Chapter 28 Tension #3
Inky’s glittering plumage flashed bright red.
“What’s happening, Inky?” she asked over her intern’s panicked conversation about how to hold his flailing limbs down. His armor clattered as Jane rushed to unbuckle it.
“You will need a curse removal spell at this time for your Side Character Marq,” Inky said way too cheerfully. “Or you can reset the scene to revise the current timeline of events before it becomes too permanent to the plot.”
“Why would…” Em’s heart skipped a beat as the words of the scene around her flowed across the page. Something she’d missed when Inky originally warned her caught her eye.
Fuck.
“It’s a ghost!” She almost dropped the journal, scrambling to help her interns. Em grabbed Jane’s hands to relieve the struggling girl, hoping the nursing major had a solution. “Unarm him, Ming… quick, Harry, hold his arms down… Sasha, grab a healing potion…”
“What’s wrong?” Jane asked as panic settled over the party.
Marq let out a shuddering, rasping cackle.
“He’s possessed.” Ming’s voice dropped. The mentor-in-training froze as she assessed her friend sprawled across the ground. His spasms stopped, his body falling limp.
As if on cue, the barbarian’s eyes flew open. His pupils clouded with an ill green glow, and a wicked sneer cut along his face.
Jane let out a shriek, stumbling away from him.
Em tried to pull Harry back, but it was too late. With a loud smack, Marq’s strong hands swung out and threw the lanky vampire across the tunnel against the wall. A gasp tore from Harry before he collapsed into the dirt, limp.
“Crap!” Sasha dashed forward, dodging Marq’s next blows as she used her body to shield the barbarian from the others.
“I AM MARLEY,” Marq’s voice warbled with a rasping growl.
He pushed himself upright clumsily like a broken puppet on uneven strings.
The ghoulish gleam in his eyes cut through the dim tunnel.
Everything was cast in the sickly green hue.
He staggered to his feet, fists balled and raised toward Sasha.
“YOU SHALL NOT PASS INTO MY REALM.”
Guilt and shock locked Em into place.
Your fault, her mind chided her. Your fault, your fault.
Sasha dodged and dipped around Marq’s staggered attacks, swearing as he managed to avoid all her knife slashes.
“Undo-uous!” Ming shouted, swinging out her wand. Nothing happened, not even a spark. With a curse, she slapped the wand along her thigh. “C’mon, work!”
Marq-Turned-Marley reeled on Ming, throwing a punch toward the distracted Tiefling. Sasha shoved the young wizard out of the way, her shoulder catching the final arc of the barbarian’s swing. The smack of his knuckles against her back let out a hollow crack.
The dryad screamed, staggering.
“Em!” Sasha cried, stumbling and grabbing at her dislocated shoulder.
Em could almost hear the echo of Kriqir in the ghost’s haunting cackle. No doubt, this was one of the necromancer’s tricks to protect his precious outpost further into the dungeon.
“Releasous-Spellious!” Ming flicked her wand again to no avail.
Marq-Turned-Marley loomed over the hunched, whimpering Sasha, flashing his teeth in a sneer. “NOW YOU WILL DIE AND JOIN ME IN THE AFTERLIFE!”
“Flipping do something, sweetheart!” Sasha swatted her knife at the shrinking space between her and the possessed barbarian.
Marq-Turned-Marley just laughed, his voice booming throughout the tunnel.
The ground quaked beneath him, a trickle of dirt falling from the ceiling.
Em fought against her trembling wrist, trying to write Sasha’s arm back into its socket. The pop and snap of bone was soon followed by Sasha’s shrieking. She did her best to erase the descriptive words of her friend’s pain.
In a flash, Sasha leapt onto Marq, stabbing into any part of him that wasn’t fatal. The splatter of his blood, the howl from the ghost within him, and his heels skidding away from the dryad’s flurry gave Em an ounce of hope.
She struggled to choose the proper wording to wake Harry up.
The vampire moaned on the ground near her feet, clutching at his stomach. But at least he was alive and rolled out of the way before anyone stepped on him. Jane ran to his side, checking him for serious injuries.
Em tried to recall any spells Ming could use heal Marq from the ghost’s possession. Her mind melted like ice; everything she ever learned from Sanderson slipped away from her memory.
A roar of orcs echoed throughout the tunnel.
Everyone froze for a moment.
Shit.
