Chapter 24

The closer they got to the tome, Sean could feel the ebb and flow of an invisible force that beat against his chest in the rhythmic sound waves. It was as if he were underwater, and a powerful riptide was threatening to drag him farther and farther from the tome. The more he progressed closer to the open book, the more he felt resistance. An unseen wall of water surging against his steps, discouraging him from advancing. Every time he lifted his legs to move forward and set down his feet, Sean could feel the grip of his boots slip a little underneath him on the concrete ground. Shades of green and red and every color in between the spectrum danced and flitted out from the open book. The room looked like a dysfunctional rave. Sean fought off the pull in the air and dug his feet in the floor as he crouched over to the tome.
    Both crouching now, Sean and Elise had there hands on the book. Sean inspected the cover, binding, and rotten pages. It looked centuries old, the kind of book that has seen more death and tragedy than a Holocaust survivor. Merely by touch, Sean could sense an ominous singe of enmity coming from the its pages. As if the heart thumping vibrations coming from the book wasn’t a big enough hint. Using both fingers, Sean tried desperately to close the book, but both sides of the covers were stuck to the ground.
    “That won’t work!” Elise shouted, her voice barely audible above the din. “You can’t stop an ongoing spell! It’s too late.”
    “Then what do we do?” Sean shouted back, readjusting his grip on the folds of the tome. “We can’t just let the portal open!” He felt a strong grip of something snatch at the back of his shirt, nearly throwing him backwards. He hunched low, his head down and his eyes on Elise.
    Her eyes were slits as she called out, “Percy would know how to cancel a spell. Or the caster. . .” She broke off mid sentence as she looked over her shoulder at the captain laying on the ground, unconscious. She reverted her gaze back to Sean.
He stared at Elise and shook his head vigorously.
He shouted. “No way. We have to contact Percy.”
    “We can’t!” Elise shrugged helplessly, then pointing a finger at her ear. “We won’t be able to contact each other. There’s too much interference from the book. And anyway, there’s not enough time.” Elise slapped the tome in front of her, solidifying her point.
    “Then what the heck do we do?”
Elise gripped the book helplessly, her eyes vacant. He hair rose and fell with every pulse the book sent out, strands of hair rising and falling like kelp in a tide. She began to slowly shake her head back and forth, but then her eyes opened wide in realization. Among the ghoulish flashing lights, Elise’s eyes took on a curious and dangerous twinkle. She turned to face Sean, her mouth half open, eyes wide.
    She said. “There is a way.”
    “What is it?” Sean shouted, feeling the force pull at his legs. He bunched closer in a ball. “How do we stop it?”
    “You won’t like it!” Elise shook her head, hair falling in front of her face. Sean rolled his eyes.
    “It doesn’t matter if I don’t like it or not!” Sean argued, his knuckles turning white as he gripped onto the book’s edges. “Will it work?”
    “It will!” Elise looked down at the book. “But I’ve never done it before.”
    Sean said, “Then how do you know if it worked or not?”
“I watched Lance do it once!” Elise replied, putting down her finger and following the letters on the faded and burnt page. “It was a long time ago, before I knew anything about magic. But I still remember most of the procedure.”
“Most?” Sean frowned, blinking away the lights blazing in his face.
Elise didn’t respond. Instead she was busy staring down at the pages in front of her. The language was something that looked a lot like Latin to Sean, but he wasn’t sure. There were a few characters that looked completely foreign to him, nothing that looked familiar. But he wasn’t exactly an expert in dialects.
    He asked, “But do you know how to do it? Can you do it?”
    Watching Elise’s expression, searching it earnestly, Sean knew the answer. But she grinned wryly, giving Sean a grave stare and said, “I’ll try my best.”
    Sean slowly nodded, his words barely audible. “Then do it.”
    Elise gave Sean a quick nod, and then ran a hand through her hair, straightening it down the back of her neck. With one hand, she reached under her shirt and pulled out the Medallion, careful not to let go of the book. Taking hold of the shining half dollar of a Medallion in one hand and holding on tight to the book with the other, Elise licked her lips. She raised the Medallion high in the air and brought it down, smacking it hard against the black tome’s weather beaten pages. The face of the blazing gold pendant was smack dab in the middle of a circular group of words in a spiral, the Medallion being held in the epicenter by Elise’s palm. She smirked, made a face, and then spat a wad of phlegm over her shoulder. It rippled and danced along invisible curvatures of several waves as it sailed across the room and disappeared in the flashing lights.
