Phirias

Terra

“I’m Emily, and that was-“ She stopped mid –sentence, and looked as if she were in pain. “That was Aaron. Do you know him?” She looked up at me, as if she were surprised that I knew him and who he was. “He is the reaper. The bad men control him. He was nice to me once.” She seemed upset about it, as if she had lost a big brother. “He trapped me in a room and chained me to the ground. I doubt he has a nice bone left in his body.” I said to her. “He used to be like me, and live in our tribes. Until one day, the bad men came for him.” She looked like she might cry. “Don’t worry Emily, all will be as it should soon.” A voice came from behind us. I jumped and turned around to see a man that looked like Emily. “Daddy! I thought the bad men took you away!” She ran for the man and jumped into his arms. ”Who is this? Did you make a new friend?” He looked at me and automatically took a protective stance in front of her. “She’s a princess, daddy! She’s a princess and I saved her from the reaper!” Emily stated proudly. He looked at Emily with pride. “Princess? What are you talking about?” I looked at them both with curiosity. Emily just looked up and smiled at me. “You’re a princess. All thirteen of you are.” I looked at her, confused. “You don’t know about any of that, do you?” Emily’s father asked me. “I’m sorry, I have no idea.” I said in response. “Emily, run back to the tribe, we will meet you there.” She did as her father had instructed, and took off without a backwards glance. “You must have a lot of unanswered questions, Iris.” How did he know my name? He was right. I did have quite a few unanswered questions, about a thousand of them. “No wonder you were wandering around out here alone, you have no idea what happened.” He shot a sympathetic look my way and continued walking. “You’re lucky Emily found you when she did, or else you’d have been someone’s dinner.” I spent the majority of the walk back to his home in silence. I couldn’t bring myself to ask any of the questions that I needed answers to. I was afraid of the knowledge that I might obtain from the conversation. “We are almost there. Where should I start on my explanation?” As tempted as I was to ask him what happened, I felt that it would be answered in time. “Wherever you feel might be the most beneficial to my survival would be great. Maybe you should start with your name?” I said, only half-jokingly. “Oh, well, yes. My name is Matthew.” He looked at me with a nervous look on his face. “Our people have experienced severe hardship, things aren’t what they seem. Our people have suffered from hunger, radiation poisoning, and disease. Originally, everyone thought taking vampire blood would heal us and make us stronger, but we were wrong. Most vampires wouldn’t just give us their blood, so it was taken by force. That has resulted in what you see before you now. We look like corpses. My tribe is the only one that has stopped stealing blood. If you run into any more like us, get away immediately. They are dangerous. Most tribes have been reduced to cannibalism, seeing that there is almost no wildlife.” He stopped as if he were remembering a painful memory. I felt sorry for him, and his daughter. Cannibalism?? That was a new one. Vampires really exist? I guess you learn something new every day. Or at least I was beginning to. “The vampires don’t give their blood away without a price. Mostly, their price is too high for us to pay. So, it all resulted in this. My tribe has taken to trying to restore the land and live off of it, rather than trying to take something that will never be ours. But, the surrounding tribes don’t feel the same way. They have gone mad, the vampire blood will do that to a person.” I had no idea what to do about any of this. I was in shock. There are people living in tribes in the woods, drinking vampire blood, and cannibalism? What happened? We kept on walking, and for a moment, I tried to recap everything I had been through in the past couple of days. I still didn’t know much, but I just had to take what I did know and use it. I had to learn more. I needed to find Danya. With the way everyone is still looking for her, I at least needed to be sure she was even alive. “This is my tribe’s camp. You may stay here if you wish. We can at least keep you safe from the reaper.” Emily ran up to me and hugged my leg. I smiled down at her. She was so innocent to have gone through everything their people did, and to still have that childlike wonder about things like she did. “Princess! I’m glad you came home with