The Flame of the Crimson Rose

"New plan: run like hell!"

Caleb didn't respond to Sam, nor did he even hear the request, because he was dead. Rocky's attack had proved too great, and Caleb's lifeless body now lay alone in Rocky's desolate realm. He had used his last vestule of energy to attach a part of himself to Sam. A message for the others, then he had let his spirit slip into the abyss.

*​

"Caleb Davidson, please report to processing, Caleb Davidson."

Caleb was standing in a bleak white room, with a throbbing head and an flabergasted demeanour.

"Wha-?"

"Please do not panic. You are dead. Please do not panic."

"Dead?"

"You are dead. Please do not panic. You are dead."

Caleb wondered if the disembodied voice was going to be the harbinger of any more thrilling news, but when the silence remained absolute, he began exploring the edges of the room. He found a door handle embedded in one of the walls, and since no better options were presenting themselves, he turned it. He stepped through the doorway, and found himself in a hallway that's whiteness rivaled even the room he arrived in. The hallway was unimaginably long, with doors evenly spaced along its length. As Caleb was familiarising himself with his alien surroundings, one of the doors creaked open, and a saintly looking elderly man, coughed and beckoned him forward.

"Caleb Davidson, over here if you please. I'm St Peter," he drawled.

Caleb tentively approached him, and flinched as St Peter waved his hand, conjuring a clipboard.

"Now then... name?"

"Erm, you just said my n-"

"Name?"

Caleb checked himself, then began again, "Erm, Caleb Marcus Davidson... Where am I? What am I doing here?"

"Your dead, didn't you listen to the official 'Helpful Hallway Broadcast?'" St Peter seemed irritated.

"The what?"

"Enough. Religion?"

"What? Erm... Are you going to condemn me to hell if I don't say Christian?"

St Peter rolled his eyes, "Of course not. If you say Aetheist, theres a nice bar thirty one doors down on the right. If you say Christian or Catholic, we send you three doors down the right to heaven. If you say Muslim, we send you six doors down to the left to Paradise. Much like heaven except with a more charming Middle Eastern aesthetic I think. It's also *ahem* gratifying that Belly Dancing is still practiced in the afterlife. Anyway, if you say Hindu, you get sent- Oh you get the idea. But if you were evil to others in your religious practices. If you used religion as an excuse for war, if you prosecuted others simply because they didn't believe what you believed, well," he pointed to the only door that wasn't white. It had what looked like blood seeping out from beneath it, "You get sent to hell. A great big hell full of all the religions nastiest nightmares. Not nice. Now, religion?"

Caleb floundered at this sudden flood of knowledge, "Erm... Agnostic?"

"Come on! Nows not the time to be indecisive," St Peter chided me annoyed, "Religion?"

"Pastafarian?"

"Oh ho! Think we're clever now do we? Cheeky... Religion?"

"Fine! Aetheist I guess."

St Peter murmured to himself as he wrote on his clipboard, "Aetheists bar for you."

Caleb made a move to walk past St Peter, but was stopped, "Where do you think you're going?"

"Aetheists bar! 30th door on the right didn't you say?" Caleb felt helpless.

"Yes, but it says here," He flipped the page up on his clipboard, "Murder. 254 counts. Mass murder then. Care to explain?"

"Ah yes... well this is going to sound really unconvincing but um... they were all killed in self defense."

"Self defense?"

"Yes."

"And I suppose you saying," Another flutter of pages, "'Here Elsie, I've already slit this bastard up a treat, you finish him off. Gouge his eyes out or something' - I suppose that was just friendly banter?"

"Well-"

"When one of the two parties in a 'self defence' case, is a youthful, cosmic energy wielding warrior brandishing a bloodstained machete, and the other party is an elderly man with prostate cancer, a murdered wife and child from the Chicago slums who has lost the will to live, ones sympathies generally tend to slide to the latter."

Caleb held his hands to his mouth, then gesture blankly to St Peter, "Well you see, that guy was part of an evil cult that was trying take over the world, using a magical rock that creates some Crimson Flames which burn away all living matter, so that the Earth can be purged from humans, and made clean or something and we were killing the cult to save the planet."

St Peter let a derisory bark of laughter escape his lips, "That old chestnut? Come on, to hell with you."

Caleb ran a hand through his hair, "Wait! Can't you check this? I mean aren't you guys all knowing?"

"Hah! No. What do you think Earth is? A police state where we monitor and judge your every action?"

"Uh-"

"No no no no, we have to rely on kind of informants who check up on everyone, now and again," He winked at Caleb, "You don't think those Mormons who come knocking on your door at two in the morning are human do you?"

