Young Writers Society

Maahes still didn't know why Boris was being held by Bo - or why his skin was suddenly so burned - but he pushed aside his confusion. He had to focus on the bigger picture.

"There's no need to sacrifice yourself," Maahes said with a shake of his head. "I don't know what happened while we were gone, but we already have a solution. It's what you did when I showed up."

"...I don't like where this is going," Codix muttered.

Maahes gave him an apologetic smile. "We already look like wraiths, so all we have to do is pretending that we're escorting the others. Everyone but Nadira is injured, so we can probably get away with not having restraints."

Codix sighed and held Nadira a little tighter.

Nadira, meanwhile, reached a hand up to give him a comforting pat on the head.

If Bo could blink, he would’ve. “...So we’re just gonna walk onto a ship. Pretending to be the prisoners we are?”

Boris squinted, on Bo's behalf.

"If a wraith of higher station took us from you, there'd be little you could do about it.

It's senseless to send out the entire group at once, when we could keep our risks at a minimum."

Maahes shook his head.

"You don't need to sacrifice yourself," he repeated. He really needed an explanation for what had happened. Boris must have felt guilty about something, or he wouldn't have kept insisting. But no matter how Maahes tried to think about it, he couldn't figure out what he had missed. "We can always rely on surprise. Nadira, Codix and I are all uninjured, and the wraith don't even know magic exists. We'll have the upper hand."

A few feet away, Codix looked down at Nadira. Maahes didn't mean to eavesdrop on the conversation, but it was hard not to when they were so close.

"...Nad?" he whispered. "What happened when we were gone?"

Nadira didn't say anything for a moment.

She just gave Boris a long, cold look. There was a glint to her eyes that Maahes couldn't immediately place. It was a familiar look - something he had seen in the mirror before, a long, long time ago.

And then it clicked.

Why was she giving him a look of hatred and anger?

Her gaze shifted back to Codix.

"He betrayed us," she said.

Maahes felt his essence grow still.

Codix frantically glanced between Nadira and Boris. "But why would he...?"

"I don't know," Nadira said. Her voice was cold. It was far too cold for someone that young, but Maahes was beginning to realize he knew close to nothing about her and her best friend. "I just know that he did it. He was working for Kartiel the entire time we were in that jungle - he's the reason everyone is injured right now."

Codix's posture loosened.

"...Oh," he said. "I thought we just had really bad luck."

There was a pause. Maahes opened his mouth - he wasn't sure what he was going to say, but he knew he had to say something about Boris's apparent betrayal.

But Codix beat him to it. Without even sparing Boris a single glance, Codix gave Maahes a smile and said, "I'm ready to go when you are."

There was a lot of tension, and while avoiding addressing it it wasn't generally the best thing to do, Bo agreed that it was in this situation.

They were not at a point where they could easily just sit down and discuss this. They'd already discussed things for too long, and were lucky they didn't get found out by actual wraiths and that it was Maahes and Codix instead.

"Okay, then. You guys lead the way."

It went against everything the city had taught him. Boris' treachery was up in the air, and none of the appropriate measures, i.e, shooting, butchering, or otherwise throwing to the wolves, had even been suggested. They wouldn't even allow him to conveniently throw himself on their behalf. He would have attributed it simply to a desire to keep a quiet profile, or to avoid troubling the children present, but this crew was a damn strange one to begin with.

For his crime that had left Bo blinded, he was sentenced to one beating, and some dirty looks.

What was wrong with these people?

Baffled, but not ungrateful, Boris nodded.

The group emerged from the room.

Maahes led, though it would be difficult for an outsider to tell if Codix or him were leading. Codix wasn't sure where they were going - everything just blurred together in one strange, terrifying mess. But no matter where they turned or who they encountered, Codix made sure to stay close to Nadira. He even grabbed onto her hand when he was sure there were no wraiths approaching.

Codix wasn't sure how this experience would end, but at least he had Nadira to help him get through it.

Bo followed the faint sound of shuffling feet ahead of him, finding himself behind everyone else. He’d always volunteered to go first - thinking he’d be the meat shield in case they got spotted poking their heads in anywhere, but being in the back made more sense. He could reach out and find Raiden ahead of him when he needed to, and he wasn’t leading anyone astray.

So he just followed quietly.

The hallways were suspiciously empty. Codix hoped that meant they hadn't been caught onto yet; something told him it would be harder to escape when the wraiths knew to look for them in the first place.

But, for now, Codix would just be grateful for the lack of them. He reached his hand back and grabbed onto Nadira's. Her hand felt familiar and safe in his. When his grip tightened, she didn't even flinch.

They would get out of this. They would get back to their home, and then they would try to pick up the broken pieces like they always did. It wouldn't be long before Boris's betrayal was little more than a distant memory.

(Even though the first betrayal - not by Boris, but by someone Codix had trusted for years - was still just as strong in his memory as it was when it first happened.)

Codix was so focused on the thought of escape that he didn't notice that they weren't the only ones lurking in a hallway. Nadira didn't, either, and Maahes never looked into the shadows of a nearby corridor.

And none of the people noticed when they were suddenly short by one, the final, lagging member of their group getting pulled into the darkness by a light blue hand.

Bo didn’t have any more adrenaline left. When he felt the wraith-like hands come around his arms and clap over his mouth, all that coursed through him was anxiety. Blood began to pound in his head, making the fresh wound in his face throb. His heart felt like it could burst from his chest. In an instant, he was sweating, and his hands were clammy, and his skin felt sticky.

