The withered old guy looks away and I follow his line of vision. Rhys and an angel are circling each other. Rhys has a sword coated with steel and the angel has a variety of weapons hanging from his waist belt. Every single one is deadly to Rhys.

Master chuckles deeply, “That amazing fighter you are seeing at this moment is Loki, the Chief Warrior of Riré. A very, very high position to achieve. This is his maiden battle and he has been preparing for it since my unfortunate defeat last year. There is absolutely no doubt in all of this damned Universe that he'll be the one able to kill Rhys and then, you.”

I narrow my eyes at Master, “Rhys won't die. I won't let him die.”

“What are you going to do, kill Loki?” The old dude laughs as though I just told him a hilarious joke.

I stare at him steadily, the cogs in my brain picking up speed, rattling away like a steam train and reply, “No. I'm going to kill you.”

The Master of Riré stops laughing immediately. Then he smirks at me, “You think you can kill me? I have more power in my little toe than you have in your entire mortal body.”

I smile, “I don't need supernatural power to kill you. I can do pretty well without it, in case you didn't see me slaying some of your incompetent soldiers.”

“Never get over confident.” He informs me, his glazed eyes flashing angrily.

“Try applying that to yourself.” I counter.

Master smiles, “I have to say, you have an answer for anything and everything.” I look at him silently. “If you weren't the one I were fighting, you'd be on my side of this battle immediately.”

“Too bad it isn't like that. Just in case you're having any fantasies, it's never going to be like that.” I shrug, “I don't know about you, but I don't have time for chit-chat right now. Maybe we can catch up later on a cup of a coffee and talk about the good old times, huh?”

The Master smiles faintly and then he's gone. I sigh and run a shaky hand through my hair. During the whole conversation, I had felt like every moment was my last. Then, ignoring my petty worries, I look hastily towards Rhys, who is wrestling to get the angel's blade away from him.

I charge towards them both and plant my sword in Loki's arm. He lets out a monstrous roar and reels backwards more in shock than pain. He looks down at his arm as if it's an alien object and then at me, his whole body shaking convulsively.

I look at Rhys, who instinctively pulls me behind him. Pulling the sword out like it's an annoying little pin, Loki clenches his teeth and gets ready to charge again. My eyes widen as he manifests a huge sword out of the air and begins to lurch towards us, his gait uneven and staggering.

Without thinking, I push Rhys out of the way and take my sword from it's sheath, deflecting his blows. As I parry one of his strikes, Loki meets my eyes and then his unnaturally bright green eyes go wide.

He slumps to the ground, a hilt of a dagger protruding from the precise center of his back. He dissolves into a thick mist. I look up from the mist to see Charlotte smirking triumphantly down at him.

She grins at me and looks at Rhys, “You owe me.”

She walks off, casually beheading a sprite and then begins to parry with a pixie. Rhys walks over to me shakily and takes my hand, steering me through crowds of people who are destined to die today, “We need to get you somewhere safe. Where is Ruby?”

“No.” I pull back, “We're not doing that today, Rhys. That's over, we're not going there. I'm fighting with you this time. You can't hide me away, Rhys. I need to finish this off once and for all, or else we're going to be fighting like this for the rest our lives. I don't want that. Look how many people have died, Rhys. I don't want any more to have the same fate.”

Rhys sighs, tears gathering in his eyes as we cower behind what is left of a wall, “I can't see you get hurt. I can't lose you, Donna. Whatever that has happened before today, whenever I have done something to hurt you, it haunts me when I'm alone. It follows me around like a burden upon my back. To know that you're hurt because of me, that is a pain no mortal or supernatural being could endure, no matter what is at his disposal.”

“And you won't have to endure that pain, Rhys. I won't let you endure it.” I tell him, “But I have to do this. And you are the one who has to let me do this. We need to meet up sometime. Presumably, under the cover of the darkness. What time?”

Rhys looks away from me, accepting defeat, his face slack, his eyes ready to overflow, “Three am. Meet me here.”

“Okay.” I pick up my sword, turn away from Rhys and then, guilt prickling at me due to his obviously harassed state and turn back to him, “Hey. Do not worry about me. Don't you dare, Rhys. I'll be fine. That's my promise to you.”