Caleb shrugged, "I did wonder."

"That and we read the newspapers. Sooooo... Off to hell with you!"

St Peter opened the door, and roughly shoved Caleb through. Caleb sighed resignedly and turned to face his fate.

"I AM THE FURNITURENATOR!" A voice bellowed.

"Oh for ****s sake."

 

There was a flash and roar as Sam felt himself pulled in a direction he didn't know existed. The next thing he knew, he was standing in reality once more. Confused, he glanced around, trying to make sense of why he had been propelled out of the astral and back into the physical. Had the King and the Stone been defeated? No, the rest of the group were still battling them.

"Hey guys, for what it's worth, Caleb and I just stole the ethereal manifestation of the Rock's intelligence. Not sure how (or if, for that matter) that will play out in the real world, so just FYI."

Speaking of Caleb, where was he? How had he gotten them out of Rocky's mind? Sam casually glanced downward, and both questions were answered by Caleb's crumpled form.

"Oh sweet Gygax!" He quickly bent down. No breath, no pulse. "Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap. Hey! Guys! Caleb's not breathing! Are there any medics on our team who aren't dead or defected?"

 

The bit of rubble Addi had thrown at the King's head was flying back at her without so much as a glance from the King. It was moving in their direction with enough speed and force that Addi knew it could cause serious damage. Without even thinking about what was happening her natural instinct pushed her out of the way, sending her mind spiraling out of its subconcious as she landed on the ground, the concrete soaring above her, right where her head had been moments before. The robot crumpled to the ground, lifeless once more.

"C'mon guys we gotta do something! We're getting wrecked out here!!"

Cole's voice was cut of with a shout from Sarah and Elsie. Addi looked up in time to see the two of them tackle the King, causing the three of them to fall over in a tangle of limbs that was obscured by dust. Addi's mouth opened wide, fear raging inside of her, scared of what would happen to her friend with that move. She made to get up but an agonizing pain shot up her broken arm. It was so much worse now that she was removed from the protective numbness the world of electricity provided for her.

She crouched down again, mutely struggling with the pain, trying to lock it away somewhere else in her mind so that she could help out the others. From nearby she heard Sam speaking to the group at large it seemed. He appeared to have come out of whatever place Rocky had taken him and Caleb. However she was concentrating to hard on the pain in her arm to pay any attention to what he was saying. Then his voice rose, full of fear, piercing through her.

"Oh sweet Gygax!" He quickly bent down. No breath, no pulse. "Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap. Hey! Guys! Caleb's not breathing! Are there any medics on our team who aren't dead or defected?"

Caleb? Dead? No. Not possible. He can't be dead. Panic ran through Addison, and all outside sound was drowned out by the insane beating of her heart. What Sam was saying couldn't be possible. Caleb could not be dead. Because if he was dead what did she have left? Her father had left years ago, her mother was lost somwhere, and Gage was gone. Caleb could not be dead. He could not leave her alone this way.

As if in a trance she stood up and turned towards Sam, not caring or even noticing what was going on around her. All that mattered was getting over to Caleb and proving that he was not dead. Proving to Sam that he was mistaken, that Caleb had not left her. That Caleb would not leave her. She raced over to Same who was bending over Caleb's form. Unconcious of the pain in her arm she pushed him aside her own hands flying over Caleb searching for a blessed sign of life. There was none. There was no comforting heartbeat. No warm breath. Nothing.

Her hands went limp. No tears came to her eyes, this ran to far deep. She had lost everything now. Even if it had only been for a couple days, something about Caleb had hit her, pushing past all of her defenses and burrowed deep into her heart where he could not be removed. But now he had left her, alone, completely alone. Suddenly rage rose up inside her in levels she had never before experienced.

"HOW COULD YOU?!" Words were flung out of that rage and she pounded on Caleb's lifeless chest, choking on angry tears, "HOW COULD YOU LEAVE ME LIKE THIS?! YOU KNEW YOU WERE ALL I HAVE LEFT! YOU WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO LEAVE! GODDAMIT, YOU SAID YOU'D STAY! HOW THE HELL COULD YOU LEAVE ME ALL ALONE?! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU!" Her words broke off, as more tears blinded her, and pain choked her. She collapsed upon him, soaking his shirt with tears. But it didn't matter. None of it mattered because he was gone. He was gone and he wasn't going to come back. Everything she loved was now gone. She clung to him, unmoving and uncaring if anything happened to her.

