City Of The Slain

At first their was only darkness… then Marley suspended in chains, shrieking for help... Mitchell bleeding out in Jeb’s arms... Anna in a circle of blue flames... Armie falling off the top of a skyscraper... with Shade finally standing before those of them who remained cackling as the evil Wizard declared triumphantly:

“The time has come!”

“Yes, it has...” Jeb heard himself mutter. And then, as quickly as these visions came, a bright light quickly eclipsed them all.

“Jeb?”

“...Huh...?”

“Wake up, you dumbass!”

Jeb felt a bucket of cold water splash on his face, awakening him immediately. Jeb blinked rapidly and gave an annoyed shiver. “What the hell, Mitchell?”

Jeb was lying on the floor of the psychic’s condemned building. Apparently, he passed out after she showed him the glimpses of Mirrorville’s future, of everyone’s future. The psychic was gone and so were her box and chair. In fact, the only thing remaining of Anastasia were small shards of her glassy hair littered around Jeb’s body.

Mitchell stood above Jeb and somewhat sighed in relief that his little brother was at least alive. Jeb made a mental note just to be thankful that Mitchell was showing any sign of familial love. But what surprised Jeb the most was that it wasn’t Marley who stood beside his brother. It was Reyna. Clad in a solid black leather jacket, her SkyFly jersey underneath, ripped blue-jeans, and sneakers. She also sported several bloody cuts on her face and a bruise on her temple. This could only mean one thing: something terrible happened. As usual.

“Where’s Marley?” Jeb grunted as he stood up. Damn’t, his body was sore.

“Captured,” said Mitchell. “Which you would have known if you weren’t busy trying to sneak a peek at the future. Tell me, how is Anastasia?”

“Still creepy as ever,” shrugged Jeb, rolling his shoulders to work out his aching muscles. “Just please don’t say that Shade’s the one who captured her.”

“Not sure Anastasia’s his type,” Mitchell replied.

“Not her,” growled Jeb. “Marley.”

“Well, who else would capture her?” Mitchell rolled his eyes, clearly tired of stating what he thought was the obvious.

“How could you let that happen?” Jeb snarled. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”

“This was going to happen eventually,” said Mitchell. “It was only a matter of when.”

“I don’t care!” said Jeb furiously. “She doesn’t have enough training to use her God Relic properly!”

“I know,” sighed Mitchell. “She’s letting fear override her judgement. I thought that she would have more courage than this. She was always so fiery in Mercynville. I never once saw her hands tremble like that, let alone suffer through such a severe anxiety attack.” Mitchell cut his eyes at Reyna, who refused to meet his gaze, looking down impatiently at her feet. “Apparently going through the mirror transferred some of Reyna’s… more problematic coping mechanisms to Marley. In all honesty, it actually explains a lot about —”

“Do you have any idea what we’ve put her through in the last week alone?” Jeb said with a form of rage that he had never felt before. “Because of us, she’s lost almost everything important to her and blames herself for it! For the first time in her life — Marley is suffering through such an extreme amount of guilt and remorse that it’s about to eat her up inside. I’ve been in her dreams — and in some cases deep into her subconscious — she’s not someone use to letting her emotions out directly! She would always keep the majority of her stress bottled up on the inside — and now she literally can’t! Even if it means survival! It’s something she’s never experienced until now! And if Shade murders her tonight, it will fall on our shoulders!”

“We both know that if he kills her before she relinquishes the God Relic to him, it’ll render the ring utterly useless. He’ll probably torture her for hours before it comes to that,” said Mitchell, thoughtfully.

“Torture?” said Reyna with a look of horror and contention. “Do either of you even care about what happens to Marley? You talk like this is just another day’s work. But this is my sister! Who knows what loathsome things that maniac is doing to her right now! So, you both need to get your sorry asses in line and do — do — do something!”

“She’s right,” said Mitchell. “Reyna remembers everything from both realms now. I guess it’s given her some form of clarity... and maybe even some of Marley’s fire. Plus, she does have a God Relic of her own.”

“What?” asked Jeb in disbelief.

“You’ve missed quite a lot during your little nap,” said Mitchell with the faintest hint of a sneer. “But neither of you needs to worry. This time I have a plan. One that Ignotus Shade will never see coming...”

