Marcus/Rocco
Snow continued to fall. Quietly. Almost gently. The
city had barely begun recovering from Malachar's attack. Construction crews
filled damaged streets.
Storefronts reopened, children laughed again, life…
was trying. Trying to pretend everything was normal. We all knew better.
Three days.
That was how long peace lasted. Three days before
Darren's voice echoed through the house. "Guys…"
Something about his tone made every conversation stop.
I looked up from cleaning sword. He wasn't typing or blinking.
He was staring at the monitor. Noah frowned. "What's
wrong." Darren swallowed.
"The marker… it's moving." Callie stood immediately.
"The last one?" silence.
"It isn't stopping." Darren zoomed the map, the red
marker raced across the screen. Much too fast.
I stepped closer. "Where's it heading?" Darren's face
slowly drained of colour.
"A city…" every muscle in my body tensed.
"How long?"
"Seven minutes." Noah grabbed his tonfa.
"We can make it." Darren didn't answer. Silence filled
the room. Then a second alarm erupted from the computer.
"What was that." Darren stared at the screen.
"A tear… now of all times. Its expanding." Nobody
waited. Within minutes, we were gone.
The smoke was visible long before the city was. Thick
and black rolling endlessly into the winter sky. Eventually, the smell reached
us.
Burning concrete, smoke and blood. My stomach twisted.
The vehicle rounded the final corner and everything… stopped.
Buildings had collapsed into the streets. Cars lay
overturned. The road itself had split apart in places. Fire burned despite the
falling snow.
People screamed, others carried the injured away as
fast as they could. A little girl cried beside the rubble of what had once been
a bakery.
The tear hung above the city. It looked more unstable
than some of the ones we'd seen. Noah whispered. "What happened here?"
Valen answered, "…Calamity."
The screaming stopped. Everyone was looking up.
Someone stood atop the shattered remains of high-rise. Hands resting casually
in his pockets.
His white coat fluttered in the freezing wind. Messy
black hair with crimson eyes. A grin that almost looked… excited?
"So…" his voice carried across the ruined streets.
"You're the ones Aldo keeps talking about." Nobody answered.
His eyes wandered lazily across the group. Then
settled on Riley's missing arm, to which he smiled wider. "So that's what
Malachar left me."
Riley's jaw tightened. He just laughed, "I wasn't
insulting you. I was complimenting his work."
Every instinct I had screamed danger. Mostly because
he seemed like someone enjoying himself.
He stepped off the building. My heart lurched. He
should have broken something from that height. Instead, he landed effortlessly
on the cracked pavement below.
The impact shattered the ground around him. Dust
drifted into the air. He stretched lazily, cracking his neck and fingers. "I'm
Zephon." He gave a little bow.
He looked around the destruction. "I hate waiting, so
I started without you." My grip tightened around my swords.
Seraphina stepped forward. But before she could say
anything Zephon interrupted. "The civilians should evacuate faster, don't you
think?"
We all frowned. "What does that mean?"
Zephon pointed upward, toward the tear. "It's getting
bigger." He said in a sing-song voice. "The longer we fight… the worse it
gets."
Darren's voice cracked through the communicator. "As
much I'd hate to agree with a demon, he's right. We gotta shut it down."
Zephon laughed then drew his weapon. A massive black
spear. Its tip scraped across the broken road. He rested it over one shoulder.
His grin widened. "Come on." His eyes locked onto
ours. "Try… not to die too quickly."
He disappeared. The street exploded beneath his feet.