Her tears continued on relentlessly and she made no effort to stop them. She heard someone muttering something nearby, then she realized it was her whispering "I love you." over and over again, hoping it would bring him back. But it didn't, just like she knew it wouldn't. Even though he had survived death before, this time was final. Her words stopped and she simply clung to him and cried, unable to do anything else.

 

ELSIE

So much destruction. So much energy. So delicious. So overwhelming. Her head swimming, Elsie staggered away from the fray gasping for air. Unfortunately it was tainted with dust, which reduced her to a violent fit off coughs.

"HOW COULD YOU LEAVE ME LIKE THIS?! YOU KNEW YOU WERE ALL I HAVE LEFT! YOU WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO LEAVE! GODDAMIT, YOU SAID YOU'D STAY! HOW THE HELL COULD YOU LEAVE ME ALL ALONE?! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU!"

Elsie spun around, too see Addison's shuddering form hunched over Caleb's limp body. She gasped and lithely danced towards the heartbroken girl, casually ducking a innacurate blast from the King. She knelt next to Addison, trusting her friends to keep the King distracted. She looked down at Caleb's vacant face. He was a handsome boy, but his grey eyes had lost their mischievious glint, and his toothy grin was now a rictus of agony. He had died painfully, that was for sure. It was such a pity, Elsie would have enjoyed the thrill of extracting his energy. Although Addison may have gotten in the way. Was she the jealous type?

Elsie shook her head and instead wrapped her arm around Addison, "He was a good-" She stopped herself, remembering what Caleb had done. Was he a good man? And who was she to judge decency, when she herself relished sucking her enemies dry? She started again, "He was a brave man... He wouldn't, want you... dying here."

She wasn't sure what else to say. All Elsie knew was that they needed Addi to finish off the King.

"Come on. We'll find you a better looking guy after this is over." Hmmm. Maybe humour was not the most tactful approach to this situation. Elsie struggled with understanding others emotions when she was high on energy. She released some at the King, and then stood, trying to bring Addison up with her.

 

So lost was she in her world of pain that it took a while for Addi to comprehend that someone was talking to her. It took even longer for her to make sense of the words and figure out their meaning. The warmth of someones arm encricled her shoulders and she tried to understand.

"He was a good-He was a brave man... He wouldn't, want you... dying here."

Elsie. That's who was talking, it was Elsie. "He wouldn't want you...dying here" She was right. Caleb wouldn't want her to die here...but on the other hand, what did she have left to live for? She had no family, the shallow girls she had called her best friends were nothing, and she didn't have Caleb. Still he would want her to live. But then again, what did she owe him? Nothing, that's what. She thought to herself, I owe him nothing.

"Come on. We'll find you a better looking guy after this is over." Elsie was speaking again, trying to find something to lighten Addison's mood. Addi couldn't bring herself to feel anything for what Elsie had said, not anger, not laughter, not sadness, just nothing. Elsie's small hands tried to pull Addi upward and she obeyed without thinking, leaning against Elsie for support. Suddenly she couldn't bear to look at Caleb anymore. She couldn't stand seeing his usually bright eyes, dim and hollow. She couldn't deal with looking at his pained expression. Addi moved her eyes away, looking everywhere except at Caleb.

That's when she saw it, lying next to Caleb. A chessboard. It was nothing special, just a chessboard, but Caleb's plea for help minutes ago darted into her head. "Hey guys... Don't ask me why, but does anyone know how to play chess?" Hatred rose up inside Addison, burning her sorrow away. This chessboard had to do with that infernal stone. In some form or another, the innocent-looking board lying infront of her had led to Caleb's death. Barely knowing what she was doing Addi lashed out in her mind. She flung herself into her subconcious, feeling it more than ever before. Nearby she felt the sting of free electricty, leaking from a wire that had been cut in the destruction. She threw out her arm, pulling it towards her. Spinning it into a ball she hurled the ball at the chessboard. Blue-white light surrounded the board, snapping and crackling. It was obvious the board was no ordinary thing. It didn't burn instantly like normal wood when faced with electricty would. Instead it glowed and screeched. It's own noises mingled with the sounds of the electicity trying to burn it. The glow around the board grew stronger and Addi could feel the energy of the electrity waning. More anger clawed at her insides and she shoved it towards the board. Used it to strengthen the electricty until with an almight cracking sound the board suddenly broke into pieces at the exact moment the glow and the sounds stopped.

Swaying where she stood Addi fell out of her subconcious. Her energy and anger were spent. The hate that had boiled up inside her moments ago had vanished. Now she only felt deep exhaustion. Little sparks of electricty still snapped from the wire, but the electricity around the board was gone as well. Her eyes began to close and as she fell Addi reached out for the darkness that was covering her-anxious to feel no more.

