Time's Tragedies- The Books Of Beginning [2]

76. History Repeats

Eternity had been right about this being a trap - as soon as she and Lili made it up a seemingly endless flight of stairs, they had been confronted with half a dozen screechers. Fortunately, those screechers were nothing when confronted with a pissed off Lili Wibberly. Eternity hadn't even opened her mouth to make some biting quip when Lili brought her arm through the air in a slashing motion, cutting the heads off all six of the monsters.

"Ew," Eternity wrinkled her nose at the rotting smell permeating the air and the black blood oozing out of the corpses.

"I'm surprised you can even say that. I'd have thought for sure all the hair dye that you use would have completely killed your sense of smell," Lili said, "that shit reeks."

Eternity rolled her eyes, "and people think I'm the bitchy one."

Despite the noxious odor quickly filling the corridor, both girls stepped over the bodies and began jogging down the hallway. Now that Eternity was back by her side (where she belonged, Lili thought with a huff) the Wibberly girl was able to focus once more on the plan, though her anger still festered. Still, finding her family and getting all four of her loved ones who were within the compound home safe was the most important thing.

"Uhg, this place is a maze," Lili grumbled as they rounded a corner. She had been so focused on the psychic link in her head that she hadn't been focusing on her surroundings when she ran through the stronghold to find Eternity. Now she couldn't remember which way she had come from. With a pang of grief and anger she thought that if her mother was here, Kate could have remembered the way out easily - the former keeper of the atlas was quite good with directions. Her eldest daughter, clearly, was less so.

Eternity frowned, "I wish I could help, but I was unconscious when they brought me in."

"I know," Lili said, taking a deep breath to try to soothe her endless well of frustration that was threatening to boil over, "it's not your fault, E."

"Well duh, I didn't choose to be kidnapped," Eternity said, her sarcastic voice quickly fading to something more solemn, "though, the whole trap thing may kind of be my fault. I did tell Robert that you all would come for me."

Lili sighed, "he already knew that, Eternity. We would always come for you, and it doesn't take a genius to realize it - which is good for Robert because he's far from an Einstein. You may have told him so, but he knew before. And for the record, I'd rather have to evade his traps knowing that you can finally accept and see how much my family cares for you than have the easiest time getting in and out of here."

"That's very sweet, Lili, and it's good of you to look out for my mental health, but it's really not a priority when Robert could be attacking your father and siblings as we speak," Eternity pointed out, trying to fight the unhelpful and inappropriate smile threatening to grace her face. She felt warm inside, despite the chilly air of the fortress and the imminent danger lurking in the shadows. 

"Right," Lili muttered, "then let's keep going."

In their conversing and attempting to find the right path back to Rafe and Jake and Abby, they had slowed from a jog to a walk, and now moved to pick up the pace. Right as the girls started to move quicker, though, a sickening crack rung in their ears. 

Eternity reacted first, with the instincts of one who had spent years bobbing and weaving through crowded city streets, dodging traffic left and right. She grabbed Lili around the waist and pulled the blonde back, both of them collapsing to the hard floor in a tangle of limbs, Lili on top of Eternity for half a second, until she rolled off, revealing just what Eternity had saved them from.

The section hallway in front of them had collapsed, gray rubble and the stones that made up the roof and ramparts was piled up, mere feet away from crushing Lili and Eternity to death. The pink haired sixteen year old's chest heaved as she looked at the destruction, probably caused by some sort of magic from one of the battling sorcerers, and thought about how, for the second time today, she was seconds away from perishing.