5 4: GLORY

Zara's smile fell and she instantly swiped around her phone to call Jewel. She had to yell into the phone in order to tell Jewel about the text. Evelyn downed her new drink nervously, savoring each non-alcoholic drop. It tasted much better without alcohol in her opinion and she was upset when Zara whisked her away before she could lament it properly.

A few other people speed-walked out of the bar as well. Evelyn supposed that as long as one person per room was there to be interrogated everyone in the group didn't have to go back. Zara also mentioned that some people just straight up lived in the caves so maybe they weren't that scared.

Zara noticed Evelyn struggling to keep up with her long legs and slowed down a bit until they were at the elevator. Zara waited until there were no people in the elevator with them to get on and promptly put her mask back on.

"Jewel is going to come in a few minutes to check us out, but I should probably leave now," she explained tapping her foot impatiently as the elevator lurched upwards, "And I couldn't live with myself if I just left you here with Glory around."

"Well, why don't you just hide in the caves then until they go away?" Evelyn asked right as they got to their floor.

Zara zoomed out of the box and down the hallway, "See that sounds like a good idea, but the problem is that officer from the text, Glory," she explained, rifling through her bra for the key card, "if he's here, I have a feeling someone ticked him off and told him I was here. And if that's the case, then he's gonna camp out until he finds me. Best bet is to get out while he's interrogating people so that I don't have to be on edge in the morning, wondering if he's waiting to ambush me outside."

"He's really scary, huh?" Evelyn asked, walking inside as Zara held the door open for her, "I think Jewel mentioned his name at the pizza place."

"Yeah, that guy's got it out for me," she said, holding the closet door open as well. Evelyn stepped through and Zara followed, "He's also just a nasty dude in general, you don't wanna meet him. Maybe we shouldn't go out the front door."

They stood in the middle of the main room, closet door now closed, no longer in Cave 23. Evelyn stayed quiet with her hands behind her back and Zara looked at the floor with her forehead creased and her arms crossed in thought.

"We could always go out the window," she mumbled to herself, "It might be bulletproof, but with a bit my magi-"

knock knock knock

They both froze. They looked at each other, Evelyn's face burning and Zara's face going pure white.

They looked to the door and then back at each other helplessly.

Then there was another gentle knock at the door, this time accompanied by a low, breathy voice, "Hello, this is a Transit Officer and a Diamond Kingdom Officer. If we do not get a response, we will have to open the door by force."

At the voice, Zara flinched slightly but quickly composed herself. She grabbed Evelyn by shoulders and pulled her close, "Listen," she whispered so low that, even at 5 centimeters apart, Evelyn could barely hear, "Open the door and answer their questions as best as you can. They know I'm in this room, I can feel it. They'll camp out in our room and the hotel until they find me.

Once they see it's just you they'll leave and look for me elsewhere. Don't take off your mask and try to act as natural as possible. I'll be in the closet but I'll be listening and will jump in, should anything happen."

Evelyn's hands shook, "But-"

"This is your third warning. We are prepared to open this door by force," the voice behind the door said amusedly. Evelyn bit her lip nervously.

"Don't worry, Evelyn, you can do this," Zara squeezed her shoulders, "I'm not gonna let anything happen to you. I promise," she smiled and then disappeared into the closet.

Evelyn braced herself for a five more second before squeaking out, "Coming!" her voice cracking as she trekked her way towards the door nervously.

When she opened it, she was met with two strange looking individuals.

One stood up straight with a stolid expression. They had short, straight hair and no nose. This officer wore a black compression shirt with matching cargo pants. Printed on the left breast of the shirt was a small metallic blue diamond and, in the same color, was the name DOMINIC printed across their right bicep.

The other officer was leaning up against the door frame with his arms crossed.

The individual was tall and lanky, but had a grand musculy torso. His skin was a sickly pale green and he also didn't have a visible nose.

This officer had enormous eyes, round and grimly lit yellow without any pupils. His compression shirt was a toxic neon purple and instead of metallic blue, the name GLORY was printed in shimmery gold on his muscley bicep. Both officers had black straps and holsters around their waist and legs over their pants. Evelyn couldn't see the weapons they were concealing, but she could tell they were probably lethal.

The officer in front, the one leaning on the door, Officer Glory, focused his beady eyes on her and broke out into a shark-like grin with massive jagged yellowing teeth.

"Are you the resident of this hotel room?" he asked politely.

