Victoria made sure Berk was behind her while she slowly moved by the wall, trying to keep her distance from Meldan or the monster that she now was.
“Does he know?” Victoria asked Meldan to keep her occupied by monologing while they slowly switched sides in the corridor.
“Of course not! She has kept me hidden all these years, but she gave up and let me come forth when her mind shattered to pieces.”
Victoria kept her focus on the door, but it was too far away for her to manage also, little Berk, who was vulnerable to any strike that would come from Meldan.
“Meldan, please fight back!” Victoria told her.
Her head started to twitch as she was approaching them, but she suddenly turned her back towards Victoria and Berk.
“P...Pl...Please go, p...p...prepare the Dark Zen ah Ruh spell.” And she started to walk away without facing them because she only wanted to get her husband to safety.
The Hellhounds went behind several copies of Zark, but he had only one metal weapon left. They approached, laughing at him.
“This will be fun!” One of them said in snowboard shorts and an open Hawaii shirt.
Zark backed a few steps back as they approached and instantly regretted throwing three metal sticks. One Zark in a purple suit attacked from the right with a high kick, but he leaned backward quickly as it missed. A low kick came as Zark hit the floor hard on his side and rolled away, and they kept following him. He had to find a tight space and move quickly from the duplicates as he noticed the stairs were very tight. He went down to the middle of the stairs as they followed, and the kicks started to come in sequences after each other, but the Hawaii one came too close. Zark grabbed its legs and pulled it towards himself so it hit the head on the stairway, and he quickly, with a swift move, pierced the metal stick right through the head of the surfer Zark. Purple suit kicked him in the chest as he fell down the stairs and lost the stick. He slowly got up, and the Purple followed up by grabbing his throat and trying to choke him towards the wall. Zark tries to get loose as one other duplicate tries to pass through to go down where his family is. Quickly, he breaks loose from the grip and puts his foot against the rail, stopping a baggy pants copy of himself as the Purple keeps punching him in the stomach. Zark manages to get loose from Purple and gives a hard kick towards the baggy version and gets at the same time a punch from a copy that was dressed in a black suit as him as he hits the wall and keeps moving his body down the stairs as they follow him with the pain he has in his stomach. He tries to pull his hands together to create a thread, but all is in vain, and he has no weapon. Someone punches him from behind on his right side, and he flies right into a school locker that bends inwards. He is bleeding from his head, and the baggy one attacks him with a knife right in the stomach. Zark slowly slides down on the ground while trying to push the gushing blood back. He looks up and sees four Zarks with red eyes looking down towards him and laughing, with the one in a black suit having an immense blood thirst.
“It is time to say goodbye, Zark!” The black suit says.
As several lockers fly through the corridor towards Zark copies, the ground starts to shake. They try to evade it but fail. Meldan quickly approaches her husband and supports him on her shoulder as both try to move toward the double door where Victoria is waiting.
“SEAL THE DOOR AND DO IT NOW!” Meldan screams at Victoria, who shakes her head in denial.
Meldan throws Zark down the floor and turns around with more lockers, flying in from left and right, crushing a Hellhound just meters from Meldans face as she watches it pass away. She quickly moves to the side as a flying sword pierces her through the right shoulder. Samantha realized the sword hit her sister instead of Zark, and just for a moment, she stared as Meldan took out the sword and threw it to the ground.
“You need to get up, Zark. You need to help me help you get up. I have difficulty moving freely with the injury,” Meldan whispered to Zark.
Zarks face was slowly getting pale as he forced himself to get up from the blood pool around him, and both slowly walked towards the door as the sword flew back into Samanthas' hand. She aimed again, and when she threw it towards him, Meldan could not block it this time, and Victoria went into the corridor when everything stopped around Zark. The Hellhounds in the air had stopped, the black and red light was burning around them, and the sword was in the same state. He dragged Meldan to the door as Victoria was also frozen. He pushed Meldan inside the door and realized they were in the swimming pool area. Looking at Berk, noticing his eyes were shining bright red. He quickly pulled Victoria inside and locked the door when half the sword pierced through, missing his head only a couple of centimeters away. Victoria looked around and speedily pushed both her hands toward one of the doors and quickly chanted:
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
“ Tu Ru Kuh Mu Uh Ta Ma Sa Ra Ka Pa Ah Buh Ra Fra Ka TUUUUUUUH!” Both the doors turned into pink and black fire, covering the entrance as something smashed toward the door, but nothing happened.
Meldan got up, and both of them dragged Zark to the middle, where Berk was crying. They leaned him toward the wall, and Victoria put her hand on his stomach to soak her hand bloody. She made a ring with his blood at the edge of the pool with a couple of signs inside the ring and started to chant:
“Fan Ta Stic Oh Fan Jav La Skit Far Tar Kar AH SO TRAT PAT.” The swimming pool started to swirl around as they dragged Zark, and the ring turned into black fire. They put his hand in the fire, and a big circle mark got burned on his wrist. He screamed out loud as he saw his hand turning black. Victoria pulled out a knife from her back and slit through Zarks wrist to make him die faster. He slowly passed away above the ring, and they threw him into the swimming pool as it turned to black color. The entrance door smashed in the end, and Samantha looked down at the black pool and started to move quickly towards Meldan, but she was smart and smeared her blood towards the wall and made a ring within it as it caught blue fire, blocking Samantha and her followers to reach them.
