The Demon Realm had never seen such a thunderstorm. There was no rain, but every few seconds, the red sky was lit up by lightening, followed by deafening roars of thunder. Not a demon would step outside for a while... and most of the thunder appeared to be coming from Lord Zorak's castle. But all the thunder and lighting was nothing compared to the storm going on inside the castle walls.
"How did this happen? How did they get away?!" Zorak demanded furiously.
Zarias was hesitating between getting angry himself or apologizing profusely. He decided neither would get him anywhere, so he went for another approach.
"I told you that they would not come unprepared... or unmotivated..."
"That excuses nothing! They are humans! They had no chance whatsoever of getting out of this castle! Explain why they did!"
"It appeared they had an ability to understand each other without words, which we had not foreseen..."
"We had Umbras everywhere!"
"They must have kept out of their sight," Zarias said. "And I did mention the fact that striking the fire guardian would make the guardian of Light all the more determined to save her."
"Of course it did, that was the plan!" Zorak snapped. "It was supposed to bring them all here to my feet!"
Zarias snorted.
"Well, with all due respect father, they have gotten a lot stronger than I anticipated, and-"
"Don't try and find excuses!" Zorak snarled. "I gave you clear and simple instructions, and you were incapable of fulfilling them!"
"If you'd given me more tim-"
"I've waited for two decades!"
"Fine!" Zarias snapped, losing patience. "The plan didn't work! It's not the first time!"
For a second, he froze. Lord Zorak didn't appreciate being defied... But rather than throw a horrendous fit and wreck everything in sight like he would usually have done, he paused, thoughtful.
"Hmm... I do believe you have point, there..." he said quietly. "We'll just have to think of something that will be sure to succeed..."
Despite vigorous protests from Andie, Isabelle spent a good ten minutes healing her body. So that evening, when she went to pick up Hannah from Lisa's before her parents came home.
"Thank you so much for looking after her, Lisa, I'm sorry I dumped her on you like this..." she said to Lisa.
"Oh, it's fine," she smiled. "You've picked Nina up from school for me plenty of times."
"Well, thanks again. Bye, Lisa!"
"Take care, girls. Say hi to your parents for me," Lisa smiled.
Andie nodded, took Hannah's hand and walked away. As they walked across the street, Hannah asked:
"Lisa said you were sick, are you feeling better?"
Andie didn't need long to figure that this was the cover story. But the answer was a little harder to give than she'd expected.
"Yeah, I am." she said. "But... I don't think that Mom and Dad would approve me dropping you on the Bensons like that... so... let's just keep it to ourselves, okay?"
"Okay..." Hannah said, looking a little confused, but making no further comment.
They went inside and Andie went to her room to think. And rest. Her body was still rather sore, and she was amazed she'd managed to not show it. She lay on her bed, staring at the ceiling unseeingly, lost in thought. She hadn't expected things to turn out the way they were... and it made her feel stupid. She should have known that Zorak and Zarias would come up with a new tactic to get to them... she just hadn't expected it to happen the way it had... she'd always pictured Zorak as a direct person who didn't waste time in intricate strategies like that... but maybe Zarias was... he definitely seemed more cunning than his father... she should have seen it coming. How could she expect to fight them if she couldn't even understand how they worked? She sighed and decided to drown her thoughts in music. She turned the radio on but froze as the notes reached her ears. It was the song that she had sung in the Demon Realm. The song that had caused Zorak to torture her senseless. She could still hear her own scream echoing in her ears, feel the sharp, unbearable pain through her body, the cold of her cell... she shut the radio off and stood shivering and gasping, before lying down on her bed to sleep it off.
There was something soothing about the clanging of lockers, the noisy chatter around her, the stomping of feet as the students walked the hallways to class. These were normal noises, safe ones. Andie tried to focus on that and on her steady breathing, using the meditation exercises Balon had instructed them to learn so as to control their powers better. So far, it was only partially effective.
Get a grip! She chided herself. You can't let that rattle you like this!
She shook her head slightly, exhaled and concentrated on her books, putting them in her locker for later aside from her English and History books, which were her next classes. She was just about finished when something touched her shoulder. Without thinking, she whipped around, knocking the arm away, raising her arm up to protect herself, the way Bane had taught her. But she stopped, her lips parting in surprise, her eyes widening.
"... Eric..."
Sure enough, standing before her, his blond hair artfully tousled, his bright eyes scanning Andie's face while trying to keep the concern for her mental health, was Eric.
"Uh... hey... is something wrong?" he said, straightening his bag on his shoulder.
Andie then realized her arm was still up, her free hand clenched into a fist. Flushing, she quickly dropped her arm.
"Oh... sorry, no, everything's fine... I just... you startled me."
"I noticed... sorry, I didn't mean to scare you..."
Partly because it was the truth and partly to try and push the incident aside, Andie forced a laugh.
"I said startled, not scared," she pointed out.
"Okay, okay," Eric conceded. "But are you sure you're okay? You looked... a little tense."
"I... I'm just a little tired, that's all." she said, hoping she sounded more confident than she felt.
She was not enjoying lying to Eric, but she could hardly tell him the truth...
"Andie," came a voice to her right.
Bane came marching towards her. He seemed to have noticed the interaction, because he was looking warily at Eric. Andie slid into his open arms and hugged him tightly. More tightly than was needed in the circumstances, but she realized now that she needed the support. He pulled back and placed a gentle kiss on her lips.
"Everything okay?" He asked Andie, peering from her to Eric.
"Yeah... it's fine," Andie said.
"You ready to go to class?" he asked, taking her hand in his.
"Yes," Andie answered.
She glanced at Eric and said:
"I'll... I'll see you later, Eric."
His eyes were still questioning, but he said nothing as they walked off.
*******************
Hmm, looks like Eric smells a rat! Not good, am I right?
What will he find out? Let's see in the next chapter!