She nodded frantically, "My name is Evelyn W-" she realized it probably wasn't a good idea to say her last name but it was also probably far too late to turn back now, "Williams," she lied robotically.

Glory raised a thin eyebrow that looked to be tattoed on rather than actual hair, "oh? May we come in? We just need to ask a few questions and we'll be on our merry way."

Evelyn nodded gesturing them to enter the room, trying way too obviously to not stare at the closet door as they passed it to get to the main area of the room.

Officer Dominic immediately got to work, inspecting the walls and even under the bed as Glory turned to Evelyn. He held out a hand for her to shake, "Hello, my name is Officer Glory Odonata and I am an insecta Transit Officer. I usually frequent the train stations, but I've been told a suspicious character was walking around here so I came to check it out," he grinned, "So I hope you don't mind that we ask you a few questions to make sure you're not involved."

Evelyn shook the man's hand and nodded violently once again. Glory seemed to sense the fear oozing off her and his grin widened significantly.

"Great," he sighed, plopping onto one of the beds, sitting with his legs crossed, "Are you the only one here?"

"Y-yes, officer," she stammered, trying very hard to look away from his giant eyes but it was nearly impossible, "It's just me."

"And you didn't hear us knocking?" He tilted his head and blinked pointedly.

Evelyn began fiddling with her fingers again, "Uh, sorry, I was sleeping. I had a bit too much to drink so I came here to rest for the night," an idea suddenly came to Evelyn's brain, "'cause of the curfew! I had to get a room and this was what they gave me. I obviously don't need two beds."

Glory looked back at the bed that was still made and clearly hadn't been slept in, but didn't comment on it, he just continued to smile and nodded. "How nice. What did you drink?"

"An Octavia or two, I think," Evelyn tried to remember, "I-I'm not from around here, so I just wanted the experience. I'm a bit of a lightweight."

Glory chuckled, lifting his legs as his partner checked under the bed he was was sitting on, "How nice. I thought you seemed a bit odd," he commented amusedly, "Where are you from?"

Evelyn scratched her brain to remember literally any useful information, "Riddle," she answered. She was pretty sure she remembered Zara saying that was a kingdom, "I got here this morning."

"Oh yeah?" the officers cold eyes traced her up and down and he snorted, "yeah, I can tell. Everything seems fine around here, I just have two more questions. Dom, what do you think?"

The other officer, Dominic had made his way back near the entryway of the room. "Just need to check the closet and the bathroom and we're good to go."

Evelyn knows Glory saw her flinch, but neither one of them commented on it. Althought, Evelyn could've sworn she heard the officer snicker.

"Now, can I call you Evelyn?" he said, "Question number one: do you know anything about the whereabouts of a woman named Zara Engels? She's an ice mage with bright blonde hair and pale skin. She is an agent of the terrorist organization called BoVR."

"Zara Engels," Evelyn repeated the same nervously. She could tell her face gave it away but she was too focused on Officer Dominic who was now opening the closet door.

"W-well," her heart practically beat out of her chest, "Zara Engels?" she repeated the name again nervously.

But Officer Dominic just stared at the closet, at it's ceiling, it's walls, and then closed it back up; definitely not being able to see a magical pocket dimension inside it. He looked to Glory, gave his partner a nod, and made his way to the bathroom. Evelyn supressed a sigh of relief.

She turned back to Glory and jumped, as he was now standing in front of her. "Um, I'm sorry, can you repeat the question?" she squeaked.

He chuckled, "Do you know where Zara Engels is?" he asked slowly.

Evelyn shook her head, "I've heard a bit about her from friends because she's from Riddle, but I don't know anything about her or BoVR," she hoped her lie sounded convincing.

His smiled widened again and he bent down to be at her eye level. When Zara was this close, it made Evelyn feel warm all over and her stomach full of butterflies. Being this close to Glory however, and his sickly grin made her feel like she just stepped into an ice bath fully clothed and instead of butterflies, she had angry dragonflies swarming around in her stomach.

He spoke slower this time, his voice dropping an octave or two, "You aren't lying to me, are you, Evelyn?"

Evelyn, voice having gone south for the winter, just shook her head furiously in response. So Glory straightened back up and smiled, "Perfect, now just one more question and we'll be out of your hair."

Evelyn almost felt like she could breathe again before the officer asked her, "Can you remove your mask?"

Evelyn's eye's widened and she looked at him like he had grown a second head. His expression didn't move but he leaned down again.