“I know what you are doing, Meldan; I warn you not to dwell in black magic. It can affect the whole world we live in.” Samantha tried to explain to Meldan.
It was pointless, Meldan had already decided, and Victoria put her hand in the black burning circle of fire as she also screamed out, making Berks crying sounding out even more. Victoria made a swift cut on her wrist as Meldan started to lose a lot of blood. She stood by the edge of the pool, looked back to Samantha, and said:
“I will never forgive you!”
Victoria was on her way to pierce the knife in Meldans stomach; as she held her hand up, she approached and whispered in Victoria's ear:
“Not the stomach; I am pregnant!”
Victoria's eyes widened as she got her first tear in her right eye. She lifted the knife and pierced Meldan right through her shoulder and pushed her into the pool as she started to swirl around together with Zark there.
Victoria hurried quickly and grabbed Berk and went to the edge of the pool, and sat down with him as he was crying out loud and trying to get loose from Victoria's grip. She drew a circle on Berks's wrist with a different sign, and she made the same one on her wrist. She put both their bloody wrists together and pushed it hard as Berk was screaming out in the air.
“YOU ARE CHANGING THE PAST; IT WILL ONLY HAVE CONSEQUENCES, I WILL HUNT YOU ALL DOWN AGAIN!”
Victoria looked at Samantha as the blue fire slowly was going out and answered:
“But we are not dying. We are going alive back to the past, Samantha. The only consequence that will happen is that I will make sure Hell rains over your head” And she jumped into the pool together with Berk.
Victoria woke up and looked after Berk, who was by her side. She was happy. The spell must have worked, as both of them looked the same. While she tried to gather herself, she could not feel that Meldan or Zark had reached their destinations. Made think if she, by mistake, botched the spell, she should feel both of them arriving at their destination. She grabbed his hand as they started to walk toward a more miniature village that was further away from everyone else in Paladin Woods; Victoria had managed to go back in time ten years, which means she was in the year 2003, Berk was not even born at this time, and it was not possible to be born now that he is here together with her. For Victoria's part, she has never met Meldan. What was worrying was that Zark and Meldan never landed at any destination, as the spellmaker would feel the connection if they ended up somewhere else.
Ten years later...
Victoria was waiting in the woods with an umbrella in the rainy weather. She has feelings in her body. Meldan had landed a couple of days earlier in Valiant, and there was an announcement of her disappearance over ten years ago. The news hit everyone around like a big explosion because Meldan hadn’t aged a bit, but rumors started to go around of her being sick and puking all the time. Victoria was well aware that the baby in her stomach stayed through because it was alive, while Meldan went back ten years in time and de-aged and became ten years younger. Victoria knew that Zark could arrive at any moment, and she was curious if he would look like he was 18 years old.
A portal opened as black water got flushing down, and a man in a black suit fell on the ground. If Victoria were right in her calculations, he would be 18-year-old Zark, meaning he has never met any of them and only knows about his sister Sandra.
Zark slowly got up from the ground and looked at the white-haired beauty before him. He tried to remember what he had done the last time, but it was all black. He struggled to think about the Orphanage but had no earlier relocation. He knew he had a blond sister, Sandra, but did she pass away?
“W...w...where is Sandra?” Zark asked immediately.
Victoria took a deep breath. She was worried that she didn’t erase his mind correctly, but because he asked for Sandra, it meant Meldan was not in the picture and not Berk either. Victoria smiled at him and answered:
“I do not understand who this Sandra you are referring to. When did you last see her?”
Zark tried to think when he saw Sandra the last time it hit him, she died, but he found clues about her survival. Was she alive? Or was she dead? He was confused.
“Where is my sister?” Zark asked with a firmer tone this time.
Victoria was surprised; the old Zark knew he also had a sister named Madeline, but he didn’t seem to understand. Did she mess up the spell, maybe?
Victoria dropped the umbrella and put her hands behind her head as her shining white hair mesmerized Zark, who was staring at her, thinking what the Hell she was doing.
“HANDS IN THE AIR! THE GUARDIANS OF THE VALIANT PALACE. YOU ARE UNDER ARREST FOR TAMPERING WITH DARK MAGIC AND AFFECTING THE TIME. DO NOT MOVE ZARK VAN POLAN!” Someone was screaming.
Zark was shocked and looked around as soldiers circled him and Victoria. He also put his hand behind his head and stared at Victoria, who was smiling.
“Where am I? What happened to me? You know, lady, otherwise YOU WOULDN'T BE HERE. WHERE AM I? WHERE IS SANDRA?” Zark yelled at Victoria as both got taken away.