THE JOURNEY OF EVIL

Chapter 5

Selene's voice was a whisper that commanded the seasons; the rising tone of incantation manifested water from thin air. Cyrus stared at her, his eyes widening as the water condensed into a circular surface that reflected his image. He shrieked and touched his face. In the mirror, his eyes were sunken, his skeletal frame evident in dried-up flesh. He looked like he was on his deathbed, with deep gray hairs on his head.   

“What have you done?” He shouted, trying to stand up on legs that disobeyed his orders. 

“Shush,” Selene said, pushing her body against his until she was on top of him.  

Behind her the water expanded, it rose and floated in mid-air giving Cyrus the whole broken image of his body. He was a living skeleton. He brought his hand to her neck but there was so little strength left to do anything. She laughed and it echoed. “I'll show what true power is! The purest of them all.” 

Selene snapped her fingers, causing her clothes to puff and burst into fine dust. Cyrus felt the coolness of her skin as she rested on him and triggered his manly instinct in his hardness beneath her. 

“Release,” she whispered into his ears, her tongue tracking the surface of his body with its wetness. 

A bright green light burst out from within him like a broken dam, it flooded the area causing green plants to spring up at alarming rates before it withdrew and coated him in a shimmer. Cryus’s gray hair darkened, the wrinkles faded, strength flowed into his legs as his muscles began to expand. It was like a thousand needles forcing their way into his veins. He groaned and his body jerked from the pain. The sunken eyes and bags he saw earlier in the mirror receded and vanished as a soothing heat moved through his face adding flesh and vitality.

The shimmer ceased and returned to his body. They were surrounded by twelve tall trees and laid on soft grass. From his reflection, he looked like he was twenty-three. The only thing that said otherwise was the hardness in his eyes. His skin was smooth and ripped with muscles, and sweat dripped down his face as he panted. He tried to move his body and paused. 

Selene pushed down on him; she had slipped his length into her and was moving her body at a slow pace. He rose to meet her thrust and tried to push her off him but she laughed and locked her legs behind him. The vitality within him churned; he twisted to the side and forced her to the ground, with his hands trying to snuff out her air flow. Selene gripped the earth, her nails digging into the sand as she tried to breathe. Cyrus hands released abruptly and got flung to her sides; he could not kill her. His eyes were red and he just stared. 

She laughed at that and squeezed at his hardness, guiding him into her. She moaned as he thrust hard. He let himself be led. 

The sound of several approaching vehicles made Cyrus sit up; his mind went to Anderson. He pushed Selene from his chest and stood up.

“Woman, I need some clothes,” Cyrus said. His eyes grazed the smoothness of her skin with intent. She smiled when he swallowed and forced his gaze away.   

“Don't you have something you can do and create some clothes?” Cyrus asked her. 

She shrugged. “I prefer being like this with you. I know they'll probably lock me up but as long as I'm close to you. I don't mind.”

“In order words, you're useless,” Cyrus stated.  A nudge within him suspected there was more to her statement but he could not think of anything she could want that he had yet he could not shake off the feeling. 

His words pinched something within her, the smile on her face fell away and she floated from the ground and held him in an embrace. 

“I could teach you the ways of magic,” she whispered. “You can do that basic spell yourself.”  

Cyrus held her wrist and squeezed “No, I'm not interested.” she laughed and whispered the words into his ears. 

“If you want clothes, think of the type you want and say those words.”  Selene said and pulled away from him. She rolled to a flower and played with it. 

The sound of the vehicles approached their location at high speed. Cyrus realized he couldn't make Selene do anything; he closed his eyes and imagined a neat, simple jean and t-shirt, the same type he was dressed in. He screamed the words, but when he opened his eyes nothing had happened. 

Anderson sat at the back of an armored BMW that rolled forward toward the only greenery they saw within the whole five-kilometer radius; even the buildings were leveled and in dust. He had ordered them to search Cyrus's car and what they found alarmed them. 