 

Elsie started at the chess boards destruction, before a howling shriek cut through the air. She spun around and saw The King kneeling in the rubble clawing at his face. She didn't know what exactly had happened, but she wasn't about to let an opportunity like this slip by. She charged The King, gathering what energy she could from the air which crackled with life before throwing an earth shattering punch at his jaw. The King was thrown backwards, skittering along the ground before coming to rest at the base of a dilapidated wall.

"He's weakened!" Elsie shouted, "Hit him now!"

 

***Cole***

Sarah wrestled with the King while the manic spirit empowering him laughed.

“Foolish mortal,” it taunted.

Meanwhile, the defensive position Cole had taken in Addison's robot crumpled to the ground leaving him exposed and vulnerable. The King, ever aware of his surroundings, tossed Sarah's concrete form off of him and sent a blast of flame at the boy, forcing him to leap away from the robot and towards his comrades.

Before Cole could reach them Addi created an amazing ball of wire and electricity and hurled it at some object nearby her. The thing glowed and seethed with energy for a brief moment, just long enough for Cole to recognize it as a chess board, before it exploded in massive and hateful blast of energy.

***Sarah***

The confident laughter and rage of the king suddenly turned to shrieks of pain and terror. Sarah rose from where she had been thrown to see the King writhing and clawing at his face as the control of the evil stone struggled to survive. In a flash Elsie rushed upon the King and with an energized punch , launched him into the a nearby wall.

"He's weakened!" Elsie shouted, "Hit him now!"

Cole and Sarah simultaneously turned and rushed at the King, ready to deliver their final blows.

As she approached Sarah saw that the King was not unconscious as he should have been from such an impact, but instead lay staring at the stone in his hand.

Cole and Sarah reached him at the same time. Cole rushed faster as he closed in with scythe raised high, while Sarah leapt as high as her stone body could, intending to crush the murderer under her mighty fists.

“Fools,”

The ground beneath them quaked asat the last moment the King raised the stone high. Rubble from all over the building top suddenly converged in unison toward the King's adversaries. Cole detected the threat and was forced to divert. Jumping over the King he sprung off of the wall and above the implosion of crushing debris.

Sarah, could not move so fast. The massive chunks of steel and rubble crashed in on her as though she were the center of a black hole.

“The Stone may be dead, but its power will never die!” smirked the King looking more like his murderous human self.

Every part of Sarah's body screamed in pain. Her strength was quickly draining, she wouldn't be able to hold her golem form much longer. She stood and looked steadily into the Kings evil eyes.

“DIE!” he shouted. The rubble and debris swirled about Sarah, and again came crashing in against her body.

Sarah felt her life slipping away. Gently, tenderly, it slid from her body like a silk robe falling to the floor. Her last thoughts were not of fear or desperation. Sarah was a woman of unwavering strength and determination. She would never surrender.

Forcing her will to obey her, she found the deepest sources of her power. Like Will Sarah's power transcended her mortal body. Now freed from the bounds of her living form Sarah's will extended itself and reached out to touch every useful thing surrounding her.

***Cole***

Cole looked on in disbelief. The King stood resilient; invincible, before the pile of rubble. As the dust settled Cole saw the bloodied hand of a young girl reaching through debris. It was cold and lifeless, Sarah was certainly gone.

How could they ever defeat this King?

Cole's eyes watched as a blue gleam flowed from the lifeless hand. It rose like a cloud into the air as the dark clouds high above began to swirl. The energy rose gently above the building before suddenly compacting in a flash of light.

The King chuckled thinking he had won. But again the ground shook beneath their feet, this time not just at the roof top, but for miles around the reverberations were felt. A mighty wind began to swirl about the building. The glowing blue energy pulsed brighter and a mighty crash was heard as every glass window in the building on which they stood shattered.

The bits and fragments of broken glass flowed upward, against nature, toward Sarah's glow. They coalesced around the blue energy feeding it, joining with it as it extended and transformed. Presently, the effervescent energy and floating glass took on the form of a giant woman suspended in the air above the rooftop.

Her piercing cry could be heard as she forced her new body to form out of sheer will. Louder and louder it came as more and more glass flowed into her, creating a shimmering, glowing effigy. At the apex of her cry steel beams from the debris joined her form to become bones. They were followed by the very rubble that had crushed her.

More and more rubble and debris from the decimated countryside flowed into her, increasing her size. The storm of materials raged, feeding the massive golem form that floated above the building top above them all.

Finally, Sarah looked down on the diminutive form of the King below her. Her golem body gleamed from within with a pure blue light. Reaching toward him her giant body dove. She grippedhim, body, stone and all in one mighty hand and thrusting him through the floor.