     Sean asked. “Was that part of the ritual?”
     Looking at him in disdain, Elise hacked up some more and spat a few more times. “It was back when I first discovered this Medallion that I saw Lance-”
Sean nearly let go of the tome. He screamed. “I don’t care about it, Elise, just do it! Do whatever Lance did to close the portal or else we’re all going to die!”
Elise glared at Sean, but she did return back to whatever thing she had been doing. He watched as Elise closed her eyes and began to mouth words that he couldn’t hear at first. The longer she chanted, the more Sean thought he could hear a voice at the back of his head begin to grow louder. It was like listening for a bird whistling amidst the clamor of a construction crew, or trying to pick out a red circle among a sea of maroon triangles. But it didn’t stay that way for long. The hint of the voice Sean was straining to hear soon grew into an audible shout, but without the strain or physical effort a person would put into trying to raise their voice. The sound of words begin spoken just became louder and louder until it matched same deafening quality and roundness that came from the tome. It was Elise’s words being amplified through the Medallion, matching the deep reverberating bass tones pitch for pitch. But Sean couldn’t understand the words she spoke because it wasn’t English. It wasn’t a language at all. It was pure emotion, a kind of rapid, visceral passion that took on the vehicle of sound and what seemed like words. It was as if Elise were trying to describe a feeling. A feeling of survival. A feeling of hope, yet muddled by anxiety and worry and the unknown. Even though Sean’s brain couldn’t understand a single syllable Elise was putting out, Sean’s heart understood every lilting note that flowed from her mouth. Sean began to tear up, his eyes becoming blurry. He froze the same instant he felt hot all over. He wanted to punch the tome, to make it pay for all the evil it had caused so many countless, innocent lives by the hands of thousands of the evil men that used its pages. He wanted to hug Elise, to tell her that everything was going to be okay, that they would get out of this alive. He wanted to talk to his father. He wanted to do so many things, Sean became immobilized. He couldn’t speak. He couldn’t wiggle a finger. He couldn’t even blink.
     He couldn’t stop himself from slipping away from Elise and big black book as he was pulled away from the center of the room. He watched everything helplessly, like watching himself on a television screen from the comfort of a couch inside his mind. Trapped. He stole a final glance from Elise. She was staring up at the ceiling, the Medallion’s rays of pure sunshine breaking through the dark browns and neon greens that poured from the pages of the tome. And then Sean saw himself being whisked away and hurled to the end of the room. He landed with a hard thump against the wall that seemed to rattle his brain and cause him to regain his sense of motion. He recovered quickly, standing amid the rapid waves of sound that bombarded his frame. They came faster than ever now, almost like a jackhammer made of cotton pummeling his body.
     It felt like nothing, since the force pushing against him was dispersed across his body, but it still felt powerful. It still had a strong enough of dominion over how fast he could move. Like a giant hand made of air sliding him back. He stared ahead of him, at Elise crouched over the tome, her back straight like an iron rod, the Medallion shining bright with pinpricks of a tiny supernova developing underneath her fingers. Then a movement behind Elise caught Sean’s eye. He moved to the side, and what he saw made his eyes open wide. There was Medraut, down low on his face like a snake, crawling barely ten feet behind Elise. Sean stamped his foot forward, pushing harder than ever against the peeling force that pushed him backwards. He fought the oncoming waves of sound and moving air that sought to bump him off his feet. He had to get to Elise. He had to stop Medraut.
    He could see the captain, having just as much difficulty as Sean was having. But since he was lower to the floor, and much closer to Elise, Sean knew he would never be able to reach Elise in time to warn her. But he tried anyway, desperately clawing the air buffering his face. He came to a crouch, feeling slightly less resistance. One leg reaching up to his chest, then pushing down and back against the coarse ground. With his slow and tedious snail’s pace of moving Sean was only ten yards out from the center of the room. Through his fingers of his outstretched hand that blocked out the mesmerizing and headache inducing lights that flashed from the book, Sean could see Medraut ahead of him. Elise was completely unaware of anything that was happening in front of her and around her. Her eyes were all whites, and her jaw was slack, her chin pointed up at the ceiling.