Rhys doesn't reply; he just nods without looking at me. I walk away, looking for anyone who's spoiling for a fight.

Five minutes later, I'm back in the battle and blood of around five other beings splatter my clothes. I struggle to walk through the clinging mist of another body and my eyes latch on to Serena. She's rapidly convulsing on the ground, almost as if she's having an epileptic fit.

I run over to her, dropping my sword in the process and slide to the ground in front of her. I stable her head in the crook of my arm and will her to look at me, “Serena! Serena! Are you okay? Serena!!”

I watch her fingers twitch and she abruptly stops convulsing. Serena looks up at me, her eyes beginning to focus and she coughs, droplets of blood shooting from her mouth and landing on my clothes, “Donna, I don't have long. The Master is planning your murder right now. At midnight, you'll be attacked by five of the most powerful warlocks the Master could find. You'll be pelted by magick rather than those mere physical weapons. The magic they use will confuse you. It will render you hopeless. They're going to play predator with your darkest fears and thoughts. You have to be very strong, Donna. Very strong.”

The convulsing takes Serena over once more and then she's nothing but mist. Is she gone? I hardly knew her, I didn't get to say goodbye. So many words left unsaid. I bow my head to let my forehead touch hers, feeling sorrow rock me like a tidal wave. I just want to lay next to her and mourn the world's loss. They don't know what a great person they have just lost.

Tears roll down my cheek as I stand up, a powerful wind whipping my hair back. I wipe them away, deciding that instead of using tears to show my sorrow, I'll channel every last bit of it into the battle. I pick up Serena's sword from the ground. As soon as I think this, a consuming surge of anger brinks in me and I let out a cry, turning around and swiping the head off the angel who was stealthily creeping up behind me, trying to catch me unaware.

Another angel lunges forward in her place and I readily block her swipe, spinning around abruptly and planting the tip of my blade in her heart. She's dissolved into mist before she even touches the ground.

Anger and loss fuelling me on, I charge forward and jump onto the back of a pixie and slice into his jugular. As he falls forward, I launch myself off his back and turn around, roughly sticking my blood-stained blade into his spine, watching him become mist with a sickening tumble of vengeful glee I have never experienced before.

By now, the battlefield has become shrouded by a vast cloud of rolling mist, more intense and tightly-packed than any normal fog. I look up as a whip of lightening cracks open the sky, startling me. Rain begins lashing down, washing away the blood on me, dripping into the scabbed cut on my chest, soaking my hair and my clothes. I let the water run into my mouth, soothing my dehydrated and parched throat.

I don't take comfort in the weather for long. Spurred on not only by my anger but also by the sudden change in the weather, I walk straight forward, looking around for a challenger. But everyone is already engaged in the battle. I hear a hiss coming from behind me and turn around.

It's a faerie with streaky blue hair and violet eyes. Her cut-off dress is stuck to her skin, clinging to her body. “Are you Donna?”

“Yes, I am.” I say, crouching into a defensive position, my sword at the ready.

“You killed Loki.” She says, indignant tears falling from her cheeks, mingling with the rain as she continues, “You've ruined me.”

“What do you mean?” I ask, lowering my sword, shock sawing at my senses.

Well, this isn't the attack I was imagining.

She should be trying to cut me in pieces, not trying to get my sympathy.

“I was betrothed to him.” The faerie tells me, “I was going to marry Loki and now, I'm an un-married widow. Do you know what my fate is now? I'm going to be executed as soon as we return home. I need you to kill me before they have a chance to get to me. Give me a quick death.”

She kneels down in front of me, holding her hair up away from her neck. “Do it.”

“I can't.” I mumble, staring at the woman in front of me. The woman who has been sentenced to death just because the guy she was due to marry is dead. As if women have no existence when their fiancée or husband is dead.

“DO IT!” She yells and startled, I close my eyes and swipe with the sword. Moments later, all that's in front of me is mist. I wipe the tears that leak out of my eyes and turn around. I close my eyes and raise my face to the rain, letting it wash away everything that is eating away at me.

