Luz

The thing about fearing for your death is that once you reach a certain limit, an additional treat seems almost superfluous.

She had been looking for the mist people for more than eighthundred years, every encounter with an immortal being the most scared she could feel.

So when their group decided to run towards the Upper West Side where they had left the barrack with copper behind, she felt nothing but annoyance. Like sure, the mist people were trying to conquer the mortal world. But they could have at least chosen a closer lair instead of one which was a twenty minutes run away.

Given how much she was sweating, the mist people would have no problem killing her.

She could almost see it, her tombstone:

"Sister, friend,

missed by few, loved by fewer.

Death by cardio."

Just about when her spleen was about to explode, Isaac slowed down to a fast walking pace. Nothing felt right about the barrack.

Even back when it hadn't been the lair of evil immortal spirits, the place had been dark, stuffy and gloomy. The kind of place that drug addicts stayed far from in fear of catching some disease.

The last time Luz had been there, the night had been dark enough so that she couldn't appreciate how dangerously old the building was. Pieces of wood stuck out from every where, splinters were left unchecked, a river of dark smudge was flowing out of a secondary door.

There was no one in sight, not a single immortal, but the four of them still hid from the open view in a lateral alley. Without Mat's GPS tracker they were blind to potential hidden treats.

-Ehm do we just ... knock? - Mathias whispered.

He had a point.

Luz had expected waves of immortals to fight, mortals to save, mist people to destroy, but she was faced with a dense quietness.

Jane took the decision for them and leaned forward into the open.

As they got closer to the entrance a strong smell of urine and blood penetrated her nostrils. She had been through most wars and pestilence and yet ... Luz had to cover her nose with her tshirt to avoid throwing up.

Isaac's eyes had started to water as he pushed the metal door open.

After the deafening silence of Chicago, Luz was almost startled by the millions of whispers that surrounded her. Her eyes were still adjusting to the darkness, but she heard muffled cries of pain coming from every direction.

She spun around wildly, trying to place the source of the sound. As she blinked, thousands of luminous threads happeared, forcing her to take a step back.

Who were all those people? What were they doing in the small barrack? If she had to estimate a number, it must have been at least 20 of them.

Mathias' hand slipped into hers for reassurance. He must have seen the paths as well as they shared the peculiar gift. She didn't know if he was trying to make himself feel better or her, but she accepted the offer nonetheless.

-Luz, give us some light - said Jane awakening her from her trance.

The girl was scared, almost tempted to leave them all in the darkness, but she did as she was asked. A small flame arose from her free hand and guided them through the room.

-Please don't hurt us! - screamed a little voice.

-You cannot talk to them you idiot, shut up! - said an older one.

-They will have us all killed! - cried a third.

A small crowd of mortals had their eyes locked on their group. They varied in age and size, nationality and gender, race and character. There was a man in his fifties holding tightly a little girl of no more than five, a blind old woman who was crying softly, a young teenage child who kept shifting in his chains.

As Luz laid her eyes on the chains, she shivered. They were not made of iron, merely copper, but the idea of being chained still gave her nightmares. All the mortals were tied to the ground and to each other. According to the smell of urine and blood, they had been there for at least a couple of days.

Had Chicago been asleep for that long?

Surrounding the mortals, a small group of army soldiers had their guns pointed at them. Given their empty eyes and emotionless hearts, those were without a doubt immortals, the veterans who had transformed themselves into killing machines.

"We were waiting for you" said a familiar voice in her head.

Luz wished that her knees didn't wobble or her voice didn't falter, but the fear in her heart took over the rational part of her brain. Those things had ruled her life, took part of her memories, made her who she was. She might have been immortal but the mist people ... they were indestructible, a shear power of Nature.

-Ah... we made it here as fast as we could - Mat answered to her surprise. Despite all the terror she could read in his emotions, he still managed to talk back to the monsters. -You have to apologise the delay, but airplane traffic was an absolute puta -

Mist started to enter from the window and the temperature dropped of a few degrees. The mortals screams filled her ears.

"Mathias Rafael Jones. We never got the opportunity to decline our offer." The voice said. "You have not killed the burning star, and therefore we will not grant you mortality like your father wished for you. You shall die of madness, just like he did before you"

Mathias had told them he was afflicted by a condition that the mist people had offered to cure. Even after she had realised his immortality, she would have never guessed that was the bait that the monsters had used on him. Her eyes tried to find his, but he kept his gaze on the mist enveloping them. She squeezed his hand.

-Ah yeah sorry about that too. - he added with a fake grin on his face. -But the burning star you sent me to kill? She was pretty hot. In any sense. I will take my chances with the madness thing. -

The entire barrack shook. Luz was almost too focused on the fact that the building could collapse over their heads to realise that that had been a laugh.

"Your chances?" The voice said, somehow it sounded slightly different, more masculine. "Dear, we are chances, or fate, destiny, whatever you wish to call it. We can see the past, the present and the future. You can do nothing to oppose us. Bend the knee and pledge to our cult, you shall be pardoned as a favour to my child."

The words of the mist swirled into her head. In her vision, the woman had warned her beloved not to take the leap of power, that certain lines should not be crossed. Luz had never realised until then, but there was a reason why she could only see threads of the past and the present clearly, and that was because the future was too changeable. To have access to that sort of power, to be able to see all the possible outcomes... one would have to become magic.

The mist people had given up their human bodies in favour of such power over mankind.

Luz observed as the mist touched their feet and burned through her clothes, but did not come close to the mortals. The small crowd was held in place by the armed soldiers, who seemed to have frozen in place awaiting for direct orders. Her hand went over the iron pulveriser. She only had one shoot, and she needed a target. The mist was too dispersed, too lose to be encapsulating the true essence of the monsters.

So she made herself a walking bait.

-Big words coming from someone who has been nothing but a fart for millions of years. - she willed the words to sound hurtful, so she smiled wickedly. -Using immortals for your dirty work, and all for what? To get a new metal ass? -

The mist people weren't easily triggered. They replied with calm, taking their time swirling through the entirety of the barrack, over the tons of copper and down to their feet again. A column of mist arose in front of her.