The distant beat of drums from Kriqir’s soldiers and the rising sound of their impending soundtrack echoed through the dungeon, warning Em that they were running out of time. And she had opened every door that was between her party and the orcs.
Marq-Turned-Marley charged Sasha and Ming again. Both girls yelped, scattering in opposite directions.
“Would you like some assistance with this battle sequence?” Inky sang out from her shaking hands.
“Yes!” Em gasped in relief, her head swimming with the intensity and loud chaos blurring around her. The stench of incoming orcs thickened. “Please!”
“YOU WILL ALL DIE!” Marq-Turned-Marley boomed.
“Silenciocious!” Ming flicked her wand again. She let out a frustrated grunt, shaking it. “Why won’t you work?”
“Would you like me to follow the stereotypical deus ex machina procedures and begin a rescue operation?” Inky sang out happily.
“What?” Em exclaimed. “Shit… no, we don’t need a rescue. Just delete the ghost possessing Marq.”
“I’m unable to complete this task,” the pen said. “However, if you wish to rewrite this scene, I can provide recommendations for how it ought to properly play out.”
“Fucccccck!” Em yelled in frustration. Praying for her sweaty hand to stop shaking, she struggled to write the ghost out of Marq’s body.
“Undous ghostous!” Ming tried again.
“I’m beginning— to doubt —your wizardly— abilities,” Sasha grunted between dodges and jabs at the possessed barbarian. She scurried about like a frenzied rodent underneath his looming, clumsy attacks.
“I got a B plus in spell casting!” Ming protested to Sasha.
“Oh, because that’s soooooo…” Sasha ducked, rolling away from Marq’s fists— “encouraging!”
“Don’t kill him!” Jane protested as the dryad sliced at Marq-Turned-Marley’s wrist. The giant let out an enraged howl in response.
The echo of orc roars grew—this time closer than before.
“Shit, shit, shit!” Em caught a glimpse of the orc’s prowling shadows around the bend of the next chamber.
Her frantic gasps filled with the rotten stench of Kriqir’s wrinkly soldiers.
The pounding of their boots matched the throbbing in her chest. She could barely see the words dragging down the length of the page as she struggled to write, her companions shouting at one another in panic.
Harry jumped to his feet, loading his slingshot and shoving Jane behind him.
Orcs charged around the corner, cleavers raised and yellow eyes flashing with delight at the panicked screams of the adventuring party.
“Back into the tunnel!” Ming shouted, dashing away. Jane and Harry hightailed after the mentor-in-training, shouting at the others to follow. “Retreat and put distance between us!”
“And get split down my spine?” Sasha positioned herself between the incoming armies and a stumbling, possessed barbarian. She shot Em one last desperate look. “Fix this.”
In a flash, the dryad danced and dueled and slayed the roaring orcs.
Their blood splattered across the tunnel walls.
Between jabs, she swung at Marq-Turned-Marley to keep the ghost away from her.
The thump of collapsing orc corpses and gurgles they let out as they died twisted Em’s insides into a knot.
She fought to breathe through her mouth, bile and acid churning into her clenched throat, wooziness turning her knees watery. Still, somehow, she finally got words across the page: “and Marq was able to free himself from Marley, no longer being possessed.”
The barbarian let out a shout, dropping onto his knees. Marq grabbed at his temples as he writhed again. With a thunderous crack, green mist oozed out of his ears, nose, and gaping mouth. The ghoulish glow faded from his eyes. Naturally, Marq collapsed on his side with a moan, falling limp.
At least he’d returned to normal.
Em managed to sigh past her nausea.
“Where the heck is our team?” Sasha yelled as she slit an orc’s throat. Blood spewed into her face and down her chin as she shoved the screeching victim aside. As quickly as she could kill one wrinkled orc, another rushed forward. “I need back up!”
“Bring the others back, Inky!” Em shouted, gagging and dry heaving. She leaned on the wall for support, stars flashing across her vision. Her insides swam within her. Every deep breath she sucked in to steady herself filled with the constant reek of coppery orc blood.
“Are you requesting I reinsert your party of Side Characters into this scene?”
“Fuck, yes!” Em choked on another gag. “Don’t ask questions. Just do it!”
“Alrighty…”
With a snap, the tunnel filled with three more bodies.
“What the what?” an-all-too-familiar voice cried out.
Em perked upright.
Roden Trislee, Polo Took-Took, and Gair stood about the sea of crumpled orc bodies, knuckling their eyes.
Shit.
