6 August 2012
Anna I realised, after a few hours or so, that the receptionists injuries had been more severe than I'd thought. I started to realise I was losing an enormous amount of blood, along with the burns to my hands and feet, and the car showed no sign of stopping. Soon I stopped noticing it. I stopped noticing almost everything, in fact. Still I remained silent. Not for long, though. I hissed. "Cum dimidium fio." My brain was no longer in control. I felt giddy and light and numb and strange and odd and new and fresh and hurt and in pain and many other emotions that I couldn't even begin to say all at the same time. It was like I could sense everyone's emotions, every human and angel and demon, all in heaven or hell or on Earth, and had taken their emotions. I felt alive, yet dead at the same time. It didn't seem strange, somehow. It felt natural. I hissed. "Antiquus unum." The demon shouted at me, possibly giving me a warning, though I was beyond hearing. And caring. I hissed. "Unum convertit ad duo." He shouted again, and turned around in the car - yet continued to drive - to hit me. I felt no fear at the blow, no...anything. I felt nothing. I was numb. His strikes made no effect, left no mark. I hissed. "Diminuit ita." He pulled the car over, and got tape from the boot. He held it in front of my face, and said something. I hissed. "Unum per unum." He paused. He spoke in time with me, as I hissed out my words. Though I could not hear him, his mouth made the same shape - which formed the words I said, though his were silent. I hissed. "In ponetque sunt citius abiit." He gasped, and dropped the tape. It gently floated through the air before it became stuck to the seat, and he pulled out a mobile phone and quickly taped numbers on it. I hissed. "Usque statuto." He began speaking quickly into the phone, though I heard nothing. From the way his mouth moved with such speed, it was important. It didn't matter to me, though. I hissed. "Quod cum paenitentia." He nodded at whatever the person on the other end of the phone was saying, looking fearful. I was not pleased by his fear. It did not bother me, nor effect me. But it was as though I should care, and I knew I should, and yet I didn't. How odd. I hissed. "Erit coniungere." The voice on the other end of the phone was loud, though I didn't understand it. I could only just hear it, catching at the edge of my hearing, muffled. But I didn't worry about it. I hissed. "Vel perdere." He continued to nod into the phone, and kept glancing at me, as though I planned to jump up and bite him. I made no move. I was frozen, but by what I didn't know. I didn't care. I felt no fear, though I evidently made him feel fear. I hissed. "Non inopia." He shut the phone and put it back in his pocket, before pulling me out of the car. I was a deadweight. I hissed. "Sed necessitate." He carried me over his shoulder to the boot, and then threw me in. He was just shutting the car boot's door. I hissed. "Omnia vivere." He slammed the door, and after a while I finally became myself again. It was a terrifying and strange sensation, knowing that you had not truly been you for a while. I knew the words I'd spoken, knew them by heart. I could recite them now, if I wished, and I knew what language they were. But I couldn't remember what they meant - not that I was not fluent in the language I had spoken, but I could not remember those words specifically. Maybe my amnesia blocked the words out for some reason. I didn't know why I'd said them, and that bothered me more than what the words might mean. I didn't dwell on this for long, though, as I soon fell unconscious.
