Rise of the Fallen Page 8

  “Well that wasn’t odd at all,” he said sarcastically.

  I looked up at him in concern. “Why did he let us go so easily?”

  CHAPTER 9

  The storm raged on and I almost didn’t hear the school bell ring. Hundreds of students rushed up the stairs, disappearing into various classrooms. I started to walk after them when Cael tapped my arm.

  “Do you want to get out of here and meet Holly?” He added quickly, “We can stay here if you want.”

  “I’d like to meet her,” I replied.

  Cael held out his hand for me to hold. I took it instantly and we both ran back out into the rain and jumped into a large puddle. Without even a splash Cael and I were transported into a rather large and freezing cold swimming pool. I paddled for a moment, stunned by the cold. Cael was laughing as he lifted me to the side of the pool. When we stood up I realised that we were both completely dry. There were no visible signs that we had just been submerged in water, apart from my goose bumps. I looked around and saw a tall, unkempt twostorey house.

  “Holly, it’s just me.” Cael said pulling me towards the pool fence. He was staring up at one of the windows on the top storey, though the only movement I saw was some white lace curtains falling back into place. We walked along a pathway surrounded by overgrown grass and weeds. Cael nodded towards the stairs and helped me over the last step. I heard a screen door slam shut but when I looked up I saw nothing. I turned to Cael, then I saw her. She barely reached his shoulder, standing next to him with her beautiful golden- brown hair and stunning green eyes.

  “I’m Holly … I suppose you’re Emilie?” The girl squeaked in a high-pitched voice. Quite frankly, she sounded like a chipmunk.

  “Yeah, I am.”

  Holly smiled politely and turned back to Cael. “Are we going yet?

  Since your last visit I’ve started remembering more about my past life … I don’t want to stay in this house anymore.”

  Cael shook his head apologetically. “We can’t go just yet, but it’s good that you’re remembering. What do you know now?”

  “I remember how I died,” Holly said in a melancholy tone.

  Cael raised an eyebrow. “And …?”

  “I was chased by a wolf or something, then I tripped and fell into a bush and had an allergic reaction to the pollen.”

  Cael burst out laughing. “Nature killed an elemental who controls nature? Nice.”

  Holly glared at him and turned away.

  I felt slightly left out of their conversation, but at the same time I was grateful because I now had the opportunity to laugh at everything that was said. Despite my amusement there was still something bothering me. It was a feeling, similar to déjà vu. Something was going to happen, and soon. I looked around the desolate yard for a moment while Cael continued teasing Holly.

  The garden was overgrown, probably a result of Holly’s maturing powers. This was her sanctuary, and she still wanted to leave. It would be wrong to move her to a totally different country, but it would be worse to leave her here. If we left her the demons would get to her within a month. They would raise her in the way they needed – they would train her to kill for them.

  “Why don’t you show Emilie what you can do, Holly?” Cael said, suddenly smiling at me.

  Holly sighed and blushed, walking grudgingly past me to stand in the middle of the yard. Long vines of weeds wound their way through the tall grass and wrapped themselves around Holly’s arms, lifting her up at least a metre above the ground. Everything seemed to freeze, and for the first time Holly genuinely smiled. Flowers bloomed all along the dark vines in a vibrant rainbow of colours. The most amazing and eye catching were the violet flowers that were the closest to Holly, surrounding her completely. It was possibly the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.

  Holly spoke urgently, looking at me with a slight fear in her eyes. “Just don’t touch the flowers, Emilie.”

  “Why?” I asked, confused.

  “The flowers contain a poison that kills in under a minute, it’s transmitted through touch.” Cael spoke quietly while walking over to me.

  There it was – the drawback to her powers. She was able to create such beauty and magnificence, but she was toxic.

  “If they’re so deadly, Holly, how can you be so close to them?” I hoped my voice didn’t come across as irritable as I thought it did.

  “She’s immune to her own powers, Emilie,” Cael said in a slightly cold voice.

