Demons vs. Humans "The War that Never Ends"

"Oh, really?" Elle said surprised.
He knew about her childhood but still expected . . .
"That's oddly surprising. Hmm," he trailed off, keeping her steady gaze.
Elle knew he wanted to ask Wren one more thing before they left ... But no. What if she said no, and was mad at him for asking? But on the other hand, if she said yes? Elle felt his stomach knot and decided to ask that sort of question another day.
"I think we should head back now. It's getting really late and the others must be worried we were kidnapped or something."

Trix stood perfectly straight in front of him. Her cruel, terrifying beauty had never shinned so brightly. Behind her the guards moaned and screamed in pain that came with burning alive, and the moon shinned brightly through all the windows. Somehow all the torches had blown out and the white moonlight kept the room lit.
"Any last words?" she said, because she wanted her victims to at least get that much.
Trix wished to torture him, but she wanted to kill him before midnight, a few seconds away.
"Tell my people . . . That I am dearly sorry I have failed them," the king said, defeated.
Trix nodded. She wouldn't tell his people that. Trix created a tiny but powerful ball of fire, and shot it through his forehead. There was a clean hole through his head. The king's body fell limp immediately.
Trix now was a ruler of this human land.
Oh . . . Oh yes.

"Surprising?" Wren asked with a small smile.
She stood up and followed Elle out of clearing, back onto the path. She hovered by his side with a smile. She wondered why it was so suprising to him... But, then again, she had though him only having one girlfriend was suprising. She glanced over at him and smirked as he still wasn't wearing his shirt. She also noticed that they were walking at a frightening proximity, close enough so if she moved her fingers out, she could touch his hand. Not that she wanted to.

Elle didn't really have an answer for that, and when his lids grew heavier through the walk, he remembered his wizard powers.
"You know, with a quick spell, I could just poof us back to the hut," Elle said lightly, finally feeling a comfortable temperature.
"Unless you want to walk back, which I'd actually prefer. It's up to you, Wren."
For some reason his chest dipped into his stomach whenever he said her name. Wren. He liked that name. Right now, all he wanted to do was collapse into his bed and take a long sleep . . .
But he smelled something quite odd. Something burning. His eyebrows raised, puzzled, until he looked to his right and saw it . . . Was it fire?

Trix stood in the throne room, sitting in the king's chair. She'd burned all the bodies to ashes and thrown them outside the window to carry in the wind. And now she had set her first step of her plan in action.
Her mind focused and Trix pictured all of the land around her in her mind. The fields, villages, people inside . . .
Fire, black fire, encircling the entire land, unable to be broken down, taller than the tallest trees . . . Imprisoning every human here inside my land.
What she imagined then appeared, an impossibly tall wall of black fire around the land. Forever burning, yet not spreading to burn down the land. Trix ran up to the top of the castle using her great speed, and rang the bell that sat on top of the castle. She rang the bell, six times. Now people would awake, if they hadn't already by the terrible smell of her fire.
Then they would realize they were all trapped, little mice in a cage...

Wren bit down on her lip. "Poof us back," she said, her eyes going wide. "Please." Her voice cracked a little and instantly, she knew what was going on. They were attacking. She grabbed onto Elle's arm, her eyes wide. "Poof. Poof. Poof. Why aren't we poofing," she said, looking up at him. They needed to warn the others.

Elle's mind couldn't focus. That horrible smell, like burning people . . . It made him want to vomit. He almost did. His blood raced, his heart pounded, he couldn't move. This is what happened whenever he panicked.
"I-I . . ."
Were the walls closing in on them? It felt like it.
Six bell rings thundered through the land, so loud that they made the ground shake. Elle almost fell over, instead he stumbled. The world was ending.
I have to make sure everyone is safe!
Elle grabbed Wren's hand without thinking. The embrace had no feeling right now, the moment was ruined. Suddenly, they were standing in the kitchen of his hut. Elle didn't let go of her hand.
"Wren, can you maybe go warn the others? I want to go to the castle to see what's going on."

Wren's stomach dropped and she nodded, pausing to face him, her hand tightening.
"Don't get hurt," she said softly. What if he did get hurt? He wouldn't He was a wzard. A smart wizard. Hopefully, he could poof in and out before anything happened. She frowned deeply, heading out to warn everyone else.
They all seemed to know, though. The bells had given it away. Most of them weren't in a panic though, collected, even seemingly relaxed. Wren couldn't wrap her head around it. How were they like this? Wren sat by the campfire and looked up at Amarrow.
"What do we do?" She asked her older sister.
"Stay alive."

