Emilie and David took the hint and dropped to the ground, Emilie crawled over to David and placed her arm around him. This was bad, If it came too close it would surely catch the scent of the house. I looked at Emilie in hopes that she would know what to do, but she was even more afraid than I. She was hyperventilating and her eyes were wide. I didn’t understand, the last time the two of us saw a demon she was calm and collected. Now she looked lost.

I could only hope that the demon would pass by and we could be on with our day, but I should have known that was too big of a wish. The sound of footsteps approached faster than before. It was making a direct path towards us.

Staying was pointless. I rushed to my feet and pulled Emilie by the hand. David got to his feet to aid me.

“We have to go!” I yelled while pulling on Emilie’s limp body.

“Emilie, please!” David added.

It was useless, she wouldn’t budge. She lay on the ground with a waterfall of tears. Obviously, she wasn’t thinking straight, but something had to be done or we would all die.

“Emilie, Get up!” I yelled.

“I-I can't,” she finally responded.

“It’s coming this way,” David said, “we’ll die here.”

It was too late. The demon had made its way to the house. Just outside the window, the demon peered inside. It let out a demon’s shriek then stood on its back two limbs and raised one of its front claws. With all of its force, it struck the building, tearing a gaping hole in the wall.

The demon's eyes glared into mine as it stood there intimidatingly. It took a single step forwards, so I quickly stretched out my arm to the knife across the room Emilie had been using previously. Using a bit of magic I pulled it towards myself and caught it mid-air. Both Emilie and David were too preoccupied to notice. The demon took another step, but this time it looked at David, then it looked down on Emilie.

Not long ago, Emilie lured the last demon away. I told her I would protect them if it came down to it, and I intended to keep the promise. Before the demon took its third step I charged with the knife in hand. Plunging it directly into its right eye, but not before the demon took a swipe at her leg. Her blood splattered onto the floor and she screamed as she put pressure on her wound.

The demon shrieked in pain and lifted itself onto its back legs. This time it toppled over onto its back and rolled onto its side. Purple blood flowed from its wound, but it was not dead, and I had no means to finish it off without revealing my identity.

“David, run!” I commanded before I turned to lift the wounded Emilie off the ground.

I picked her up from the waist and carried her over my shoulder, she was still frozen. David and I ran for the exit as fast as we could, knocking over chairs and shoving the table in the process. David grabbed the handle and forced the door open with his body, only for the two of us to see that the demon had not come alone.

I counted at least three demons waiting by the front door. One of which already raised one claw to strike David before he could get away. Just as the demon made its move I used my magic with my free arm to grab David by the collar of his shirt and pull him to safety, but still knocking him to the ground.

“This way!” I called as I turned to run down the hall into my own bedroom.

David clumsily climbed to his feet to follow. I made my way to the end of the hall and kicked the door open with the bottom of my foot. I Briefly scanned the room before running straight for the closed window to the side of my bed.

With David following just feet behind, I leaped into the window and tucked my body into a ball shape, clutching Emilie’s body to try to protect her. The glass shattered and I crashed into the dirt outside. Soon David did the same. I went to grab Emilie who I had dropped during the crash.

“Please, just leave me,” she begged, “I’m dead weight!”

I couldn’t believe the words I just heard. I wanted to be the one to tell her how wrong she was, and that I would never leave her behind, but David beat me to it.

“No!” he yelled, “You’re coming with us whether you like it or not!”

She began to cry to the point where she could no longer form words, but we didn't have the luxury of time to comfort her, or be her emotional support. Four demons stepped around the side of the house before they started picking up speed as they hunted us. The demon leading the charge had the knife lodged in its eye with blood still dripping from its face.

I immediately lifted Emilie off her feet once again, and David took my hint to run away without argument. We ran, but expectedly the demons were faster. Emilie held onto me and closed her eyes as I went.

I looked to both my sides, up and down, forward and back, just looking for some way to slow down the demons. There was nothing but empty fields ahead. I knew protecting my identity here was the lesser matter. A loud scream had erupted from the demons behind us, but this was the scream of a human. After dropping Emilie back onto her feet, I turned to face the demons.

Seeing that her younger brother had been dragged to the ground by one of the demons, Emilie held her chest and screamed, “NO!”

I wanted to do the same but all I could do was stare as the demon forced its single claw into David's bicep, and pinned him to the ground. David had been stabbed by the demon twice, and a gash deep enough to leave his forearm hanging crooked by his side before I came to my senses.

Without thinking of control I threw out my arm for an attack of rage. Imagining the flow of energy or electricity from me to the demon, I snapped my fingers, and a bolt of lightning larger than anything I ever cast before flashed from my fingers to the torso of the demon and then ricochetting to a second. For a brief moment, it rained the demons’ purple blood. Unexpectedly, his rage-induced attack didn't drain me. If anything, I felt powerful. The remaining three saw the unexpected deaths and froze before backing away into the darkness.

