Angels Born of Hell and Fire

[Chapter Eight]

The sticky feel of sweat coated my limbs, causing the coarse fabric of my tunic to bunch uncomfortably. Air forced its way into my tired lungs, providing needed oxygen. As I moved my joints groaned in protest I felt stiff and sore all over. This was my training.

The black depth of Savannah’s eyes took in my exhausted body without mercy.

“Again!”

Jaw clenched against the pain, I forced myself into motion, trembling arms lifting the heavy weights over my head at the correct height she demanded. I waited anxiously to hear the snapped command that would allow me to drop the metal as gravity deemed necessary. Agonizing seconds ticked by, the shaking of my arms becoming more obvious as each one passed. A glance at Savannah told me she had no intention to relieve me of my burden.

With a cry of despair I felt the muscle in my left arm collapse, unable to maintain the weight any longer. The metal crashed to the floor with a horrible clamor. I stared down at it hopelessly.

“Pick it up,” my tormenter barked.

“This is impossible,” I said, barely collecting the energy to complain.

“Children younger than you have finished this training faster. Pick it up.”

I groaned, but did as I was told, heaving upwards on the loathsome bar. This was my training.

Savannah worked me nearly to death that first day, the day she had told me about the people here. That was ten days ago.

I hadn’t been allowed to see Jasper since. Adam said it was my punishment for my rebellious thoughts. I think he just enjoyed watching me struggle alone. I was being kept in a separate room, well away from where Jasper was. We learned that the connection in our brains could be weakened with distance. I could still hear her thoughts if I concentrated, but they were blurry and unfocused. It made me wonder just how huge this place was to be able to put such a strain on the line. Loneliness was my most prevalent emotion.

Adam still came to see me however; his eyes wicked with delight as he felt my hatred of him. His obvious pleasure at how much I hated him made me second guess my own emotions. I didn’t want to do anything that made him happy in any way. On his visits he would leave cryptic remarks that made no sense, I would usually have to ask Savannah about them later.

I had managed to convey to Jasper what Savannah had told me, about the families of the people here forgetting about them. She didn’t believe it, so I chose not to. It wasn’t possible, to completely forget someone like that. There had to be proof somewhere that they were there, someone would remember. It was impossible that our families couldn’t remember us. It was a hope I clung to, along with the one that one day I would be able to return them.

I figured maybe it was just Savannah coming up with things to tell people so they wouldn’t try and escape. This was at least, what I kept telling myself, in the hours I was left to myself in my room. I hadn’t been able to sleep much these past few days, despite how much my body longed for it. I spent my time lying on my bed in darkness and silence, my brain spinning around everything I had been told. Savannah answered whatever question I asked – as long as I was still doing everything she told me to- and seemed willing enough to help me figure out the mess that had become me life.

She told me I was currently at the headquarters of Adam’s secret army. Which sounds as ridiculous as Jasper had said but everything seemed to point in that direction. Savannah came to pick me up every morning – I had to be locked in every night, and there was a guard stationed outside my door- and as we walked to the training room I would see people, dressed in their uniform, of varying ages. As we passed some would stop and salute, waiting for us to pass. Savannah informed me these were lower ranked soldiers who had come to the mansion for training. Apparently, the majority of people who resided within the mansion where higher ranked generals. New recruits were also brought to the mansion, for “special attention” Savannah said but wouldn’t elaborate when I asked. I don’t think I wanted to know.

I had asked her, why everyone kept calling me “General Chaos” and no one seemed to know my proper name.

“Because that’s what the prophecy said: The General Chaos and her Empress Calamity, Sisters of Destruction,” had been how she responded before yelling at me to do more sit ups and stop talking.

She had also warned me, as I was a new recruit as well, that there was a very low tolerance for defiance here. Just because I was Adam’s “daughter” didn’t mean I lived above the rules. I took the warning halfheartedly, my ego affecting my good judgment. I was trying to tell myself I wasn’t afraid of Adam, and whatever it was he could do to me. This was a lie. I was terrified of Adam, more so than I had been of anything in my entire life. He was like the boogie man that lived under the bed as a child, waiting for me to let a limb hang off so he could drag me down to the abyss of hell.

