Devin Greigh: Testimony
Chapter 17

Just seconds later, a flood of black smoke started plaguing the opened area of the woods, like a constant swarm of wasps smothering a person coated in honey. Everyone outside guarding the van stood still, poised to strike at any given second.

“Interesting,” I heard a female voice call out as though she was precisely inside of the van sitting right next to me.

Suddenly the black and blue smoke dispersed, and from it emerged three human-like figures. They looked just like normal humans with only one exception; everything from their hair to their royal-looking clothing was one monochromatic slate-blue tint. They were barely translucent, and looked more like people being displayed through a black and white television than astral projections. I looked more, and noticed the three figures now slowly walking before us. The girl looked taller than me, but was dwarfed by the two, taller men walking on each side of her. As they got closer, their monochromatic tint faded into full color, as though they were like Devin. Their suits were black, and their skin just as pale as they were when they were completely coated in slate blue. The had curly blonde hair—almost like Windsor’s—and her eyes had a slight hint of a dark magenta which shone dimly like a fading light. The larger man’s hair was cut short, and smothered in a brunette and graying brown motif. The other man’s hair was long and kept in place in a braided ponytail. He wore a goatee which was darker than his golden blonde and light brown hair. Both of the men’s eyes were completely black, and they looked much older than girl.

“We had expected you all to have fled by now, but instead you have stayed to give us what rightfully belongs to us.” The girl continued; her voice was youthful, but her tone sounded more direct, like a teenage girl speaking in front of a live audience; another trait she shared with Windsor.

“Or to fight,” the smaller man spoke in a more aged, annoyed tone.

I stared at Devin and then back at the trio standing in front of the group. Their eyes were fixed on Devin as though they were glued to random regions of his face.

“More fun for us if they’ve stayed for the latter,” the larger man added in an even deeper pitch.

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” the girl said with a sigh, “Let us introduce ourselves properly, if you two don’t mind? They’re obviously not going anywhere, and should they try, they won’t get too far now would you?”

I heard Winston’s voice bellow something out in retort, but couldn’t make sense of it as his voice was muffled through the windows.

“Well it’s good that you see it that way, human,” the girl replied to Winston.

Very nonchalantly, the girl stepped forward and took a formal bow.

“We are the children of the mother that is known as the Perfect Cirqule. My name, is Teixeira, second only to no one. To my left, the powerful Tember…He’s silent, yet deadly. And to my right is the unquenchably-knowledgeable Ixion, our famed informer, and beloved wind-whisperer.”

I was so shocked at the sight of these three. They looked like normal humans, and should they possess powers like Cas and Mr. Goldstein had mentioned, then they would definitely be easily mistaken for clairvoyants.

“How are they able to take human form?” I thought out loud. “Are these what demons are?”

I snapped out of my state of thought once I heard Devin’s muffled voice. I couldn’t help but to giggle a bit due to the tone Devin was using; it was the usual quick, witty humorous tone he would use frequently, and I could not help but to think what he had said to Teixeira.

“Quite humorous you are!” Teixeira said half laughing. “You know why we are here…I assume that all of you do. This will be as simple as basic arithmetic; surrender the anomalies, or death will be quick for you, but slow and painful for your souls”

“That wasn’t arithmetic,” I thought out loud again.

I heard Devin talk again, and this time it sounded like he said exactly what I had said.

“Why are you talking to yourself?” I heard Windsor ask me.

“I’m not,” I told her, “I can hear Teixeira talking.”

“Who’s Teixeira??” she prodded.

“One of the three demons outside,” I answered.

“Is my dad alright?”

“He’s fine, Windsor, nothing’s happening yet.”

“Okay.”

I looked over at Windsor and noticed she had her head down. Despite her annoying need to make me feel like the devil himself, I couldn’t help but to notice how adorable Windsor looked. I wanted to just hug her and let her know that everything will be alright. The only problem was I did not know how she would react, because Windsor was not an average little girl.

“We’re going to retrieve the anomalies one way or another,” Teixeira finally caught my attention again.” You can’t hide them in that rust bucket forever.

Mr. Goldstein started talking, and took a couple of steps towards Teixeira and the other two-thirds of their trio.

“We need not explain to mere humans our reason for wanting those anomalies,” Teixeira said crossly, “But I will explain this: If you do not remove them from the van and surrender them to us now, a quick death will await you all!”

“What’s the point of handing us over if they’re only going to attempt to kill everyone either way,” I thought aloud.

“What are they saying?” Windsor bugged me.

“She wants them to surrender us to them,” I explained, “Or else they will kill everyone.”

Windsor retreated back to curling up in the backseat of the van, to my delight, and I continued to assess the situation. I noticed that now Devin, Winston, and Mr. Goldstein were all standing together, ahead of the rest of the group. Shaun looked back to me with a concerned look, and Cas did as well.