     Sean glanced at Medraut, then at Elise. He raised his hand, waving it erratically.
    “Elise!” He called out. “Elise! Behind you! Behind you!”
    Elise didn’t respond. She just slouched there, unaffected by the pulsing waves of air that battered Sean’s forehead. Pushing off the ground, Sean attempted to go around the tome and intercept Medraut as he was coming up on Elise. Arcing as shallow as he could, Sean pressed himself low to the ground, his ribs and knees scraping against the floor. After a few feet of sliding over to his left, he saw how close the captain was. Medraut and Sean locked eyes. Sean glared him down. The captain tilted his head and raised his eyebrows, feigning an innocent expression.
    Facing turning red from anger and frustration, Sean slapped the floor hard. He shook his head.
    “Don’t do it!” shouted Sean at the leering captain. Medraut looked like a mischievous cat, ready to pounce on a bird. Frowning, the captain cupped a hand around his ear and shook his head, a devilish smile on his lips. Then without warning, Medraut lunged through the last three feet and grabbed at Elise ankles. Sean slid up to the captain, catching him by the torso. Sean reached both hands around Medraut and squeezed as hard as he could, making his hands into fists and pushing them up into the captain’s stomach. But Medraut made no sign of being impeded. He just sideswiped Sean with a hammerfist on the neck, which dazed Sean slightly, but that was enough for the captain to reach into his battle belt and withdraw a tiny blade. It barely two inches long, and the knife fit in the palm of the captain’s hand. He drew back his arm, but before realizing he had overreached, Sean’s hand clamped tightly on Medraut’s elbow. The captain wriggled his waist and kicked at Sean, but the young custodian was too high on Medraut’s body to be completely affected.
    Sean released a guttural scream that melded with the background heart thumping bass tones that permeated the air as he wrestled with Medraut’s arm. After a few short seconds of deadlock in between them, Medraut pushed Sean away and plunged the knife into Elise. He stabbed at her again and again, the small but sharp blade coming up and down, glistening a bright silver in the flashing lights. Pummelling Medraut with his right fist mercilessly, Sean soon noticed the captain’s abash expression. Sean looked at Elise, and then at the captain knife in his hand. No blood. Elise was fine. In fact, she was more than fine. She was awake now, her eyes no longer white, her pale green irises blazing like coals in a fire. They were pointed at Medraut, who instantly froze for a second. In the same second he saw that his knife wasn’t able to cut Elise and that she was now staring daggers at him, Medraut tried running. He made an attempt to stand, but Sean held him down, pulling Medraut with all his weight and even crouching and putting the captain in a rough bear hug. Elise, fully aware what was happening now, gave Medraut a false glance of pity.
“It’s time you were stopped, Medraut,” Elise said, and she then reeled her fist back, her vicious long bladed stiletto in hand, and brought it down on the captain’s chest. It punctured through his plate carrier and dug itself deep into his chest cavity underneath. He gasped and clawed at Elise’s knife hilt deep in his chest. Medraut stared at it, at Elise, and his eyes went blank and he fell back onto the floor. His body was pushed away by each pulsing wave that was emitted from the book until the captain’s lifeless form bumped the back wall of the empty room.
“That was a long time coming,” Sean said, his voice swallowed up by the noise in the room. Elise stared after Medraut, but didn’t say anything. She faced the book, her hand still on the Medallion.
She said. “I’m not sure if this is going to work.”
    “What do you mean? I thought you were confident you could do it earlier?”
    Elise nodded, hair floating in midair around her head. “Yes. Yes, I can do it. I can. I’m almost done. But there’s something hidden here that I don’t trust.” Her eyes were filled with caution and befuddlement as she stared hard at the pages in front of her. Rows of fancy script stared back. Sean raised a hand, gesticulating wildly.
    “Then what is it? What are you talking about? Is it a trap of some kind?”
    “I don’t know!” Elise stuttered, her face a splurged canvass of mixed emotions. “I can’t tell exactly what, but there’s something here-”
    Just then, the book jumped up off the ground, then coming to rest. Both Sean and Elise stared at it, then they each put of their weight on the tome as it rattled and jumped several more times. It was like trying to steady a jackhammer on a trampoline. The book was as unruly as an unbroken colt. It rocked and writhed and bucked hard against Sean and Elise. Sean had to put his shoulder against it to stop it from drastically skidding across the room’s floor.
