Devil’s Snare: In the Shadows

Chapter Three

An original work by Yami

Disclaimer: Though some characters in this story are based on actual people, the events in this story are fictitious. All likenesses are purely coincidental. I also do not own copyright to any words from the planet Zohar; I am merely their Minister of Death. Finally, the title for this chapter is the song “In the Shadows” that The Rasmus is most well known for. (Obviously it’s not my property).

“Well that took about ten years off of my life,” Yami panted, still out of breath from running. The group had managed to lose their eerie pursuers and now walked slowly through the forest.

“Yeah,” Aryn agreed. “That was some freaky shit.”

“Not just that, everything has been some freaky shit,” Elizabeth exasperated.

There was a rustling nearby in the bushes, causing the group to nearly take off running again but it was merely a bird escaping the bush’s thorny branches. Everyone was silent, lost in thought and wondering where exactly they were going and what would be in store for them once they managed to leave the forest…if they left the forest. Suddenly there was a yelp and the group turned to see one of their members missing.

“I’m up here!” a small voice called and they all looked up to see that a rather large and hungry looking plant had picked Jamie up.

Yami swore loudly and ran to the plant, “okay, don’t panic, we’ll get you down!”

Ironically it seemed that Jamie was the only one out of the group who wasn’t panicking. Calmly she watched the others bustle around the plant, strings of swearwords creating a sort of vulgar mantra. The plant’s vines that had wrapped around her were in reality rather soft and she felt as if she were merely sitting on air.

“Don’t panic Jamie! We’ve almost got you down!” Aryn said, giving the girl’s captor a hard roundhouse kick.

The plant didn’t seem fazed by Aryn, instead it continued to gently suspend Jamie, the flowers on the vines carefully blooming around her creating a sort of natural cushion. Jamie realized that the plant meant no harm and gently caressed one of the flowers whilst calling down to the others, “don’t hurt it!”

Yami threw her friend a quizzical stare and was about to say ask if the girl had completely lost it when a voice stopped her.

“I think I can help with that.”

Jamie looked down at the shadowy figure and felt her heart skip a beat. She had instantly recognized that voice, but it couldn’t be…could it?

The shadow approached the plant calmly and laid a hand on one of the large petals of the central flower. The vines quivered and relaxed, lowering Jamie gently to the ground. Once both feet had touched the dirt, the group swarmed around the two.

“T-thank you,” Jamie said amidst the ruckus, trying in vain to see the shadow’s face.

“I didn’t think my plants would actually come across what I had been looking for,” the shadow said.

“What do you mean?” Yami asked.

“Demons have been known to kill any outsiders who enter this forest, so I set up attack plants to help cut down on the casualties,” the shadow replied calmly. “I felt a new presence in this forest and was lucky enough to see that one of my traps had been set off.”

Jamie barely heard the conversation taking place, her head was spinning. She knew that voice from anywhere, but was it really who she thought it was? She came back towards the tail end of the conversation as Yami accidentally bumped into her, startling her out of her thoughts.

“Sorry Jamie,” Yami said, before continuing on. “So, you’ll lead us to safety?”

“Of course,” the shadow replied. “A friend of Azrael is a friend of mine.”

“Azrael?” Jamie asked, turning to Yami.

Even in the darkness, Jamie could sense a bit a sheepishness coming from Yami. “Remember that book about the Nocturnal Craft? Well…I didn’t read it for nothing,” Yami said laughing a bit. “I, er, kind of met the Angel of Death while I was searching for the Bearer of Light…and we sort of became friends.” Suddenly a small crack sounded and Yami let out a small yelp.

“I told you not to dabble in the Dark Arts!” Aryn scolded, but there was gentleness in her voice. “Lucky for you, you know what you’re doing…hopefully.”

“Can we please move this conversation out of here,” Travis butted it. “I’d kind of like to live to see tomorrow.”

“Yes, of course,” the shadow said. “All of you please grab hands and follow me.”

