Untold Truth

#3 Queen of Hell (Part 2)

Nick was driving when the earthquake struck out of nowhere. He immediately knew who was responsible for it. Before he could beat reality by driving like nothing was going on, through the earthquake, a hologram of Lucifer appeared out of the corner of his eye, “Nick, don’t do this. You know that Angelica only wants this of you. So that you can show your true self to humanity. She only wants to anger you so be smart, don’t try to defeat the inevitable.”

That was when he saw before his eyes a beam of light that seemingly washed away all the darkness that came with the earthquake. It was like a tsunami of good swept away all that was bad and fixed everything that the darkness had destroyed. He realized who’s power it was, “Skylar?”, he whispered under his breath before snapping back to reality and continuing on driving his way to Sapphire’s place. “What is mom up to now? I hope that whatever she’s done can be reversed.” He said to himself.

When he got to Sapphire’s place, Sapphire was still somehow lovestruck and Cody was apparently still stuck in the curse that his mother placed on them for her own personal vendetta. But apparently though Sapphire was stuck with her ex, it was surprising that she wasn’t cooing over the fact that Nick and Cody were in the same room as she was. 

“Cody, can I have a word with you?”, Nick asked calmly. “In private.”

“Oh, Nick, come to join the party or are you just here to annoy me to death again?”, said Cody.

“It’s about your sister. I know that you really don’t care about her at the moment but I know deep down that you still do. And since you don’t really want to leave Sapphire’s side, it seems that I only have one thing that I could do.” Nick continued to cast a spell to put Sapphire to sleep.

“Hey, that’s not fair.”, Cody protested.

“Life’s never fair and if you don’t cooperate, I’ll just have to make you. - I know that the break up wasn’t easy for you but you need to know that Skylar’s life is currently at stake. Elyssa is preparing her to go up against an ancient spirit that was most probably bribed by Angelica. Ancient magic is not something that we should temper with.”

“Why should I believe you? All you’ve been doing was lying to me, manipulating me. There has never been a time that you ever tried to do something that is beneficial to anyone but yourself.”, Cody whined.

“Cody, I know you are still in there but you have to fight this spirit. Angelica has you and Tyler under some kind of spell. Fight it. Don’t let Angelica get whatever she wants. If you aren’t there for her now then when are you going to be there for her. I know that you never liked Sapphire but why stay with her despite all that you’ve been through with Skylar?”

“Because I came to realize that I can never be with her. She’s my sister, as you had said.”

“Can’t you love her the way a brother loves his sister?”

“No, because it’s more than that whenever it comes to being with her.”

“Snap out of it, Cody. Angelica is manipulating you. Fight it!”, Nick exclaimed. “You can’t always let Angelica take the reins, she would ruin you, your reputation and your life.”

As Nick shouted at him, Cody could only feel the headache just getting worse. It was like he had a migraine, all the pain made him feel like his head was about to explode. He knew he had to try to come out of this shell that Angelica had placed him in. It was a lot harder than he thought but once the migraine was gone like a spirit finally getting away from his body, he fell unconscious. 

“Cody?”, said Nick. “Are you okay?” He got more worried when Cody didn’t respond. 

“Think again?”, came a familiar voice from behind him. 

Skylar followed the road lined with roses until she got to a stage. She looked to be somehow enchanted or possessed. It was apparent that she wasn’t herself. Upon reaching the stage, she saw a glass tank - similar to something found in an aquarium. She walked up to the aquarium and was shocked to see a mirrored image of herself. At first she thought that someone had captured Aria but then after a while she realized that it was herself. She knocked on the glass to see if she would respond. 

The mermaid turned around and was astonished to see her. “Skylar, what are you doing here?”, the mermaid directed her thoughts to Skylar.

She opened her mouth but nothing came out - no words. It was like she was mute. After trying to talk for a bit, then only did she get her voice back. “Aria?”, she said in a questionable tone. 

“No silly, I’m you. What are you doing here? It isn’t your time yet.”

“Wait what do you mean that it isn’t my time yet. I can’t be-”

“Dead? Oh heavens no. - But what you should be worrying about is getting back. You don’t belong here. Elyssa is brewing up a potion to bring Tyler and Zac back as we speak but you have to find a way to wake yourself up. If you don’t, you’ll just remain like how you got here.”, said mermaid Skylar. 

“But how do I get out of here?”

“Simple.”, came a voice behind her. It was the vampire version of herself. “You just think of someone from the land of the living and they would be your guide to finding your way out of here.”

“And you are?” Skylar was so lost about all this subconscious.

“The two of us are a part of you. Each a version that you would have to discover on your own. You better hurry because they are all counting on you to save the day.”

“What do I have that they don’t? I mean like Zac has his powers from the soldiers that possess runes that give them specific powers and Tyler and Elyssa know more about the demon realm than I would ever do. Carson also knows something about the demon realm that I had no idea existed until Cody and Tyler told me about it a month ago.”, Skylar babbled.

“There is potential in you Skylar. It’s just that you need to find this potential that can help you sooner or later.”, said the vampire.

“Wake up! Skylar, wake up!”, came another familiar voice.

“I think that’s your queue. We can always continue this conversation afterward. Well, T.T.F.N.”

As soon as those words came out of the vampire, she slowly woke up in the real world. Her eyes fluttered open and the moment she opened her eyes Carson immediately pulled her into a hug. “Skylar - I thought I lost you.”

“You didn’t - You helped me.” She quickly hugged him back. Though it was a dreadful place she’s been to it was obvious that she never wanted to go back. 

“Sorry to ruin the moment but we’ve got bigger problems to deal with.”, said Elyssa. “The more time we waste, the closer Larissa gets to destroying Atlantis and the world along with it. - So I’ve figured out the mastermind behind all this, she’s an old spirit that has long had revenge against the Jones for various reasons that I can’t list down. But here is what I know, she’s seeking yet another revenge.”

