E L E V E N
Weapon of Light

I COULD DISTINCTIVELY feel the frost creeping up my arms as the creature neared. It wasn't in view yet, but I knew the feeling all too well having experienced it more than once. The cold rush that burst into the air, the chill that ran the course of one's spine, and the way one's throats would dry up as if it were the Sahara desert.

One of the creatures was here, but I had no wish to find out which.

"Let's go!" Not even bothering to turn my voice down, I sprinted, my left hand clasped around Minnie's free hand tightly while my right held onto the white pistol. Whatever it was, it must be valuable seeing that not only does it look pricey, the riddle had also led us to it.

Somewhere through the run, Bella must have slowed, legs almost failing to support her own weight before a traitorous pull in the rug came to view. It caused her to trip over the fold of the rug and land on the floor with a resonating thud. The sound made me turn back, and instinctively, I raced back to where Bella was. In one swift movement, I bent down in one rapid motion to pick my friend up and haul her back onto her feet.

"Bella, come on," I said with increased urgency. The cold that was sweeping in was almost even bitterer than the North Pole's winter's frost.

And then, like a scene straight out of a horror movie, the ceilings chilled to freezing temperatures and was covered with a blanket of white as icicles dripped dangerously low from the wooden ceiling. I made the mistake of looking up, my sight blurring for a second in the cold when I noticed the creature.

And there it was, in all its glory, large as the size of three fully grown men. This time, a fiery ruby-colored cloak bellowed from behind instead of a midnight black one, flowing harshly in the wind as it curved the corner. The walls began to creak, the cold ice spreading further forth towards me as it proceeded in front. He – it – was floating above the ground, hovering around two inches above the wooden boards.

I could feel its non-existent beady little eyes landing upon Bella and me before it narrowed and the creature swerved, charging towards the both of us at full speed ahead. My eyes widened into the size of saucers, panic clogging up my airway as I did the first instinctual thing I could: pull out the pistol and aimed for the creature's middle.

Not exactly knowing how to operate a gun, my long fingers curled around the trigger, mimicking exactly what I had seen from action movies before. A single bullet the color of a gleaming stark white shot out, miraculously hitting the creature right in its abdomen.

Where the bullet had made contact with the mythical creature, a small circle surrounding the bullet appeared, the cloth and bones in the said circle dissipating into the air with a hiss. It released a shrill scream before turning away. As its voice echoed, a sound wave was produced, forcing me backward and falling to the ground with a slam before it disappeared out of sight.

"What was that?" Minnie asked, and I could feel her hands around my arm in an attempt to pull me back to my feet.

"War," Cassiel said, helping Bella to her feet as well. "That was one of War's little spirits. Easily distinguished by the red cloak. It certainly resembles the man behind that little freak show."

"Great. So there is actually more than one of those creatures that are out for our blood?" Bella whined, cursing out a rather colorful vocabulary.

"There are as many of those as those four horsemen could master. In other words, there could be hundreds of them roaming this boathouse at any given moment, depending on their strength."

But my attention was not on the brown-haired boy. Instead, my mind was reeling with the short memories of a certain rather attractive red-headed man. Wilhelm did not, even for one bit, look as monstrous as he actually was. He seemed to be any other ordinary guy that was filled with charms and charisma, not so much a thirst for blood.

His brother, Fabian, on the other hand, did look as every bit deadly in human form as his projection did. I could still remember his haunting dark eyes filled with hatred and sorrow, something that seemed so deadly and painful. Yet, why is it that he chose not to immediately kill me when I first ran into him?

Instead of listening in to the conversation around me, my eyes were set on the bracelet that dangled from my left hand. It had been a gift by friends during my younger years, but I couldn't for the life of me remember which friend was it that had gifted it to me. A bracelet of thirteen pure crystal clear diamonds that glittered against any ray of light. However, one of the thirteen diamonds was no longer glittering as brightly as before. It had turned into a dark red color, one of wine or blood on a battlefield.

"What happened to your bracelet?" Bella asked, eyeing the trinket with great interest. My head pounded with possibilities of what could have turned the diamond red, but each seemed even less likely than the previous.

"I think the real question is, what happened to that... that thing." With that one sentence, I was back on peak alert, with eyes glancing the area to scout for the deadly creature. Luckily, none was in sight.

"Obviously, whatever that thing is," Cassiel pointed at the gun, his expression unreadable. "It can drive those foul creatures away."

"No shit, buddy." I snorted with a roll of my eyes. Cassiel shot me an annoyed look, scowling as if I had just murdered his entire family.

