UPDATE: Click the video when you see -> ~[x]~
Track title: "Destroyed In Seconds"
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Chapter 20
APPEAR, DISAPPEAR
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How could there be such a thing like portals? Clara couldn't get her head around it. She didn't know how swirling rainbow pools could be a doorway to another place. Wardrobes were understandable, and so were rabbit holes or manholes. But never vortexes of colour. It's colour. Can it be just something you put on paper, and not take you someplace else?
Was it just her or were the others unaffected by these portals at all? Nope. Just her. Hooray for being a mortal, Clara said in her mind.
After the Seasons agreed to go, they conjured a portal to the Warren along with Nature's help. Clara thought that would be as far as cooperative she would get.
They stepped out into the canopy of the great oak, the doorway to the Sanctuary. As soon as the last person set foot on the grass, they knew something was wrong.
There was the smell of smoke, and it was coming from everywhere.
The Guardians and the Spirits took their stances, ready for anything. The Guardian of Fun had a staff, and the Guardian of Hope had boomerangs. The Season Spirits have their combined powers. Clara...
Clara stood there, as normal as any person should be: a teenager with boots slung around her neck, wearing normal warm clothing, with no previous lessons of how to defend herself.
Just great.
They stood around in a circle, their backs to each other. Jack was on her right and Bunny was on her left. She felt the Summer Spirit's warmth directly behind her.
Clara nearly jumped in terror when she saw the egg statues bounding towards them. They wore an angry expression for the occasion.
"Sentinels, whatever you do, don't let this Chaos get to the flowers," Bunny commanded.
When the band of allies heard the sound of flames snapping to life, that was when Clara knew the true meaning of jumping up in terror.
~[x]~
Warmth flooded the area, and it wasn't friendly. The leaves of the oak tree rustled loudly, announcing the arrival of the large towers of smoke figures coming towards them from all around.
Clara heard someone shout. "What?"
"I said hold hands!" came Jack's voice near her ear.
The tingling sensation erupted around her right hand when she grabbed Jack just as the cloud of smoke engulfed the whole group like they were caught in the middle of a hurricane. Clara lost sight of the Sentinels, but she can distinctly hear the sounds of a battle surrounding her and Jack both.
She lost sight of the Season Spirits when the tornadoes of smoke came. It spun around Jack and Clara as they huddled together back to back. She can see only slivers of the greenery among the smokiness of their area. Clara began to cough as she inhaled the smoke through her nose.
"Take Bunny!" Jack yelled to her.
"I don't know where he is," Clara replied in the same fashion. She looked around.
Clara's right. Bunny was nowhere to be found, but she can keep track of the colourful smoke bombs coming from somewhere along her left. It was too far, though.
"Look out!" The words were barely out of Jack's mouth when their own battle started.
The first shape came at her from a point near her foot and Clara jumped away as she yelped in alarm. Jack still held on to her hand, he just fended off another tendril of smoke behind Clara.
"I need something!" she yelled. A black tentacle of smoke lashed out at Clara and she tried dodging it while still hanging on to the Guardian beside her. She nearly failed, costing her a scratched neck.
"A weapon?" Jack asked. He pointed the crook of his staff towards an oncoming mass of black matter and zapped it with freezing blue lights.
"No! A cupcake," she answered. "Of course I need a weapon, genius!" Clara coughed soon after. She used her free hand to cup her bleeding neck. The injury wasn't that deep, luckily for her.
"Can you... I don't know... Do any self-defence?"
"Peachborough was a safe and happy place. Why would I need to karate-chop my neighbours?" Clara placed a good kick on a hand-shaped smoke figure trying to grab her.
One of Bunnymund's boomerangs zoomed past them, successfully hitting a majority of the tendrils near Jack and Clara. He has probably healed enough to fight this good, considering his injuries from the last fight he had with Chaos.
"Thanks, Bunny!" Clara yelled to the boomerang disappearing off into the smoke.
She heard a muffled reply from the Pooka.
Just then, a blast of red and orange light exploded from behind Clara. She punched one of the black masses before shifting her eyes to see over her shoulder.
Clara glimpsed the fiery tips of the Summer Spirit's hair whipping around as she blasted three large tendrils in a row. The Autumn Spirit was holding off on his own as he levitated to counter-attack a smoke tentacle lashing at him with his own swirling tornado of wind and leaves. The Spring Spirit managed to shoot out spiked blades of grass from the ground in the nick of time just as a black shape lunged towards her. They pierced the shape's belly, or whatever it was.
Clara coughed. She felt Jack's hand tugging on her, his voice beckoning her to run. She saw the gap in the smoke barrier around them leading to the meadow in the Warren, about two hundred metres away, and they both dashed towards it.
Another one of those hand-shaped figures came out to snatch Clara. Without thinking, she unslung her boots from her neck, nearly scraping the skin off her injury, and hit the smoke figure with the hard leather. She heard a loud hiss as it curled in, and then it repeated its attack on Clara.