“Very well,” I heard Teixeira say joyfully, “This makes me excited!”

The van started to grow colder than a walk-in freezer, so I tucked my hands in my pockets, and backed away from the window. Sounds of deep sorrow, the mantra of the damned, soon grew louder, and serpent-like hissing was surrounding us from every angle. I hopped over the seat and sat with Windsor. She pressed up against the side of the van almost as though she did not want me to be near her. The rainfall was like rocks pummeling the roof of the van, and each drop’s blurry descent to the ground made everything outside look like a distorted glass mirror. The skies suddenly grew dark, and within the trees in the woods, blackish-blue smoke started to emerge. My heart started to pound like a battering ram trying to penetrate the besieged, giant wooden doors of a rivaled castle. I heard my heart beat from my aura, and my own aura started to overtake me as I heard the harmonic resonance of it; the angelic, thousand-strong children choir singing loudly for everyone to hear, to feel, and to witness.

“You will not get what you want without a fight!” I heard Cas shout. “We didn’t come here to bow down to your demands; we’ve come to put an end to your plot!”

The van suddenly filled with the chorus of auras and harmonic resonance from everyone outside as well as inside, including Windsor’s; she had an eerie melody that sounded like a demented music jewelry box with the spinning ballerina on top. I tried to look past the rain through the window, but the glass itself was a billboard of endless raindrops racing each other down the smooth surface. I used my astral sight, and everything I needed to see was much easier than trying to look using the naked eye. Everyone guarding Windsor and me were a pale-blue tint, and the opposition, Teixeira, Tember, Ixion, and the thousands of stalking gheists in the woods, were a bright red. It was at this time that I had finally realized that the gheists were not sent to fight the others; the gheists were there for Windsor and myself.

“Spread around the van!!” I heard Cas scream, but it was too late. In a swift blur, the gheists breached the van. One gheist entered through the windshield as though it was simple passing through water, and rushed after me. The gheist moved so fast, I barely realized it was face to face with me. The moment I heard Windsor scream, my heart thumped incredibly hard, like large tribal drums signaling the theme of war, and then every movement suddenly slowed down to almost a stop. The gheist was still about a foot away from me, but it was no longer moving at an incredibly blinding speed. Windsor’s screaming slowed down as well, and sounded deeper, as if someone slowed down the tempo to a vocal recording.

I then suddenly felt the same exact way as I felt that day with the football and the vase, which led to several things happening. First, I felt my body move on its own, like the way I caught the vase and football, only my arm rose towards the gheist, and I felt myself use psychokinesis to propel the gheist back out of the van.

Time sped back up, and I then felt the presence of three more gheists breaching the van, this time from both sides of the vehicle. Time slowed down again, and my arms rose, and my hands aimed for each separate targets, shooting them back out of the van with my psychokinesis. More gheists invaded the van, and the same instances occurred, sending the gheists flying like high-speed projectiles out of the van quicker than they had entered. There seemed to have been no end to the persistent gheists, and I was unsure how long I could continue to let my body go into ‘auto pilot’ and overusing my psychokinesis; I didn’t even have a clue as to how to stop my body. I then saw the side door of the van slowly open; time had slowed down again at that point. When time finally returned to normal speed, the entire van lit up a bright blue, and the gheists all shrieked with agony, piercing my ear drums like a threading needle. I then felt myself use psychokinesis again, launching the electrocuting gheists back outside. The final thing that occurred was me feeling a sharp, stinging strike across my cheek, and I had regained control of my body once again.

“I’m not a woman beater,” Devin said as I looked up and finally noticed it was him, “but you were going crazy, and I needed you to stop using your powers.”

“I,” I stuttered, “I couldn’t help it, I—,”

“Don’t worry about it,” Devin interrupted, “we have to get you out of here.”

Devin held out his hand as he stood out of the van. I looked over to Windsor and motioned her to leave.

“Take her first,” I started, “she doesn’t want me touching her.”

“You really need to grow up,” Devin said.

“She does only ten, Devin,” I argued, “how else do you expect her to act?”

“I’m not talking about her,” Devin replied, “I’m talking about you, now grab her and take my hand.”

“NO!” Windsor shouted, “I’m coming!”

She quickly hopped out from the seat, rushed past me, and grabbed Devin’s hand. After she was escorted out of the van, I quickly exited as well. From the corner of my eyes, I could see rapid movement from everyone outside through the heavy rain, and realized that they had engaged battle with the remaining gheists.

“Gotcha!” I suddenly heard a heart-squeezing voice hiss at me. My body suddenly locked up as Devin started to take form. At the last second, the very last second, he turned around, and his eyes met mine before I was sucked back like I was being dragged into the turbine of a jet.