The half-elf’s violet gaze met with hers, storminess brewing about his taut expression. “What did you do?” Roden growled.
I have no damn clue.
“Oh, great heavens!” Polo shrieked, hugging his own tail as he dodged a roaring orc. “I did not sign up for this kind of dungeon party.”
Gair’s gag from teleportation mirrored Em’s at the gory sights around them. He coughed and choked, darting to her side. “Are you okay, Em? What happened?”
“Less talking, more fighting!” Sasha shouted within the chaotic battle.
“Right.” Both love interests snapped into action. Drawing their weapons, they charged the orcs surrounding Sasha, hacking and cutting their way through the roaring creatures. The crack of bones, gush of sliced flesh, and constant splutter bodily fluids overtook them.
In a wave of fury and coordination, they took down the remaining orcs. Corpses dropped like flies in their wake.
“Where’d you go, Highness?” Polo tugged at Em’s sleeve.
Guilt lumped in her raw throat, giving her even more reason to want to barf up the cafeteria pizza from earlier. She couldn’t muster the strength to force a smile, still leaning against the wall for support.
“I was busy,” is all she managed to gasp to the worried imp.
“I missed you,” Polo said.
And I did not intend to be reunited with you so soon.
A scream cut through the air.
In a flash of pink, Jane raced back into the chamber. “A ghost! There’s a ghost!”
“Marley’s back.” Sasha groaned
Harry and Ming raced after Jane, eyes wide. The interns clustered around Em, drenched in sweat from their running and cringing at the gory sight of dead orcs filling the tunnel.
“Whose Marley?” Gair asked, kicking his final opponent down into the piles of twisted, strewn bodies.
“A ghost who possessed that guy.” Sasha motioned to the unconscious, or potentially pretending to be dead, Marq still sprawled along the floor. The sight of the giant barbarian so easily fallen drained Gair’s face.
“And the ghost somehow summoned these orcs all at once before we could reach the fun part of the dungeon,” the dryad went on, wiping sweat and blood off her brow. At least she didn’t realize Em had been the one to unleash the hordes by opening all the doors.
“What are you even doing down here?” Roden growled, shooting another glare at Em. “I thought we were supposed to be all still in Mercer Village making battle strategies against Kriqir.”
“Plans change,” Em swallowed the final acid down.
“Seriously, less talking, more ghost fighting,” Sasha said. She turned toward Em, scowling. “Next time, kill the ghost, sweetheart. Don’t just set it loose to potentially possess another one of us. You’d be dead if he’d chosen me as his next vessel.”
“Noted.” Em nodded.
Gair took in the new Side Characters huddled around her, aquamarine eyes narrowing. “Who are all these kids?”
“First off, they’re my adventuring interns and new mentor,” Em said. “Second off, they’re older than we are since they’re in college, so I don’t think you have the right to call them kids.”
“They’re clearly less experienced, though,” Gair grumbled under his breath.
Jane blushed, Ming flinched, her light-spell fizzling out so she no longer glowed, Harry just sneezed, and Marq was still sprawled along the floor.
Marley’s cackling laughter swept across the tunnel, echoing and shuddering along the earthen walls. Hissing green mist rose amongst the piles of orc bodies, swirling like an impending storm. It was enough to send Marq upright and crawling across the tunnel to join the others.
“No, not that again…” the barbarian pleaded, swatting the mist away from himself as he wriggled toward his fellow interns.
“No longer got a death wish, do you now, Marq?” Harry somehow managed to laugh.
Sasha stalked along the outskirts of the brewing smoke, knives poised and ready. Roden mirrored her as they circled about the heaps of corpses, calculating as the ghost’s whispering magic wove about the chamber.
Em took in a deep breath. The ache from her Character Separation Attachment Disorder thawed, soothed by the proximity to her original party again. She itched to use Inky and delete Marley from existence, but she couldn’t risk making another mistake.
“Unfortunately, at this time,” the pen sang out, as if reading her thoughts, “neither you nor I can interfere with this scene until the battle against the ghost is complete.”
“Why the hell not?” Em demanded.
“Your plotline does not allow skipping over major battle sequences,” Inky went on.
“When adventuring within a dungeon environment such as this, Marley the Ghost falls under the category of a Boss Fight. This is a challenging, unskippable encounter with a powerful enemy character, often called a “boss,” that serves as a major obstacle, usually at the end of a side-quest.”
Well, fuck.