I awoke in a room. It was a strange room, and yet it was oddly farmiliar. I was chained to the wall by my wrists - still behind my back - and my throat. It meant I had to kneel, which was both annoying and painful, although thankfully the chains were made from copper. Yet I was oddly used to it. Next to me there were four chains, which would bind the ankles and wrists. I recognised this place. And the smell that came with it - burning flesh. No, it was worse than that. Burning HellHound flesh. Bleh. I was no longer wearing the atrocious school uniform, instead dressed in something similar to what I would normally wear. It was a dress, that was more of a tunic than a real dress, but was airy enough that it allowed for easy movement. Or would have done, had I not been chained up. A door swung open, and a great heat entered the room. I realised I was burnt, but thankfully not too badly. Why was I burnt? Oh yes, the silver. But I wasn't just burnt on my wrists and ankles now. I frowned slightly, but not enough for the demon to notice. I also recognised the demon who walked in. He had bat wings, the sign of a fallen one, and his where pitch black at the edge, turning grey further inwards and with a patch of white at the centre. His black hair had streaks of red in it, and I didn't doubt that the red was blood - he had a faint smell that seemed almost coppery. I doubted I was his own, either. His clothing was similar to his hair, a mixture of black and red, while his shoes were simply black. He carried a trident of sorts, but a red one. It had fresh blood on the points, though I could only tell because it trickled down the trident - both the trident and the blood were the same colours. He walked in and stood beside me. "Ahh, the little one. You were so special." He paused, while I looked confused. "Did you not know that?" He chuckled. I knew who he was now. Stood in front of me was the devil. Or Satan, as I believe some humans prefer to call him. But no, for us he is the devil. Well, that is the name angels are supposed to call him, though many of us just call him Lucifer. "We both know your real name, don't we." Another pause, as his smile grew. "But the angels wouldn't know it, would they? You were taken just before you reaching the age of 80. The day before, in fact. Can you remember that?" He chuckled nastily "Well, I do. I hear you go by the name Anna now, as well. Anna means gracious. A pretty name for a pretty thing. Even though you now have two names." He smiled lightly, but it wasn't a nice smile. It was a smile that promised pain and suffering. I suppressed a shudder. "Do not worry. Until we find the other four, it would be pointless for me to harm you. I fact, you helped immensely in that aspect. That little paragraph you spoke? It's a luring call. It tells the others you are in need of help, and where you are. So thank you for that." He turned to leave. "What...others?" I asked, confused. He didn't turn around, simply laughed. "You don't remember them, yet you remember the prophecy. How interesting. I wonder if you remember the Ancient Ones..." He slammed the door behind him, and heat raced in as he left. I was left alone, and I wondered where Harriet, Ryan and Erin might be. I no longer had any faith in James - he was fallen. I was annoyed that it had taken me this long to remember. That didn't always mean he was evil, but in this case it did. No wonder he hadn't told me my name. I realised the injuries I'd taken from the receptionist had faded, which made me smile lightly. But then a sudden pain hit me in the ribs, and I tried not to cry out. It felt like someone had taken a knife and shoved it through my rib cage in an attempt to hit my heart, but stopped too short. I realised why, after a few moments. I also realised why this place looked so farmiliar. Alec and I had been held here once.
/'No, sorer. If you take my injuries, you will surely die. You are wounded too." Alec sat chained the wall, gravely wounded. Every word seemed to be an effort, every breath a chore. He would not last long in that condition. And yet he still spoke to me tenderly, even using the Latin word for sister: soror. He needed help. My help. "No, frater. She needs you - she loves you, not I. Without my help, you will not survive either." I told him, trying to reach across, though my hands were behind my back. Although it wasn't really me who struggled to reach him. It was the me from the past. I used the same tender tone as he, though saying the Latin word for brother instead: frater. I noticed tears in his eyes. "Soror, I could not protect you this time. But we shall go to Earth, where I shall create a shield so that none may hurt us again, while we wait for the other 5. We need all 7." He said, sounding urgent. My past self smiled, and from within her I did too. I was watching this scene from inside myself, yet not acting. Simply seeing. "I do not doubt you will, frater. But for that to happen, you must be alive. Allow me to heal you." My old self begged. Then, the door opened and a man walked in. Having only just spoken to him, I recognised him with ease. My past self didn't seem happy to see him either. "Now," he started "harming you seems needless, so until I have to I won't. I will do nothing to you, unless you force me to, except introduce you to the other Ancient One we have here - 5. She is called Brenna. She will teach you, and slowly you shall turn to our way of thinking." He smiled, though it wasn't a nice smile. However, it seemed positively dazzling in comparison to the one he'd given me moments before. Alec spat at his feet. At this the devil gave him an ice cold look - one that seemed strange in hell, considering the temperature - before he walked over to the past me. She was attached to the same thing as I was currently, in the same room. The only difference was that the back of the chain around the past me's neck was connected to her wrist. This meant her head was facing down - 'respectively' - and that when the devil yanked her chin up her arms were forced up behind her. It was incredibly painful, especially with all the cuts along her arms and wrists. Alec stared in horror, and I was glad that I couldn't feel the pain that the past me must be in. My neck and wrists felt a bit strange, but not painful. Mor
Crossfire.14 • Opuss № I