The Truth Behind Those Eyes

Chapter Fifty-One

"Nikki?" Josh gaped at her, his brows furrowed. "What's wrong?"

She whirled around and gaped at him. "Why are you still here?"

In long strides she crossed the room and grasped his upper arm.

"Go, get everyone together but don't turn on any lights, keep the house dark."

He remained unresponsive, gawking at her as she tried to push him towards the door.

"Josh? Go!"

He continued to stare at her until her wild eyes met his. "We're running out of time," she whispered through the gloom.

With a mute nod Josh ran to the door and disappeared through the opening.

"Look." Nikki closed her eyes and held out her hand to Ezekius. When his cold fingers met hers she began replaying her too vivid dream.

Two armies fought mercilessly, viciously tearing each other apart with blood curdling screams of agony and wrath. Masses of demons marched through the town with the statue once again becoming the epicenter of disaster and epic bloodshed. Thousands of demons, rivers of blood and agonised shrieks filled her mind.

Ezekius nodded his head and gently clasped her hand in his, closing his icy digits around hers he flashed her an image of the orange sandy desert of Latébris. He wanted to take her there for her own safety.

Nikki's eyes flew open and she violently shook her head. "No, I need to stay here. I have to fight. Something big is coming and I'm a part of it." Nikki pulled her hand away before he could argue and started for the stairs.

She bounded down, her sense of urgency and fear making her movements clumsy and uncoordinated. Reaching the bottom she fell to her knees but quickly dragged herself back up and marched in to the living room. In it she found Will rubbing his tired eyes, his chest bare and his tattered sweat pants covering his outstretched legs. Next to him, Mikey sat with his eyes closed and a concentrated look on his serene face.

"What's going on?" Will yawned.

"Wait for the others," Nikki whispered as she flitted uneasily from the window to the door. "Come on," she muttered impatiently, sweeping the darkness for any sign of Sam or Josh.

A few minutes later Jake and Roxy ambled in, obviously annoyed at the interruption.

"What the hell? What's going on?" Roxy grumbled as she flopped down in to an empty chair.

"Where are Sam and Josh?" Nikki asked.

"Here." Sam appeared out of the darkness with Josh and Ezekius at his sides.

Nikki ushered them in and asked them to sit. She darted around the room, checking the back of the house and the front, her nervous behaviour setting the Guardians on edge.

"Something big is coming and we're all in danger." She once again twitched the frayed curtains and glanced out. Her eyes raked the forest and her heart lurched as the shadows moved. She narrowed her eyes desperately peering through the gloom but all was now still.

"What's coming Nikki?" Roxy asked quietly.

"How do you know something's coming?" Sam questioned.

Nikki moved away from the window and into the centre of the room. "Can you show them? All of them?" she asked her demon protector. He nodded.

"Come here, all of you, come and touch Ezekius, let him show you." The group looked apprehensively at one another, making no attempt to move.

"Just do it, we're running out of time," Nikki's voice trembled as she struggled to contain her terror and impatience, "any minute now it's gonna kick off and we need to be gone." She sought out Josh and locked her pleading gaze to his. "Josh? Please."