Midnight.
The Devil's hour.
In the world of magic midnight was said to be the time when the Devil would open the gates of hell and allow his kind to run wild. Every horrible and evil creation would come out. Demons and witches, evil spirits and all manner of dark would have their way of the world. Planting seeds of evil and immorality, spreading their wickedness and malevolence until the Devil would call them back and they would remain there until their time came again.
I knew there was evil in the world, it was rampant. However I didn't believe there was a time limit to it, nor did I believe there were any gates to hold it back.
The night was meant to be a time for rest and recuperation, it was meant to give a mortal time to strengthen their souls and build up their spirits and to enter the dream world that belonged only to them.
This night would not give us any of those things.
"Wait, stop, do you feel that?" Gray asks suddenly as his arm stretches out in front of me.
I open my sensors sending them out and letting them seek out for the nearest disturbance, like spiders webs they weave in and out of alley ways and through walls and buildings. I give Eli a wide birth and as I search I feel it, just barely but they are moving, fast, and they are not strangers.
Three Hollows. Three Stealers.
"I've felt them before...Stealers." I inform Gray.
He cusses and glances over his shoulder at the boy.
"Usually a few Stealers wouldn't be a problem." He says with a tight jaw and fisted hands.
"Well we don't have time to do anything else." I reply touching the handle of the knife and keeping my sensors on the three, feeling around me as they close in and I knew exactly who was leading.
"Isolde, I wondered when we would meet again." I say aloud as she nears, I hear her land almost silently from a nearby roof top. She stands up in one cat like movement and strides towards us.
"Well, well, well." She says smoothly as two more stealers arrive behind us.
"Bringing back-up are we?" I ask not needing to glance over my shoulder to see the twin Hollows, the two boys who had ran away at seeing Evangeline that night. Perhaps they had been following her as well, it wasn't important now.
"I believe you know my two friends, Kale and Kai." she says stopping several feet away. Her hair is wild around her as she tucks loose strands behind her ears. I already know she can only see Eli but I will not let him leave my side.
"They told me of your gift but I did not believe them until I saw it with my own eyes, or should I say felt it in my own flesh." Her voice is terse and eyes skittish.
"You have a gift yourself Isolde." Gray speaks aloud.
"Grayland, of course you would be here following Allura, like always. What an exquisite night that was, when last we met." I can hear the mocking smile in her voice.
"It certainly was one to remember." He smiles with civility though it is clear by his tone he does not remember that night with the same fondness.
Gray was not accustomed to failing, when he was asked to find someone he would, or he would keep trying until he did. Isolde however could not be found, or pinned down. 'It is if she is more spirit then flesh.' he had once said, one minute she would be there, the next she would be gone and would take another week to track down.
This time would be different.
"I am surprised actually," Isolde remarks "that you have managed to keep him safe for so long, his soul screams for miles." She smiles wickedly the white of her teeth glimmering from the near streetlight. Her eyes set on the boy. "Kale and Kai are only new born and they could sense him from Alaska." She says quickly glancing behind me, the boys keeping their distance from me.
"Waste of a journey I'd say." I comment and she laughs in her hideous manner, the sound strangled by her lack of emotion and her attempt to force it.
"I would disagree, see these boys, although young are quite unique, their maternal twins, when the curse set in it didn't break their bond as usual. It strengthened it, their stronger, more in-tuned...matchless." I can imagine her stroking their heads like they were pets, obeying her every command.
"Well then I am sure the Origene would be most pleased to meet them."
"The Origene will never meet them" She barks. "He would destroy them before they even have a chance. They would just become two more pawns for his army, two nothings he would not even notice. Here they can flourish. They can grow and learn under my guidance."
"You know the Origene is planning something, something you will not be able to stop or prevent. So why are you trying?"
She stares at me now, her eyes glaring with her stolen soul.
"The Origene has no power anymore, haven't you heard?" she replies but her words hold no truth or conviction to them. She was afraid, afraid that the life she had now would change, afraid that she would no longer have the power she possessed. She would not have the control over the streets she roamed so freely. It was the downside to stealing souls. They remained in you for days, making you feel human once more. Along with happiness and joy came fear and sadness and it was fear that trumped any other feelings coursing through Isolde right now.
"You will not win here." I tell her clearly and it only entices her more.
Winning was all she knew, even before her change Isolde was the kind of human who would get what they wanted, always. She had grown up in Columbia, her family was poor and she had learned from an early age that if you wanted something you needed to take it, to steal it.
As the years passed she soon realised stealing the basic necessities weren't enough, she wanted more, needed more. I found her at twenty two, she was a born leader and even at that young age she had a group of followers at her command, a gang she controlled.
"Lucas, I want you to go around back and stop anyone from getting out, vamanos!" She tells the young boy of seventeen, he had been at her side since he was twelve, hanging on her every word.
He nods, pulling down his ski mask and taking his shot gun in hand he scrambles through the alley way and behind the small bank.
I watch as she continues to organize the others, all of them young and foolish, faces sweaty and covered in dust and dirt carrying large guns and wearing masks and kerchiefs over their faces.
"Manny, I want you to stay out front while Alex and I go to the safe. Michael will be our eyes, if you see anything every one runs. Split up until it is safe, understand?" she asks and they nod.
