(in which everything goes to the proverbial hell in a handbasket)
Xin set Sikari’s unconscious body at Riordan’s feet.
“Sir…” he said demurely, bowing his head, “please help him…”
Riordan stepped from the shadows of his room and gently gathered Sikari’s body into his arms, stroking the boy’s matted hair as he answered,
“I’ll do everything I can.”
Satisfied that this meant everything was under control, Xin smiled a little and exited. He trotted through the network of rooms and corridors situated beneath what they called home, pondering what to do while he waited. He considered going to see Kaitlyn (and Etienne along with her), but soon discarded this idea.
“I don’t imagine Kaitlyn would like me fawning over her boyfriend,” he sighed, trudging out of the basement and into the mansion’s main hall. Since the house was now permanently uninhabited, they could have theoretically moved upstairs, but Riordan had insisted that they not let anyone know of their presence.
“Too bad…” Xin peeked into one of the bedrooms. Floral print paper covered the walls, and delicate, mahogany furniture sat on the plush carpeting. A dresser, a bookcase and a vanity surrounded the canopy bed in the center of the room. Xin crept inside and settled on the bed, running his hand over the white comforter. He would have liked to have this place, despite the fact that Sikari would have made fun of him for wanting what was obviously intended for a woman. Moving to the vanity, Xin gazed at his reflection, running his fingers over the intricate carvings in the wood surrounding the mirror. The carvings, which looked as though they had been done by hand, were of mermaids with long, wavy hair and curled tails, each with a little mirror of her own. Xin studied them, wondering if he could ever be so beautiful.
“Xin?” Aegis’s voice brought Xin back to reality.
“U-um, yes?” Xin blushed, stepping away from the vanity hastily.
“Rose is waiting for you…what are you doing?” he questioned, gazing about the room.
“U-um, n-nothing,” Xin said sheepishly. “I, err…wasn’t doing anything.” He proceeded to scuttle out, leaving Aegis standing there with a puzzled expression on his features.
*
Strong hands pressing against his chest. Lips, forcefully interlocking with his own. Being pushed against a wall roughly as a hard voice rasped in his ear. Tears running down his cheeks as he begged, and the sting of the violent response. Sikari breathed rapidly as these scenes flowed from his memory. Opening his eyes, he almost felt his heart cease to beat when he saw a familiar figure standing over his prostrate body.
“R…Riordan…” he whispered. Riordan ran his hand through Sikari’s hair.
“You disappoint me so, Sikari…Each time I assign you a task, you inevitably fail…and each time, you are administered your punishment…” he trailed his fingers down Sikari’s chest. Tears spilled onto Sikari’s cheeks.
“Pleasestoppleasestoppleasestop…” he thought, recalling those scenes once more. Riordan dug his nails into Sikari’s skin, and he cried out.
“Perhaps…It was my fault…” Riordan mused, keeping his eyes level with Sikari’s as he tore the young man’s sallow, bruised flesh, causing his body to shudder beneath Riordan’s hands.
“N-no…it’s me, it’s my fault.. I…I’m too weak… please…”
“Don’t worry, Sikari…” Riordan whispered, brushing his blood-stained nails across Sikari’s lips and clutching his chin tightly, “I know just what the problem is…and I’ll make everything better.”
*
The painted teacup in Xin’s hands clattered to the floor as a shrill scream reverberated through his ears.
“Uncle Xin?” Rose blinked, glancing up from where she was pretending to pour them tea. “Why did you drop your cup?”
“Clumsy,” he said, smiling shakily. He retrieved the cup and proffered it to the little girl before him. “More tea?”
She bowed, smiling brightly. “Of course.”
Xin’s fingers trembled slightly as Rose turned the spout of her empty tea pot over his cup. Anxiety coated his thoughts, and he sat there sipping the non-existent tea, waiting for whatever awful thing he was anticipating happening to reveal itself. Several hours passed in this way, rather uneventfully. Rose had quickly grown bored and sleepy, thus Xin had just finished putting her to bed when the door opened. Sikari stood on the threshold, his body apparently healed, though his eyes were filled with a wild vehemence.
