Dreaming of saving Lillivale

           She stood barefoot on the scorched ground trying to take a clean breath through the rancid, billowing smoke and watched as the last of the monsters fell into a pile of ash at the end of a fiery blade. The warriors should be thrilled, as they had won the night, but she felt deep in her soul that something was coming for them all. 

Rampage, her most trusted follower, came to stand next to her. He wiped a soiled hand across his forehead, smearing the savage evidence of war over his battle-scarred face. “Lady Evan, what are your orders now?”

Evan wiped the blood on her tunic before she sheathed her swords. “Something is wrong. I can feel it.” She scanned her golden eyes over the blackened landscape and seethed. “This is not the end, Rampage. But I don’t understand why. Did you kill the leader of this rebellion as I asked you to?”

“We did. I removed her head with my axe.” 

Evan nodded. “Then what? What is coming?”

“I will absolutely not go out with him.” Katie twirled her bright pink hair as she rolled her eyes at her best friend, Joe. 

Joe pouted. “Come on, Katie. Duke won’t go out with me unless I bring a date for his friend Dexter.” 

“Dexter is a serial killer’s name, Joe. Plus, the last time you set me up, I had two hours of talking about politics with a gross man who smelled like cabbage.” 

“Okay. That was a misstep. But this time I’ll be there.” 

“No.” Katie kissed him on the cheek before she grabbed her coat and danced away. “I’m super busy tonight.” Walking backwards towards the bookstore doors, she waved her fingers at Joe. “I have to wash my hair, have a headache, and I think my back is broken.” 

“You’re a bitch, Katie. I swear.” He rolled his eyes at her. 

Laughing, she turned and ran smack into a wall of cloth. “Oh crap, sorry.” She stumbled back and stared into eyes that almost seemed to glow---so gold and beautiful… his face wasn’t shabby either. “Maybe not that sorry.”

The man furrowed his brow at her before she skipped away through the doors. He watched her until she reached the automobile, then walked to the pretty man behind the counter. “I need Kathryn McHappenly. Where is she?”

Joe eyed the man with an internal sigh. All the cute ones were straight. “Katie? You just ran into her.” Joe pointed to the car speeding away. “She’ll be back tomorrow. Can I give her a message?”

“No.” The man stomped out of the building, blended into the air, and ran after Katie’s car, careful to avoid the human’s gaze. 

He watched her pull up to a quaint little cottage and leave her automobile in the street. He walked through the door into the house behind her and watched as she tossed her coat onto a yellow threadbare chair and drop her bag onto the whitewashed wooden floor next to it. She hummed under her breath as she grabbed two boxes from her cold box and seemed to debate them before shrugging and tossing one back inside. She carried the other to the counter and shoved the smaller box into an electric fire container before turning it on. 

She left the kitchen, and he followed her to a small room that held a medium-sized bed with a multicolored blanket and teal dressers. When she went to pull off her top, he spun on his heel and left the room. The ring on his finger buzzed, and he glanced at it… one hour. He only had one hour left to bring Katie home. He stood debating on what the best course of action was… he could knock on the door and try to explain the truth to her. Or he could grab her and run. As he was thinking, she came back out in heavy black sweatpants, a tiny black tank top with a cartoon cat on the front, and fuzzy pink slippers.  

He made his decision.

Katie bent to retrieve the frozen dinner from the microwave as she went over her schedule for the night in her head and hummed a tune under her breath. 

 “Kathryn?” He said as he appeared in her living room. 

Katie screamed as she dropped her food onto the floor. “Who are you? Why are you here?” She grabbed a kitchen knife from the wall. “You try something and I’ll cut your balls off.” 

He raised an eyebrow and subconsciously took a step back. “You won’t be needing to do that, Kathryn.”

“Leave or I’m calling the cops.” 

He heaved a heavy sigh and rolled his eyes. His ring buzzed again. Time was almost up. “I am Ravage.”

“Great. I’ll give your name to the police.” Katie reached into her sweatpants’ pocket for her phone. 

“Your mother’s last vestige of magic was used to send me here to bring you home.”

Katie froze. “My mother?” she whispered as the blood drained out of her face. “Leave.” She pointed at the door. 

“Only with you, My Lady.” 

With a shaky hand, Katie tried to dial 911. But Ravage was there to snatch the phone from her hand. “I’ve got no time for this,” he snarled, and goosebumps spread over Katie’s skin. Ravage wrapped an arm around her waist and rolled his eyes as she screamed while they disappeared. 

Katie and Ravage landed with a thud on blackened, dead ground. After catching her breath, Katie shoved him away as she scrambled up. The air smelled of rotten eggs and burnt meat; she covered her nose with her forearm as she surveyed the new land. 

