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  “This is Dibolosa,” he finally said, and waved a gesture towards the woman who sat staring at her in her red and black armor. Dibolosa got up from where she sat and did a mock curtsy. “Dibolosa was once like you, a chosen target for the lost. We trained her and prepared her for the legion, and she was able to save her world and send them away for good.”

  “So she’s from a different world is what you’re telling me?” Alysia asked.

  “Yes, a parallel world to ours and yours. She got our training, removed the lost, and then joined our cause to liberate future warriors like yourself from their perversions.”

  “So you and Diaboloso want to—”

  “DIBO LOSA!” the woman screamed at her from across the hall, and the numerous children stopped eating and turned to look at Alysia as if she were in trouble.

  “Dibolosa, Dibolosa, I’m sorry,” Alysia said.

  “Yes, our lady is very particular about her name. The rules are firm in the affairs of the realm, young Alysia Knight. Only warriors from the world chosen can fight them. This means that we cannot interfere with our own, or we would be out there taking the fight to the lost. What we can do is train you to be one of us, and with that training you can start to build yourself an army.”

  “An army.” Alysia whispered to herself, trying to imagine being at the front of a horde of fighters, and unable to visualize the thought. “Is it always women?” she finally asked.

  Chaos got up, sat in front of her and bit into a peach. The lights from the torches that lined the walls put dancing shadows on his face, and he took his time to eat the peach as her question floated in the air.

  “Always,” he said, throwing the pit with keen precision into a metallic bowl that sat on top of the table.

  “Why is that?” Alysia asked.

  “It seems to have something to do with procreation, my dear. Women are the vessels that bring forth life into this world, so the lost ones choose the body of a woman in order to bring forth their leaders into this realm.”

  “How is it that you know all of this? I mean, I get it, like you’re some sort of demon of light or whatever, but you knew it called my name. How would you know that unless you yourself were there?”

  The big man smiled and rubbed his hands together, and as if by command one of the young men ran up to him and handed him a damp cloth with which he wiped his hands. When he was finished, the boy took it away, and a girl came forth and handed him a long, slender, sheathed sword. He had worn the same one when he invaded Alysia’s home, but it was now polished and shiny and he rose and tied it to his waist.

  “We ‘demons’ as you call us are all connected in one way or another. This is why it is easy for us to hunt them, and why we are disallowed from wiping them out when we are outside of our world. We can hear their thoughts, just like they can hear ours. They know that we have you now, and that you will become our weapon against them.”

  “So, it’s like a game of chess between your factions. You can see plainly what the other is up to, but you have to maneuver in a way that will eventually get you the checkmate,” Alysia said.

  “Exactly, young warrior. This means that—”

  “So, this means that I am literally your pawn. The pawn of a demon trying to outwit another demon with the poor citizens of the world being the chessboard that you play upon,” she said without realizing that the volume of her voice had grown to the point where everyone in the room could hear her.

  “Not a pawn, my young human friend. More like a knight.” And he winked at her.

  “SERIOUSLY?” Alysia exclaimed. “I’m glad that this is some sort of cute joke for you. My mother died to one of your demons, and I can’t even imagine how many more of my family, friends, and colleagues. I don’t think it’s funny, not unless you tell me the whole thing will reset if we manage to defeat your lost ones.”

  “You mean some sort of time travel reward for the victors?” the demon asked. He didn’t wait for her to answer, waving his hand dismissively as he rose and looked around. He clapped his hands loudly, twice, and the young people in the beige robes gathered in front of him in groups of four. There had to be about forty of them, and the lines they formed were tight and neat. To a man, they dropped to one knee, and Alysia could see that they all brandished swords that were similar to his.

  “These are my legion of warriors, Alysia, my Bloody Garot, and each of them have over one hundred kills on the ones we call the lost. The enemy can produce new members from the corpses of those that they corrupt, but our order disallows us the advantage of that disgusting practice. They will be your trainers for as long as you need. Then you must prove yourself worthy of leaving this place.”

  Alysia looked around, trying to analyze the skills of the warriors kneeling. “How am I to prove that I am worthy of leaving?” she asked their leader, and he turned to face her, his large hands resting on the hilt of his sword.

  “Why, you have to succeed my dear Dibolosa, of course.” He smiled, revealing a perfect set of white teeth with canines so long that it made him look like a vampire.

  “I must defeat the champion of an ancient world? Sure, no problem at all, mister demon lord,” she said sarcastically.

  “You can call me Chaos,” he said without a hint of amusement in his voice. “Your training begins now.” Without waiting for her reaction, he walked to the large throne and sat down.

  3

  James Knight hadn’t realized he had dozed off but when he woke up he was not inside of the house or near it. He was sore everywhere and when he felt around, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the dim light, he could feel train tracks below him.

  He was in the subway underground, and he knew it immediately when he saw that the dim light came from above his head inside of a depression in the wall. He looked around frantically, hoping to see Alysia, but all he could make out were the bodies of Jaime and Tracy.