After weights Savannah moved on to making me run. She had quickly noticed I had no endurance what so ever and had been making me run at least 2 miles every day. I felt like I was going to die. When I protested, telling her I was going to collapsed if we kept up this level of intensity, she said smugly,

“You’re Master Adam’s daughter, I have confidence you wouldn’t parish so quickly.”

I had barely managed to hold my tongue, a scathing remark threatening to get me in trouble once more. I was not his daughter.

I kept telling myself this over and over; afraid of how hard it was becoming to believe it. I think it was because he was in my head, whispering lies into my brain making me think I was the one who thought it. I had to stop myself several times a day from thinking that I wanted to be here. I felt like I was going insane. And it had only been ten days. Ten long, horrible, lonely days.

I missed Jasper. I was doing everything I was told, not even making sarcastic remarks, in hope I would be allowed to see my friend again. I didn’t know how much longer I could survive without having something, anything, to remind myself that I had once lived a normal life. I didn’t belong here. The days seem to stretch back an eternity, like I had been doing the same thing every day for years rather than days.

I was beginning to not trust my own thoughts. I couldn’t tell what Adam had tampered with and what was my own creation. I wished I could ask Jasper to sort it out for me, if I couldn’t trust myself, I could trust Jasper.

I often wondered how she was. I knew she was basically fine, since I could feel it beyond the door in my head. Every now and then, when our paths got closer, we would exchange quick words, letting each other know we hadn’t been put through anything too horrendous, but the connection was short lived.

I suspected that Adam might be doing this on purpose, just to torment us. Or at least me.

Savannah suddenly threw a towel at me head and told me to take a shower and change. This wasn’t normal. Usually we would work through the day, only taking breaks longer than 10 minutes twice before she would escort me back to my dark room.

When I came back, my wet hair dripping water onto the shoulders of my recently acquired uniform jacket, she was tying her thick hair back into that tight pony-tail, talking to a blonde girl I hadn’t met. Their eyes turned to me as I walked in the room.

"Michelle is going to take you to where the Empress is studying." Savannah informed me causing my heart leap in joy.

“Really?” I asked, as if it was some sick joke.

She nodded.

I couldn’t help the smile that burst across my face, happiness glowed in my chest. I wouldn’t be alone anymore.

Michelle’s eyes went wide as she saw me, fear tickling over to me, and snapped into a type of salute.

"Adam sent orders for you to be taken to Calamity." Savannah said and my happiness was quickly muffled.

Adam did?

I naturally was beginning to assume anything that man did have some ulterior motive to it.
Even so… I was happy I was being allowed to see Jasper.

"You should be leaving. The Empress is awaiting you."

Michelle walked me pass the other work out and training rooms — thankfully empty — through the maze that was the mansion until finally we were walking down a familiar hallway.

"The Empress is in the library." Michelle informed me as we walked.

I found that the library was just down the hall from the original two rooms Jasper and I had stayed in the first two days. Well, down the hall, to the right, and three doors down. They were big ordinate doors, just like one would think. Peter and Gabriel stood outside them. As he glanced at me Peter glared, once again I got the distinct impression the boy hated me.

What the hell?

When I opened the doors the heavy sent of books filled my nose and I took a deeper breath. I loved how books smelt. The library was as big as one would think it would be in such a large house, with floor to ceiling book selves, big comfy looking chairs, and a few long tables with lights over them. That was where Jasper sat.

She was hunched over an array of different open books with a notepad under her hand, scribbling something. As I walked over to her she lifted her head to blink at me.

“Megan!” She jumped from her seat and launched herself at me. We collided with a thud, the air swishing out of my lungs. I didn’t care.

"Dude, I had totally forgotten how weird you look." She said after we ended our embrace.
I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, I missed you too, Jasper." I said to cover up my unease. I didn’t need a reminder of how I appeared right now.

