War of the Races

Dear Diary,

The wind is howling through burning willows and crackling bark. Embers from burnt down trees dancing through the blood tinged sky. Screams encompassing us at every corner on this blood-sodden earth. Houses are destroyed and families are torn apart. The world is coming to an end faster than anticipated and it is up to us to put an end to all this destruction and chaos.

It has not been too long since the War of the Races broke out and life as we know it is over. Witches banding together to fight off the evil that has seeped through the earth’s surface. Vampire’s minds being controlled by the hell that has broken loose. The problem is that we do not know what we are up against or how to banish it back to where they came from. My goal is to seal off the Dark Dimension to, hopefully, keep it out of our world for good.

“Blaze, come quickly!” Samuel hollers over the blast at the south entrance of the castle.

Tossing down my diary, I say a quick chant to the Goddesses watching over us as we try to lay this evil to rest, “Elements, I ask that you wrap yourselves around us to aid in our safeguard for whatever has come to us on this sorrowful night.” As I feel the warmth and protection flowing through me, I make my way to the south entrance prepared for battle.

As I make my way downstairs I am suddenly engulfed in smoke and debris. “Air, I call on you for your assistance in clearing this smoke.” In a matter of seconds, the smoke began to swirl around and slowly dissipate from the area. “Thank you, air. Please, make your way to the others and aid in their protection.”

“Samuel, Derek, Aria, what in the hell happened? Is everyone alright?” I feel slightly relieved that there is nothing waiting for me down here, after the last battle with the mind-controlled vampires, I need a little more time to rejuvenate.

“I have no clue as to what happened. We were just in the middle of discussing how we are going to figure out what we are up against and the next thing we know, the wall was blasted out” Samuel retorts.

“Yeah, I definitely will not be sleeping anytime soon after this. This is supposed to be our safe-haven and suddenly it is being destroyed and we have no idea from where or by who” Aria said.

“Derek, are you alright? You are oddly quiet tonight.” He is never this silent, especially when something terrible has just happened. He is usually the voice that calms down the crowd, the voice who uplifts those who surround him. Something is wrong.

“Y-yeah, fine,” Derek said in a tone that sent shivers down my spine. Everyone looked at each other and immediately knew what was wrong and in that same instant, everyone began to move at the speed of light. Sam and Aria quickly grabbed Derek and restrained him to the best of their abilities.

“Nyx, I call upon you in this dire time of need to provide me with the strength to heal this broken mind. To be able to give Derek the freedom that he has been fighting for.” I closed my eyes and took a couple deep breaths, breathing in the energy and strength that began surrounding my being. I could feel the power surging through my veins.

“Spirit, I call on you. I need you to engulf Derek with your essence. Provide him with the necessary relief so he is no longer feeling the pain and anger that has taken over his being.”

Derek began to laugh in a way that threw everyone off balance and in that moment, he vanishes. That is when all hell began to break loose.

A red mist began to roll down the stairs and seep from the walls. In that moment, we knew that we were not alone. Whispering threats began lightly bouncing off the walls around us as the mist grew thicker. You could almost say that you could smell death in the air.

“Is everyone alright so far?” I said just loud enough for those in our immediate surroundings to hear. Something seemed off and after what has happened thus far, that is not a good thing for me to say.

“Yeah, I think that I am good,” whispered Aria. “Samuel…are you still with us as well?” Aria’s voice began to shake.

“Yeah…I am alright…” Samuel says as he lets out a few short coughs. “My throat is on fire though and it is getting hard for me to breathe.” His coughs grow worse and it was in that moment that I knew that the mist was somehow poisoning us with every breath that we took.

“Alright.” I take a deep and calming breath. “I want you both to listen to me and listen very carefully because we do not have the time for me to repeat myself. This mist is slowly poisoning us. Now, I am not sure how and I am not sure how to stop it either, but we can slow down the process by breathing as little as possible and blindly trying to find our way out of this castle. Keep your senses on high alert to the best of your abilities. Who knows what is out there waiting for us.”