daddy.” She smiled up at me and kept herself pretty much attached to my leg. “Give her some room, Em. She probably needs to rest for a while.” He motioned for me to follow him, he led me into a building in their camp. “This was here before we were, so we have used it to our advantage. Emily’s mother and I used to sleep here. You may rest here if you want.” I looked at the building. Something about it was familiar. It was more like a house, made of red brick, windows in the front on either side of the door, and it looked like it might have plumbing. That was an exciting notion. I wanted to shower so bad I couldn’t stand it. “Is there a bathtub in there?” I was dying to know at this point. “There is, but if you are wanting to take a bath, you will have to get water elsewhere.” Well, that really rained on my parade. “I think I may just lie down for a while, if it is okay?” He nodded, and opened the door for me. When I walked in, I was shocked to see the condition of the place. The walls were painted red, the floor still had carpet, and there were actually rooms with walls and doors intact. “You can sleep in this room,” he opened up the door to the room closest to the front door. “I wouldn’t go exploring though, it could be upsetting. I still haven’t really cleaned the place up yet.” He walked out of the room. I sat down on a bed that was clearly older than Emily was. I fell back on the bed, and I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I knew, I sat up and I smelled smoke. I stood up, and walked out into the house. It was on fire. I went and tried the front door. It was locked. I was locked inside! I should never have come here. “Hello? I’m in here, help!” There was no response. I tried to open the door again, and still it wouldn’t budge. I had to look for something to break the window with, and quickly. I ran back to the room, and the fire was spreading fast. I picked up the heavy doorstopper and ran back to the front room. I threw it at the window as hard as I could, and just like I had expected it to, it shattered. It was someone who was outside that kept me from jumping out of the window. “Go ahead, come out here.” It was Aaron. I didn’t want to jump out there to him, but I really didn’t have a choice. It was either jump in the water with the shark, or burn alive like some witch on trial in salem. I picked life over death, and I jumped. Just as he tried to grab me, I dove out of the way and ran into the night. I stopped not too far off from where Matthew and Emily found me. “There has to be some other reason that he told me to run this way.” I said to myself out loud. I kept running in that same direction, and I could feel him right behind me. I looked behind me, but I couldn’t see him. I still kept running, knowing he wasn’t far behind me. I stopped when I came upon a cemetery. It was the most peaceful place I had seen since waking up in the cell. I crossed the fence, and really saw the beauty of the place. “You end here.” I heard a voice behind me. It was Aaron. He laughed. “Just leave, you need nothing from me.” I turned towards him. He was coming for me, but he wasn’t walking. He seemed to glide across the ground. He was coming fast. I turned around, and once again took off running. “Help, anyone! Someone help me!” I yelled out as I ran further into the jungle of graves. There was a huge building in the distance. I kept running for it. When I finally got there, Aaron wasn’t far behind. As I reached for the doorknob, it opened. It was a familiar face that met me. “Cian?”

Danya-

I turned to go but, as I started to take off, I heard a scream. "Danya!! Run!" I looked in the direction of the scream. It was Adrian. So, naturally I did the exact opposite of what he told me to do. I let go of his horse's reigns and went towards him. I didn't get very far before I ran smack dab into Aaron. "Danya, you have to come with me. I have found Lilly." He tried to grab me off of my horse but, I moved out of the way just in time. "How dare you?!" I screamed at him. He looked confused; almost like I had slapped him in the face. "I have spoken with her. I know she's dead." I was angry and sad all over again. It was a fresh cut on an already tender wound. He tried to grab at me again but, this time I let him grab me. He dragged me off of my horse. As he pulled me into his arms, he sniffed me as if trying to engrave my scent into his memory. Lilly was gone, Cian was still nowhere to be found, I did not feel like living. If I didn't have either of them, I had nothing left. "I need you." he whispered