Soar, Part 23 - Mare

They spent the rest of Sunday afternoon sitting around at Roxie's, trying and failing to do anything productive. They went through some old books and the internet to try and find the curse used, or some kind of cure, but their efforts were about as fruitless as they had been the entire week. Which was to say they found squat. Roxie's mom came home briefly around six, updated them on the situation, which hadn't changed too much, and then left again, telling Roxie not to wait up. After that the girls fell back into a somewhat uncomfortable silence, as they watched the time tick away.

Quarter to eleven and Vanilla, who had spent the whole day sprawled on one of Roxie's armchairs and staring at the clock, stood up and stretched. Everyone's attention turned to her.

"Well then," she said. "Time to go, I think."

"Excuse me?" said Roxie, standing up as well. "You can't leave! You're a material witness! I don't care if you're a centuries old deity, I'm not letting you leave!"

"Millennia old, actually," said Vanilla easily, and grinned. Roxie's frown only grew. "And I didn't mean it like that." She turned to Alex. "I believe you're about to receive a text message."

"What?" said Alex. Two seconds later a short, soft tune chimed through the living room. Alex's eyes widened, and she slowly pulled out her phone. Vanilla looked at her pointedly as she opened the text she received. Her eyes widened even further. "It's.. it's Anka. He wants us to come, immediately."

"So... time to go," said Vanilla, already pulling her coat on. When no one moved, just stared at her in stunned silence, she scoffed. "Let's move, people!"

She was out the door before the rest of them scrambled to their feet to follow her.

"How are we gonna get there though," asked Skye when they were gathered in front of Roxie's house. "It was a full fifteen minutes by car, it's gonna take us a long time to walk."

The look on her face clearly said that she really didn't want to use her trueform anymore. Luckily for her Vanilla chimed in.

"Oh don't worry, I can take us," she said, rolling her shoulders.

"How, exactly do you plan to do that?" asked Alex, crossing her arms.

"Shapeshifter, remember," said Vanilla, flashing her a smile and got on all fours. Soon there was a very large, incredibly beautiful mare standing in front of them. She flicked her mane and trotted around the group of astonished teenagers.

"Wow," breathed Skye. She extended a slightly trembling hand towards the horse and she let her pat her neck. "Are you sure you an carry all four of us?"

"Oh yeah," said Vanilla, settling down so that the girls could climb on. It was slightly weird to hear the horse speaking. "Don't even worry about it. What you should worry about is not falling off."

"This is so cool," said Olivia, and climbed on. She seemed extremely giddy.

"Wow, this is pretty cool," said Roxie with a sly smile. "Say, is this the same form you had back when that one guy was building the wall..?"

Vanilla snorted. "Just get on," she huffed, clearly annoyed. Roxie's grin grew, but she got on without another word, as did Skye and Alex. It was slightly uncomfortable, since two of them had wings, but they managed somehow and Vanilla stood up. "Hold on tight," she said and broke into a gallop.

~x~

They raced across the city at an astonishing speed. The wind whipped their hair around as they glided along streets, Vanilla's hooves hitting the pavement in a frantic rhythm, and the girls hugged each other tightly, having nowhere else to hold onto. Olivia, who was sitting up front, was holding tightly to Vanilla's mane and if it hurt she didn't say. They were moving so fast none of the girls could keep track of where they were going until they came to a stop.

"The house is just around the corner," said Vanilla, decelerating into a walk. She knelt down on the ground again, to let the girls off her back and then shifted back into the form of a small girl. "And I think we're just in time."

Skye checked her wrist watch. It was exactly eleven o'clock.

"Anka's sent me another text," said Alex, thumbing at her phone. "He says we should go through the back, there's another door there."

"Well let's get going!" said Vanilla, and started to round the house. "It's starting to get exciting, wouldn't you say?"

"Okay, wait up," said Alex finally. Vanilla turned to look at her with a tilt of her head. "You clearly know more about what's going on than you're telling us. Just... tell us! What is going on? What's waiting for us in that house?"

Vanilla looked at her for a while, considering the question. When he finally spoke it was just one word but it sent shivers down Alex's spine.

"A conclusion."

"That really doesn't explain anything," Alex managed after finding her voice again.

"Who said I was going to explain?" asked Vanilla and turned to walk around the house again. "Let's go in and you'll see yourself."

Reluctantly the girls followed. They couldn't shake the feeling something was about to go terribly wrong.

There was a small door at the back of the house, like Anka had said there would be. It lead directly into the house itself, not the garden, unlike the gate in the front of the house. It had probably once been a servants' entrance, Alex thought. The house was old enough to have been here when those were still a thing.

"How do we get in?" Skye asked, turning to Alex. She pulled out her phone to check the text Anka had sent.

"I... I don't know," said Alex, frowning down at the phone. "Anka didn't say."

"Well, send him a message," said Roxie, huffing. "Really, that's kind of vital info, don't you think?"

"Yeah, yeah, give me a minute..." muttered Alex. "That's weird, I don't have any bars..."

"You're kidding! How can you have no service in the middle of the high class neighborhood?"

"Don't yell at me, Roxie, it's not my fault! Let me just..."

There was a soft clack and they both turned to look at Olivia who was standing next to the open door. Wait, open?

"It wasn't locked," she said. Roxie and Alex gaped, while Vanilla strode in.

"Great job, Livie!" said Skye, smacking a kiss on her cheek as she walked past her into the house as well.