Elle had poofed to the castle doors alone with everyone else. The doors were protected by another wall of black fire, and villagers were rioting, demanding to know what was happening. A woman opened the doors, protected by the walls of black fire around the castle, and looked over everyone. Elle felt fear pierce him as soon as he saw her. A silence fell upon everyone.
Some demons looked like humans. This girl didn't. Blood was all over her black body-suit, and there was a soul-less, cold look in her eyes.
"I'd like to announce that your king has been killed by yours truly, and I am now owner of this land," the girl said, exposing sharp white teeth.
Elle could feel all emotions. This was bad. So bad. It was about to get worse.
"The entire land is now surrounded by a wall of black fire. Don't bother trying to get past it, it won't work. Only I control this wall. So, in short, you're all trapped in here, and under my command. Tomorrow at sunrise I will be announcing a new set of rules for this land, and a new name. For now, you may rest. Things are going to change around here."
The girl gave a cruel smile, turned on her heel, and went back inside the castle, shutting the doors behind her.
Elle shook violently. He managed to poof to the spot where him and Wren had been so happily sitting moments ago, and began to sob.

Wren nodded to her sister and stood, rubbing her eyes and then shoving her hands in her pockets.
"I'm gonna go take a walk," she said, though her sister saw through it. She started back toward Elle's hut, her eyes stuck on the ground. She got to the hut and opened the door, slipping inside. She took a seat at the kitchen table and stared down at her hands.
She didn't really know what she was doing here, but in the corner of her eyes, she could see her sister moving around the campsite along with the others. They were probably all going to sleep now, knowing they were back. Her eyes scanned the walls of the plain room and she bit her lip. Her eyes dropped again and she sniffled. She wasn't crying, but part of her felt like she should be. Her eyes felt swollen and her breathing was slightly shaky. All she was missing were the tears.

Reo heard one of them open a thick door, the worthless heavy breathing of the human made Reo want to laugh. But nothing could be funny now, he was definitely on his way to a heavy jail, one that might not be easy to escape.
Now that the door was open, Reo knew this due to the end of the breathing, the men began to carry him down what seemed like stairs. Where they going underground? Reo did not want to be in a place where the bugs live! That would be stripping him of all his pride!
***
After descending down the long stairs, Reo couldn't help but feel himself start to drift off to sleep. He was way too exhausted to stay up anymore, and besides, if he was already in the jail he didn't need to be awake anymore...
Suddenly the tight cloth was pulled from his head and he was thrown from the men's arms. Laughter was all he heard before the loud shutting noise.
"What is going on...?" His tired eyes opened to see that he was indeed in a jail ceil, but it was a freezing cold jail ceil. He tried to find the heat in the air the way he always did to charge up his power, but nothing came to him. What is this place?!

After a good long cry, Elle decided he wanted nothing more than to curl up in his own bed. He wiped his eyes, took a deep breath, and used a spell to bring him back to his bed, already under the covers. His eyes closed, and then he heard a sniffling coming from the kitchen. A light automatically turned on, and Elle hopped up to see . . .
. . . Wren?
"Wren? What are you doing here?" Elle asked in a quiet, hoarse voice.

Wren looked up, breaking from her sleep. Elle was here in the flesh. She jolted from the seat and threw her arms around him, her heart suffering from mini palpitations. He was actually here... Then, it hit her like a truck. She had been in his house, waiting for him... Now she was hugging him... She pulled her arms away and gulped.
"Oh... I-I'm sorry," She said, looking down. Her nightmare had been as close to reality as she'd ever experienced. But Elle was here... Not out there somewhere and dead. She couldn't even understand why her relief was so great. She had only known him for a day.

"N-No, it's fine," Elle stuttered, recovering from the fact that Wren had been waiting for him and just hugged him.
Surprising himself, Elle put his thumb under her chin, and titled her head up so their eyes met. A big bloop in his tummy almost prevented him from speaking his next words.
"Wren, there's something I need to tell you about this land. We're . . ."
We're trapped. Doomed. Stuck here like mice in a cage.
He couldn't find the words, and got swallowed up in her green eyes again. Elle tried to swallow and he couldn't. All his worries were forced away, and all he could think about was Wren. It was painfully embarrassing.

Wren pursed her lips, looking down slightly and then back up. "We're what?" She asked. She felt like she already knew the answer. Trapped. It was a feeling that she got whenever something bad happened. It was like she had eaten a lead nugget and it was sinking to the pit of her stomach. She crossed her arms over her chest and bit down lightly on her lip.

"We're . . . The king was killed and a demon now rules over the land. She surrounded it all with an unbreakable wall of fire and now we're . . . Trapped."
There, he'd said it. The words were out there. Elle took his thumb off her chin and was suddenly they were standing really close. He scratched the back of his neck, trying to think of something else to say, but his mind was running blank. Elle didn't know how he'd sleep tonight.
"I don't know what to do anymore," Elle said, defeated.