She smiled sadly, reading my thoughts.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have mentioned it."

“It’s okay.” I muttered, looking to where she had been sitting. “So what are you reading over there?”

"Personally, I have no idea. That tutor dude I was supposed to get? Yeah, that man is scary! It’s like he walked out of a horror film or something!" Jasper said, and I knew she was trying to lift my downcast mood.

I laughed.

"How so?"

"He looks like a gargoyle with glasses and puffy hair." she stated soberly.

I laughed again at that image, delighted to be able to after so long. I had misses having a reason to laugh at all.

"Grey skin and all?"

"Grey skin and all."

"Wow. So how is it your reading stuff but haven’t a clue as to what it’s about?"

She glanced down at the open books in front of her and frowned.

"I don’t know it’s just like a bunch of old war journals and crap from a whole bunch of different people. Then this one is about legends and myths and stuff like that."

I looked at the one she pointed to, curious.

"Like Greek myths?" I had always loved Geek mythology.

"A little is, but there’s also a whole bunch from different cultures as well."

I picked up the heavy volume and placed it before me. The page she had left off on was something about a Hindu prophecy. Savannah had said something about a prophecy…

"So how does this relate to those?" War journals and mythology, hmm...

"Well, all these people were following some prophecy about ruling the world and were looking for some treasure or whatever to help them do it."

"How can treasure help you rule the world? Was it magic or anything?"

"Some of them thought so. Napoleon’s in here." she said excitably.

I looked up from the book.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah! This one here is one of his journals! Well, the translated version seeing as how I can’t read French, but still! It’s his!"

I looked at the other slightly smaller leather bound book she held out to me.

"Cool. So is this all you’ve been doing all this time?"

"Pretty much, but Professor Gargoyle has informed me that starting tomorrow I’ll be starting French."

I raised my eyes brows.

"Cool." It felt amazing to talk with someone like a normal person again. Savannah was the only person other than Adam I had been allowed to talk to. She wasn’t necessarily chatty and Adam… well, is Adam.

Jasper shrugged.

"So what have you been up to? I get the feeling that it wasn’t anything like me."

I rubbed at my sore biceps.

"You could say that." I sighed. "And I have been informed that tomorrow will be even harder."

Jasper watched me carefully.

"Megan, are you okay? Like really, I’ve been getting these really weird visions lately. Have you noticed anything weird?"

I thought about our conversation when we had woken up the second day, about the changes to us.

“Yeah…. I think I can feel people’s emotions.” I said, realizing I sounded like a wack job. I’ve decided that everything dealing with Adam sounded crazy. He was just pulling us all into his madness.

"I didn’t know that was possible."

"Yeah me neither, but apparently Adam did and forgot to tell me," I gripped. He had mentioned it briefly, in that annoying cryptic way of his one day on one of his visits.

"You talked to Adam?"

"Yeah, he’s been coming by where they’ve been keeping me. You haven’t seen him?”

Jasper shook her head, confirming that Adam seemed to enjoy torturing me alone.

“The only people I’ve been allowed to see are my tutor, Peter, and Gabriel. One of them walks me from my room to here every day, and brings my meals to me here.”

So she had been even more isolated than I was. At least I passed other people.

“I’m starting to feel sort of like a princess locked in a tower,” Jasper said, causing me to laugh in surprise.

“What?”

“Well, everyone is always bowing, calling me ‘Empress’ this ‘Empress’ that. I’m forced to wear dresses at all times, I never see anyone other than my ‘guards’ and I’m either locked in here, or locked in my room.”

She sighed. “I don’t understand how suddenly I’m royalty.”

“It’s probably because we’re Adam’s….. ‘daughters’.” I gagged on the word.

Her blue eyes looked up at me sadly, knowing the trouble I was having with this.

“We need to get out of here,” she suddenly announced.

“What? How?” I asked eyes wide. I had found not even the slightest chance to run away. We were always escorted at all times, and then there were still the men guarding the doors.

A devilish smile had taken over her features.

“We’ll jump out the window.”

[End: Chapter Eight]