14 Chapter 13

"What do you mean? We have no Necromancers," the Director said.

"Let me dumb this down for you, Jezebel exclaimed, "I will exchange this creature for the necromancer hiding among all of you."

The Director's brows scrunched together.

"Oh, you already knew that you had a necromancer," Jezebel smiled wide.

"You have a notion of how it might be too. Oh." She twirled

"This is delightful," she laughed darkly.

My body wouldn't move, I was stuck in place. Mimiku stepped in front of me and fanned out five tails.

"Eugene, you need to move and get outta here," she whispered in force.

"We will not make any such trade with you," the Director announced.

"Such a poor sport," the devil teased.

The devil's eyes narrowed at the Director.

"What you want with a necromancer?" the Director asked, folding his arms in front of him?

That got my attention.

"I figured that I would take him away and to let him be free to use his powers. This world and your laws prevent him from doing so," Jezebel said.

A seriousness swept over the Director.

"We don't have a necromancer; let alone we wouldn't trade one," he bluntly stated.

The grin on the devil widened even further, and she bellowed out in laughter, dropping Wallow and clenching her sides. She composed herself and tried controlling the little spirt of giggling.

"Humans are such fools," Jezebel exclaimed.

Emma suddenly flashed in front of the devil, grabbing Wallow. Jezebel didn't necessarily react but shot her tail at the new rescuer, cutting Emma's leg as she darted over to Director. Jezebel licked the tip of her tail.

"Hmm, yummy. Virgin blood is hard to come by these days," she moaned.

Emma examined her leg. The tail had cut right through her thigh armor and the protective body glove. Plus, the attack stripped her of the blades I had gotten her.

It's time to continue to escape.

Everyone was focused on the devil. I finally broke the chains that froze me in place. I walked back using Mimiku's body as the shield she meant it to be.

"I have heard enough," the Director announced, shooting his hand forward.

A white counterspell encircled under Jezebel. She snarled and gritted her teeth.

"What the hell?" she stammered, trying to move her body.

"This a demon's snare," the Director, smiled, "you won't be going anywhere."

He had his hand folded out and began to close it into a tightly formed fist.

"I can assure you of that, and I can assure you that there is no necromancer here among us," the Director said, motioning for a couple of paladins to move and apprehend the devil.

"Are you sure?" Jezebel tried to move again."

The Director, for a moment, glanced around his group.

"You're lying," the Director spat.

Jezebel struggled to giggle, then, she started to spew fits of laughter. Extraordinarily, she stood up with ease and whipped her tail around in a blink of an eye. The paladins were stunned in place.

Then, they fell apart in a bloody pile with a sloppy squelching sound. The attack was fast, clean, and the Director was having trouble trying to hold Jezebel. Jezebel was enjoying the Director's struggle.

"What's wrong, High Templar, having trouble?" Jezebel sneered.

Everyone was stunned and didn't fully understand what to do. I couldn't blame them; there hasn't been a devil on this earth in millions of years. Also, she was powerful. If the Director was having this much trouble handling her, then this was putting fear into the others. It was heavy in the air.

"If you don't have a necromancer, then, why is he trying to run away," she giggled.

She turned in my direction and pointed her finger at Mimiku.

"Eugene, RUN!".

Mimiku spun around in panic and held up her hands. A barrier formed. Jezebel sent a red needle-like missile at her.

Mimiku was consumed in fire and smoke. Gradually, the smoke and flames faded away, revealing Mimiku on the ground, fighting to get to her feet. She was bleeding all over.

Jezebel smiled and licked her lips.

"There's my darling."

Out of the fear of being blasted away, I incoherently raise two green ghoulish, skeletal hands around me.

Emma stood up slowly, leaving Wallow on the ground. I didn't have to see her face to know that the betrayal had set in. Mimiku snarled, standing, and blasted Jezebel fireballs. Utilizing her hands and her five tails, she bombarded Jezebel with raining fire.

Jezebel was far too quick for the attack. She leaped high into the air to dodge the attack and bounced about to getaway.

"Cease him!" the Director barked, pointing the finger at me.

"When you feel lonely, give me a call," Jezebel teased, putting a y-hand to her ear, and winking at me.

She landed with grace and snapped her fingers. An inferno engulfed her with the added fire attacks, and she was gone with a massive explosion. I didn't wait to see the rest, everyone was headed my way with Emma leading the charge.

I turned around, stumbled, but got to my feet. I put as much power as I could get into my strides, I ran. An overwhelming fear took over my body.

I was terrified.

Bullets whizzed past my head and body; I jolted with each passerby.

They're shooting at me! This is real. This is really happening!

I snapped my head back; I was leaving many of the paladins behind, but I had no idea where Emma had taken off to. A part of me was horrified to face her, and yet, another part hoped that she would understand. Another question approached the back of my mind.

What if she didn't?

*POP*

"Ah!" I screamed, jerking my head to a side.

