Chapitre 16

  Silence was reigning in the room. The whole group was mentally and physically exhausted. The elderly couple was laying on the couch, one of them holding their chest. Sasha was staring at his phone, as if he was waiting for something. The twins were sitting on the ground next to each other. The group could hear the shadows and possessed banging on the door, which made them more anxious. Blair looked at Sicile who clearly was having a hard time to breathe.

  “Are you okay ?” she whispered.

  “I’m fine, do not worry about me, I’ve seen worse.” replied the old woman.

  “Sicile’s heart isn’t in the best of shape.” added Ramo.

  “So what are we doing now ?” Asked Jo.

  “We wait for the other guardians to get here. I’ve already contacted them. Might take some time though.” Replied Sasha.

  “Then what ?” Insisted the young man.

  “Then we assess the situation and decide on the best course of action.”

  “Which is ?”

  “How would I know that ? Shut up already and rest until the others get here.” Said Sasha in a tone that indicated the end of the conversation.

  “Well there must be something that we can do !” Complained Jo.

  “No ! There’s nothing that can be done for now !” Shouted Sasha, "Look at her!” he said while pointing at Sicile, “She is in no state to fight. Ramo can’t do anything on his own because, like every other guardian, he needs his partner to channel the magic inside of him ! And you and your sister are both useless ! Then again, there is nothing that I can do on my own because I need you two pieces of shit to fight, and you can’t fight ! So we wait here and do nothing !”

  The twins both stood up, Jo, pissed about the comments Sasha just made, was approaching him, ready to fight. Blair, on the other hand, was having a headache because of the noise and decided to hide in the toilet, where no one could bother her. She could hear more yelling and Ramo stepping in to calm them down. The young girl locked the door and sat on the ground. She put her head down on the toilet seat. It was cold and refreshing. She felt like she could finally think. The fight stopped and Blair waited a few minutes before she decided that she could stand up and go back to the living room. She opened the door. She got face to face with a shadow. It grabbed her face before she could even blink. Blair fell into darkness. Startled by a noise that was coming down from the hallway, Jo and Sasha both walked towards the toilet to check on Blair. They were unable to see anything as the lights were off. While Sasha was turning the switch on and off to see if it was working, Jo kept walking into the darkness. He crashed into a door.

  “Must be the toilet” he whispered.

  He searched for the latch.

  “Something’s off.” Said Sasha, “Why are the lights off here but not in the living room ?”

  Jo found it and opened the door. His twin sister was convulsing on the ground. Her eyes were unfocused, her veins turned black and foam was coming out of her mouth. He screamed her name over and over while holding her body down. Ramo came running. Sasha stayed back, not knowing what to do.

  “What happened ?” Asked Sicile.

  “It’s the junkie, she is done.” answered Sasha. “A shadow got her.”

  “Poor girl…”

  Ramo patted Jo’s head, telling him that it was over, that she was gone. But the young man couldn’t accept that and kept holding on to her even after she stopped convulsing. Ramo knew that he should stop him, but he couldn’t bring himself to do that. Instead, he just watched the young man cry over the dead body of his twin sister like there was no one else in the world. The situation seemed more urgent for Sasha, though. He knew that the body would rise again and try to attack them. He approached Sasha and firmly grabbed his arm.

  “Let go of her. She is dead.”

  Jo didn’t respond. Sasha used more strength and was able to get him out of the toilet.

  “You asshole !” screamed Jo.

  He stood up but couldn’t move as Ramo was blocking him while Sasha closed the door.

  “Move.” he said.

  “I can’t do that.” replied Ramo.

  “Move.” repeated Jo.

  “She is gone.”

  “I don’t care, move.”

  “Listen dude,” interrupted Sasha, “It’s over, she is one of them now. If you open that door, she will kill us all.”

  “I…”

  “What ?” cut off Sasha, “You don’t care ? Well guess what ? I do, we all do care. You see, I very much like to stay alive. So leave that door alone and go grieve in the living room, okay ? Trust me, it’s better that way.”

  “What did you say ?”

  Ramo was about to stop the men from fighting, again, when they all heard someone screaming and banging on the door.

  “Sasha, are you here ? It’s Neil !”

  Sasha went past Jo and Ramo to open the door. A man in his mid-forties was standing there, alone.

