Michael Griffo - Unafraid

“Aren’t you the one who’s always telling me how special I am?” she asked. “Let me prove it.”

Reluctantly, Ciaran was forced to admit that Saoirse could protect herself better than he could. “Be careful,” he warned.

Following her instincts, Saoirse sprinted to Archangel Cathedral and wasn’t surprised to find Sister Mary praying in a pew near the back of the church. She was surprised, however, to see Nakano kneeling next to her. Suddenly, her burden was too heavy, and Saoirse gently placed Blakeley on the cold, marble floor. He didn’t feel the chill. Switching places, Sister Mary knelt next to Blakeley, and Saoirse sat next to Nakano. As Kano held his friend’s hand, Blakeley reached up for Sister Mary’s.

The nun cradled his head in her lap, not looking away from his fearful eyes, not flinching at his grotesque wounds. She crossed herself and then kissed the small, silver crucifix that always adorned her neck.

“Sister,” Blakeley said, as the blood poured from his neck, staining her habit. “Please ... teach me to pray before I die.”

“Repeat after me,” she said. “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.” She continued, pausing after each phrase so Blakeley could repeat her words, so he could finally speak out loud the prayer that had eluded him for almost his entire lifetime. Saying the words softly, slowly, he felt like a child learning how to speak, learning a language he had never known existed. He wanted to thank her for giving him such a beautiful gift, but the moment after he mouthed the word Amen, he was dead.

The Well wanted to be alone. It had had enough of intruders and uninvited guests and wanted them to leave. It was trying to be subtle, vibrate at a low frequency, shake the earth noticeably, but lightly, hoping its message would be received. Several minutes had passed, and still no one was taking the hint. All right then. The time had come for more drastic action.

Rumbling louder, The Well shook the earth more violently. Brania and Imogene fell to the ground on top of each other, and Ronan grabbed onto both Edwige and Michael for support so he wouldn’t topple over. Only David stood tall, unfazed by the anger that was erupting around them. As the rocks in the walls started to grind against each other and shift position, the cave began to fill with dust.

David smiled and raised his hands over his head, making his wings stretch out a few inches farther. “I pledge to you, Zachariel,” David prayed, “that I will destroy this Well and wipe its existence from your earth!”

An earsplitting roar bellowed from The Well itself, and the stones in the ground and the ceiling started to split apart from one other. Michael didn’t know who was in control—David or The Well-but it looked like the cave was starting to be demolished. He held on to Ronan tighter and was glad to see that his boyfriend was getting his strength back, that the fire was returning to his eyes, but Michael wondered if it was too late. What could they possibly do to stop David from carrying out his depraved plot? Sure, the man was demented, but he had been successful. He had found The Well’s location just as he had threatened.

“Water connects life to death, bridging the gap to immortality,” David said. “Once I sever your connection and destroy the source of your abhorrent race, you will wither and die as Zachariel and I have always wished it to be!”

“Will you shut up about Zachariel!” Michael cried. “He is nothing compared to The Well!”

David loved accepting a challenge from someone he considered a fool. “Let’s see about that,” he fumed.

Standing with his back to The Well, David tucked his wings in close to his body. Then he arched his back so they could unfurl at a rapid speed and slap against The Well’s already shaking stones.

Laughing wildly, David kept flapping his immense wings, and each time feather struck rock the entire cave shook. Soon it looked like The Well was being torn from its foundation. Michael couldn’t believe it. David was doing it; he was actually destroying The Well. This had gone too far.

“Are you strong enough to fight?” Michael silently asked Ronan.

“I’ll be right by your side, love.”

Splitting apart, they each jumped up and grabbed onto a wing, but David’s unnatural appendages were so thick and powerful, they wouldn’t bend. Michael and Ronan could only hang onto them, unable to touch the ground with their feet to gain leverage. As a result their added weight did nothing to slow down the wings’ assault.

“Slide!” Michael heard Ronan silently yell, and they both slid down the wings in opposite directions until they were at the tips. There they could plant themselves firmly onto the ground and hold on to the uncooperative wings. As they dug their heels into the cave’s vibrating floor, it took all their strength to prevent the wings from unfurling completely. But they were succeeding. They heard David’s laugh die as his wings fluttered with even more intensity, like a fly’s when it knows it has been captured. Only this time Michael and Ronan were the pests.

Even though the boys had interrupted David’s assault on The Well, destruction had been set in motion, and all around them the hallowed ground was crumbling. Water was starting to pour into the cave from crevices between the rocks, crevices that were widening with each second. Brania felt the cold rush of water around her feet, and she realized that she was way out of her element. Not to mention her comfort zone.

“Just how far underwater are we?” she asked.

“A few hundred miles,” Edwige replied. “Give or take.”

Give or take?! Brania was suddenly gripped with an irrational fear of drowning. It was irrational because she was a vampire, and she should have the ability to swim a hundred or so miles while holding her breath. But this living and breathing underwater thing was an unknown concept to her. She had spent the past several centuries landlocked, and she preferred it that way. Plus, her feud with water vampires made her despise the sea, so perhaps her fear of the water wasn’t so irrational after all. It was, however, going to pose a problem, since the water was now rising up to her knees. “How am I supposed to get out of here?!”

“The same way you got in,” Imogene replied.

That’s my girl, Brania thought, always willing to serve your mother.

“As long as you give me my freedom in return,” the girl said.

The words stung Brania and created such a heat within her body that it threatened to boil the water around her. “What?”

Despite all the chaos, Imogene was calm when she spoke. “Whatever is going to happen to me, if I continue to live or die or remain in this limbo, I want to do it without being tied to anyone,” she explained. “I want to be free.”

As much as Brania wanted to get angry, as much as she wanted to throttle Imogene and hold her ungrateful head under the icy water to see what really would happen to the girl, she couldn’t, because more than anything else, she was hurt. She had come to love her companion in a way that she had never loved any other being. The feeling, clearly, was not mutual. Brania wanted to tell Imogene that Imogene had been her salvation this past year, the only ray of light in an endless tunnel of darkness that had threatened to destroy her. But she was not used to pleading; she was not used to fighting for a relationship to survive. “Fine,” Brania said, her voice much harsher than the feelings that lay in her heart. “If that’s what you want, you can have your bloody freedom.”

“Thank you,” Imogene replied. Satisfied, she grabbed hold of both Brania and Edwige, and then there were no more women in the cave.