“If you know something  - Don’t just keep us in suspense, tell us who it is.”, said Carson. 

“I can’t, I made an oath never to speak her name again and I’m going to stand by that oath. She’d made everyone’s life a Hell on Earth anyways.”

“Who is this woman anyways? She seems to be rather close to you in some way.”, Carson tried to bend the question and try to get the answer out of her. 

“She’s nobody. She is just an acquaintance that was a pain in the ass. She had nothing better to do and tried to manipulate people to get on her side so that she could finally get whatever she wanted.”

“Sounds very bad. You wanna talk about it?”

“No, we have a mission at hand and we have to finish it before anyone else gets involved in this little shenanigan and cause this whole thing to blow up.” Elyssa focused her thoughts on saving the world from rogue demons. Just then her phone started to ring, she quickly looked at the caller ID and picked it up. “What is it?”, she said in an irritated voice. 

“Whoa hold up, why are you so worked up?”, said the voice through the phone.

“I’ll tell you why when you get here. We’ll need all the help we can get.” She continued to put down the phone. 

“Alright to deal with Larissa, we’ll need a plan fast because according to Skylar, she’s going to strike again in another 2 days but with more damage. So does anyone have any bright ideas on how to defeat an ancient spirit who wants nothing but the crystal rose back in its place.”

They started hearing groaning sounds from the back of the shop. “Good to see that the two of you are finally awake. But we don’t really have much time to waste.” Elyssa continued to toss a sword at Tyler. “We are ready for war.”

“Wait what?”, Skylar had just gone through a traumatizing experience and with the shock that she might have to face it all over again. “Wasn’t that already enough for all of us for a day and now you tell us that we are headed to war.” Skylar protested. 

“Shh, Skylar.” Carson continued to pull her into a hug, trying to calm her down. “I know that it’s a lot to take in but we don’t really have much of a choice.”

“No, Carson!”, Skylar exclaimed. “You have not been to where I’ve been to, felt how I felt, and basically had your life turned around. I never wanted part of this.”

“Look I know it’s a lot to take in but the truth is that you are our only hope of saving humanity from the lights of Larissa. There are times that we have to take risk and this is one of the times as there is no other hope. You have to be brave. Though I know it may be difficult.”, Carson explained to her. “-Or another way is I’ll be the bait and hopefully Larissa doesn’t see the resemblance with Aaron.”

“No! You won’t.”, Aria protested. “I just got you recently got you back, I’m not losing you again.”

“She’s got a point.”, came a voice behind them, it was Zac. “Plus Larissa is Hell bent on wanting Aria as a peace treaty for the replacement of the crystal rose. And with Skylar still too traumatized to take the responsibility, we don’t have much of a choice but to find the flower.” 

“I think I have an idea. Why don’t we link both Zac and Carson’s idea?”, Tyler suggested. “I think that both ideas are spot on. It's just that there would need to be a diversion, which we would in turn need Skylar’s help.”

“How exactly do you imply we find the flower? As of right now, we are still in square one which is nothing but a dead end.”, said Elyssa.

“I remember something that the Jones had said when I was still under Sapphire’s possession. It was right after we had gotten the crystal rose from the depths of Atlantis. After Cody had given the flower to Sapphire, she kept it in a case. It looked like something out of the Beauty and the Beast but she kept it there. If Skylar and Carson could get into the chamber where Sapphire keeps her precious artifacts, we can probably get the rose. One way in, one way out.”

“Great idea.”, came another familiar voice from behind all of them. Nick leaned on the frame of the door. “But how exactly do you suggest that we sneak the two of them in there without bringing up any sort of threat because last I check, their last trip there wasn’t really enlightening.”

“Or we could get the help of people who they don’t really know? Like-”, Tyler looked over at Elyssa and Alec.

“No.”, said Elyssa. “That is out of the question. I am not facing your lovestruck brother and her psycho girlfriend. I had enough of seeing them in school already.”

“Come on. It’s just one quick sweep and there isn’t really much facing the two lovebirds anyways. And plus with Alec, you will have no issue with getting in undetected.” Tyler tried to motivate her.

“Fine.”, Elyssa gave in. “But I’m only doing this because I may have screwed up the previous plan.”

“Everything is going to plan. We would get ultimate revenge from those rogue teenage demons. They had ruined enough of our lives already.”, the demon spirit said to the siren spirit.

“Indeed. It’s about time. There had been enough of a hold up, Angelica. We had remained dormant for long enough. It is time we raise up.”

“But not so fast, Larissa. First, we wait. Good things come to those who wait. We’ve given them enough time to retrieve whatever we wanted.” Angelica brought the glass of cocktail to her mouth while looking into the crystal ball.

Beside her stood an elegantly dressed woman, her ear lined with diamonds, dressed in a peacock-like dress that flowed like the ocean. Her hair was jet-black just like the night, wavy like the waves that roll with the breeze at the shore. Decorating her hair were seashells was an assortment of seashells scattered all over her hair; the rarest, only found in the deepest part of the ocean. Her hair could be mistaken for fire under the bright sunlight.

“I think we’re ready to get this party started. Shall we, Angelica?”, Larissa said to her in an optimistic tone. It was true indeed that she died at a rather young age but her spirit still remained to be as youthful as she was when she had passed. Angelica looked at her with a shocked look because she had not expected Larissa to have maintained her youth for that long. Despite the tattoos and scars all over her body, she was perfect. A perfect bait for a certain spellbound boy who knows nothing about any of this little shenanigan. Angelica continued to chant a spell that brought her only minion back to her.