room, took up an old and many times patched wooden chair and sat down by the couch.

“I thought you would’ve known I can’t do that Chase,” he said sullenly. He had the look of a man going through some kind of emotional turmoil. His youthful-looking face now seemed aged and they were a lot of lines in his forehead. If he didn’t have me captive, I would have been concerned for him.

“Actually, I don’t know that,” I replied. “Why are you doing this to me? And why does it have to hurt so damn bad?” The pain in my body was now burning worse than if I was exercising past endurance.

Chris looked at me again with that same sullen expression, like it was permanently etched on his face. He placed his right hand in the middle of my chest, mumbled unintelligibly again and to my surprise and relief, the pain subsided immediately, though I was still paralyzed. Chris leaned back in his seat and oddly enough began massaging his right hand, which I could clearly see had started to hurt him. Was something wrong with him? What could be causing him pain, no matter how small? That’s when I remembered what Hilda said when I was being attacked, about how using so much powerful magic would eventually take its toll on the user’s body. This had to be the reason why Chris was hurting and looking so worn out. It also meant that if I could get him to unfreeze my body, escape would be so much easier, as I was willing to bet his physical strength wasn’t at its best, which was why he made sure I couldn’t move.

“I want you to know that I’m really sorry about all of this, Chase. About attacking you, hurting your friends, which was an accident, and about what I’m going to do.”

“You mean you’re going to kill me.” I already knew what his answer would be.

“I don’t have any other choice,” Chris muttered. A huge burst of fear exploded inside me when he said that. I knew he was going to try to kill me, but it was a strange thing to actually hear him say it. Like death giving you a call to tell you he’d be dropping by soon. Not exactly comforting.

“Why? Why are you doing this? I’ve never done anything to you.”

In a flash, Chris was out of the chair, and mere inches away from my face. So close to me I could clearly see how red his eyes had become and the huge dark circles that had formed under them.

“Don’t act like you don’t know what this is about. I might feel awful about having to do this to you, but you brought this on yourself once you started falling for the Aquamun.”

I knew this was about Lyla. No one understood her, but everyone wanted to judge her. I breathed softly. Chris’s expression turned to one of disgust and he actually ejected a mouthful of saliva with traces of blood in it onto the floor. The magic had really started to drain him.

“Disgusting, all of them. I know you’ve been seeing her, so don’t try to lie to me. I know the truth. I know she has you under her spell.” Chris said as he sat back down, more carefully than he should have needed to.

“That’s not true, Lyla doesn’t have me under any spell, she would never do that to me or anyone else.” I snapped back. It was my original intention to get Chris angry, but he talked about Lyla like she was some kind of parasite.

Chris smiled. “If she doesn’t have you under her spell, explain what’s happened to your aura to me.”

Admittedly, that caught me off guard. “You can see auras too,” I asked incredulously.

“Yes. All Somorians can.”

“Hilda doesn’t know that.” I blurted out in my surprise.

“Well, she wouldn’t know that as we don’t generally tell our secrets to anyone,” Chris said in an offhand way. It was obvious he cared very little for the ways of his people.

“How long have you know about my aura?”

“The first day you came on your father’s boat with us.” That was the day after Lyla saved me.

“Believe me when I say, Lyla isn’t going to change me.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about. She’s changed you in ways you don’t even understand, and you don’t even know it.”

“Well of course I’ve changed, being in love with someone can…”

Chris angrily cut across me.

“No, that’s not what I meant. Like I said, you don’t understand, but that doesn’t change the fact that I have to do this. Chase, don’t you see? I’m doing this for you and for everyone you love. Because anyone in their right mind would rather be dead than become what she’ll turn you into.”

Chris got up and started frantically pacing around the room and I began wondering if he was mentally stable. How could he come to believe the only way to save me would be to kill me? I wondered if I was related to him, would he even feel the same way. Once again I forced myself to stop thinking about such things and began trying to formulate some kind of plan to get out of this.

Considering that the more magic he used the weaker he got, all I needed for him to do was use a little more magic. Perhaps I could convince him to unfreeze me. You know, kill two birds with one stone. If it weakened him, a swift blow to the head should knock him out long enough for me to get out of here, and once away from the house I would be able to use the connection to let Lyla know where I was. It seemed easy enough, all I had to do was make it work.

“What exactly did you do to me? With the pain I mean.” I needed him to keep talking as it give me more time to figure out how to get him to use his power.

“Chase, I’m not stupid, I know what you’re thinking about doing.” Chris said without breaking his pacing. He couldn’t possibly know how I was planning on getting out of here.