Slowly and carefully, we started to run our hands along the walls, feeling our ways around to find the true south entrance to the castle, not the blown-out piece of wall. The closer each of us became to the true entrance, the harder it was for any of us to breathe. Almost as if whatever is trying to poison us with this mist is also trying to make sure that neither of us making it out of this castle alive.

I had no choice but to call upon the essence of air or we were going to die before we made it out of this death trap.

“Hail the Guardians of the East! We are summoning the powers of Air once more. Air, we ask that you fill our lungs with breathable oxygen as we try to find our ways out of this mess. Relieve us from this slow and painful agony. We invoke you!”

Aria gasps. “Oh my…” she nearly moans.

“C-can you guys feel that, too?” Samuel said breathlessly.

It was like taking in a nice deep breath of pure energy. As we drank in the essence of air, we could feel our dead cells coming back from the brink of death. Air was not only providing us with safe breathing air, but it was healing the damage that the poison had done to us. My body began to tingle all over, sensitive to any type of touch. It was almost erotic.

“Mmm…yes, and it does feel utterly amazing, but now is not the time to pause and fully soak up the emotions that are flooding through us. Now let’s hurry up and get the hell out of here.”

Finally, the true entrance to the south side of the castle. I open the doors which cause a commotion as the red mist is expelled from the castle.

“What the hell?” exclaims Samuel. “It is almost as it opening the doors broke some kind of spell. Before we are caught off guard again, we need to combine our powers and set a protective barrier and have it cover as much land as possible. We do not need any more deaths right now.” Samuel says stepping towards me, a gleam in his eye. A gleam that more than shows that he feels triumphant, as he should.

The three of us come together outside, forming a triangle under the moonlight and we being to chant, “By the dragon’s light, on this night and those to follow, I call to thee to give us your might, by the power of three, I conjure thee to protect all that surrounds me. So, mote it be, so mote it be!”

A bright beam of pure white light bursts up from the middle of our triangle and into the sky. The light began to form lines that started connecting and as each line connects, the space in between and around those lines began to fill in with a translucent purple fog. Within a matter of seconds, everything within eyes sight and beyond is surrounded by a protective barrier, a dome if you will.

Aria begins to cry and falls to her knees. Samuel quickly aids to her and helps her to her feet.

“Aria, what is the matter?” I say urgently. After what just happened, I have learned to expect the unexpected.

“Derek…” she says between sobs. “He just…vanished. Is he okay? Are we going to see him again? Is he in pain?” Her sobs turn into a full-blown meltdown causing her to drop to her knees yet again.

“Spirit, it is your turn. I ask that you stay with Aria tonight to aid in her comfort. Ease her worries and allow for a peaceful night of sleep.” As I place my hand on Aria shoulder, both of us can feel spirits essence slowly flow from me to her. “I think that we all need to get a good night’s rest before we set out on a search for Derek. We all would be useless with so little energy left in us.”

Samuel assists Aria to her room after saying our goodnights. I return to my room and throw myself onto my four-poster bed. “Oh hell! Can we not catch a break for just a little while?” I mutter to the Goddess. I sigh and strip down to get ready for bed. “Derek, wherever you are, I hope that you are not in any pain. We will find you tomorrow, brother.” As I drift to sleep, the beginnings of a nightmare begin to play through my mind.

“Ahhhh!” Derek screams, blood dripping from his limbs. “Someone…help!” Blood sprays all around him. “Blaze! Please, help!”

“That is right, you vile piece of filth, scream as I tear you to shreds and your essence leaves you. Cry out to those who cannot come to your rescue,” an unknown being said from the shadows. Just as Derek tries to call out for help, a dark vine shaped mist shoots from the shadows and into Derek’s torso. He gasps as his body slumps over lifeless.

I shot up breathless, sweat pouring down my face, and tears streaming from my emerald green eyes. As soon as I could breathe, I got right up and stumbled off towards Samuel’s bedroom to explain what I had just dreamt of and figure out what in the hell it was and what it means.