Chapter Forty Three
“God dammit!” Ellie muttered. “How’d she find us?”
A long, thin wire fell from the balloon’s basket, three guys dressed in black sliding down them like they were firemen. They landed into the water one by one, and, to my dismay, began to swim right towards us.
“Go!” Ellie screamed.
I quickly jumped off the sky serpent and ran across the stone pathway towards the center of the dream. It was then that the path in front of me exploded in a flash of bright, orange light. The blast wasn’t loud enough to destroy my eardrum, but it was definitely strong enough to sever the path in two.
I gritted my teeth. Damn you all to hell!
The guys dressed in black swam toward me, faster than any Olympic swimmer I had ever seen.
I plunged into the water and began to swim towards the other end of the pathway. But my swimming skills were nothing compared to the Empress’s henchmen. They rushed towards me . . . getting closer and closer . . .
The biggest one of the three shoved my head under the water and kneed me in the chest. I screamed, hundreds of bubbles escaping from my mouth.
I felt my brain begin to shut down yet again, and just when I was sure all the air was gone from my body, I felt the weight lift off of my head. I rose to the surface, coughing violently and taking in massive amounts of oxygen into my body. The Empress’s voice rang throughout the sky, “Don’t kill him! That’ll end up killing us all! I said to only kill him if he tried to attack you.”
The henchman that was holding both my arms grunted clearly disgusted with the Empress’s order. The sound of light footsteps approached my ears, and when I turned around, I spotted Ellie running down the path and flinging herself on the guy who was holding me. She scratched any part of his face that she could find.
The other two guys dressed in black began swimming towards Ellie. I looked at her, riding on the henchman like he was giving some sort of wild piggy back ride. She looked at me, her eyes fierce with determination. “Go!” She shrieked. “GO!”
The Empress called out, “You two! Don’t worry about her! Stop Darrel!”
But it was already too late; by then I had already swam to the other broken-off section of the pathway. I ran towards the hole with whatever strength I had left in me. Right before the pathway dropped off into the hole, filled with a soft light, I looked back. The two other henchmen were now advancing towards me, one of them already climbing on top of the pathway.
“Go!” Ellie cried once again, her hands covered in the blood and flesh she peeled of the henchman’s face. He wiggled in agony, but she managed to hold on.
Seremon sat on top of his sky serpent, stroking its scaly skin as if a fight wasn’t occurring. He probably figures that it’s no use.
I gave a salute to the Empress, whose wide eyes stared at me with surprise, hatred, and fear. I took in a big breath and screamed, “Good-bye, you bitch!” and dove into the hole head-first. The Empress’s agonizing wails faded as I fell into the pit, a soft glow gradually overcoming my vision.
I closed my eyes and smiled smugly. Good-bye . . . . . . . . .