“I’m sure your witch told you how difficult it can be on a person’s body to use so many powerful spells, as I have. How it can start to wear down our bodies.” Chris stopped and propped himself on the wall, as if merely pacing around had become too much for him.

As he stood there catching his breath, yet another horrible thought occurred to me. Even if I do get out of here, what would stop Chris from coming after me again? Sure he’s weakened now, but when he gets his strength back, he’ll be as good as new, free and with his powers, so there’d be nothing stopping him from trying again. And deep down I knew I couldn’t kill another human, even one who wanted to kill me.

“There’s a lot more to magic than you think. You see, it took a lot more power than I had to perform most of the spells I used. Let’s just say when I was young, I didn’t have much enthusiasm for this.” Chris said with a weak, wicked grin. “However, I do know a few tricks, such as being able to draw on my own energy to power the spells. And it did work eventually, as you know, but as you also know, I had to try again and again, and each time I tried, the spells took more of my strength and it took longer for me to recover, but I had no choice. The energy I needed was too great to take from animals and plants, and I wasn’t going to harm any other humans.”

“No. Only me right?” I said. He ignored that.

“Anyway, now my body’s weak, and perhaps close to shutting down. I might even be close to dying now.”

He settled into his chair again. He must have greatly believed he was doing me something good, if he was willing to slowly destroy his body to kill me or ‘save’ me, as he put it.

Knowing Chris was probably going to die just after he killed me, that he was going to get what he deserved, made me feel good. Is that how they would find us instead, both dead in the same room? I did not want to believe we were in a house no one would discover anytime soon.

“So even if I don’t escape, you’re going to die right along with me?” I asked, contempt strong in my voice. It was surprising how quickly I’d grown to hate Chris. He cocked an eye at me in genuine surprise.

“Do you really think I’m going to let myself die because of this? Chase, I might be doing this to save you, but I’m not going to kill myself for you.”

“But I thought you said—,”

“Yes, I’m dying now, but that can easily be changed.” He actually sounded like he was the only who knew how to cure the common cold.

“I’ve been wondering about how to kill you in a way that’s painless to you, but no one would ever be able to figure out how you died, then it hit me,” he exclaimed with a snap of his fingers, “I thought of how to kill two birds with one stone. You see, my own life energy is almost gone, and that puts me closer to dying than I care to be, but you are healthy, and your energy would be more than enough, so absorbing your life force would heal me and as the energy leaves you, you would slip into a coma and die peacefully. That way both of my problems are gone in one move. This, actually, should have been quite the obvious move since the beginning really.”

“You really are sick, you know.” I spat at him, as he once again got out of the chair. Couldn’t he at least keep quiet?

“You can’t do this!” I shouted, half frustrated, half scared. “Let me go, you—” Fresh panic rippled through my body as the words I was about to speak were unable to produce sound. Chris had once again struck me silent.

“I’ll be right back,” and with that, he staggered out of the room and left me alone with my thoughts and fears. More bad thoughts came into my head. I was starting to see how easy it was for negative thoughts to take hold once you were in trouble.

My connection with Lyla ran deeper than we thought. We had never actually proven that our connection was more than emotional, but then, we weren’t sure about everything our

bond did. It allowed us to feel each other’s emotions and go into each other’s dreams, that’s all we knew for sure. But Lyla did say she felt my pain once, like what was happening to me was happening to her, so couldn’t that mean our connection could be holding us closer together than we thought? Was it possible, that by draining my life force, Chris would be doing the same to Lyla? Could it be that my life was literally intertwined with the one I was so in love with? Living together, both of us living for the other, both of us providing life to one another. If this was true, it meant I was putting Lyla’s life in danger, I would really be the cause of her death.

If either us had to die today, I would rather it was me. It just wouldn’t be fair for Lyla to die just because she went against the Aquamun’s nature and risked everything and opened her heart and soul to love me. If somehow, as Lyla’s life force was obviously stronger than mine, I lived and she didn’t, without her, there wouldn’t be a point to it, there would be no reason for me to even imagine living without her. From the time I met her, everything I was living for, every beat my heart took, was just to be with her. Without Lyla, it was pointless.

I tried to take comfort in the fact that this place blocked my connection to Lyla, thanks to whatever Chris did. I still wasn’t getting any response from her end, so maybe that kept her safe, and even though she’d soon sense that I was dead, she wouldn’t have to die with me. She wouldn’t have to feel helpless as I slipped into death. She would be angry and sad, but at least she’d be safe.

