Rhiannon Frater - Pretty When She Destroys

“The ritual is complete,” The Summoner declared.

The Sword of Lucifer sang in her hand, its thirst for blood sated. Amaliya stepped back, the sword slicing through the air. A rent formed in the fabric of reality. A void of endless darkness lay just beyond the tear.

“Don’t move, Amaliya!” Samantha shouted. “It’s opening the abyss!”

Unable to move, Amaliya watched in horror as Bianca’s life spilled onto the ground. She was trapped, unable to move the sword, and fight The Summoner. Even the slightest movement of the sword opened the gash further.

Below the temple her friends and love fought the massive monsters of flesh and bone. Spears of earth and ice revealed where Baptiste fought. Gunshots echoed through the darkness. Ghosts swirled through the battle, tearing apart the creatures only for the golems to reform. Samantha drifted above the fray directing her ghosts.

“Samantha!” Amaliya cried out, then dared to awaken her necromancy.

The bond between them instantly flared to life, darkness and light intermingling. In a split second understanding passed between them. Samantha closed her eyes and Amaliya shut her own.

Instantly the world of the ghosts opened before Amaliya. Tethered to Samantha through the fine sinew of their power, she released her physical form.

Amaliya’s body crashed to the ground, the sword slicing through the air to create an even greater opening to the abyss.

In the world of ghosts, she could clearly see The Summoner wrapped in Bianca’s slim form. Wings of darkness spread out behind Amaliya’s ethereal form as she hurtled toward Bianca. Samantha landed behind The Summoner and Bianca, beautiful in her otherworldly body. The Phasmagus grabbed The Summoner as Amaliya latched onto Bianca. In the spectral world it was clear that Bianca was close to death, which loosened her bonds to The Summoner.

Together, they ripped the two apart.

The Summoner gasped as he was torn from Bianca’s body. His astral body flailed between The Phasmagus and Necromancer, but in this world Samantha ruled. Amaliya released Bianca’s spirit body and seized The Summoner. Amaliya and Samantha dragged him toward the opening to the abyss. The sword had torn through both the physical and spiritual realm revealing the darkness beyond.

“No! No! You can’t do this!” The Summoner cried out, terror in his face.

“You wanted the abyss. You got it,” Amaliya snarled.

“We’re done with you,” Samantha added in her perky way. “Ciao!”

Together, they hurled him through the rip, his scream of horror immensely satisfying as his sprit vanished into the void.

“Finish it,” Samantha said, turning to Amaliya, her white eyes burning.

Opening her physical eyes, Amaliya scrambled to her feet and flung the sword through the rip in the air. It vanished into the abyss and instantly the tear vanished.

The wet, fleshy splatter of The Summoner’s creatures falling apart filled the eerie silence.

“Did we do it?” Alexia’s voice echoed in the massive chamber.

Amaliya ran to Bianca’s side and crouched next to the girl. Dragging Bianca into her arms, she drew her tongue over gash in her throat. It took several swipes to finally stop the bleeding, but it wasn’t healing.

Cian kneeled next to Amaliya. His shirt was in shreds and deep wounds were healing. “I’ll feed her,” he said, immediately opening a vein.

“I can’t let her die,” Amaliya said, stroking Bianca’s fine blonde hair with her bloody fingers. “I just can’t. Too many have died.”

His hazel eyes meeting hers, Cian nodded. “I know, Amaliya.” Holding his dripping wrist over Bianca’s mouth, he let his blood pour into her.

The cabal drifted into view one by one. The dhamphir was covered in blood and dirt, and a nasty cut was healing on her cheek. The witch was just as grungy and had a few scorch marks on her clothes and bit of singed hair, but appeared whole. Baptiste’s left arm hung limply at his side, a jagged spear of rock sticking out of his bicep. Jeff was dirty, but otherwise unharmed. Alexia was covered in blood and chunks of flesh.

“One of those things fell apart on me,” she explained seeing Amaliya’s look.

Samantha joined them, her eyes still glowing. A mantle of ghosts clustered behind her. Among them was Roberto looking very satisfied.

“Benchley?” Amaliya asked, fear creeping into her.

“He’s with Galina. They’re safe,” Jeff assured her.

Amaliya noted another was missing, too. “Eduardo?”

“He’s dead.” The coldness in Jeff’s gaze when he looked at her explained the whole story in one second.

“You killed him!” Amaliya gasped.

“He was a serial killer.”

Amaliya took a second to absorb that truth, then said, “Oh, that’s why I was attracted to him.”

“Serial killer?” Aimee exclaimed, the conversation finally registering. “What?”

“Oh, that makes total sense,” Alexia said, continuing to wipe off the fleshy bits from her skin and clothes. “That head thing he was doing was creepy.”

“Amaliya, you need to give her blood, too,” Cian said, drawing her attention back to Bianca. He was pale and drawn from giving so much of his own. “I think we can save her.”

Nodding, Amaliya ripped open her wrist with her teeth and started to feed Bianca.

“She’s still here,” Samantha said crouching next to Amaliya. “I can see her settling back into her body.”

Amaliya gently stroked the girl’s cheek with her grimy fingers. “She tried to save me.”

“And now you saved her.” Cian kissed Amaliya tenderly. “You’re amazing, you know.”

Nuzzling his lips, Amaliya relished the feel of his kiss. She loved him so much it was a physical pain inside of her to think of how close they had come to losing each other.

“We should probably get out of here,” Jeff suggested.

Above them sirens wailed and spotlights from circling helicopters skimmed over the sinkhole’s walls.

“How do we explain this?” Amaliya wondered.

“We don’t have to explain anything. Follow me,” Baptiste said, gesturing to the group.

Cian lifted Bianca into his arms and Amaliya slid her arm about his waist, leaning against him. The rest of the group fell in behind them. When the dirt wall split apart before them forming a tunnel, no one was really surprised.

Baptiste flashed a wide grin. “I have talents.”

Together, they filed into the narrow passage. It was a little disconcerting as the earth parted before them and closed behind them as they walked. The pathway gently sloped upward until at last the ground divided to reveal the dark silhouettes of trees against the night sky.

Amaliya pulled herself out of the earth, briefly reflecting on the first time she had emerged from a grave in the woods. Sweeping her gaze from Cian to the others gathered around, she smiled. Unlike the first time, she was no longer alone. She had a purpose. She had love. She had friendship.

And she had saved the world.

December 24, 2012

The chill wind buffeted Bianca as her scooter zipped down Congress Avenue toward downtown Austin. Ahead, the pink granite state capitol building glowed white in the lights. Bundled in a new white leather jacket and a matching pink knit cap and scarf, Bianca giggled as her passenger, Alexia, sang along, badly, to Mariah Carey singing about what she wanted for Christmas. It was hard to hear the music emanating from the phone clutched in Alexia’s hand over the wind, but Bianca relished the gloriousness of the moment.

She was free.

She had a friend.

She was alive.

Bianca had volunteered to take her brand new scooter (courtesy of Cian) out to grab some last minute items for their Christmas Eve celebration. Alexia had also opted to go along. They’d found a Walmart that was still open and had taken the side roads to get there, giggling and singing the whole way.