Devil Says 'H!'

Chapter 28

Skylar pushed the strands of hair behind her ear, which was kissing her face in the cold dark evening, and she pulled her jacket closer to herself. The cold winter air was too colder for her to bear, and she heard her teeth start to chatter.

Ed turned to his side and saw Skylar rubbing her palms up and down, along her upper arms. He shook his head smiling and pulled her hands towards him, and started rubbing it with his warm ones, breathing his hot breath over her cold hands. Smiling shyly, Skylar looked up at him, and blushed as she saw that he was staring into her blue eyes.

They were walking back from a date that Ed had taken Skylar to. The main reason for him to do so was, he knew that ever since Skylar was back with Ethel's heart on her hands, she was never the same. It had been nearly fifteen days since then, but for all of those days, she was too troubled and was always worried about one thing or another. So as to switch her head around and distract her for a while, Ed had taken her to the cinema.

"Is this okay now?" Ed asked, winking at her, as Skylar blushed and tried to gently push him away from her. He did not oblige and smiling timidly she slowly removed her hands from his. She pushed her hands deeper into her pockets, and they started walking once more.

Skylar rolled her eyes as she felt him tag her from behind. The evening was not getting warmer anymore, and Skylar knew that this was not the time for either of his jokes or games.

"Leave me, Eddie," she said softly. But he did not loosen the hold on her jacket. Skylar felt him pull her back and she turned behind angry at him.

Skylar stared around as she noticed Ed standing right beside her, his eyebrows scrunched up wondering what she was talking about. If it was not him who had tried to pull her back, then who was it?

Skylar scanned the almost deserted area behind them with careful eyes. She searched through the darkness, and tried to catch something that was not a human.

"Darling," Ed called her softly, but Skylar shushed him, afraid that whatever might hear him and would disappear all together. She waited.

Suddenly, Skylar's eyes moved past a change of thickness in the air and she glanced towards it once more. She was right.

With one single swipe of her hand, Ed was pushed back and a safe cage of an everlasting tongue of white flame surrounded him. Ed tried to move from his position, trying to stand up, but the tongue of flame did not let him at least move a muscle.

"Sky, what have you done?" he shouted, but he knew that Skylar would not hear him at all. She was concentrating on what was ahead of her, and Ed rolled his eyes and remained where he was.

Skylar turned in the darkness, and stared at the area where the change of thickness in air had happened. She wished she could see more clearly, and remembering that she actually could, Skylar increased her visibility to a hundred folds. Closing her eyes tight, and opening it once more, Skylar was able to see up to two hundred and seventy degrees around her. She saw that Ed was struggling against the hold, while keeping a safe eye on her, and she also saw the lone figure that was walking towards her. Assuming that it was just a night time wanderer, Skylar turned her focus on what was ahead of her.

She was right.

Skylar saw the air change its thickness around her, and she slowly moved her eyes around her, noticing the increase of pressure. She huffed loudly and shook her head to the sides, waiting for the things to turn dirty. Skylar felt a hundred of needles pin against her skin, even through her thick jacket, and she squinted her eyes as she saw a small minuscule form of a blister start to swirl around her. She moved her hands, trying to cover her face from the water droplets that were trying to attack her and voice left her throat as she felt the blister intensify and she was not able to see anything around her. She started to scream through the darkness, but closed her mouth at once, as a mixture of both snow and water went inside her mouth. Groaning in frustration, Skylar raised her hands and tried to maintain her balance, while she was starting to lose her foot.