“What do you mean we can’t reach his phone?”
“It kept reply that same ‘this call is not available, please leave a message’ crap.”
“Then why don’t send an email or something?”
“There’s no wi fi here.”
Alicia hears this when she came to. Her body was bound to a pillar in some sort of an abandoned apartment. Her mouth is also covered with a piece of cloth. The first thing she saw was two men, one skinny holding a smartphone and one big and tall by three-fold comparing to the skinny man yelling at the small man. Both were bald and ugly.
“Then we’ll just have send a letter to his mansion. Get my laptop!”
The big man pulls out a laptop from a backpack beside the skinny man and puts it in front of him. The small man opens it and starts to write.
“Alright, let’s see here. We got yer daughter and if you want her back, then you have to give us a ransom of uhh… one million! done!”
The figure spoke.
The skinny man then pulls out his smartphone and glance at his hostage. Alicia press her back against the pillar.
“Oh hey, the lil’ miss is awake. Don’t be scared little girl, we just need a picture and just print out the letter and done! we ain’t gonna hurt you.”
As the man crept closer to her the door suddenly open.
“Away! ugly!”
Owen shout surprise the two to a daze and places a drop kick on the skinny man’s ugly face. He was knock to the wall unconscious. The big man then shouted in surprise.
“Who are you?! how did you get in here?”
“I followed the limo your driving. Also the driver wriggled out of the alley tied up as I was following you. You guys are not good at this.”
“Well whoever you are, you’re going to die!”
Look out!
Alicia tries to yell as the big man thrust his arm to Owen’s face Alicia but Owen skillfully ducked under his arms and then jabs his stomach followed by a punch to his already ugly nose.
“Ooof!”
The big man staggers as he comes back for another punch but again, Owen ducks under him again and delivers consecutive jabs without stopping. The big man could not stop the oncoming attack.
SLASH
“Gah!”
..!
A knife came flying at him. Owen tries to dodge it but it grazed his left shoulder. The knife came from the skinny man that somehow regains consciousness rather quickly.
Distracted by the knife, the big man seizes this opportunity and pins Owen down to the ground facedown.
“You really gave us a beating, brat! You’re gonna die slowly!”
The small man the slowly stab Owen’s back repeatedly.
“Gah!”
No! Stop this!
Those words came from Alicia’s heart as she struggles to free herself from her bondage but to no avail. All she could do is watch her friend trying to save her being killed. Hearing his groan at every stab, she has never felt so powerless.
DO NOT DESPAIR…
Huh?
HE CAN STILL BE SAVED…
Who’s there?
In the darkness surrounding her vision a peculiar voice reaches out to her. She tried to open her eyes but somehow, she feels that she shouldn’t. Her hands doesn’t feel like it is being tied weirdly enough.
LOOK UP…
She lifts her head and what she saw in her closed eyes is a single flame and inside is a figure but it was too blurry as the flame was glowing too great.
BUT I MUST ASK YOU. DO YOU WISH TO SAVE YOUR FRIEND?
Y-yes…
THEN WOULD YOU ACCEPT MY CURSED FLAME?
‘Cursed’. What the flame said concerns her but without hesitation she said.
Yes, I will take it.
WELL THEN, NOW REACH OUT AND TAKE MY ETERNAL FLAME!
She lifts her right hand unconsciously and grabs the flame in all her might.
“Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”
Just as the skinny man was about to deliver another knife onto the defenseless boy, Alicia suddenly stood up and lets out a yell. Her bondage was broken or more accurately, burned. Her hands is engulfed in flames but she doesn’t feel a burn nor does she care.
“Whoa what th-”
Before the skinny man could finish his sentence Alicia dashes to him and grabs his arms holding the knife and his ugly face with her burning hands. His arm and face is being charred.
“Agh. aaaaaaagh!”
The small man screamed.
Surprised, the big man holding Owen down lets go of him and backs away.
