Queens of Fate

Chapter 3. Showdown at the OK Paint Ball Field

          “Japan?” Sarah asked loftily as they walked to William's car, a red Plymouth '92 with the roof slowly giving way to rust.

          “I didn't see you helping.” He answered, pushing the key into the door. “Besides, she bought it.”

          James started to say “I don't think she did...”

         William looked at his friend and leered, pulling the car door open. “So, what was it like?”

         James looked down at his feet, blood rising again to his face, and quietly said, “I didn't do anything.”

         “Don't be so modest, Master James. . .” Luna said absent-mindedly as she looked carefully at the door, touched the glass, and flicked her index finger. The bolt of the car lock shifted up suddenly. James thought, just for a second, he could see a green hand reach through the class and pull up the lock. She smiled back at him. “. . .it was dreamy.”

         “HA!” William laughed, and crawled into the driver's seat. Luna slid into the backseat and motioned with her finger for James to join her, but Sarah stepped in between them.

         “I don't think so Luna. James can ride shotgun this time.” She pushed Luna further in and sat down next to her, ignoring the dirty look. James slid into the front seat.

         “So, Master William. What is this machine?”

         “It's a 'car', dear.” Sarah said sweetly. “And this is the 'seat belt' I'm going to strangle you with if you try any more little magic tricks. So keep your hands where I can see them and enjoy the ride, capiche?”

         “Capiche?” Luna responded, looking at the seat belt uncomfortably.

         Sarah sighed. “Never mind. Just keep your hands where I can see them.”

         Luna smiled at her, placed her hands neatly in her lap, and said dangerously, “Like this, Mistress?”

         “Exactly.”

         James watched the two in the rear view mirror. He watched Luna jump a little when the car started to move, and then quickly regain her composer. Who is she?

         Luna looked back at him through the mirror, and smiled.

         “I'm the Eye of the Golden Sun, Luna, one of the three.”

         Who are the other two? James thought, and the girl with blond hair from his dreams flashed into his mind just as the brakes squealed and he slid forward into the dash board.

         “What the hell is wrong with you!?” Sarah shouted angrily.

         “Some dumb woman walked in front of my car?”

         James looked around wildly. No one.

         “Where, William? Where is she?” Sarah demanded.

         William looked confused, as if, for the first time in his life, he had actually been confronted with a situation for which he didn't have a snappy comeback.

         “I—I didn't hit her, did I? Shit!” He sounded terrified.

         And before he had finished he lept out of the car, looking underneath. Everyone else quickly jumped out as well.

         “Thank god! Oh thank god!” William breathed in relief. “I saw her. She was right in front of us.”

         “What did she look like?” James asked.

         “I don't know. She had blond hair. She was wearing a white dress.” He hesitated for a moment. “She had big breasts?”

         Sarah groaned, “Well let's call a sketch artist, Will. Sounds like you have a positive ID on her!“

         “Did she have blue eyes?” Luna asked, her voice cold.

         William looked at her, and slowly nodded, “Y—Yeah! Exactly! Blue eyes!”

         Sarah snorted, “You were doing forty, William. You didn't see what color eyes she had.”

         “I'm serious! They were like the ocean, or something.”

         “Then they would be more blue-green, William. Were they blue green?” Sarah noted smartly and sarcastically.

         William didn't seem to get the joke. “Nah. They were blue. Blue like--” William thought for a moment, “--I dunno.”

         Sarah sighed, “Get in the car, William. We're going to be late.” She stepped back into the backseat and slammed the door.”

         “Yeah.” William muttered, and got in, closing his door slowly, leaving James and Luna outside.

         “That's the other girl from my dreams, Luna.”

         Luna kept staring down the road.

         “Who was she?”

         She waited a long time to answer. “I don't know, Master James.”

         “Then how did you know she had blue eyes?”

         “Just a dream I had.” She looked back at him, her eyes sad.

         “Okay.” James got into the car, and Luna slowly walked back around to the backseat, looking around the neighborhood for a woman with blond hair and unnaturally blue eyes.

         “Stay away from him, Stella.”

         It was twenty more minutes to the paint ball field, a five story abandoned warehouse on the south side of the inner city, and no one talked the rest of the way. However, by the time they were standing in line outside the door, waiting to sign up, William had recovered and had resumed his lecture of Luna on paint ball skill from the previous night.

         “. . .that would be called--?”

         “The pincer, Master William.”She repeated the answer, but looked more than a little confused.

         “Exactly! Great memory you have!” he exclaimed, and continued, “Now, to make that work, everyone needs to spread out, but one person needs to stay in the middle to provide---?”

         Luna looked at James, who whispered 'suppression fire'.

         William groaned in exasperation, “No, James! It's cover fire!”

         “It's suppression fire, William.” James argued.

         “Sarah?”

         “It's suppression, William. The other three spread out. One stays and keeps shooting to keep the others hidden.”

         “Bwa! What do you guys know about paint ball anyways. Yo! We're here to sign up!”

         They were at the front of the line facing a bored looking attendant with a goatee and a clipboard. “Team name?”

         “The Golden Sun.” They all said at once.

         “Four members? You'll start round two. Feel free to watch until then.”

         “Hey! No gear?” William demanded.

         “Nope. Too many people think its funny to practice in the catwalk.” The attendant looked around William.

         “You wanted to practice didn't you?” Sarah asked, smiling as they walked through the doorway and up the stairs.

         “Of course I did! How on Earth are we supposed to be ready without a warm up? Luna hasn't even fired a paint gun before!”