“Evenfleu!” I heard several people scream, and I knew that at this point, it was too late. I turned to Teixeira as she gritted her teeth as a feral, animalistic expression possessed her face. A cold wind swept the woods suddenly, and the whistling sounds of its presence grew into powerful, unfiltered howls. The trees crackled as it bent under the wind’s velocity, and our team was slowly pushed back. My clothing whipped at my body like a nine-tailed whip until I finally stood before Teixeira. It was apparent immediately that Teixeira shared the same powers as I did, only a lot fiercer and controlled; she suspended me in the air with both of my arms stretched out to each side like a martyr being crucified without even lifting her finger. I was paralyzed in every way imaginable; even my muscles were unable to move or flex. My hair was the only thing able to move as it blew with the wind once Teixeira removed my hood to reveal my face.

“Such a beautiful young woman you are!” she stated. “It’s a shame that I must kill you, but don’t take it personal; it has nothing to do with you, but everything to do with the anomaly you possess.”

I tried everything in my being to fight the hold Teixeira had on me, but to no prevail. It was difficult to tap into my aura without closing my eyes, since I had never mastered doing so during my training. Instead, I let my eyes, which were forced to look into Teixeira’s immediate direction, stare off into space as though they were actually closed, and focused on my aura.

“I wouldn’t struggle,” she continued, “It is meaningless for you, a mere human, to fight against me.”

Teixeira’s arrogance started to irritate me. I grunted as though I was in an arm wrestling match against her. I finally felt and heard my aura as I continued pressing to tap into it. It wasn’t too long that I suddenly regained feeling in my lips, and then my mouth and jaw.

“This,” I struggled trash-talking, “is the…best…that you got!?”

“You…,” Teixeira hissed at me, “…you dare challenge me!?

I had no time to defend myself, let alone answer back in my usual witty manner; The moment she hissed those words, I felt a force stronger than being dragged by a stampede of elephants, hurl me through the woods. My sudden trip was cut short as I crashed into something unforgiving, rough, with a few layers cracking and splintering off from the impact of the entirety of the back regions of my body; a giant tree from which I had struck so hard that pain didn’t register until I had realized it was in fact a tree. Pain shot through my spine as though boiling water was injected into it, and I nearly blacked out due to my head smacking against the cement-like solidity of the tree.

I had no time to recover from it, as I had felt myself being dragged once again, only much harder than the first. Another tree cut my trip short again; I was thrown into a tree smaller than the first, but just as worse. I collided into the tree sideways, and felt my shoulder pop completely out of place, and the side of my head scraping against the jagged teeth of the tree bark. Blood painted the area my head had struck, and the warm flow of crimson smothered the pores of the side of my face as I was dragged away once again. Another tree and the pain of two cracked ribs were administered as I was hurled in a horizontal position in mid air. I dropped to the ground, writhing in pain; I would have clutched every part of my body if I had enough hands to do so. The wound on my head stung, and I felt the coldness of the air blow through it; I could tell it was a large gash without touching it. The blood that flowed freely from the wound stung my eyes, making it almost impossible to see. My cracked ribs made it a slave labor to breathe as I gasped for air; it felt as though I was suffocating. As I lied nearly helpless underneath the thick fog, I was able to hear the others fighting. Devin was the reason I was no longer being used as a human Ping-Pong ball. I heard a loud shriek from Teixeira, followed by, “Bastard!!” I also heard loud winds as strong as a hurricane off in the distance, Nichelle fighting Tember, and the sounds of Aaron’s boots stomping rapidly through the leaf-covered earth. The rainfall further stung the gash on my head, but started to wash away the crimson mask of blood I had worn on my face.

“Evvy!” I heard Cas chime in. “Evvy you’re hurt!”

I tried to communicate back in a way to make her not worry; but I knew she could sense I was in a terrible condition.

“Wait! I’ll try to get Devin!”

“N—no!” I chimed back, “I’m…fine. D…don’t worry!”

I needed to muster up every ounce of strength I had left physically to push myself back up to my feet. My body was small and it could withstand a good beating, but not a beating that felt like I was struck by three speeding trains. My muscles ached, and my limbs trembled, but I continued to push myself up until I was at least on my knees. I knew that Teixeira was after me, and there was no way that I could run in my condition…There was no way I wanted to run. I had to make a stand against her, to let her know that I was more significant than ‘a mere human.’ Breathing heavily, I wiped the remaining drying blood from my face, and then I heard the annoying voice again.

“There you are!” Teixeira was already nose-to-nose with me.

I was up in the air again, but only suspended enough that my feet were five feet off of the ground.

“You know,” Teixeira started, “You’re annoying for a mere human…Although all humans are annoying until they’re dead. Did you really think that you can win this fight against me?? I could have come myself and eradicated everyone…But why break a sweat?”

At this point, I was reading Teixeira’s aura. Every time she used her powers, her aura emitted a humming noise which sounded much more relieving as her actual voice. I focused on her aura instead of her annoying banter, which made me feel a feeling that I had never felt my entire life; rage.

