Young Writers Society

Chapter Twenty

At that instant, Ness’s anger peaked. It was higher than ever before—she wanted to kill. The fire in the pit of her stomach only intensified when the smile of a snake crossed the man’s face.

“Now, now…there’s no reason to be so pissed off, my dear,” he cooed, taking a threatening step forward and brandishing his blade.

“What have you done?” Ness’s voice was barely audible over the commotion going on behind her. Faintly, she could hear Landon saying, “Come on, Max! I know you’re still there…” She could see from the corner of her eye that Jonas was holding his own, torching anyone in sight and keeping the hooded figures far away from Landon and Max.

“Don’t you get it yet, Poppet?” Camael hissed, stepping even closer to Ness. His skin began to ripple and slide off his bones, turning into a flesh-colored liquid. His entire form was changing, shifting. His body seemed to melt until it was just a glowing mass of energy, and then it began to form again.

The transformation took only seconds, and Ness was transfixed by it. The face of Camael—the “angel” sent by God, the one they trusted so much to help them—was now the face of Greg Johnson. It began to change again, this time faster: she barely had time to watch the middle-state of his transformation. He was now the same person that attacked her in the airport so long ago, with the face of a snake and the evil, glowing yellow eyes of a cat…

“You tricked us the whole time,” she whispered.

“Not the whole time,” he admitted. “You only knew your real angel that first night. The four of you were stupid enough to believe that I was the real Camael every day after that. Or maybe the real Camael did appear to you.” He let out a slow, lazy laugh. “I guess you’ll never know.”

He moved so fast that Ness couldn’t react, grabbing her by the hair and dragging her away from the road where Jonas was torching people. He took a chunk of the beautiful red veil and pressed it against his nose, taking in its scent.

“I didn’t get to kill you before you came into your power,” he growled. “I won’t make the same mistake again.” He raised his knife, and Ness flinched. The snake-man laughed. “Fear—I love it. Especially yours, Poppet. It tastes so wonderful.” He licked his lips with a green, forked tongue. “Before I kill you, I need my souvenir. You know, it’s such a pity to see a beautiful face covered in blood.”

With a swift motion, he cut of a chunk of Ness’s hair. What he didn’t realize was that he did make the same mistake again.

Ness closed her eyes and concentrated, picturing Snakeman’s body letting go of her and flying over her head, reeling into the thick trunk of one of the many trees surrounding them.

It happened as she willed it. A sick sense of dêjà vu spread through her as she watched Snakeman hit the tree upside-down with a sickening crunch. She ran toward him, more prepared than ever to fight for the blood of her friend. She narrowed her eyes, concentrating on the knife in Snakeman’s hand. His grip completely loosened on it; it flew through the air and into her outspread fingers.

She wanted to throw up as soon as it entered her hand—it was sticky with Max’s blood. She ignored the feeling and let her rage take over her body.

“You made us trust you!” she yelled, sending the snake-man flying into another thick tree. He hit it, grunting, with a crack.

He slid to the grass, a flicker of pain in his eyes. However, it quickly disappeared and he smiled his horrible smile. “You were stupid enough to trust me,” he said, standing slowly.

Ness sent another telekinetic blast at him; it hit him dead on and sent him deeper into the woods. She followed, fingers tightening on the knife’s jewel-encrusted handle. “You put us into a trap,” she growled.

Again, Snakeman had to take time to stand up before he could reply. “You were stupid enough to fall into the trap.” He swiftly raised his hand and one of his deadly bright energy balls formed in his palm. Ness’s mind was taken back to the airport bathroom once more, and the sight of the old woman vaporizing was pressed into her memory.

When Snakeman threw it at her, she was prepared. She sent it flying towards a tree with her mind, and it shattered into a million light fragments there. Bark scattered across the ground.

Any other day she wouldn’t have been able to react like that—but the adrenaline pumping through her veins made her keenly aware of everything happening around her.

She narrowed her eyes and seconds later, Snakeman was up against another tree. She held him there with her mind, putting as much pressure on his bones as possible. His pain was practically radiating off his body, but Ness didn’t care: he killed Max.

Snakeman showed his teeth in a crooked, sick smile, and Ness’s eyes burned silver. The wind picked up around her so fiercely that leaves were cascading down around them in all directions, spiraling everywhere. She held the knife to the snake-man’s throat.

“You made us think that you worked for God,” she said, pressing the tip of the blade into the thin skin there.

The snake-man said nothing; he merely smiled.

“You killed Max,” she snarled in his face, putting unbearable pressure onto his bones with her mind.

“He deserved to die,” Snakeman choked out. He could barely swallow.

“So do you,” Ness whispered.

“You can’t kill me,” Snakeman said.

“Wanna bet?” With those words, Ness pushed the blade through his flesh. Blood squirted from his throat and coated Ness’s gray blouse and her jeans, but she didn’t care. She took the blade from his throat and shoved it into his heart, nailing him against the tree with it. The crunch of flesh and bone didn’t bother her—she avenged Max’s death; she avenged the old lady in the airport bathroom. She avenged countless other innocent lives.

