We crawled through the tunnel as fast as we could. The blueprints on Darius's watch led us straight to the northern air duct, right above the chamber where the Hellspire Orb was kept.
My heart was literally hammering in my throat. I kept hoping we would find Riven hiding in the dark, waiting for us with his usual calm smile.
But when we reached the end of the vent and looked through the metal grid, Riven wasn't there.
The entire room below was a disaster. The glass case that usually held the glowing Hellspire Orb was completely shattered, with thousands of sharp pieces covering the floor.
The heavy guards were gone, and the sirens were still screaming, but there was no sign of my best friend. The only thing left behind was Riven's walkie-talkie, lying crushed and broken in a pool of dark liquid on the concrete below.
"No," I whispered, my voice shaking as I stared at the empty room. "No, no, no. Riven! Where is he?"
"He's gone, Kaelen," Darius hissed, his hand grabbing my shoulder tightly and dragging me backward into the dark tunnel. His face was pale, and his eyes were wide with terror. "The guards must have taken him, or something worse happened. We can't go down there. The alarms are blaring, and the whole place is locking down. We have to get back to the roof right now!"
"We can't just leave him!" I yelled, tears of frustration mixing with the sweat on my face.
"If we stay, we all go down omay! This wasn't part of the plan he wasn't supposed to break or touch anything" Darius snapped, his voice cracking. He didn't wait for me, he turned around in the vent and began scrambling backward toward the rooftop exit.
I looked down at Riven's broken radio one last time, my chest aching with a horrible, crushing guilt. This was all my fault. If I hadn't been so weak, if I hadn't agreed to this stupid heist, Riven would be safe at home with his little sister.
Shaking with fear and anger I turned around and followed Darius, crawling blindly back toward the rain-soaked roof.
We scrambled out of the ventilation shaft and back into the freezing night air, gasping for breath. The rain slammed into my face, but before I could even wipe my eyes, a terrifying sound echoed across the rooftop.
It was a low, guttural growl that didn't sound human. Out of the shadows of the roof, three tall monstrous shapes began to move toward us. They looked like creatures made of pure darkness, their eyes glowing with a yellow light. They were demons….. real, living demons.
How ?
I froze, my boots glued to the wet roof as my mind refused to believe what I was seeing. The monsters didn't care about the building or the alarms. Their yellow eyes locked instantly onto my chest, right where the Bangle of Narak'Zar was hidden away…they wanted the artifact.
"Kaelen, run!" Darius screamed, his bronze skin turning gray with fear. He lunged forward, grabbing a heavy metal pipe from the roof and swinging it wildly at the first monster that rushed us. "Protect it at all costs! Do not let them take that pocket!"
The creature ducked beneath Darius's swing and slashed its long, razor-sharp claws through the air. The force of the blow sent Darius crashing hard against the concrete floor. The second monster lunged straight at me, its wet, black jaw snapping inches from my face.
Pure survival instinct took over my body. I ducked, scrambling backward on the slick roof while clutching my arms tightly over my inner jacket pocket. The bangle felt incredibly heavy against my ribs, loke it was burning hot through the fabric.
Darius scrambled back to his feet, his teeth clenched as he threw his entire weight into the third monster, pinning it down to give me a chance to escape. "I said run, you idiot! Get out of here!"
But the first monster spun around and struck Darius right in the chest with a terrifying, heavy blow. The impact made a horrible cracking sound and he flew backward through the air, his boots skidding across the wet roof until he went straight over the concrete ledge, disappearing into the dark void below.
"Darius!" I screamed, rushing toward the edge. But the remaining monsters let out a loud roar, their claws scraping against the roof as they stepped into my path. I was completely cornered. I looked at the dark ledge where Darius had fallen, and then at the terrifying creatures closing in on me.
I was too weak and too scared….
Driven by pure feat, I turned around and sprinted toward the fire escape stairs on the opposite side of the roof. I flew down the metal steps three at a time, my lungs burning as the heavy sound of my own screaming breath filled my ears.
I didn't look back to see if the monsters were following me I just ran. I ran until my legs felt like they were going to collapse. When I finally reached my apartment building, I burst through the front door, sprinted up the stairs to the third floor and threw myself into my room, locking the door with trembling hands.
I slid down the back of the door and fell onto the cold floor, burying my face in my knees as loud and broken sobs tore through my chest. Everything had gone completely south. In less than twenty-four hours, I was fired, my grandmother had died, Riven had vanished and Darius had been thrown off a building.
"Why did I do it?" I screamed into the empty apartment, pulling at my hair in pure frustration. "Why did I agree to this stupid heist?!"
Through my tears I felt the intense, burning heat radiating from my inner jacket pocket. Shaking violently, I unzipped the coat and reached inside to pull out the bangle and just wanting to throw the cursed thing across the room.
But when I pulled my hand out, my breath hitched in my throat … it was violently reacting to the amulet my grandmother had given me. Somehow through my shirt the thin inward-curving spikes of the bangle had tangled themselves tightly into the silver chain of necklace.
It's like they were magnetically fused together and was emitting a subtle urple glow.
"Get off me!" I panicked, grabbing it with both hands and trying to yank it away from my neck. But the stupid artifact wouldn't budge at all… I pulled with all my strength, twisting and tugging at the metal.
Suddenly the sharp spider-leg thorns of the bangle twitched and pricked deeply into the palms of my hands.
"Ah!" I gasped as sharp hot pain shot up my arm. The thorns literatelly cut deep into my flesh and my blood began to ooze from my palms completely coating both items. The room felt like it was spinning, and the frustration inside my chest turned into absolute madness… I couldn't take it anymore.
With a desperate cry, I reached behind my neck, unhooked the clasp of the necklace, and ripped the entire tangled mess off my body and threw them across the room with all my might.
They hit the far wall with a loud clatter and dropped to the floor. I leaned against the wall, panting and cradling my bleeding hands against my chest but the room didn't go quiet. From the dark corner of the floor a blinding red and purple like light suddenly exploded outward lluminating the entire apartment.
I froze for a moment, they looked like were hovering an inch off the ground and spinning together as the metal began to melt and fuse into a single glowing object.
What did i do ? Grandma asked me to take care of the necklace and now that was another thibg i failed. I crawled across the floorboards with my heart hammering and reached out my bloody hand and maybe try to separate them before it was too late.
The moment my skin made contact with the metal I felt pure agony. The fusing bangle shot forward like a living snake, wrapping itself tightly around my right wrist. And it's sharp spider-leg spikes didn't just prick me this time they grew longer and drove straight through my skin and tore through my muscle… it felt like they were crushing directly into my bone.
"AAAAAAAHHHHH!"
A deafening scream ripped out of my throat as I fell backward onto the floor, my legs thrashing against the wood. It felt like someone was pouring molten lava directly into my veins. The metal was literally melting into my flesh like it was rewriting my biological biology from the inside out. My skin began to smoke with a dark, purplish haze and the pain was so severe that my vision started to fracture into black spots.
I clutched my burning arm …. My chest heaving as the room started to completely turn dark. I don't know what was worse between the absolute physical exhaustion, the grief and or the agonizing pain and whatever was happening to me…my brain couldn't handle any more it gave up on me.
My eyes rolled back into my head as my body went completely limp and I passed out on the cold lonely floor.