Chapter Three: All of The Evil

Dux stepped to where Tag had been standing. “Stay close. Tom, you’re behind me. Kid and Mandy, you’re in the middle. Switch you take the rear.”

“Kid? Mandy?” I asked.

“She is one. You look like a Mandy. Enough talk, we can chat when we’re safe.” Dux turned and ran toward the street.

We streamed after her, following like the snaking body of a caterpillar. She gripped her sword handle, checking every corner we passed.

The streets here were mirror images of urban areas in the real world. However, sections had been scoured black, and there were craters in the concrete. Whatever had been fighting here, they caused destruction.

Houses lined the road. They were all burned down. Their wood had turned black and the parts that were still standing looked like blackened limbs. Some of the houses had concrete foundations and walls. They made for perfect hideaways. The deeper we went into the area, the more destruction that had taken place.

And as the houses got smaller and we got a better view of the sky, the halfway point came into full view. The blue sky and sunlight stopped in what can only be described as the middle of this realm, the other side was blood red with a black moon.

Dux called us to a halt behind a tall maroon fence. "Heaven and Hell didn't merge down here. Instead, somehow the two sides divided and flipped."

"Separated into halves?" Tom asked.

"That's another discussion, but kind of." Dux shrugged.

"I have another question," Tom said. "Tag mentioned my ability might act strangely at the start."

"Try not to think about it," Dux said.

"But. . . well, it's gone.”

Dux sighed. "You don't listen very well, do you? Look, we'll talk more when we get where we're going."

We put our heads down and started running again.

Tom's words had sounded odd. The Imp hadn't mentioned losing a talent or that they would morph. Either these thorns knew something we didn't or there was something else going on.

Dux led us down the empty streets, roads void of cars or people. We took sharp turns and jogged down pathways which connected between roads. It reminded me of the streets where I had lived.

You could pass kids playing soccer on the road and the little ones zooming down the footpath on their tricycles. They became more like my family than my actual one. And between the streets, the downtown library, and school, I usually only went home to sleep. Not because I didn't like our house. It was a beautiful urban property with everything a family needed to set up something good. But because even staying the night meant that you heard the shouting and if you came home before the fight started, then the time you came home was the fight.

“Stop here,” Dux hissed.

We crouched in an alleyway that cut between two streets. Everyone stayed silent, holding our breaths as we listened.

Tom knelt behind Dux. The holster with her gun rested inches from his fingertips. He stared at the weapon. Dux had her head craned forward, listening. She didn’t know what was coming.

I didn’t think he had it in him.

Tom inched his fingers toward the gun.

Poppy looked back at me, her eyes wide. I gritted my teeth. Tom’s fingers curled around the handle of the weapon.

Switch gasped.

Tom yanked the gun and shoved it against Dux’s neck. She stopped mid-turn.

"Put it down."

“Where are you taking us?” Tom said.

Dux kept her lips pursed.

“Tag said we should head south. You’re moving west, away from the sun.”

“Shoot me then.”

Tom gritted his teeth, his hands rattling with the gun. "Be honest with us, dammit."

"Shoot me," Dux said.

"Tom, don't do it," I said.

If he killed her, we would be in an even bigger mess. Having enemies on both sides of the spectrum would be worse than having no one at all.

"Think about this!" I said.

Tom pulled the trigger. The gun gave an empty click. Tom stared at the gun, open-mouthed.

“You can’t shoot a thorn with a black gun,” Dux said, taking it from his limp grasp. “You need a white one or a grey one for that. Whites are common as blacks. It’s the greys that are rare.

“But you threatened us,” Tom said.

“We just wanted to make sure you weren’t dangerous. Sometimes guns aren’t the best weapons.”

My heart raced. They had played us. Every single one of them.

"What about his talent?" I said. "You knew something about that, too."

Dux glanced back at Switch. He averted his eyes.

"This is bullshit. We're doing what you've asked."

"Identical talents screw things up," Dux said. "We believe the Angel sniffed us out because Switch and Tom matched."

"You made him break the rules on purpose."

They had forced us into a corner and only given us one option.

"Either we survive and find a new God. Or we lose every time and let this war waste away the years. We lied because we had too."

"My talent," Tom said. "It's gone."

"You broke the rules," Dux said. "That has consequences."

I balled my fists. "You should have told him what would happen."

