The Prophecy (Watty Awards 2013)

Chapter 14

XIV

Lozada and Eva dived for cover behind the ruins of a small building. Tyson ran up further behind an upturned coach; the interior was covered in sand, but the seats and driving wheel could still be made out, the crumbling leather and rusting metal protruded from the grains. Logan and Blake immediately ran around a building trying to flank the enemies. Eva peeked over rubble, glancing at the figures. “Cross,” he muttered quietly to himself.

“What? How do you know his name?” Eva said. “He destroyed my village when I was a child. He raped my mother and beat my father. The heartless bastard.” he replied solemnly. Rage burned in Lozada's eyes. He stood up and ran towards the figures. Suddenly Cross unexpectedly pulled out the desert eagle from his holster and shot Lozada in the leg, the bullet ripping through his flesh in a mess of metal and claret. He dived from a spray of bullets flying through the air to land next to Tyson, huffing in agony from his wounded leg. He swiftly but painfully healed himself with his magic, making himself weaker each time he did so; he was aging rapidly aswell, another negative side effect and curse of being a sorcerer.
Logan and Blake creeped through the alley between two dilapidated buildings, their feet sinking in the sand with every step. “So what's the plan? We jump from behind and beat them up? For some reason I don't think that's going to pay off.” Blake sighed, waiting for Logan to come up with a reasonable explanation why they were just about to jump in the line of fire. Logan stopped in his tracks and stared intensely at Blake, his eyes cold.

“Why do we do anything? What have we got to live for? Nothing I tell you…but we need to keep Lozada alive no matter what it takes, alright…?” Blake said nothing, but instead nodded solemnly. They turned the corner, and were met by two members of the Frenzy, each carrying a large serrated blade.

“Hello boys...” One of them whispers creepily; his eyes old and weary. The Jackal’s hate and negativity flowed through their veins and they would do anything to see the world burn. The Frenzy members, Wolf and Ox, hysterically began thrashing their weapons and the two, they were controlled but the anger and inhumanity took over. The two evaded the oncoming attacks and Blake broke Wolf’s wrist and disarmed him, then he fiercely forced the long, thin blade into the large thigh of Wolf after discombobulating him, Wolf’s painful shrieks echoing through the wind, he was left for dead. Blake’s experience was nearly traumatic. Logan swept sand into his dark enemy’s eyes, temporarily blinding him; Logan then disarmed Ox and thrust the blade through his sinister heart.

“Two down, six to go?” Logan satirically asked.

“Something like that yeah…” Blake joked. They ran on to defend Tyson; he had jumped through the roof of a nearby building and had conserved himself there. “You okay mate?” He joked again.

“Surviving… Tyson said as the ruthless roars of the Frenzy closed in on them. “How many, one? Two?”Tyson asked.

“Four!” Blake bluntly announced. The four Frenzy henchmen leapt at Tyson, Blake, and Logan; one of them carrying the second desert eagle. This man was nicknamed Juggernaught; as he had a surprisingly similar appearance to Vinnie Jones from X-Men, and he was unstoppable and relentless. He shot at the three; the bullets almost entered the flesh of the three but decelerated to a halt, splitting into the shrapnel and debris they would have become inside the three. Lozada had stumbled to defend his friends, and magically and magnetically pulled the bullet’s debris and sent the dozens of pieces of desert eagle shells through Juggernaught and his men, the sand swallowed them and sent them to darkness. Lozada was stunned at his own inhumanity but this mindless act was necessary. They stumbled out of the broken building and returned outside.

“Where’s Eva?!” Lozada frantically asked. The group replying with silence. Lozada chaotically fumbled towards Alexandra palace, the group following him, preparing for the worst. “Evaaa!!!” Lozada screamed, he had sprawled outside to see Eva taken hostage by the power-hungry Cross.

“You let her go!!” Lozada bawled.

“In return for The Prophecy maybe, use your gift to surface the book.” Cross said in a disgusting, sick, and violent manner. Eva was uncontrollably weeping, she thought her life was over, Lozada didn’t know what to do himself. The situation was out of hand. Lozada had been defeated; he lifted the Prophecy from beneath the ground, dried mud and sand falling off it throughout. It rose a couple of metres off of the ground and then it peacefully lowered to the sand’s surface, with a metre left it violently dropped, millions of fragments of dust shooting in every direction from the book.

“There…” Lozada wailed, his hair colour had slowly changed to grey, the magic kept ageing him, he had to stop; this curse could kill him. Cross agitatedly sprinted towards the book, the sky darkening as he did so. He excitedly unlocked the ancient volume and opened  it up. To his astonishment there was nothing inside. Nothing. No words. No colours. No pages. Not even an indication that there used to be or should be any of those things.

“It’s a f****** phony!!! You bastards what have you done?!”Cross screamed. Dropping to his knees in a ball of confusion. The five were astonished too, they didn’t expect this either. All hope was lost. Cross threw the book beside him in anger. Cross’ limbs began to seize up and harden; the five watched in horror as The Prophecy’s mysterious magic began to alter Cross; he rapidly aged and then began to fossilize and collapse and crumble into nothingness, just before his hand seized up he gave out a defiant cry and began to shake the dark magic off, he chaotically fired his desert eagle in hope to destroy and corrupt mankind. He hit his targets, in a second three people’s lives capsized. Three innocent men’s lives were about to end.

“Logan!!!!! Blake!!!!! Tyson!!!! Nooooooooo!!!!”An emotionally unstable Lozada shrieked, throwing himself beside his companions. “Don’t leave me!!! Don’t you dare leave me here!!” Lozada hysterically screamed. Lozada himself had been shot but the magic inside him began to cure him, he didn’t even notice it anymore, he had to be by his friends.

“You did it man, you did it! We made it and you’ve got the book! You’ll figure it out you always do! See you in heaven brother!” Logan said whilst slowly drifting away, the bullets had finally killed them.