  He struggled to his feet and walked over to Tracy. She had blood on her face and she was lying in an awkward position on the tracks. James knelt down and lifted her into his arms. She felt lighter than he remembered and he walked her over to a set of stairs where he set her down and worked at waking her up.

  “Trace,” he said after nudging her for a time. She woke up with a start and flashed him a wicked glance.

  “WHAT?” she yelled at him, upset that he had brought her out of whatever dream it was that she was having at the time.

  “Wake up, baby, we’re not at home anymore,” he said to her lovingly and brushed some of the dirt out of her hair as she looked around groggily.

  “I’m sorry I yelled,” she said. “It was, it was that thing. Did you see it, Jimmy?”

  “Yeah, it was in all red and had a sword. All I remember is that it came at me and the next thing I know, I’m dreaming about happier times.”

  “We should wake up Jaime,” she said when she noticed that he was still slumped against the wall near the tracks, asleep. “Where’s CeeCee? Did she get away from that thing, or is she here somewhere?”

  “CeeCee ain’t here, Trace, but I don’t think she’s at the house, either. They called her name, remember? And she kept telling us over and over that they want her. I think they have her kidnapped somewhere. We’ll need to get out of here to find her.”

  Tracey nodded and got up, wiping her eyes. She walked over to Jaime’s body and shook him hard to bring him around. Jaime woke up and went through the same motions the other two had, cursing loudly several times and pacing the tunnel, looking for an escape.

  “Why would they put us here?” he asked after exhausting his search and letting his temper cool down a bit.

  “They put us out of the way so that we can’t find Alysia,” James said. “This was intentional, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re half a state away from where they’ve taken her.” They all grew quiet after he said this and it was as if he had said that Alysia was dead. He took note of their unsettling silence and got up to start searching for his daughter. It didn’t m
atter that it could very well be a futile effort; he had to do something. So instead of sitting around, he chose to get up.

  He was about fifteen minutes into walking through the cavernous subway tunnel when Tracy caught up with him.

  “Hey, I have an idea,” she said through labored breathing. He held her waist with his right hand and led her over to one of the lights. She looked up at him through eyes that barely hid the pain she was feeling.

  “Trace, what’s going on?” he asked, and then he turned her around slowly to look her over for any injuries that may have escaped him.

  “I dunno, Jimmy, I’m just tired. I feel like I haven’t slept in days and my body hurts, like the gunshots and bites from the kreple didn’t heal.”

  James looked around for Jaime and then knelt down in front of her. The young man was nowhere in view, so he lifted her t-shirt up above her breasts and observed her abdomen where the kreple had bitten her when she first met Alysia. There was a yellowish discoloration where the teeth marks were, and when he touched one of them, she flinched hard, almost screaming aloud from the pain.

  “Oh man, this is bad, baby. You’ve got some sort of infection,” he said, looking up at her grimacing face.

  “An infection after all this time?” Tracy asked as she tried in vain to pull him up to his feet. “There is so much going on that I don’t understand, Jimmy. Now we’re trapped in this endless tunnel and I’m sick.”

  “What could have brought this on?” he asked her as he stood up and touched the sides of her face. “We all got knocked out, and now you have this infection. It doesn’t make any sense.”

  “Right now, to be honest, I just need love,” she said to him. She reached up to touch his beard and he leaned in and kissed her passionately as they held one another beneath the flickering subway light.

  ~ * ~ * ~

  “Why should I need training to fight things that I had no problem fighting with before?” Alysia asked the young girl who stood with her. They were facing some sort of obstacle course that was the first in several trials she was to undertake. She thought the girl was cute, but there was something dangerous behind the cuteness.

  Her tiny body, bursting with confidence, hinted at severed limbs, intense pain, and her little face laughing as you died in your own blood. She looked like Angelica’s Maria, if she was about eleven years old and taller. She had long, curly, black hair that she pulled back into a ponytail and her complexion was a golden brown.

  “You won’t get it until you fight a real one,” she said in a sweet, melodic sort of accent that reminded her of Debdan.

  “What’s a real one? The one I fought was real enough; turning people into zombies, killing without a care. What can be more real than that? She was dangerous.”

  The little girl laughed, a sinister, yet cute sounding cackle that came from behind a gloved hand that she used to cover her mouth. “That was a mere rookie you fought, Alysia Knight, the equivalent of a newborn. She was inexperienced, and untrained in the way of leading her horde. Had she been left alone for a long enough time, she would have ascended and been given more power. One such as she would have taken more than mere silver and primitive fighting skill to defeat. This is why you are losing your world; you are not prepared to fight them, not without us. Not without us.”

  When she repeated the last three words, she touched her heart and then waved all around her to indicate the rest of her people. Alysia understood the gesture and thought about the cold, the shadows, and the ferocity of the demon that she had fought. A mere newborn compared to what it could have become. The thought gave her chills, and she imagined that its intent was to convert the entire bunker, like many of her sisters were probably doing now.

