Fiery Eyes Act III
#4 of Fiery Eyes
ACT III- ALLIE
Allie basically exploded with emotion. She was sobbing uncontrollably, screaming with every breath, and shaking like a leaf in autumn. Fire consumed her, it engulfed her. Sometimes it would die down, only to be rekindled with fresh bursts of tears.
"Allie! Allie!! Calm down!" I yelled over the wind.
"Go closer to her!" Aries suggested.
I moved closer. I was afraid that the cliff would give way or that the wind would push us off. It didn't. Yet.
I touched Allie's arm. She saw me and stopped screaming. The fire died down considerably. "What's wrong?"
"It's- this fire-!"
"You need to calm down!"
She tried. The crying stopped, and the fire died until a few spark randomly jumped from her body. She went limp and collapsed on the ground.
"I'm...." she noticed my tail. "You are too..."
"You have a tail too. Aries, that's him over there, he has it too. We all do. I'm a wolf, I think. He's a bat. What are you?"
"...Ph...phoenix..." she answered quietly.
"Did it happen the night after we hung out, last month?"
"I think so..."
"I didn't tell you either."
Her face flickered. A flame jumped up from her arm, then died right back down. This happened a few times.
"What's going on?"
"It's the phoenix...inside me. He's trying to gain control. He had it before..." it happened again, for a few seconds this time. Allie looked... malicious for a second.
"Why?"
"I don't know. Does this...happen to you two?"
I looked at Aries, who had moved closer. He shook his head.
"No, neither of us. Just you. Why you?" "I don't know."
"Let's get down from here." She nodded. "How'd you get up here?"
Allie stood up. "I don't know. It's a blank. Suddenly, I was here, and staring the moon, it was huge by the way, and then you were there."
We climbed down slowly from the top.
Aries spoke for the first time. "So, can we assume the phoenix was in control of Allie while she climbed up here?"
"Yes, I guess so." I answered. "But why does just Allie have this inner animal?"
"That I don't know. Maybe she's special?"
"I don't know..."
We continued the rest of the descent in silence. Pondering what and why this was happening to us, and just us, we reached the bottom. The rain started up again, and it poured. Cold droplets bombarded us from above. We all decided it was better to go home and discuss this when the rain ended.
I hightailed it home and scurried up to my room. I layed in my bed, thinking about the day's occurrences, and whatever was afflicting Allie. I fell asleep quickly.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The morning, if you could call it that, was still black as night. The rain, however, had stopped. Rocks still rained from the sky though. It was a little disheartening. I looked down at myself. I was still wearing the ragged, dirty clothes I had worn through the rain-soaked hike up and down the cliff. I needed to changed. My dirty tail was still there, and my lupine ears still lay atop my head. I should really take a shower.
Let me tell you, showering while half-wolf is really weird, and really awkward. I had to shampoo my tail! What is this?! And washing your hair while maneuvering around the ears... I don't recommend it.
I called Allie, and she told me to meet her by the school. I had to find Aries along the way, which wasn't hard. He was lumbering around by the woods again.
Aries and I looked up at the Moon. It was immense. It was huge. It had grown much closer since yesterday, and threatened to actually kill us.
Allie came into view. "Hi, Allie!" I yelled.
She waved back, less enthused than usual.
"Do you feel any better?" I asked.
She didn't answer. Her tail laid stagnant, drooping sadly. She looked tired and worn out, like she hasn't slept at all last "night". Once again, she looked strained, as if she was trying to control something. A big boom from my left shook me from my reverie.
"What was that?!" Aries said.
"Probably another meteor." Allie looked a bit more animated. "They've been coming faster and harder lately."
"Let's go check it out. The crash site, I mean. That one looked pretty big." I suggested.
It wasn't too far away, just behind my house. The meteor had left some hefty wreckage, and some bushes were on fire. Yet, like everyone else, the local animals didn't seem to notice. In fact, they ran right on top of the hole like it wasn't even there. Right over thin air.
"Did anyone else just see that squirrel?" Aries asked incredulously.
"Yes..." I said.
"If anything, this is proof that it's just us. We're not even in reality" said Allie.
"So where are we?"
"I don't know... but someone does."
"Who?" I asked.
"The phoenix. It feels like he knows what's up, and he's just...laughing at us."
"Let's...go back." Aries said nervously. "I mean... I don't want to deal with any schizophoenix right now."
Allie laughed a little. "That's funny."
"Come on then."
We trekked back to the school area. The sky was clouding over, fast.
"If we're going to do anything, we have to do it fast." I said.
"But what can we do?" Allie said.
"I don't know....Aries, any ideas?"
"No.... there are meteors coming down, we could die at any minute, and no one even notices us." He sat down, crestfallen.
I sank to the ground, too. "I... I just don't know." My ears drooped, and Allie looked perplexed.
"I'm trying to think of something we could do....but I don't know. We don't even know where we are, why we're here, or what's going on. I don't even know if there is a real solution."
"You're right... what can we do...?" I said.
"Nothing..." Aries said, defeated.
"Then..... oh no. Look!" Allie pointed to the sky.
Hurtling towards us was the biggest meteor yet. It was bigger than the moon, red and flaming, and heading straight towards us.
