Chapter 34: Helpless

The front door to the house and the back door to the kitchen both flew off their hinges, and Silvana tried to stand, but the conflagration of pain in her abdomen kept her on the ground.

She winced and coughed as smoke and ash crept near her from both sides of the house, and she was attacked by two recognizable voices, one belonging to a man, and the other to a woman.

“Get down!” Amelia and Bruce both shouted at one another from across the house.

By the kitchen door and through the plumes of smoke from the fires outside, Bruce dove to the floor and beside Silvana, wrapping her up in his arms. A bolt of green energy flew above them and to where Bruce had been and collided into a frightening figure entering the house. The spirit of a man made from crimson lightning and holding a huge axe stumbled backwards a few steps, shaking off the green magical blast that had hit him.

He regained his strength, then stepped through the hole and into the kitchen with lethal intent.

Silvana’s eyes went wide upon seeing the Axeman, the same spirit that had haunted her on Halloween night when she had met Bruce. But things were moving quickly and she turned her head to see Amelia standing where the front door had been, her hand raised and panting from casting a combat spell.

“I didn’t even know Amelia could cast such a spell,” Silvana thought to herself in a haze. “And she looks absolutely spent after giving everything she had, and it hardly slowed the Axeman down. Good thing Bruce is here.”

Just as Silvana’s family were a race of warrior witches, Amelia’s family were adept at healing magic, so Silvana knew that Amelia was in bad shape after the extra effort it must’ve cost Amelia to defend against the Axeman, as well as whatever else Amelia needed to fight through to arrive in time. Ameila’s beautiful brunette hair was singed at the ends, her long purple wool dress torn at the sleeves and legs, and a trickle of blood fell from the side of her lip.

Bruce too looked as though he had been fighting, though the superficial marks and scratches that had made their way past his beige and blue flannel shirt and dark jeans were nothing, and he pounced to his feet, lunging at the Axeman.

“Amelia, get down!” Bruce repeated, though it was too late.

She had made it in time to slow down the Axeman, but not to save herself. A second man, this time a spirit of a young mischievous man with a wicked smile and a barbed wire bat, swung his bat into Amelia’s outright arm, sending shockwaves of lightning through her body.

Amelia fell to her knees, her stockings ripping at the legs, and the barbed wire dug into her skin and across her arm, slashing her open.

“No!” Silvana yelled, her head pounding and stomach throbbing.

On the other side of the house, the Axeman lifted his axe to swing at her, but Bruce caught it with a single hand.

“I killed you once before,” Bruce said, his hand turning into silver claws. They shone in the crimson lightning sparking off the Axeman’s body.

Bruce clawed at the Axeman’s face and said, “So I’ll happily kill you again!”

Bruce kicked the Axeman outside, and Silvana heard Bruce roar and shout as he unleashed a primal fury onto his opponent.

And Amelia, her blood splattered on the walls and on top of hung framed photographs displaying Solaris when he was younger, screamed as the spirit torturing her with electrocution grinned and laughed. He ripped the bat out of her arm, and Silvana inched herself closer, trying to find the strength to get up and help her best friend.

The spirit with the barbed wire bat wound it above his head, then swung full force at Amelia’s back. She slammed face first to the floor in a fit of blood, and the spirit stomped a foot to her neck and he tore the spiked bat out of the skin of her back.

Silvana didn’t know what to do. She could hardly speak, or focus, or move. She glared at the spirit standing above Amelia as it readied a finishing blow to the back of Amelia’s head. Amelia painstakingly lifted her face just enough to look at Silvana and mumble, with bloody lips, “Run.”

But Silvana would never, nor could she, simply leave her friend to die.