I ran to David’s aid while Emilie limped.

“No, you can’t die!’ she cried as she fell to her knees next to his unconscious body.

I hovered my hands over his wounds while he lay in an ever-growing puddle of blood. Too afraid to touch them with my bare hands.

“Help him!” Emile begged.

I didn’t know much about healing spells. All I could do for him was cast a simple spell to slow his blood flow and heartbeat for a few hours. I extended both my arms over his heart and uttered the spell. A magenta-pink circle disk began to rotate clockwise around my hands, and slow strands of fog-like magic flowed from the disk into his body.

Emilie only then realized what I was doing was unnatural.

“Wait, stop!” she yelled and she pulled on my arms, “what are you doing to him?”

“I’m slowing his heart to limit the blood loss,” I said while keeping my focus.

She had no proof that what I was saying was true, but she seemed to take my word. Her eyes turned from me to my hands, then back to her brother. Soon the blood stopped flowing, but that was the best I could manage at my current level. The disk rotating around my hands faded, and I dropped my arms to my side

“Emilie,” I said sternly, “do you know of anyone at all that practices medicine?”

“N-no,” she whimpered, “I don’t know of anyone, it’s just been us since our parents died.”

Emilie then jolted upright and looked back into my eyes.

“I- I might know of a place you could find one,” she remembered, “at the base of a wall. I’ve never been but my parents went there once to get medicine for David.

She looked back at her brother, desperate for anything to save him, and with this new knowledge, I thought he had a chance.

“Wait here,” I commanded.

I ran back to the house to get the wood sled I had left in the back. After I got there I saw my shattered bedroom window next to it. Quickly I reached through the shards of glass and grabbed my spellbook sitting just inside on the bed.

I then threw the book carelessly onto the edge of the sled and returned to Emilie. She still sat in the mud, helplessly trying to comfort her brother. I imagined she was hoping he could still hear her.

I pulled the sled next to his body, and Emilie helped lay him flat on the base. Together we escorted David to the wall. Emilie knew the path, and where we were going, but I did not, and I did not feel I was in a position to question her.

We walked together in silence for hours, and the wall seemed to grow larger with each step. Soon we were close enough to see the base of the massive wall. Large rectangular bracers separated evenly spaced across the entire length.

That is, for the most part at least. Emilie had led me to a section where two bracers had crumbled to the ground, and the wall itself scared with a crack that stretched to half the height of the wall.

We walked closer to the hole until we saw a rather large man waiting in the opening. He stood with a wide stance, and his arms crossed. A broad sword strapped to his back. Emilie never even looked at me as we walked close enough to see his face.

“What’s your business here?” the man called.

“Please, my brother needs a doctor!” Emilie pleaded.

“We were attacked by demons!” I added.

The man seemed emotionless, yet concerned at the same time. He moved from his post and stepped towards the sled without saying anything. He looked at mine and Emilie’s faces, then inspected the body we were carrying with us. He placed two fingers across David’s neck to check for a pulse.

“He’s alive, but barely,” he said in a cold voice.

“Can you do anything for him?” I asked.

All he said was, “this way.”

We followed him into the cracked wall. We were walking at a very fast pace, but it was still much slower than I would have liked. What I saw was beyond anything I could have imagined.

I’ve lived my life believing the wall was Invulnerable and solid, but as I entered the hollowed-out wall I saw miles of tents and small buildings lit by thousands of candles and torches. There were tents, huts, shacks, and some buildings even carved directly into the stone. One path stretched through the center of the hidden city. The buildings lined each side of the wall.

The man led us to the right side and we walked for a few minutes before arriving at a wooden house with three stories and leaning to one side.

“Dimitri can help the boy, she’s a doctor,” the man said.

He then left us alone at the house as he returned to his post.

Emilie walked up the three steps in front of the house and continued to aggressively bang on the door.

“Hello?!” she called, “Is anyone here? I need help! My brother is hurt!”

Loud footsteps fumbled down the stairs inside. Then the door cracked open and a woman’s face peaked out.

She glanced at both Emilie and me. Seeing only two people who appeared relatively unharmed she asked, “who’s hurt?”

“My brother, David! He’ll die!” she cried out and pointed to the mauled body we had brought with us.

“Oh, dear!” Dimitri said as she threw the door open and raced outside.

Without asking she picked up David and brought him into her house. Neither Emilie nor I questioned her actions. We followed her up the steps and into the crooked house.

Dimitri rushed down the hall and said, “we have to operate NOW.”

The house was covered in dust, the wallpaper pulled off the wall, and some flooring lifted off the ground. Dimitri plowed into a door at the end of the hall. Inside it was smooth white walls and recently cleaned countertops. In the center of the room lay a black operating bed.

We tried to follow Dimitri into the room, but she slammed the door behind her and locked herself in the operating room with David. Emilie and I were left to helplessly wait outside while she operated on David.