  With a bunker of servants, their number would grow. If you multiplied that by the amount of bunkers that were all over the country—all over the world for that matter—Alysia was stunned. She looked out at the obstacle course, which consisted of thin logs sticking up vertically from a dark lake that stood stagnant and foul. The sky was a color both unnatural and frightening, and all around them, flying creatures flew in flocks, menacingly.

  “Where are we?” she asked the girl, wondering how it was they had gone from the subway to the outside without climbing. The girl smiled again, forgetting to cover her mouth when she did, and a set of those fanged canines poked out, similar to her master, Chaos.

  “Alysia Knight is not very observant.” She laughed, and adjusted the belt of her kimono. “We are no longer in the world of men. We are in Yalem, my realm. This is where Alysia Knight must train in order to prove herself against the slayer of the lost, Dibolosa Vyne.”

  Alysia looked at the water, the trees, and the mustard-colored sky. There was something about the place that made her frightened and uneasy. There was something even more frightening about the ease in which the demon girl was able to bring her to this realm involuntarily, and she wondered if it was possible that they could leave her there, permanently.

  What if it was in this realm that her father, Tracy and Jaime were? Chaos had promised to release them if she complied with his wishes for her to become his champion, but what if he was lying, and was merely toying with her to take these trials?

  “Okay, little one, let’s get this show on the road. Show me what to do to pass this test, and I will do it,” she said.

  “Not so easy for a clumsy human like you, Alysia Knight. You must be reformed, to be like us, to do the things we do, to fight the way we fight,” the little demon said.

  “Enough riddles. I don’t care. I want my friends released, and I want to help get rid of the things attacking them. Show me what I need to do. Let’s go; I’m sick of everything.”

  The tiny girl hopped onto the first log, which began to sink slowly beneath her weight, and then she skipped from log to log, traveling down the stream away from Alysia. When she finished, she called back to her, telling her to do the same and Alysia nodded. It can’t be that hard, she thought, and hopped onto the first log.

  It became immediately apparent that Alysia was too heavy for the exercise, and that her balance was not what it needed to be to complete the trial. She jumped to the next one out of desperation. Perhaps if she moved fast enough, she could get past it, but when her foot touched the third one, she fell into the murky waters, striking her head and passing out.

  She awoke on the shore where she started, and the demon girl was smiling down at her. “Now we prepare you,” she whispered to Alysia. She lifted a knife marked with runes, and drove it into her chest. Alysia felt a shock of pain and fire flooded her body. Blood oozed from the wound and she could not move, forced to look up at the demonic pixie, whose face was now grimacing as she concentrated on her cruel work of holding the knife in place.

  Alysia wondered why she wasn’t dying as the blood flowed free. She felt another sensation as the blood ran out; it was as if it was being replaced by something lighter, cooler, and more rejuvenating. When she had been lying still for over thirty minutes, she stopped her panic and relaxed. Maybe now I won’t have to live with the suffering of Mom’s death and the constant worry for Dad’s life, she thought to herself. It feels so good to lie here, under this strange yellow sky with its dark-blue sun. It feels so good.

  The demon girl jerked the blade from her chest and then stuck a finger in her mouth and rubbed the edges of the gaping wound with her spit. The skin began to heal where she touched it, and Alysia noticed that the blade was glowing, throbbing more like it, and it throbbed in cadence with the beating of her heart. Once the hole was sealed, she found that she could move again, and she stood up quickly and observed her arms and legs, trying to find something different from before.

  “You are still you, Alysia Knight.” The little girl laughed. “But, now you are a sister. You can proceed with the tests without the penalties of being fully human, and you can prove yourself against Dibolosa!”

  Alysia tried to feel if there was anything different about her to back up what the little demon was
saying. She felt her chest where the wound once was and there was nothing there. She jumped but didn’t get much higher than she could before. She darted this way and that, testing her speed for anything extra.

  She felt and acted as human as she did before the stabbing. She looked at the demon curiously; she was more than a little disappointed at her absence of gifts.

  “Do the trial, Alysia Knight. You don’t have much time,” the girl said with a hint of annoyance.

  “What do you mean I don’t have much time?” Alysia asked.

  “You must pass the tests in time to save your friends. If you take too long, Lord Chaos will not reward your efforts by healing them. You must beat Dibolosa at the end of the trial to be reunited with your friends.”

  Alysia felt her heart skip. The demon lord had put her father and friends somewhere where he could kill them if she didn’t meet his demands. She looked out at the poles that sat silently in the black water and ran to them, jumping without any care for falling like she did before. Her foot floated down gently on top of the first log, and she found that her balance was intact, as if she was merely playing hopscotch. She bounced from log to log effortlessly, picking up her speed as she did, thinking of her father’s safety. By the time she made it to the end, she was comfortable with her newfound skill. She could be weightless when the situation depended on it, and this was the gift that the dagger had given her.

  When she landed on the far side of the lake, the small girl landed right behind her. She hadn’t heard her when she had followed, but was impressed that she was able to.

  “The kreples… are they from this world too?” Alysia asked as the girl took her hand and began to skip along down a dark path of the forest that led away from the lake of logs.

  “What are kreples?” the little girl asked, and Alysia stopped so she could describe one to her.