The shadow gently took Jamie’s hand and she shivered at the touch, it felt hauntingly familiar. Mike took Jamie’s other hand then Elizabeth took his other hand whilst grabbing Aryn’s. Travis took Aryn’s free hand and grabbed Yami’s. Yami gently clasped her hand with Quinton’s at the back of the now single-file line. Their journey was filled with silence, the group too keen on leaving the forest to try to strike up a conversation. After what seemed like an hour of the slow procession, the shadow spoke, “okay, the exit’s coming up.”

The pace immediately became faster and it felt as if a great weight was lifted from the group as they broke free of the trees and entered yet another open field. It was slightly different from the previous field, there was a river cutting across, it’s water shining white in the moonlight, and large boulders dotted here and there. The rain had finally stopped, leaving the grass dewy in its midst and the sky once again a velvet blanket sprinkled with tiny, diamond-like stars and accented with pale, wispy clouds.

“Damn I’m tired,” Aryn said, stumbling along. The feeling was mutual amongst the rest of the group, some people barely able to keep their eyes open.

“Let’s rest then,” the shadow said. “I’ll watch over you all.”

The group was too exhausted to even look at the shadow, let alone try and decipher what had just been said. They collapsed into a big mass of tired bodies and sleep settled almost instantly throughout the group. The only one that hadn’t sat down was Jamie, who was too busy staring, transfixed, at the shadow.

The sky was clear, the wispy clouds not able to block out the moons, which illuminated everything with their gentle glow. The shadow that had guided them safely through the nightmarish forest was actually a young man. He was staring up at the sky, his ivory skin nearly glowing in the light. He had piercing amber eyes that were narrowed with awareness but held an undertone of gentleness that only those of keen senses could see. His long silver hair cascaded down his back, the moons giving the strands an ethereal glow. Nestled atop his head were two silver-furred ears, fox ears, and further down his back was a long, silver fox tail. The man was clearly not of the human species, but some kind of demon, a fox demon.

Jamie finally managed to regain the skill of speech and slowly approached the miniature god. “Youko…” Jamie whispered. “You’re…you’re real.”

The man, Youko, turned to her and smiled, his eyes glowing in the moonlight with warmth and affection. He came forward so close to Jamie that she could feel his breath ghost across her cheek. “You didn’t think all those nights we spent together were mere dreams, did you?” he whispered.

“Wha…” Jamie didn’t have time to reply as Youko captured her lips in a delicate kiss.

“This is my proof to you that I am no dream,” the fox demon said, smirking. “I sent a friend of mine to the Human World to pick you up. Of course, he did it a little faster than I expected, which was why I wasn’t prepared when you all suddenly appeared in the forest.”

“You mean Iota Fujin?” Jamie asked, but as soon as the name left her mouth, she felt Youko stiffen and bristle angrily.

“That filthy low life? I’m surprised he could teleport himself let alone a group of six healthy humans,” Youko spat, he then pulled Jamie closer to him. “Are you alright? He didn’t harm you did he?”

“No, no,” Jamie said quickly, surprised at Youko’s anger and fierce protectiveness. All her life she had seen the mysterious fox demon in her dreams and she had fallen in love with him. Now that she was truly face to face with him, it all seemed so surreal.

Youko’s expression softened back to affection, though it was possessive and slightly aggressive. “You should rest,” he said. “I’ll be here when you wake up.”

“Promise?” Jamie said, her heart skipping another beat.

Youko laid a soft kiss on her forehead. “Promise,” he said firmly.

Jamie smiled and nodded before joining the group, asleep almost immediately. Youko watched her for a moment before turning his attention to the night sky. ‘I wonder if he’s noticed that they’re gone?’

“GOD DAMN YOU YOUKO!”

A man kicked a nearby locker, his heavy boot easily denting the metal. He was tall and well built, his tainted angelic blood forever preserving his young features. His cold, blue eyes surveyed the dark hallway, their cerulean depths sparked with anger. Short, messy, jet-black hair fell about his face and made his already pale skin seem white. Shoving his gloved hands deep in the pockets of his blood red trench coat, he gave a sigh of frustration. He had been looking around the frozen school for hours, only finding a few misplaced spirits and a dead squirrel in the process. Out of all the job assignments he’d ever been given in his life, this one had to be the most difficult and the fact that it dealt with a group of human teenagers that should’ve been easy to locate really irked him. As a Fallen, his dignity had already been dealt a crushing blow, but this was just cruel.