  “I didn’t mean anything by that, Cael.” I said quickly in an attempt to defend myself.

  Cael shook his head in irritation before returning to the stairs. I looked down at my shoes, disappointed with myself. In all my years of existence I never would have believed that I would feel ashamed of myself or that I would make so many mistakes. Oh, how I had changed. I really must say that I regretted how I’d behaved over the last few centuries. I supposed my life had really gone downhill since Dorian tried to kill me. Seems like a fairly good reason to act the way I did though.

  “It’s okay, Emilie. Cael’s just a jerk …” Holly said quietly with a sheepish smile.

  As I looked around I saw that the yard had gone back to how it was before. The hundreds of flowers that all but covered the lawn in deadly beauty were now gone. The yard was once again dull and lifeless, bringing back the horrors that Holly must have faced.

  “Are you two coming? I need to see what the … bodies look like and then we need to get rid of them.” Cael’s voice called down to us from the verandah in a low, serious voice.

  Holly walked slowly through the grass, her long, golden-brown hair swaying behind her as she walked up the stairs. It was obvious just from looking at her that she was an old soul. Holly handed Cael the house key and he unlocked the door. We stepped in and I looked around the room. It was a dark house and I had barely walked two steps when a shiver ran down my spine. Holly walked past us and sat in a large lounge chair, pulling out a paperback novel.

  Cael leaned towards me and whispered. “I have to tell you, when she told me that a possession had happened I didn’t believe her. I have only ever heard of a demonic possession once before, never seen one though. I thought demons always used possession as a last resort, it gets messy, or whatever.”

  I nodded in agreement and Cael smiled grimly. “All the signs I read about were there though, with the possession I mean.”

  “What signs? What do you mean?”

  Cael coughed nervously. “The room where I found the bodies … There were reversed pentacles drawn around them, trapping them in. And they definitely weren’t drawn by her parents, there had to be other demons there.” Cael’s voice had dropped to a new level of low, so low that I could barely hear him.

  “Why would they possess her parents if they only wanted to trap them and kill them?” I whispered back.

  It seemed a little pointless. When a demon possesses a weak human, they like to play with them. Trapping them and forcing them to kill themselves hardly seemed fun by demonic standards.

  “I really don’t know. My best guess is that they were planning on taking Holly but failed.” Cael’s voice was still very low, as though he didn’t want her to be affected by this.

  I guessed he’d forgotten that Holly had probably seen everything that had happened to her parents. What really confused me though, was why Cael wanted her to remember how she died in her past life. Past lives did interest me, but I didn’t dabble in that sort of thing. Everything happens for a reason, and if you died you were fulfilling your life’s purpose. It hardly made sense.

  “You, uh …” Cael began but stopped abruptly, looking away from me.

  “I what, Cael?” I asked laughing a little.

  He smiled and muttered that it was a little too far off topic. I punched him lightly on the shoulder.

  “Tell me!” I laughed.

  Holly cut in, barely looking up from her book. “Oh please, he likes you, obviously. He’s been checking you out since you got here. Probably befo
re that too.”

  Cael’s eyes widened and he blushed ever so slightly. “Holly, have you gone near your parents?” Cael asked quietly.

  Holly shook her head and continued reading. The house was quiet and, though it was slightly musty, there were no signs that there were a couple of two-week old corpses locked in a room. I voiced that to Cael as he led me through the narrow hallway.

  “I’m fairly sure the pentagrams have stopped decomposition. You’ll see soon anyway.”

  Cael stopped me in front of a closed bedroom door. I looked on silently, trying to mentally prepare myself for what I was going to see. Cael opened the door, and I saw two bodies lying side by side, their hands clasped together firmly. The bodies were intact; the only visible sign that Holly’s parents weren’t just sleeping was the completely horrific sight of their throats and necks.

