Irvin and Izumi used their powers to push the water back out the door, but not before many gallons of water had fallen on Vesta and me. After Irvin and Izumi pushed the water back, we were still sitting in a large pool of water panting.
"Thank you," Vesta gasped.
"Yes, thank you," I told them.
Irvin and Izumi sat down from fatigue.
"Do you think that the two of you could go in there and see if there's a possible exit?" Demetrio asked.
"What good would it do if we found one? You, Gina, Aden, and Vesta wouldn't be able to go through and I don't think that Timur, Aurelia, Hearst, and Tamara would be to happy about it either," Izumi said.
"There is a chance. It would be difficult, but there's a chance," Irvin said.
"What's that?" I asked.
"If there is a way out through that door, we could contain the water, Izumi and I. We could make sure that it never touched any of you," Irvin replied.
"But that would take a huge amount of energy out of both of you. You'd be lucky to get out with the rest of us," Vesta said.
Irvin turned to me, and his facial expression said it all. I had always been close with Irvin. Irvin and I could always read each other like an open book.
"No way," I said. "There is no way that I or anyone else here will let you sacrifice yourself for us."
Irvin turned to Izumi and said, "You don't have to help. I'll create the tunnel all the way to the end. The nine of you get out and go."
"Stop," Izumi said.
"Wait," Vesta told Irvin.
"No, no arguments," Irvin said.
"No, you wait and listen. We don't even know if there is a door beyond that water. Let's find out if there is one before you go to the trouble of fighting your own element and killing or almost killing yourself in the process," Vesta said.
Irvin stood up. "You're right," he said. "I got carried away. It's just . . . I want to be useful. I feel like I haven't done anything. I haven't done anything to help get us out of here, and I'd be in chains if you hadn't attacked the guards and woken me up."
"Irvin, you're delirious from the effort of saving Vesta and me," I told him. "You're being too hard on yourself. Look, why don't you and Izumi just go through the door and see if there's a way out."
"Okay," Irvin said.
"Here, I'll open the door for you so you can just dive right through," Hearst said.
"Okay, I'm ready," Irvin said. "Izumi, are you ready?"
"I am," she replied.
"Here we go," Hearst said and he pulled open the door.
As soon as the door was open, flames shot from within. I used all of my powers to try and push it back as Vesta did the same. We managed to force the flames back through the door and Irvin hurriedly shut it.
"What was that? Why did that happen?" Aurelia asked.
"I know why," Irvin said.
"So do I," Vesta agreed.
"What?" Aurelia repeated.
"I don't know what it's called, but whatever is behind that door responds to each one of us personally. It took the form of water to bring me down, and it took the form of fire to bring Hearst down," Vesta said.
"But why didn't it try and shatter Irvin and Izumi?" Gina asked.
"Because it responds to who opens the door," Irvin answered. "Vesta was the one who opened the door the first time and Hearst opened it the second."
"What about these other doors?" I asked. "Couldn't they lead to an exit?"
"I think that either all of them lead to an exit, or none of them do. Whichever way, they all have some sort of danger behind them," Irvin replied.
"But what if Demetrio or I opened the door for you and Izumi? That way you could go into the water without us getting hurt," I pointed out.
"But it would change forms as soon as Irvin or Izumi jumped in," Vesta said.
"We should try another door then," Tamara said.
"Good idea," Hearst said and he reached for the door just to the right of the one we had just tried. He pulled it open and we came face to face with our parents.
"Mom, Dad," my brothers and I said questioningly.
"These are your parents?" Vesta asked.
"Yes. I mean, I know they were killed, but the physical features are just right and they look solid and everything," I said.
"I've missed you all," our mother said.
"You're not real," Demetrio said. "You can't be. That's impossible."
"No, it's not. I'm here and so is your father," she said.
Someone appeared behind our parents.
"Father," Vesta cried.
"Yes, it's me. I'm here for you," he said.
One more person came into view.
"Mother?" Izumi asked.
"Yes. How I've missed you so."
"But you're dead," Izumi told her.
"Well, what a happy reunion this is," Julius said.
I turned around and saw Gina, Aurelia, and Tamara cowering against the wall in fear.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"Can't you see?" they all asked in unison.
"See what?" Irvin asked.
"The real forms of these ghosts," Gina answered.
"No, they look like our parents," I said.
"They're spirits, evil spirits that take your memories out of your head. They know everything about you. The three of us are lucky that they haven't targeted us. Either that or there's . . ." Gina trailed off. "Bhudev," she shouted.