"You gonna stand there the rest of the night, or..?" asked Olivia with an amused smile and the two remaining girls snapped out of it and hurried in after the others.

They walked through the first room and found themselves in a very large kitchen. There were no light on, but the streetlights illuminated the room through the window, and as their eyes quickly got used to the small amount of light, they could easily avoid colliding with anything. They hurried, as quietly as possible, to the other door in the kitchen, and peeked thorough it. It lead into a dining room, unsurprisingly, which was also empty and dark. Skye had a tight grip on Olivia's arm.

"What exactly are we even doing here?" whispered Skye as they opened the door properly and walked through.

"We're here to help out Anka," said Alex then paused. "I think. He did sound like he needed help."

"But why are we sneaking through the back door?" specified Skye. The door out of the dining room was in front of them and they stopped. "And where even is Anka?"

"Probably in the basement," said Vanilla, glancing through the door into the entrance hall.

"The... what?" said Alex, stopping dead on her tracks. "Why would he be in the basement?"

"Cause that's where, as you kids say, the shit's going down," said Vanilla and walked into the entrance hall.

"And you know this.. how?" asked Roxie, as the girls followed Vanilla. She walked over to the staircase, went around it and ran her hand along the side of it. The girls walked next to her and looked at the wall. There was nothing there.

"Sebastian told me," said Vanilla, her fingers stopping in the middle of the wall. She pressed at the wall, experimentally.

"Seba- oh, the butler," said Skye. "That's what he told you back at Roxie's?"

"Yup," said Vanilla, and smacked the wall. The girls jumped at the sudden aggression, and stepped back slightly as the wall flung open. A dark stairway opened up behind it. "Shall we go?"

"Am I the only one who thinks this is a very, very, very bad idea?" asked Skye. "It's... so dark..." she added with a soft voice, like she hadn't meant to say it out loud. Olivia's finger brushed against her cheek and she swallowed, steeled herself, and nodded.

"We going down?" asked Alex quietly.

"We going down," said Skye with a nod and newfound determination.

The stairway was long and it curved around in a large circle. It was also pitch black, with obviously no windows underground, but also a surprising lack of any kind of lighting fixtures. Alex was so sure it was the kind of stairway that should be littered with torches or something. It wasn't, unfortunately, although after considering it for a moment, Alex concluded that it would probably be a pain in the ass to light all of them anyway, not to mention a fire hazard.

After a moment that felt like forever they saw a light around the corner. They slowed down, tiptoeing closer to the bottom of the stairs and the doorway that waited them. Alex put a finger to her lips, but it really wasn't necessary; they all knew they had to be very quiet. Alex, who was at the front of the group, peeked around the corner of the doorway.

Ahead opened up a high, circular room. The walls were lined with shelves full of books and other magical looking artifacts, and the room was littered with candles, which were the only source of light in the room, aside from a small lantern resting by the big table in the back of the room. In the middle of the room, drawn to the ground with what Alex guessed was white chalk, was a round symbol. It was probably a pentagram or something, but Alex really wasn't an expert. Either way, it didn't bode well.

By the right wall Alex noticed a figure crouching, leaning against the wall. She couldn't see his face, but the tuft of white hair told her it was Anka. He had his knees drawn up to his chest and he was hugging them tightly. Next to him sat a small girl. The same girl that had been with him at the dancing competition, Alex noted. It felt like a forever ago.

"Oh, stop pouting, Anka," scoffed someone and Alex's eyes were drawn to the back of the room, to the table. Anka's mother was standing behind it. She wasn't wearing a mysterious hooded cloak, like Alex had sort of been hoping for, instead clad in the same very professional looking outfit she had had on when they'd met in the afternoon. She was drawing something onto the table with a piece of chalk.

Anka let out a pitiful whimper, and Irene scoffed.

"And stop being so pathetic," she said, looking down at the table with a frown. She took out a wooden bowl from somewhere as she spoke. "You know this has to be done. It'll all be over after tonight. You won't have to worry about anything anymore."

"But," Anka managed. His voice was hoarse and it cracked slightly after the syllable. He sniffled and tried again. "But it's not right. It can't be! Not if we have to sacrifice people to achieve it!"

"Now, now," said Irene. "No one's said anything about sacrificing people. We just need them temporarily to power the spell. Of course I'll let the souls go after we're done!"

"You're... you're assuming there will be souls left at that point..." muttered Anka. He lifted his head, rubbed at his reddened eye and shouted at his mother. "But there might not be! There probably won't be!" The girl next to him petted his head, and he sniffed again and ran a hand through his already messy hair. "There won't be anyone left and I will be a murderer."

"Nonsense," Irene huffed. She was mixing some kind herbs together in the bowl.

Someone poked Alex in the back and she turned to look back.

"What's going on?" mouthed Roxie. Alex glanced at the doorway again before answering.

"I'm not sure, but it looks occulty," she whispered as quietly as possible. "Anka is in there and he doesn't look happy. It's his mom, she's the... one.... behind this......."

She trailed off as her eyes widened. She was looking somewhere over Skye's shoulder. The daemon tensed, suddenly very aware of another presence behind her, even though she was supposed to be the last one. Slowly Skye turned to look behind her...

The flickering candlelight illuminated a smiling face directly behind her and she screamed.
__________________________________________________________

Okay I lied there's one more part. Luckily it's half way written already and it will be posted tomorrow. I'll see you then~

Pie out.