“Hello, Xin…” he said, and he smirked as Xin recoiled from the hiss in his voice. He took hold of Xin’s arm and pulled him out of Rose’s room roughly, locking the door behind them.
“I have a marvelous idea, Xin…” Sikari talked as he led Xin down to the mansion’s basement. “What’s the point of going after each of these girls individually, especially when we have the Exitium Heart to think about?”
Xin didn’t respond.
“Correct—there isn’t one. So how about we go after the big picture…”
“Wh..what are you talking about?” Xin whispered. He whimpered as Sikari’s grip tightened.
“The high school, Xin. We could take all those brats at once… Hundreds of souls, Xin—glowing brilliantly and then shattering…can you not understand how beautiful it will be?”
He pushed Xin away then, almost sending him falling down the basement stairs. Gasping, Xin clutched the banister, his head aching with the echo of his pounding heart.
“Sikari…” he thought, unable to break eye contact with his companion’s wild glare. “What have I done?”
*
Birds fluttered though the trees, their morning songs filling the dewy air. Cloaked in a black mantle, a girl knelt in front of the shrine within Vinton’s forest, praying as she listened to the birds’ voices.
“The pieces of the Exitium Heart still beat within those three souls…” she muttered. “..and the advent of their revelation draws nearer with each setting of the sun…”
She pulled back her long, flame-red hair with a white bandanna, her yellow-green eyes fixated upon the altar before her with an almost psychotic focus.
“My angry soul was rejected from that great tree…” she plucked a silver pendant with a large amber stone set into it from the altar, slipping it around her neck. “But I have been given another chance…”
Quietly, she slid a flute from out of the sling on her back and left the shrine, sitting down in front of the small lagoon near her little hut. The girl put the wooden flute to her lips, and then began to play, her soft music mingling with that of the birds’.
And in the sky above, dark clouds began to gather.
* Only one other person sensed the day’s foreboding. This person was lying, half-conscious, on the floor of his dingy apartment, almost clinging to the sharp scythe next to him. His fingers pressed against the scythe’s blade, and he didn’t notice when warm blood began to trickle down his palm. A few moments later he woke fully from his nightmare, though the being in control of his body was a far cry from that which he called himself. Staggering to his feet, Charon set his bleeding finger against his lips, slowly tasting his blood as it touched his skin. He then moved to his apartment’s entrance, and with the scythe held high, set out.
*
Shadows played off nothingness in a room that had no doors and no walls.
“All the players are being given their cues,” mused one of the shadows.
“Yes…” said another. “This act will be--”
“What are you freaks mumbling about?” Umi tapped into THEM’s thoughtwaves, grumbling.
“Nothing, my dear fish,” THEM said pleasantly.
“Umi, who are you talking to?” Kaitlyn entered her room, trotting over to him and tapping lightly on the glass of his fishbowl.
“THEM,” he replied.
“You know, that really ought to be an acronym for something…” Kaitlyn mused.
“We’re working on it,” THEM said suddenly. Blinking, Kaitlyn glanced around, her expression startled.
“Where are you guys?”
“Right here.”
“Show yourselves,” Kaitlyn frowned, her eyes darting from side to side.
“Do you really want to see us, Kaitlyn?”
“Of course…talking to Umi is a little disturbing, but at least he has a body…talking like this goes a bit beyond what I can tolerate…”
“As you wish…”
The walls of Kaitlyn’s room faded away abrubtly, causing her to jump back in alarm. She expected to fall onto her bed, but found that it was no longer there and instead she landed on a soft, dark nothingness. Umi’s fishbowl seemed to be the only solid object left, and it hung, suspended in the still air.
“Mmmkay, this is the part where I get seriously freaked out, isn’t it?” Kaitlyn said nervously.
“Heh heh heh…” Seven silhouettes formed from the void.
“We are the beings that comprise THEM,” said one, though, since Kaitlyn couldn’t make out any facial features, she was unable to tell which. “We have no real names, and we are neither male nor female.”
