Chapter Three: Petrova

There was a second wave of energy to them, somehow the demons before me had summoned some strength and pushed forward at me but I fought back. With every blow I fought back. I didn’t see her behind the slimed creature, but when it obliterated and I saw the cause, my heart pounded in my chest. Lei stood, not her upright self, I could see the cuts and the blood and the bruises ready to form that had changed her. She was still fighting, even though she looked close to being lost.

I pushed forward. One more I kept telling myself, until it came time to chase after the stragglers, not usually the fastest runner, after all I hate it. I was the most effective and strategic and the first one to push the chain to order. I didn’t want Lei to be at the back fold but in her condition, it was the only place for her, with someone who could fight more efficiently. I could tell she trailed behind in the pursuit but it was better that then leave her entirely on her own, just in case a demon saw it as a chance to get its lucky break.

With the last demon obliterated we remain on high alert for a few moments, we examine our surroundings now taking them in, looking and waiting for another to spring from a dark gloomy corner or behind a statue or the mouth of a tomb. But nothing came at us. I felt a figure near me slump before I saw what it was.

I stepped back before the fountain of vomit could hit my shoes. It’s not the first time I have seen someone react this way after something like, well, that. Without the adrenaline and immediate danger Lei had come down from high alert and projectile vomited across the grass. I gave the nod to Monty to give her the Elixir. We wouldn’t be able to go through any streets with her like this. Pale, gasping and bleeding Lei would garner far too many stares and lord knows what else. I put the last of our patrol to the back burner of priorities for the moment. We stand watching the Elixir begin to take effect. Pale wisps of skin appear to knit over the gashes in her skin. The blood stops seeping from her skin, soon enough there were no open wounds, the deep red of bruising impending had lightened to a slightly flushed colour. Lei was breathing normally. We wait to see if she will throw up again, but even that seems to have stopped, not always guaranteed with Elixir. Continue reading →

Chapter Three: Leianna

I steal a breath, a single half moment to take in my surroundings. Behind me the statue is pressed to my back a demon seems to be trying to attack me from every angle. Maybe, just maybe this wasn’t the best idea. But it was the only idea I had and now I seem to be beyond fully committed to it, because if I don’t, these bastards will kill me if I am lucky, or drag me down to the hell they came from. Half moment over. I wince as the sharp talons of the demon to my left digs into my arm. There’s a throb and a trickle and I am fighting the exhaustion, the ache in every part of my body is taking over. It is becoming more a battle of wills than survival now. One demon seems to be replaced by another as soon as its blasted back to the otherworld obliterated by the blade.

I do it. I give in and take a deep breath, willing myself to keep fighting. Somehow I summon the strength, the sweat pouring from me and the blood. I let myself pull at the moisture in the air, refreshing my energy, as I claw at it I can feel the moisture change, it’s not just me or demon blood and saliva I can sense it’s a different moisture. Hard to describe other than a sort of dry heat eviscerating the softer edges of the fight. They have come. They have reached the huddle at last. I let go of the fight to pull and control the water around the battle. I don’t want to be sensed as one of them. I push forward. I push forward trying to get some more space from the statue.

A hand on my shoulder has me whip around ready to slice at the owner and see one of Trova’s friends. I recognise him from my dreams of her. I stop myself and nod. I look around and I see five of them, five of the Touched. All on high alert obliterating one demon after another that crosses their path. I keep pushing now trying to keep my strength. I push forward. Left, right, swipe, duck.

I can feel the heat of them in the battle with me, that hot dry heat of a fire that burns within them. I push forward into the new line the demons have formed, trying to carve a path within them. That’s when I turn the battle I push some moisture towards the demons behind me now battling Trova. It gives them enough strength for them to have a little advantage. I obliterate the demon in front of me and turn to face Trova now. She looks like she is putting up her best fight. I come behind it before it ever had a chance to notice me and slice it down the length of its slimey wet scales protecting its spine. The demon shatters and Trova looks at me and thanks me with a nod. Continue reading →

Chapter Two: Petrova

Do you ever look into a mirror and examine yourself? I know who Petrova Blayze is. I know my hair; the loose curls that appear when I let it dry, the dark chestnut hues. I know my brown eyes, where the amber mingles and the way they can look like all the warmth has flooded away and become cold and less inviting. I know the way that my veins show below my pale skin. I know the way my brows furrow in thought. I know who I am and for the longest time, I was unique. Something none of my comrades had the appreciation of. Being entirely alone. Lonely yes, but freeing in a way. I didn’t have someone being an echo of myself or feeling like the echo of someone else. I didn’t cling to fragmenting memories of another part of myself, a sibling that never ascended. I didn’t have that pain, or that kind of sadness. The only one of my friends, comrades, that didn’t have the same uniting suffering, I got some strange twisted exemption. I was their curiosity, the oddity who didn’t share that bond of pain, a shiny toy. What they don’t seem to understand is I hate being on the outside of it all, its lonely out here.

I felt this kind of pang, a strange sensation when I rode the impulse to stop Lei. It was more than looking into a mirror, this was living and breathing and it didn’t fade or disappear when my eyes closed. It was a gut jerking sensation; this should never have been possible. Doppelgangers are meant to replace you in battle if you die, in this life, they are standbys almost, in a twisted way. The thing is, you shouldn’t meet your ganger, and yet there she was. So she wasn’t here to replace me, as far as I can tell. After managing to get into the HR system I found her file, she was one of us, she was simply reassigned it seems. I couldn’t hold that against her. But that flicker of jealousy that someone is so like me, so very much the mirror of me, from the eyes to the hair, to the way her lips crinkled at the corner when she smiled when she introduced herself, the same way my own do. Except she seems to flaunt qualities I wish we shared, her comfortable relaxed demeanour when she spoke to strangers. She does it too though; her first instinct is to introduce herself by her nickname. I prefer her name though… it sounds ridiculous I would feel jealous of that tiny little thing. But I can’t put my finger on why I feel this strange pull to Lei, I suppose it is close as I will get to feeling what my friends did, a long while ago. Continue reading →