The Sleeping Girl

Chapter Twenty Three

A sharp stabbing pain soars through me and the next thing I know, I can feel the blade, or whatever I saw stabbed with, leaving my skin, in a feeling not unlike the one from earlier. I risk a glimpse behind me and see, to both my fright and my relief, Chloe. She's clutching it (it is a blade), and the one I gave her in the other hand, looking fierce and powerful. If I weren't on her side, I would be afraid, and those dark creatures should be.

Although she looks a bit worse than she did when we came here, and the beautiful green dress is now streaked with dirt, she still looks nothing like the sicky girl in the hospital bed yesterday, and that gives me hope. In fact, she almost looks excited. I'm glad. She's been holding out on her own, and now we're here together.

"I've got your back sister," she says, grinning. "Now let's take these things down."

I smile at her enthusiasm. Then, a new idea strikes me. We are more powerful together, that's for sure.

I grab her hand and squeeze it firmly in mine. All at once, I can feel all of her light energy, so bright it nearly surpasses mine. Full of rejuvenated energy, and the light of us both, I send out all the light again, feeling it all leave us in a whoosh and a blinding beam of color.

This time, it take out the whole inner ring of creatures. Simultaneously, they all explode, the new lightness quickly being marred with dark streaks on creatures that once were. It doesn't bother me though, because my light can shine a way through the darkness and I find that despite the quickly growing dark cloud, I can see and feel just fine.

I reach into my bag to pull out my original crystal dagger. Suddenly, it doesn't seem quite so powerful as it once did. It's small, light, and it no way can take on legions of dark creatures.

But I can. And I know that I can do anything. Growth. Light.

I am more powerful that I know.

Closing my eyes and super tuning into the earth, I can feel something I've never felt before. Change.

When I open my eyes, it's not a dagger that I'm holding anymore, but a sword. Sharp, pointed, thin, three feet long, the blade looks menacing even to me, yet the clear crystal still somehow manages to represent the light. The hilt is smooth and feels like it was made especially for my hand, which in a way, I suppose it way, as I guess I just made it.

With renewed confidence, I let go of Chloe's hand and rush on the nearest creature, a witch. I haven't seen much of these, and I know that they are not the most powerful of creatures, so this should be no challenge at all.

Fiercely, I swing the blade at her, taking off her haggled head in one swift motion. It's rather sickening to see the grotesque head to flying off, and for a moment I falter, but then her whole body turns to ash, and I remind myself that she's not human, that she's a monster, and that killing them, it's what we do.

The blade suits me perfectly. Now able to cut through multiple monsters with ease, I know that we're making some progress. And the sword itself is more than enough to hold monsters down when I'm reaching into my bag for something to finish the job, be it my stake or silver gun.

Every so often, I chance a look back at Chloe, and my heart swells with pride when I see how well she's doing. Although she is in no way as powerful as I, she does a wonderful job of holding them back. I'm impressed at the way she can fence off monsters from all sides, hold them off until I can get the chance to kill them. There's many more of them than her, many many more, yet they're no match for the two of us together. This is the way it's supposed to be. Two Sleeping Girls, taking on the world.

And for a while, it seems to be going great, seems as though we might win, when suddenly, I find myself back to the ground, with three faeries on top of me. One of them knocks the sword out of my hand, and I suddenly find myself at a loss for what to do. For it to end like this... I look around frantically for Chloe, but she seems preoccupied herself.

And then suddenly the pressure is gone, and instead of the leering dark faces, I'm looking into the glowing eyes of Carmela and Mike. Carmi is brandishing an iron sword of her own, and I remember how good she was supposed to be with a sword on fey. I can see right now that it's true. Mike himself also seems to be well, more strong than I've ever seen him look with a silver knife clutched in his hand.

Looking around, I see that every member of society is now here. The clearing is all but deserted, and the only creatures left are a scattered handful right here with us. Amanda is side by side with Chloe, the twins are here with me, and every other dark creature is in combat with someone of society.

Rising to my feet, I'm amazed at the scene before me. Weary as we all look, the dark are all about done. And as I get up, I see them all dissipating, one by one turning to ash and corpses, one by one disappearing to make the world a lighter place.

"This is for everything that you all have ever done to me!" The scream cuts through the abrupt silence, coming from Chloe as she faces down yet another faery, the last one standing. The faery is cowering, dripping red, but Chloe, I notice is unarmed.

That is, until Carmela takes her own sword and tosses it towards Chloe. I think we all hold our breath as the gleaming iron blade rotates once, twice, thrice through the air, cutting a clean path towards our Girl. Chloe though, to everybody's surprise, or perhaps nobody's, given how incredible she is, catches the hilt as though natural, and in one fluid motion, slices the faery's head clean off, taking out the last of all.

And as we stand here, surveying the battle remnants, I have every confidence that this new society will be able to protect the earth for as long as it may be.

A/N: Yay! That's it! I should post the last part next weekend, but Keela and friend's journey has pretty much come to an end. If you're one of the few people still reading this, thank you so so so much. Every new vote, and especially comment, really makes my day! xoxo, wisteria <3