Young Writers Society

Chapter Twenty-Three

A rush came over all five of them as power streamed back to their use. Landon set to healing Camael before they took another step forward—they didn’t know what was lying in the room before them.

“I’m kind of nervous,” Ness said, jumping up and down a little bit. “Anyone else?”

“What, it’s a little itty-bitty ball with a flame in it,” Jonas told her, a smile turning up the edges of his mouth. “It’s not going to hurt us.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” Max mumbled. “God only knows—literally—what other kinds of protection are around that. And there’s bound to be something.”

“Oh, there’s something alright,” Camael whispered, a golden glow surrounding him as Landon’s healing magic worked on his body.

“Well, what is it?” Jonas asked.

“Can’t tell you that,” the angel said indignantly. “Everyone’s gotta find out the hard way.”

Ness snorted and rolled her eyes. Landon and Max weren’t kidding when they said that the angels were mysterious.

When Camael was done being healed, he stood up and shook his wings. “Well kids…have fun! I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Wait!” Landon yelled after him. “You’re just going to leave us—again—to figure this all out…”

“Yeah. All the other Mortal Angels did it, and they never complained.” With that, Camael disappeared.

“I’m telling you, if we weren’t quitting tomorrow…these guys would drive me completely freaking crazy,” Jonas muttered, rolling his golden eyes.

A few moments passed before one of them spoke.

Landon, glad to have his power back, noticed that the air was filled with tension and a hint of fear. His headache was returning as his mind filled with the voices of others—and for once it was a comforting feeling. Before he felt empty and void; now that the background noise was back, he was settled.

Ness was very jumpy, he also noticed. She hadn’t stopped moving ever since they entered the small, stone-walled hallway. She twirled her hair around her finger, rocked on the balls of her feet, and clicked her tongue. Out of the four, her nervousness was most prominent.

Jonas took a breath. “Are we ready to go in there and get it?” he asked.

Max looked at Landon, who looked at Ness. She shrugged, her red hair falling over her shoulder. “Yeah. I think so.”

They stood in a line, shoulder-to-shoulder, stretched out across the hallway. Landon found himself between Max and Ness, who was shaking slightly. She looped her arm through Landon’s on one side and Jonas’s on the other, her eyes looking quickly into Landon’s. He gave her a small, reassuring smile.

“Don’t worry,” he whispered. “No one’s going to die.”

“I hope not,” she whispered back, and they took the first step forward.

The hall was very short, but with all the tension filling the air, the walk seemed incredibly long. When they reached the archway that led into the Candle’s room, they stopped.

“After all that, it can’t be this easy to get to it,” Jonas said.

They walked closer to the small glass ball sitting on its pedestal, glittering in the light falling across it. All of them were captivated by Eve’s Candle, simple as it was. A green flame flickered in the glass ball that was no bigger than a Christmas tree ornament, and that was it. Eve’s Candle, something so simple, yet so powerful…

“Max, look out!”

Jonas’s voice suddenly rang through the high room, echoing and vibrating the delicate glass ball. Max must have triggered his power, because a figure shot right through him and ran headlong into the pedestal.

No, Landon heard Ness think. No, no, no…

He raised his arm at the dark figure, feeling the shock of his power gather in the palm of his hand. The man slowly stood up from the floor, shaking off his collision.

Landon would have blasted him at that moment, but the creature’s appearance was startling. It was a Dark angel, he could tell—but earlier, they had all been wearing black cloaks. This one wasn’t, but he wished it had been.

The body was completely black, void of all other color except for its eyes. They were pure white, no pupils or irises to them. It was skinny and tall, yet muscles rippled beneath its skin. Black wings spread from under its shoulder blades—huge, grotesque creations that didn’t hold the beauty of Camael’s white wings. He couldn’t tell if the thing was male or female; the body had no shape to it at all.

He lost the initial shock and spread his fingers wide, letting the electricity flow from his palm. It hit the Dark angel directly, colliding with its body and sending it reeling through the air.

It didn’t fry, he noticed right away. Anything else that had ever come into contact with his power was disintegrated on contact; this thing was merely thrown and knocked out.

Black smoke was gathering all throughout the room. A noise like a cannon shot through the air; more Dark angels were flooding from it, some of them on the backs of black horses.

Landon saw Max’s eyes widen as he spread his palm and allowed his water-dagger to form. Jonas shot a stream of fire at an approaching creature. It dodged the blaze, but it cowered and backed away.

“Shit, Jonas…those things are from Hell…don’t tell me they’re afraid of fire. I thought there was a lot of it down there,” Ness mumbled, raising her arms and letting an ice-cold blast of wind hit the Dark angels. The creatures stopped before it, screaming as the breeze hit their skin. “Go get the Candle!”