I should have seen it coming, Marley thought to herself as she hung suspended in chains in a deep, damp, and dark tunnel. She should have known that eventually Shade would reveal himself and attack. Marley tried for the better half of an hour to blast herself free with her magic, to no avail. Now and then, her ring would glow faintly and then quickly fizzle out. It seemed as if her God Relic was the equivalent of a one-hit wonder.

So far, the Ozzy Osbourne wannabe had left Marley alone in the darkness. She was constantly fighting the urge to scream out in pain. It felt as if all of Marley’s ribs had shattered the moment of her capture. Hell, it even hurt to breathe.

And now I’m going to die wearing Reyna’s clothes, Marley looked down at her violet blouse bearing the creed: “Musicals Are My Life” and her sparkly glittered jeans. The ultimate humiliating death.

“Are you enjoying your rest, my darling?”

Shade had entered the tunnel and, for the first time, Marley saw the man who made her life hell. Who took her father away. He was tall and thin with a black goatee, pale white skin like a vampire, dark, sunken eyes, and jet-black long hair down to his legs. He was wearing a lime-green suit with a striped tie and brown buckled boots. Which gave the air of an outfit that was previously shredded and hastily put back together, and then worn about a thousand times.

“Can’t... say... I am...” Marley muttered as she struggled to talk.

“Now, now, don’t fret,” said Shade as he walked over and gently caressed Marley’s face. “This can all come to an end, my darling. All you have to do is relinquish your God Relic to me and you’re free to go.”

“I... don’t know... how to do that...”

“It’s as simple as just saying the words,” said Shade softly. He leaned in closer to Marley’s ear and whispered, “Just say it.”

“...Never!” Marley growled.

Shade stepped back and smiled. “You are your father’s daughter indeed, Marley Timmons. He was stubborn, too. But, alas, we all saw what happened to him in the end, didn’t we? Or did you?”

“If you... killed him... I’ll...”

“Oh, I didn’t kill him.” Shade formed a twisted smile around his crusted lips. “Patterson Timmons is very much alive. You see, during our last battle, he was so desperate to stop me from crossing over to the Mortal Realm in full power… he did something very drastic. He followed me into the bridge between realms and used all three God Relics to temporarily strip me of my form, memories, and powers. He fused me with a child that lived in the same town as you, my darling.”

“No...” muttered Marley. “Dad wouldn’t... he couldn’t...”

“Oh, but he did,” sneered Shade. “And it came at a high cost. Patterson became trapped in the bridge between realms and has been ever since. That’s why I was able to quietly regain everything that bastard stole from me. The longer he remained trapped there, the more my powers and identity returned to me. But I would never be truly whole again until I obtained all three God Relics and forever separated myself from that foolish child!

“So, I bided my time and summoned the Shaxera to awaken in Mirrorville to slaughter the citizens of this cursed city. I knew that damned Jeb Watkins would eventually reopen the portal from the Mortal Realm to find you. All I had to do was wait.”

“You were... at the school... the night Mitchell and Jeb brought us to Mirrorville...?”

“Indeed,” Shade sneered as he removed a fully charged wand from the pocket of his sports coat. It’s dark magic surging throughout its entirety.

“Then, why... why are you... telling me this...? Because I... I always hated... evil villain monologues...”

“Well, we’ve always been friends, haven’t we?” Shade raised his wand. “Whether or not you knew it. What was it we would always say? Oh, yes...” Shade stabbed the wand into Marley’s stomach.

Marley shrieked in pain as the dark magic pierced and burned her insides. It was a form of torture Marley never knew was possible. She wished more than anything that it would stop. Even though she knew this was just the beginning of her torment.

Shade smiled wickedly as he said, “...I believe it was: Do or die together. So, don’t fret. This ends with all of us together again. Soon Reyna will be here as well. Just like it should be...”

“It shouldn’t be like this, Armie,” said Reyna, talking into her phone. “But it is, and we just have to get over it. I need your help. Marley’s in danger and despite everything that’s happened, you two used to be friends. Even if you don’t remember it. Just — just listen to your heart or whatever and please call me back.”

Reyna ended her message to Armie’s voicemail in aggravation. The dummy could at least answer his phone. Reyna had already called him fifteen times in thirty minutes. A record. She knew he was hurt and might not even remember their lives in Mercynville, but Marley needed him and more importantly... Reyna did too.