in my ear. I shuddered. He seriously gave me the creeps. Out of all the people they could bring back, why did it have to be him? In the distance, I heard a scream that instantly snapped me out of my state of self pity. "You are going to want to let go of me now." I was surprisingly calm. Apparently, that did me no good. His grip tightened and there was no sign of him letting go. “I will never let you go again. I was so lost without you.” He whispered in my ear. I struggled for a while, it was no use. “Let her go, and I will spare your miserable existence. Do the opposite, I will kill you.” Ghouls were everywhere. They had Adrian, and Aeron just laughed hysterically. “These things will not save you, Danya. They will drain your precious guardian for all of his blood, and drain your power until you are no more.” Aeron was talking out loud now. As if he wanted the whole world to hear what he had to say. Ghouls don’t save people, did they? As they came closer, Aeron started to loosen his grip. That’s when I took my chance. I threw myself backwards with more force than I knew I had, and when we both hit the ground, I was right back up on my feet. I looked for Adrian, and when I didn’t see him I knew I had to move on. I took off through the vast forest. Even though I knew it was no use, I started to call out for help. “Is there anyone there?” The forest was the only response. “Help! Please, is anyone there?” I kept running, only to get myself lost. That’s just great. Lost is what gets someone in my situation killed. I was exhausted, my feet hurt, and I had no clue which way to go. I needed to get back to Phirias and make out a game plan. I decided to sit down for a while, and think. That’s one thing I really haven’t had any time for. Although my brain seemingly never shuts off, I still hadn’t had any time to sit by myself and just think about everything. I hadn’t had any time to let everything sink in. I just sat there, at the base of a tree for what could only have been minutes. I was pulled out of my own trance by rustling in the bushes nearby. I was up and running again before I could even see what awaited me. Something was pulling me in the direction I could only hope would lead me back to Phirias. As I was running, I made the mistake of looking behind me. It was Aeron. “Danya, stop! I just want to talk to you!” I faced forward once more and kept going. There was no way I would let him catch me. He would kill me if he got his hand on me. Maybe not right away, but death awaits me in his arms. “Help, please anyone!” I was still calling out for help, even though I knew there was no one. “Terra!” I couldn’t help but feel relieved to see those gates. As I ran through the mighty gates of Terra, I turned and slammed them shut. The crash of them closing was almost deafening. I stopped for a moment, confident that the gates would keep him out. I looked out through the gates, and Aeron was nowhere to be found. I started walking cautiously through the vast cemetery that was Terra. “Princess, I need you!” It was a ghoul. He was tall, and only had one yellowed eye, his hair was patchy, and unlike the others, he had claws about the size of hunting knives. I couldn’t help it, I let out a scream that I believed would wake the dead.

Iris

“Cian, did you hear that?” I heard a horrible noise that made me jump. I got up and looked out the window. “Stay here, I will go and see what is.” I stood up, and headed for the door. Cian was set back on a sofa in what I believed was the sitting room. He started violently shaking, and then was still. “Cian! Oh my god, what is happening?” I started shaking him trying to get him to snap out of whatever this was. “Cian, this isn’t funny. Snap out of it!” I heard a scream coming from outside. I jumped up and ran for the door. When I opened the door, it was Danya. She was running from someone. “Cian, come quick! Cian, its Danya!” I started for the door, but Cian beat me there. “Oh my god! What is that thing chasing her? Cian, she’s out there!” I ran out of the doorway to her. As I got closer to her, she just stopped running. “Iris?” Her eyes filled with tears as she flew towards me. I grabbed her hand and urged her to keep running . When we got to the door of the house, Cian was nowhere to be found. I embraced my best friend into the longest, hardest hug that I had ever given her. “Oh my god, I thought I’d never see you again!” we just stood there and cried on each other’s shoulders for a while. I felt her being pulled away from me. As I looked up, I smiled realizing it was Cian.