"I know," Wren said. "Amarrow told me."
Hesitantly, she wrapped her arms around Elle again. She stomach dropped and she bit her lip a little harder. Her eyebrows were furrowed, giving her a determined look, but the only she was detemind to do was to not cry. It was hard not to feel like the world was crashing down around them.
Part of her just wanted to give up, but that was a quitersway out. They just needed to stay alive.
Stay alive.

Elle felt his stomach lift more as Wren hugged him, and he wrapped his arms around her waist. Putting his head over her shoulder, he started to let silent tears fall from his eyes.
"I just don't know what we'll do, Wren . . . That demon, she's going to enslave us all, or torture us, or kill us, there's no doubt . . . We're all going to die," Elle said, holding back sobs.
At least he had Wren to comfort him. If she wasn't there, holding her arms around him, Elle feared his body would break apart into jagged, useless pieces.

Wren's arms tightened around him and she shook her head.
"No, we're not," She said. She was a demon, he was a wizard, they had a group of healers. Something they did had to be good enough to work in their favor. She sighed and felt okay, like something wasn't going completely wrong. Maybe luck was on their side.

Elle dropped his arms and took a step back. They needed to talk seriously now.
"Wren, face it. She's got us trapped here, she must be really strong if she killed the king, and she rules over all this land. We're sitting ducks. What if we wake up to fire bombs she drops? What if she takes control of wizards and forces them to make a spell killing all healers? If we don't die tonight, it's only a matter of time before we do. It's over Wren."
He stopped, the words had come out with knives, each one scraping up his throat as he said them. The bitter reality of their situation hit him harder, when he realized this might be the last moment alone he had with Wren.

Wren gritted her teeth together and shook her head. She refused to believe him. Her eyes met his with a form of seriousness she hadn't ever felt before. She wasn't going to believe him even if the truth was slapping her in the face. "Then what do we do until that happens?" She asked, curious to see if he had any plan. She didn't have a single thought running through her head except: what if this is the last time we're both alive together?

"Until we are killed by the demon ruler?" Elle re-phrased.
He thought a moment, looking down at the floor and then meeting her eyes again, "I guess we wait and enjoy our last days. There's no escaping that wall, or this hell, so we mine as well-"
Elle couldn't talk anymore. This was it. He could finally realize it was over now. His chest heaved, he bit his lip, but he couldn't hold it in.
I'm going to die.
Without warning, he threw his arms around Wren again, beginning to loudly and heavily sob, the tears flowing like a water-fall from his eyes. Elle couldn't stop himself. This was too terrible. It couldn't be real. But it was.
We're all going to die.

Wrenstayed there for a moment, running her hand through Elle's hair. She was feeling some seriously maternal instincts right now and they were breaking through.She took a deep breath and pulled back, looking at his face and wiping tears off his cheeks with her thumbs.
"You said it youself. We need to enjoy ourselves. We have right now to start," she said, but her eyes didn't meet his.

"Look at me, Wren," Elle said in a raspy voice, "how can we enjoy ourselves when we feel like this? I suggested it, I know, but . . . Well, I guess we better do something other than cry about it."
Elle gave a weak smile, and gently pushed back some hair that had been hanging in Wren's face, tucking it behind her ear.
"We could start with getting a good night's sleep," he suggested, but he had another idea in his mind, looking at Wren like this.
He could ask her the question he wanted to earlier. Would it be the right time? He mine as well, they were running out of time.
"Wren, first, can I ask you something?" Elle said, recovered from his breakdown but still sniffling a little.

Wren raised one eyebrow and met his eyes. She could act like thi because she was a hard core optimist.
"What do you need?" She asked, biting her lip gently. She was curious now and it gnawed at her mind. A good nights sleep sounded great right now, she thought to herself. But not yet. She needed to know. And she wanted something that would stall from her having to sleep on the ground in a tent.

Reo's hands went to grip the bars, but they were even colder than the air, causing him to flinch and fall back. When did the humans make a place like this? He thought, sucking on his sore fingers. It was as if they were trying to keep him from using his powers, which they were.
Reo didn't want to have the thought, but all he could think of was how he couldn't possibly be able to get out of here now.

"I know we don't have much time left, but I know that . . . Whatever we have left, I want to spend if with you," Elle said slowly, staring into her eyes the entire time as he said it.
"I wanted to know if you'd like to spend your last few days with me as . . . As together."
Elle hoped she was getting the right message. He didn't want to say "go out with me". He wanted it to be special. And if Wren rejected him, Elle told himself that he was going to die in the next few days so it wouldn't be too bad to deal with the pain of it. Elle was shaking slightly as he waited for her answer.