Young Writers Society

Celeste

It was early afternoon when I arrived home and I collapsed onto my bed, allowing myself to drift into a light sleep. It can't have been more than a few hours later that I was awoken by a loud knocking. With a groan, I dragged myself out of bed and stumbled down the stairs. The knocking came again.

"Alright," I called, "I'm coming." Finally I reached the door and pulled it open. I was knocked aside as a man and a woman entered, bearing a stretcher between them. I stared at the corpse they laid before me and then looked up. The woman was tall with long, brown hair, dark brown eyes and a huge variety of weapons. Her face was vaguely familiar and then it hit me. I'd seen her follow the Hunter earlier that day. Slowly I turned to the man and looked up to find two grey eyes staring back at me and a mechanical arm holding out a pile of bills.

"I don't heal the dead," I told the hunter.

"I don't expect you to," He replied. "This man is immortal and it took all our strength just to knock him out. I want you to wake him up so we can question him."

"That makes no sense," I noted, examining the body. True enough, my magic contradicted my eyes, telling me that this man was not yet dead.

"We don't just want you to wake him up," The woman admitted, "We want you to wake his head and mind but leave the body so that he can't move."

"We will pay you, of course." Vince told her, showing her the money.

Celeste stared at the money, then the man. "And you want me to just wake up his mind?"

Vince nodded his head. "Can you do it?"

"Of course I can. But, why do you want me to do that?"

Vince lay Joseph on the floor and said, "Tell me, what do you know about the gates of Hell?"

"Gates of Hell? What are you talking about?"

"I cannot blame a human for not knowing of these matters. If I had any other choice I wouldn't be telling this to a human." He stood up and looked at her. There was something about his eyes that made him look a millennium older than what his body showed. Staring into those eyes she felt like she could see the beginning of time. "But time is short, and we need all the help we can get. The gates of Hell have been opening every day for the past few months. These gates have caused the majority of paranormal activity in this and many other cities. I have been watching the effects of the gates closely. I believe Baal, Satan as you humans call him, is trying to send his armies through those gates." Vince looked at Joseph. "This man has been helping keeping the gates open. If you can awaken his mind for us, perhaps he will find a way to close the gates before things get out of control."

Celeste

"Okay. I think I understand," I replied and took the man's head in my hands. Gently I delved inside his body and woke his mind so that thoughts flickered back and forth, just out of reach. Then, carefully, I healed his head. First the yellow bruises faded and the broken jaw crunched back into place. Then his eyes shuddered open and he stared up at me. Still connected with his body as I was, I felt him strain to move his arm.

"If I move, he may regain full control. The healing process has been started and his body is attempting to finish what I have begun but I think I can hold it off a little while," I told the Hunter.

"Good. How do I close the gates, Joseph?" The hunter asked. The man's eyes moved so that he could see the hunter but his mouth remained closed.

Zora looked at Vince. "He's not talking."

Vince took out one of his guns and placed the barrel on Joseph's head. "Tell us how to close the gates, Joseph."

"What are you doing!?" Celeste screamed.

"Please, concentrate on the task at hand." He spoke to Joseph again. "Tell us, Joseph."

He laughed and said, "Your threats are worthless, Vince. You know I can't die."

"Yes, I know. But I don't think you would enjoy having a bullet embedded into your head for the rest of your eternal life."

Joseph glared at him. "You wouldn't dare."

"This is your last chance, Joseph. I am going to count to three. If I get to zero I will pull the trigger."

"Please, stop this!" Celeste pleaded. "I can't stand by and watch you shoot someone I'm trying to heal!"

"Celeste," Zora said, "he knows what he's doing. Trust him."

"No! This is wrong!"

Joseph smiled at Vince. "Listen to the human, Vince. You don't have the guts to do it anyway."

"Three..."

Joseph's eyes widened. "Are you crazy? If you pull that trigger I swear I'll hunt you down for the rest of your life!"

"Two..."

"Are you listening to me!? You'll never get me to talk, so why don't you just give it up?"

"One..."

"Vince! Stop!"

Celeste screamed, "Stop!"

*click*

The gun was empty to begin with...

Celeste

Joseph flinched and then burst into laughter when he heard the hollow click.

"I knew you didn't have the guts to do it," Joseph smirked and I breathed a sigh of relief when suddenly Zora pulled out her dagger.

"I could gouge your eye out with this," Zora declared.

"You wouldn't..." Joseph did not sound so convinced this time and the prospect of having his eyes gouged out seemed to horrify him more than the permanent bullet in his head. I no longer made any protest though. For one, I hoped that she would not actually carry out the threat and secondly, I had just realised that losing an eye was of no consequence.

"Don't worry," I told Joseph, "If she cuts out your eye, I can re-attach it. It will probably hurt more than losing it but you seem the sort of man who can cope with pain."