"Now we're going to die in a matter of minutes!" Aries exclaimed.
"Calm down... just" Allie started.
"No!" I interrupted. "There's nothing we can do! A giant meteor is flying toward us and there's nothing we can do about it! It's over, Allie! Just accept it!"
Allie looked hurt and defeated at my outburst. "I suppose... of there's nothing we can do..." She looked down sadly.
"I'm sorry, but Rhys is right. That huge chunk of rock will hit us in sixty seconds. And no one will... ever..."
I finished his sentence. "Know..."
The full realization hit us. No one would know we died. We'd be eternally missing, never found. No one would know what had happened to us. Daily life would go on, unhindered. And we'd be... we'll be...
"It's almost here."" Aries said uneventfully. "While we still have time...I wanna say... goodbye, Rhys. And thanks. I never really had any friends. And you... you were my friends. So thanks."
"N...no problem. Bye, buddy. Allie, I-"
She rushed me. She closed the hug before I could finish my sentence. "Thank you, Rhys." she said through tears. "Thanks for just being you."
I returned the hug. "You too. Bye, Allie. Thanks for everything."
We parted. All three of us looked to the meteor looming seconds away. We closed our eyes, and waited for the inevitable. Then...we fell over.
As we fell, a voice from above, below, nowhere, all around, said:
"You didn't think I'd let you get away that easy, did you?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Then we were asleep. But not really. I was conscious, and aware of my surroundings. Aries was also there, beside me.
We were floating in space. That much was clear. But where was Allie?
I turned and saw the Earth, which was bright, fiery red. All of it. And there, floating higher than Aries or I, was Allie. She seemed to be struggling with an invisible force. As the Earth got brighter and redder, Allie started flashing. She looked like herself, then someone else. The switched back and forth in quick succession.
Then, for a few moments, the other person stayed. He was male, and in the exact same place as Allie was.
"Is that Allie?!" Aries said.
"No, you fool. I am Aver. I am the phoenix who-" he was cut off. Allie came back. "-dwells within me. He's my inner animal, like you. Before I could just feel him there. Now he's-"
Aver came back. "Gaining power." he finished. "I have come here to you three for a reason. Do you know it?"
"No!" I screamed.
"Did you wonder how you got your tail? And ears and other features? Maybe, oh... if they're permanent?"
"I...um..." I faltered. "Yes, but.... it was you?!"
"Why?!" Aries screamed.
"You'll see."
"What does that mean?" I asked.
The Sun and Earth started flashing, faster and faster. We were pulled backwards. As we drew away, the Earth exploded.
We started going light speed through outer space. Another planet loomed into view before us. We plunged towards the water. I dove into the huge ocean and resurfaced. It was raining, really hard. I couldn't breath, I couldn't see. The waves kept tossing me under. Even though it should've been a heavy overcast, I could still the this planet's sun clearly.
Aver was now high above us, on fire, floating with malignance.
"Chaos dreaming, chaos screaming!" He yelled. "You have no idea! You don't even know! This girl! She's clueless! All of you!"
A moon passed in front of the Sun, an eclipse. Then I realized: I've had this dream before. The night right before I went half-wolf. It's all the same. Lightning flashed, waves roared, and I was almost drowning. Like before. An especially powerful wave pushed me far under. Through the water, I could still see the blocked sun. A huge white zero had appeared in front of it, blinding me and overtaking everything else.
"You see that zero?!" Aver yelled from above. "That's your time limit! What? It's zero? Oh, how unfortunate! Time's up! For all three of you! TIME'S UP!"
No... I thought. It can't be...what about... Allie... I closed my eyes, succumbing to the water. I saw Aries do the same.
"No."
My eyes flew open. Allie, Allie, was floating right in front of the meteor. It was about ten feet away. I looked to my left, and there was Aries, dry, batlike, and half-crazed. I realized I was the same. It felt like my animal side had completely taken over. It was all instinct from now on. I looked back to Allie.
"You won't...take my friends..." she whispered. Aver kept trying to regain control, I could see that. But Allie stood resilient. She held her hand up to the meteor, which looked to be still moving, but was suspended in space. Not time. Her hand touched it, and it broke apart. Fire, wind, rock all flew away from her palm. From her hand energy seemed to shoot out into the rock and it cleared away. It looked really cool, but I could tell it wiped her out. She started to droop.
Allie pointed up, breathless. The Sun was now visible, but it still cast a wan light upon us. The Night was still in command.
"I broke the spell...but it only last for a...short time...It's up to you..." Allie got out.
"Yes!" Aries said.
"Will you be alright, Allie?" I asked, worried.
"You'll have...eleven......minutes....." then she fell to the ground.
From her still breathing body, Aver rose up. The two seemed to be physically unconnected now. He started laughing as he ascended.
But Allie was right. The Sky started to waver between night and day. As she fell, the Moon completely blocked the Sun. It was the Eclipse from the dream. Everything was changing, and we had little time. Allie was out of action, so that left the job of defeating Aver to Aries and I. As the friend fell and the enemy rose, I knew what we had to do.
The eleven minutes had begun.
ACT ZERO: