What to say, what to say...? Many thanks to Susz, Mags, Shadow and Neto for being friends. Thanks to everyone who has given feedback, whether through emails or chatting: It's been helpful! :) Very special thanks to my dearest David...hugs 'n' kisses CONGRATULATIONS TO: Charmaine Seah, David Leisinger, Ian Chan, Tara Tan, Chelsea Khoo, Kenny Tan, Marcus Ho, Jason Riley, Vincent Yee, Grace Huang, Fariz and Lydia. We passed, guys! Celebrate!! Sidney and Veron, I hope that the school will be more forgiving and still allow you to come back next year. We'll miss you if you don't! Anyone else I forgot, sorry, and thanks! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This story contains homosexual content and should not be read by anyone under the age of 18. Also, this story does not imply anything about the sexualities of anyone from Nsync, Westlife, Backstreet Boys, a1 or any other celebrity mentioned here. I do not know them and their characteristics. This also does not imply anything about any other people mentioned in this story. Their names and descriptions are there but that doesn't mean that their characteristics are the same in real life. And none of them possess any special powers of any sort and this is totally fiction! The Wiccans are movie Wiccans, meaning that their power is exaggerated (though I did use some real chants and spells) and the "harm none" rule is pretty much non-existent here. The only reason for them being Wiccan is to introduce priests of a different manner to the story, and new magick as well. I couldn't keep to "real" Wicca because it would be silly to have mages that cast fireballs and Wiccans that can't do much. So take it with a pinch of salt and now you may read this next chapter! Happy reading!
For David L.Z. (Was there any doubt?) ______________________________________________________________________________ |The Daemon Gate - Chapter Eight|
"So where is this FunDazzle place?" Brian asked, getting into the spacewagon taxi that Ian had called for. It was the fastest way instead of by bus, and a normal taxi would not hold them all.
"It's a children's playground sort of thing," Charmaine replied. "It's got mazes and mazes of tubes about three feet in diameter where you crawl through like a hamster except that these tubes are opague. Some of the tubes have stair in them, and others are slides. There are also ball pools and short flying foxes. Plenty of fun, actually. Especially if yo're playing tag."
"You play in FunDazzle?" Paul asked, a strange look appearing on his face.
"Hey, we're new age teens!" Ian exclaimed smiling. "Tag in FunDazzle is our second most favourite thing to do."
"And what's the first?" Britney asked.
"Err...Tag in Toys R Us," Charmaine said cautiously, grinning sheepishly. Paul and Brian rolled their eyes.
"So why are we going to FunDazzle anyway?" Britney asked. "What's there that we need?"
"There's a strange multi-coloured ball in there that dispenses sweets to the kids or people who make it to the exact center of the maze," Charmaine said. "Which by the way, takes hours to reach."
"A candy dispenser?" Paul asked, his eyes widening. "We're going to steal a candy dispenser?"
"It's not really a candy dispenser," Lalaith said. "It's a malenti orb made from bloodstone with a centre of lodestone. Both stones are used often by the malenti in battle to devastating effect. This one is also magically charged and is very powerful. We're not sure what it does, but we do know that we have to take it away before the malenti decide they need to use it."
"How does it dispense candy?" Britney asked.
"When humans touch it, it senses for TRAINED magickal power in them," Ian explained. "Everyone has untrained magickal powers so it will just set of the candy dispenser under it. Those who have trained magickal powers, like Charmaine and I, will get candies too, but at camera over the orb activates so the malenti can watch if we're just having fun, or trying to get or observe the orb."
"Then how about the sithi, and those who use magic?" Brian asked.
"Sithi and half-sithi are transported by the orb elsewhere to be destroyed," Ian said. "Magic-users, or those with super powers are also watched by the malenti,"
"And you know all this how?" Britney asked suspiciously.
"I read the project brief," Ian smiled, holding up a piece of A4 size paper with the heading "FunDazzle Group" on it.
"Where'd you get that?" everyone else asked.
"You mean you guys didn't see it in the plastic folders on the wall?" Ian asked, shocked.
"We were too busy rushing out to get to FunDazzle, remember?" Brian said. He looked at Lalaith. "Why aren't we there yet?"
Charmaine looked at the road. "We're in the right direction, but we should have been here more than ten minutes ago!"
Ian looked at the fare meter. "Epona! He's raked up about an extra fifteen dollars! He's been taking us through 'short-cuts' and getting extra money for the distance! It should only be about ten dollars from there to FunDazzle, and now we've got to pay twenty-five dollars, plus an extra two fifty for calling Cablink to get this cab! We've been robbed!"
The space wagon taxi stopped outside a large building with pink and blue neon lights (or would have had them if they were open that late at night) that said FunDazzle on them. As soon as they got out, Charmaine began yelling at the taxi driver, screaming at him in Chinese about the cab fare, and he would reply just as loudly. Charmaine refused to pay him and he kept on shouting and shouting at her. He raised his hand and slapped her across her face.
"DAMN YOU!" Charmaine screamed at the man. Ian immediately came to Charmaine's side, glaring angrily at the man. Brian, Lalaith, Britney and Paul just stood back, stunned, since they were not Singaporeans, they did not know how to react.
"Stupid bitches!" the taxi driver screamed at Charmaine and Ian in Chinese. He raised his hand to slap Charmaine again.
"HOLD THY NOSE TO THE GROUND, GODDESS HAS MADE THEE, ME AND HOUND!" Ian screamed out immediately. The taxi driver froze. He could not move. Ian glared angrily at him and screamed, "BEGONE!"
Immedately, the taxi driver ran back into his cab. He gave Charmaine and Ian scared looks, and then drove off without collecting his money.
"Ugh," Ian snorted derisively. "That happened to Leo before too."
"What did Leo do?" Brian asked, while holding his hand over Charmaine's cheek to heal the large bruise that had formed there.
"Leo got angry," Ian said simply.
"Leo never gets angry," Charmaine said, smiling at Brian as a thank you. "So when he does get angry..." she let her voice trail off.
"Come on, let's go in before we attract too much attention standing here like idiots," Paul said. Everyone agreed and they went to the front door of FunDazzle.
"How do we get this open?" Britney asked, trying to push or pull the door open.
"Allow me," Charmaine said, placing her hand over the lock, chanting, "Moses walked across the sea, and beheld the land. Now must break all locks, fetters and bands."
A soft click was heard and Britney pushed the door open easily.
"Cool!" Paul said softly. The six of them stepped into FunDazzle and walked past the reception counter and into the main play area.
"Woah," Brian and Paul said in unison. The area was huge, a jungle of coloured tubes and ball pools of all sorts, intertwined and connecting. Charmaine's words to describe it were nothing compared to the place itself.
"If I were a hamster, this would be paradise!" Britney exclaimed.
"Back to business," Lalaith said. "Get the orb. First one reaches it, take it and get out, don't wait for the rest of us. Beware of vampires or other nasties. Pick any entrance you want."
"There are about twenty entrances, maybe more," Charmaine said. "This is going to be fun."
Brian started up the tube with a ladder in it. He reached the top and slowly crawled along the tunnel. He moved as quietly as he could. Not long after, he reached an intersection. He turned left, not knowing which way to go to get to the center. His heart was thumping from the suspense of it all. He heard a scuffling noise behind him near the intersection. Brian froze and slowly turned his head behind him to see who was there. It was empty. Brian continued to crawl forward. The tube connected to another one sloping upwards and Brian crawled up to the top, and found himself in some sort of room with large, cushion bricks for playing. There was another exit to the left and to the right, there was a clear plastic 'window'. Brian looked out the window and noticed Lalaith crawling into another tube from a ball pit. He smiled and looked elsewhere, but saw nothing else. A soft thudding noise coming from the entrance at the side caused him to dive behind the neat pile of soft building blocks. They had been arranged in such a manner that it looked like a fort made of sandbags, and Brian lay down, curled up inside as quietly as he could. Another noise could be heard from the tube that led up to this room, followed by a thud as whoever it was bumped his or her head.
"Epona!" Brian recognised Ian's voice. The person at the other entrance picked up its speed and entered the little house. Brian peeped through a hole in the 'fort' and saw a vampire, easily recognised by it's pale face and black clothes. Not to mention the obviously noticeable fangs. Brian quickly chanted a spell softly, causing the tube Ian was in to become slippery. He smiled when he heard Ian's quiet "Epona!" after the thud. The vampire looked about the room and started to make his way down the tube through which Ian had just slipped off. Brian quickly drew the stake everyone had been given to carry and crept up behind the vampire. He stabbed the stake into the creature's heart. Instead of turning to dust, the vampire hissed and turned around to look at Brian. Brian took a step back, shocked that the vampire did not die.