For a few minutes I began wondering about all the things I was going to miss. Obviously, the most and best of them was being with Lyla, but there were other things too. I thought about my friends, my parents who would have to carry on without me, and of all things, even school, which I’d just started getting used to. I thought about how I couldn’t even taste fresh air before I died. My eyes began to sting horribly and a couple tears fell down to my cheeks and onto the couch. In the face of doom, no one could hold this against me.

I could have sworn my heart had just stopped beating from surprise when I saw Chris suddenly appear in the doorway. When he stepped in, I saw he had a metal bowl in his hands. He slowly crossed the room, deposited a silver knife and some candles on the table, and placed the bowl on the floor.

He then placed the candles in circular position around the room and lit them with a lighter he took from his pocket. After that, he took the knife and cut the tip of my finger to draw a few drops of blood, which he dropped into the bowl, after he lit whatever was inside it first. As soon as my blood was in the bowl, I could have sworn I felt something contract around my heart. This really had to be the end. I had no great plan of escape, there wasn’t going to be a rescue, and Chris wasn’t going to release me.

If I’d only known today was going to be my last day, I would have done so many other things, and I would spend the whole evening with Lyla, and now I’d never get to see her again. I’d never get to touch her again or drown in wonder at her lips when I kissed her. I would never hear her funny baby-like chuckles or even just get to see her again.

“I really am sorry Chase.” Chris said before turning his back on me to finish his spell… and me.

There was suddenly some kind of explosion from somewhere outside that seemed to rock the house, followed by the sound of wood cracking and glass breaking and at once the candles were extinguished. At the same time, the bands around my heart seemed to disappear.

“You’ve got to be joking!” Chris shouted. He shot me an odd look the same time I felt it. A strange pulse traveled through my body for a few seconds, like instead of going through water, the water passed right through me. It passed as quickly as it had come, and as soon as it did I was able to feel my body again, and my voice returned.

I felt my connection with Lyla engulf me like a life-saving breath of air. I was able to feel her emotions again and I knew from the surprise, excitement and relief she was feeling, she was able to feel me too. I wanted so badly to be caught up in our connection, but we both had other things to do.

Not questioning what was happening, I scrambled off the sofa and was ready to run through the door, but Chris raised his hand at me. Out of nowhere, an immense amount of pressure suddenly dropped onto my body, pushing me to the ground against my best efforts. But Chris didn’t have time to worry about me because at that very second, Michael was

standing impressively in the doorway. Chris’ hand dropped in surprise, automatically releasing my body from his power. Moving in a blur, Michael rushed towards Chris, but he was ready to defend. He had his hands close together as though he was holding a small beach ball, and in that split second, just before Michael reached him, he threw something at Michael. It must have been some kind of invisible energy ball because when it hit Michael, it sent him flying through the room and down to the first floor.

Before Chris could even recover from the shock of Michael’s surprise arrival, he was somehow pulled out of the room and down the stairs, as if one of the very ghosts he once conjured had taken hold of him. I scrambled to my feet. There was a series of crashes and explosions coming from downstairs, some of which were actually strong enough to shake the second floor.

As quickly as I could, I ran down the stairs, some of which had just been blasted away, and when I reached the bottom floor, I was surprised to see not only Nikolai and Hilda, but my heart skipped at the sight of Lyla. The three Aquamuns were trying to use their super-speed to take down Chris, but for some reason, they couldn’t touch him. It was as if they were hitting invisible barriers around Chris.

Hilda, on the other hand, was having far more luck at inflicting damage. She seemed to be throwing the same kind of invisible energy balls back at Chris, but instead of hitting the invisible shield that were keeping the Aquamuns at bay, they were going through, hitting Chris and sending him in all directions in the empty house. Hilda would simply pull back her fisted hand and Chris would be pulled back into the room.

Chris was of course putting up a fight, but it was a feeble attempt, like he didn’t have the energy needed. The energy Chris was using now seemed pretty weak, and Hilda was deflecting it with a flick of her hand, blowing up parts of the house, making holes big enough to fit an arm through.

Seeing that I would have to run through the battle to get outside, I decided to stay where I was until the fight was over, because it was clear by the way Chris was fighting that

either the Morgans or Hilda would finish him off soon enough. I had to drop to the ground suddenly when I saw Chris dodge one of Hilda’s blasts and it flew towards me. It missed and blew a pretty big hole in the side of the house.

Chris wasn’t going to give up so easily, because he let out a terrible scream and another shock wave rippled through the house, only this one pushed everything back out of its way. Loose wood fell out everywhere, and the few glasses left in the house shattered into dozens of pieces. It even felt like the air was forced back as it rushed against me and Hilda. The Morgans and I were thrown hard against the house.