“You make my ears bleed when you speak,” I strained.

I had no control over the events that happened next. My arms flung forward, and my psychokinesis threw Teixeira from me. I fell back down to the earth, and I felt myself running towards her. Every step I took administered a shot of excruciating pain throughout every battered part of my body, but I felt myself continue to run without falter. Teixeira’s eyes were wide, and then squinted into a furious glare. She used her psychokinesis, and I countered it with my own. We were using our forces to try and shove the other, strike each other, leaving them open for anything—a possible kill perhaps. She threw the first wave of attack. I weaved to the side as though I was letting a bullet pass me by, and then threw my attack. Teixeira blocked it with her psychokinesis, and then counted. I jumped, and pushed her force downwards to the ground; the momentum catapulted me into the air towards Teixeira. I used my psychokinesis to throw a barrage of long-range punches. Teixeira blocked two, but was struck with the rest, and she reeled backwards as I started to descend. Once I landed, I was within physical striking range of Teixeira, and she was still recovering from the flurries I delivered. I felt my leg swing upward, but missed; Teixeira recovered quicker than I thought. My momentum sent me spinning full circle, and I found myself swinging the back of my fist towards her face. Teixeira swatted it away, leaving me completely open. Without any warning, I felt it; something cold and painful pulling at my soul as though a magnet was drawing me to it. I looked into Teixeira’s eyes, and they were as red as blood. Her face was painted an eerie expression of serenity as her hand lunged for my chest. My soul pulled more towards her hand as it closed in, and then, without knowing how or why, everything went black.

“Hey,” I heard a familiar face call out as I felt my body shake uncontrollably like an airplane hitting turbulence.

I felt cold, as though the blood in my body was completely drained, and everything was still black. In the distance, I could hear the chorus of familiar voices, and the sounds of fighting; claps of fists against flesh, and crashes of trees splintering and falling to the ground. I heard Casrial call to Nichelle, telling her to help Winston protect Windsor while Shaun and Mr. Goldstein’s voices surrounded me.

“Come on, girl!” I heard the familiar voice call out to me again.

I slowly opened my eyes as I realized that it was the familiar voice that was violently shaking my body back to consciousness. The atmospheric light was surprisingly blinding, but once my eyes adjusted to its presence, I was able to notice Tess kneeling down over me. Cas, Mr. Goldstein and Shaun were standing guard and making sure that I was all right.

“She’s awake!” Tess shouted.

“Am I dead?” was the first sentenced that I had blurted out.

“If it wasn’t for me,” Tess replied, “you would have been. Can you get up okay? You look pretty bad!”

“I think I’m fine,” I grunted as I sat myself up.

My ribs sent a shot of excruciating pain throughout the side of my body, and my shoulder hunched up. My head was pounding, but the blood flowing from the open wound in my head wasn’t as profuse.

“What were you thinking trying to fight that demon by yourself!?” Cas asked. “You could have died!”

“She was annoying,” I answered, “and I needed to get away from her, and protect the anomaly at all costs.

“Not at the cost of your life though!” she argued, but took a deep breath before she continued. “I’m sorry, but you are too important, we all are, but you are specifically important…you must remember that.”

“I’m sorry,” I apologized, “but I really couldn’t help it, it was like my body—,”

I suddenly realized something different about this point in time; Teixeira was nowhere to be seen. I looked up at Tess and asked, “Is Teixeira dead?”

Tess just shook her head and replied, “Come on, we gotta move!”

“Teixeira!” I shouted over to Mr. Goldstein, “Where is Teixeira!?”

“She’s gone,” he said, “but we must help the others now. There are gheists all over, and two demons left to fight.”

When we headed over towards the fight, Tess slowed down suddenly, her eyes glazed, and her face went pale. “What’s wrong?” I asked.

“My powers,” Tess answered. “Teleporting you from one place to another takes a lot out of me. It’s alright; I’ll be fine so as long as I don’t have to use them again.”

“When did you learn how to teleport!?” I asked.

“Just a moment ago,” she replied.

“How many times have you used it?”

“Just this once…It’s not like taking astral form, it’s something entirely different, something I did not know I was able to do up until a moment ago.”

The sudden tremble of her voice worried me; it was shaky, as though she was struggling to breathe.

“Are you sure you are going to be alright?” I asked.

“I will be fine,” Tess answered with an annoyed tone in her voice, “The others could use our help!”