I don't know how long I've been fighting when all of a sudden, everything that I can see goes black. I'm surrounded by blackness.

I can't see anything.

I look around wildly, trying to find anything, a streak of light to guide me, a person, a sword, a weapon, mist, anything. But all that surrounds me is darkness. This must be what Serena was talking about. The attack from the warlocks.

I hear Serena's  voice in my head.

One of their plans is to bombard you physically so much, you lose consciousness. Don't close your eyes, no matter what you do.

I nod as if she were in front of me and then steady myself, determined to overcome whatever illusions they put in front of me.

Then, dozens of supernatural beings are standing before me. Their voices echo in my mind. MURDERER! KILLER!  BLOOD! EVIL! MERCILESS! CRUELTY! WITCH! DEMON! DEVIL! RUTHLESS!! REPULSIVE!

I clutch my ears against, clenching my teeth, shaking my head against the voices. “No, I'm not! I'm not a murderer! I was defending myself! You were trying to kill me!! What was I supposed to do?”

I stumble back, landing on my rear end. I sit there and press my hands against my ears, tears of frustration leaking from my eyes, my teeth grinding up against each other. The voices continue to roar at me, their voices piercing through me like knives, ripping a pain through me so excruciating that I am forced to the ground, coated in a cleaving layer of sweat, panting for breath and oxygen, begging hopelessly for mercy.

It's just an illusion. It's just an illusion. It's just an illusion.

The knife-like voices soon become needle-sharp haggard swords, making it hard for me to try to remember anything, forcing themselves through my body, slicing into my cells, splitting into my DNA. I convulse twice before the swords attack my spine, forcing my back upwards until it is arched and I am stuttering desperately for breath. I cry out as a blade of a scream lodges itself in the palm of my hand. I try to pull my hand away, but the scream holds it in place, my hand aflame in a harrowing anguish that dilutes my pupils to pin pricks.

It seems as though flames are licking my entire body and physically exhausted, my eyes start to roll back in my head, desperate for a break, for relief. I wheeze for breath, attempting to sit up.

The voices rise to a blazing crescendo, raining knives and bullets and arrows and hammers and axes on me. Tears stream down my eyes as I let the flaming pain consume me, too haggard and riddled to react.

Just as I think I can't keep this up for any longer, that I must have be dead by now, a light shines through the impenetrable darkness and Rhys appears in it.

I hear his calming voice, rising up above the other ones which have quietened in his presence, “Do it. Rise up, Donna. You can do this. I believe in you. I believe in us. I believe in our love. You are stronger than this. You can get through it. Rise up. Rise up to your feet!!”

Ragged beyond repair, I get to my feet and stumble forward a little, “Rhys, is that you?”

“Yes. It's me, Donna. I'm here. Get up. Be strong. You have to overcome this. I know you can do it. I'll be right here to catch you, Donna.”

I lurch forward, tripping over my own feet in my haste to get to Rhys. When I eventually reach him, I throw myself at him. Instead of being comforted in Rhys'  blanket-like arms, I go straight through him and collapse in a muddled heap on the ground. I look back, my eyes bleary. Rhys is nowhere to be seen. The only person I can see is Rhys' overprotective 'mom', Eve.

“You idiot! What did I tell you? What did I tell you?! How dare you hurt my son? Do you know what you've done?? My family is ruined, my home has been reduced to rubble and it's all because of you! All because you brought your contaminated existence into this Earth! How could you do this to me? How could you do this to Rhys? You say you love him! You're a liar! You've never loved him! You just wanted to hurt him all along. I'll never forgive you, you merciless demon child!!”

“No. No. I didn't want to hurt anybody. I'm so sorry. I love Rhys, I really do.” I murmur, too exhausted to even look up at her.

I can feel sleep calling to me; I want nothing more than to surrender to it.

It means comfort, no more having to listen to accusing screams, no more useless suffering, it means bliss to me. As I lay there in the dark, Eve screaming obscenities – anything she can think of – at me, I can feel my eyes beginning to droop, beginning to roll back in my head. I surrender to it all, my body going limp as I fall  gratefully unconscious...