Lena Matthews
The wind started to pick up around me. I quickly tied my hair out of my face and tried to follow the wolf's gaze. Her yellow eyes were fixated on the distance, but I couldn't see anything yet. I took my glasses off and rubbed them on my sweater to see if that would help. Everyone was starting to pick up on our uneasiness and murmured among themselves nervously. When I put my glasses back on, something caught my eye.
A small green light was blinking back at me from the podium onstage. I shivered unexpectedly and looked up. It was beginning to snow. A feeling of dread filled my body as I realized that it was only snowing around me.
"She's coming." I whispered. I looked over at the wolf, who was still drawn to something in the distance. She crouched, ready to strike at any moment.
The circle of snow around me expanded, and the wind became more intense. Its chill cut through my skin like it was nothing. My body tensed in fear as I stared helplessly at the yuki onna.
Her pale face had that same smile. Her long white kimono still flapped in the wind like a disgraced angel's wing. Her long black hair was still fanned out around her, shrouding her white silhouette in darkness. The cold got worse, clawing its way into my heart. Aaliyah howled, the piercing sound echoing inside my chest. Her teeth were bared in preparation to avenge what had been taken. The anger was personal, and I could feel it radiating from her.
The yuki onna didn't move, but her expression twisted into something more menacing. The snow around us froze and the wind died with an abruptness that made my ears ring.
Then, the wolf vanished. It was as if she had never been here. Everyone stared in shock, paralyzed with the rest of the world. I needed to run, or fight, or do something, but my body refused to move. My hope had shattered the second the wolf had vanished. The Forbidden crowd watched me with bated breath as the yuki onna floated forward. She stopped, her face chillingly close to mine.
My body shook uselessly as waves of uncontrollable shivers coursed through it. I couldn't summon fire anymore, but I couldn't bring nature to my aid either.
The yuki onna pulled a white arm from the folds of her kimono, and brushed her long, cold fingers across my cheek. I tried to scream, but the only thing I could do was stare at her empty eyes and wait to see if this would be enough for me to die again.
The silence broke with a small whizzing sound that cut through the air. I caught the silver glint of a dagger as it expertly glided past the yuki onna and slashed her shoulder. The yuki onna retreated instantly, but my shaking wouldn't stop. I turned to see that Jessica was the only Forbidden standing, her eyes glowing a murderous red.
Then someone pressed play on the world again.
As the snow swirled angrily, the Forbidden prepared to fight back. Before I could even blink, Carter had rushed to my side and dragged me behind the stage.
"Why... why can't I-" I could barely force my chapped lips to move in the cold.
"I think I have a good idea of what's going on," said Carter. He touched the grass beneath him. It had been coated in a layer of suffocating frost. Everything nearby was suffering the same way, and I couldn't cut off my connection with nature.
My phone vibrated, and I managed to get it out of my pocket. I was getting a call from Finn.
"Stay here." Carter instructed. "I'm going to help them."
It wasn't like I was planning on moving. Carter sped away from me, and I decided to answer the phone. "Bad... time." I told Finn.
"You're there, aren't you? The meeting thing." said Finn. He sounded panicked.
"How... how did you know?" I asked.
"Dad knew about the meeting. Somehow, he knew. And he set up cameras. If the Forbidden reveal themselves, it's evidence." said Finn. "Look for the green lights. You need to break all of them now. I don't think they're transmitting, but they are recording, and Dad's going to get them after the meeting."
"No..." I muttered. The yuki onna was there, plain as day, and if four or more Forbidden fought back, then Atalka's fate would be sealed. Finn hung up, and I curled into a tight ball, too cold to even move.
"Why did you wake her up?" Kiara snapped at Jerome. "I mean, none of this would have-" Kiara stopped short when she saw me. "Ivy? What happened?"
She, Jerome, and Aaliyah all sprinted to my side. Without hesitation, they removed their jackets and blanketed me in layers until I could stand.
"What's wrong with her?" Jerome asked.
"It's the yuki onna." said Kiara. She and Aaliyah let me lean on them as I walked around the stage. The wind was still putting up a fight, and snow blocked most of my vision.
"Ki!" Taylor yelled against the howling wind.
"How is it this bad?" Kiara shouted back. "There's like fifty of them and one of her!"
"Mrs. Pearce won't let anyone attack!" Taylor shouted. "Do you think you can do something?"