She touches her forehead chest then both shoulders, praying to her choice of god for help and pulled the kerchief she had around her neck over her mouth. A strange request considering the immoral crime she was about to commit.
I was merely a supervisor, watching Isolde, knowing her time was coming soon.
With a quick movement they stood from their crouched position behind a dumpster in the alley way filled with old newspapers and trash. The move quickly, storming the small bank. I hear the familiar first warning shot fire and a terrible shrill cry as the women dropped to their knees and the attendants placed their hands behind their heads.
The shouting began then.
Isolde's voice commanded someone take her to the safe in her Spanish tongue, then something went amiss, there was a second shot, but it came from outside, from the rear.
Isolde paused, wavered and then the bloody Lucas stumbled in, his hand clutching his stomach, the vibrant red life gushing out of him until he collapses.
"Lucas!" she cries racing to his side as his face whitens.
"Who did this?" she asked him desperately but it was too late, two police officers entered the building and she stood, gun in hand aimed at their heads, fearless.
"You have had enough fun Isolde. You won't be escaping this time." The Officer says but tears are blurring her vision and her friend dying slowly is blurring her thoughts. She shoots with her arm straight and sturdy, the officer stumbles before dropping to the ground. It was a perfect bullseye shot between the eyes. She directs her gun to the officer then another shot is fired and she drops the gun, her shoulder bleeding she drops to her knees and then lies beside Lucas.
I blink, returning to the present and watching Isolde as she stares at the boy. She lunges at the boy, showing her weakness so clearly, her want and need made her erratic and unintelligent, she was too driven by her desires and that allowed for mistakes.
Her arms spread out like talons, again the need to protect acts for me, pushing me to stand in front of the boy, blocking her reach. I take her arm, twisting her around and locking her arm into place behind her until her back is facing me, if she were a human her arm would be broken in at least three places right now. Unfortunately she wasn't but I didn't give her a moment to realise that, I lunged the knife into her chest, above her heart into her breast.
I can hear the rush of air escape her lungs as the blade punctures it. I replace the knife as she struggles but before she can break free I push my hand through the gaping hole, taking hold of her heart I begin to take away her existence and the feeling takes hold just the same. The curse begins to fill my body, every soul, every encounter of Isolde's enters me and flickers through my mind like a movie.
Her body gets too heavy to hold and we both drop to our knees, she is still struggling, still trying to fight it and I use all of the strength to keep hold until I can hear her last breaths escape her lungs then I pull the heart free and toss it behind me letting go of her. She falls forward, her face hitting the ground hard and I can feel Gray behind me, his hands on my shoulders keeping me upright.
He had seen this so many times, seen the aftermath.
"We still have two more Allura, you need to stand up." He whispers into my ears, pulling me to my feet easily. I keep my eyes open as he guides me to stand at his side. My body is useless and feels as though it is about to fall at any moment but Gray holds me up, his arm around my waist and my arm over his shoulder.
My hands are covered in blood and I can feel Isolde inside me, so many souls. So many humans.
"Are you okay?" Eli asks warily from somewhere near me but I don't answer, I can't answer.
"Allura" Gray calls my attention and I turn my attention to the two young stealers. They couldn't know what happens. They couldn't know how affected I was.
"Kale, Kai" I call them and they move towards me nodding subtly and I stretch out my feelers giving Eli a wide birth as I move my talent towards the twins and then I hear them talking, only they are not talking aloud.
"She said..."
"I know, but she was wrong obviously..."
"I knew she would be..."
"You were the one who told us to listen to her..."
They bickered back and forth until they were closer to us then stopped and stood tall and silent.
Everything in my body screams to stop, to lie down and do nothing but Gray won't let me.
"If you are here to take this humans soul then you should leave now while you can, if however you were only here under the orders of another then you may go. If I see you again I will not give you another chance like this one." Gray says with a loud clear voice.
They look at me then each other, they lean towards each other, I listen with my talent again.
"If we leave it means we came here for nothing."
"It's better than having our hearts ripped out of our chest!"
"If she can do that, what else can she do? Maybe she knows more about the Origene then Isolde and Evangeline."
"Maybe we should find out what she knows."
"What was the Hollow's name Isolde spoke about? Do you think she could be the same one?"
"Of course it is! Allura, wasn't it?"
I had never felt anything like the connection that had between them, it was a first among Hollows for sure. My mind couldn't take much more of it so I pulled away.
"You're Allura, aren't you?" One of the boy's asks.
"Yes." I answer after clearing my throat.
"We have heard of you, around the other Hollows. They said you used to work for the Origene, said you were the strongest Hollow there was." The other continues. "Though I don't think any of them actually know how strong you are."
"You have witnessed something very few have and have been fortunate to come out on the other side." Gray says sternly.
"You said the Origene is planning something, we have heard word of it as well. He has an army, larger than anyone has ever seen, stronger, faster and better. These Hollow's aren't the same anymore, they really are closer to god's then men."
"I don't doubt they are strong and fast but that does not make them better. The Origene is going to act soon and I suggest you decide which side you will be on before The Origene makes its move." Gray warns.
They look at each other in silence then face us.
"We think we can help you."