Jonas ducked as a ball of Dark energy soared over his head and hit the wall behind him. Chunks of rock fell to the ground, splaying across the floor. He ran toward the pedestal, making sure he kept his head ducked low as he made his way over.

An angel stepped into his path, its white eyes boring into his. It took a step forward, pushing him closer to the wall behind him.

He looked at its long black hair and shiny black wings with wide eyes. He thought these things were ugly…but up close, it was striking. Though its eyes were unsettling, milky white, and its wings were menacing…it was really a thing of great beauty.

How could they want to destroy something like that…?

“Landon!” Jonas yelled. We have to stop this! We can’t kill them, he wanted to scream. Stop it, stop hurting them…

A blast of yellow electricity hit the being in front of him, sending it flying.

Something snapped in Jonas’s head, bringing him back to reality. Are you okay? Landon asked, his mental voice filling Jonas’s mind.

Yeah…I think so. What happened?

These things can hypnotize you, Landon told him. Be careful.

Jonas nodded resolutely and set of toward the Candle again. He ran through the black bodies lying on the floor, jumping and ducking as balls of Dark energy tried to make contact with him.

The Candle was right in front of him. He reached out his hand, prepared to snatch it from its seat on the pedestal…

A body hit him, dark wings enfolding him close. He rolled across the floor and joined the rest of the wounded Dark angels, scraping his arms and elbows as he fell. He kicked and squirmed, trying as hard as he could to knock the thing off of himself.

“Off!” he heard Ness yell, and the angel soared away against its will.

“We aren’t going to get rid of these things like this,” Ness told him, helping Jonas up. They had to duck halfway through the motion due to the black energy ball that passed just over the tops of their heads.

“Do you think we’ll be able to do what we did before?” Jonas asked. “Remember on Westchester Drive…”

“I don’t know, but that’s what we have to do,” Ness said, narrowing her eyes and sending another energy ball towards its owner. Jonas watched, wincing, as the Dark angel screamed and burst into black flames.

An angel threw itself at Jonas and Ness; the two sprung apart from each other, and the creature hit the stone wall behind them.

“Candle!” Ness yelled to him, motioning toward the pedestal with her head. “Hurry, I’ll tell Landon and Max!”

Jonas took in another deep breath and sprinted. What he did then put every one of his soccer practices to shame—and probably all forms of military training, too. He jumped over a fallen body, then hit the ground and rolled under an attacking angel. He rose to his feet in one graceful, fluid motion, then jumped over three energy balls and torched another. He threw himself forward and landed on his hands, then sprung himself by his arms and landed on his feet.

Again, the Candle was inches from his outstretched hand.

Black smoke was covering the space between him and the pedestal, and a figure was forming within it. Involuntarily, Jonas took a step back.

Moments later, a man was standing there.

He was tall, wide, and dark, with huge wings stretching out behind him. His eyes, unlike those of the Dark angels, were red—burning, fiery red, the color of Jonas’s eyes when he used his power. He wore a long, black cloak that brushed the floor.

“You want to get the Candle, Jonas,” the man said, his voice surprisingly normal. “It’s right there in front of you…and you want it.”

“Not for me,” Jonas told the man, his voice hard.

He laughed. “Why not for you?” he asked. “Do you know what you can do with something as powerful as Eve’s Candle? What we could do?”

“No,” Jonas whispered, his voice weak in comparison with the dark figure hovering over him.

“You have the power to shift the balance,” the man told him. “Fire lays within the ball…and you have the power to control that fire—only you.”

Jonas stared at Eve’s Candle. There was no way that he was the key to shift the balance—no way.

“Do you know what you could have if you tapped into that power?” the man asked. “The world could be yours! Not only the world…the entire universe.”

“Who are you?” Jonas asked, trying his best to ignore the figure.

He laughed again, eyes turning into narrow slits. “Surely you’ve heard of me. Your angel must have said something to you.” He spit out the word “angel” as if it left a bad taste in his mouth. “But to refresh your memory…I am Ganelon, Lucifer’s Trusted One.”

“I’m not getting the Candle for you,” Jonas spat.

“Boy, I never once asked you to get the Candle for me. You can use its power for yourself, for your own personal gain.”

“Why don’t you reach in and get it for yourself?” Jonas asked.

“Its magic will burn my flesh,” Ganelon explained, passing his hand through the light surrounding the Candle. His skin began to bubble and smoke, melting away from his muscle and bone. “It’s too powerful even for me…but its magic is weak compared to what you can do.”