It's faster! Clara thought in alarm, almost dropping her boots. The hand closed in around her waist, threatening to pull her away from Jack. She screamed, nearly tripping over one of the oak's roots, and Jack turned and shot a ray of frost at the hand.
"Thanks," she breathed.
Jack's face was bruised on one side. One of his eyes was swollen again. "Don't mention it."
They continued their sprint and soon cleared the barrier. What awaited at the other side wasn't what they expected.
Clara shrieked when she saw it. Right in front of them was the smoke demon itself, eyes blazing like the fires of a furnace, a shape with no definite body. The embodiment of her nightmares. The Chaos.
"Ooh, what a surprise. I didn't have to call you out, little light," the hollow voice spoke from the haziness.
"No! You're not supposed to be here," Clara yelled.
"Clara, move! We're almost there," Jack called from a distance. Clara didn't even know he released her, or was it her who let go of his hand?
She ignored him and faced the flaming eyes of the demon. "What do you want from this world? Why are you using me? I'm nothing useful! Can't you just leave me alone?"
The smoke figure loomed over her, blocking the artificial sunlight of the Warren from Clara. "But that wouldn't be fun, would it? I want my own realm back. I want to eliminate the order of this universe, and make it my own again. Simple as that. You, Star of Bright, are the key to what I want. Or more appropriately, the doorway."
"Clara, who are you talking to? We have to move!" Jack was screaming now, but Clara still couldn't hear him.
"I'm not a doorway, so just leave me alone! What's so special about my mind, anyway?" Clara asked.
"Everything," the voice replied and released the deathly sounds of its hollow laugh.
When Clara blinked, the Warren was gone, the sounds of the ambush were gone, and more importantly, so were Jack and her allies.
All that was left was the sound of her scream piercing the still air.
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"CLARA!" Jack called as he watched Clara get engulfed by the smoke. Her scream was the last thing he had heard of her as the demon vanished, taking Clara along with it.
He wanted to blast himself for not staying with her. For not watching over her. For not protecting her. What would North say? What would the Guardians say when he returned to the Workshop with Bunny and the Spirits without her? Why couldn't he just stay by her side?
He had been at the edge of the meadow in the Warren, ready to go to one of the tunnels back to the Workshop with Clara to call for help, when a cloud of smoke obscured his vision momentarily. The haziness cleared up just when he glimpsed Clara's figure disappear.
"No..." he murmured. It's not possible. Chaos couldn't have taken her. Impossible. Clara wouldn't let it capture her easily. She would never back down. Never. He pounded the ground once with his staff in anger, and a layer of frost coated the grass around him instantly.
More words raced through Jack's mind as he took to the air, high over the heads of his allies. He vaguely saw the Guardian of Hope motioning for him to come down, probably noticing him without Clara.
Jack couldn't do it. He couldn't go down there and have the heart to tell his friend that Clara was gone, maybe even forever.
No.
No, he echoed in his mind. That's not going to happen. He's not going to lose her again. Ever again... The Guardian of Fun couldn't afford to think like that, to lose all hope and give it all up easily.
The Spirits of the Seasons were huddled amongst themselves, sharing words of concern. Bunny was looking up at Jack, one paw over his eyes as a shield from the brightness of the oasis. He shared a worried look with the younger Guardian, brows furrowing and lips frowning.
Jack shook his head sadly as he flew farther from the group, now free from the tornadoes that disappeared when Clara did. He didn't notice how much he was gripping his staff and how much his worry was affecting the artificial sky in the Warren. Clouds started to gather.
Snow had started to fall by the time he found the first sign of Clara. Her boots.
Anxious, Jack landed almost immediately when he spotted the two black dots on the meadow, almost covered up by the collecting snow. They were battered, as if they'd just been thrown into a shredder.
The Winter Spirit nearly cried from joy when he heard an all-too-familiar sneeze behind him. Clara.
Clara.
The skies cleared up, and the snow melted. The magic of the melted ice crystals fertilized the nearby flowers, empowering them and making them grow three feet taller. Jack saw Clara huddled up behind a mossy rock near the iridescent river of paint.
He rushed over, a lopsided grin plastered onto his face. "I thought you were gone!" he shouted happily. Jack knelt down to her shivering figure and adoringly touched her nose. What happened next made him light-headed from shock.
His hand went through her face, and Clara wasn't even looking to notice any difference at all.
"No... No, no, no, no..." It was like someone had dropped a large block of ice into the space right under his heart. The first tear fell from Jack's eye as the thought finally came to him:
Clara lost her belief.
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Sorry guys for not updating ^^; I know I was late. I know I said I had to update everyday, but last night I had t deal with writing a poetry essay for my Lit teacher. So now I have to resort to doing a double-update! :D
So please leave a comment down below on which parts of this chapter you've liked :) And at least one vote is appreciated <3 Thanks!