All The Wrong Signs
Hopeless

The next time the door opened, we had landed. I’d been wondering how Kyler thought he was going to walk me through an airport without raising suspicion. Now I knew. There was no airport. We landed on an airplane strip in the middle of nowhere.

There was nothing around us as far as the eye could see. No houses, no buildings, nothing.

It was hard to judge what time it was. As I was being led out of the plane, the sky was filled with grey clouds and a soft drizzle was coming down. Kyler had unchained me, and now I had my hands tied behind my back in a thick scratchy rope. The gag remained.

Kyler grabbed my arm, leading me over to where two men in brown robes just like his were waiting for us. Was this more family? Or did Kyler have other men helping him? With their robes, they reminded me of monks.

In the car, Kyler sat in the back beside me. It was uncomfortable sitting with my hands behind my back, but no-one seemed to care if I was comfortable or not. Everyone remained completely silent during the car ride. They didn’t talk or play music. The only noise was the sound of the tires traveling down the rough road.

I had hoped we would eventually see some signs of life, but I saw nothing but rain. Looking out the window, I saw the coast in a distance. At least they were taking me some place that Blaze had been. If he could trace me, he would replace what he had been looking all this time for. They were leading him right where he wanted to replace.

That’s what they wanted. This was a trap.

“What do you want from me?” I asked, even though I knew the answer. Some part of me hoped he would surprise me.

Kyler looked over at me. “You stole what is mine and you are going to get him back.”

I shook my head, but before I could protest, the driver slammed on the brakes, sending me hurtling against the passenger seat. Kyler cussed, but threw his door open. I tried to sit back up, but not having my arms to stabilize me made everything more difficult.

The door beside me opened and one of the other men reached in, pulling me out and throwing me on the ground. “Are you sure this will work, Kyler?”

“She summoned him from us. She can summon him back.”

“How do we know it’s him?” The other man asked, looking at me as I stood up.

“It’s him. Look at her hand. It’s the same sigil in the book.”

I tried to back up as Kyler approached me. Before I could get away, he grabbed me, spinning me around and twisting my hand at an abnormal angle, making me cry out.

Kyler jerked me back around and started walking closer to the coast. We were close. You could hear the crash of the waves from below. We were on a high cliff that overlooked the ocean. If you were to fall from the cliff, there would be no surviving. It would be an instant death.

For that reason alone, I let out a scream and tried to fight Kyler as he drug me closer. My scream didn’t stop him. It only earned me a slap across the face as he backhanded me.

The two men that walked in front of us suddenly disappeared and I jumped, thinking that they had fallen over the side. The closer we got, I saw that there was another smaller cliff underneath, right where they had vanished.

One of them stood, lifting their arms. I didn’t even get the chance to shake my head no before Kyler pushed me, sending me over the edge of the cliff. Thank god they weren’t trying to kill me yet. If the cloaked man wouldn’t have caught me, I would have crashed into the ocean below.

There was a cave entrance from this cliff and as we walked inside, the two men up front stopped to light torches. The further we walked inside, the more dank and sour it smelled. You could get whiffs now and then of the sea, but the further we walked, the less made its way through.

The cave’s path led us downward. Some tunnels were so tight that I was afraid I wouldn’t fit. I could feel the weight of the earth above me and I began to feel as if I couldn’t breathe. I took everything in me to keep going.

When the tunnel finally opened up, it was to a trapdoor in the floor. I winced at the screeching noise it made when they opened it. Kyler nudged me forward. I was surprised to see stairs this far down. They lead down to a huge open cavern.

From the top of the staircase, I could see Blaze’s sigil etched deep into the stone floor. His shackles still lay locked in the middle. Kyler pushed me forward, making me trip down a couple of the steps before I collided into the man that was walking in front of us.

Once we were on the cavern floor, the two cloaked men walked around lighting torches, making the room glow in soft firelight. Kyler led me to the sigil. “Look familiar, witch?”

My eyes looked for any weakness in the floor, but came back with none. Kyler untied my hands, grabbing me by the arm and pulling me closer to the middle where Blaze’s shackles lie. “It’s only fitting you can take his place.”

I tried to my best to fight him and get out of his grip, but he was much stronger than he looked. The weight of the shackles on my wrist cut into my skin. I fell down, hitting my knees, wanting nothing more to sob.

Kyler had yet to take the gag from my mouth. I wanted nothing more to call out to Blaze, but I wouldn’t even if he removed it. I had to protect Blaze’s name.

“My name is your one get out of jail free card. If things go bad, you use it to free yourself.”

Blaze’s words echoed in my mind, but I wouldn’t obey him on this. Turning my palm up, I was glad that you couldn’t see my scar. It was something you had to know to look for. I couldn’t feel Blaze earlier today, but now I felt the connection. It was tight, and every once in a while I could feel ripples in it like he was plucking the string.

As much as I wanted him to replace me, I wished I could break our bond. If he couldn’t replace me, they couldn’t hurt him. They couldn’t control him.

Kyler had been watching me but grew bored with being ignored. He walked into the circle. “If you ever want to see the light of day again, you will tell me what I need to know to summon my demon back.”

Deciding that lying to him wasn’t the way to go, I looked up at him. “He isn’t your demon. He belongs to no-one.”

Kyler frowned at me. “So you think you can keep him all for yourself?”

I shook my head. “I always knew he would leave. It’s his destiny.”

“Fuck destiny,” Kyler shouted, kicking me in the stomach and making me cry out as I held my side in pain.

“Tell me his name now!” he screamed.

“I don’t know it,” I lied. “He went by something else when he was with me. I don’t even know how I summoned him. It just was there, then it was gone.”

Kyler growled, reaching in his cloak and pulling out a knife. One of the other men walked up to him, grabbing his arm. “Give her time. A little alone time down here will make her change her mind.”

The man walked up closer to me, lowering his hood. He was older, probably late 5o’s. Kneeling, he offered me his hand, helping me up. I had just let my mind wonder, thinking that maybe he would help me, when his hands moved to my breast, squeezing them roughly. “She’s a little on the skinny side.”

I cried out, trying to get away from him, but he reached out, grabbing my shirt by the neck and stretching it out. “What’s wrong, love? You can fuck demons, but not us?”

My eyes moved to Kyler’s. I knew he wouldn’t object, but they had no way of knowing that I had slept with Blaze. The other man laughed, but Kyler just starred at me, narrowing his eyes at me.

“You will summon him here. One way or the other.”

With that, he turned on his heels, leaving me. The two men quickly followed behind him. I glanced at the torches they had lit. Once they burned out, I would be alone in the cold dark. A shiver ran down my spine, mixed with coldness and fear.

I would die down here. I just hoped Blaze knew how much I loved him. Petra would tell him. Petra wouldn’t fail me. And Blaze, he would burn the entire world to the ground to avenge me.

Of that, I was certain.