Behind The Locks || ONC 2024

Chapter 23: Fire Against Fire

It took one good gush of a cool breeze for the candles to go out.

Icy coldness flooded the room, filling each one of them with goosebumps.

Arielline sobbed even louder in agony. Zack strolled for her, but the entirety was emitting telepathic waves with the whitish fog.

He was slammed and flawn across the room, dropping the keys on his way.

Mirabelle, self preserved herself in one corner of the room -as far as possible from Arielline- her knees against her chest and arms wrapped around them to preserve heat from her body.

"Arielline," Nick was brave enough to stand close to her, but the words to say or what to tell her were missing.

He went silent and so did Arielline in an instant. Silence dominated once again.

Illuminating her, she was laying unconscious on the ground as if she had just been knocked out. The floating white fog could not allow Nick to disclose more of her figures, so he toddled closer.

As he strode, unexplained, red lights glowed from every corner of the room, he didn't notice at first until he did.

Violently, he was rammed by the fog sending him screeching on the dusty floor.

Arielline's silhouette got to its feet and her eyes too were glowing as red as emergency lights.

Nick couldn't believe it. The imperium had gotten full hold of her.

"Arielline, you can over come it," Nick mumbled before he was lifted up by fog.

It would have been easier to fight with something solid than a semitransparent thing with teeth like those of a shark.

"You can control yourself," Arielline gave her a deaf ear.

The fog raised him higher and thrusted him towards Arielline's direction.

His soul was in danger needn't to mention those of the people of Twelve Locks Valley. He would trade his for theirs but he wasn't sure that was how it worked.

"Arielline, I know you are in there. You can beat it," Nick could feel that she was in there somewhere in the deep recess of her own mind and body.

He was forced to kneel in front of her, hands pulled back and cheen raised high to keep eye contact with the new red-eyed demon.

Zack wasn't going to let that happen, but fighting with something he couldn't touch wouldn't be a very smart idea.

Fight fire with fire. Even if it meant risking their lives, he had to unleash the tamed ghosts.

As far as the story told, the ghosts did not kill the imperium, so if not then why now? He had to take chances.

He braced himself up with the door behind him, cracking his now aching bones.

His torch was such a traitor; it turned off when he needed it the most and vanished into darkness.

He flew in a straight line, so all he had to do was tap on the floor until he made it to where they were, which was what he did.

On slapping them, he flew for the first door before Nick had been made her or its dinner.

He chose the first key from feeling the symbol on the lock by a gentle touch and that of the keys. He ran his finger to the keyhole and entered the key, turning it.

The door's signs and Egyptian symbols glowed in a sinister light blue, bursting open. Fog was no new thing to him now, but he would better get used to being sent flying.

He got back to his feet as swiftly as possible and ran for another door.

Same to the first one, it began by glowing then bursting open.

He hadn't made it to half the number of doors when the smoke apprehended him and tried to pull him back.

Arielline or whatever was inside her had earned his attention.

He tightly grasped the opening door's lever and withheld releasing it. Once the ghost from the other side of the door cracked it open, the smoke released him, but he was wise enough to tell that it wasn't over yet.

He ran for the next door and the next, until the last one.

Just like the others, it opened in a wild gush of white fog.

Zack had improvised and the idea of keeping a good hold to the lever until it subsided was working.

He had been ignoring the wails from behind him, but they occured to be wails of their triumph to him. The eleven ghosts he had unleashed were handling the imperium's subordinates.

He almost grinned until he saw his sister wailing.

The more the ghosts infiltrated, the more she seemed to be burning in excruciating pain.

"What do you think we should do?" Mirabelle had manned up and was standing next to him, taking him by surprise.

"I think we should tie the silver around her." He had to take the risk even if it meant more pain for his sister.

"Do you think she will survive?"

"Only one way to find out."

Zack clasped one end and Mirabelle the other and spirated in circles around her, in opposite directions, such that every twirl made two loops around her.

The entity was swift to notice the rush of heat and reacted by sending one of its subordinates to get rid of both of them.

Zack dodged it and made a run for it in the process of circumnavigating around her.

Mirabelle had not cleared what was happening, she received a hit that turned her off instantly.

Zack did not quit, not even after another subordinate was sent.

Eleven ghosts on his side, he got away in spaces he couldn't explain.

Arielline began shrilling in a voice that could bleed life out of their ears, it was so loud that Zack could promise the walls cracked.

The shrill got higher pitched that Zack was forced to cover his ears. It was already painful enough to watch her squirm in pain.

It was followed with a violent tornado, both the eleven ghosts and the evil ones mushing up. Zack could not keep hold of his stance; he was sandwiched to a wall.

The tornado got more violent and suddenly vanished leaving nothing behind. Not the slightest trace of a scuffle.