     “Whatever you were gonna finish, you’d better finish now!” Sean propped an elbow on top of the book, the top half of his body bouncing up and down from the hopping book underneath him. Elise bit her lip, and her eyes flitted around, not landing or focusing on any particular one thing. She just stared at everything and nothing all at the same time. Grunting heavily, Sean’s eyes strayed up and above him, a pinprick of something bright catching his gaze. Two feet over the tome was a bright white light, coming from a quarter sized hole. The hole wasn’t a hole at all, but a ball. And the ball was made of the blackest night Sean had ever seen. Out from the hole-or ball-mist and smoke crawled out from it. It piled over the edge like a miniscule waterfall and it brushed past Elise and Sean, the gaseous vapor spilling onto the book and then running off the pages. The portal was beginning to open.
    Sean brought Elise’s attention back by shouting, “Elise! You have to finish cancelling the portal!”
Looking into her eyes, Sean saw the reality break Elise’s fragile eyes. She cast out fear and worry and her brow became solid with resolution. Chest heaving, she pressed both hands onto her Medallion as if she were about to administer chest compressions to a rescued drowning victim.
     “I’m almost done,” Elise shouted, her voice straining. “I just need to finish it.”
Taking a deep breath, she began to quickly speed through words that sounded like Italian, or Latin, but they were slurred by something that Sean couldn’t put his finger on. It was as if Elise were speed reading a book of tongue-twisters written in another language. Then Sean heard it. It became clearer the harder he strained his ears to hear. Another voice was overlapping Elise’s. Sean looked around at the floor around them, and he saw that the circular pulses became significantly weaker. As she recited the seeming random sounds that spouted from her mouth the portal above the book stopped growing; the black hole expunging smoke now stopped at the size of a tennis ball. Sean let out a nervous laugh, glancing up at Elise. The second voice that subtly overlapped hers sounded more lighter and merry.
    The hole, now reaching its previous size as a golf ball, no longer spout out gray smoke. But it didn’t fully diminish. The pulsing bass tones that thundered through the air were still there. Sean squinted as the twisting dazzling lights still flashed around the room. He looked down at the tome, then at Elise. She had finished speaking, but she was still stuck in her position, frozen to the book, her arms ramrod straight as she pressed hard on the silver medallion.
    “Elise!” Sean shoute. “Elise!”
    Sean prodded Elise with a finger, then stared at her face. She wore a blank expression, completely devoid of emotion. He saw that in the golden light that shone from the medallion, there was also a dark blue ink spreading upwards from underneath the silver pendant. It travelled up Elise’s fingers, and to his horror, it traveled up her arms. Elise didn’t react in anyway to the dark liquid. She couldn’t. She was trapped. Her blank expression changed, slowly, like she was being shaken from a good dream and she didn’t want to be woken. Her pupils were contracted to two miniscule points, and she stared a million miles ahead of her, looking right through Sean.
    He looked down at the mysterious ooze and began slapping at Elise’s arms, frantically brushing away the liquid. But as he swiped at the inky fluid, it parted across his fingers, avoiding his attempt to brush away the inky oilslick crawling up Elise’s arms. He followed the liquid as it sloshed upwards to her shoulders and then to her neck. Seeing no other choice, Sean tackled Elise to the ground, ripping her away from the black goop that came out of the page of the tome. Once he made contact with Elise, it felt like he were tackling a stone pillar. She fell over rigidly, frozen still in her chest compression position, the Medallion clutched in her hands.
    “Hey, hey! Can you hear me?” Sean said, opening Elise’s eyelid with one thumb as he checked her pulse with two fingers, just like how they did in the movies. He shouted in her ear. “Hello? Elise!”
    He frantically searched for her heartbeat on her wrist, and then, when he found nothing, he went to her neck. He felt nothing. Her body was callous and hard to the touch, as if she had cardboard for skin. Sean shook his head, wiping a hand across his sweat stained brow. His fingers trembled as he withdrew Elise’s silver medallion from her rigid grasp. It took him a few tries before he pried it off her. Her fingers were colder than ice as the inky blue fluid trickled off her skin like mercury. Sean slapped at it, but it separated underneath each strike.
    “Oh, dear. I think she might be dead.”
