12- Spiral

12

Spiral

Zachariah heard the rumble from the beast below roar again and his heart ached.  “All I wanted to do was see it.”

“You are going to come with us now.”  Kyo stepped out in front of Zach and Mel.

“You don’t get it.” Zachariah said in response, slightly crestfallen.

There was no way that the ninja could understand.  He had lived his entire life in the company of the impossible.  Trolls and druids were common place in the ninja’s day. Magic was natural.

It was different to Zachariah.

Less than a day ago, he had been a normal loser; a dishwasher who couldn’t make a good relationship work and now resided in his father’s basement.

Now it was different.

Since this world had opened he had become the center of this universe no matter how strange and dangerous it was.  What was his life if the wyvern got him?  Just to be part of this was worth it.

“Screw it.”  Mel Suddenly chimed in and stepped between Zachariah and Kyo.  “You want him, you have to go through me.”

“What the hell are you doing?”  Zachariah asked, confused that his new friend would put his neck out for anyone.

“You want to see that wyvern?  You’re going to see that wyvern.”  Mel said with a stern voice.

Zachariah shook his head confused.  “Don’t do this, you don’t have to.”

Kyo just started laughing.  “Come now, little nex.  Step aside.”

“You know why I’m out here alone Zachariah?”  Mel asked as his body began to glow.

Zachariah shook his head.

“My father put me in that hole because I broke our family’s most sacred law.  My own father left me to die because of a stupid rule.”  Mel explained as his pony tail started to float in mid-air.

Zachariah remained silent just watching the dwarf build energy.  “Do you know what that rule is?”

Zachariah shook his head again.

“In the snow clan, it is illegal to learn or practice any attack spell.”  Prickles of energy that looked like lighting began to crackle and snap around him.  “But I believed, and still do, that some things are worth fighting for.”

Mel turned his head to look up at Zachariah.  “Don’t you?”

Zachariah nodded and smiled through his swollen lip.  “Let’s give them a shot at the champs.”

Mel turned and thrust his hands forward as a shower of lighting bolted from his hands, filling the staircase with blinding white light.  The energy crackled and sheered through the air, connecting with Kyo and sending electricity rocking through the ninja’s body. The blast sent him spinning through the air backward and upward, into the ceiling of the staircase before falling face first to the stairs.

“Holy shit!” Zachariah yelled.

Mel nodded like a bad ass while all the other ninjas watched Kyo twitch in horror.

They all then turned back to the would-be heroes.

“That’s what I’m talking about!”  Zachariah hooted and hollered.  “Alright Mel, light the rest of these bitches up!”

Silence.

“Mel?” Zachariah turned towards the short mage.

Mel shrugged.  “I can only do that once.”

The ninjas lost all fear and began to advance on Zachariah and Mel from all sides.

Zachariah’s shoulders dropped.  “Awesome.”

Everything became slow motion in front of Zachariah’s eyes.  The ninja all leapt into the air, each drawing different type of weaponry; short, katana looking swords, chains with knifes tied to them, throwing stars and daggers.

That’s when Zachariah heard a robin.

A robin in a cave.

Cathleen appeared out of thin air between the lead ninja and Zachariah.  All her tattoos glowed at the same time.  She was in full battle mode and about to go to war, and somehow the dancing runes of light made her…

…They made her horrible…

…She was beautiful.

Everything stopped being slow.  Things started happening very fast.

Cathleen cut off the first ninja, bringing her saber across the surprised warrior’s mid-section as he passed.  The ninja dropped to Zachariah’s feet, dead.

Cathleen turned at the second closest as he attacked with a slash of his sword.

She parried the blow with lighting fast skill and redirected her own blade, nipping the ninja’s jugular vein.  Blood sprayed from the ninja as he staggered and fell to his death.

Thorn covered vines exploded from the ceiling and walls of the stairwell and grabbed two more ninjas, dragging them down screaming.

Cathleen turned toward Zachariah with rage and determination in her eyes.

“Duck!” She yelled at him.

Zachariah just stared in awe at the blood bath around him.

“GET DOWN!” She yelled as she took three fast steps toward him as she brought her blade up.

Zachariah ducked and Cathleen’s blade passed where his neck would have been.  The blade connected with another ninja’s chest, a ninja who had been approaching Zachariah from behind.

Cathleen leaped over Zachariah and booted the ninja to the already damaged chest, sending him rolling down the stairs.

As she landed, she snapped her blade in a quick arc to knock two throwing stars out of the air before they struck her in the chest.

The ninja who threw them charged with a back-handed slash of his sword.  Cathleen ducked under the blow, drawing her own blade across his chest.  She spun as he passed her and slashed across the ninja’s back.

Blood was everywhere.

Suddenly Zachariah didn’t feel like the center of the universe, he felt like the reason people were fighting a war.

Cathleen spun as more ninjas flanked the three of them.  She took a deep breath and knew what she had to do.

“Jesus Cathleen.”  Zachariah said flabbergasted at the death around him.  “I mean… Jesus…”

Cathleen took four sprinting steps and booted Zachariah in the chest, sending him backward over the edge of the staircase and plummeting into the void.

Cathleen continued her forward motion and leaped over the edge after Zachariah.

All of the ninjas leaped over the edge after her.

Mel watched for a second, then shook his head.  “Fuck that noise.”

He then began to walk down the steps the long way.

One of the ninjas made himself into an arrow to fall faster and charge Cathleen.

