The Zodiacs

73. Second of Two

Aaron walked through the long hall on his own, searching desperately for the two that he was supposed to move with. He'd only been a few steps behind, but Suma and Tau had suddenly disappeared from in front of him and the Gemini was left to wander through the palace on his own.

His fingers were tightened with building nerves at every sound that seemed more deadly than it should be. Just a few minutes, he nearly fainted of fear when the wind pulled one of the doors down the hall shut with an unnecessary amount of force.

He just needed to find them... that's all he needed to do, catch up to the two older Zodiacs so they could continue on their way to facing the Aries. Because Aaron wasn't supposed to do anything --he wasn't supposed to hurt anyone --they were supposed to take care of that. Now... the threat of having to face an enemy on his own made the Gemini more uncomfortable than he ever remembered.

"Aaron?" A familiar voice suddenly spoke as he walked past a door that led to a staircase much too dark to see into from his place.

Still, Aaron froze at the familiarity of the little girl's voice. "Ebonee?" He turned around when he recognized the same accent that his little sister always had when she called out to him and his brother. Slowly, he began to move closer to the heavy door left ajar in search of the young sibling he hadn't seen in months.

"Aaron, help me," she whispered, something incredibly unusual about the girl's voice, but it was as if the Gemini couldn't stop advancing toward the dangerous opening. He couldn't feel the girl's presence, but Aaron knew it was her. "He's going to hurt me."

The girl's voice was hushed, yet still managed to carry in multiple different levels that settled coldly into her older brother's skin, seeming to echo after one another like more than one child was speaking from within. The hair on the back of his neck stood up at the black darkness that seemed to swallow any light creeping through the door's opening. Aaron's fingers tightened around the spear in his right hand.

"Where are you, Ebonee?" Aaron asked, slowly reaching out toward the handle of the door. "I know you're not here... but where are you? I'll come get you," he whispered with the comforting tone that he unconsciously always held with the girl.

She gasped in fear, prompting the older boy to stop pulling the door open at the girl's panic. "He's here... he's coming for me," she began to weep, the stifled sobs losing their volume and only echoing as the voice of one girl that seemed to be far into the dark space to ever reach.

"Ebonee-," he began, but her shriek interrupted the boy.

"Aaron!" She screamed a sound that flooded Aaron's bloodstream with adrenaline --it was a blood-curdling scream that he recognized as a voice not quite hers. It was the scream of an older man. "AHARON!" He shouted. The Gemini's eyes widened at the voice of his deceased father.

He threw the door open, quickly racing after the rushed footsteps that began to pound up the staircase. Aaron didn't even consider the security of his actions as he sprinted up the tiled steps, chasing after the screams of his father and terrified sobs of his little sister.

Meanwhile, Suma spun around to examine the spacious room's blank walls and bare floors, her arm unconsciously brushing Tau's. "Why do I feel like this isn't the Aries's royal chambers?" She mumbled, finding it highly unusual that a person of such high ranking would reside in such a cold and undecorated room. There was just no way; the Egyptian Royalty basqued in beauty, whether it was their own or their palace's.

"Stay close, Suma," Tau reached out, wrapping his fingers around her hand to make sure the girl would not disappear as their third comrade had. "We've been bamboozled," he muttered seriously, earning a passive glare from the girl beside him at his intentional choice of wording. It was Tau after all.