    Sean raised his head and gazed at Medraut lying on the floor. It was obvious the captain was on the verge of death, his chest barely rising as he hoarsely wheezed. He spat out flecks of red from his lips, and his face was a white as a towel. Medraut was on his side, Elise’s knife still hilt deep in his chest, right where Sean wanted it to be. He had crawled aways from the wall, his face only ten yards away from Sean.
    “That will make. . . the three of us,” the captain coughed, drooling a strand of blood from the corner of his mouth. It slid silently off the side of his cheek and slipped down to touch the concrete floor. Crouching, looking down at Elise’s cold body, Sean wasn’t ready to call her dead yet. Maybe it was a trick, some kind of mind game ruse Medraut was using to mess with Sean one last time. Sean stood up and strode over to the captain, his eyes burning two holes into Medraut. The young custodian’s steps were speeded along by the deep bass waves that pushed him from behind, so it looked like he were sprinting over to the captain. Coming to a stop directly over Medraut, Sean stared at the dying captain on the floor. Medraut had enough energy left to spastically smirk up at the young custodian, the corners of the captain’s mouth twitching slightly.
    “You.” Sean said, his voice level, barely managing to get the words past his lips. Medraut just smiled up at him with glazed over eyes and blue lips.
     He gasped in between each sentence. “Had to think real hard. . . about that reply, did you?”
     Even when he was at the edge of death, Medraut still managed to piss Sean off.Without being able to contain himself any longer, Sean reached down at Elise’s knife embedded in Medraut’s chest and grabbed it tight. The jostling sent the captain into miniature convulsions. His shoulders pitched back and into the ground and his neck twisted back and forth, but he didn’t utter a sound. Sean pushed the knife a centimeter to the right, and Medraut began to groan, his voice cracking with the mixture of wet coughing.
    Sean clenched his teeth in his tired jaw and let go of the knife. He sank down to a kneeling position, and then just flopped onto his backside as he breathed heavily through his nose. He waited for a few seconds, allowing Medraut to writhe in agony. Staring at the captain, Sean could feel a buzzing sensation rip through his skull.
    “You stupid piece of wasteful trash. . .”
    Sean stared at the captain. It took him several seconds before Medraut’s lips moved, his eyes staring at the ceiling. When he spoke, his voice was coarse and shallow. Medraut wheezed.
Medraut’s voice was below a whisper, his vocal chords clogged with blood. He coughed wetly, and as he did, a trickle of blood escaped from the edge of his mouth. “I will confess to narcissism, Sean. . . but stupidity. . . Sean, you know I’m the very opposite of that.”
    Sean stared at the ground, not even having the strength to lift his eyes.
    “You were stupid.” Sean finally lifted his eyes, finding strength in his soul to glare at the lying captain. “You were stupid enough to attack Elise while I was there.”
    “She would have died either way, really.” Medraut said. He turned his face to the ceiling and scoffed. “You think she needed you? No one needs you, no one ever needed you from the outset. You were just the little vermin that so happened to be born to my most hated enemy. In reality, you’re a deadweight; an after thought.” The captain paused, he turned to face Sean, the color of crimson painting his cruel smile. “You really think you’re the hero, huh? Some average guy stuck in someone’s else’s ordeal, and you figure you just absolutely have to help.” Chuckling wetly, Medraut shivered. But his voice was harsher than ever, a cold steel entering his voice as he spoke louder, despite the knife in his chest.
     “Well, guess what, Knite. You’re not the hero of this story. You couldn’t even save Elise, you can’t save your family, and you won’t be able stop me.”
     Anger slowly boiling inside him, Sean’s muscles came alive, coursing with bitterness and adrenaline and heartache and suffering. All the moments of pain and suffering, his own and from others, hit him instantly in that moment. It was like a runaway train crashing headlong into a stalled car stuck in the middle of the tracks. All these emotions expanded, ballooned, and exploded inside of his chest. Sean jumped towards the captain, his legs on fire, his thighs melting. But he was at Medraut’s side in a second. The captain was startled by Sean’s reaction and his eyes cracked open as he watched Sean reach down. The tip of his finger land on the butt of the knife like a bird coming to rest on a feeder.
    Air quickly escaped out of Sean’s nostrils as he kept his finger placed on the hilt of Elise’s dagger.