"No. No, you can't let her do this!" Joseph screamed as if my acceptance made the torture even more likely.

*I'm BAACCKKK!*

Zora switched the dagger to her other hand and held it up against the skin under Joseph's right eye. He flinched as the cool metal touched his skin and looked at Vince pleadingly.

"Don't let her do this!" he begged.

"Tell us how to close the gates and she wont do it, right Zora?" Vince asked. Zora nodded stiffly.

"She wouldn't do it. She's just a girl. She wouldn't have the guts either!" Joseph spat.

"What would you like to stake on that claim?" Zora snarled, pressing the dagger on his skin harder. "I can and WILL gouge your eye out of you don't tell us what we want to know. And if you still don't tell us after that then I'll gouge out your other eye, followed by your left ear and your fingers. Then Vince here will have the pleasure of putting them back so that i can cut them off again until you tell us."

At this Joseph paled and if he had been in control of his body he probably would have shook. He looked at Vince pleadingly and when Vince only shrugged he somehow paled even more.

"Just because you're not in control of your body doesn't mean you wont feel pain." Zora commented, pinching Joseph's arm painfully to demonstrate. He winced.

After a moment he cried, "Fine! I'll tell you!"

*Hope this is alright. If not, just say so.*

((No dying))

Corelle and Eve walked up to the front door where Eve lived.
"Thanks for walking me home," she said to him still holding on to her purse tightly.
"No problem. Anytime," Corelle replied as he took a step off of the porch.



*This is all I got.....curse this head of mine!*

Eve could barely stand it, she had to do something, anything before she went inside.

"Corelle," she said shyly but loudly.

"Yes?"

She jumpped off of the porch and kissed him, having to stand on her tip-toes to make it last longer.

**hope that helpped a little bit**

Corelle put his hands on her hips and kissed her back. He had had a huge crush on her for a long time but was afraid to let Eve know. He wasn't afraid anymore. The moon overhead added to his euphoria. He always like the moon for some obscure reason. He was to busy thinking about kissing Eve to really care what happened to him at that moment.



*That really helped. Thanks .*

Genieve gripped Corelle's shoulders, she was starting to feel dizzy, abnormally dizzy. She pulled back, trying to catch her breath, but unable to do so.

"Eve?"

"I'm just feeling a little lightheaded."

"Are you okay?"

She nodded, "I just need to sit down."

When she tried to walk her knees buckled and she collapsed into Corelle's arms. "I don't think you're okay."

(Sorry for the wait. I couldn't post for the last four days because I was camping with my family.)

"Tell us." Vince told Joseph in a deep commanding voice.

"Each gate has a certain tie to certain people on Earth. These people are called Guardians, and most of them don't know about it. They hold special powers that are fed to the gates through these ties. In order to close the gates you need to sever their ties."

"You mean," Celeste gasped, "you have to kill them?"

"That would make things easier." Joseph laughed.

Vince told her, "We do not have to kill them, just sever their ties."

Joseph added, "Even if you can close all the smaller ones, it'll mean nothing unless you can lock the final gate. That gate requires a sacrifice."

"What kind of sacrifice?" Zora asked.

"In order to close it you must spill the blood of the man who opened it." He looked over at Vince and smiled fiendishly. "Of course, you know all about this, don't you Vince?" Vince said nothing.

Zora looked at him and asked, "What's he talking about, Vince?"

"We will worry about it when the time comes. Right now we must focus on the smaller gates." Vince placed a hand on Joseph's head. "If you struggle this will hurt."

Vince closed his eyes. A few seconds later Joseph started screaming at the top of his lungs.

"What's he doing!?" Celeste screamed.

"He's invading Joseph's mind." Zora told her. "It's an old trick that vampires use to hypnotize their prey."

Soon after Vince opened his eyes and the screaming stopped. Joseph fell unconscious from the pain.

"His tie has been severed." Vince told them. "One of the gates has closed."

Celeste

"Okay, let's go," The Hunter decided, striding from the room with Zora.

"Wait," I called out. "I want to help." The two turned and stared at me in surprise.

"A healer might prove to be useful," Zora mused.

"She'd slow us down," The Hunter protested.

"I'm faster than I look. Please?"

Vince stared at her for a few seconds. She shifted uncomfortably under his gaze. "Very well, you can help."

"Thank you."

"But heed my warning. This is a very dangerous quest. There is a very good chance that if you do slow us down we will die."

She nodded. "I understand. I won't let you down."

Zora looked at Vince. "So, where do we go first?"

"First we must find more Guardians and sever their ties. If we're lucky, they may join us as well."

Clutching to Corelle's arm they walked to the porch and sat Eve down. She laid her head on his shoulder, breathing heavily and shivering.

*I couldn't think of anything other than that*