“Jonas!”

Ness’s voice filled his ears. He wanted desperately to look away from Ganelon and find his friends, but his eyes were fixed to the dark man.

“Don’t listen to those people, Boy! They aren’t your friends…you don’t need them. Friends get in the way of raw power.”

“No!” Jonas yelled, backing away. “No.”

“Get the Candle, Boy.”

“No!”

“Get the Candle! ”

“No!”

“If you won’t get it on your own free will, then I will have to force you,” Ganelon threatened. When Jonas didn’t move, he raised his arms over the boy.

Jonas felt himself lose complete control over his muscles and body—he was moving towards the Candle—his hand was outstretched, and it passed through the light surrounding it…

He had it. The glass ball was in his hand, and it seemed to pulse beneath his fingers. The tiny green flame flickered and winked at him.

The ground shook and chunks of rock fell away from the wall, scattering across the earthen floor. The pedestal seemed to scream, collapsing in on itself and sinking into the ground. The whole subterranean room shook and quaked, sending everyone within it to the ground.

Ganelon’s eyes were wide as he tried to stand up from the shaking floor. “What did you do?” he bellowed at Jonas. “What magic did you put on it?”

White light burst from the Candle, spreading to all the corners of the room. When it touched the Dark angels, they screamed in pain—the light burned their flesh. They ran frantically, trying to find cover from the beams.

Ganelon was backing away from the Candle on his hands and knees, one arm covering his handsome face. A single ray of light touched his chest, and the cry that escaped his lips was excruciating. He spread his great wings and disappeared in a puff of black smoke.

The ground continued to shake. Green smoke was now emanating from the small glass ball.

“What’s going on?” Ness yelled, making her way over to Landon.

“I don’t know!” he yelled back, covering his head as a chunk of rock fell from the ceiling.

The Candle grew hot in Jonas’s hands, and he involuntarily dropped it.

“No!” Ness narrowed her eyes, prepared to stop the Candle from falling and shattering.

As it turned out, she didn’t have to do that. The ball stopped on its own accord, hovering before Jonas. The smoke was puffing in the air, creating bright shapes against the dark wall behind it. Jonas backed away until he was between Landon and Max.

The smoke wasn’t creating shapes; it was making letters in the air. When they were completed, a voice boomed from every corner of the cavernous room, reading what the curling letters that the smoke had left behind.

“Four to Stand before the Final Darkness,
Four to stop the last crusade;
Four to Stand against the Greatest Evil,
Four to save when blood is made.

One will keep the peace alive;
One will protect the light within.
One with power to destroy;
One will fall to darkened sin.”

The words didn’t linger a second longer after the voice died out. They immediately collapsed upon themselves, being sucked back into the hovering Candle. The ground shook more fiercely that it had before, and the underground room began to collapse.

“We have to get out of here!” Max yelled above the noise to the other three.

“The Candle!” Landon stood and ran the best he could to get to Eve’s Candle, which was being surrounded by the fallen rock.

“Landon, no! It’s too dangerous!” Ness yelled, trying to go after him. Jonas held her back.

Landon snatched the Candle from its place in midair and doubled back to the others, somehow avoiding the collapsing ceiling.

“Alright, Ness, get us out of here,” he said, grabbing on to Ness’s arm. The other two followed suit, and Ness closed her eyes tight and concentrated.

Their bodies yielded to the wind, particle and molecule blending with its various gases. They were lifted up by Ness’s power; the rock was falling through them now that they were no longer solid.

A hole had opened up in the earth that led out onto the lawn of the house on Westchester Drive. It was there that they materialized into their own bodies again, Landon still holding the mysterious Candle.

“I hope you’re happy,” he said to it, rolling his eyes. “You almost got us killed.”

“Are you talking to the Candle?” Ness asked, laughing.

“Hey, it talked to us. Why not?”

“I knew you’d make it!”

A new voice was traveling across the lawn—a deep, masculine voice that could only belong to one person.

“Camael!”

“I have to admit, for a minute there I thought you weren’t coming out,” he said to the four, making his way toward them. “And look at that—you got the Candle!”

“Isn’t that what we were supposed to do?” Landon asked, turning the small glass sphere over in his palms.

“Well…yes.”

“Here you go, then.” Landon held out the Candle to Camael. “We rescued it for you.”

Camael stepped back, his hands raised in front of him. “Oh, no, no, no, no, no,” he said quickly. “That’s not my responsibility.”

“It isn’t?” Max asked.

“No. Didn’t you hear the prophecy?” Camael rolled his eyes. “It belongs to you.”


-------------------------

Guess what? One more chapter to go!