“Any luck?” Jeb Watkins was leaning on the doorway inside the parlor of Watkins Manor. A beautiful place, really, and only a little on the tacky side.

“No,” said Reyna anxiously. “The ass still won’t answer his phone.”

“Well, that’s a phrase I never thought that I’d hear,” said Jeb. “It’s so weird only a Timmons could have said it.”

“Was that an insult or a compliment?” asked an annoyed Reyna.

“Both,” said Jeb, shrugging. “Look, from the way Marley speaks of Armie, I’m sure he’ll come around. He sounds like a good enough guy. And you can tell he’s crazy about you.”

“Well, it... it doesn’t matter,” Reyna said, trying not think of how much she missed the big dummy. “Whatever we — I mean, he felt or still feels it can’t be real. It’s just an aftereffect of being reborn into this weird place.”

Jeb smiled like he was silently laughing at an inside joke. “You know very little about magic, don’t you?”

“What do you think?” Reyna rolled her eyes. Damn’t! That was a total Marley thing to do. And was she still slouching? What had this place done to her?

“I’ll take that as a no,” said Jeb. “Magic can’t force you to love someone, Reyna. If you and Armie have feelings for each other here and now, then you had them back in the Mortal Realm too.”

“That — that can’t be true,” stuttered Reyna. “We haven’t even had an actual conversation in years, before all of — all of — this!”

“Maybe not. I wasn’t there,” shrugged Jeb. “But you both still could’ve missed having them… deep down, I mean.”

“You — you — you suck, Jeb Watkins!” Reyna snarled. She wanted to slug him as hard as she could or maybe even scream a sonic wave at him like she did with Shade earlier. But... no... those were things that Marley would do... not... not her, right? Reyna was a respectable woman and women like that would never resort to violence. Okay, maybe once or twice a slap fight would break out in Glee Club practice, but those were never anything serious.

Jeb watched her, shaking his head and letting out a low whistle. “Well, I’ve been told worse. Just know that you’re not the only one who cares about Marley and if we have any chance of saving her... you just need to get everything you’re feeling under control. If not, and you lose focus, your powers… can become a problem instead of an asset. You saw what happened to Marley earlier.”

“Yeah, I don’t need a reminder, thanks,” Reyna muttered. “It’s not like I knew my anxiety would go to her. …Or that the thing nightmares are made of would…”

“That was only a taste of what Ignotus Shade is capable of,” said Jeb darkly. “He will take what you feel and twist it into something completely unrecognizable. Just to make you suffer for his own amusement. And then....”

Jeb’s face went pale. He looked like he was going to throw up and Reyna didn’t feel so well either. All she could think about were hands forming out of those shadows and latching their claws into her, trying desperately to drag her to their master. That whole time she felt nothing but darkness, pain, fear and a cold sweat that had still failed to leave her body.

DING! DING!

Reyna nearly jumped when her phone went off. She looked down and cursed under her breath.

“Is it Armie?” Jeb asked.

“No, it’s my mother,” she sighed, “or father or whatever. They heard about the attack at the observatory and want me to come home immediately. They’re worried about me... and Marley.”

“Don’t answer,” Jeb advised. “This isn’t exactly going to be easy to explain.”

“I can’t,” said Reyna. “The only reason that I let you bring me and my family to this crazy realm was to save my mother. I need to let what’s left of her know what’s going on. She, or he, deserves to know about Marley.”

“I don’t think that it’s a good idea, Reyna,” said Jeb, rubbing his temples as if he had a headache.

“Don’t you have parents, Jeb?” asked Reyna.

“...I used to,” he sighed.

“Did you love them?”

“I used to,” Jeb replied, a hint of resentment growing in his voice.

“Then you know why I have to do this,” said Reyna. She wasn’t pleading or asking for his approval, merely stating a fact. She was going to do this no matter what. And not a soul in Mirrorville could stop her, even the Sleepwalker himself.

“Did Mitchell give you his number?”

“Uh, yeah,” said Reyna. “He gave it to me earlier after the whole killer shadows thing. Gross, if you ask me. I mean, have you seen how old he looks?”

“Please, don’t make me regret this,” said Jeb. “Mitchell doesn’t need you to locate Marley, but we will need your power to fight him when we do. So, keep your phone on you the whole time and if anything dangerous comes near you...”

