“Watch out!”

Kye reached for Auriella and pushed her out of the way. Auriella tumbled to the ground, breathing hard. She pulled herself to sit up, finding that her entire body was shaking, and her heart was beating at a dangerous speed. She looked at Kye who had fallen near her, evading the creature as he saved her from its grasp, a large cut staining his sleeve.

“Oh my God, Kye,” Auriella gasped. She forced herself towards him, grabbing his arm. “Are… are you alright?”

Kye groaned.

Auriella looked up and found the creature recovering on the floor. Their evasion seemed to have stunned the thing and left it to skid against the concrete, scratching its maroon skin. It was a large creature, bigger than her and Kye’s height combined, with sharp talons and short, pointed horns. It let out an ear-piercing wail before turning towards her, its face contorted and baring its fangs.

Auriella recognized what it was.

A demon.

The creature charged towards them.

“Get up, get up!” Kye said frantically, pulling Auriella to her feet. Auriella felt dazed, her legs wobbly.

It’d been a year since she saw a demon.

“We got to run.” Kye tugged on Auriella’s arm, but the girl remained frozen in her place. “Auriella!”

She knew that they existed. Norman had told her about the destruction and malice they caused, about how merciless they were even to their own kind. They had no minds, no conscience; the only thing that drove them was their bloodlust.

They were creatures of Talonis, after all.

She’d seen them before, too. The first time was the day she escaped Ihimya. Moments before her escape, they infiltrated Norman’s palace with an order to kill him and all that got in his way–

“Dammit!”

Just as the demon launched itself in the air, Kye pushed Auriella out of the way. The demon collapsed onto him, and the two rolled on the floor. Kye pushed the demon against the concrete, grasping its wrists from piercing his flesh. The demon wailed, growling its fangs at Kye.

“Auriella, go!” He yelled. “Get the hell out of here!”

Auriella gasped as she found it hard to breathe. Her body couldn’t move, yet it trembled with intense effort. She watched as the demon overpowered Kye and smacked him against the floor. He let out a choke from the force, but he recovered and kicked the demon, sending it to a nearby bench. The bench crumbled, and the demon wailed.

Kye crawled towards Auriella and shook her.

“You’ve got to move!” He cried desperately.

Auriella wanted to, but she couldn’t. It was as if the demon had cast a spell on her, making her fear too great for her to even whimper.

“What’s wrong?” He asked.

A lot was. Obviously, there was a demon. But Auriella realized a lot had gone wrong since the moment she heard Norman’s name. From her burn, to the headache, and then a demon. Now, it seemed that the threat of repressed memories resurfacing was before her, and it was too much to bear. Maybe that was what’s wrong.

She remembered the Ihimyan attack so vividly.

“Au–” Kye’s words were cut off as the demon leaped onto him once more and pressed him against the concrete, its force cracking it. Kye stilled beneath the demon, but his chest rose in uneven breaths. The demon screamed.

Help him.

The voice snapped Auriella from her initial shock, and she slowly regained composure over her frozen body.

“W-What?” She whispered.

Help him.

She looked at Kye who slowly recovered from the attack and was weakly beating against the demon’s chest. But his efforts were fruitless as the demon raised its talon and struck Kye in the chest, just above his heart.

He screamed.

“I don’t know what to do!” Auriella said. She scrambled back. The scene was too familiar, too painfully familiar. She wanted to run– no, she had to run. There was nothing she could do for Kye, just as there was nothing she could’ve done then, when her Ihimyan friends had been attacked in the same manner…

Auriella wobbled to her feet and bolted. Or at least tried to. Her body still felt like jelly.

Do not run away.

Life threatening situation or not, Auriella was sure pissed at the voice. Earlier it had told her to run, and now it was telling her to not.

Yet again, earlier the demon hadn’t attacked, Kye wasn’t injured, and the thought of abandoning Kye to face the demon’s wrath alone didn’t even cross her mind.

“There’s nothing I can do,” Auriella said.

Think clearly.

“But I am!”

The answers are within you.

“Auriella.” Auriella turned around to the sound of Kye’s voice. He was bleeding black, from both his eyes and his mouth. “Help… me.”

Find them.