         “I guess they don't want stray shots going onto the field and interfering with the match.” James offered.

         “But that's part of the game, James! You know that!”

         James shuddered, remembering the last paint ball tournament. It was the only paintball tournament William and he hadn't at least placed together. They had been disqualified. William had started firing into the field from above, during the matches, as warm up.

         They emerged onto the catwalks. The paint ball field was actually inside an abandoned two story warehouse. Instead of a ceiling, directly over the play area there was a clear, fiberglass sheet and above it was a network of catwalks that spectators could look down on the field from.

         Below, the first round had already began. Four teams in colored blazers were each ducking behind crates and other randomly distributed debris and firing at each other. The red team was just camping: waiting for the other teams to bleed each other. The green team was slowly making its way around to the yellow side, but they didn't notice that yellow and black weren't firing at each other. Two of black's team members had actually moved a little forward and were setting up to shoot at green from behind. The two teams had obviously talked a little before the tournament, which was against the rules.

         “This is a game?” Luna asked uncertainly.

         William groaned, “It's B.S., that's what it is. Green is dead meat, then Black has Yellow surrounded, and Red won't do anything because they are a bunch of cowards. Then it will be Black and Red, but Black has the center, which will make it easy for them to surround Red. Black wins.”

         Sarah rolled her eyes, “It's not chess, William.”

         “Something's not right.” James said, “Yellow wouldn't be that stupid.”

          * BOOM *

************

         James was lying on a stone table in a pile of twigs and sticks. He couldn't move. Standing over him were two figures in dark robes, hoods pulled over their heads.

         “Do it.” He heard himself say in a gravelly voice, and the two took off their hoods and nodded. They were Sarah and someone else, the blond woman.

         A woman was pounding on the door outside and screaming something, he couldn't hear it clearly.

         Sarah lit the fire and it quickly consumed him.

***********

         It was dark and once again James found himself on the ground. All the sounds of the crowd around them and of the paint ball match were gone and the old warehouse was pitch black. There was a dry crumbling sound somewhere near by, like a statue falling apart, like..

         ...like the gargoyle with the eye. The Child of Orashi.

         “Sarah?” James whispered. No answer.

         “William?”

         “Luna?”

         “Be silent, Master James. It is very dangerous.” A green light slowly started to appear nearby, coming from a green orb in the palms of Luna's hands. All around them, people were lying on the ground, motionless.

         “Are-are they dead?”

         Luna looked nervous, and glanced around in the darkness. “No. But we will be if we don't leave now. Look.” She pointed off into the darkness at the figures.

         There were about two dozen of them, their milky white skin glowing eeriely in the green light. They were stepping through the bodies, looking for someone. They were wearing white togas and carrying white swords.

         “Are they looking for you?” James asked.

         Luna stared at him, frustrated and thoughtful, before finally answer, “No, Master James. They are the Children of Halen, and they are looking for you. And if they find you, they'll kill you. Now we must leave.”

         “But what about my friends--”

         “Who are you!” William's voice called out, interrupting James' whispers. He was standing a few feet away, over Sarah's unconscious body, holding one of the ancient revolvers in his left hand. James squeezed and felt the grip of his own pistol securely there.

         Luna eyes went wide with shock, and looked quickly back and forth between James' right hand and William's left. “That's not possible!”

         The creatures all turned to look at him and howled. One of them raised its hand up and pointed its finger at William, a torrent of fire rushing towards him.

         He flicked his hand quickly towards the Child of Halen and squeezed the trigger. There was a loud boom and the flame quickly disappeared, along with the white skinned person.

         William smirked, “I've had enough voodoo for one day, guys. Now...” He rolled the pistol in his hand dramatically, ”Who's your daddy, and what does he do?”

         “Master William! No!”

          James stood up and went to stand beside him, against Luna's loud protest, holding up his pistol. “Exactly! Are you Children of Halen or Orashi?”

         “James!” Luna screamed.

         The twenty creatures didn't answer or move. They were as still as statues and reminded James of statues from classical Rome or Greece as they stood there.

         William leaned over and whispered, “What are you talking about? I was just doing my Schwarzenegger impression.”

         Luna stood, watching this with growing panic, and finally screamed, “Don't just stand there!”

         She rushed forward, flinging both her arms wildly as two ghostly green hands flew out of them. With each twist of her arm, one of the gargoyles was grabbed by the hand and flung to the floor or against the wall. The statues howled, and rushed towards the group, the ones flung to the side quickly getting back up.

         William and James both fired as they stepped backwards, the the rushing stone figures disappearing one by one until nearly a dozen had been shot, and the boom of the two guns were replaced by dull clicks.

         “James,” William asked, “How do you reload?”

         “I don't know!” James cried and turned to run before being grabbed around the arm by one of the figures. Every inch of the man was white stone. The face, the hand, even the toga was milky white marble. The calm, emotionless expression didn't change as it pulled James towards it. Another one had William, who was trying to club it with his pistol. Luna was screaming, the ghost hands shoving away the statue-like Children of Halen as fast as they could approach her, but eventually one of them managed to grab her by the wrist and pull her down.

         “Children of Halen!” Everything stopped when the woman's voice cracked through the air like thunder.

         “In the name of the Golden Sun, you are not welcome here!”

         There was a loud boom and white bright white light filled the room, blinding everyone. An sizzling electrical sound followed the boom and small explosions followed, along with the howling of the Children of Halen. In a few moments, there was nothing left in the old warehouse but the sleeping bodies of the spectators, the four players of the team 'Golden Sun', and the blond woman from James' dream.