Having problems Dante?

The man, Dante, looked up hearing the voice echo throughout his consciousness.

‘Youko, is that you?’ he snapped, his short fuse growing ever shorter.

Hello to you too. Youko’s voice said lightly.

‘Just what the hell is going on here?’ Dante growled. ‘I come to this filthy Human World to find the whole fucking state of Ohio under a Binding Charm and the group you sent me after missing. Is this some sort of sick joke?’

It seems that Iota is up to something, I have the kids with me now.

‘Has that bastard been reading out of Ather’s library? Wait, THE KIDS ARE WITH YOU NOW?’

I would hope not, but that lowlife has always been unpredictable. And yes, the kids are with me, Iota transported them.

‘That idiot is trying to bring back the other six…isn’t he? He knows about the twin Alchemist Demons.’

…

‘Youko?’

If he does…both worlds will inevitably fall into disorder and chaos, triggering what could be the apocalypse. The other six aren’t ever to be summoned again, you know very well what took place before. That bastard just misses his master and wants to please him by bringing chaos back to the world.

Dante shivered, personally remembering the events that took place. A great tragedy had befallen them all and to disturb the graves of the Majores Natu, the Elders would surely mean destruction.

‘I’m going to see if I can try to lift the Binding Charm before I leave. When I get there, we’ll discuss this more in-depth.’

Have fun.

Dante rolled his eyes at the fox’s playful voice echoing through his consciousness. Turning, he walked toward the front doors. Finding them locked, he sent a boot flying through the brittle glass before walking out. He was about to begin lifting the Binding Charm when a voice stopped him.

“Dante, what a surprise seeing you here. I thought you vowed never to leave Makai?”

Dante turned to see Iota standing a few feet from him. “What the hell do you think you’re doing Fujin?” he growled.

“Just having some fun,” Iota replied innocently.

“You know it’s against Makai Law to toy with this world’s time, take the Binding Charm off immediately,” Dante warned.

Iota laughed hysterically, “Since when were you so involved with the Laws of Makai?” He laughed a little longer before turning completely serious. “A rogue like you shouldn’t stick your nose where it doesn’t belong, it just might get cut off.” With that he pulled out a small sword, though plain, it pulsated with demonic energy.

Dante held out his hand, a long sword growing from it. It was also plain, but it too was full of power. He launched himself at Iota, swinging his sword in a great arc and meeting Iota’s with a resounding clash. “How many more times are we going to fight until you stop being foolish?” Dante yelled, coming in for another attack.

“I’ll fight until I have your severed head in my hand,” Iota growled. “Isn’t that the Way of the Angelus Israfel?”

Dante blanched at his Angelus Nomen, his Angel Name and Iota took advantage of the opening, plunging his sword deep into Dante’s chest, pinning the Fallen to the ground. Dante didn’t seem fazed and swung his sword at Iota who leaped away, jerking his sword back violently after him splattering the ground with blood.

“Don’t call me that,” Dante growled, wiping the blood trickling from his mouth. His wounds were already healing and he gripped his sword, readying himself for another attack. “Or would you rather me call you by your Angelus Nomen as well, Raphael!”

Iota laughed, “that name is dead dear frater of mine, and soon you will be too. That sword was covered in a poison made especially for you, and soon you shall perish within a few hours. I must be off, farewell dearest sibling!” And with that, he was gone.

‘Frater…since when did I count as his brother…?’ Dante coughed slightly, the Latin term had thrown off his concentration and it took a strong wave of pain for him to realize that his wounds had not closed fully, his blood running from his wound in little crimson rivers. ‘I wonder if Youko will know how to fix this?’ he mused before using the rest of his strength to transport himself back over to the Demon World, more referred to as Makai.

“Looks like someone had a party,” Youko remarked wryly as Dante trudged toward him.