We returned to the battle as the pace picked up quickly. Mr. Goldstein parted to help Winston with protecting Windsor against the horde of gheists, and Cas followed me to where the demons were. As we reached the battle, I could barely see Devin and Tember fighting each other, so I decided to use my astral vision to try and keep up. My eyes closed as I tapped into my aura, and immediately felt it surround me. I opened my eyes to the usual blue-painted atmosphere, and noticed the auras instantly. Devin swung his cane like it was a rapier, batting away Tember’s own sword. There was a lot of dodging and clashing as both combatants attempted to leave the other open for the right attack. I ran closer, holding my side to keep pressure on my ribs so they did not move around; it hurt tremendously when I tried to run without doing so. Devin took notice of my presence, doing a double-take. His expression made me believe that my condition must have looked worse than I felt. However, it was that double take that left Devin distracted, and Tember stabbed his sword in a forward-thrusting motion towards Devin’s neck. “Devin!” I shouted, but he was still looking at me.

I immediately took action as I raised my hand towards Tember, casting him away like a small rock; he crashed through a few small trees, and off into the distance. I ran to Devin as he continued to stare there as though he was in a trance.

“I’m alright,” I ensured him, “but I’m going to need to be patched up.”

“You look like hell,” Devin murmured.

“Thanks for the compliment,” I joked, “are you able to heal me?”

“Your shoulder’s dislocated,” Devin said, finally snapping out of his trance.

“Pop it back in place,” I told him as I struggled to hold out my arm.

Devin grabbed hold of my hand; the height difference made me grimace in pain due to Devin having to lift my arm up, which caused pain to course through the tendons of my shoulder. I let myself lean back, and then Devin quickly jerked my arm. There was a stomach-churning sound of a sudden crackle, and a split second session of every nerve ending in my arm writhing and screaming in pain. I tried to muffle my verbal reaction after I felt my joint fit back in place, but it was too overwhelming to keep bottled up; I grunted and swore through clenched teeth, yanked my hand from Devin’s clasp, and then nursed my shoulder until the pain was gone.

“Isn’t this the part where you tell me to suck it up?” I joked.

“You almost died,” Devin murmured.”

“But I didn’t,” I said nonchalantly. “I’m standing, and she ran away. That’s one demon down, two to—,”

“She kicked your butt though,” Devin teased, and for the first time, his teasing struck a tense nerve.

“Listen,” I snapped, “Next time I see her, I’m throwing her into space! Got it!?”

Devin just looked to the side and muttered, “Got it.”

“Good,” I replied, “Now, be helpful and heal me, so we can get back to protecting Windsor and the others!”

“Yes, drill sergeant!” Devin joked again.

Shuffling over to me, Devin tucked his cane under his arm, placed one of his hands on the side of my head, and the other on my shoulder. I felt the warmth of his aura kneading the injuries away like a masseuse, and listened to the sounds of his aura’s harmonic resonance as I closed my eyes. I felt relieved to feel the gaping wound on the side of my head being mended together, and the soreness of the tendons in my shoulder being soothed away. Devin then placed a hand against my ribs to hold them in place. I winced slightly, but sighed as his aura did the rest. I nearly forgot Cas was still around when I heard her voice.

“For a small girl you’ve got plenty of no nonsense attitude!” she sang.

“Having an annoying, bigger, older brother whose career goal is to put on football gear and send every player on the opposite teams to the hospital on stretchers will do that to you,” I replied with a smile.

“I guess so!” she laughed.

I felt a slight, tingling and crackling feeling in my ribs, like the crackling of Pop Rocks, and then the warmth from Devin’s aura faded slowly.

“There you go,” Devin said, “better, faster, stronger.”

“I love you Devin,” I sang.

“Bite me,” Devin teased. “Don’t get killed, dummy.”

“I promise,” I told him.

“Now now kids,” Cas joked, “play nice!”

Devin and I both scoffed and replied, “Yes mom!”

There was no sign of Tember returning to the battle, so Devin, Casrial and I headed through the woods in the direction I had thrown him. The peanut trail of broken trees and trailing residual energy made it easy for us to follow Tember’s landing spot, and did not take us long to reach it; the toughest part was actually figuring out where he was at now, as his body was not in the spot where he had landed.

“He’s gotta be around here somewhere,” I whispered.

I threw my hood over my head and returned to my astral vision. Scanning the area, I noticed several things; Tember’s presence disappeared, and there was no trace of him trying to hide somewhere. There were also signs of waywards and gheists that appeared to had disappeared with him. I also noticed that we were currently in a level five area; the woods there teemed with residual energy, something that would normally attract the more dangerous of gheists as well as waywards.

“That’s weird,” I thought aloud. “This is a level five area, but there’s nothing but residual energy. This place would normally be crawling with gheists right now, right?”

“He consumed them, Cas murmured.

“What?” I asked, confused by what Cas had said.

“Tember consumed the spirits in this area to strengthen himself. We must have weakened him enough to banish him. He is no longer here.”

So he retreated as well!?” I asked, “So what do we do?” I asked them.

“We need to help the others,” Devin answered. “Tember must have escaped. We can’t let Ixion do the same.”

