Chapter nine

“A pretty, pretty boogieman angel!”

Cameron, Helena, Evanesce, Chimera and I stood in a row watching Blake roll around in the mud talking complete nonsense in his delirious state. “How long do you think this will last for?” Cameron asked amusedly.

“I believe it has something to do with the size and amount of spikes that pierces the skin...” Evanesce murmured, staring at Blake with a raised brow.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, think about it” Chimera spoke up, “Helena’s effects lasted the shortest and the spike that pierced her throat was only small while Derrek had several hit him and his effects lasted quite long. Now Blake... well look at the size of the spike that was lodged in his ankle...”

I looked down at the spike that been dislodged from Blake once he started dancing and prancing and noted the size. It was nearly the size of my forearm and as thick as my wrist where as the spikes that were shot at me were the size of my palm. Helena’s were barely half the length of my pinkie and both hers and mine weren’t as thick. When I looked at it that way, Chimera and Evanesce had a good point. I tried to think of the amount of poison that would have injected itself into Blake from the size of the spike and shivered. Helena was lucky it wasn’t her that was hit with a spike that big, otherwise she’d be dead.

I tore my gaze away from Blake and looked farther down the muddy path. As another flash of lightning brightened the sky it illuminated a large castle-like building and I swiped at the rain falling into my eyes to squint at it.

There.

Malum and our friends had to be there.

Whether it was my disintegrating Stinger abilities or just a gut instinct I just knew that they were there. Knots twisted in my stomach as the wind picked up and the rain never wavered with its merciless pounding. I turned back to the others and saw them huddled together... just waiting for Blake to overcome the effects of the poison.

It was another five minutes before Derrek’s dancing and mud-swimming stopped and his singing slowed down and began to slur that we knew he was finally coming around. By now he was nothing but mud, with the exception of his eyes and mouth, and the rest of us were drenched with rain and splattered with the mud he found hilarious in throwing at us, except the shadow girls who had already changed back into the shadow.

“My head kills...” Blake moaned clutching at his temple and ankle. “And my leg feels like I broke it”

“Stop whinging, Frosty! We spent the last who knows how long waiting for the poison to run out and right now I’m about two seconds away from blasting your head off!” I snapped. The girls refused to let me throw a couple of fireballs at Blake during the wait and I was anxious to find Val. Not only that but the rain had severely weakened me and no amount of heating and evaporating the rain was worth the element of surprise we had over Malum at the moment. If we still had it.

“I’m just saying...” Blake moped.

“Come on! I want to get out of this rain!” Cameron growled.

Blake limped lightly over to Helena and offered a smile before she swiped her hand as though shooing away a fly and the mud flew off him like it had never even been there. We all turned towards the castle and began our somewhat long walk with determination. Who knew what Malum had up his sleeve and what disfigured or shocking Elementals and people he had roaming and locked up in that castle.

For ten minutes we trudged through knee deep trenches of mud and sludge while all our clothing clung to us and the clouds cried desperately above but nothing, nothing, could wipe the determination away from me. We were so close. So, so close to saving the girls and finding Malum that I could practically taste it. I didn’t care that the rain had drained me physically and ability-wise, or whether everyone else was complaining or moping. Like a dead man walking towards the light I kept pushing forward with clenched teeth and tight jaws.

To our surprise we didn’t come across any other Elemental guards and I put it down to Malum’s over confidence in his spiked triplets earlier. The castle loomed closer and soon the mud hardened as we began to feel a stone pathway beneath our feet. We edged closer to the shelter of the trees to hide from any spying eyes and I took in the castle Malum was hiding in.

It was huge, grey and broken. Crumbled stone lay scattered all over the ground and the missing pieces from the walls and towers gave it the impression of an ancient ruin. The trees surrounding the castle seemed to have died, and in return the long, bare branches looked as though the devil’s fingers themselves were praising the vision before us. The cold rain seemed as though it was freezing now that we were closer and coldness felt as though it was gripping my bones.

Another flash of light was greeted immediately by the rumble of thunder and even the walls seemed to shake along with it. “Are you all ready?” I growled, shivering slightly from the rain. A mixed murmur of ‘yes’s followed and I turned to Cameron.

“We’ll get close enough to the entrance and I’ll dry the water from us so we don’t leave any traces, then I’ll need you to turn invisible before checking if the coast is clear for us” Cameron nodded, all expression from his face was gone and I knew it was because he was completely focused on saving Cara the way I was focused on saving Val. I turned to the shadow, “Chimera, Evanesce... you two... one?... ugh, you guys follow Cameron”

With one more glance around to check for Elementals, we dashed through the rain and under the large stone archway that led into the entrance of the castle. Our clothes dripped streams of water onto the grey stone and I quickly mustered the energy to heat our skin and clothes and in no time it was as though we’d walked out from under a giant hand dryer.

“Okay, Cameron... go!”