  “Where is Danyel ?” Asked Sasha.

  “He is chatting with the girls over there.” answered the man pointing towards the dragonline.

  Ramo joined the men at the entrance. Jo stayed behind, unable to move. He couldn’t register what was happening. He could hear the body of his now deceased sister moving in the toilet. Sicile, who was still sitting on the couch until now, walked into the hallway. She gave a pitiful look at Jo, before joining the men’s conversation.

  “You did a great job at repelling the shadows.” claimed Sicile.

  “That’s right !” added Ramo, “ We were having such a hard time to defeat them. Well, we are old.”

  “Don’t say that !” said another man, “There were four of us, you managed fine with just the two of you!”

  “We still couldn’t protect everyone.” added Sicile in a sad tone. She turned towards Jo. “His sister, she was a guardian. She… She didn’t make it.”

  “My condolences.” said the man.

  Jo simply nodded and looked back at the toilets’ door.

  “Let’s get inside, youngsters !” exclaimed Ramo, “So you can rest a bit.”

  Two men and two women entered the building. The whole group sat in the living room. Jo followed them shortly after.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “How are things going on the ring ?” Asked Sasha.

  “Not many casualties.” answered a woman. “Not many people live there anyway. It was quite easy to defeat those demons before coming here. The worst we’ve seen so far is here. They’re really proliferating.”

  “That’s right.” added another woman sitting next to her. “And the possessed outside aren’t making it easier.”

  “There’s so many of them.”

  “How did you get rid of them ?” Asked Ramo.

  “We didn’t.” replied Neil. “We simply lured them away, but they will come back.”

  “How are we going to cleanse them all ?” asked the first woman.

  “We won’t.” said Ramo. “None of us possess enough power to cleanse that many.”

  “What’s cleansing ?” Asked Jo.

  The whole group went silent and turned around. They all looked at each other.

  “Hi uuuh ? What’s your name ?” asked one of the men.

  “Jo.”

  “Well, Jo, I’m Danyel. The girl over there is Nella, and the one next to her is Luciole.” The women both raised their hands at the mention of their names. “A cleansing is simply the eradication of all demonic energy in someone’s body.”

  “So, you could do that… the cleansing… to my sister ?”

  “Well… No.”

  Jo didn’t like his answer and looked at him as if he was about to kill him.

  “Don’t get mad. We don’t know what type of demon we’re dealing with. One wrong move could get back at us.” stated Luciole.

  “So you’re not going to help her ?!”

  “We will,”

  “No you won’t!” cut off Jo, “Ramo just said that you guys don’t have enough powers to save those people out there, you clearly won’t lay a finger for my sister, who by the way, is also a guardian like you guys !”

  “Half a guardian.” muttered Sasha.

  “What ? What did you say ?”

  “What do you mean half a guardian ?” Asked Neil.

  “Him and his poor sister share a mark. He has half of it while she has the other half.” responded Sicile.

  “That’s right !” proclaimed Sasha, “She has half the mark, which means she is half a guardian. Not a full guardian. She is as useful as those nobodies outside.”

  Jo saw red and without thinking, he swung his tail to Sasha’s face. Sasha fell down but quickly stood up to strike back. Ramo swiftly grabbed his arm and pulled him on the couch while Neil and Nella were both restraining Jo.

  “We’ve been doing this all day, boys !” Said Ramo. “I’m tired of dealing with this. Get your shit together. Sasha ! You’re a guardian, act like one, will you ?!”

  “I’m just saying”

  “You’re not saying anything from now on!”

  Peace came back in the room. Nella felt Jo’s tension fade away and signalled at Neil to let go. They sat back next to their respective partners. Jo slowly stood up and sat down in a corner of the room. Everyone was staring at him, more precisely at the mark on his hand. Half an hour later, two guardians arrived, quickly followed by six others. Two hours later, all the guardians were reunited in the room. The twenty-three guardians, going from little kids to elderly people. Jo didn’t bother to greet them and stayed curled up where he was sitting. The topic of his mark quickly arose.

  “Never heard of something like that before.” said a guardian.

  “There’s no precedent.” affirmed one of the old ones.

  One of the kids, a five years old little girl, approached Jo.

  “Can I see it ?” she asked.

  Jo looked at her, looked back at the wall and gave her his hand. The three other kids ran to him to see the mark.

