Chapter 24 The Final Showdown

Charging into battle, Marcus realised as he took on one of the bigger and meaner looking guards that had came right at him, that the three of them were severely outnumbered. There were at least fifteen to twenty guards to take down between the three of them. This made him hope harder than ever, that the strength and unity that they had would be enough to do what they had to do.

Struggling to keep the guards hands away from his neck, he finally gained the upper hand. Using the full force of his hind legs, he bucked. Sending the hefty guard flying across the floor, and before it even had the chance to get up, Marcus sprang to his paws and made a leap through the air, landing right on top of the guard.

He snarled a warning at the guard, pulling his upper lip back and revealing razor sharp canines. The snarl turned into full on growling and he dug his claws into his enemy, pinning it to the ground. It struggled and struggled beneath him, making it incredibly hard to stay balanced, but somehow he managed it, and while he had it pinned down, he sank his canines into the creature's neck. Savagely ripping off chunk after chunk of what you could barely even call skin.

The feel of it was horrible. It was cracked, dry and tasted like rotted meat. It made him feel sick, but he brushed the feeling aside as though it was nothing.

After the first bite, he realised that these weren't even living creatures.

They were evil souls trapped in zombie-like bodies. It wasn't long before the thing withered and died and Marcus immediately began fighting off another one. Tearing it to shreds within minutes. Then on to another. Then another, and another.

Meanwhile, on another side of the room, Joshua was battling hard himself. He was fighting off not one guard but three. At first he teased them, using his teleportation powers that he had learned from his time with Eric, to disappear from one place and appear in another. This gave him an advantage as the three guards became increasingly confused.

After teasing them enough to stop them from moving, he used his invisibility power to launch a sneak attack. Stealing one of their swords, he slashed all three of them in half, in just one swing of the sword. Once he became visible again, another guard grabbed him from behind. Squeezing and squeezing, making it impossible for him to breath. He struggled in the guard's arms but it was no use. Whatever that thing was, it was just too strong.

After savagely ripping apart another guard, Marcus was quick to notice the one that had a tight grip on Joshua. Without second thought, he charged towards them, leaping through the air and landing straight on the guard's back, sinking his canines into its shoulder. This caused it to let out a high pitched shriek and instantly let go of Joshua. He began tearing into its skin and clawing it all over.

While the guard was distracted with Marcus, he grabbed the sword and? stabbed the creature straight through the heart. It was only after he heard the scream of pain, he realised that by stabbing the guard, he had unintentionally stabbed his best friend with the end of the sword.

As the guard fell to the floor and burst into nothing but ashes, Marcus landed with a heavy crash on the floor, writhing in pain and struggling for breath. His wolf form morphed in just a few seconds back to his human body as he fought for his life. He was a fighter, but the wound was way too deep. He was fading fast into an unconscious state.

"Marcus!" Joshua cried, feeling a wave of guilt washing over him. What had he done? He began to panic. He worried that he wouldn't be able to help his best friend and fight off the guards at the same time. That kind of action required extremely advanced skills. Ones that he did not have yet. By now he was having a full blown panic attack.

"Blondie. You fight the guards, I'll help my brother." Eric instructed as he appeared in front of Joshua and effortlessly swatted a guard to the side, sending it flying into the wall. He didn't want to leave Marcus, but he had no choice.

Looking up at Eric, who had blood splattered all over his face, he knew it would be best to do what he was told. He did not want to cause any more trouble. He felt bad enough as it was.

"I... I didn't mean to." Joshua stammered as he raced over to the remaining guards, the sword still in his hand, and began slashing, stabbing and slicing all guards that came towards him or towards the two brothers.

It wouldn't make accidentally stabbing Marcus right, but at least he could protect Eric while he tried to revive him. The thought of losing Marcus to such a careless act was a horrific one.

"Come on Marcus. Stay with me. You got this little brother. I know you do." Eric pleaded as he tried desperately to stem the bleeding. It was incredibly lucky that the sword had missed Marcus's heart by mere inches, however the impact was still heavy.

Blood was pooling on the stone floor beneath him and filling his mouth to the point where it was running down the corner of his chin. The choking factor was just as dangerous as the injury he had. If Eric didn't think fast they would lose him for sure. There was no way that they were going to let that happen. They had already lost way too much and were going to make sure that he wouldn't be just another fatality.

"Uhhh.... Eric!" Joshua called, trying to warn him of what was heading their way. He hoped that Eric would listen despite being busy trying to save a life. If he didn't then they would all be toast.

"Not now Blondie." Eric said dismissively. He had ripped off the two sleeves of his top and tied them together before wrapping them tightly around the wounded area in the hopes that it would stop the boy from losing too much more blood. It was a long shot but they had to at least try.

"It's kinda urgent." Joshua stated, beginning to back away and towards Eric. He did not know how to handle this one alone.

"Can't be as urgent as my brother's life." Eric responded sounding a little annoyed.

No matter how hard he tried, Eric just wasn't listening. There was only one option left to try and get the guy's attention.

"Unless you're about to get whacked!" Joshua almost yelled, shoving Eric out of the way and pulling Marcus away just as, what he pressumed to be the leader of the shadow realm, smashed his club into the ground causing a massive cracking sound as a crack began to form down the middle of the floor. This caused whole building to rumble and shake, which led to a load of dust and rubble to fall around them. If they didn't move fast, the place would collapse on them.