    “Now you listen to me, Medraut.” Medraut’s eyes lazily drifted to meet Sean’s fiery gaze. Sean continued evenly, but his voice cracked towards the end of his threat.
    “And you’d better be listening real close, you scumbag. I don’t know what you did to Elise, but whatever spell she’s under. . . You’re going to reverse it.”
    Sean slowly tipped the dagger half an inch to the right, glaring. Medraut gasped, his lips spasming uncontrollably, his mouth open wide in a silent scream.
    Spittle flying from his mouth, Sean grunted. “You. . . are going to help me bring her back. You hear me?”
    Medraut’s face twisted into a pained expression, a horrible grimace painting the corners of his mouth. His eyes glazed over and then returned to focus on Sean.
    “Stop! Please, for the love of God, stop!”
    Sean released his fingers on the knife and breathed deeply. He looked at his hand shaking, unable to stop it from quivering. He looked over his shoulder at Elise. Her unmoving body. Her frame, frozen like a statue. Turning back to Medraut, Sean clenched his shaking hand into a fist and pounded it next to the captain’s head, ignoring how painful it was.
    “Tell me!” Sean shouted, a foot away from Medraut’s face. Spittle landed on the captain, but he didn’t flinch. “Tell me how I can bring her back! With a book that big, it should have something in there about raising someone from the dead. And you’re going to tell.me what it is, or else you’ll be wishing you were back in Hell!”
    Medraut licked his lips, his blood smearing on his tongue and over his teeth. He grinned weakly up at Sean.
    “It’s not that. . . simple.”
    Wiping at his forehead, Sean breathed hard, and then looked down at Medraut. Both of Sean’s hands were shivering now, so he planted them on the floor. Instead, his elbows began to quiver. It was impossible to stop it. There was a miniature earthquake rumbling through his skeleton. Pausing, breathing heavily, Sean placed his palm on the dagger lightly, but hard enough for the knife to sink a millimeter deeper. Medraut screamed.
    “Okay! Okay! Wait! I’ll tell you! Just stop! Stop-” Medraut’s words were interrupted by a satisfying whimpering noise that exited from the captain’s mouth. It came from the very back of his throat, and it sounded wet and bubbly. His breath coming fast, Sean slowly lifted his hand up from Elise’s stiletto and licked his lips.
    “Okay. . . okay, good. Good.” Sean leaned away from Medraut, air shooting out of his nostrils. “What do I have to do?”
    “It’s much more than just complicated.” Medraut whispered hoarsely, every breath he took sounded like his last, it was so slow. “You have to be adept in the magical realm to-”
    Sean shook his head, wiping the bridge of his greasy nose with thumb and forefinger. He stared at Medraut, a dry grin producing itself on his lips.
    “I’ve had a decent crash course in the realm of magic, I would say. I think I would qualify by now.”
    Even though Medraut was slowly bleeding to death, he managed to roll his eyes at Sean.
    “Arrogant to a point. Hopelessly ignorant all around.”
    “I don’t care if I have to wear a chicken on my head,” Sean interjected as he pounded his blood encrusted fist into the ground. “And don’t forget who has the upper hand. How do I bring her back? What spell is it?”
    Medraut stared at the ceiling above him as he mouthed out words. Sean closed his eyes and opened them again. He chuckled, and wasn't sure why. It just came out, like a nervous laugh. He reached out his hand and put his palm on the stiletto in Medraut’s chest, applying slight pressure.
    “Stop!” Medraut cried out, and Sean released his hand.
    “Tell me what it is!”
    Medraut wheezed, his words coming out in harried gasps. “You’ll find it in the book. There’s an incantation to bring dead people to life. . . but. . .”
    Sean gulped down a knot. He waited patiently as he watched Medraut closely.
    Sean asked. “But what?”
    “But. . .” Medraut continued, flopping his head to stare at Sean directly. “It can only handle one spell at a time.”
    “What? What are you talking about?” Sean said, frowning down at Medraut. He didn’t like the way the captain was eyeing him. There was guile hidden behind a veneer of pain. It flashed momentarily in the captain’s eyes but it disappeared in a cloud of pain.
     Sean asked. “What does that mean?”