“Fine,” said Reyna. “Now, I’m afraid I’ll have to jet.”

Reyna was two inches from the door when she heard Jeb call out: “Just remember what’s at stake.”

“I could never forget.” Reyna’s voice trembled slightly as she walked outside.

“Of course you couldn’t,” Jeb replied, the sincerity clear in his voice.

Jeb remembered how it felt to have a sibling ripped away by magic. The expression on Mitchell’s face had haunted him for two years, and would continue to do so for the rest of his life. If fate was cruel, magic made it truly heartless.

“Jeb... the potion is ready.”

Jeb walked up the flight of stairs and into Mitchell’s laboratory. Mitchell had just removed a vial of potion from the freezer and added two drops of a purple liquid.

“What’s that?”

Mitchell blinked in an annoyed manner and said, “The potion, of course. With any luck, once you drink this, you’ll be able to astral project yourself to wherever Shade is keeping Marley.”

“No,” said Jeb, “I meant, what were those two drops you just added to it?”

“Sweat of goat anus,” Mitchell smirked. “Does wonders for digestion.”

“You’re sick,” said Jeb. “You know that, right?”

“Eh.” Mitchell handed him the potion. “Bottoms up.”

“Before we do this,” said Jeb in such an anxious way that it didn’t suit him. “You should know that I’ve been keeping something from you. Two things actually. And one of them could end up destroying all of...”

Mitchell let out a loud laugh. “Sometimes you are far too dramatic! I already know that you’ve been having dreams of committing murders as Ignotus Shade.”

“How...?”

“Number one: You scream out in your sleep,” Mitchell chuckled. “I’m surprised that the entire city doesn’t know about all your nightmares, since you’re so freaking loud. Number two: ‘Demons of the shadows and all their evil deeds shall forever haunt the Sleepwalker until rest’s end.’ A delightful passage from the Scrolls of Service Patterson passed onto me years ago. Basically, since you wield that fancy little sword, it will show you every dark and horrific thing that goes bump in the night while you sleep. Even if it is from the demon’s perspective.”

“Why am I not convinced?” Jeb asked, his eyebrow raised.

“Because you’re you,” Mitchell said calmly.

“Why wouldn’t Patterson —?”

“Tell you any of this?” Mitchell’s eyes glistened as he next spoke. “Simple — you weren’t his first choice. But don’t worry, if it turns out I’m wrong and you are Shade’s vessel, then I’ll just kill you myself.”

“Really comforting, brother,” Jeb sighed.

“This coming from the man who ‘accidentally’ trapped my best friend dimensional limbo?” Mitchell replied, bitterly. “Do you really believe you deserve comfort after trying your best to keep that hidden from me?”

“Morrison already visited you, I take it?” Jeb frowned.

“Just how many of my friends did you trap inside limbo?” Mitchell’s eyebrows arched.

“What?”

“Since you felt the need to clarify the obvious, I mean,” Mitchell sneered.

“Just give me the damn potion,” Jeb glared as he downed the fowl smelling liquid. It tasted worse than he thought possible. Jeb felt an icy chill shudder down his spine as the surrounding manor vanished.

Marley didn’t know how much more she could take. Shade stabbed her five times in her stomach, twelve times in her arms, ten times in her thighs. She felt as if death couldn’t come soon enough. For some damned reason, though, her thoughts kept turning back to Jeb Watkins and how the smug jerk would tell her she should be stronger than this. That she was always stronger than this. Or maybe that was just her mind’s way of torturing her.

“Marley!”

Jeb found himself deep within the Underground, the catacombs drenched with blood. Her blood. Marley, suspended in magical chains, looked as though death would be a relief. Various wounds layered her battered body.

“Jeb...?” Marley blinked as if she were seeing him through a haze.

“Yeah... I’m — it’s me.” Jeb could barely make the words leave his mouth.

“If you’re here, to tell me I’m a strong woman and not to give up, you might as well go back to wherever hallucinations come from.”

“No,” said Jeb. “I’m here to tell you to hold on. We’re coming for you. Mitchell, Reyna, and I. We’re going to save you. I swear it.”

“If Reyna’s my last hope... I might as well just die already,” Marley said mirthlessly.

“She’s not your only hope,” said Jeb.