“Where did you take me?” she shuddered as a tiny iridescent creature slithered over her slipper. 

Ravage dusted off his coat as he stood. “Home. You’re home, Kathryn.” 

She finally brought her wide-eyes’ to his and stumbled back as his golden eyes glowed in the darkness and billowing smoke. “Home? To hell?” she asked. Katie had grown up bouncing around foster homes with a garbage bag and dirty shoes. The story goes that she’d been left on the doorstep one day and no one knew where she’d come from. 

“Hell? No. It’s Lillivale.” 

She grimaced as she stared out over the devastated landscape. Rotting bodies filled the scorched ground as far as the eye could see. The heat from the lava that flowed through cracks in the surface brought sweat beading onto her skin. The stench and oppressive smog made it hard to draw air into her lungs. 

She said, “what a lovely place.” 

He snarled at her sarcasm. “It used to be the most beautiful place full of ivory fields with gem-colored flowers as far as the eyes could see and the bluest clear sky. Now it’s nothing but death and darkness.” 

“What happened?”

Ravage stomped to her and held out his hand. A shimmering mist took shape, and he smiled at Katie’s gasp when the pictures began to form. Ravage stood with a beautiful pregnant woman in front of a large, white stone castle. 

“Who’s that?” Katie asked. 

Ravage cleared his throat. “My wife and daughter.” 

“Oh. She is beautiful. How old is your baby now?”

Ravage hissed and switched the picture. “They are both dead,” he said, simply. “This was your mother.”

           Katie stared at a woman with short black hair and bright golden eyes. “Where is she?” 

           “Dead.”

           Teary-eyed, Katie glanced at him. “Is everyone dead here?”

           “Seems that way sometimes, but no.” The picture changed once more. “This is Lady Evan and her consort Rampage.”

           “He looks like you,” Katie said. 

           “My brother. Lady Evan was jealous and upset with your mother. So, she burned the world down and spared no one her wrath. She’s killed your mother’s entire army of creatures.” Ravage flung his arm to encompass the killing fields. “And then Rampage killed your mother. So now you must take her place as the leader.” 

           Katie laughed hysterically as she backed away from Ravage. “A leader? I work at a bookstore, drive a hand-me-down car, and I can’t even send my food back at a restaurant, let alone lead anyone.” 

           Ravage grabbed her hand and squeezed. “You are all there is left to save our world, Kathryn. You must find it in yourself to lead us.” 

           Lady Evan watched the exchange in her magic ball and sipped red wine from the goblet her dear husband had given her on their marriage day. She clicked her tongue as Ravage disappeared with the girl into the place she was forbidden from seeing. 

           “Your brother is a problem.” 

           Rampage laid on her red silk bed with only a sheet covering him. “What’s he done now?” 

           “Found the Lord’s daughter.” 

           “What?” Rampage got up without a care to modesty and stalked over to Evan. “The one he spawned with the witch?” 

           “Aye. It’s the only one he had, isn’t it? I thought I’d asked you to kill the squalling creature moments after she’d slid from her traitorous mother’s womb.” Evan side-eyed Rampage. 

           “I’d been told she died at birth, My Lady.” Rampage flushed as he watched Evan attempt to control her anger. 

           “Told by whom?”

           He sighed. “Ravage.” 

           Evan laughed without humor and flicked Rampage hard into the wall. “You’re a soft-headed dolt, Rampage---only good for muscle and a romp.” She stormed out of her chambers. “As they say, if you want it done, you must do it yourself.” She muttered. 

           Katie spent the evening adjusting to life in the intricate series of caves that housed hundreds of what Ravage had called “her” people. Overwhelmed, she watched a woman dressed like a Victorian tomboy heft a toddler onto her hip before a large burly man with eyes like headlights twirled her around to an odd musical number. Kids ran and played with an innocence that seemed in stark contrast to their surroundings. 

           “You look overwhelmed, My Lady.” Ravage sat next to her and handed her a horn style cup with something with a sweet smell sloshing around inside. 

           “Can you blame me?” she replied.

           “No. Would it help to know that your mother didn’t want to let you go? But if you’d had stayed here, Lady Evan would’ve had you killed.” Ravage tossed me a sad smile. “With your mother’s magic, I hid you in the human world.” 

           “You? You don’t look that much older than me.” 

           He laughed. “I suppose I am not... now. Time is… different in this realm. It was only three months ago when I left you on that doorstep with the fire sign in the front.” 

           Katie gaped. “Three months? I’m twenty-six.” 