Dante threw him a cold smirk, “you know me, I just love to party.” He was cut off as he fell into a coughing fit, blood spraying from his mouth and dribbling down his chin. “Iota hit me with a poisoned blade, he said it was just for me.” Dante’s speech was beginning to slur slightly and he stared at Youko with unfocused eyes.

Youko quickly came forward and caught Dante as he began to collapse. Turning the fallen over, he saw that his friend’s face was pale and clammy. Without hesitation, the fox reached inside his shirt and produced a small seed, planting it into the ground. Seconds later a plant rose from the soft grass and bowed over Dante’s shaking form. The red flower’s petals had teeth on the edges and it lunged at Dante’s chest, digging easily into the fallen’s torn flesh. Dante winced and writhed slightly as the flower pulsated, the red petals slowly turning black. Soon enough the flower released Dante and sat straight, slowly disintegrating into thousands miniscule seeds that spread throughout the wind.

“Wha…the hell wuz that?” Dante mumbled, his voice slurred with fatigue.

“A special flower that is designed to remove poison and other toxicants from an injury and then replanting itself to get rid of the threat,” Youko explained. “You’re still weak from the effects, just rest for a while.” Dante nodded and struggled to sit up against the rock Youko had seated himself on.

Elizabeth woke up in a cold sweat, looking around so fast her neck cricked. Her dreams last night were filled with blood and screams, a dream that did not sit well with her.

“You’re finally awake,” a voice said, causing Elizabeth to jump to her feet. Turning, she saw Dante standing not far from her.

“W-who are you?” she asked. “Where is everybody else?”

“Right, you weren’t conscious when I made my introduction earlier,” Dante said. “My name is Dante, I’m a friend of Youko and Yami.”

“You know Yami?” Elizabeth asked, confused.

“I met her through Azrael,” Dante said.

“Oh,” Elizabeth said. “So you’re an Angel too?”

Dante blanched slightly and Elizabeth immediately realized she had said something wrong but as she apologized, Dante shrugged it off. “The High Council kicked me out, I’m a Fallen now. Azrael was appointed the title Angel of Death by the High Council a while later and well…it’s a long story,” he said, shrugging a little. “In the meantime, I’m sure you’ll want to join your friends.”

Elizabeth nodded and he led her to one of the gigantic boulders in the fields. The morning sun had barely begun to rise and the air was cool and moist. As she got closer to the large rock, she immediately heard Mike, bringing a smile to her face.

“Dodo do do do do, do de do de do, do do do do doooooo!”

As Dante helped her up to the top, she found her friends all at work, well, aside from Mike that is. Travis, Yami, and Quinton were cooking eggs while Aryn, Youko, were busy frying some sort of meat. Jamie was mixing some sort of liquid in a large bowl and Mike…well Mike was just being Mike, which meant he was singing his song whilst skanking crazily around the fire in the middle of the rock.

“Mike, quit dancing and come help us!” Jamie said, though there was obviously no seriousness to her order. Mike was amusing the whole group by his little performance.

“I’m not dancing, I’m skanking!” Mike called as Jamie swatted at him. He was indeed skanking, turning in neat little circles as he did so and nearly falling off the boulder in the process. “Okay, I’m done,” he said, joining the rest of the group. Plates of food and drinks were passed around and breakfast passed in comfortable silence.

Dante pulled a silver pocket watch out of his trench coat, frowning slightly as he tried to see past the glare on its face, it was a few minutes before he finally seemed to be able to see what he wanted and smiled. “The tide’s coming in,” he said. The rest of the group, minus Youko, stared at him as if he was insane.

“Yami, what did I tell you about drugging the food?” Travis joked.

“I’m sorry, I can’t help it,” Yami joked along.

“But seriously,” Aryn said, still staring at Dante. “What are you talking about?”

“Watch the river,” Dante said and refused to relinquish any more clues.

The group turned their eyes onto the river in the middle of the field and jumped as the water suddenly erupted into a large geyser that flooded over everything. Within seconds the field had become overrun with water and the boulders and forest became mere islands. The group stood up, looking around in amazement.