"Die, human," the vampire hissed. Brian took a step back and bumped into the wall of the roost. Brian sighed and withdrew the cross that he wore around his neck and raised it to the vampire's line of sight. It was glowing a pale blue which surprised Brian sine it had not done that before. The vampire hissed and recoiled.
"No ordinary human," Brian said, pushing the glowing cross closer to the vampire's face, causing it to recoil even more. 'I'm a cleric."
"Cleric?" the vampire hissed. "No clerics for a long time."
"Well, we're making a comeback," Brian said. He channeled his power into the cross and released it onto the vampire. A blue beam of light shot out from the cross and the vampire turned into a pile of dust, and then disappeared completely. Brian picked up his stake and crawled out the exit the vampire had come through.
Britney sighed her impatience. She felt cramped up in the tunnel, trapped and cornered. She considered herself lucky that her sithi wings were able to disappear when not needed, and they were not needed in this tiny place anyway. She paused as she heard a scrambling above her. Paul came down the sloping tunnel she was in, panting. He looked scared and Britney glanced over his shoulder to the intersection at the top. A vampire crawled past the tunnel without stopping to check, seeming certain that Paul was not down there. As soon as the vampire left through another tunnel, Paul breathed a sigh of relief.
"That was close, I though I was done for," he breathed. Britney suddenly grabbed his arm tightly and winced, then let out a shriek. Paul looked down and saw a vampire scratching Britney's left leg.
"Oh man, oh man, oh man, oh man, oh man," Paul's eyes widened.
"GO! GO! GO!" Britney shouted. "GO!!!"
Paul scrambled up the tube. Britney gave her vampire a quick kick and scrambled as fast as she could up the tube, a small stream of blood leaving a trail any vampire could follow. As soon as Paul stepped into the intersection, he found all the other three exits blocked by a vampire. He stopped in his tracks but Britney pushed him from behind and crawled into the intersection. Then she realised they were trapped.
"Oh man, oh man, oh man, oh man," Paul said, panicking. The vampires all took one step closer.
Charmaine glanced out the watchtower section window, wondering if she would be able to spot any vampires or any of her team members. Suddenly, a red intersection tube began to glow like a red bulb, illuminating the area slightly. She could barely see through the light, but she estimated six or so people in there. She moved back from the window, not wanting a vampire to spot her as her watchtower had only one entrance. She made her way down the ladder and crawled through the tunnel to come to the intersection. She was glad that she and her friends had spent many days playing here and she could find her way around the more familiar places.
"There's one!" a voice hissed to her left. She spotted two vampires crawling towards her. She looked at the tunnel nearest to her and quickly figured out which way it lead. She crawled down the tunnel, the vampires in quick pursuit. She hoped she had taken the right one. Sure enough, the tunnel widened enough for someone to stand. She stood on the platform. Below her was a pit of couloured plastic balls, and another tunnel over the pit. At the same level of the pit, there were two exit tunnels. And over her, connecting her to the tunnel across the pit was the flying fox. She grabbed the metal bars of the flying fox and pushed herself over the ledge. The flying fox brought her horizontally over the pit to the other side. The way the flying fox was made, however, it would go back to where it originally was because it was a "one way" trip to the other side. She landed on the other side, but refused to let go of the metal bars. She quickly summoned the magickal whip that she used as her weapon of choice and tied the flying fox to the ledge. The vampires stepped onto the ledge and realised that they could not get across. Snarling, the larger vampire pushed the smaller one down into the ball pit, then turned back to where it came from and disappeared up the tunnel.
Ian felt the thud of something heavy landing next to her. She held her breath. She had heard scrambling and tried to find a good place to hide as quickly as possible. She had dived quietly into the ball pit and silently buried herself at the side of the square area as a precaution that any wading vampire would not step on her and kill her. The figure groaned and moved about the ball pit. Using her fingers, Ian pushed away a few of the balls discreetly, revealing one of her eyes so she could look out of the tiny hold without being noticed. The vampire stood up and began to wade through the balls to the other side. Suddenly, the side opposite Ian's began to move and another vampire, a huge one, stood up, ready to attack the smaller vampire. The huge vampire recognised the smaller one and motioned to him to keep silent, then dug and buried himself back into the ball pit. The smaller vampire nodded and crawled out one of the two exits. Epona! Ian thought. I'm in a ball pit next to a vampire and I can't get out.
