Iridescence

Chapter Thirty-Seven (Emily)

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

EMILY

I usually went straight to the woods after school, but I needed to clear my head, so I went to the cemetery instead. I walked directly to Eve's grave and sat down. "Hey, guys," I said to my sister and the others. I could feel them listening to me, which was strange for them. Usually, their spirits didn't linger in the cemetery.

To my shock, Eve and Joey suddenly appeared in front of me. "Hey, Sis," Eve said with a sad smile.

"Eve... You're here," I said in confusion. "What's going on?"

"Someone called us here," Joey replied.

"We assumed it was you," Eve explained.

"It wasn't," I said, suddenly feeling nervous. I looked around and tried to figure out who was lurking. I glared as I realized who one of the people was. "Jake, this place is private," I snapped. "If I'm here, you'd better not be."

Jake showed himself. "I'm sorry, Emily... I didn't mean to invade your privacy," he said. "I felt something wasn't right, so I came closer."

"I'm fine. Go away."

"Emily, listen to me... Something's wrong."

"Then I'll handle it. Get out of here!"

Jake couldn't even consider listening to me as spirits suddenly surrounded us. They weren't the friendly sort. I noticed Betty in the distance watching us. She looked curious, but also very afraid.

Betty, hide, I commanded her silently. Don't let anyone see you. Anchor yourself to your grave and stay there.

Surprisingly, Betty listened to me. She hid herself and tried to stay as far away from us as possible. I turned to my sister, her boyfriend, and their friends. "Cross back over," I said. "Run from here. It's not safe."

"We can't, Emily," Eve said sadly. "We're stuck here. We were summoned."

"You have to go. Jake's right, something's wrong." I felt panic consuming me as I realized I might lose my sister all over again. "No," I said firmly. "I'm not letting anything happen to you... Not again. Not ever again."

"Emily, it's not your fault," Joey said, which surprised me. "It never was."

"That doesn't matter right now. I couldn't protect you before, but I can now."

As the other spirits became more aggressive, I braced myself for their attack. "They're not after you, Emily," Jake said. "They're recruiting more souls for whoever is controlling them."

"They can't have these souls," I replied. "I'll destroy every last one of them if they try."

Jake nodded and said, "I'm down for a fight. Let's do this."

We each drew our weapons and began to fight. We fell into step easily, covering each other's backs and taking down any spirit who got too close. I noticed they each had red cords wrapped around them and suddenly realized what was happening.

"It's Altheos," I said. "He's controlling them. He's building an entire army of souls, and it's huge... This is only a small sample of the spirits he's gathered and enslaved." I looked at Jake with horror in my eyes and added, "We have to free them."

"We'll free as many as we can," Jake promised. "And we'll get more the next time they attack. We won't stop until they've all been released."

We continued cutting them free from the cords binding them to Altheos. No matter how many I set free, more appeared. As I was focused on a group of them, I heard Eve scream, "No!"