"Oh." Eric muttered, feeling stupid for ignoring Joshua's warning, even though he knew he couldn't take his attention away from his brother. He had to remain focused no matter what.

"Yeah. Oh." Joshua returned half sarcastically after catching his breath.

Eric quickly rose to his feet, taking on this final enemy. He grabbed the strongest weapon that was laying on the ground from one of the defeated guards and began attacking the thing from all angles. Ducking, dodging and diving any attempted blows it made. He made sure to hit it every chance he got.

Joshua, meanwhile, stayed besides Marcus, who's breathing was becoming more and more shallow as each second passed. For a moment, Marcus's eyes flickered open slightly, and he spoke weakly, in no more than a whisper. "J.. Joshua... tell... Julie... I.... love her." He pleaded, struggling to get each word out.

"Marcus no. I am so sorry. But I am not gonna let you die." Joshua stated, sounding strong despite feeling weak. Marcus's head flopped to one side and his body stilled. It no longer looked like he was breathing. Joshua hoped to God that wasn't the case. He did not want to be responsible for the death of his best friend.

Spinning around as he heard a thunderous shriek, that sounded like a cross between a whale and a pig being squeezed to death, Joshua saw that the leader of the the world had fallen to the ground, dying instantly. Relief washed over him. They had defeated the shadows after a long and hard battle.

As soon as it turned to nothing but ashes, Eric went back to Marcus, he grabbed his younger brother into his arms and instructed Joshua to follow behind. They had only a matter of seconds to get out of the realm before it would cave in on itself.

It was a tight squeeze but they made it to through the doorway just as it closed.?

Back in Joshua's room, Eric layed Marcus down on the bed, noticing that Julianna had invited company over. Maria was with her, chanting away in order to close the doorway.

"Oh my God what happened to him?" Julianna cried in horror.

"Your brother here wasn't careful where he was stabbing the sword." Eric explained briefly. Maria had finished chanting and had turned her full attention to the rest of the people in the room.

"The doorway is now sealed. No more of them can get through." She stated, glancing down at Marcus.

"That's great. Now is there a spell you can do to save Marcus?" Eric asked, desperately hoping for a miracle.

"Well... I can try. But there is no guarantee that it would work." She explained.

"You have to try. Please." Joshua begged, slumping down onto the floor, the guilt too much to bear.

"Alright." She agreed and began chanting once again, this time placing her hand on the wounded area of Marcus's body.

After minutes of chanting, things were looking hopeless, and as Maria reached the end of the spell, Joshua was sobbing, Julianna had her head buried against his shoulder not daring to look and Eric looked numb.

"Did it work?" Eric asked with little emotion in his voice.

"I don't know. Usually if it did, they would be waking by the end of the spell. He may have already been gone when you brought him here." Maria explained.

No one spoke after that. They were all in a deep pit of despair. They had all just suffered a great loss. None of them wanted to even think about what comes next.

"Hope you didn't miss me too much." Marcus suddenly spoke, causing them all to turn their attention to him.

"Marcus! You're alive.... but the spell..." Joshua began, the light returning to his eyes as he felt relieved that he hadn't killed his best friend.

"The spell worked." Marcus stated, sitting up.

"Are you completely healed?" Julianna asked, instantly going to sit by his side.

"Yeah.. I think so. I don't feel any pain." He answered, grateful for her being near him. Her question making him think about it, he lifted his t-shirt up to see if there was anything there. He found no wound at all, not even a healing one. The only thing that was left was a scar across the area.

"I'm so sorry Marcus. I was trying to help, I never meant for that to happen." Joshua began to ramble, growing nervous, thinking that the raven haired boy might hate him now.

"It's okay bro, I forgive you. You have nothing to be sorry for." Marcus replied, giving his best friend a warm smile.

The atmosphere in the room quickly changed from dark and gloomy to full of joy and relief. Everyone was so glad to have Marcus back, and Marcus himself was glad that they had all made it out of the fight and that they had defeated the creatures of the shadow realm. He realised now that he didn't need his parents, because the people in this room already was their family.

As they were all celebrating, Julianna's phone rang.

"Excuse me for a second." She said, excusing herself from the room and shutting the door behind her before answering the call.

At the exact same time, Maria winced in pain.

"What is it love?" Eric asked, quickly rushing to her side.

"I don't know. I think.... I think the baby's coming." She stammered, gritting her teeth in pain.

Eric quickly helped her to her feet, and they rushed out of the room and out of the house, leaving Marcus alone with Joshua.

"Dude... I can't believe we all made it." Joshua said, the joy clear as day in his voice. It was the first time that he had felt cheerful in a long time.

"Well I couldn't be happier than I am now. I have all the family I need. It was right in front of me this whole time." Marcus admitted. He had finally began to realise what is really important

"Same here. I guess we were blinded before, but at least now we know what is important." Joshua stated, feeling the happiest he had been all week.

"I just hope that now we have defeated the shadow people, that it's the end of it and things will go back to the way they were.... or at least close to how they were." Marcus admitted. Of course it would never be completely the same. He knew that.

He had been worried since they had come back... well since he had awoken at least. He hadn't quite felt the same, and he wasn't sure what it was. But it wasn't comforting.

Just as Joshua was about to reply, Julianna walked back into the room, her eyes sparkling with tears, implying that something was wrong already.

"What is it?" Marcus asked, Joshua looked up at her too.

"It's uh.... I have some bad news." She informed them.

Suddenly both Marcus and Joshua's hearts filled with dread.