"I need to verify that I've seen you and met with you, and that may require facial verification down the line," he explain softly, "Please, lower your mask."

"My mask?" Evelyn laughed nervously, "I'm-- um-- kinda sick. I think that's a bad idea."

Glory raised his eyebrows, "Really? That's a shame," he sighed, "You know, I have a mask in my pocket. I can put mine on and you can take yours off. How does that sound?"

"Um, no, that sounds like a bad idea actually," Evelyn tried to avoid eye contact but once again found herself trapped in his gaze.

He laughed, hand outstretched and ready to remove it himself, "You're not hiding anything from me, are you, Evelyn?"

"I-"

Evelyn didn't need to come up with another lie, because before she could even fabricate something a pale fist covered in ice collided with Officer Glory's jaw with a stomach churning crunch, flinging his head through the wall.

Zara, mask on and hood all the way up, grabbed Evelyn by the wrist and bolted towards the window. "Get on my back, first chance you can!" she shouted back.

Before Evelyn could even process her words, Zara flung both of them through the second story window. Evelyn's body flew forward, shattered glass flying everywhere with them. Ignoring the great desire to cry out and burst into tears, she reached her hands out wildly and wrapped her arms around Zara's neck in front of her, clinging to her as hard as she could.

Feeling Evelyn's arms around her neck, Zara grabbed Evelyn's legs and pulled them around her waist. Before they reached the ground a sheet of ice erupted from under them and the blonde slid down it expertly before breaking into a sprint down the street.

"Hold on tight, Evelyn," Zara whispered and Evelyn tightened her grip nervously. Then a pillar of ice shot out from under their feet, from under the street even, and propelled them twenty feet into the air. Zara sommarsaulted in the air with Evelyn way to shocked to even scream clinging to her back for dear life. Then, once again, a sheet of ice appeared under them and Zara slid down it snowboard style.

Zara continued this cycle of being thrown into the air and skating down an ice ramp for a few minutes before Evelyn could no longer ignore the sound she heard behind her.

They had both heard the violent beating of wings very close behind them and neither one dared look back. But Evelyn was far too anxious not to, so she did, and instantly regretted it.

Officer Glory had now sprouted four translucent dragonfly wings that he used to violently speed his way through the air after them. He was much faster than Zara's little technique and was gaining on them quickly. The worst part was that he still had that awful grin on his face and, at Evelyn's eye contact, his expression turned manic and he reached a hand out even though he wasnt close enough to touch them.

Evenso, Evelyn shrieked, her vision blurring and her grip around Zara's neck beginning to slip. Zara cursed under her breath and decided to switch tactics. "Whatever you do, don't let go, Evelyn," she said, sliding down a sheet of ice but this time drifting to a 180 degrees to face Glory. "I won't let anything happen to you."

As she spun around, aflurry of ice shooting out from her heels and at the officer, but he dodged it expertly and shot towards them. "How touching," he cooed, advancing.

With her hands still being used to hold Evelyn's legs, she kicked out her leg and a massive wave seemingly from thin air charged itself at the officer, finally knocking him down.

He smacked backwards and was now fully drenched but was back up in a second. With a pushing motion, the officer's hands sparked with magic and a deadly green liquid shot out of his hand. Zara kicked again and a wall of ice formed in front of them, blocking the liquid. The moment the wall was touched by the venom, however, it melted and bubbled into a murky green puddle.

Zara cursed under her breath. "I wish Jewels was here," she said, dodging an attack of dangerous green fluid easily.

"What's wrong? Having a hard time fighting without using your hands?" Glory raised an eyebrow, "Can't even use your little fortify spell either, huh?"

As if God itself had heard Zara's prayers, large brown roots sprung out from under the paved street below them, destroying the tar beneath Glory. They coiled around Glory's arms and torso and held him down as he tried to desperately to pull them away.This caught Glory offguard for a second, but after realizing what was happening he rolled his eyes.

"Fairy magic," he snarled, for some reason still wearing that sickeningly large grin on his face. The roots bubbled and disintegrated into green liquid the tighter they squeezed aorund his body, but more kept coming so Glory decided to stop fighting it.

"Thank you!" Zara shouted into the sky and began running off in the other direction. Based on context clues, Evelyn had assumed that Jewel and whatever freaky nature fairy magic she had was behind this really close save. She couldn't focus on that though, she was too busy worrying about why she still felt dizzy and nauseous. She wasn't that scared, and even if she was, the way her body was acting was as if she were sick with a stomach virus.

