Broken Soul

Dannie softly gasped and then took a better look at her pursuer. "M-...Myra?" Dannie noticed the blank, yet disturbing expression on her face. Myra's eyes were completely black. And she kept walking toward her silently, with a purpose. "Myra, what are you doing?" Still no answer. Dannie stepped back to keep space between them. Terrified, she knew she probably couldn't defend herself since she had only had one defense lesson with Erick. "Stay back, Myra!" she warned, walking back into the forest. "Or whatever you are! I'm warning you!" Myra's coal black eyes didn't even blink. Dannie realized she was probably possessed. "Myra, if you can hear me, fight it! There has to be something you can do, just try!" Myra's neck twitched as if she was trying to reply. But the demon inside forced her forward after Dannie, showing no intention of stopping. "Myra, I don't want to hurt you, please do something!" The demon controlled her and Myra couldn't fight back. The dark being inside was too strong. Dannie didn't want to risk harming Myra so she couldn't expel the demon herself. It could get angry and kill its host. She wished she knew of a way to rid of it without anyone getting hurt. Dannie had no choice. She had to fight it.

* * * * *

Erick found October, passing her through the hall on the second floor. "Where's Myra?" she asked, flames closing in on them fast.

"I don't know but we have to kill this fire!" he shouted over the flames crackling and the sound of the wall crumbling next to them.

Without another word, they both controlled the fire, making it die down and disappear. It would take them a while to extinguish the entire fire since it had spread throughout half of the building.

Leighton searched his house for anyone who could have been hiding or trapped and didn't find any so he helped Evan search for Myra. They'd had no luck inside and jumped off of one of the balconies onto the back terrace. No sign of her there either. Evan couldn't find Dannie either and was unsure of where to go now. He turned his head off to the right and gazed at the sea of trees. He remembered him how he'd found Dannie there earlier and wondered if she had gone back in.

* * * * *

Dannie was stepping deeper and deeper into the forest not knowing where she would end up. Afraid of turning her back toward Myra, she continued walking backward watching her pursuer closely. She went over her options quickly in her mind. "Should I throw her like I did with that tree? No, I don't want to hurt her. What about the darkness? Maybe it will hide me- Wait, no, she can probably make her own light and she'd be able to see me-" Then it hit her. "The light!" Dannie spotted a fallen branch lying in the grass a few feet away and mentally slid it across the grass in front of Myra, tripping her. Before she could get back onto her feet, Dannie made a light orb and threw it directly at Myra then kicked off her shoes. Dannie ran away as fast as she could, dodging the trees through the darkness. She heard Myra scream and didn't even look back.

The orb had just missed Myra after she dodged out of its way. That's what Dannie had intended since the light could kill humans. She just wanted to distract her.

Myra stood up and ran after Dannie and decreased speed once she was back in her view. She lifted her arms and, with her mind, bent the trees down toward Dannie too slow her. Dannie just tore between them until the branches started reaching out toward her like hands. A skinny fingered limb caught her arm and she broke it off when but another quickly grabbed her other arm, then another clasped her left foot. She broke one branch after another but they kept scraping her skin, pinching down onto her limbs, tore at her dress and grabbed onto her hair, and twisted her neck. She screamed in pain and was about to throw them off when she heard an eerie voice say, "If you move, I'll exit this body and kill it."

Dannie watched Myra approach her, eyes still lifeless and black. That definitely wasn't Myra's voice. "Give me the necklace and I'll spare this human."

"Myra..." Dannie whispered as a branch started to strangle her, "fight it..."

"Enough of that!" Myra shouted at her. "You cannot help her. And she's too weak to fight me. The necklace. Now."

Dannie refused.

"Fine, I'll get it myself." Myra reached for Dannie's cross, lifting the chain up so she could remove it. She cringed and shrieked in pain once she touched it, quickly dropping it back onto Dannie's neck. "Even this human can't take it with out consequence," she muttered in perplexity. She tried to make a branch grasp it but it disintegrated once it touched it. "I guess I'll have to endure." Myra's burned hand reached for the chain again when a voice stopped her.

"Myra, what are you doing??"

"Evan..." Dannie sighed when she heard it was him. "Evan, get out of here..." She struggled to breathe and said louder, "This isn't Myra!"

"Let her go," he commanded, his eyes glowing with warning. "Both of them. Now."

Myra turned around and faced him. He saw her black eyes and a wicked smile form on her face. "And how are you planning on stopping me?"

Evan didn't have to reply. Erick and October both walked up to his side. "You will not harm him or these girls," October said and stepped in front of Evan. "Leave now."

"Or you'll what?" Myra remarked, tightening the branch's grasp on Dannie's throat, making her cry out. Erick and Evan both jumped at the sound of her distress. Dannie tried to loosen the branch but it was hard since she couldn't see it.

"What do you want?" Evan asked his possessed donor.

Myra lifted her arm and pointed at him. "You. Dead. And I think we all know how I'm going to accomplish that." In the blink of an eye, she grasped the cross's chain and broke it right off of Dannie's neck and threw it to the ground. October dashed to the necklace and picked it up off the ground while Evan tried distracting Myra. He threw her but lightly, and she slid across the grass, and her back hit a tree before she fell over.

Erick darted over to Dannie and with a movement of his hand, he said, "Release her!" The branches fell limp and up she collapsed in exhaustion once they let her go. Erick caught her just before she hit the ground and he made sure she was all right. "Danielle, look at me," he said and knelt on to the grass with her in his arms. Her eyes slowly opened and Erick smiled slightly. She couldn't resist doing the same back when she saw his. Erick scanned around and didn't see Myra. "Where'd she go?"

