Chapter I: A new beginning.
It began as a stormy night, a young woman walked through the streets with a smile while looking at the people around her run for cover.
She fixed her collar and quickened her pace relishing at the merciless rain. She then stopped in a corner to wait for the walking sign, she closed her eyes and tilted her head upwards feeling the raindrops and the wind fall on her face, she smiled broadly now.
She then felt a hand on her shoulder and she heard herself giggle for she knew who it was instantly, she turned around with her greatest smile and greeted the most gorgeous eyes in the world to her.
-"Witek..." she said in a whisper. shivering slightly from the sudden cold air that passed beside her.
-"Hi" he said planting a kiss on her cheek and covering her with his overcoat rubbing her shoulders slightly.
She blushed slightly at the gesture as he chuckled while moving a strand of hair off her face. He couldn't help but caress her face softly, same as he couldn't keep his eyes off hers or being drawn closer to her .
She closed her eyes and felt his lips touch hers, a touch so light yet firm as he began kissing her passionately...
-"Woa! oh heck no!" she gasped as she sat on the bed waking from her slumbler.
She had been having the same dream for the past month, everyday feeling it stronger in her mind, overwhelming her senses night after night. She looked at her window sadly, looking at how the moonlight bathed her surroundings, she whispered a name...a name that meant the world to her:
-"Witold..."
------End of Chapter I------
Chapter II: Dreams in a Church.
Early morning in Juuban. Nessa walked, the day was full of sunlight and she greeted it with a smile as she skipped the streets humming one of her favorite songs. She stopped by a local coffee shop to get her mandatory cup of coffee with an apple.
She sat at her usual table and looked at the streets through the window. It has been many years since Nessa moved to Juuban but she was fascinated by its routine. The children running in the streets to get to school on time, the men and woman of the workforce heading out to their job stations, the sakura leaves traveling in the air off to a better place in the world, she took this all with a smile on her face as she sipped a bit of her cup of coffee.
She then noticed something on the streets, a figure, rather a person walking by the coffee shop she was in. She stared at the figure of a man with dark hair and leather jacket resembling someone she knew well. She ran outside the coffee shop to see if she got a closer look to the man but he was gone in an instant between the crowd. She shook her head and said to herself "Ne, dreams must be affecting me beyond my knowledge” she turned around and went back to the coffee shop, not before looking back at the crowd and staring into it, as if trying to decipher a puzzle, as if something called her to look back.
She shook her head again as went inside. Henry, her friend and master of the shop smiled at her and asked -“What’s wrong kid?”
-“I thought I saw someone I know…but it is impossible. He is not here at the moment…he hasn’t been here for a while…” she said quietly, sitting in the stool before Harry’s counter.
-“Wishful thinking then?” he said as he dried some glasses and poured some coffee to another guest.
-“Most likely…” she said with a smile. She looked at her watch and sighed, it was time for her to leave for school. She gathered her belongings, her cup of coffee, waved a goodbye to Henry and walked once again into the streets of Juuban.
She suddenly felt a presence around her; the air became heavy as she walked. Sighing inwards, she took a detour to her usual route to school toward the park. As she walked she felt the presence following her closely, she hummed a song as she mentally prepared herself for a possible encounter.
Into the park she walked into a secluded maze, a maze she knew like the palm of her hand. When she got to the middle of it, she turned around and closed her eyes. She raised her hand and a dagger appeared on it.
-“You can show yourself” she said calmly.
She felt the air thickening around her, but she didn’t loose her posture, she closed her eyes.
-“Make it easy on yourself and show yourself” she said opening her eyes suddenly.
Before her appeared the figure of a man, tall and strong. He had the appearance of a nightclub bouncer. He looked at her in a menacing way holding up a dagger himself and grinned.
-“I have come for thee, Nadzieja!” the man said not before throwing himself at her.
Nessa evaded his attack easily; her eyes grew darker as she casted a spell, red light emerged from her body and moments later she saw her opponent writhe in pain on the ground.
-“I will not come with you sir” She said as she walked toward him her dagger in place, kneeling beside the demon. “You people need to change those dialogues…it’s getting old” She then pierced him with her dagger, and he squealed in pain.
A white light shot up her dagger and into the body of the man. A gust of wind passed right beside her as a signal that death had taken the man before her.
She got up form the ground and put her dagger away with a movement of her hand and walked away toward the outside of the maze. The body of the man disappeared with the wind.