Angrily, Chris threw out his hand at Hilda. My insides felt like they were being twisted around as Hilda released a horrible scream and she began to claw at her body as if she was trying to tear the pain out of her body. Both Lyla and Michael got up and were about to rush Chris, but he already had his other hand out. However, it wasn’t aimed at them, it was aimed at Nikolai, who seemed unable to pick himself up off the ground.

“I might not be able to kill you,” Chris said, exhausted with sweat and blood running down his body, “but your brother here isn’t as old as you, ergo, I can kill him. Take one step and he’s dead before you know it.”

Lyla and Michael both looked like they were being held against their will. They obviously wanted to help Hilda, but they didn’t want Nikolai hurt either.

Through our bond I felt Lyla’s anger at Chris flare up. I never knew she could hate someone so much. She was perhaps wondering about the same thing I was, that Chris could still come after us. There weren’t any supernatural prisons, so how would we stop him? The hate I felt from Lyla was strong, probably what you would feel if two people were fighting to the death. Was this a fight to the death? Chris did say he would kill Nikolai, and he would probably kill Hilda too, if he could.

Chris raised the hand he had out to Hilda. She rose up in the air, and to our horror, was slammed into the house, still screaming in pain.

It was obvious to me that the Morgans were feeling exactly as I was, helpless, so it was weird when I saw Nikolai trying to catch my eye, to get me to understand something. At that same moment, however, Chris seemed to have realized something himself.

“Where’s Chase?” he asked, looking around frantically. “No, no, no. There’s no way he could’ve escaped. He wouldn’t leave without any of you.” He didn’t sound too sure. The odd thing was, I was still standing on the stairs, which was still in Chris’s line of sight, so I couldn’t think why he was unable to see me standing right there.

At that moment, my mind was spinning with anger and worry, so it didn’t make sense to me until I saw Nikolai still trying to silently tell me something, and that’s when it clicked. Chris couldn’t see me because Nikolai was using his power to make me invisible to Chris’s eyes. From there, I didn’t need any more urging. This was the chance we needed.

After looking around, I took up a piece of wood from the floor and hoped that Nikolai would make that invisible as well, as it would be a giveaway if Chris saw a piece of wood floating in midair. But he didn’t seem to notice, which meant Nikolai did.

Walking down the stairs, as quickly as possible, I ran over to Chris and banged the wood against his head as hard as I could. Unfortunately the piece I chose was kind of rotting, so even though there was enough strength behind the blow, the weapon itself wasn’t very strong, which resulted in it shattering upon impact. Even so, it was still a solid object and did send Chris to the ground, and I was glad to see it had caused a gash in the side of his face.

From the second he went off balance, the hold Chris had on Hilda and Nikolai disappeared. Hilda, in turn, raised her hand above her head, which pulled Chris into the air, where she blasted him towards the wall of the house with the biggest energy blast yet. But before Chris even touched the wall, Lyla had him in the air by the throat.

“You’ve made the worst mistake of your life going after Chase, and trying to hurt us.” Suddenly she began pushing him into the walls and floor of the house with extreme speed. When she was finished, she threw him so hard against the house, the wood actually broke from the force. “You’re not worth killing.” Lyla said disgustedly to Chris with one last revolting look at

him. She turned away from him and was walking over to me, but the second her back was turned, Chris was back on his feet. I was starting to believe he had become obsessed with killing me, but before he was even standing properly, Lyla’s hand was back around his neck.

I began to feel the weirdest sensation I ever had. It felt like there was a large serpent-like creature uncoiling inside me, only it’s body wasn’t made of anything solid. It was made from pure hot energy, and the more it uncoiled, the hotter it got, until it felt to me that it got so hot it exploded.

“No. You can’t! Don’t! No!” I heard Chris shouting.

At the same time I felt the creature explode inside of me. I could have sworn, even from where I was standing, that Chris’s pupils expanded so wide, both of his eyes were consumed by some powerful darkness, however after a few seconds, the darkness seemed to have retracted back to his pupils.

As soon as Lyla removed her hand from Chris, he slid to the floor, with a blank, vacant expression on his face. The creature I felt had collected itself into a single form again, and coiled back up, going back into its slumber.

Against my better judgment, I went over to Chris’s limp form and looked down into his eyes. Physically, he looked okay, but when you really stared at him, you could plainly see something was wrong with him, like something vital was gone. I looked back and saw everyone was looking at Lyla, who looked remorseful, but still content. She walked over to me, and threw her arms around me, and with her head on my shoulder, she whispered in my ear.

“Forgive me.”