           He leaned back and nodded. “I’m aware.” In silence, they watched the other carrying on. “A year ago, there were many more of us,” Ravage murmured. 

“What angered this Lady Evan?”

Ravage sighed. “You happened, My Lady.” 

“Me? I was an infant. How is this my fault?”

“I did not say it was your fault, Kathryn. I said it happened because of you. There’s a difference.” He inclined his head when a young girl gave him a fresh drink. “Thank you, Quicken.” The little girl smiled at him before skipping off. 

“Are you going to explain why I’m the cause?”

“Your mother fell in love with a stranger who visited her in the woods. I asked that she pay heed to whom she was sharing herself with, but she’d assured me he was her truest love,” Ravage grumbled as he leaned forward to rest his hands on his knees. “However, it turned out that the one she’d fallen in love with was actually Lord Dextrous husband to Lady Evan.” 

“Ah…” 

“Yes. Ah… Well, she was already with child when she’d discovered the heartbreaking truth and when Lady Evan found out…” He flipped his hand to the people hiding in caves. 

Katie nodded in understanding. “Is my father alive?”

“As far as I know, he is being held captive in the prison at the base of the Valendeal Castle.” 

“Valendeal?”

“That’s his last name. And I suppose yours as well, Kathryn Valendeal.” 

“What is my mother’s name?”

“Gehenna.” 

“Doesn’t that mean state of misery? That’s a fun name,” Katie mumbled. 

Ravage shrugged, but chuckled under his breath at the look on her face. “Not so odd around here.” 

“Why did she name me Kathryn?” 

“I did.” 

“You did? Why?”

He shrugged. “You needed a name. And someone walked by with the nametag on, seemed like a human name.” 

“What a special story, Ravage,” she snarked.

“You are very sarcastic, Kathryn. It’s grating.” He shook his head as he left to join the others in a song. 

The darkness had fallen, and the caves were silent. Kathryn lay in the heavy blankets that Ravage had given her and desperately tried to fall asleep. A beautiful tune floated into her head, drowning her in the song. She stood and followed the music as if drawn by the sound. Taking delicate steps to avoid waking Ravage, she made it to the mouth of the cave. There in the darkness was a glowing woman with long blonde locks and a white gown. 

She beckoned to Kathryn to step towards her. “I’ve been awaiting you, My Lady.” 

The woman’s soft voice soothed Katie, and she sighed. “Who are you?”

“I’m a gift bringer. Come and take your favorite treat.” The woman held out a brownie to Katie. 

Her stomach grumbled. “How did you know I love brownies?”

“I know much.” 

Katie walked towards the woman, but inside her own head, she screamed at herself to stop. Something was wrong, but she had no control over her own limbs. The woman smiled as Katie reached up to take the treat and laughed as she bit into it. As Katie swallowed, the brownie slipped from her hand to crumble onto the charred ground and her knees buckled. Ravage bellowed as he shot a fireball towards the woman in white. 

Lady Evan dodged the magic and laughed. “Too late, Ravage,” she said as she faded away into the darkness. 

Katie’s glassy eyes stared through him as her breathing continued to slow. “I am so sorry, Kathryn.” He carried her back into the caves and they all surrounded her while she faded to a place beyond their reach. 

“Katie!”

 A loud knock woke her, and she sat up, groggy from her wicked odd dream. Trying to shake it off, she walked to the door and the moment her name was shouted again; she yanked it open, and Joe stood there in full-blown panic. 

“What? What’s wrong?” Her own heart raced as she looked at him. 

“I haven’t heard from you for like a week, Katie. My god. I almost called the police. And would have if you hadn’t answered.” 

A week? Katie had flashes of Ravage’s face and a simple tune; she forced a smile for Joe. “I’ve been super ill. Sorry I worried you. Come on in.” 

“Are you still sick?” He covered his mouth and nose with his hand. 

She laughed. “No. But I do have to tell you about the fever dream I had.” 

“Oh? Can’t wait.” 

Ravage leaned on his elbows and rested his chin on his hands while he watched over Kathryn’s body. He hadn’t even managed to keep her alive a day here. She was gone because of him and with her went any chance they had at rebellion. 

“Rav.” 

Ravage stiffened at his brother’s voice but didn’t bother to turn, instead murmuring, “you won, Rampage. Are you here to finish the job?”

“I’d never kill you when you were unarmed, Ravage. I am a lot of things, but a coward isn’t one.” Rampage sat down next to his brother. 

“What do I do now, Ram?” Ravage’s stark eyes bored into his brother. 

“We find a way to beat Lady Evan and save our people, Ravage.” 

They sat together as the hours grew dim and the fire’s glow warmed them. And plotted to save their world.