As she walked into the streets once more, Nessa pondered about the demon that had just visited her, she looked around her scanning the area for possible threats.
-“A low level demon after a spellhowler, this wasn’t a battle, a distraction?” She stopped suddenly “…he called me Nadzieja” she gasped as she realized the meaning. She started running.
____End of Part I_____
Koba Building. Generic Meeting Room.
Richard entered the room loudly, as the doors closed behind him he observed quietly. Yevgeny was tapping the surface of the table in a nervous manner. Joe Armand was busy with his cell phone, possibly sending text messages to all over the globe to the different girls he dates. Alex just stared at the wall in front of him with a blank look on his face. Richard sat on the chair next to Alex and closed his eyes; he said quietly –“You can all speak now.”
Yevgeny looked toward Richard and started speaking in a worried tone.
-“Nessa called around 3 hours ago she said she had been visited by a low level demon and they engaged in battle, she got him of course as expected.”
-“Where is she now?” Richard asked lifting an eyebrow.
-“We don’t know. I lost contact with her in the middle of our conversation, she mentioned something….something about the demon calling her ‘Nadzieja’….I…couldn’t get it, there was too much static….” He said pounding his fist on the table in frustration “I have tried locating her but to no avail, she can’t be found, she is blocking everything and her phone appears to be dead”
Richard opened his eyes suddenly at the revelation, he whispered –“She must think Demian is at it again…but, it is impossible" He took a sharp breath "...Demian is gone…”
Joe Armand lifted his eyes toward Richard –“Precisely my point pal, how in the heck that demon could have called her that if Demian is dead, buried and smashed?” He sounded annoyed, yet he was indeed worried as well.
Alex suddenly unglued his gaze from the wall in front of him and said –“Witold knows…he knows where to find her…” He turned toward Richard.
Richard dialed on his phone as he got up form the chair, -“I’ll be back” he said as he went out of the meeting room and started his walk toward a secluded section of Kobayashi. A man answered his call.
-“I’m on the search for her already, care to tell me what happened?”
Richard looked at his phone in confusion -“According to Yevgeny, she was attacked by a low level demon. The interesting side of the story is that the demon called her ‘Nadzieja’ …you do remember that aside from us, who knows her real name...” Richard said lighting up a cigarette. He took his phone away from his ear a second as he could hear the curses of the man at the wheel.
-“I’ll get her to Koba…count on it…” Witold said dryly as he ended the call. Richard cursed at the sudden cut of communication.
-“Be ok Nessa…please be ok…” he whispered.
_____End of Part II______
Nessa was thrown several spaces behind her; she winced in pain as she tried to move quickly from up the floor.
She struggled to get up, her body showed great amount of bruises, blood trickled from her right arm onto the ground, her clothes where torn, and were covered with blood.
Her dagger laid a few spaces beside her. She looked around to find herself almost surrounded by a group of demons. She closed her eyes and whispered a spell which made her dagger appear in her hand.
One of the demons formed a ball of energy and threw it toward her. She whispered another spell and she quickly evaded the attack appearing on another section of the area where she was.
She breathed heavily, she had been fighting these demons for a couple hours already and only had she been able to kill a few, but more and more appeared before her.
-“Someone out there must really hate me” she chuckled and coughed, she gasped as she found blood stains on her gloves as she coughed. The demons were coming closer.
She looked around her to see where she could go to hide while she healed a little her wounds. She saw the outlines of a church close by, she closed her eyes and whispered a spell, and blue light appeared from under her.
The demons started running toward her to try to stop her, but she disappeared before any of them got to touch her.
-“Spread out and look for her. She couldn’t have gone far in her state” the leader of the pack said chuckling a little.
_____End of Part III________
She appeared inside an abandoned church; she fell onto the floor of exhaustion face down, she breathed heavily and shuddered after each breath. She turned on her back and gulped. The wound on her right arm made her scream in pain.
-“Yup really really hate me...” she then cursed in polish as a tear fell from her eye.
She tried to get herself up from the floor, but her knees gave in and she fell, screaming in pain from her bruises, more tears fell from her eyes, she sobbed a little.
She heard voices around her; she turned her head to find no one by her side or near the surroundings. She closed her eyes and felt various presences in the room, of children and men, women as well.
-“I have not come to harm you…I have come here for safety…" she said to what she felt a big crowd around her, she felt they weren’t hostile but still she was cautious.