Danya-

I was scared when I was pulled away from Iris, but I felt that familiar and wonderful presence of love that only came from one person I’ve ever known. “Cian! Is it really you? I thought you were gone.” I sobbed as he pulled me into his arms and gave me the longest kiss I have ever shared with anyone.” I let him hold me. I had been looking for him for way too long. He is my one and only. He always has been, and he always will be. He pulled away and took my hand. I never wanted to let him go again. “I love you.” He looked at me with a look of pure happiness. I smiled at him and kissed him again and again. “ I love you too.” I don’t think I’ve ever been happier in my whole entire life than at this moment. He was the image of perfection for me. As if he could read my mind, he bent down and kissed my forehead. I couldn’t help but smile. He pulled me by the hand and walked me into the next room. It looked like a sitting room. “Hey if you guys are done now, can we get back to figuring out what the hell is going on?” Iris walked into the room and just looked at us. “Well?” Even though she was being pushy, I’ve never been happier to see her. I just laughed. Usually I wouldn’t be laughing at my bossy best friend in a situation as serious as this. But, I couldn’t help myself. Here we were, in this dusty old mansion, in the middle of a now ‘ancient’ cemetery. “What happened?” Iris looked at me. I always thought it was funny that when someone needed an explanation, they always looked to me for the answers. “I’m not exactly sure what happened. I have been asking that question since I woke up.” Cian and Iris just looked at me in awe. “You just randomly woke up?” Iris asked me. “Yes, I was in a medical ward.” There was nothing that could have ever prepared me for what I heard next. “I woke up in a cell. There were men talking in the corner of the room. They were talking about you. And something about the sisters? Would you know anything about that?” I just looked at her. I couldn’t believe that she was stuck with the brothers and got out alive. “Iris, there has been much that has happened. When I woke up, I was in Phirias. With a whole town full of people and still not so many answers. There isn’t much to the story yet, but from what I have heard of it they think the sisters can and will save the world.” She looked at me with disbelief. “There is a whole like civilized town amongst all this mess? I wandered around for what seemed like weeks looking for people and trying to survive and you woke up in a cushy bed in a town full of people?” My best friend was angry and hurt. “I woke up in a hospital on a hard cot. It was hardly a cushy bed.” I was about to say something else to her, but before I could, Cian took the words right out of my mouth. “The people of Phirias aren’t the most pleasant of people either.” He looked at her with a ‘step off’ attitude. He looked my way and smiled letting me know he was behind me 100%. “It is better than where I woke up, trust me. I had to fight for my life, stay in a town of ghouls, and run from the weird reaper guy.” She looked at me and we both shared the knowledge of who the reaper really was. Neither of us dared tell Cian about him. Not now, when we had all just found each other. “I found my sister. She was at our old place.” I said, looking at Cian. “So, she’s alive too? What was She doing there?” As much of a headache I knew it would give me, I had to finally tell them the whole story. They needed to know what happened so we could move on. It was getting dark and if we were to reach Phirias in a timely manner, we would need to leave soon. “Yes, she is with a coven of dark witches.” The words felt dirty on my tongue as I spoke them aloud. “Dark witches? Danya, have you gone mad?” My best friend looked at me like I needed the kind of help no one could give me. “I’m not mad! Its things I’ve seen with my own two eyes. I don’t think you’d believe me if I told you.” I looked at her and put my hand upon her arm to show her I was serious. Her eyes grew wide in horror as she looked at me. “Stop! Just stop it!” She pulled away from me and cowered behind Cian. “I haven’t said anything yet. What is your problem?” I walked to the other side of the room and sat down on a sofa that was probably older than Prudence. Iris walked over and sat down next to me with a sigh. “I’m sorry Danya. When you put your hand on my arm, I saw everything that happened to you. Even the things you didn’t see. It was almost like your body’s memory.” I was shocked. I had never thought it could be that simple. Just touching someone and them knowing your stories? “You saw everything?” I looked at her in curiosity. “Was that you in the bookstore when I was there? Did the brothers take you from there?” I felt like I was overloading her with questions. She placed her hand on my arm just as I had done to her mere moments earlier. It was like watching a movie of her life, from start to present. I saw the man that looks just like Adrian, Emily the ghoul girl, I saw Aaron, When she ran into Cian, and her