  Each neck was so completely decimated that the spinal cord was clearly visible. I looked away in horror. Cael sighed and muttered that they should be left exactly as they were until the instant that we were leaving. I breathed deeply to steady myself before looking back at the bodies. The only odour was the distinct smell of pure bleach. There were at least five empty four-litre bottles of bleach sitting discarded on the floor. No doubt it was the bleach that had eroded their throats, though their mouths showed no visible signs that any bleach had passed their lips. I doubted a toxicology screening would have identified the bleach; the demons responsible would have made sure that the cause of death was impossible to determine.

  “Do you think maybe it was some demons from Legion Five?” Cael asked.

  I shook my head before changing my mind, “I don’t know, Cael, it could’ve been any number of demons.”

  Cael nodded, “I thought of that.”

  Cael led me out of the room, shutting the door securely behind us. We re-entered the lounge room, where Holly still sat quietly reading her novel.

  “When are we leaving, Cael?”

  Holly looked up, dropping the book to the floor. “You aren’t leaving yet are you? You can’t leave me alone!”

  “We have to leave right now. We’ll be back tomorrow for you, Holly,” Cael said reassuringly.

  She just stared at him for a moment before nodding wordlessly. Cael reached out for my hand and I took it instantly. He led me into the backyard and opened the pool gate, gesturing for me to go first. I walked past him and he followed close behind, letting the gate swing shut noisily. All the while I felt Holly’s stare fixed on us – I couldn’t understand how she could stay in that house all alone, knowing what had happened.

  Cael put his hand on my waist and gently pulled me down into the cool, blue water. There was no resulting splash, nor the heart-stopping shock of the freezing cold water.

  I looked around and saw we were in Montague Park, standing knee deep in the muddy Brisbane River. Cael quickly pulled me out and once again we were completely dry. The sky was dark, but it was no longer storming. The park was silent and Cael told me that it was probably only three in the afternoon.

  “We have nowhere to go, Cael …” I turned to him slowly.

  He looked down at me, then quickly looked away nervously before he spoke. “That doesn’t matter. All that matters is that we’re both okay.”

  Cael hugged me to him and steered me toward the pathway. I don’t know how far we walked or for how long, but we saw the sun set and rise, beckoning a new morning. I wasn’t worried anymore; Cael would always be there for me.

  CHAPTER 10

  We had been walking for most of the morning. School wasn’t an issue any longer; Cael had phoned in, claiming to be our father, and withdrawn us from Palomar State High School. There was nothing particularly upsetting in leaving high school for the umpteenth time. After all, I had learned all of this before, and probably had even lived during the most critical times in the world’s development. But like I said, school wasn’t the issue here.

  The issue was moving without being followed or stopped by Dorian, Soul or anyone else who was looking for us. I hadn’t been too concerned with moving until Cael began to make me increasingly aware of the risks of leaving. The most concerning side effect was being killed. Obviously, that was the least desired outcome. I mentioned this to Cael, but he simply shook his head with a smile.

  I had almost forgotten about Holly over the long night and morning. It became clear to me that there had to be some sort of time difference between where she lived and where we were right now, but I hadn’t noticed that before. When I asked Cael, he simply told me not to worry, everything would work out fine. He was one of the only people I could trust to look after me and I was completely fine with that.

  Cael told me I should learn to trust Holly the same as I trusted him, but I couldn’t see that happening. At least, not any time soon.

  I barely knew her – I had only met her once and I didn’t trust her powers. Her parents’ death was suspicious, with everything far too perfect and neat. I knew demons; they were anything but deliberate in their actions. They preferred to let things fall into place; they don’t plan. It was for that reason that I couldn’t bring myself to trust her.

  Behind her deep, green eyes and that charming, doll-like face, she was hiding something. I didn’t doubt for a second that demons were involved with Holly’s parents’ death, but I doubted the cause. It made no sense, and it shocked me that Cael was so quick to believe her.

  I wanted to call Dorian and ask him if he knew anything about it, but with Cael around me at all times I couldn’t find a moment alone to make the call. He probably wouldn’t tell me much anyway, Dorian rarely did. Unlike Soul. Perhaps I was wrong and Soul wasn’t like Dorian in every way, but they were still close. When Dorian spoke about Soul it was as though they were close companions or friends.