    Medraut turned his gaze behind Sean and to the open tome on the ground. “The tome can only conduct one spell at a time. And. . .” Medraut twisted his head to face Sean slowly and coughed, the captain licking his teeth. “And once the Umbrata spell is finished killing Elise, it’ll be too late. No one ever gets resurrected from that.” At this, Medraut began to chuckle lightly, but his laughter was cut short by a racking cough that seized his entire body.
    Sean’s head twisted to Elise laying on the floor, then back to Medraut.
    Sean shouted. “Well, then how do I stop it!”
    Medraut wheezed a tiny cough mixed with blood through his mouth. “You don’t.”
    “Really?” Sean stared at Medraut and let his hand waver over the handle of the stiletto. The captain closed his eyes and shouted.
    “I swear it’s the truth! You have to wait until the spell’s finished, but please, for the love of all that’s holy, don’t touch the knife!”
    Sean sunk back on his haunches and let his tongue search his mouth. It was unbelievably dry, his tongue feeling like sandpaper.
    “When. . . when will it finish?” Sean asked, fear crippling his voice. The captain leered up at the ceiling.
    “It’s unstoppable. . . and it’s nearly finished. . .”
“No,” Sean said uselessly, hearing his voice against the thrumming notes of the tome behind him.
“No, no, no, no.” He repeated the words, chanting them, as if he were empowering a spell of his own to bring back Elise. The words quickly died in his throat as he turned to face Elise’s body. Her fingers were turned into rigid curls, looking as if she were clawing at the sky.
     Then Sean heard a noise, a whisper. He turned around. The captain was whispering something, but the bass undertones swallowed Medraut’s voice. Sean had to squat next to the captain to hear.
     Medraut wheezed as he stared blankly up at the sky through the ceiling of the room. “Knite. . . Knite.” He coughed twice, then swallowed hard. He scoffed. “You ruin the name, Sean. You’ll tarnish it, if you kill me or not. Either way, you really won’t be a hero.”
“What?” snapped Sean, moving closer over to where the mortally wounded captain lay. He stared down at Medraut, his eyes burning with hatred and tears.
The captain met his gaze. “Isn’t that what. . . what you wanted? To be the one in the shining armor? Isn’t it?”
     The captain turned his sullen, blank gaze past Sean, not quite focusing on him but staring over his shoulder.
     Sean shook his head before answering.
     He said. “You’re right. I’m not a hero. Now that I think about it, I haven’t really done anything resembling something heroic. I have no idea why I’m here; and to be honest, I don’t care what happens to me.” Sean brought up his hand and glanced at it. His fingers did not quiver. Then he turned his gaze onto Medraut. “But don’t expect to get away with everything you’ve done.”
     Sean blinked, his vision blurring and his voice growing. He faced Medraut, breathing heavily, cementing each word by enunciating it separately. “Now. . . what. Is. The spell?”
    Medraut coughed, his head rolling side to side on the floor. His lips moved, but nothing came out. Sean could see a crimson puddle enlarging underneath the captain. It peeked out from under his upper torso like a red carpet. After Medraut’s coughing fit ended, he turned to face Sean.
    Medraut continued to move his head back and forth.
    Jaw clenched tight, Sean growled through his teeth. “What is the spell?”
     Medraut’s face was expressionless as he responded. “You can’t threaten me with death.”
    “I’m not threatening,” Sean bit the fleshy lining in his mouth, his blood boiling. He tasted it as it ran over his tongue and inside his mouth. He stepped over the fallen captain, staring at his now glazed over eyes. He began, “Remember this, Sean: you don’t belong in the world of magic. And you never wi-”
      “Screw you, man.” Sean muttered, his voice cracking. Medraut blinked slowly, as if the very action cost him every ounce of his concentration.
    Without the slightest hesitation, Sean knelt down at Medraut’s side. He grabbed Elise’s knife with both hands and pulled upwards, hard, the stiletto coming out smoothly from the captain’s chest. A dark rivulet of thick crimson began to pool out of the hole in the captain’s vest. A tiny fountain, barely visible against the black plate carrier. Sean stared down at Medraut, his facial expression frozen in half a smirk and a look of shock as he realized what Sean had just done.
    Sean stepped back, dropping the knife. It clattered on the concrete, flecks of blood splattering the area next to Medraut’s head. Chest heaving up and down, Sean watched Captain Medraut-traitor and betrayer-spasmodically shudder six times, and then become still for the last time.