As Zara carried Evelyn away to safety, Glory's icy voice brought her out of her thoughts.

"I hope we meet again, Miss Evelyn Williams!" he said, voice full of amusement, "I have a very good feeling we will."

Evelyn shivered and clung to Zara as hard as she could as they started to approach the Blood Forest. Soon there was seemingly nothing around them but the thick, tall trees that Zara carried them through, heaving the entire way. The sky was a deep murky black, with nothing but the eery yellow glow of the moon, as bright and saturated as Officer Glory's eyes, to light their path as if they were still under his menacing gaze.

Even though she was calming down and they were seemingly out of harm's way, Evelyn still felt ill. Her vision was blurry so she kept her eyes closed and her arms felt heavier than usual. At the sound of Zara's footsteps over the small sticks and leaves of the forest, Evelyn felt her heartbeat steadily slow down and Zara felt it too on her back.

She smiled, "You were great back there for someone who's never experienced this type of stuff," she commented softly, "This might be a long journey back home since we took a roundabout way into the forest. Luckily I don't think we'll be living in the forest for very long anyway."

"I wasn't good at all," Evelyn mustered, her voice muffled since it was buried in the back of Zara's hood, "I can't even feel my legs."

"Nah, you were great," Zara assured her. They heard a howl in the distance and, though Zara chose to ignore it and continue, Evelyn flinched slightly, "You followed orders and you didn't get in trouble. Your lying was also pretty good. When you said you were from my home kingdom, I almost laughed," she snorted.

Evelyn tried to smile, "That Glory guy scared me half to death,"

"Yeah that's Officer Glory Odonata. Him and I go way back but... he's not a dude you wanna get involved with," Zara's smiled dropped, a scowl formed on her face as she described him, "He actually doesn't work anywhere near this area, he's usually working at train routes. But he has a personal vendetta against me. Trust me, he's not someone you wanna be caught alone with. Even if he's not stronger or even more powerful than me, he's a slippery guy."

"He didn't look like a mage," Evelyn commented, "His magic was different. So was Jewel's."

"No, Glory isn't a mage," Zara nodded, "In fact, none of the Transit or Royal Officers are mages. They're all mutations of the kingdom. They're a race of insects that were mutated into humanoid beings by the royal court to serve and protect them. Of course there are mutations that either live like normal people because they were defective and then there are also some that rebel and join us. They're called insecta, like Jay. Except Jay is obviously on our side,"

"Jay isn't nearly as scary as that guy," Evelyn said, feeling her body droop even more. She felt exhausted, "He's terrifying... And his creepy little smile," she shivered.

Zara giggled, "Yeah, he's a scary dude so if you ever see him and we're not around, don't even engage with him, okay?"

"Mhm,"

"I know you don't know us, like, at all, but until you figure out a way back to your world at least, you should trust us okay?"

"Mm,"

"We're the good guys. Kinda," She assured, "I promise, we only-" Zara adjusted Evelyn on her back, "Evelyn? You okay? You're kinda- Evelyn?"

"Mm," Evelyn tried to lift her head but she felt too tired. She felt her arms loosen around Zara's neck and she slid off Zara onto the leafy ground. Zara gasped but quickly recovered and propped her up against a tree in an attempt to wake her back up.

"Evelyn," Zara bent down over her, eyes filled with worry. She took out her phone, turned on the flashlight, and shined it on Evelyn, "The color's practically draining from your face! Are you sick?"

Evelyn mumbled for a bit before she could say something somewhat understandable, "mmheavy," she moaned.

"I don't understand why all of the sudden you-" a thought visibly popped into Zara's head and she furrowed her brows, "Did Glory ever touch you? A high five, a handshake, maybe even a pat on the back?"

Evelyn couldn't bear to try and say another word so she lifted up her right arm and limply tried to make a shaking gesture but it didn't translate well.

Zara's eyes widened and she grabbed Evelyn's hand. On her palm, where the skin was usually peach, it was bright green. Zara tried to wipe it off but it looked like a stain.

"Evelyn, I think he poisoned you when he shook your hand," she said worriedly.

Evelyn was trying to listen but her vision and hearing had faded and now she could only hear every other phrase.

"E.... listen to me, okay?.... Pass out..." Zara's voice faded in and out, ".....-et help, okay?"

She tried to open her eyes one last time and the last thing she saw was the face of Zara leaning over her with big worried eyes speaking with a soft, calming voice, "You're gonna be okay," she assured.

Then everything went black.

***