  Cael wouldn’t say it, but I knew that he was furious with me for hurting Soul. I had unleashed hell on us – literally. I knew Lilith wouldn’t just let us leave, but we had to try. I barely knew what she wanted with me. It seemed impractical to only want me to join them.

  Nevertheless, my ideas and opinions remained unheard. Normally that wouldn’t have bothered me, except this time I had a feeling that I was right. It was pointless to argue though; Cael was only trying to take care of me … and Holly.

  Half the day had passed and nothing particularly exciting happened, until my phone rang. Cael looked over at me with curiosity as I quietly answered.

  “Emilie, I think you should tell Cael that you’re not going anywhere. We’re not going to let you, I promise you that.” Soul’s voice sounded slightly broken with a tinge of regret.

  “You can’t stop me from leaving, Soul.” I had hesitated before answering, worried my voice would reveal the uncertainty I felt.

  The line was quiet for a moment before he spoke again. “You sound tense, Emilie …”

  “I’m fine and I … I’m leaving with Cael,” I stuttered.

  “I don’t believe you,” his voice was forceful. “You’ve changed your mind, haven’t you? Where are you, I’ll come and get you.”

  “I can’t … I want to leave with Cael,” I said in a stronger voice this time.

  “You’re lying. You don’t know what you want,” he hissed. “Tell me where you are and you can stay with me forever.”

  I looked over at Cael, my eyes wide. “But Soul, Dorian said you’re furious with me, why would you take me back anyway?”

  Cael looked at me in disbelief, mouthing the words, “Soul wants you back?”

  I shrugged and waited for Soul to reply. It was a while before he spoke and when he did, his voice was angry.

  “So you listened to Dorian? Emilie, you should know better than that. He was just messing with you. Trust me, Dorian is one of my closest friends and he’s more pissed off about you leaving me than I am.”

  “Oh gee thanks, that’s a comfort!” I replied sarcastically.

  “Oh my God, Emilie, you aren’t seriously going to get offended by that, are you? You know I care about you
. Dorian only cared that we lost the chance for a reward.” Soul’s voice was both impatient and amused.

  “So … all you cared about was a reward then?” I asked.

  “What? No … No! That was just a bonus …” Soul mumbled the last part, aware that he was making things worse.

  “Fine then, Soul. I’ll tell Cael what you said. If that’s all you wanted, I have things to do,” I said, my irritation growing.

  “That’s not all I wanted to talk to you about, Emilie,” Soul interjected just before I hung up on him.

  “Well what else then?” I asked.

  I was far too annoyed to keep dealing with this mindless chatter.

  Sure, I didn’t trust Holly and didn’t understand why Cael did, but that didn’t mean that I didn’t want to leave.

  “Lilith knows about Holly and she wanted to warn you. Don’t trust her, she will never trust you. She knew the demons who killed her parents. You can believe it if you want, or don’t. I honestly couldn’t care less, but I do care that you’re in danger,” Soul spoke quickly.

  I believed him. It would explain so much more … The demons wouldn’t have tried to go after her because they already controlled her. And the only reason she made friends with Cael was to sell him to the demons that owned her.

  Perhaps Soul was lying. It wouldn’t be the first time a demon had lied, though it was strange that it seemed like he was trying to take care of me.

  “I know,” I replied, ignoring Cael’s looks of confusion.

  “Also … I wanted to warn you that we won’t let you leave. I know that I’ve said it before, but I just need to ask you not to fight back. I know Cael will, and they won’t care. He’ll be taken care of and I don’t want to see you hurt so please don’t fight back, Emilie.” Soul’s voice was once again quick and now held a concerned tone.

  “What do you mean?” I asked, as Cael shot me a look of confusion and anger.

  “We will kill him if he fights back,” Soul’s voice was bleak. “I just thought you should know that you have an hour to call back and tell me that you’ve changed your plans.”