“What is this nothingness?” Kaitlyn asked.
“A part of us. We are seven entities combined into one, but in order to make our existence easier for you to comprehend we have formed pieces of ourselves into humanoid shapes.”
“Ah. I see. Can I go back to my room now?” Kaitlyn asked, hugging herself and wondering why Umi had remained silent.
“You never left, but, whatever you like…” THEM said, and in a moment her surroundings were restored.
“What do you mean?”
“You never left your room. We simply entered it.”
“Oh…okay,” Kaitlyn rubbed her head.
“Kaitlyn,” Umi interrupted suddenly, “shouldn’t you be heading off to school? It’s almost eight…”
“Ah, Jesus!” Kaitlyn darted into her small closet. Umi laughed a little as various articles of clothing came flying from the closet’s depths, remembering the first day he met Kaitlyn.
“Seems like years now…” he thought privately, as Kaitlyn emerged triumphantly from the closet, brushing the tangles out of her hair. She shouldered her backpack and dropped a few flakes of fish food into Umi’s bowl before racing out, muttering “I’mlateI’mlateI’mlate…!”
The harsh slam of Kaitlyn’s door shattered Umi’s nostalgia, and he suddenly felt very cold. He attempted to shake off the ominous feeling, but it remained, despite the fact that the water in which he swam was quite warm.
“Something’s going to happen today, isn’t it…” he thought faintly, his tiny body shuddering. "What is it…!?” he spoke to THEM, his voice quickly becoming violent. He received no answer, save for a slight, dark chuckling that slithered through his mind. Drowsiness overtook him, and as he felt his mind begin to close, he whispered.
“D..damn you..”
*
“Gosh, it looks like it’s still night time out there,” Lani observed, pressing her face against the window of her fourth period classroom. Nikolas stood behind her, wringing his hands.
“I…I’m sure it’ll clear up soon.”
“Oh, I hope it doesn’t… I love thunderstorms…” she said, not turning away from the window.
“Not me…I like to see the sun,” Jada leaned over Lani, frowning at the dark, cloudy sky. She poked Lani’s shoulder gently.
“You could do with a bit of solar energy, you know.”
“Feh,” Lani glared at Jada. “Tanning is a sign of skin cancer, you know.”
“That’s just something heliophobes say to make themselves feel better,” Jada responded, sticking her tongue out.
“Ladies, the bell has rung…” their Latin teacher spoke in his dry monotone as he ambled up to the front of the class. The three scattered, slipping into their desks and facing forward with feigned interest. Jada’s eyes wandered and she smirked a little at the blush on Nikolas’s face at being referred to as a lady, causing Lani to give her a Look.
Meanwhile, Xin fidgeted in his seat, the inklings he had of Sikari’s plan rattling in his mind. He really knew very little about what was going on (not that that was a first for him), except that it was set to take place near the end of the final period. While his teacher rambled on about dipthongs and ablative absolutes, he buried his face in his hands, worrying about what Sikari might be doing. The most important thing, he decided finally, was to find some way to keep Lani safe. His mind remained distracted by this until the end of the period, at which point he temporarily returned to reality in order to drag himself to his next class. Rain spattered against the school’s roof as Xin slunk through the halls, his stomach churning with uneasiness.
“Hey, Nikolas!” Lani called out to him, catching him gently by the wrist. “You look depressed…”
Xin smiled weakly.
“Oh…oh, no, I’m fine, Lani,” he answered, not meeting her eyes. She gently pulled him away from the hall traffic and hugged him, patting his hair.
“It’s okay if you don’t want to tell me,” she said gently, letting him go. “I’m right here if you need to talk, though…okay?”
Xin’s resolve began to crack.
“I…” he started, and then closed his mouth, thinking of the panic he would cause. Lani watched him expectantly.
“I…thank you, Lani.” He said again, “I really appreciate it.”
*
“Thank you, Lani, I really appreciate it,” Sikari mocked Xin’s high-pitched voice as he watched Lani fade back into the crowd. He reached out and slid an arm around Xin’s waist, yanking him back roughly. Xin made a squealing sort of noise in his throat and swerved around quickly, squirming.