A sandwich eaten to leave behind the word “kill” had saved ninety percent of his men because when they entered the village they saw many children just standing with sad expressions looking with arms outstretched for help, he saw two of his soldier rush to lift a child. They froze when they held the child. Many more were dropping their weapons to attempt the same, he had also felt extreme sympathy. 

There was so much rubbles around them but Anderson had screamed his order “Kill them all!”  

The men still resisting their effects opened fire; the transformation from children to monsters was instant. They could all still have died because their copper bullets bounced off the bodies of the crab legs and scorpion's tail-looking beasts.  But HQ had dispatched a special team on the ride with him. 

Cyrus ' former teammates, and they came loaded with silver bullets. Bodies dropped left and right when they entered the field, mauling their way through the monsters with their bullets. Each member of their team wore thick reflector glasses to prevent their minds from being controlled, thereby causing movement lag. 

He remembered the screams of his men that were stung and shivered. They had found Matthew, a member of the team sent before Cyrus. All that remained of him was his skeleton with the puddle of skins and muscles beneath his bones. Anderson swallowed as the car hit a bump, the same processes had begun with the men that survived the sting and all they could do was watch.

They arrived in front of the first tree and dismounted their rides; this time, he did not have to say anything. The horrors of the past had made his surviving men raise their guns in alert. They did not have to move far because Cyrus called to them. 

“Bring me a set of clothes as you enter, I'm naked.” He shouted.  

Anderson waved for a briefcase and walked into the little forest with two armed men; others stayed outside and waited. 

Cyrus watched Selene create a black dress that covered her whole body at the last moment before Anderson stepped into their little clearing. Cyrus glared at her. Anderson threw the briefcase at Cyrus who proceeded to get dressed, he saw Anderson check out Selene who kept her focus on the flower she was playing with, he looked back at Cyrus with a raised eyebrow. 

“That's your culprit, she's responsible for the villager's disappearance and the reason those monsters gathered here,” Cyrus watched Anderson and the two men step back with their gun trained on her. “If she wanted to run away, believe me, your current squad can't stop her. Get the cuffs that seal the unexplained, it should work on her ability.”  Selene looked at him and rolled her eyes.  Anderson looked at the two of them with a confused expression.

Movement came behind them and a man known as Jude within the team from HQ walked into the clearing and threw a silver handcuff with a strange symbol to Cyrus “You still cannot call magic for what it is when you see one.”

“Good to see you Jude,” Cyrus replied as he strapped the handcuffs on Selene who did not resist, he felt her weaken but he also knew that she could destroy it with brute force. “You'll need to place her in a highly monitored facility. She's an X - class entity.” 

The men looked at each other in mild shock, the two soldiers and Jude led Selene out of the space leaving Anderson with Cyrus. “An X - class, a human that can wipe out half of humanity? Why on Earth is she cooperative? Tell me everything that happened.” 

Cyrus looked in the direction they led Selene. “That’s what we have to find out,” he said and proceeded to tell Anderson his version of the story but left out his healing aspect. There were some things one could not just talk about.

“We found Matthew,” Anderson said and left it at that. Cyrus did not chase the subject either. 

When they came out of the building, a man ran up to them with a file in his hand. Anderson collected it and handed it to Cyrus. “The details of your next mission are written in that, it's a building in Los Angeles. Strange things are going on in there. You're to go there and get details of the events. Your flight is already waiting for you.” 

“You bastard!” Cyrus shouted and punched Anderson who fell face flat from the impact, the soldiers around him raised their guns at Cyrus. “I nearly died here if you think I'm going anywhere else you're mad. Take me back to the confinement.” 

Anderson signaled the men to drop their weapons, “Your card has been prepared with the payment of this mission there, all you have to do here is retrieve an item in this building that we believe is the cause. We've lost a lot of men already but with your knowledge and skills you should be able to help. Besides there's no going back, quitting now means death on the spot.”

Cyrus gritted his teeth and picked up the file that had fallen to the floor when he punched Anderson; the first picture he saw was that of a rabbit foot keychain. 

“Now, I'll need some cash,” he muttered to himself.