"I can try and get in her head, but I'm not good at it!" Kiara warned. She motioned to Jerome, and he took over helping me walk. When we made it to a row of chairs, he and Aaliyah gingerly set me down. I glanced at the leg of the chair I was sitting on. There was a green light.
"What?" Jerome asked, noticing that I was looking at something intensely. I pointed to the light. Jerome followed my finger and pried the camera off the chair.
"It's not working!" Kiara shouted.
"How is it not working?" Taylor asked.
"I can't get in her head because someone's already there!" Kiara yelled back.
"Hey guys?" Jerome asked. "I think we have another problem." He held up the camera for everyone to see.
"The Agency." said Taylor, staring at the camera. "There has to be more." She glanced around, but trying to pin down tiny green lights in a blizzard was impossible.
The snow began to wane, and I could finally see the scene unfolding before me. The yuki onna was floating above everything, and almost every Forbidden was in its Forbidden form. A terrifying rank composed of the xiezhi, jiangshi, kappa, and several others was rallying in front of the stage. Mrs. Pearce stood firmly at her podium, commanding that no one move. As I scanned the Forbidden, I could feel my stomach sink. This was way more than five. It was over.
"Watch Ivy!" Kiara instructed Jerome. She bolted with Taylor and Aaliyah in search of cameras.
As the snow faded, ice started to creep everywhere, climbing up the chairs, stage, and even the Forbidden themselves, locking them to the ground.
"What in the..." Jerome muttered. He jumped onto a chair when ice started to get onto his shoes. "You know what? I liked these shoes. They were nice. But I can't have my damn shoes because magic is real and it doesn't want me to have nice things."
"Everybody fall back!" one of the members of the Forbidden Court, Robert, commanded. The Forbidden backed away obediently. Mrs. Pearce stood tall, her eyes narrowed in defiance.
"Don't." she stated calmly.
A column of fire exploded into the sky. Robert was gone, but in his place stood a giant beast. Red scales, each one with a deadly glint, covered his body. Ice struggled to entrap his talons, but the innate heat of the Forbidden dragon vaporized it with a harsh hiss. The rows of chairs were blanketed in shadows as the dragon raised his wings. The dragon craned his long neck until his snout was level with Mrs. Pearce, but she remained unshaken.
"We're not low enough to kill. That's why we're here. Nothing else matters." said Mrs. Pearce evenly.
"I need a nap. Or a drink. Or both." I could hear Jerome murmur under his breath.
The dragon took an inhale, and I could see through the slits in his neck that fire was building. The dragon pointed his neck to the sky and, with a deafening screech, launched a terrifying cascade of fire into the heavens.
Jerome and I watched in wonder as bright orange broke through the gray sky. A wave of heat hit my face, and I had to hide beneath one of the coats I was wearing to keep it from stinging. Cold could sharply attack the places that hurt the most, but heat was different. Just as powerful, but not as cunning.
"She's gone." Jerome told me. When I looked back up, the snow and wind had disappeared, and the yuki onna was nowhere to be seen. I shrugged off my extra jackets and looked around. The Forbidden were people again, and almost all of them were clamoring at Mrs. Pearce in anger.
The cold was gone, but I still couldn't move. I was locked in a state of shock, struggling to process everything I had just witnessed.
"I think this is all of them." said Kiara, dumping a small pile of broken tech onto my lap. She, Taylor, Kiara, and now Carter all had broken devices in their hands. They were no longer glowing green, and probably never would again without some serious repairs.
"How did you know to look for them?" Jerome asked me.
"I just... did." I answered blankly.
"It has to be the Agency. They have to be here." said Taylor. "We need to tell the Court now so we can kill them."
"I'm sorry, kill?" Aaliyah questioned.
"Isn't that a little much?" Jerome added.
"You don't know the Agency, and you don't know how they're trained to think. They're little cogs in a machine that need to be disassembled, and they can't function any other way. We need to exterminate them." said Taylor, her words passionate.
"I don't think we can tell the Court." I mumbled.
As much as I struggled with my family, I didn't want them dead. I knew that none of the Forbidden would hesitate the moment they learned about our ties to the Agency. Years of fearing the Agency had made the Forbidden heartless. Just like how years of fearing the Forbidden had made the Agency heartless.