I whirled around as she ran towards a very handsome hecapsycheir. He was tall and muscular, and he was smiling. He held up his hands to tell Gina that she shouldn't touch him, and she stood in front of him.
"You were killed," Gina said.
"I'm back," Bhudev countered.
I knew there was something wrong about this. I didn't know what exactly, but this was the first time I had seen my parents since I was sixty-three, way back in 1940. That battle was disguised by World War II. Any destruction we caused was often blamed on the Nazis or other battling countries.
What was I supposed to do? Let my parents go since they died back in 1940? I tried to clear my head and tell myself that they weren't really my parents. I knew from Gina that they were spirits that stole memories, but they were my parents. I had to stay by their side.
Before I could say or do anything, Irvin spoke, addressing us all.
"We're not being smart about this. These are spirits. Gina, Aurelia, Tamara, you saw their true form before they morphed into Bhudev, Kanak, and Rohan. I believe you when you say that they're evil spirits that take our memories. We need to get rid of these spirits, but I can't do it alone."
"Irvin, it's us, we're your parents," our father said.
"No, you're not. Come on everyone pull yourselves out of it," Irvin insisted.
Irvin was right. I knew he was right, but I couldn't do it. I wanted my parents back. If there was a chance, a small chance, that they hadn't died and that I could bring them back, I was going to take that chance.
"Irvin, I can't," I told him. "They may not be our parents, but they must've been able to get our parents' voices and physical forms from somewhere. That means there's a chance that our parents are still alive."
"These spirits," Irvin put great emphasis on those words, "got the voices and forms from our heads. Our heads, Aden. Our heads are a private place. No one should look into them without permission, and yet, these spirits, they not only looked into our heads, they took the form of our parents. Our parents, Aden. No one gets to take the form of our parents, especially not from our heads."
I'm not sure how I did it. What if you had access to the thing or person you wanted most. You could have the person or object. You even see it before your eyes for seconds, even minutes, and then, your best friend tells you that it's a fake. You have to give it up, whether you want to or not. You have to give it up. Try and imagine that, and you might come close to what I felt then.
"Okay, Irvin. I know you may be wrong, and I'll have thrown my own parents away, but I'm going to go with you. I'm going to go with you because you are my best friend and brother. I believe you," I told him.
"Thank you, Aden," Irvin replied.
"No!" our mother shouted, and just for a minute, her form flickered, and I saw a horrifying image.
Not only was it not our mother, but the spirit looked hideous. Have you ever seen an extremely obese person? With many folds of fat and skin? Well, imagine that combined with a vultures head after it's snacked on a fresh kill. That was what the spirit's head looked like. The arms were small and skeletal, as if the spirit hadn't had enough to eat, if spirits ate at all, for the last fifty years. I don't know if the spirit was male or female, or even if spirits had gender distribution, but either way, there was no way it deserved a life inside our parents.
My brothers must have seen our mother's form flicker and the spirit within her because they soon joined Irvin and me. That made 50 percent of us. Five of us knew they were spirits, three had seen their true forms, but then they were drawn in too, and two had never seen the true forms at all. Demetrio, Timur, and Hearst managed to convince Gina, Aurelia, and Tamara that their friends weren't real, but Irvin and I had another problem. Vesta and Izumi had never seen the true forms of these creatures, but then the creatures made a mistake.
"Fine, so you know what we are," one hissed, "but you're too late. We have these two, and they'll be a good enough snack for now."
"No!" Irvin and I both shouted, and we ran for Vesta and Izumi.
We got there just as the spirits summoned swords to their hands. They were about to slash our friends when Irvin and I tackled them. Our brothers and Vesta's friends joined the fight. There were nine spirits against the ten of us. We could take them, right? Maybe not. We could tackle them, but if we tried to swipe at them, our hands would go right through the spirits. Maybe we had to have all of our body weight go into them.
"Everyone," Irvin called as he dodged his spirit's sword. "We have to back them into the door that they came from and push them back in. That's the only way to get rid of them."
I didn't know whether Irvin was right or not, but the way that the spirits hissed and attacked him suggested he was right. Everyone except for Tamara took on a spirit while Tamara stood, ready to open and close the door on the spirits. I'm not sure how we did it, but we managed to back the spirits into the door that they had come from. Tamara quickly opened the door, and a wind of some sort sucked the spirits back in. She quickly closed the door behind them as the rest of us stood resting from our fight.
What next? Should we try another door or go back to where we had come from. We had our answer a few minutes after our fight with the spirits ended when a large band of Heinous Knights marched into the room to get us.
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