Auriella’s eyes began to water. It was exactly the same. How her friends had died in Ihimya, and how she abandoned all of them for a ferry ride to Earth.

Exactly the same.

Auriella shook her head. “I can’t.” She took a step back. Then another. “I can’t do this.”

Her legs began to move in the way that she wanted, and Auriella began sprinting, blocking out Kye’s cries. But she didn’t make it any further past the entrance to the town square when her legs suddenly stopped on their own, and she turned back around to Kye.

Fine.

She heard the voice say.

I’ll do it.

Auriella began to glow and her hand moved on its own, the feelings of panic and hopelessness replaced by the overwhelming emotion of fearlessness and confidence. She felt as though she could defeat the demon, with her hand held out before her and the faintest spark of purple energy illuminating out of it. Yet, in her mind, she knew damn well that she was no match against it.

Her body continued to feel otherwise.

Then the low humming returned, stronger this time. It sounded as if something might burst out of her, and the warm, tingling feeling of the purple glow on her hand felt as though something would.

And it did.

Awake Gemini.

Auriella’s mouth moved to echo the voice’s words, and the warmth on her hands exploded into a bright flash of white. She squinted, stunned by her own power, and the energy reverberated around her. When Auriella regained sight of the town square, she found the demon entangled between fallen tables and chairs. The energy she blasted from her hand sent the creature flying, its crash causing another round of ear-piercing wails.

But that wasn’t the only thing the purple energy from her hand caused. Auriella’s eyes widened as Kye stood, his body hung over like a ragdoll, as the black blood from his eyes and chest wound disappeared. He raised his head slowly, cracking his neck and shoulders and any other joint that allowed him to fully stand erect. Auriella watched as his fist cracked open and a jade dagger materialized in it. Then his silhouette began to glow with the same energy that came from Auriella.

“Gemini,” Auriella whispered, though it was not her moving her lips. “Awaken.”

Kye held his head towards the sky. Not long after that, the bright glow outlining his shape darkened as a black figure emerged from within the boy’s chest. It was a distorted creature, both made of smoke and some kind of matter. It was both a specter and a man, an entity, all black except for its pine-colored eyes and its silver, pointed fangs that widened into a vicious smile.

When it crawled out of Kye, it gave a horrific laugh.

Then he threw his dagger, pinning the demon to a lamppost, and the entity charged towards it.

And ripped the demon apart.

Limb by limb.

“I’m free!” The man-smoke-entity thing squealed. “I’m free! I’m free! I’m finally fucking free!”

It was a terrifying sight. Each limb had been ripped and thrown like a piece of paper torn to shreds. The entity then reached for the demon’s head, grabbing it by the horns, and twisted it apart. Black blood pooled around its body as maniacal laughter echoed in Auriella’s ears.

Whatever that entity was, it was more of a demon than the actual demon, itself.

Kye whipped his head around to Auriella, and his eyes glimmered with recognition. He wobbled towards her in both injury and amazement, his hand widening as the thrown dagger magnetically returned to him. With a closer look, she could see his amber eyes crease as if to cry, but no tears formed within them. He reached out to touch her shoulder, but paused when his gaze sparked with a realization, and he pulled his hand back.

Kye closed his eyes, taking a breath to compose himself, then opened them. He flashed Auriella an incredibly charming smile that almost blinded her, more than the purple energy from earlier could ever do, and she had to actually squint just to see him.

“You must be the one,” he said. “Asteria’s vessel.”

At this point, Auriella could feel her body return to her control, and the low humming disappeared within her. She took a step back as she realized she didn’t know who this boy was anymore. This wasn’t Kye Martin, the dry whole wheat bread. This was someone else.

Someone who knew the Goddess.

Kye instantly read Auriella’s thoughts and chuckled. “Oh, my apologies. I should’ve introduced myself. What is your name, Miss, so that I may know how to address you?”

Auriella’s shoulders tensed in suspicion, and she glared at the boy. “You first. Tell me your name.”

“Well, yes, I will–” Kye paused. “You are rather impatient.”

“Who are you?” Auriella demanded.

Trust him.

The boy straightened his shoulders, bearing an expression that crossed between confidence and pride.

“My name is Kian,” he answered with a small bow. “The Gemini Warrior.”