Ness turned and walked back toward the road, leaving the body of the snake-man nailed to the tree by a knife blade.

* * * * *

Jonas was on such a spree that he didn’t notice Ness disappear into the woods. Bitter anger and sadness filled every inch of his being—he could have protected Max. Every bit of his emotion was being unleashed on the cloaked figures around him; he had no idea how he was holding them all off. Jonas was badly outnumbered.

He was getting tired, too: he could feel the heat from the fire he was sending out, but it didn’t bother his skin. In fact, his body welcomed the heat pouring out into the surrounding area. He could only hope that it wasn’t too much for his friends to bear.

Ness came out of the woods with perfect timing. “Jonas, look out!” she yelled, running over to him.

Jonas ducked just in time. He felt a ball of pure, crackling energy fly over his head. The ball stopped in midair and went soaring back towards its owner, thanks to Ness’s power. He heard an electrical noise behind him and the smell of ozone filled the air, and suddenly there was no more person left standing there.

Ness arrived at his side. “How are you doing out here?” she asked.

“Oh, just great,” he replied, half-sarcastic. His eyes were trailing over the mess on her clothes.

“Don’t ask about the blood,” she told him.

“I wasn’t planning to,” he said, the same wicked smile crossing his face. Jonas and Ness stood back-to-back, ready to welcome on any challenge the robed figures wanted to bring.

Through the corner of his eye, Jonas saw Landon and Max stand.

“Oh my God, Jonas!” Ness gasped. “He isn’t dead.”

Both boys were covered with a significant amount of blood, but there was no trace of a cut or scar on Max’s neck. If not for the crimson wave covering his shirt, no one would have known that his throat had been slit.

Another ball of crackling energy flew over to the two boys, but they reacted quickly. It passed right through Max, leaving him unharmed; Landon raised an arm and shot a ball of his own yellow electricity at it. The spheres collided in the air and cancelled each other out, sending a cascade of yellow and black sparks flying through the heavy air.

Landon grabbed onto Max’s shoulder and they disappeared. Seconds later, the four friends were standing back-to-back, shoulders square.

“Nice to have you back, Max,” Jonas said. Ness reached behind her and patted Max’s arm.

“Sucks that they were prepared for us, huh?” he joked.

“Let’s pass on the dark humor right now and get rid of these guys, okay?” Ness said.

“You guys did a pretty good job by yourself,” Landon told Ness and Jonas as he blocked another energy ball. The air around them was filled with color. He sent another jet of lightning out; a dark figure was completely fried, his body evaporated.

“Now what?” Ness asked, mind open and ready to fend off another attack. There weren’t very many robed figures left around them; most were lying in charred heaps on the ground. Jonas had single-handedly done an excellent job at clearing the field.

“I say we all pick one and charge,” Max said. He held out his right hand and a pool of water formed in his palm. The water spread out and elongated, forming the shape of the jagged dagger used to kill Bloody Guy.

Jonas eyed him curiously. “That’s interesting,” he said. “Useful, but interesting.”

“That’s what I love about this job,” Max said. “You learn more and more things every day. Makes you want to do this for the rest of your life, huh?”

“Alright, we’ll go with Max’s plan,” Landon told the four, a hunt of amusement in his voice. “On three…one…two…three.”

When his count ended, the square that the four friends made as they stood back-to-back sprung apart. Jonas and Landon shot their corresponding elements out simultaneously, each picking off and evaporating two more cloaked figures on the spot. Ness mentally threw another one into their paths, and he was quickly taken care of.

Max phased through various attacks and stabbed one their enemies through the heart. The same blue ropes of light that bound Bloody Guy to the floor a few days earlier wrapped around the figure, pulling him to the ground and turning his body into a pool of steaming water. It sunk into the earth and disappeared.

Finally, there was one left. He was cornered: on each of his sides, one of the four friends stood. At the same time, they sent out their elements.

It was the most interesting thing any of them had seen yet.

The powers stopped moving once they got within a four-foot radius of the final cloaked figure, and they began to swirl around him like a cyclone. A tower of fire, wind, water, and lightning wound its way around the poor guy, combining their destructive energies and gaining power as they spun.

His scream shot throughout the air on Westchester Drive as the elements collapsed in on him. None of the four could ever explain what happened to him; the world exploded in such a powerful blast of white light that they were thrown backwards, two on each side of the road, right next to the edge of the woods. They were temporarily blinded by the power as it consumed the robed man.

The light faded and the remaining elements flowed back to their owners. Jonas gasped as he felt the fire leap back into him, coursing through his veins. He saw the same thing happening to Max, who was at least fifteen feet to the left of him. Max’s eyes glowed blue as the water seeped into his skin, but they quickly returned to their normal color.

“That was kind of creepy,” Ness yelled to the other three as she stood up.

“I second that,” Landon yelled back.

“Who knew we could do something like that?” Max wondered out loud, walking toward his friends.

“Poor guy,” Ness muttered.

“What are you talking about?” Jonas said. “He never even knew what hit him.”