“Good afternoon, Xin,” Sikari smiled. “Having a nice day?”
Xin’s body quaked.
“O-oh..it’s been good so far,” he managed, continuing to squirm. Sikari dragged him a little ways down the hall, stopping in front of a metal door with a sign that had the words ‘Janitor’s Supply Closet’ printed on it. Xin’s eyes darted from the sign to Sikari’s face, and he struggled harder.
“I haven’t done anything!” he squeaked miserably and choked a little as Sikari balled his hand into a fist, pressing hard against his stomach.
“Not yet…” Sikari hissed, the smile quickly fading from his face. Xin gasped, tears pricking at his eyes. Outside, a loud crash of thunder hit the building and the fluorescent lights above them flickered.
“I’ve got to thank you for the lovely storm, though,” Sikari said, opening the closet. “You’re finally getting the hang of dramatic effect.” He pushed Xin into the closet’s depths.
“Don’t worry…I’ll come get you when I’m done.”
With that, he clicked the lock into place and shut the door.
“Neep!” Xin pounded the door, squealing. “It’s dark in here!” His fingers raced across the wall, fumbling until he touched a light switch. He flipped it on, causing a bulb hanging in the closet’s center to sputter to life. The dim bulb had a marginal amount of power, and thus it only managed to form a small pool of light in the area directly beneath it, leaving the rest of the room in shadows. Xin sat beneath the bulb, drawing his knees up to his chest and glancing around nervously.
“Somebody…” he whispered hoarsely, “help me…”
“Sixth period at last,” Kaitlyn yawned. Her heavy bag pressed against the muscles in her back, sending a dull ache throughout. She longed to toss the bag into her car and drive home. She considered, just briefly, striding out the school’s front doors and doing just that. Her conscience and the Rent-a-Cop stationed near the school’s entrance talked her out of that idea, however, and she proceeded to drag herself to her history class. A few minutes after she had slumped into her seat the intercom beeped and a crackly voice filtered through, speaking tensely, *
“All students please report to the auditorium immediately…”
The teacher froze, panic contorting his face. He muttered a word that most would consider school-inappropriate and regained his composure, flinging open the classroom door and speaking in a high, strained tone,
“You heard the announcement.”
Chairs screeched against the floor as students hastened into the quickly filling hallways.
“What’s going on?” Kaitlyn asked a random classmate. He grinned maniacally in response.
“Something really big has happened; probably a psycho prowling around outside if we’re lucky.”
“If we’re lucky?” Kaitlyn squeaked, slipping her hand into her pocket and peeking at her henshin pen. People swarmed through the halls, some laughing and talking, others glancing about with paranoid looks on their faces. One girl was slumped against the wall, moaning,
“I w-wish S-Sean were h-here I wish S-Sean were here…”
“Dude!” Someone stopped, pressing his face against a nearby window. “There is somebody out there…and…oh, man, check out that scythe!”
“What’d I tell you,” said the boy from earlier, his grin widening. “Psycho.”
*
Charon ignored the panicked faces staring at him from inside the school. He walked with purpose in his step, stopping short when he reached a small cul-de-sac behind the school. Breathing shallowly, Charon fell to his knees, fighting to regain control of himself.
“Lumina…” he said. “I want to see that face…”
That pure, radiant face…
“But she’d never accept me,” he said, his voice a low growl. “With my defiled body… and ruined face…”
He stood, swinging the scythe angrily. The weapon’s blade cut across the wiring attached to the circuit breaker on the wall, plunging the school into darkness. He swung again, vehemently, causing sparks to flicker around him. The exertion proved to be more than his body could handle, and he dropped the scythe, falling into a kneeling position in front of the wiring once more. The person inside him quieted, and tears began to slide down his cheeks as the storm raged around him. Charon covered his face with his hands, almost recoiling at the feeling of his own dead, scarred skin. He shook his head slightly, causing the black ribbon that held his hair back to slip out of its weak knot and flutter to the earth, soiled and drenched with rain water.