"Either way," Bella cut in, eyes urgent as she scanned the area with paranoia clear on her features. Her arm was looped around Cassiel's neck, leaning her body weight against him as he held her up. Her leg was slightly bent, and from the low lighting, it was also swollen from the fall, most likely. "We need to find somewhere to hide for the night. That gun can only do so much, and we don't know how much ammo is inside."

"She's right." Agreeing, Minnie placed a hand on my back as she shot me a worried glance. For a second there, we had a moment's worth of silent agreement. We can't completely put our trust on those boys, but as an old saying goes, an enemy of an enemy is a friend.

Lucius was silent the entire time, but once Minnie had voiced her approval, he immediately turned on his heels. Before that, he seemed to be calculating, debating. "Let's go then. No time to waste."

Without a single word, the rest of us followed him along the dark corridor, turning into the first spacious room we saw. The corridors were clean from any traces of blood unlike what we saw back when we were first on our way towards the main hall, but this single fact alone did not make me feel better by one bit.

The room was much more spacious as compared to the one I had woke up in, but just like the previous room, this one, too, was empty except for the single light that swung from the ceiling. The room was big, perhaps the size of my bedroom back at home. No shock there since this building had been a town hall before it was remodeled to be a boathouse. Riverside Creek's town hall was last used back during our great-grandparents' generation, and since then, this building was only used by the fishermen during their boating journeys as well as the richer folk of town when they needed somewhere to replenish their fuel or stock up their supplies before continuing along with their luxurious yacht trip.

Once I locked the room securely, the place echoed with uncomfortable silence. Gabriel and Lucius had retreated away to separate dark corners of the room, each leaning against wooden walls as they kept to their silence. Cassiel, on the other hand, was helping Bella sit on the ground. He spoke to her in hushed tender whispers, fingers massaging her injured leg as she smiled up at him.

"Does it hurt? It looks pretty bad."

"Not as bad as before," she said. Smiling like I had never seen before, Bella waved a nonchalant hand as if to dismiss the thought. "It's okay. I'll be fine."

"We need to find some way to ice this. It's swollen."

I quirked an eyebrow in their direction, a teasing smirk already playing on the corners of my lips. It was an expected characteristic for Bella to be constantly on her A game and flirting with as many boys as humanly possible. However, this was the first time in which I had ever seen her have actual interest for the boy instead of seeing him as a toy ready to be thrown away when his replacement arrived.

I was on the verge of making a teasing comment before Minnie came over, a hand placed on my shoulder as her worried eyes darted over to quickly glance at the three boys. "Can I talk to you for a moment, please?"

"Of course." I nodded, surprised that she seemed so secretive. Walking over towards the door with Minnie by my side, I leaned against the wall when we were far enough away from the boys. "What's up?"

She bit onto her lip, doe eyes darting around once more to make sure none of the boys were eavesdropping before she sighed, speaking in silent tones. "Don't you find it weird that those boys suddenly and rather miraculously appeared after those creatures did? Lucius helped you, and the both of you ended on pretty bad terms."

"I've thought about it. Why?"

"It's just that..."Minnie shrugged slightly. "I don't trust them too much. They grew up with those boys that are currently hunting for your blood. Our blood. What if they are in this together? I mean, five riddles aren't that hard to solve, Addy. And this Death person offered you two days grace? Isn't that a little too good to be true?"

The reality of the situation crashed upon me once I processed Minnie's words, a stone of fear finding its place in my heart once more. What she said was true; we cannot and should not trust a bunch of strangers. Much less strangers that grew up with serial mythological killers.

"Besides, Lucius is your ex-boyfriend, Addison. I don't know if it is just me but if I can help a person when they need it without costing myself anything, I might even help my worst enemy if it is a life and death situation. But in this case, he is risking his own life and his friends' lives to help us, to help you. To help us. Don't you think that this is just too noble even for Lucius?"

"I know, Minnie. But what choice do we have? We can't be three musketeers gallivanting away into the night searching for these orbs by ourselves while there are murderers out there. We need their help because strength comes in numbers and numbers are something we don't have as of the moment."

"The worst part is that I know we don't have a choice. And I know that we have to work with them due to our circumstances." Minnie sighed as she rubbed her temples in frustration. "But we still can't trust them, no matter how kind they act out to be. I just want you to remember that because one of us clearly doesn't." With that, she gave Cassiel and Bella a quick pointed look before turning back to face me.

"I know, Minnie. Don't worry. I'm not going to trust them quickly. I've learned my lesson from the last time around."

I know it all too well.

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