“What about Windsor?” I asked.

Cas closed her eyes and stood still. I felt her aura flourish momentarily. Once her aura settled again, she opened her eyes and answered, “They’re still surrounded, but they will be fine with Alexander there.”

“We should hurry with Ixion before they get pinned down by oncoming hordes,” Devin suggested.

The three of us hurried back to the open field. More trees were uprooted or snapped, causing blocks in the way; Devin had to transport us the rest of the way. When we arrived, both Aaron and Anna looked weakened, and Nichelle was showing signs of fatigue as well. Othello’s face was glistening with sweat underneath his hood, and his face looked dead with fatigue.

“Human,” Ixion scoffed.

Using barely any movement at all, Ixion sent a gust of wind over to the group, throwing them to the ground. Nichelle tried one last-ditch effort to come within striking range of Ixion, but he simply laughed, said, “Pathetic,” and then caused a funnel to develop, carrying her straight up into the air along with debris of wood and broken earth.

“That’s what those winds were,” I gasped. “He can control winds!?”

“It’s a nice trick,” Devin said. “We could definitely use him for parties.”

I heard Nichelle scream as she ascended upward, and the three of us sprung into action.

Devin quickly turned to smoke, while Cas used her powers to hurl a toppled tree at Ixion. Ixion used a gale storm to hurl it back, but Devin splintered it as he passed through it. I hurdled over the splintered tree, using my psychokinesis to catch Nichelle as the tornado that held her dissipated, and sending her on a downward spiral. I brought her down safely as I rushed over to her.

“Gather everyone else,” I told her quickly. “They’re too tired to fight; the three of us will take care of him.”

Nichelle nodded, said, “Thanks Lolita,” and hurried over to where Othello, Aaron, and Anna were thrown. I rushed back as I saw Devin appear from his astral form.

“This is getting bothersome,” Ixion muttered. “You are going to ruin everything!”

Ixion sent an array of wind gusts at us that stung like papercuts, but Casrial and I used our powers to make a clearing for Devin. Ixion moved like wind, but something took over my body again, making me swing my fists like a boxer, using my psychokinesis they way I did against Teixeira. The force of my powers struck Ixion in the face several times, causing him to stagger backwards. Casrial leaped in front of me, using her powers similar to mine as she shoved Ixion through a tree; a large chunk was taken out of the tree, and it slowly started to fall. I felt myself use my powers to swat the tree in the other direction, and then grab Ixion, pulling him back. Casrial used her powers to smack him straight up into the air.

Devin then followed up by turning to pale blue smoke again; swarming around Ixion like bees, and the battle was a blur. Ixion roared from each strike Devin delivered, until Ixion was finally thrown back towards the ground. I felt myself using my psychokinesis to drag him further downward, while Cas used her telekinesis to strike him over and over again. The whistling sound of Ixion’s descent was like an atomic bomb being dropped from above, screaming as he speared downwards, and finally causing an earth-rattling collision with the earth in front of us. Smoke arose, and a variety of rocks and dirt flew in various directions of the woods. I regained control of my body, shielding my eyes from the spraying of dirt. Devin dropped from the sky, and before his feet touched the ground, he impaled the shoulder of Ixion. Electricity surged from Devin’s arms, and his cane was like a lightning rod, conducting the current of the electricity as it was directed right through the body of Ixion. With a demonic roar, Ixion started his sonata of pain; his screams of agony sounded off in a double-tenor and his body jittered uncontrollably. Finally, the red glow from his eyes faded away, and only the black irises were present as he looked up from the electrical current bounding him to the earth.

“You…pathetic…idiots!” Ixion protested.

“That’s my line, idiot,” Devin replied with a smug tone.

“Have you…not…realized…what…you are doing!? Everyone is now doomed!”

Casrial turned to me, gave me a nudge, and then said, “You do it.”

I nodded, and walked over to Ixion as he continued to ramble on.

“This is just the beginning,” Devin started, and then I stood at Ixion’s head, looked down, and then added, “But this is your end.”

Devin pulled his cane from Ixion, and a black, miasmic smoke dripped from it like blood. I knelt down at Ixion’s head, slowly placing my hands at his head.

“W…what are you,” Ixion fought, “No…NO!!!”

My palms affixed to the sides of Ixion’s head; they were almost drawn to it like metal to magnets. The moment my palms made contact, a rush of information was forced into my head. I saw glimpses, flashes, and snippets, of a moment when Ixion was alive. I shuffled the images around as those it was a sliding puzzle. There were so many tiles of information, it felt like an eternity piecing them together, fitting them in the right places. I finished one portion of the timeline, when Ixion was once a normal man with a normal family. He was an information expert, perfect at his job. One day, he found himself stumbling across the wrong piece of information. Members of the mob found out, and made him watch his family murdered. They then took him and had him beaten until he only had five breaths to take before he died; they shot him in the head after he took his fourth breath.

The next pieces of information were from Ixion’s spirit, which was more difficult to piece together than the memories when he was alive. This memory saw Ixion bouncing around from different places. He constantly mumbled, “Just get it over with, you scum.” There was static, and then another scene showed him in other places, mumbling the same phrase, “Just get it over with, you scum.” There was static again. Finally, I heard heavy wheezing, growing more and more, and just after a blood-curdling scream was heard, everything was static again.

The final piece of information was already pieced together, but it was blurry, static-stricken, and the sound was muffled. I tried to make out the scenes, but it was too difficult to comprehend; there was a silhouette of a tall person standing in front of Ixion, mumbling what sounded like, “Welcome to our family, the Perfect Cirqule.” This same person walked Ixion around, introducing him to even blurrier silhouetted figures, and then there was more static. Everything was finally clear, but it was flashes of memories and broken phrases, in whispers echoing over each other:

“The order must be restored…restored…the order…stop the recurrences…destroy…destroy the others…seek the anomalies…anomaly…seek the…stop recurrences…seek the anomaly…the prophecy…follow the prophecy…seek the anomaly…the anomaly…destroy the others…”

Finally, once all of the information was vacuumed into my memory, my hands squeezed, and another double-tenor roar erupted from Ixion, and black smoke rose from his body. The smoke started breaking up, like black soot from a burning piece of paper, and dissipated, until Ixion was finally silent. My hands finally detached from Ixion’s head, and I stood up. Ixion’s eye sockets were completely hollow, his mouth gaped open, and his body now completely gray, decrepit, rotted, and lifeless.

“What just happened?” I asked.

“You banished him,” Devin answered.

“Is that what’s supposed to happen?” I asked.

“The body he used as a vessel was more than likely the body of an age-old corpse,” Cas answered. “Pretty soon, the winds will blow away the ashes.”

I looked on as the wind, in fact, started blowing away clumps of ash, leaving dents and holes in the ancient corpse like a puzzle with missing pieces. Eventually, the wind stole the corpse; ash tuft by ash tuft, until the only remnants of Ixion was a thin, flat layer of remaining ash, too attached to the ground for the wind to pick up.

“But what happened to helping the spirit cross over?” I asked.

“Demons do not cross over,” Cas explained. “Staying in the living world for too long, goes against the order; it’s like going against God’s plan. Once a gheist turns into a demon, there’s no turning back, and once they are classified, their spirits go to hell.”

“That explains the rotting mess of ashes that was just escorted out of the woods,” I said.

The skies grew dark, and rain started to fall relentlessly. My hair was heavy and dripping with rainwater as the three of us formed a circle over what used to be a formidable demon. With Ixion banished, Tember and Teixeira’s retreat, and my locket holding the one anomaly now in the hands of the Perfect Cirqule by now, the remaining mission was to make sure that everyone else was safe; everyone, with Windsor now being the main priority.

“We have to go help Windsor,” I told everyone, and soon after, we all fled towards the van.

“What are the Others?” I asked Devin and Cas as we hurried through the woods. Casrial looked me with a blank stare; I could tell she was picking my brain for information gathered by Ixion’s memories. She opened her eyes, and then looked forward as we continued to sprint pass trees and other obstacles of the forest.

“According to Ixion’s memories,” Casrial started, “It sounds like the Others are a different group altogether.

“Other members of the Perfect Cirqule?”

“That…” Casrial began, “…I don’t know.”

As we pressed forward to the parking lot, I thought about Ixion’s memories. I tried piecing them together myself.

Destroy the Others…Find the anomaly…stop the recurrences…the order must be restored, I thought to myself.

I did not like the order, so I played around with the sentences once again. By the time we finally reached the final path of the woods, I found a more suitable order.

“The order must be restored,” I started, “replace the anomaly, destroy the Others, and stop the recurrences.”

“What are you babbling about?” Devin said as he shifted back to his human form.

“What are recurrences?” I asked.

“It’s something that is repeated,” Casrial answered, “something like an event that keeps happening.”

“But what is it that they’re trying to stop from happening again?” I asked—mainly myself.

“…The disorder of life and the afterlife?” Casrial answered in the form of a question.

“It’s the only thing that makes sense,” I replied. “Mr. Goldstein said to me that the Perfect Cirqule was once formed to protect the order of life and the afterlife. Somewhere along the line, one of their own must have turned against them. What if this piece of information was from before they turned against the original Perfect Cirqule?”

“You mean,” Casrial started, “What Ixion was originally sent to to do was kill the Others to protect the order?”

“Yes,” I answered, “So…that could only mean one thing…”

“Ixion wasn’t really aligned with Teixeira and the Others,” Cas concluded.