*
Shouts reverberated off Vinton High’s walls as everyone made their way to the auditorium in darkness, the only light provided by the occasional flash of lightning. Kaitlyn stumbled through the corridors, bumping into various members of the student body.
“Having a hard time?” Etienne’s voice pierced the darkness, and Kaitlyn glanced up as a whip of lightning briefly illuminated the hallway.
“Etienne?” she said questioningly.
“Indeed,” he answered, petting her hair.
“How’d you get here?”
“THEM, a plot hole, teleportation…whatever you want to call it,” Etienne responded. He paused in front of the auditorium door(or rather, the vague outline that they were fairly certain was the auditorium door), opening it and bowing.
“Ladies first…”
Kaitlyn blushed and went inside, finding that most of the seats were already occupied. Etienne slid an arm around her waist.
“We can stand…”
Light was suddenly shed on the stage, revealing that a tall boy with messy, flame-red hair was standing in the center.
“Egan?!” A voice yelled from among those who were seated. “Egan, dude, what’re you doing?”
“What I must.” The boy responded, his glamour spell fading.
“Sikari!” Kaitlyn whispered, gripping Etienne.
“Damn,” Etienne muttered, pulling Kaitlyn into the dressing room next to the auditorium’s entrance. Azura and the others were already there, transformed.
“What took you so long, fearless leader?” Lumina asked, her hands on her hips.
“Well, I guess I just don’t have the intuition for impending villain plots that the rest of you seem to possess!” she said, feeling strained.
“Just transform!” Sylphid said, pacing nervously. Kaitlyn did so, and they turned to exit the dressing room.
“Good luck,” Etienne said. “I’ll go see if there’s anyone left outside the auditorium.”
Sailor Mana gasped upon stepping back into the auditorium, which was filled with the light of hundreds of animus crystals, each one sparkling as it hovered above its owner.
“Gorgeous, isn’t it?!” Sikari called from the stage. “Too bad none of them seem to have a shard…Ohh weeell.. “ He raised his red bauble, but before he could do anything else, a dagger whistled through the air, knocking the metallic ball out of his hands and pinning him to stage’s left wall. A cloaked figure descended on the stage and strode over to Sikari confidently, freeing the dagger from the wall.
“What’s going on?! Who the hell is that?!” Lumina cried, watching the cloaked figure catch Sikari’s wrist and deliver a round-kick to his head. He (for they all assumed that it was a he) then flipped Sikari onto his stomach, jamming his knee into Sikari's spine and holding him down.
“He moves so fast…” Sylphid said, entranced.
“I wonder what he looks like,” Mana’s eyes were wide. The figure raised his head, obviously taking notice of their conversation. He tossed his cape away, revealing—
“A woman…” Shade murmured, smiling softly.
“Yesss…” she said, licking some of Sikari’s blood off of her lips. “Please refrain from referring to me as otherwise, ladies.”
“Who are you?” Mana asked, stepping onto the stage. The girl was extraordinarily tall, with long, red hair and striking, yellow-green eyes. Her ensemble vaguely resembled their own uniforms, except that it was fashioned out of ornate gold armor and the ludicrously short skirt was replaced by dark brown pants with gold knee-guards. She wore a gold breastplate over a dark blue shirt, along with black, fingerless gloves that only came to a few inches past her wrist.
In response to Sailor Mana, she held up a dagger, smirking,
“I’m Sailor Knight. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”
“Hey… you think you guys could give me a plot contrivance here?” Etienne spoke to the darkness in front of him, leaning against a wall in one of the school’s corridors. “Or a flashlight, more specifically?” *
“Lazy.” THEM said, as a flashlight appeared in the air in front of him. Etienne plucked it up, pressing the power button and waving at the unseen force. “Thanks.”
He shone the flashlight’s beam down the hall as he started to walk, listening carefully for any signs of life. He had been going on in this manner for about ten minutes when he thought he heard the sound of pounding coming from the hallway south of the auditorium’s entrance. Steeling himself, he headed towards the noise, stopping in front of what appeared to be a janitor’s closet.