“What the hell just happened, did I miss something?” Mike asked.

“This is an Agua Terra Field,” Youko said, smiling.

“What’s with the fancy words?!” Travis exasperated. “I do not understand their meanings!”

The group stared at Travis’s little outburst for a second before Yami spoke up. “I think I remember what they mean,” Yami said and all eyes were immediately on her. She blushed slightly, not liking to be the center of attention. “I remember that Terra means Earth…Agua means water…so this is a…Water…Earth…field?”

Youko nodded. “I’m surprised you know that,” he said.

“A friend of mine used those words a long time ago,” Yami said. “But Trevas…I don’t know what that means…”

“Trevas? You mean Travis?” Travis asked.

“No, Trevas is the name of the forest behind us,” Youko explained. “I must’ve mentioned it earlier this morning. The forest I found you all in is called the Trevas Forest. Trevas means evil, and that forest is bulging at the seams with it.”

“So now what do we do?” Aryn asked, voicing the question that was in the minds of the other six teens.

“Well going back to the Human World is out of the question,” Dante said. “As far as we know, your homes are still under a Binding Charm and you’d only be at Iota’s mercy.”

“We should go into town,” Youko said. “I know someone there who can provide us with shelter and the demonic aura from Dante and me should’ve washed away the smell of human on all of you.”

“How are we going to get to this town?” Travis asked. “We’re sort of, you know, surrounded by water.”

Dante smirked, “oh ye of little faith.”

“You ever ride a whale before?” Youko asked, grinning slyly.

“WHOO! I’M RIDING A FISH!”

Mike’s scream was drowned out by the wind. His hands were up in the air, his hair whipping around his face. The others stared as their friend went crazy. They were on the back of a gargantuan fish, its wide back easily accommodating the nine with room to spare.

The fish itself was a sight to behold. Its large smooth scales were a translucent white but sparkled different colors in the midmorning sunlight. Its fins were white and looked beautiful in the clear ocean as it skimmed easily through the water. Its eyes were the same translucent white as its fins and sparkled many colors in the light.

“Hey, sit down!” Dante called from the front. He stood perfectly balanced as the fish writhed and wriggled. In his hands were long reins that lead to the fish’s mouth. A sudden ripple uprooted Mike who slipped over the side with a yelp, followed by a group chorus of, “MIKE!”

“Careful,” Youko said, easily catching Mike’s arm and pulling him back up.

Water surrounded them on all sides, the hot sun beating relentlessly down. As they traveled, the wind blew the hair back from their faces and made the sun’s rays less harsh. The group seemed to relax and talked amongst themselves, enjoying the momentary break.

“So this is a Gomeo Ocean…o…thingy?” Mike asked.

“A Gemeo Oceano Fish,” Youko corrected. “A two-headed fish regularly used for travel in Makai, though they run high in price.”

“Two-headed?” Aryn asked pointing to the fish’s head.

“The fish gets it’s name because it is such a large fish, it has two brains,” Youko said, patting the fish’s back lovingly.

As they traveled on, the sun gradually sank lower in the sky and the moons took its place. The temperature dropped and the group began to think about bed, but hesitated as falling over the side in their sleep and drowning did not prove a comforting idea.

Youko, sensing their problem, pulled out a seed and set it on the fish’s broad back. It was large, the side of a peach pit, and was covered by a black lacquered shell that had a green sheen to it. It seemed to pulsate, the sound of a heartbeat emanating from it. The beat seemed to grow louder and louder until it was all around them and the seed split apart, blooming with giant, green leaves that surrounded them to create a sort of protective sphere. “This plant uses the surrounding aura to take form and bloom for as long as needed. Don’t worry, both Dante and I will be watching,” Youko said before leaving.

Feeling comforted, the group nestled down amongst each other and relaxed to the calm sounds of the ocean. Though there were no blankets, the assortments of hoodies, coats, and body heat created enough warmth for the group. A train of goodnight wishes traveled around the sphere before the group drifted off to sleep one by one.