“And Teixeira knew about it,” I said. “They used Ixion as a pawn the whole time…When he asked if we knew what we’ve done, he wasn’t just stroking his former team’s ego; it was a warning.”

“We’ve got to get rid of the rest of the gheists!” Cas shouted.

The moment we emerged from the woods and back to the hidden cabin, the rain fell harder, and the entire area was black; not due to the lack of light, but due to the fact that the area was currently swarming with black, ominous smoke, swirling around the eight figures guarding Windsor.

“Devin!” I shouted, holding out my hand.

“I have you,” Devin answered.

His hand grabbed firmly onto mine, and he instantly shifted into his astral form, and with him, my hand also dispersed into the same pale-blue smoke. The formation continued up my arm, until I knew it had reached my face when my astral vision automatically took over. Although we were both in astral form, it still felt like Devin was holding onto my hand as we traveled swiftly towards the black funnel cloud of black that nearly consumed the entire vicinity of the open cabin area. We passed through the countless hordes of gheists by force, and a moment of painful shrieks rang through the air. We landed in the center of the gheist ‘storm,’ in front of the group. Immediately, I noticed Windsor’s eyes were completely red—almost demonic. Her face cringed, and she stood still; no one was near her, and was staring at her and not the alarming fact that at any given second, this tornado clash of gheists could swallow us all.

“What the hell are you all standing there for!?” Devin said.

“She’s using her powers,” Winston said. “She’s held them back like this for some time now.”

“When I count to three, everyone take her and head to the cabin,” Devin said. “Ev and I have this one.”

“Are you sure about this, Devin?” Mr. Goldstein asked. You’ve used a lot of your energy fighting those demons.”

“I haven’t used enough,” Devin said. “Besides, these are only lesser gheists; getting chewed out by Evenfleu is a lot scarier.”

I looked up at him with a smirk; Devin simply shrugged. I looked at Windsor, and the tint of red started to run from her eyes like blood-stained tears. Winston stood behind Windsor as she continued to hold the gheists back.

“One,” Devin started the countdown. Everyone gathered by Windsor slowly.

“Two,” I continued the countdown for Devin.

Winston gently placed his hands at Windsor’s waist, ready to grab and carry her into to the cabin. My heart once again pounded, and I felt what was similar to adrenaline coursing throughout my body. My aura radiated again, and I could feel my body, once again, taking over.

“THREE!” Devin and I both shouted.

The moment Winston scooped Windsor up, everyone except Devin and I rushed for the cabin. Windsor’s power provided an opening for them as she repelled the gheists away from them. As soon as they headed towards the cabin, I felt myself press my back up against Devin. I turned around and asked him, “You sure we got this?”

“We’ll replace out shortly,” Devin replied urgently.

The massive funnel of gheists quickly began to close, and that’s when everything started to take over. All I remember was feeling my body perform every action faster than my mind could think of performing the action. Scarlett was suddenly in my hands, and as I felt myself swing her around like a gun sitting on a tripod, flashes of light burst vibrantly throughout the center, illuminating the darkness rendered by the horde of gheists. Devin’s action was just as fast, but my eyes were able to keep up with his movement. The two of us worked in perfect harmony; I would cover his back with shots from Scarlett, and he would swing his cane like a long sword, swiping at every gheist that flew over my head. I felt myself duck under Devin’s arm, catching a gheist that tried to sweep us off our feet. Devin shifted into his astral form, flying like a swarm of vexed hornets, cutting away at the massive swarm. He reappeared behind me, and retook covering my rear.

The gheists continued to pursue, but we cut them off quicker than they could reach us. I was frightened that I did not have control over my body once again, but relieved that whatever was controlling it, made sure I did it flawlessly. All I worried about was breathing, talking, and watching. Aside from both mine and Devin’s auras, I heard the fast, wet thumping of my beating heart, I saw the swarm as they arrived, and heard the shrieks they bellowed out when Devin and I fought them off. It was like my body was on auto-pilot, and Devin was the manual pilot; together, our synergy was flawless no matter who or what was controlling my actions.

Eventually the massive swarm decreased in size; the gheists started to turn white, passive, and then flew away. Suddenly I felt my arm raise up, and using my psychokinesis, I gathered a massive group of gheists, molded them into a giant ball, and proceeded to throw the massive gheist ball around the remaining funnel like a wrecking ball taking down a condemned building. I felt myself gather the remaining gheists; I felt the rain hit my face as I looked up at the collection of gheists I had under my control. I felt my hand clench, and the ball of gheists compacted into a smoother ball of black and blue. Devin finished the job by throwing both of his hands up towards the black gheist sphere, and electrocuting it, until the ball was completely white. I felt myself release the hold of the now passive waywards, and watched them gradually escape into the skies. I once again regained control of my body, but not for long; as I turned to Devin, my entire body went numb, including my lips. I felt my eyes roll back, and then all was black.