  “The Crystal says that it wasn’t supposed to happen.” said one of the kids.

  “It says that you were supposed to be the guardian.” added another kid.

  “Something or someone stronger than the Crystal must’ve intervened.” stated Ramo.

  “We would’ve detected a demon that strong, even the Crystal would’ve.” claimed one of the guardians.

  “Well, clearly not.” whispered Danyel.

  “Do you have to say well at every beginning of your sentences ?!” complained another guardian.

  “Well I’m sorry, I just can’t help it.” answered Danyel.

  “You get used to it at some point.” commented Neil.

  “Should we really talk about that right now ?” Asked Luciole.

  “Doesn’t that piss you off ?” inquired the guardian.

  “Calm down Tik, it’s just a verbal tic.” said Neil.

  “Hey it rhymes !” pointed out one of the kids.

  “Shut up Nalan.” retorted Tik.

  All the guardians started to shout at Tik.

  “Don’t talk like that to the kids!”

  “That’s right, she didn’t do anything.”

  “Leave her alone, damn.”

  “Who taught you to talk like that ?!”

  “Everyone calm down.” muttered an elderly woman.

  “Everyone, silence !” Screamed Ramo at the top of his lungs. “Hyacinthe wants to speak.”

  The old woman took some time to breath and prepare herself for what she was about to say.

  “Everyone, calm down please. This is not the time for childish things. We’re reunited for a reason. So…” she started coughing. Seeing that it wasn’t cooling down, her partner took over.

  “What Hyacinthe is trying to say is, there are people outside who are dying and can’t protect themselves, and we should focus on that. Yes, Jo’s situation is concerning, but right now, that is not our priority.”

  “How will Sasha fight without his partner ?” Asked Nalan.

  “He won’t.” affirmed Hyacinthe’s partner.

  “Will we have to fight ?” enquired another kid.

  “Unfortunately yes.” responded Sicile.

  “Okay, what’s the plan ?” Asked Neil.

  “We won’t be able to save the entirety of the population.” stated one of the guardians.

  “No, but we should be enough to save the city.” said Hyacinthe.

  “Driving the possessed away while fighting the shadows is gonna be difficult.” commented Sicile.

  “I guess we can say we’re lucky that the shadows are scattered all over the world and not just here.” said Sasha.

  “That’s dark.” replied Nella.

  “Since you and Jo won’t fight, your job will be to gather as many citizens here as you can. The kids are coming with you too. It will be less dangerous for them and safer for you.” added Ramo.

  “I wanna fight too!” said one of the kids.

  “Another time Tongno, right now your job is to protect those big guys.” replied Nella.

  “That’s unfair.” said Tongno, pouting.

  “It makes eighteen of us cleaning this entire city, should be easy.” declared Tik’s partner.

  “We’re gonna lose so much time on those skyscrapers.” complained Luciole.

  All the guardians left the building at the exception of the four kids and Sasha. They were waiting for Jo, who didn’t seem to care about their plan. Sasha approached him.

  “Stand up, dumbass, we have people to save while the others are kicking the butts of those demons who killed your sister.”

  “Your sister is dead ?” Asked Nalan.

  “Shush!” Said Tongno.

  “I don’t care about those people.” replied Jo.

  “And I don’t care that you don’t care ! You’re a guardian, you have a duty towards the inhabitants of this planet. Now stand up before I make you!”

  “Because you truly think you can make me do anything ?”

  “We will see about that.”

  Sasha grabbed Jo’s hair and pulled them up. Jo immediately pushed him. Seeing that they were fighting, all the kids decided to protect Sasha and jumped over Jo. This annoyed him. He stood up and while the kids were holding him so that they wouldn’t fall. The kids started screaming out of fear, which annoyed Jo even more.

  “Fine, fine.” he said while putting the kids down. “I’m coming.”

  “Yay.” they screamed.

  “My name is Wineti, I’m Tongno’s partner.”

  “I’m Tongno.” he said while raising his hand.

  “I’m Nalan.” said a small girl, “and this is Seneru, my partner.”

  “Nice to meet you, I’m Jo.”

  “Now that the presentations are over, we can finally go.” stated Sasha.

  While the kids ran outside, Jo got closer to Sasha.

  “You didn’t make me.”

  Sasha shrugged.

  “Sure, if you want.”