What was Maahes doing? This had to be Maahes, right? Or Codix? But that was wishful thinking. They were up front. He couldn’t see them, but he knew that much. They wouldn’t have just grabbed him without saying anything. Not like this. Not with their feeding organ pressing into his side like a weapon, ready to pierce through his skin.

This... it had to be another wraith. Maybe they were hungry, and didn’t want to wait. He understood. He was an easy target. He couldn’t see anyone coming.

He struggled, a little. It was half-hearted and restrained by fear. Unsure, uncommitted, and positive that even if he did fight, he wouldn’t get out of it.

He couldn’t hear anything else from the others. They were probably long gone, unless they got caught too.

Was... was this the end? Was this how it’d end for him?

This was a clone body, but who he was - his soul - was still in it. If he died and Kartiel wasn’t around to make sure his soul was safe, he’d die die. Right?

He didn’t know anymore. But he realized he was shaking uncontrollably. Like a leaf.

The wraith holding him shifted in the darkness. Bo wasn't putting nearly as much effort as he could have into the struggle, but Bo wasn't exactly a weak person. Even a halfhearted struggle was difficult to handle.

The footsteps faded farther down the hallway.

But, contrary to what one might believe, they weren't supposed to fade away. He was suppose to finish the part of his plan that involved the man in his arms, and then move onto the rest.

The combination of the plan going awry and Bo's reaction made the wraith panic. He'd never admit it. But when he quietly uttered the words of a spell and spun Bo around to face him, he had to resist the urge to take a startled step back when he saw two good, working eyes looking at him instead of one.

(As it was, he dropped the hand that was covering Bo's mouth, and drew back the hand that was pushing against his side.)

Well, at least they were moving. Aegeas didn't have any energy left to make sense of anything, so he was a little relieved that Maahes had taken charge. And apparently Maahes knew where to go. Not that getting out of this ship would be easy, but at least people weren't trying to volunteer to get themselves killed anymore. Especially Boris. Aegeas wasn't exactly fond of Boris, but this seemed like a terrible place to die.

It was when they were walking down one of the ship's disgusting hallways that Aegeas realized something odd. He couldn't see that well - on top of being nearsighted, his vision had gotten much more spotty since he'd beaten up Boris - but he could at least hear. And he was fairly sure there'd been another pair of footsteps just a minute ago.

"Are we missing somebody?" Aegeas said, unsure if he wanted to look around and figure that out. He didn't want the stress, especially if he was wrong.

Bo could feel the wraith fighting to keep a hold on him, but they hadn’t killed him yet. He grunted under their hand, hearing the wraith mutter something he couldn’t understand.

And then he could see.

At some point in the struggle, the bandage around his wounded eye had gotten twisted around his head. But even with it ever so slightly hanging over his eye he could see. But with both eyes?

The feeling of having two functioning eyeballs in his head felt strangely foreign. Though he could see, more than anything, it felt like a shock to his brain. Processing images. Processing depth. A half-stutter of a whimpered word escaped him as he reached up to feel his face. To see if it was real.

He was able to rub both eyes. He felt two, good, perfectly functional eyeballs in their sockets. But more than that - he couldn’t feel any of the distinctive scarring on his face either. No wounds. No blood. No nothing.

Bo’s eyes weren’t even focused as he looked down at the ground, almost forgetting the wraith was there until the very clear image if the wraith’s feet finally registered, because he could very clearly tell how far away they were.

He looked up, instantly recognizing Kartiel’s wraith face, and he stared.

“Wh- wh-“ he struggled, his voice a whisper. “What? Why? What’s going on?”

Boris, almost vacant, beyond spent, had nothing to add to the situation, save one bewildered whisper.

"...son of a bitch."

Maahes glanced back at their group.

Bo was gone.

He couldn't have been gone for long. Someone would have noticed his disappearance sooner, right? Boris was whispering, Aegeas was confused, and Codix had pulled Nadira close again. That normally would have been a problem, but Maahes had the sneaking suspicion they had already been discovered.

"Bo's missing," Maahes said. He should have checked. Why hadn't he checked? He had been so sure that someone would call out if they were under attack, and so sure that their plan would prevent an attack from happening in the first place.

Maahes pushed past the others.

Bo would have said something.

If Bo hadn't said something, he must have been knocked unconscious or prevented from speaking. Those were the only explanations that Maahes could come up with. And people made noises when the wraith took their life away, so Bo just couldn't be dead. A wraith wouldn't bother to cover something like that up.


Kartiel resisted the very, very strong urge to swear.

Not only had he lost the rest of the group, but he had accidentally given Bo sight back in both of his eyes. He could, of course, injure the one that shouldn't have been healed, but he wasn't just going to hurt Bo.

"I thought you would be more useful with restored vision," Kartiel said. He was normally good at lying, but it was hard not to think that Bo would see right through that one. "And I healed both eyes because I wanted to see how you would adjust to the situation."

That excuse felt even weaker than the first one, but Kartiel hoped Bo wouldn't pick up on it.

Kartiel, however, didn't get a chance to find out what Bo thought.

Because a second later, one of the wraiths that had been leading him around appeared right in front of the corridor that Kartiel had been hiding with Bo in.

The wraith stared.

"...Kartiel?" he asked, in a voice that wasn't familiar but was.

Now it was Kartiel who did the staring.

Another moment passed.

And then he finally had the genius idea to check the wraith's soul, which he really should have done when he realized that Codix and Maahes weren't with the group. It was the same exact stunt they had pulled back in Atlantis. Why wouldn't they do it in the place that was swarming with wraith?

"Kartiel is-" Codix started to say, joining Maahes and peeking into the corridor with Nadira in tow. "Why does Bo have two eyes?"