Christian was able to see one of the creatures, surrounded by wood splinters and glass shards, raise its arms. It seemed as if the air itself had become solid, forming a perfect sphere between the long, sharp fingers of the creature. Holding what seemed to be a ball made of bluish glass, the beast stepped forward, ignoring the incessant attacks from the ruins to which Christian had given life. With unexpected strength, the creature threw that sphere in Christian’s direction, who instinctively stepped back and invoked splinters, rubble and debris, which immediately surrounded him. As the sphere collided with the ruins, it burst into thousands of tiny and sharp pieces of glass, so numerous and minute that some of them had no problem in crossing the barrier of debris orbiting around Christian.

The youth let out a scream as he felt the sharp pain of the shards of glass cutting his skin, painfully embedded in his flesh. He felt the blood drip slowly, staining his shirt. He carefully felt his chest; his fingers extracted the two pieces of glass that had lodged in his skin and, when he examined his hands, he found them impregnated with blood. Christian took a step back, making sure that the debris around him formed a more solid barrier while a second creature was already preparing to throw a new crystal ball, which hit the wall that the ruins had become.

The wall of debris was certainly solid. However, this had left a terrible weak point: while the ruins surrounded Christian earlier, they were now all gathered in front of him, so that his back was exposed, defenceless against the attack that the third creature was readying at that very moment. Too late to react, Christian heard the crystal sphere cutting the air behind it. He turned around, covering his face with his arms, waiting for the impact, the pain, the blood.

However, Christian could only hear something shattering somewhere to his left, far away from him. As he pulled his arms away, his gaze met that of his father who, from the ground, had one arm raised in the air. Looking to his left, Christian saw the crystal ball, which had hit the wall after being repelled by his father’s power. The creature that had thrown that sphere did not seem to be happy in the least with it. It pounced, furious, on Victor, its sharp nails threatening to pierce his chest.

“No!” Christian shouted, and, like a torrent, the wall of debris rushed towards the creature, hitting it in mid-air as its fingers stalked inches away from his father.

The creature fell heavily to the ground, a puff of smoke escaping from its body, which remained motionless for a few moments, before rising again as if that had been only a minor inconvenience.

Powerful steps resonated from the hall. Throwing a fleeting glance so as not to lose sight of the smoking creature, Christian could see that the steps belonged to his mother, who had just appeared, pale face and two wet furrows on her cheeks.

“Christian, quickly, you have to go upstairs with your siblings.”

As if the creatures had understood Sarai’s words, all of them seemed to become determined to make sure that nobody left the room, no matter what. In a coordinated movement, the endless number of beasts raised their arms to form crystal spheres, each one bigger than the last.

With a jolt, a dozen crystal spheres flew through the air in all directions, the debris that Christian had given life, trying, without the least hint of success, to surround as many spheres as they could, trying, to no avail, to contain them and prevent them from impacting against Christian or his parents.

One of the spheres was flying frantically, directly to Christian’s head, but Victor’s power managed to divert it in time, barely touching the young man’s ear. Sarai stepped forward, eyes tightly closed, and raised her arms, fingers stretched out. Immediately, the vertiginous speed of those spheres decreased drastically until they stopped almost completely.

“My Son,” Sarai said, eyes still closed, frowning, “we need to go.”

Sarai grabbed her son by the arm and, as quickly as her legs would allow, the two of them left the living room, the spheres immediately regaining their normal speed and bursting into pieces on impact with the walls, ceiling or floor. Christian didn’t have time to check if either of them had collided with his father.

Climbing the steps two by two, Christian and Sarai reached the long corridor at the end of which the firmly closed door separated the big tower from the rest of the mansion. Like two blizzards, mother and son crossed the corridor, their steps resounding and reverberating incessantly against the walls while, in the distance, they could hear the noises of the creatures that, in all certainty, had left the living room and were ready to follow them wherever they went.

As they reached the door, both stopped, panting heavily. Sarai looked at her son. She looked so pale that Christian thought she would faint at any moment.

“Here, take it, so you’ll never forget me,” Sarai said, taking off the ring Christian had always seen on her middle finger. The jewel was made of fine and delicate silver strands, which, by their appearance, reminded him of pine needles. One of the needles, longer and slightly thicker than the others, was made of gold and surrounded the silver ones almost completely.

“Mum…”

“Take it!” Sarai said with urgency in her voice, for the creatures’ noises as they climbed the stairs already reached their ears.

Christian accepted the ring and tried to put it on the same finger his mother had worn it. However, it was too small for him. He managed to just barely fit it on his little finger.

Sarai then went to the door, caressed it with a finger and whispered something that Christian could not discern. With a slight snap, the door opened, revealing on the other side a wide circular room completely empty, in the centre of which were Ana and Alexis, their faces looking even paler than their mother’s.

“We have to hurry, they won’t leave us much time,” Sarai muttered, caressing the faces of her children, wiping away Alexis’ tears, hugging the three of them. “I love you so very much. And your father too.”

“Why don’t you come with us?” Ana whispered. Alexis, his eyes red, nodded vigorously.

“We can’t, sweetheart. We have to stay here.”

Anna held her mother’s hand tightly as she walked to the door. Tears streaming down her eyes, Sarai kissed her daughter’s forehead as Christian struggled to separate Ana and Alexis from their mother, trying to ignore the painful knot that was growing in his throat.

“Mum!” Alexis and Ana shouted in unison, trying desperately to reach her, Christian standing between his siblings and the door that Sarai was already closing from the other side.

A slight tremor shook the tower as Christian hugged his siblings. During the last minutes, his brain had been able to ignore the pain of the cuts that those creatures had produced in his arms and chest. However, there, in the middle of the shaking tower, the pain returned with such intensity that Christian feared losing consciousness.

The intensity of the tremor increased, and, through the tiny window, Christian could see the sky move. No, it was the tower that was moving. The room began to tilt gently, the three brothers slipping to a stop against the wall. As he peeked out of the window, Christian knew it had turned out all right: the tower had come loose from the castle and was now sliding gracefully down the slope, taking the three brothers away from the building that had been their home for so many years and that, that night, would become a grave for their parents.