She felt him coming.  Cathleen spun in mid-air and blocked the ninja’s blow.  She then thrust her blade upward into the ninjas heart.  She kicked the him off the end of her sword to finish his fall.

Cathleen suddenly teleported again, reappearing next to Zachariah.

He turned while falling and yelled.  “Why would you do that?!”

Cathleen grabbed him and teleported again, this time bringing him with her, sending the two of them back into the staircase fifty floors down from where they had started falling. Zachariah and Cathleen crashed to the staircase.

Zachariah clutched the stone stair floor, white as a sheet.  “I feel like I should be falling still.  Am I still falling?!”

Cathleen stood and turned toward him.  “Get up, no more running, no more excuses, no more tricks.  I’m seeing this through and so are you.”

She grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and pulled the much larger man to his feet.

Zachariah saw death in those eyes.

A chain wrapped around Cathleen’s neck and dragged her backward.  The ninja who had caught her was hanging over the edge of the floor, up and dragged the druid out over the void.  Locking his legs, he held onto her, trying to hang her.

Cathleen’s air supply left her.  She gritted her teeth and tensed her neck in order to hold out as she dangled.  Two more ninja leap onto the staircase on either side of Zachariah, who had a distinct ‘deer-in-headlights’ look on his face.

Cathleen reached up with both hands and grabbed the chain that was trying to kill her. Her arm and abdomen muscles tensed as she pulled her legs above her and placed them against the stone ceiling of the floor she had been on.  She steadied herself and pushed backwards swinging out over the void.

The momentum pulled at the chain’s holder, which made him shift his weight to maintain balance.  Cathleen swung back into the staircase and the force pulled the ninja above off his feet and sent him toppling over the edge.

Cathleen came swinging into the staircase at full force, putting both her feet into the side of one of the ninja’s heads, sending him flipping into the wall.

She landed and turned toward the other ninja who hurled a series of daggers at the druid.  Cathleen however, dodged all but the last one, catching it and hurling back into the ninja’s eye.

The ninja on the other end of the chain had other plans than falling to his death and held onto the chain.  It tightened around Cathleen’s neck again and she reached out in desperation grabbing the confused Zachariah.

As the chain ran out of slack, the ninja used it to swing into the floor below Cathleen and Zachariah, this pulled Cathleen who in turn pulled Zachariah over the edge of the staircase.

“NOT AGAIN!” Zachariah screamed as he tumbled into the void, yet again.

Cathleen had to act quickly.  If she fell past the floor below with the chain around her throat it would snap her neck.

She turned in as she fell and caught the edge of the banister on the floor below with both hands.  This action forced her to drop her sword into the void.

The ninja saw what she had done and released pressure on the chain to step in and try to kick her off the edge.  Cathleen had to take one foot off the edge to dodge the kick, and almost slipped in the process.

She managed to maintain her balance and came back with a right cross to the face of the ninja holding the chain.  He stumbled backward, but maintained the grip on the chain.  It tightened and Cathleen gagged again.

Zachariah watched Cathleen get father away and made weird desperate swimming motions to turn himself around and face the opposite direction.

He saw the floor rushing up at him… he was out of world.

Cathleen had enough of the chain.  She grabbed it and jerked on it with all her strength, pulling the ninja off his feet and sending him staggering toward her.

When he did, the chain went limp and she quickly grabbed a loose circle of it and lassoed the ninja’s neck.  She then let herself fall backward.  She tensed her arms to make sure the chain didn’t tighten around her own neck.

The chain went taut in a second.  The force of her falling tightened the links around the ninja’s throat and broke his neck.

Zachariah suddenly felt himself become lighter and the world stopped moving.  He landed on the floor gently.

He slowed his breathing.  Confused, he turned to see Kahn standing over him, mask off, bruised and worse for wear.  “You’re safe.”

A bigger lie had never been told.

He stood slowly looking around and seeing he was on a level stone floor at the very bottom of the spiral.  He looked up and could see the opening, miles above.  The light was dim this far down but he could see.

The roar shook the structure.  It was close this time, and Zachariah could feel it.  He slowly turned and saw at the other end of the floor was a giant open pit, easily the size of a football field.

The fight seemed far behind Zachariah, as well as all of his other silly little problems. The pit filled his mind, the pit and what was awakening inside.  “It’s down there, isn’t it?”

Kahn put her hand on his shoulder.  “Yes it is, and it is bound to you.  As you can feel it, it can feel you.  We must get you out of here.”

“I don’t think I want to leave… I…I…” Zachariah stammered to find the words as he could hear it breathing.

“You don’t have to-” Kahn was cut off as she was struck in the chest by Cathleen’s boot which sent the ninja two or three feet backward to the stone floor.

 “He isn’t going anywhere.”  Cathleen said as she stepped in between the ninja and Zachariah.

Cathleen had enough time after finishing the last ninja, to find her sword and catch up. She brought the weapon into ready position.

The surviving ninja landed behind Kahn, ready to continue the fight with their mistress, “Don’t presume, druid.  He is coming with me.”

“EVERYONE STOP!” Zachariah’s voice became intense and booming.  As un-threatening as he usually was, the voice stopped everyone and put all eyes on him.

“It’s my choice.” He said, breathing hard and sick of the death around him.  “It’s my decision… live or die.”

Next week:  Phew!  Who’s tired after that one?  It has all come to this.  Zachariah must make a choice to face the wyvern or to walk away.   Does he have the strength to do what’s right?  I wouldn’t bet on him.

Find out next week on the gripping season finale of…

Stranger Things.

TO BE CONTINUED….