“I know,” said Marley. “An ex-janitor and the local smartass are coming too. Yay.”

“Marley... this isn’t you,” said Jeb. “You have never given up at any point in your life. Please, don’t start now.”

“...I am so tired of fighting, Jeb,” Marley cried. “I’ve always had to be the strong one in my family. The tough one. The one who could always take care of herself... because her mother couldn’t stand her. Reyna was always the one who needed to be taken care of by our mother. So, I became strong and stayed that way. You saw my dream, didn’t you? It was a memory. One I could never let go of… because I needed it to remind me that the only people who I could ever be weak around were my friends... and I don’t even have them anymore.

“Do you know how hard it is to be a strong woman twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week? Everyone else just expects me to be strong and never give up. Never cry. Show no type of weakness. Everyone else just told me to brush it off because I was strong. Eventually, I believed that damn excuse for a lie myself. So, I thought I could be a hero... I was wrong. I’m so tired of fighting... of being strong.”

“No!” Jeb ran over to her. “I won’t let you die.”

“That isn’t your choice, Jeb,” said Marley tearfully.

“Look, I’ve seen you when you’ve cried before,” said Jeb. “I’ve seen you every single time you’ve cried in the past few months. Whenever your mom treated you like you were second rate, or when the other kids made fun of Patterson leaving you and your family. And you know what I thought? I could see a girl who was always suffering and if I could be in the same realm as her — I would put myself around her and say that it’s alright to feel sadness and sorrow. It’s okay to be weak and not always be strong. That realms can be cruel and cold, and sometimes we all need one moment or even a lot of moments to cry. But to never give up hope that things will be better one day soon. Sometimes we all need to keep a light on in our lives to show us that darkness isn’t forever. It’s not about being strong or weak. Never has been. It’s about having hope and finding the light in our lives. So, keep a light on for me, Marley, and never turn it off.”

“I’m scared, Jeb,” said Marley.

“Sometimes having hope can be the scariest thing of all,” Jeb let a single tear run down his cheek. “But that makes us human.”

“How will you find me?” Marley asked.

“All I need to do is touch you,” said Jeb. “Then Mitchell’s potion will do the rest.”

“I don’t think that there’s a part of my body you could touch without me screaming,” said Marley.

“Well, there might be one part,” said Jeb, as he leaned in close and kissed Marley gently on her lips.

Marley closed her eyes and kissed him back, losing herself for a brief second in the thralls of passion. But when she opened her eyes, Jeb was gone.

Shade slowly crept out from the shadows, now holding a fresh wand. “Now, are you ready to relinquish the God Relic, or must we continue onward?”

“Give it your best shot, asshole,” Marley smirked. “Because you’ll never break me. I’ll never give up my hope of seeing you rotting away in your own personal hell. Because in the end, I’ll kill you! Just wait and see.”

“Maybe you’ll change your mind after Atrios arrives.” Shade jabbed the wand into Marley’s foot. “After all, the Duke of Hell can be very convincing.”

Reyna sighed with great trepidation as she walked through her apartment’s door.

Willis was cooking over a hot stove, his back turned to Reyna. “Umm, Mo — I mean, Dad? I’m home.”

“Where’s your sister?” He muttered.

“Uh... Marley didn’t really tell me where she was going,” said Reyna. “But I’m sure she’s alright.”

“So... you and the Watkins still haven’t found her yet, huh?”

Reyna blinked, holding her breath. “...What?”

“Do you have any idea how hard it is to put up with raising two annoying teenage girls?” Willis growled. “I don’t know how your mother and father put up with it for so long.”

“Who are you?” Reyna asked, backing up towards the door.

“My name is Utrios,” said Willis as he slowly turned around. Reyna nearly screamed when he did so. His face was melting away revealing a red and black, horned, scaled head without a trace of humanity inside of him. “I’m the Guardian of Hell. Don’t worry about Marley. My brother Atrios will finish with her soon enough. So, you and I can have a nice little family dinner. I haven’t tasted the flesh of a young-blood in such a long time.”

Utrios raised his hands, and the stove exploded in a roar of flames, immediately engulfing the entire apartment complex.

Reyna gulped as she forced herself to stand up tall and confident. If she was going to die, it would not be while she wore Marley’s hideous old haircut.