Splitting a Soul~Chapter 24

“And how exactly are you going to help me?” I asked my other half. “By making my friends scared of me? By burning anything that gets in your way? By forcing my power t work for you?”

“Exactly,” he said in a tone that reminded of a snake’s hiss. “You’ve seen what I can do; we’ll fight power with power…and you have seen the results of my power.”

“Yes I have, which is exactly why I won’t let you out of this place,” I barked back.

“You think I couldn’t escape from this place if I wanted. I only let you believe you are in control; that pillar would have crushed you if I had not intervened. It wouldn’t do me any good if you die, as I would go down with the ship as it were,” he said, never taking his eyes from mine. “Face it, you’ve lost.”

The more he talked, the more I had to fight the increasing feeling to agree with him. I wasn’t strong enough to defeat the Gatekeeper; every attack we hit him with he brushed off like it was nothing. Aisling was about to become a blood-drinking creature of the night permanently if I didn’t do something, but everyone seemed to have already given up. I looked up at the darkened sky and saw visions of my friends in the huddle. I could feel their doubt and hopelessness and it hurt; like I had been dipped into a vat of acid. My other half seemed to relish in it, soaking it in like it was nectar and ambrosia. If this pain was how my friends felt, I didn’t want to be the one that caused it.

“No, we haven’t lost yet!” I yelled, which I hadn’t meant to do. “I’m going to win my way, without you.”

“Do you believe you can?” he asked me, an eyebrow raised.

“Yes,” I said flatly and with that, my body erupted into blue fire that surrounded me. The sky and earth began to fade away as I forced myself back to reality. My other half just waved at me as I left and I thought he had mouthed ‘good luck’ with a wicked smile.

“Holy Apollo’s cattle, my hands on fire!” I heard Jack yell and I opened my eyes. Blue fire had spread from my hands and almost completely enveloped the team; except Jack who had run off as soon as it reached his hands and ran around like a chicken without a head. He even stop, dropped, and rolled which was a good idea for a real fire, but maybe not for the fire of belief.

“Ash, what is this?” Aisling asked as the fire seemed to envelope her, as well as Kimi. Jack had stopped freaking out once he realized the flames weren’t hurting him.

“I’ve felt this before,” Kimi commented. “Right before you left to go to the Sea of Monsters. You helped me feel relieved.”

“And now I’m going to do a lot more,” I said, trying to sound confident. “We are going to win.”

“But that guy is like an immortal all powerful super dude with a creepy face,” Jack complained as he rejoined us in the huddle.

“Don’t think about that,” I told him.

“Ya sure, don’t think about the immortal all powerful super dude,” Jack said, rolling his eyes.

“I think we can win,” Kimi said, turning her hand not holding the bow into a strong fist.

My confidence was starting to become infectious as the frowns on everyone’s faces began to turn to smiles. I felt power flowing through me as well, like my entire body was coming to life. I don’t know what it was, but for the first time I really believed we could win this fight. I also felt everything Joe and El had taught me come flooding back to me and I got a few ideas. I told everyone my plan and they nodded in agreement, showing they were at least willing to listen.

“You’re crazy,” Jack said as I finished telling them my idea.

“Hey, we are going to win this. It’ll be a snap,” I said, snapping my fingers to add effect. “We just need to believe we can.”

“Looks like you guys are all fired up. Care to get this fight going?” the Gatekeeper laughed. “Come on, I won’t even use my weapons.”

“You over confident brute, we’re going to take you out!” Aisling shouted at the Gatekeeper.

“What she said!” Jack added. It was supposed to be an insult I guess, but I don’t think Jack could think of one himself.

“Prove it,” he ordered and we all charged at him with renewed life.

I went in first this time, my sword at the ready. His huge fist came down at my head and I ducked down to avoid it. Jack hit him with an arctic blast up high and I caused a spire of rocks to hit him in the stomach causing him to fall back. As he got his footing, Aisling appeared in a flash behind him, slipped the head of her ax around his foot and pulled back, dropping him down to one knee. He spun around to land a punch, but she was already gone and Kimi was hitting him with a barrage of attacks. Jack was as well, hitting him from the opposite side with ice and snow. He punched his fists into the ground, causing two large chunks of rock to shield him from the attacks, but I instantly caused the two chunks of rock to slam into him like a sandwich, holding him in place.

“We got him on the ropes now!” Jack yelled from next to me.

“I wouldn’t be so sure!” the Gatekeeper said as he seemed to erupt from the pile of rocks and charge us. We jumped to the side and the Gatekeeper looked back and forth, trying to decide which of us to crush. He didn’t have to pick because out of nowhere Aisling’s shield flew through the air and bounced off his head.

“Over here!” Aisling yelled, waving to him as she grabbed her shield out of the air. The thing flew like a Frisbee and Aisling was able to calculate where it would fly to. I wondered if she could always do that or if it was something she trained for back at home.

“I’ll crush you,” the Gatekeeper threatened as he jumped at her and slammed the spot she was standing in. he lifted his huge hands, I guess expecting to see crushed legacy bones, but there was nothing.

“So close,” she said, standing a few feet to his right. He moved like lightning and went to punch her, but once against she vanished at the last moment. “You’re getting better.”

They went on like this for a long time until it looked like a game of whack-a-mole. The entire time, Jack and Kimi were charging for a large attack and unleashed it all at once. Ice and fire flew through the air and hit the Gatekeeper in a large explosion. Unfortunately he was still on his feet and he just looked mad, but he was breathing heavily so I started to think we were wearing him down.

“I cannot be beaten and I most certainly won’t be beaten by the four of you,” he declared as he looked at us with his dark eyes. I just sent another rock flying at him, but he grabbed it out of the air and crushed it in his hands.

“I don’t know,” Aisling taunted. “You look kind of beaten to us.”

“You dare insult me!” the Gatekeeper yelled and charged forward. He got in between all of us and began flailing around trying to hit us. Aisling easily avoided his attacks and the rest of us just managed to hold on.

“Ha! Got you!” he shouted as he picked Jack and Kimi up off the ground. He then crushed them in his hands, breaking them into pieces.

WIP