hearing me in the cemetery. Could we do this with everyone? I couldn’t help but wonder. “Cian, come over here love. Why are you standing way over there?” When he wouldn’t move or even acknowledge the fact that we were trying to speak with him, I flew to his side. He started shaking violently, and I could not get him to respond. “This happened earlier. I have no clue what’s going on with him, but whatever it is, you brought him out of it last time.” I pulled him into my arms and held him close. He was still shaking, and he fell unconscious. The skin on his face started rippling and almost as if he noticed it, he rolled over on the floor and pushed himself up and ran out of the room. I looked at Iris. She was just as shaken about it all as I was. Before she could say anything, I was out of the room and searching for Cian. I started down the hall of the massive place. It went on for what seemed like a half mile before I reached the stairs. I looked up the stairs and as I started up the stairs, I heard a growl coming from the top. Against my better judgment, I ran up the staircase. When I reached the top, there was nothing there. Just a vast hallway with doors on either side. I cautiously continued down towards the end of the hall. The doors on either side had different symbols and different wood for each of them. There was black carpet, the paint on the walls was a color of green I had never seen before. At the end of the hall, there was a door made of ash-wood and the symbol on the front of it was disturbingly familiar. “Cian? Where are you?” I whispered. I had a horrible feeling in my gut. When there was no response, my heart sank. There were already tears in my eyes. Then, there was a loud banging noise. It was coming from the ash-wood door. ”Cian? Oh my god!” The door flew open, and Cian was lying on the floor covered in blood. He was pale and his body had no life. There was dark aura around him. “Cian!” I cried as I ran over to him. I dropped to my knees next to him. I touched his face and bent over to kiss him. I could not let him go. He was the only one that kept me going. “Go, I will be down there in a minute.” He surprised me by sitting up. “What happened? Why did you come up here? Are you okay? Don’t scare me like that!” He looked at me with a feral look in his eyes. “Go back downstairs. I will be down there, woman.” I just looked at him for a moment, and sat there in the floor next to him. “Why don’t you ever listen to me?” He looked up at me and reached for my hand. “I can’t leave you again. I don’t honestly think that I could take losing you again.” I bent down to kiss his warm lips. But shock found it’s way to me as the kiss I was given was as cold as ice. He stood, and pulled me up into his arms. I smiled at him. Although he did have some explaining to do, I let it go for the moment. I wanted to enjoy myself, I had earned it. “Cian, Danya, come down here! You guys are going to want to see this!” I looked into the eyes of my love before turning to go down the stairs. “What is that?” Iris asked as we stared out the window of the cemetery fortress at what appeared to be Adrian. He was sliding slowly across the ground. “It’s Adrian! Cian, we have got to help him!” I looked from Cian to Iris. When no one made a move to go outside, I reached for the door. Cian grabbed my hand. “Don’t go outside. Its not safe out there.” He looked at me and once again pulled me close to him. I gently moved out of his arms and bolted out the front door. “Adrian! Hold on, I’m coming!” I ran to him. As I got closer, I noticed that he was bound by a rope. It was stained with blood and dirt, and he was pretty torn up. I looked to the start of the rope and what I saw took my breath away. It was the most horrible thing I’d ever seen. It was a ghoul. He was about 6 ft tall, his skin was grey, his eyes were solid black, hair long and black, he had claws longer than my fingernails, and his teeth were showing from gums to the ends. He looked at me, and when he started towards me, I froze. “Danya!” Cian called for me. He was trying to come to me, but he couldn’t cross the doorway. He was no longer standing in the doorway. In his place was a being I couldn’t have even dreamed up in my wildest dreams. Banging against the doorframe was a 9 ft tall figure with scales of stone, eyes of fire, talons that resembled blades, and horns protruding from the back of his head. The noise that came from him was deafening. The ghoul was now right beside me. I grabbed the set of blades in my waistband, and I split open his gut. As his insides fell to the ground, I cut the rope binding Adrian and dragged him to the doorstep. I watched the ghoul make his last movement before finally giving up on the ground less than 2 rows of stones before us. I tried to drag Adrian across the threshold, but it was like an invisible wall. “Adrian! Wake up, you have to get up!” I was now shaking him. His eyes opened, and He looked at me with joy in his eyes. “Danya, you fool. He could have torn you apart.” I looked at him like he had slapped me in the face.