A bullet grazed a tree, and the bark splattered into my eyes. My vision was gone, and I was running blind. My hands were out in front in hopes that they would be able to guide me in the dark.

All at once, my feet were pulled from underneath me. I land on my back hard, knocking the wind out of my lungs. Rolling over to my side, made my body slip down a steep slope. I tumbled, tossed, rolled, smacked something hard, heard a crack, and felt a sharp pain in my leg.

At the bottom, I skidded to a grinding halt. Pain reverberated in my lower leg. Trying to move was out of the question.

The secret's already out might as well use…

Somebody dropped down in front of me. I couldn't make out who they were, but they weren't friendly. A gloved hand picked me up by the throat and locked me against a tree. Their hand was cold as ice and squeezing my throat.

"P-please…s-stop," I begged, trying to wrench the hand off of me.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Emma half snarled, half cried.

"Emma, let go," I whimpered.

Her hand was tightening, but it was beginning to shake. I needed to breathe.

"Please let me explain," I choked.

Her hand hesitated but released. I slumped painfully down the tree, choking, gasping for the air. I howled in pain from putting too much weight on my leg.

"Well?!"

I raised my hands and cleared my eyes. Emma loomed over me with her mask glaring at me.

"I didn't tell anyone about this because I thought that I was protecting everyone, protecting you," I answered.

"I could have," Emma spat, ripping her mask off and threw it.

"I could have helped you. Why didn't you tell me?" She emphasized by knife-hand pointing at me with tears streaming down her face.

"I didn't know," I trailed off.

Shame grew in my throat.

I lower my head, "I didn't know if you would kill me or not."

She shot up and back, away horror-struck at the answer I gave. I raised at my head to look at her and received hurt eyes. I open my mouth, but words didn't come out.

"How could you ever think that?" Emma's shoulders were slumped, her stance beaten, and her body shook from her quiet sniffles.

"Do I mean so little to you?"

"No," I answered immediately, "no, you don't, Emma. You mean everything to me."

"But not enough to tell me this?" she retorted.

"I was protecting you. Mimiku doesn't even know about this," I lied.

I use the tree to help me stand up on my good leg and hobbled over to her. I needed to comfort her and show her that I was genially sorry that I didn't tell her. I gently reach out to grab her arm, but she yanked her arm away and stepped away.

She raised her head. I won't ever forget those empty eyes. Walking over to her mask and placing it on her face, she drew her swords.

"Emma, please, please don't," I begged, feeling the sting in my eyes.

"By the Seventh State, I am placing you under arrest, necromancer," she stated.

I couldn't describe the feeling in my chest, or why the breath in my lungs was so shallow. I couldn't face Emma, I couldn't attack her, I couldn't; so, I turn around and began to hobble away.

I lost her; I lost my best friend.

I had been so careful about making sure that my secret was kept safe. Now, here I am in a forest, in pain, and about to go to jail.

"There he is, over here!"

Paladins lined the ridge of the slope and poised their guns. I faced them, glaring at them, my fear turned into anger. They were making the assumption that because that devil wanted me that I was evil.

I'm not evil

"Fire!"

Their guns sang their song and their bullets, but they didn't pierce their target. In the blink of an eye, I lifted my arms up and raised a small force of the undead. They made great bullet catchers.

I call forth twenty of the undead; slimy, rotting, diseased filled, corpses. They knew that their master needed and sprung forward to attack, not to kill, but to occupy the paladins and Emma. The liveliness of the dead caught everyone off guard; they weren't slow or weak.

My current opposition was engaged, and I could leave, but before I could, something stabbed my chest. Everything turned slow, sounds tuned out, and it was hard to breathe again.

I look down. Sticking out of my chest was a beautiful dagger that I bought for an extraordinary someone. My skin around the wound turned black and veined out.

There wasn't any pain that I could speak of. I looked around to see Emma. She had frozen my undead in an angry blast of ice.

I crumbled to the floor, gasping for air. Emma slowly came up to me. My body was turning cold and stiff. My eyes wandered over my body; the ice was forming over my legs.

Using my arms, I pulled my frozen legs across the ground as best that I could. I was becoming cumbersome and groggy. The knife made it even more challenging to navigate.

A foot pressed down on my back, stopping me. The ice spread rapidly over the rest of my body. Then, it transformed my body upright and help me in place.

I couldn't think straight, and I was fading into the darkness. Emma stood in front of me.

"E-Emma, please," I mumbled.

She didn't listen to my pleas. My life was beginning to flash before my eyes. The once happy, vibrant Emma that I knew was gone, hidden away behind cold eyes and a mask.

How I wished that I wasn't a necromancer and that I was somebody else, anything else.

My head rolled back, and I looked up in the dense trees. Jezebel was lying lazily on a branch watching me.

"You see, they really don't care as much as you'd thought that they would," she spoke to me.

With that, the world when black.