"And then what?" Dux said. "We kill him and one of us is infected with the Talent. We tell him and he runs away, risking the enemy capturing it while we lose a man. We took the smartest option."

I looked back at Switch. He stared at the fence.

"How do we know this isn't another trap?"

"There are no other options," Dux said. "Who knows, you might even like this."

Something about her words took me back to Switch's introduction. He had said 'they'll make you like it'. It seemed normal then. But now it stuck out. Dux's words were almost an exact mirror of that.

Dux stood up, watching the end of the alleyway.

Despite all of her talk, my instincts told me to get away. I placed a hand on Poppy’s back. She turned.

“Be ready,” I whispered.

She nodded.

A figure filled the opposite end of the alleyway. It wore a suit of matte black knight's armour with helmet and visor and carried a sleek black sword. There were large dark feathered wings at its back. The creature folded them in and then approached us. As it came closer, I noticed the sword was made of black and grey cubes that flowed up and down the surface like they were melting and then solidifying. The sword would dwarf any human body and was defined by a sharp tip.

"Dux." The Dark Angel inclined his head.

His voice was deep and chilling. It set me on edge. The other members of the group backed up as well.

"D-d-d-demi," Switch whispered.

"Is it on our side?" I whispered back.

He looked at the creature and then shrugged.

"I’ve set everything,” Dux said, standing in front of the Demi.

“How long?” the creature asked.

Dux turned back toward the sun. “Thirty seconds at most.”

“Old Hell or Gun Town?”

“Old Hell first,” Dux said. “I’ve got a debt to settle with Guntar.”

The Demi relaxed. Its sword retracted, all of the cubes folding in on themselves until there was one small cube left. “And them?”

"Fresh spawns.”

"Our first servants," the Demi said, walking toward us.

Tom pressed up against the fence, trying not to look at the creature. Poppy didn't make a move.

I wanted to hide, as the terror made my fingers shake. But I couldn't look away, the longer I stared the more the details engraved on the creature's armour came to life. There were small red horns poking out, and sharp red tips poked from the end of each digit of the armoured gloves.

The longer I stared, the harder it became to remember.

The Demi’s gaze rested on me, and he didn’t look away. The cubes folded back out. This time the sword was grey.

“Who are you?” he asked. His voice sent chills down my spine.

I looked at the others, unsure of what to say.

“She’s just a freshie, Lark,” Dux said.

Lark slammed his hand into my throat.

I screamed. The edges of his gloves bit into my flesh. It burned. I tried to break free. But he held so tight that my head felt like it would pop if did.

"Who is she?" he asked as if the answer would decide my fate.

"I don't know!" Dux said. “Ma-Mandy?"

"Lexi," Tom said. “She’s innocent!”

Poppy grabbed at the Demi's legs. He kicked her. She slammed into the fence and crumpled.

"She is the splitting image of Adrell,” Lark said.

My throat cartilage felt like it would bend and snap. I had no doubt he could break each one of my bones without trying.

I kicked at Lark. My foot thudded uselessly against the black armour.

"Please," I tried to say, but my voice didn't come.

Poppy screamed and attacked him again.

An explosion sounded in the distance. The ground shook beneath us. Lark relented his grip.

My knees thudded against the concrete. Pain shot up my side. I held my throat, coughing in between gasps for air. Everything hurt, from my legs to my ribs, to my face.

Poppy stood between me and the Demi. That’s when I noticed that her nails had scraped away bits of his armour.

A second explosion sounded. The street vibrated from the aftershock. Bits of broken concrete bounced across the ground.

“It’s done,” Dux said.

“We need to take her to the Throne,” Lark said. "It's more important than anything else. Even this."

Dux swallowed. "She really looks like the leader of Heaven?"

"You think I would lie?" Lark said. "Twins is not a valid measure, duplicates, the living breathing ditto."

I wiped the tears from the edge of my eyes. “Poppy.”

Poppy turned.

“Run,” I said, as a third explosion rocked the world. "Please run."

Poppy grabbed my arm and yanked me under the Demi’s legs. I fell forward, knocking my elbow on the concrete. Poppy pulled me through a gap in the fence. I rolled onto a lawn of dead grass.

“Stop her!” Lark screamed.

But we didn’t look back. Not even when we heard the flapping wings. We just ran.