She heard some voices yell at her, some were crying, some sounded concerned. She took a hand to her head; the pain on it was great on her as she tried to make out what the voices were telling her.
-“I know…I know…” she said in a whisper, supporting herself with her other hand she kneeled trying to get up from the floor, when she heard a door open roughly.
-“Nadzieja, that wasn’t a very good move. You made us look for you all over the place…tsk, tsk, tsk” The demons had come to her. She looked around for a place to hide but found none. She finally got up from the floor wincing in pain and looked around her to find the demons surrounding her.
-“You know, I can be nice to ya, if you stop running” the leader of the gang said coming toward her with an evil grin on his face.
-“You call this nice? No wonder you guys cannot get a date on your realm” she said somewhat defiant. Her dagger suddenly became invisible unnoticed by the demons.
-“Well, depends on you girly…” the demon got closer to her, grinning “…the more you run the more damage you get…” the leader now was step in front of her, suddenly she smiled. The demon looked at her in confusion –“What are you smiling about? Have you gone mad?”
-“Nie…I have seen how you’re gonna die…” She said in a whisper.
The leader demon laughed hysterically, so did the rest of the demons around her. The leader demon grabbed her face and told her –“I think you have it all wrong girly. I think those injuries have your head on the wrong track, so far you are no match for us”
-“Is that so? then how is it that it has taken you guys a couple of hours to get me into this state and I’m still breathing” she whispered defiantly.
The leader demon slapped her and threw her onto the floor, she whimpered in pain as her bruises manifested themselves on the fall. One of the demons grabbed her roughly and pulled her up, lifting her from the floor keeping her on the air.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw the specter of a child running toward the door of the church, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes.
-“Hand me my sword…” The leader said, taking a longsword from one of the demons around them “…I am going to enjoy killing you…”
He then put the tip of the sword on her belly and with one hand grabbed her chin making her look at him in the eyes.
She gripped her dagger tighter and pointed it at the demon’s stomach, as she felt the tip of the demon’s sword pressing itself on her.
Suddenly her dagger became unhidden and pierced the body of the demon not before the demon slashed her a little with his own sword.
She fell to the ground as one by one the demons surrounding them were disappearing with the wind. The leader’s body laid on the ground; she crawled on the floor toward the leader demon and grabbed her dagger that stuck on his stomach. She took the dagger out and laid on the floor exhausted. A gust of wind passed by her, taking away the body of the demon.
She breathed heavily; she rolled on to her side, trying to stand but failed. She had barely any strength left in her; she laid back on the floor of the church and closed her eyes, dagger in her hand.
She suddenly heard a voice, a voice calling her name; she smiled sadly as she thought:
-“Even now I hear your voice…Don't worry, I’m not afraid anymore…”
Her breathing became slow and ragged, almost perceptible. Suddenly her hand let go of the dagger.
_____End of Part IV______
Witold ran into the area where the battle had taken place, he scanned the surroundings for more threats but he found only traces of blood, he started running again, running desperately calling Nessa on his mind, saying her name over and over again, trying to get a clue of where she was.
He then felt a presence, and turned around sharply. He saw the body of a child coming toward him. The child grabbed his hand and tried pulling him toward the direction he wanted to go to.
Witold looked at the child and then toward the direction he was pointing at and saw the outlines of the church.
Witold then heard her voice, faint, sad, but her voice indeed.
-“Even now I hear your voice…Don't worry, I’m not afraid anymore…”
-“NO!!” he yelled into the air. The child ran toward the church as he followed desperate, still calling her name, begging her to hold on.
When he reached the church he saw her body on the floor, and ran toward her and kneeled beside her, with his right hand he grabbed her wrist feeling her pulse, and it was faint, unsteady.
He whimpered when he saw her wounds, with his left hand he touched each one, seeing in his mind how they came to be on her body. Tears fell on his face as he saw the images in his mind.
White light engulfed him as he passed his left hand onto her bleeding wounds, stopping the bleeding. His other hand caressed her hair gently; he smiled sadly and said to her:
-“You are not going to leave me yet Nessa, milosc.”
He carried her into his arms gently, and he stared into her face.
-“I’m sorry” He said softly “I’m so sorry…” He kissed her forehead gently and carried her toward the outside of the church.
When he got outside he turned around and saw the child that had taken him to the church, waving and smiling and then fading away.
Witold smiled sadly, and looked at Nessa once more, he then kneeled and murmured a spell, and then disappeared into the wind.
-------End of Chapter II------------