Lalaith followed the trail of blood, hoping to find her teamates alive. She did not know who was bleeding, but she knew that if she could follow a blood trail, a vampire could many times better. She reached an intersection. There were four neat piles of dust and the room was smoky. A trickle of blood flowed from a tube going upwards and she followed it. Halfway through the tube, she spotted Britney and a shirtless Paul sitting. Paul was tying shreds of his already sleeveless shirt (or what was left of it) to Britney's leg. The white cloth was stained with blood, and Britney was whimpering softly.
"You two okay?" Lalaith asked softly, trying not to startle the two, but did anyway.
"Woah," Paul said, sighing when he realised that it was Lalaith. He pointed to Britney. "She's bleeding."
Lalaith moved up to Britney and placed her hand over the wound. She closed her eyes and a soft green glow filled the area around the wound. The green light moved through the cloth and faded. Lalaith removed the makeshift bandage. The wound was gone.
"Cool," Paul said. "Can I have my shirt back now?"
"Sorry Paul," Lalaith grinned, holding up the shreds. "You didn't tear it as well as I though you would. No one could wear this rag."
"But I feel cold and exposed," Paul pouted. Lalaith shook her head and threw the shirt down the tunnel.
"Vampires would be able to smell the blood on that from far away. Let them find it so they won't find us. Let's move," Lalaith said, motioning up the tunnel. Paul and Britney complied.
Brian was lost. He kept on finding himself at what seemed to be the same intersection. But then, all the intersections looked the same to him. He crawled down a tube that he did not find familiar and it slowly became wider and wider until he reached onto a platform. On the other side, there was a flying fox tied to the platform there with a whip. Brian sighed and dug his fingers into the metal rut above him. It was greasy to allow the ball bearings of the flying fox smooth rolling for a good ride, and he barely managed to hold on. Slowly, he inched his way across the pit, hoping he would not fall.
Charmaine followed the tunnel. It was direct with no intersections at all. She crawled and crawled and crawled until she reached a slide. It was a very steep slide, and not as wide as the tubes usually were. She slid down the slide, confident that nothing could follow her from behind since the flying fox was tied up. Halfway down, she heard a snarling hiss from below her. She quickly bent her knees and placed her shoes firmly on the slide tube. She placed both palms flat on the sides of the slide tube and stopped sliding down the steep tube. She carefully looked between her knees and saw a vampire below her trying to get up to reach her.
"Hope this works," she muttered to herself as she let go of the sides, pushing herself as she went. She sped down the slide at an impossibly fast speed, her feet connecting firmly with the vampire's head. The vampire went flying backwards, landing on his back on the floor. Charmaine looked behind the fallen vampire. There, on a pedestal, was the orb. The pedestal had an inscription in flowing, elegant letters, but Charmaine could not make out which language it was written in. The fiery letters flowed with a faint blue hue, which suddenly went out like an eclipse as the vampire stood up. He lunged at Charmaine and grabbed her, ready to bite her neck. He shrieked and stepped backwards, smoke rising from his chest. The smoke cleared and imprinted on his chest was a pentacle. Charmaine glanced at her holy symbol and raised it to the vampire's line of sight. The pentacle glowed a pale green and the vampire hid his sight from it.
"So you do have a weakness," Charmaine said, channeling her energy into the pentacle. A burst of green light ensued from it, turning the vampire into a pile of dust which soon disappeared without a trace. Charmaine walked to the orb, which seemed to be power charged with purple electricity or something. She touched it and the purple lightning in the orb converged to the area where her hand was touching. Charmaine felt a tingle or energy which hurt her and cauused her to withdraw her hand quickly, shaking and rubbing it in pain. She walked back to the slide (the only entrance and exit that she could see) and began to crawl up as quickly as she could. She rushed through the tunnel to make her way back to the platform. That way, she could see who was coming down the platform on the other side and direct them over the flying fox to get to the orb. She reached the platform and removed the whip without looking, thinking that no vampire would make it across the flying fox before it was vapourised. She looked up and saw the flying fox springing back to its original position. Then she noticed Brian inching his way across, too busy looking at the metal rut and concentrating on moving to notice the speeding flying fox coming back.