“Well…I feel really stupid saying this, but should we go get the Candle now?” Landon asked. Jonas and Max let out tight, forced laughs and agreed.

“Wait,” Ness said. “We might not have to go there.”

“Why not? Camael said we have to get it.”

“That wasn’t Camael that told us that. Or at least I don’t think it was. Not all the time, anyway.”

“Ness, what are you talking about?” Jonas asked.

“The guy that…that…” Ness made a motion across her throat with her forefinger.

“Cut my throat?” Max supplied.

“Yeah, that. The guy that did that…well, I went after him. The wind was blowing around me and it took off his hood.” She paused to swallow.

“And…?”

“It was Camael. Camael…he…” She made the same slicing motion with her finger.

The three boys were silent as they took in this information.

“He fooled us the entire time!” Ness exclaimed. “He told me that the only time we ever talked to the real Camael is when he told us our destiny.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“Wait…maybe I am. Or maybe he was, actually. He said that we’d never know when the real Camael came to us, and when he came to us,” she explained.

“Shit,” Landon muttered under his breath.

“So everything we were told about that house and the Candle…it could be absolutely false,” Max declared, his tone unsure.

“Exactly. We just have to figure out what was true and what wasn’t,” Ness said.

“If anything was true,” Jonas added.

“Wait a second.” Max’s eyes were thoughtful as he spoke. “What happened to the guy?”

“Well, let’s just say that you won’t be seeing Greg Johnson around school anymore,” Ness hinted.

“Greg Johnson slit my throat?” Max asked, eyes wide with surprise. “That bastard.”

“No, no…Greg Johnson doesn’t even exist,” Ness told him. “When I was coming to Pennsylvania, I got attacked by this…well, I kind of dubbed him Snakeman about ten minutes ago. He went after me in the airport bathroom and fried this old lady, and he was going to kill me, too. He said something about ‘killing one before she came into her power.’ Of course, I had no idea what he was talking about then.”

“Why didn’t you tell us this before?” Landon asked.

“It does explain why he was always so miserable,” Max said at the same time.

“When he and Jordan Mackey pulled that stunt on us in the hall on Monday, I realized that Greg was the snake-man. He has to be a shape shifter or something—if those things even exist—because I watched him turn from Camael to Greg Johnson, and then he morphed into Snakeman,” Ness explained.

“Alright, so what happened to him?” Max asked.

“Um…I killed him.” There was silence from the three boys. “I slit his throat with the same knife he used on you, and I kind of nailed him to a tree somewhere over there…” Ness absently pointed to the woods behind her.

“Aw, Ness, you should have gotten me another souvenir,” Max teased, holding his dagger in his hand and letting it take on its liquid form. It seeped back into his skin as though it never lay in his palm in the first place.

“If I never have to hear the word souvenir again in my life, I’ll be a happy person,” Ness said, pulling at a short chunk of her hair close to her head. “He really hacked it off.”

“He cut off your hair?” Jonas asked.

“Yeah, he said he wanted something to remember me by before he killed me.”

“A souvenir,” Landon supplied.

“Shut up,” Ness said, laughing.

“Anyway,” Landon began, laughing along with her, “We have to figure out what we’re going to do. That house is there…it could be evil, or it could be filled with perfectly normal, filthy rich people.”

“Well, think about it.” Ness tucked a strand of hair behind her ear as she waited for the boys’ full attention. “Jordan lives in that house, and she tried to pull something on us with Greg, who is also Camael…sort of.”

“So the three of them—er, two of them—were in on it together the whole time. But why would Evil tell us about a house of Evil?” Jonas asked.

“Unless Camael—I mean, Greg…wait, no, Snakeman—okay, unless Snakeman wanted the Candle for himself,” Max suggested.

“Wait, what did you say Jordan and Greg were fighting over in the hall?” Jonas asked Ness.

“I don’t know—something about a key, maybe?” Ness told him. “I couldn’t remember all of it if I tried to, though…”

“I hope we don’t need a key to get to it,” Max said.

“Do you think the Candle even exists?” Landon wondered aloud.

“Somehow, I know it does,” Ness said. “Don’t ask how. I know.”

“Don’t worry, we won’t ask,” Max mumbled.

“Staged or not, I bet God wants that thing anyway. It seemed really important…I mean, it’s the balance of Good and Evil. Should we really let it be in Evil’s hands?” Jonas said.

“Probably not. We should get it anyway,” Landon suggested.

“Alright. Sounds good,” Ness, Jonas, and Max said together.

The four of them began the walk to the big house again—however, before they could take their first steps, the ground started to shake.

“What’s happening?” Max asked, trying to keep his balance.

The ground split, sending Ness and Jonas to one side and Landon and Max to the other. Three figures dressed in white and black sprung from the hole in the ground. Two headed for Max and Landon, and one went straight for Jonas and Ness.

She watched as the two boys were taken by the mysterious figures and pulled down into the crack in the Earth.

“No!” she yelled, not feeling Jonas grip her arm. Time stopped around her, but Landon and Max were gone.