"Darkness..." October replied and a light orb formed above her palm. "Make your light, Erick, help me find her."

Erick gently laid Dannie on the grass with apologetic eyes. An orb floated over his hand and lit up the surrounding trees. He told Evan to stay with Dannie. Erick and October lit up the forest with their orbs and tried the sensing the evil demon lurking in the shadows. Dannie was slightly delirious from being choked and was growing even more scared. "Evan...?" she asked when she looked up and saw him kneeling beside her.

"Shhh..." he whispered and held her hand, silently telling her he was there for her.

It was dead silent for the next few minutes.

"October," Evan said to her, "Danielle needs her cross back."

She didn't say anything and just tossed the necklace to him and he caught it. He put it around Dannie's neck and held her close in his arms. "I think I should move her and get her out of here."

"We still don't know where the other demon is," Erick reminded him. "It might just follow you and attack."

Suddenly, Evan heard something moving from behind him. His head turned back and he saw a trail of fire blazing right over to them. Before he could even think about moving, his arm caught fire and out of panic, he jumped up and left Dannie on the grass and the flames encircled around her. Erick helped Evan and put the fire on his arm out and they heard a sinister laugh erupt from inside the circle of flames. The wall of fire rose higher than their heads and October tried to make it die down but it was too strong for her to do it alone. "Erick, help me!" she cried and saw Myra standing over Dannie. Erick and October were able to decrease the fire in one part of the circle and Evan reached in to try to get Dannie out. Myra saw this and quickly filled the gap back in, burning his hand. Evan screamed in pain and retracted his arm away and the fire died on his skin but left the flesh burned and bleeding.

Dannie hardly had any strength left and she looked up at the possessed girl, unsure of how to stop her. With all the effort she could gather, she made in light orb in her hand and brightened it as much as she could, temporarily blinding the demon. She tried to get up onto her feet only to fall back down onto the grass, and her vision blurred and her body weak. "You stupid mortal!" the evil demon screamed at her and then grabbed her necklace and ripped it off of her again. "It's time for you to die."

October now knew she had no choice. She pushed through the wall of flames, pried the cross away from Myra just when she was about to rip Dannie's heart out. Erick followed and shielded Dannie with himself, receiving several burns in the process. Evan watched in horror as October plunged the long end of the cross into Myra's chest. An ear piercing shriek a rang us through the forest and Myra fell to the burning ground. The flames of finally died and they all saw a screaming black mist exit through Myra's mouth before it disappeared into the darkness.

"Myra!" Evan rushed to her side and wanted to pry the cross out of her, but hesitated. She was still alive, covered in burns and she looked up at him as she struggled to breathe. "Myra..." He held her hand even though his still bled. "Can you hear me?"

"Evan..." she sighed softly as blood dripped from her mouth.

"Hold on, I'll heal you," he said and examined her wound. "Just hold on..."

"No, Evan," Erick told him. Blood was now covering half of Erick's face. "You cannot heal her. The injury will kill her and the demon's poison might have wounded her fatally on the inside."

"I have to try!" Evan gently lifted the cross out of her chest and the blood from the gash started pouring out even faster. He put his hand over her heart to stop the bleeding and hoped it would work. "Heal..." he sighed that felt no difference. "Come on! Myra, please..."

"It's not working," Erick said. "Her injury is fatal, Evan. You can't save her."

"I'm not losing her," Evan declared. "I'll turn her! I have to! I can't let her die..."

"Evan, no," Erick replied. "Do you really want her to live the way you do?"

"I don't care!" Evan snapped back in frustration. "I have to do something..."

"She wouldn't live through it anyway."

"But I..." Evan didn't even know what to say now. He was running out of options. "I can't give up..."

"Evan," Myra whispered again, "it's alright." She tightened her grip on his hand. "Ask me."

He knew exactly what she meant. "Do you love me?"

With her last ounce of strength, she nodded slightly, then closed her eyes and drifted away.

"Myra?" Evan touched her face, hoping she would sense it and open her eyes again. But she was gone. "Myra??" A blood red tear fell from his eye, leaving a crimson trail on his cheek. His sadness quickly turned into anger. "You...." He glared at October and his eyes glowed with fury. "You! You did this! Why did you kill her? She was possessed, she didn't know what she was doing! Why did you kill her??"

"I had no choice."

"Yes you did!"

"No, I didn't," she disagreed. "I had to protect you."

"By killing my donor?? How does that help me??"

"She was going to kill Danielle," October reminded him. "I had to stop her."

"Erick was guarding her!" Evan told her and pointed at him. "Didn't you see that he was with her??"

October realized that she hadn't. "No..."

"So you killed Myra for no reason." He was so angry, he wasn't even thinking about what he was saying.

"I am sorry."

"No, you're not. You demons are never sorry for anything. You don't even have any emotion behind that apology, you don't feel anything for anyone! She might not have mattered to you but she did to me!" He lowered his voice as he said, "I never want to see you again. I renounce you as my demon. Now get out of here."

October remained standing there as if she was waiting for something. She wasn't quite sure what do now. This angered Evan even more.

"Did you hear what I said??" he yelled at her. "I told you to leave! I hate you! You aren't my demon anymore so just go!"

October walked away, hanging her head in remorse. Evan would probably never know how much his words actually hurt her. Demons shouldn't have feelings. But she couldn't help harboring a degree of responsibility for what had happened. She stood far away, watching them leave the forest and let her eyes cry one tear. Whether it was a genuine act of emotion or one she fabricated, she didn't know. There seemed to be little difference between them anymore. When they were out of her sight, she walked away, carrying on alone.