Chapter 7: Cold Pursuit

            Reunited at last, the siblings galloped on their horses towards the portal, ready to go home. As they ran away, Nikki spoke to Jesse.

            “So that was the girl you were going to marry?” she called over. “She seems nice!”

            “Wait—how do you know she wanted to marry me?” Jesse asked.

            “I’ve got connections. This old stable master vex living in an iron golem gave me some materials and these horses. Also, I overheard you when I came to rescue you in the ballroom. And…what you said to Emelda. About leaving me, I mean,” Nikki swallowed. “I know it was a hard choice, but--”

            “Hey, do you hear that?” Jesse said, his ears tuning to the sound of clattering. Eventually, Nikki heard it too. They swung their heads behind them to look—and saw a bone block carriage pulled by skeleton horses chasing after them! Emelda was in pursuit!

            “Crap! Andale, horsies! Andale!” Nikki urged her horse, who took up the command and ran faster. They did everything they could to lose the carriage. They turned sharp turns. They did loop-de-loops. They even nearly trapped themselves against a wall and sprung away at the last second in hopes that the carriage would smash. But it did no such thing, and kept after the siblings.

            At one point, as the chase led to a dark forest where it was almost impossible to see, the carriage slowly begin to gain on them. One of the skeleton horses snapped and even managed to bite the rear flank of Nikki’s horse. Frightened and in pain, the horse reared back, and Nikki couldn’t stay on. She tumbled off her horse and onto the carriage roof. Two vex guards floated through the roof and prepared to attack Nikki. But Jesse wouldn’t allow such a thing. He jumped off his own horse and joined the fray.

    The scuffle was hard and dangerous enough on its own, but it got worse when Jesse and a vex guard tussled with each other to the back edge of the carriage! The guard fell off, but hung onto the ledge as Jesse slid dangerously close to the edge too. He grabbed Jesse’s shoulder spike and tried to throw him off while pulling himself up at the same time. Jesse pulled back as hard as he could to get to safety, but the guard had an iron grip. Suddenly, he felt his shoulder spike snap free, and the vex guard plunged off the carriage, hit a few obstacles, and died.

    But Jesse’s troubles weren’t over yet. The other vex guard snuck up behind him and pinned him. He pushed Jesse’s head down towards the fast-moving ground, meaning to grind it to mush, but Nikki jumped on the guard’s shoulders, pushing him off the carriage. Unfortunately, she propelled herself into the air to do this, and surely would’ve fallen off too had Jesse not caught her.

    The carriage exited the forest and went on an old dirt road that led back to the city streets. Apparently, the driver still thought Jesse and Nikki were still on the horses, and therefore followed wherever they went. As they passed, Nikki saw the park where the portal was located. That was the way out!

    “Jesse! There’s the portal!” she shouted, taking her brother’s arm and shaking it to get his attention.

    “Get ready to jump!” he said. “On three! One--”

    “Three!” Nikki jumped off the carriage, taking Jesse with her. They landed on their faces, but were on their feet in a second. They didn’t know it yet, but Lennie had spotted them. He was a tad confused, though.

    “Uh…were we supposed to notice that they’re gettin’ away?” he asked Emelda.

    “What?!” she growled. She shoved Lennie aside and looked out the window, where she saw the two siblings escaping! With a yell of outrage, she made her way to the front, up to the driver’s seat and yanked the reins roughly. The skeleton horse turned and galloped at bearing speed towards Jesse and Nikki.

    The pair leapt through the small hole they had made when they first got here, but Emelda straight up bore right through it! She wanted to go through with this wedding, no matter what the causes. There was no telling what she would do once she caught them. The question was: would she catch them? Could they get away?

    Even with her destructive mood fueling her, she was still behind from her previous distraction. She couldn’t reach them even if she tried her hardest, which she clearly now was trying. But just when Nikki thought they were home free, she stumbled and fell. Jesse was right at the portal, but when he saw Nikki had fallen, he skidded to a stop. With Emelda bearing down on them, he had exactly a split-second to decide whether to save himself, or to stay here in order to save his sister.

    He hesitated a moment too long. The carriage came right on top of them! Nikki threw her sword into a wheel’s spoke, and the whole thing jammed and flipped. Emelda burst through the roof, wings spread and eyes blazing with fury. And she was headed straight for Jesse! On top of that, the carriage wreckage was making its way to him as well!

    “But what about Nikki?!” his mind screamed. He turned to her, but she was mouthing one final word to him: GO!

    With no more time to think, Jesse inserted the key and dove headfirst into the portal, leaving the vex bride’s world and his little sister behind him—forever.

NUUUUUUUUUUUUU! Jesse didn't make the next major choice in time! Is this really how it must end? Is it really over? Or did I enter a bad ending here?