Our Sanctuary

Chapter 15

Matteo and Willow both immediately brought their weapons back up and aimed them at the Feymon, while I continued to stand there, unable to wrap my head around anything that had just happened.

I had expected her to take a step back from the threat, or maybe even put her hands up, but all she did was frown, the small smile that was on her face completely leaving.

"Put your weapons down," she said calmly as she squared her shoulders with us. "I'm not here to hurt you."

Matteo pulled the arrow back a bit more and closed his left eye as he better aimed at her. "I don't care. We can't trust you."

She went to open her mouth to say something else, but I quickly looked over at Matteo and spoke up before she could get any more words out.

"Just do as she said," I saw the look he gave me and continued on, "She could have let it kill us or even helped it kill us. Just put the weapon down and let her talk."

Matteo glanced at me, but didn't bother lowering the weapon, and then returned his gaze back onto her. "How about I keep this aimed at you and you talk. If at any point you make any move towards us, this arrow goes right through your chest. Okay?"

She let out a sigh and nodded her head. "Fine."

"So, who are you?" Matteo asked, pleased with the outcome.

"My name's Achlys," she replied.

"Ack-lee's?"

She nodded. "Yes."

I took the opportunity to study her, from her bare feet all the way to the tip of her horns. She looked to be around eighteen or nineteen, possibly even in her early twenties, –I don't know, it was hard to tell– and she had wavy black hair that fell over her shoulders, along with the Feymon's sunken eyes and black patterns, and she had pale skin the stretched over muscle and bone. She wore a tight fitted dress that had two slits at her legs for better movement and she had on a similar fabric to which we had seen the Feymon in the training room have around her thigh that had many what looked like extremely thin pencils or very tiny arrows attached to it.

"Now what exactly are you doing here?" Matteo demanded, his strung arrow not wavering at all. "Why aren't you with the rest of them?"

I could see on Matteo's other side that Willow had lowered her weapon a long time ago, she was now staring at the Feymon in confusion, waiting for answers just like me. I turned my attention back onto Achlys and watched as she chewed on her bottom lip in thought with her eyes trained on the grey floor between us.

"Let's just say, I don't exactly agree with... my kinds ways." She looked up from the ground and stared at each of us. "I came here to get you all out. I will explain everything in more depth but only once we get somewhere safe."

"What makes you think we could trust you?" Matteo asked, arching one of his brows.

Achlys sighed and gestured to the dead Feymon at her feet with the tip of her sword. "Is saving your lives not enough?"

"Yeah well, you don't know what we've been through," Matteo said angrily. "You don't know-"

"You'd be surprised how much I actually know about these places."

Matteo's anger left him almost instantaneously and he lowered the bow. "How would you know?"

"We don't have time for this," she said, taking a step closer to us. "We need to get everyone on the roof as soon as possible."

My brows furrowed. "What's up there?"

"My portal," she replied. "I've temporarily closed it after getting here, but it'll be opening back up soon and I can't keep it open forever. I've found a place here in this realm that would be good for us to stay at. They shouldn't be able to find us while," she looked over her shoulder at the Feymon she had killed, "they take over."

Matteo's eyebrows shot up. "You're going to let them win? Let them take over?"

"We don't have much of a choice," she said with slight anger in her voice and while walking closer to pass us. "Now, we have to go. Most of them should still be in the training room, but I don't know how long that will be for and we really don't want to be stuck at the dead end over here."

Matteo shook his head as he started walking toward the area where our sleeping quarters were. "We're still looking for our friends and we have to check-"

"No," Achlys frowned, "they aren't over there. It's clear, trust me."

"I don't believe you," Matteo said stubbornly.

Another sigh escaped Achlys lips. "Fine, then go check for yourself. But don't you dare go screaming after me once you realize that no one is over there and the others come after you and start ripping you to shreds." She then turned her attention onto Willow and I who had both made no move in either direction. "You two will come with me though I hope? I don't want to lose anyone else."

I looked at Willow and could see she was staring at Matteo.

"Teo," she said, her face remaining a blank slate. "You don't have to trust her, but I do. Please just do as she says."

Matteo looked torn as he stood there chewing on the inside of his cheek. For a moment I thought he was going to just turn around and walk down the hall, ignoring what Willow had said, but he soon let out a sigh and nodded his head.

"Okay," he spoke, walking back to stand next to Willow. Matteo then returned his gaze onto a pleased looking Achlys. "Do you have a plan? Do you have any idea where the rest of us are?"

Achlys nodded her head. "I believe most of them are on the second level. I've been working my way downward –as had most of the others as well– but so far I've only come across dead bodies. No survivors."

We all nodded our heads and I prayed that Zack and Wyatt were okay. Hopefully they were somewhere on the second level with Ezekiel and Xian who had found them.

"Alright," Achlys looked down the hall toward our way out, "we should probably get going."

They all started to make their way down the hall while I quickly looked back down at the dead Feymon and walked over to it, wanting to make sure it was for sure dead so it wouldn't get the chance to sneak up on us from behind. I knelt down beside it as I slammed the blade of my dagger into its chest twice. I could hear Willow and Matteo coming back to my side but I was already standing back up and in the process of turning away. My eyes then shifted to the boy the Feymon had killed and I froze.

I could only see the brown curls on his head. Everything else was no longer recognizable on his face from all of the deep gashes, but regardless, I knew exactly who it was.

Willow's hand clamped onto my arm and I could feel her shaking my limb and her voice calling out to me somewhere in the distance. Her eyes finally followed my own and she stopped for a brief moment before returning to her frantic shaking.

"Come one, Zoe," she said, "we have to go, right now."

I finally forced my eyes away from the teens body and looked past Willow's worry and grief ridden face towards Achlys. She looked impatient in the way she stood, but I could see sadness in her dark eyes as she stared back at me.

I nodded and looked back at Willow. "Let's get out of here."