Successive crashes echoed as she blasted down through every floor of the building. She did not stop when she reached the ground but continued on, boring into the earth, pushing the King and the Stone ahead of her.

Cole was first to the crater in the building top. Peering down he saw the massive hole that led down to the depths of the earth. For a moment he saw nothing but the long dark of the bottomless pit, but then as though it were miles away he saw an unmistakable blue flash and felt a gentle rumble in the earth.

Cole pondered Sarah's fate. But his thoughts were again distracted as an orange glow began to emanate from the pit. With it came a vapor and a heat that surged upward toward the sky. This heat and flame were not crimson but a deep orange.

“Everyone get off the building!” cried Cole, as out of the depths of the earth the lava began to surge.

 

“Everyone get off the building!”

Elsie was rooted to the spot for a moment intoxicated by the raw energy spouting from the earth. She had never felt so alive. It was only when someone slammed into her running past that she shook her head clear and thought of how best to escape the collapsing building. The stairs would be out, as would elevators. The others would have their ways, but her abilities were designed for attack, not creation.

Suddenly an idea dawned on her, she had never tried it before and indeed without the energy accompanying the lava flowing from the centre of the earth, she probably couldn't have done it. So she summoned all her strength, and thrust it outwards, although for once not violently, but instead slowly, surgically. She engulfed the others in her sphere, and carefully ejected all chunks of debris. When she was done, she had what was in essence a forcefield surrounding the group.

When she was sure everyone was inside she yelled, "Hold on!" Before pushing the energy field of the edge of the building. Despite the wind whipping past, and rubble crashing all around, inside the bubble was surrealy quiet and peaceful. Until it impacted with the ground. The shield disintergrated and Elsie was tossed to the dirt, aching and bloodied, but alive. She lay there for a while panting before standing up and taking inventory of her surroundings. All but the foundation of the building was gone, fallen into the lava chasm that was still spurting jets of the deadly liquid. She looked around at the others, they were all alive- except for Caleb and Sarah. Dazed members of the resistance gathered around the sight, unable to conceive of what to do next.

Finally Elsie broke the silence, "Is... Is that... it?"

 

Screams and shouts and loud bangs echoed dimly in Addi's head. They pierced the darkness around her, trying to wake her up. But she didn't want to wake up. She liked the dark. It was peaceful, quiet, emotionless. There was no pain in the dark. There was no heartache, no tears, no memories. There was no love and because there was no love it didn't matter that she had lost Caleb, and Gage, and so many others; because there was no love she did not feel loss. Yes, Addi liked the dark.

However, the outside world didn't. The noises that had only been slightly irritating before were now becoming louder and harder to block out.

Leave me alone! I don't want to wake up! Addi curled up even tighter and pressed her hands against her ears, trying to return to blissful silence, but it didn't work, even the blackness was disappearing. A blue-white glow was seeping into her peaceful world and try as she might she could not pull the dark over it. The light brought with it more noises. It made her start to wake up.

I don't want to wake up! I don't want to remember! I DON'T WANT TO WAKE UP! Her shouting did no good, for in the next second a new voice ripped completely through the blackness.

“Everyone get off the building!”

Addi's eyes flew open involuntarily as Cole yelled and someone or something hit her hard in her already hurt shoulder. Her arm felt like it was on fire, the pain blinding her. From somewhere she heard Elsie yell.

"Hold on!"

Something seemed to shove Addi from behind and she found herself staring down at the ground which was approaching fast. A scream escaped her lips before she could stop herself. It was then that she noticed that even though she was in some sort of a free fall, she could hear nothing except a muted rumbling. Carefully she twisted to the side and saw a thin sheild of light surrounding everyone. Elsie must have created some kind of force field to protect them as they fell. Addi barely had time to dwell on this thought however as they hit the ground.

The force field disintegrated the second it touched the cracked earth and Addi was thrown from it, landing painfully a few feet away. Her leg was bent weirdly and it as well as her arm were in excruitating pain. But she was alive. That was good...right? Above her something glowing orange and hot was burning away the top of the building. Addi tried to sit up but immediately gave up as a wave of nausea crashed over her.

"Is... Is that... it?"

Elsie's voice quietly spoke throught the strange silence. Addi didn't know what to say. She didn't even know what had happened. Where were her friends? Where was the King? What had happened while she had been in the darkness?

"Sarah?! Cole?! Somebody?! Help me! Please help me!" And though she tried with all her might to stop them, a few tears began to roll down the sides of her face and into the dirt.