Helena and the Rings

Chapter 23: Floating into the Night

I didn't notice Joe was drunk until he started going off about his evil demonic brother who wants so badly to rule the world and take it back.

You see, anything he talked about before, I ignored or drowned down another Stella. I was two beers in and Joe had about six. He kept them coming.

Feeling a bit tipsy and on the verge of being drunk, I was starting to feel hyper. Though, my body was exhausted, in this almost drunken moment I wanted to ask Joe a lot of questions. So I did.

"What was your home like?" I asked actually intrigued to know. "Was it made out of fire or something?"

"What?" He then laughed a little. "No. You know how your neighborhood has those little homes that need fixing?"

"Yeah." I replied.

"Well I grew up in a pretty ugly and nasty neighborhood like yourself," he went on. "Dasdamon was my brother but he was the only person in our realm to have anything fancy and luxurious. Even though rich doesn't really exist around us. It's just him, you know? Nothing can't beat what he has."

"So you have homes made out of brick and stuff?"

He nodded. "Yeah just a lot bigger."

"Wow." Joe's eyes sparkled for a second when he realized I was kind of impressed and curious.

He smiled. A sly one. "When you're a demon you can see both worlds. Yours and mine. Technically we're  in the middle of an old abandoned battle field right now on the other end. Some of my kind, mostly kids are exploring it right now."

"Can they see us?" I asked.

"Not unless they want to. We have good and bad demons despite the name we're given. The good don't bother you guys. They don't want to be a part of your world. They keep their curiosity to themselves."

"And the bad ones?"

"Oh they love messing with you guys. Possessions, spreading evil, whispering into your souls, stealing goods in your household, sleeping in bathrooms or the filthiest rooms in your homes." He raised two hands in the air and lowered his head towards mine. "They love to scare people. Boo!"

I rolled my eyes, a little startled at him reaching out for me. He threw his head back and laughed.

"Are you good or bad?" I asked him.

His smile disappeared. "I'm the bad guy. I'm out for my own brother."

"To save us though. That's a good thing," I said.

"I'm not saving you. I don't care about you," he said. "My kind nor yours deserves to die and be sacrificed. I didn't want that for my family." He said.

"Why didn't you just tell my mother that?" I asked. "You had a chance to settle all of this calmly." I could feel myself turning red with anger. "You could have trained me when my mom was alive!"

I said the last part out loud and people began staring at us.

"No. I couldn't have," he said. "and even if you knew what I did you wouldn't trust me. Hell, your mom would've never allowed it."

"How do you know!? You took her from me," I sneered.

"You think I'd waste my time on hiding or taking her?" His eyes pierced through mine. "I wanted the ring to help defeat my brother. She claimed to have wanted the ring to get back your dad. But I knew that wasn't going to be the case. She was going to use you."

I began to cry. "No she wasn't! Shut up. You don't know what you're talking about. I want to go. Right now."

...

Joe got us two rooms at an Inn. I begged him to get separate rooms and to my surprise he listened.

At my door, he peaked inside. "We're up early so get some rest. We got training to do."

After he closed the door, I lit a candle and sat in the middle of the floor. There was nothing but a bed, hamper, and small cubby of a closet in the room. The silhouette of all the objects in the room danced around me.

I crossed my legs and with the ring in my hand, I meditated hard. I closed my eyes and thought about Bishop.

"Where are you?" I whispered. I peaked at my ring.

It started glowing.

"Bishop?" I smiled. "Is that you."

Suddenly one silhouette in the room didn't look familiar. In fact, it was long and tall with arms and legs and a head.

"Bishop?" I whimpered, this time terrified.

The silhouette slowly dragged across the room until it came to one of the windows. The window shot up straight and hard, leaving a nice big crack in the wall. I was surprised no one came barging inside at the noise.

A cold hard breeze from outside messed up my hair. It howled. It howled so loudly that I began hearing voices.

"Helena, follow me." Something or someone unfamiliar called out.

I didn't have much to loose. Besides, I had high hopes it was Bishop.

Somewhere behind a tree I could see the shadow person waving it's distorted shadow arm towards itself.

I quickly climbed out my window with my shoes on and raced over to the tree. It was not my full intention to follow it any further but something was pulling me into the night. Further and further away from the inn. I wasn't tired while running either. With a straight face I followed the shadow.

For a second I felt like I was walking effortlessly then I noticed I was gliding a few feet off the ground.

"Oh my God-" my eyes widened. "Am I flying?" I smiled and let out a happy chuckle.

I realized I was so busy looking at my feet I didn't realize there was an abandoned train off the rails in front of me. I hit it fast and hard.

"Arg," I grabbed my nose and sat in the cold grass. I looked up at the tilted train towering me. There was something drawn in red on the train. At first I couldn't see until the moon appeared from behind a cloud.

It read: HELP