Quicker than a blink of an eye, Cameron vanished into thin air and the light tapping of his shoes echoed down the corridor while Chimera and Evanesce swooped from shadow to shadow after him. I’d grown enough trust in the shadow girls that I believed that they wouldn’t fall under Malum’s control again. It had been a long time since they were under his control and I didn’t think we were in danger of them turning.

Seconds felt like hours, and during Cameron and the shadow’s absence neither one of us spoke. We simply waited and hid whenever we heard a sound. But still there was no Cameron, Evanesce or Chimera.

Finally the sound of quick footsteps echoed towards us and I pushed Helena back against the wall behind me in case it was someone else... but relief washed over me when Cameron reappeared in front of us. I breathed a sigh of relief and didn’t know I was holding my breath until I sucked in much need oxygen. However, my relief was washed away as soon as I properly looked at Cameron. His eyebrows were furrowed and he didn’t look as though he had good news. His breathing was harsh and it seemed as though he’d ran all the way here.

“What’s wrong” Helena was quick to ask.

His eyes rose to look at us. “You need to follow me, quickly!”

He turned and disappeared, his footsteps slapping the ground loudly as he ran. “We can’t see you!” I growled angrily. From the corner of my eye the shadow flew just ahead of us and pointed its hand down the long hallway and ushered us to follow it. But it was then that I realised we didn’t need its help to know where Cameron was leading us.

We just had to follow the sounds of the screaming.

[Val’s POV]

It had been days.

Days since I last saw Cara. Days since I shouted my empty promises to her. Days since I had begun to lose hope that either one of us were going to survive this and escape from this torture.

“She’s gone... Malum got to her...” I mumbled almost incomprehensively even to myself, “No one’s coming... Everyone is going to die...”

It felt as though my mind had shut down and my mouth had begun to run by itself, scaring myself with thoughts that I wasn’t even sure was mine. I licked my parched and cracked lips and didn’t even wince anymore at the painful throbbing. I felt the all too familiar beginnings of ‘daily persuasions’ begin once more and I cringed as the pain over rode my entire body. I didn’t care anymore. I didn’t care if my body was failing, dehydrated and sore. All I cared about was keeping my mind to myself... I would rather die than freely give my mind and soul to Malum. Die!

I heard the sound of buttons beeping and the doors opened, allowing me to suck in fresh air. I gasped in the cooler air and felt the slight water in the air dampen my lips the tiniest bit. I didn’t even bother turning around to see who had opened the door, but my unspoken question was answered when Medusa’s metal strands of hair whipped out and coiled around my torso. They squeezed me tightly before lifting me into the air and I didn’t bother fighting her. I couldn’t. I had no more energy left in me to stand up, let alone fight against her. I felt like a rag doll as she carried me roughly out of the cell and through the corridors, past all the screaming and whining prisoners, and from time to time my head would roll from one shoulder to the other.

After a few minutes, we entered Malum’s test chambers, where I last had seen Cara, and without any warning I was tossed heavily onto the padded bench. Oxygen was forced out of my lungs when I collided with the padding yet Medusa showed no care at all as she began to strap my elbows, wrists, waist and ankles.

“What am I doing here?” I managed to ask weakly. Her dead eyes didn’t falter or snap to mine, they simply kept on the task at hand and with one final click of the strap being put into place around my ankle she turned to leave me alone. The air was colder in here. Somewhere outside I could hear the rumbling of thunder and slid my eyelids closed trying to remember the feel of rain pitter-pattering on my skin. Despite being strapped and helpless in Malum’s test chamber I felt much better out here than in my cell that just seemed to suck every drop of moisture out of me. The rain outside had filled the air with dew and with every breath I could feel myself being hydrated.

“All I ever did was love you”

My eyes widened and darted around the room, trying to ignore the writhing experiments from behind their coloured pods. What the hell was that? The chamber was empty and yet I could have sworn I heard a familiar voice. After waiting silently for someone to walk into my vision but realising that no one else was in here I laid my head back against the bench.

“You betrayed me...”

If I had any spare water in me I would’ve been sweating like a pig. I knew that voice! But... but it couldn’t be.

“You are a murderer Val... You are a monster... You killed me! YOU MURDERED ME!”

I began to hyperventilate. No! No, no, no!! The voice was growing louder and closer and I scrunched up my eyes as I pulled and struggled against my restraints. I wasn’t a murderer! I am not a monster! It was Malum, Malum had controlled me!

“How could you have done this to me, Val?!”

My heart, that had been hammering painfully against my ribs, faltered and stopped. The voice had ceased and, almost as if I couldn’t help myself, I pried my sore eyelids open and slowly dragged my eyes to the doorway. “No!” I gasped as tearless cries wracked my body.

“Hello Val” Max murmured quietly as he stepped into the test chambers.

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A/N

What!

What, what, what!!!

Max!?!?

I shall leave it at that to sink in for you guys :)

Dedicated to the talented@venom1 for the amazing cover she made me!

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Nix <3