"Brian!" Charmaine called. Brian looked down from the rut and saw the flying fox heading straight for him. Before he could react, the flying fox had connected nicely (and painfully) with his already sore fingers. Yelling in pain, Brian fell into the ball pit, landing on his back with a large noisy rustling sound.
"Ooer," Brian groaned. Suddenly the balls at the pit to his left began to move and a huge vampire stood out from the balls. Immediately, Brian and Charmaine withdrew their holy symbols and focused their powers on the vampire, who, though bathed in both blue and green light, let loose a horrible laugh.
"You won't turn me so easily, clerics," he sneered. "I've been around for almost two thousand years and am infinately more powerful than you will ever be."
"Then let's see how you do against the power of three," Ian said, emerging from her hiding place and focusing her power on the vampire with her pentacle. The green and blue lights covered the vampire who shouted in fury. His face contorted in pain and agony, before he let out a hideous scream and burst into dust.
"What happened?" Paul asked, crawling in through one of the ball pit entrances, followed by Britney and Lalaith.
"I found the orb," Charmaine said. "It's down this passage." She motioned to the passage.
"How do we get up there?" Brian asked. Lalaith grabbed him and slowly floated upwards and landed on the platform behind Charmaine. She floated down and brought up Britney, Paul and Ian one by one. When they were all on the platform, Charmaine crawled in and led the way. They reached the slide and slid down one by one.
"I tried, but I couldn't touch the orb," Charmaine explained. "Otherwise I would have left as soon as possible. Don't touch it, Paul, it stings fierce. And where's your shirt?"
"Long story," Paul nodded and pulled his hand back from the orb. He pointed to the inscription on the pedestal. "What's this?"
Lalaith leaned towards the inscription and read aloud, "Rimba aa' cama nan' er aa' sana. It's Eldalie, the language of the sithi."
"What does it mean?" Paul asked.
"Many may handle but one may take," Brian translated. "That means only one of us can take it."
Britney placed her finger on the orb and withdrew it in pain. "It isn't me," she said, sucking her finger. One by one, they all tried it, but none of them could touch it without being shocked.
"This isn't working," Charmaine groaned, shaking her head. Ian looked at the group standing in a circle around the orb. She smiled as an idea struck her.
"I have an idea," Ian said. "Everyone move in closer to the orb."
The others stood close to the orb within arm's reach of each other. (Note: to make it easier to construct this part of the story, take it as though Ian were the top and clockwise around the orb are Brian, Paul, Britney, Charmaine and Lalaith.)
"Okay," Ian said, placing her hands in front of her as though she were the tip of a triangle. She grabbed Paul's right hand in her left and Charmaine's left hand in her right. Catching on to her idea, Charmaine grabbed Paul's remaining hand with her own. Brian took Lalaith's left hand in his right and Britney's right in his left and Lalaith and Britney closed the gap, forming a star of David around the orb. Nothing happened.
"Something's not right," Ian muttered as everyone let their hands go. She closed her eyes and thought it through.
"Maybe because the star of David is two seperate triangles," Britney offered as help. Ian's eyes shot open, sparkling with happiness.
"That's it!" she cheered. "Okay, everyone listen to me. Paul, grab my left hand with your right and grab Lalaith's left hand as well. Lalaith, grab Britney's left hand with your right and Britney grab Brian's left with your right. Brian, your right hand to Charmaine's right hand."
Everyone did as they were told. Soon, only Charmaine and Ian had yet to connect hands.
"Hope this works," Ian said, closing her eyes, reaching out for Charmaine's hand. Everyone else closed their eyes. Charmaine's and Ian's hands seemed to take slow motion to reach each other. The tension was hanging over the group. Ian and Charmaine's hands touched, and grabbed each other firmly.
BOOM! There was a surge of power and a bright light shone out from the orb, visible even through the entire group's shut eyes. The light grew brighter and brighter, filling the entire space and beyond, growing and growing, ever increasing and the world seemed to fade to white. The light faded, revealing an empty room. The orb and the group had vanished.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ So how was this chapter. Email me and let me know at ensstyenlc@hotmail.com Thanks for reading! :)