“Agh! Let go you brat!”
“Aah!”
The skinny man grabs her back and tosses her. She hits her back against the wall.
Oh no. I can’t pass out now.
Her vision began to blurry.
“My face! My beautiful face!”
The skinny man yelled in pain. His face was burned away though he said his ugly face was ‘beautiful’ ironically.
“You’ll pay for this! I’ll kill you!”
“Thanks Alicia, now its my turn to save you.”
Then Alicia’s consciousness finally fell. The last thing she hears is the skinny man screaming. Darkness envelopes around her.
WELL DONE.
“Alicia! Alicia!”
“Unh..”
“Oi! Wake up”
“Ah!”
Alicia was surprised as Owen sways her shoulders back and forth. But what is more surprising is what she saw behind him.
She saw the two kidnappers seemingly unconscious while standing. How they do that was simple: they were seemingly covered in ice from the bottom to their neck.
“W-what happened? Did you-”
“They just pass out.”
“Wha- you did-wait, more importantly, are you okay? You shouldn’t be moving arou-”
“I’m fine. Look.”
He showed his back filled with stab wounds but blood wasn’t seeping out of it because all the holes are covered in ice, stopping blood loss.
“Whoa- ah!”
She tried to touch the ice she but she saw her hand is on fire. She was just about to panic, but she was more interested as to why her hands doesn’t feel hot.
“Why is my hands are-”
“Its uh… lets just say its magic. Though its should turn off when you got knocked out. I wonder why?”
“M-magic?”
“Well I can’t explain it here and I need to bring you since you got ‘that'”
“Bring me to where?”
“I’ll tell you when we get there. Trust me.”
Alicia is filled with confusion and doubt but since its her friend, it should be fine she thinks.
“O-okay. I’ll trust you.”
“Good. But first, can you turn your fire off? Try closing your hands”
“Like this?”
The fire in her hands immediately extinguish without any trace. Her hands shows no sign of burn.
Then the door suddenly open and multiple men dressed in uniform came in. They are securing the two frozen men though they don’t seem to be surprised by it which surprises Alicia instead by how calm they are.
“Huh? The police? what are they doing here?”
“I called them here after I froze those idiots. You got kidnapped after all.”
Then a man with a black mustache and short hair wearing uniform different than the officers enters.
“Yo! Chief, I gotta bring her so take care of those idiots.”
“Oh my! I just came here and you’re already leaving?”
“Hey! I got stabbed like thirteen times. I ain’t got time for this.”
“Thirteen times!? Are you sure you’re alive?”
While the two men were having a casual talk, Alicia intrudes the conversation.
“Wait? Chief? As in Chief Oswald?”
“Yes, it is I, Chief Oswald of the police. It is nice to meet you, Ms. Bell.”
“You’re acquainted with him, Owen?”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
While being astonished with the fact Owen has connection with Oswald the chief of the police department of the town, Owen grabs her hands.
“We’re going, later.”
“Ah, please melt the ice before you go.”
Owen snaps his finger and then, the ice encasing the two poor fellows shatters like dust without harming them.
“Thank you!”
He simply walks away with Alicia without respond.
“Cold as ever I see.”
“Should be around here.”
He brought Alicia to a dead end of an alleyway besides the old apartment.
“Huh? Is this the place?”
“Yes, now stand still.”
He then puts two of his fingers his left ear muttering softly that she couldn’t hear what he said.
While Alicia wonders about what Owen is doing, she can’t help but wonder what kind of place Owen wants to show her.
PING
“Wha!”
A circle of light blue light envelopes the two of them and a another thicker light is overlapping the circle slowly. She jumped for a bit but Owen calm her down. From all things she expect, she didn’t thought about this.
A s the thicker light overlaps completely over the thinner light Alicia’s vision blur and her body is being lifted. Before everything around her disappears Owen whispered.
“Welcome to the Otherwordly Court.”
