CHAPTER 13: THE BEGINNING OF THE END

**D-DAY**

It was past midnight when Suzanne finally opened her eyes. She quickly sat up only to see Tom lying next to her, snoring softly. Lightning flashed, followed by the deafening sound of thunder. The protective seal she had weaved earlier was gone.

*Something’s out there,* her eyes narrowed as she tried to adjust to seeing in the dark. She gripped her wand, Tom had not removed it from her grasp during her sleep. Good old Tom. She patted his head softly.

She crossed her living room and went towards her front door. But before she could reach for the doorknob, the door started to rattle. The black mist started to seep in from underneath the door. It had finally come for Suzanne.

*What in the heavens?* Suzanne had never seen nor felt such evil before.

She quickly pointed the wand at the door and recited an ancient chant. The wand extended and started to emit a dull glow of white light. As Suzanne repeated her chants the light grew brighter and brighter causing the mist to recoil.

“Suzanne……”

Suzanne blinked, losing her balance. *It knows my name?*

And in that split moment, the mist took the opportunity to force its way in. The door rattled even harder as if hit by an earthquake. Suzanne tried to regain her balance, reciting the chants at a furious pace but the mist began to make its way through the door.

*Shit!*

She thought about Tom, he was vulnerable. She had to find a way to get him to safety.

She retreated to her bedroom door and immediately slammed it shut, startling Tom. He sat up, dazed and looked at her with confusion.

Suzanne then quickly bit her finger, and smeared her blood on all the yellow talismans in her pocket, all the while continuing to chant as more and more of the mist charged into the living room in. She then pulled one of the talismans out and stuck it at the bedroom door. Her blood merged with the talisman before imploding, creating a golden web that acted as a seal to the door.

Her decision to protect Tom had cost her valuable time. The mist was fully in the living room now, moving menacingly towards Suzanne’s bedroom in nebulous swirls. Even from inside the room, Suzanne could feel only darkness and despair emanating from the black mist.

“Tom! You need to leave, now!” Suzanne shouted at the top of her lungs. Tom leapt up from the bed, half-naked and only in his butt hugging jeans. Under a different circumstance, Suzanne would have found him cute, but right now, she and to kick him out of the apartment.

Tom was oblivious as to what was happening. “What’s that golden web you have there at the door?” he asked innocently.

“Tom, listen to me. Take the egress from the balcony. You have to leave now!” Suzanne barked.

The bedroom door started to rattle again, and Tom finally understood the gravity of her command.

He shook his head, “I’m staying put. I’m not leaving you.”

Tom swiftly grabbed a fire extinguisher that was hung right next to the bathroom and aimed it at the door.

Suzanne threw the two remaining talismans on the floor, sat on them, and drew a circle around her with the blood from her fingers before closing her eyes. She clasped her hands together, forming first the sign of a raven, a snake, and finally a phoenix. A hurricane started to form beneath where she sat and as the wind started to rise upwards, the door rattled even more. With each vicious rattling, the seal protecting them began to weaken.

Amid the hurricane surrounding Suzanne, a glow of white light started to emit from where she sat. Suzanne’s eyes snapped open and she and she jammed her wand into the floor with so much force that it created a fissure on the wooden flooring. Then the cracks raced at breakneck speed towards the bedroom door as the intricate golden web grew weaker and started to fade.

The door burst flames and disintegrated the last of the golden web into ashes. Tom ran towards it and instinctively extinguished the flames with the fire extinguisher, but as the dry powder started to settle onto the ground, the black mist charged in. It grazed Tom’s arm as it pushed its way in scorching Tom’s arm and drawing a fraction of his life force in the process. Tom dropped the fire extinguisher and crumpled onto the ground

From inside the hurricane, Suzanne slammed her hands onto the floor and the wand flew straight towards the mist, trying to fight it off. But the black mist was far too powerful, it overcame the wand and shattered it into pieces. Suzanne clasped the base of her wrists together and moved them in a circular motion, chanting a new verse.

*My last line of defence.*

With her summons, lights shot up from the cracks of the floor, and from the ashes of the golden web rose a burning white phoenix. It towered menacingly over the mist before diving into the centre of the mist, clawing and gnawing at it. The fiery white phoenix fought ferociously to devour the mist and for a moment, it seemed to Susanne that victory was at hand.

She took the opportunity to slip out from the protection of her hurricane to retrieve a semi-conscious Tom.

“Hey beautiful…” he muttered weakly.

“Hey yourself,” she pulled at his legs and tried to drag him into the bloodied circle. Tom was extremely heavy for someone lean and taut. Suzanne was huffing and puffing by the time she managed to drag half of Tom’s body into the circle.

From the corner of her eye, she could see the phoenix attacking the mist, over and over, preventing it from escaping. The phoenix’s tail curled around the mist and coiling it in a deathly grip. But what she didn’t see was that a part of the mist was slowly separating from itself. Suzanne quickly stepped back out from the circle to hurriedly bend and push Tom’s legs in. And just as she managed to shove the whole of Tom’s body into he protective circle, a part of the black mist that had detached itself from the phoenix raced towards Suzanne.

Suzanne never stood a chance. The mist pierced her from behind, causing Suzanne to slump onto the ground just outside of the protective hurricane. From inside the protective barrier, Tom stirred, weak and groggy.

The last thing she saw before she lost consciousness was Tom trying to reach out his hand towards her.