"Why not?" Carter asked. "Do you know something we don't?"
"Just that we can't act right now. This is some pretty advanced tech, but that doesn't automatically mean Agency. This town has so many Forbidden it's insane. The cameras could be from some paranormal investigators or something. If we say it's the Agency, then we could get some innocent people killed. I don't know about you, but I couldn't live with that." I said, the lie flowing naturally.
"I agree with the redhead." said Aaliyah. "We can't be the kids who cried wolf."
"We can't do nothing." Kiara argued. "This is serious."
"Let's just give this until Friday." I suggested. "I think I know who the yuki onna is, and we're going to pay her a visit."
"Who?" Carter asked.
"Fuyuko Kazama." I announced proudly.
"No, who's going to visit the yuki onna?" Carter corrected.
"I want to go." Kiara volunteered.
"Then I'll stay back and watch Jane-Anne," said Taylor. "She's calmed down, but I can't leave her alone."
"Who's Jane-Anne? Is she a kid you're supposed to babysit?" Aaliyah asked.
"I mean..." I wasn't sure how to explain that situation to a couple of outsiders.
"I want to go too." said Aaliyah. "This Fuyuko Kazama ruined my life."
"She took him from me, too." Jerome agreed. "So I'm going."
"Well, looks like everyone except Taylor is going," said Carter. "I need to be there. She took one of my best friends too."
"I'm sorry about that." said Jerome.
"Alright, so it's settled," said Taylor. "Now let's get out of here before this situation gets any worse."
"What do you want to do with this, then?" Kiara asked, staring at the disposed cameras.
"Give them to me." I decided.
"Why?" Carter asked.
"Don't worry, I'm not going to destroy them or anything." I promised.
Carter narrowed his eyes at me. He must have noticed that my heart had been racing this entire conversation. I couldn't shake the suspicion that he knew. Had he heard my phone call with Finn? Were all of my lies finally backfiring?
I couldn't discern reality from paranoia anymore, so I tried not to think about it as Taylor drove me home. I stood at my doorway, a plastic bag filled with the dismantled cameras in my hand. Cautiously, I peered into the house to make sure that Finn would answer the door, and not my father.
Finn spotted me through the window and dashed to the door to unlock it. As soon as the door opened, he hugged me.
"What was that for?" I asked, shoving Finn away.
"I'm just really glad you're okay," said Finn. "When Dad mentioned hiding cameras at some Forbidden meeting, I had a feeling you would be there. You talked about the Forbidden like you knew them personally."
"Well, you were right." I said. I held up the bag. "And I got all of them."
"Are you sure?" Finn asked. "If one of them is still there and Dad finds it, then-"
"You don't need to remind me." I interjected.
"So at the meeting, you saw real Forbidden?" Finn asked.
"I don't really want to talk about it." I said.
"What were they like? Do they act like people?" Finn asked, his curiosity becoming apparent.
"They do, otherwise I wouldn't be doing any of this. You're Forbidden too, don't forget that." I added.
"It's different, right? With us, I mean." said Finn. His words exposed what he still didn't know.
"Not in any way that matters." I explained. I paced around the living room until I could hear the creaky floorboard. I pried the plank off the floor and tucked the bag in the tiny gap that resided there. It managed to fit between Fuyuko's stuff. I grabbed the floorboard and pushed it back into place until it clicked.
"A way that matters? What does that mean?" Finn asked.
"Whatever you think it means." I responded vaguely. I wasn't sure what I had meant either. "Look, you need to convince Dad to drop this mission. He listens to you a lot more than he listens to me. They're onto us, and we need to get out after Friday."
"What's happening on Friday?" Finn asked.
"I found the yuki onna." I said flatly. "So I'm going to do what I have to."
A/N: Happy Valentine's Day! Whether you're single like me or have a special someone, I hope today treats you well. The Gate just won first in the Enchanted Awards with a perfect score, which is super exciting! Speaking of exciting, the next chapter is going to be a doozy, but it's also one of my favorites. Actually, all of these last chapters have a special place in my heart. This is when the story finally pays off. I really hope you guys enjoy. And thank you from the bottom of my heart. I am so grateful that you guys have been taking time out of your day to read this special little story. I've really put my heart into it these past few months, and all of your comments have been so wonderful.
QOTD: Idk id I've done this already, but if you were a Forbidden, what would you be?