“Uh…hello?” His voice echoed through the empty school.
“Help me!” A desperate, somewhat feminine voice screeched from inside the closet, prompting Etienne to take hold of the knob and open the door.
“Eee!” Whoever it was burst forth from the dark closet, effectively pouncing Etienne and kissing him directly on the lips.
“Mmm…mmph!” Etienne struggled, taken aback. He had a notion to beat whoever it was with the flashlight, but quickly decided that it was probably just a student and thus doing so would be unnecessarily brutal. Thinking that whoever it was would roll off in a moment or so, he laid there, gripping the flashlight. When the kiss showed no signs of ending, he opened his eyes and almost choked when he found himself looking into Nikolas’s overly happy face.
“Grrk!” he said, raising the flashlight. Nikolas, recognizing the danger, rolled off, though he was still grinning deliriously.
“Pfft!” Etienne wiped his mouth, coughing. “Damn it!”
“S…s-sorry,” Xin stammered, his eyes finally registering the image of Etienne’s icy stare. “I couldn’t help it…it was just s-so dark in that closet and I didn’t expect you to be the one to get me out and—“
“Who locked you in there, anyway?” Etienne cut him off, pulling Xin up by the wrist.
“Sik—er, u-um, E-egan…” he said hastily, reddening at his slip.
“Really…I wonder why he would do something like that,” Etienne said, his voice cold and sharp. Any further conversation was halted by the sound of a scream from the auditorium.
“Kaitlyn!” Etienne spoke in unison with Xin’s cry of “Egan!” and then, a few seconds later, “LANI!”
The two sprinted down the hallway, their frantic footsteps mixing with the noise in the auditorium. Xin fought the tears of panic and fear that threatened to spill out onto his cheeks. He had failed them both.
They burst into the room, finding a strange woman holding Sikari down on the stage’s linoleum floor, pressing the tip of a dagger against his heart.
“Stop! Stop it!” Undine’s plea was screeching, and they recognized it as the scream they had heard just a few moments ago.
“Yes…please…” Mana said hoarsely. “There’s got to be another way…”
“Don’t you get it?!” Sikari cried suddenly, turning his head towards the senshi. “This is how fate has plotted our lives! Why don’t you just accept it?!” he glared at Sailorknight. “Come on! Do it!”
“Gladly,” she said, raising the dagger.
“STOP!” Undine cried, scrambling onto the stage and pushing Sailorknight out of the way.
“What are you doing…Azura…” Sikari said, staring at her.
“This…this isn’t the way it has to be,” she whispered, taking his hand. Sikari struggled, but she held him firmly, keeping her eyes locked with his. “I know you have something more to you than just that violent façade you put up, Sikari. I saw it. All you have to do is stop repressing it…”
“I..It’s too late for that, Azura… all the th-things I’ve done…” he started, trembling a little.
“It’ll be alright… I…we forgive you…” Undine said softly, stroking his hair.
“Speak for yourself,” Sailorknight thought, playing with her dagger.
“I…I’m s-s-sorry, Azura…I’m so sorry…” he said, sobbing.
“Shh… it’ll be alright…” Undine smiled, reaching to brush the tears off his cheeks.
“N-no..” he pulled away, flattening his body against the stage’s stone wall. “A-Azura..and..y-you, too, Xin…Xin.. I know it was hard to always have to..d-deal with a corrupt person like me…I’m s-sorry…”
“Sikari—“ Undine started, but he shook his head as he retrieved his bauble, holding it against his heart. A crystal burst forth from his chest, and he wrapped his hands around it, breathing heavily.
“Maybe you’ve forgiven me…but everyone else I’ve hurt…the people I killed…they can never forgive me. Th-this is what you have to understand, Azura…for some people…for people like me…there is no such thing as forgiveness.” He squeezed his eyes shut and, in one quick movement, slammed the crystal against the wall behind him, crumpling to the ground as it shattered. The fragments shimmered as they fell, sprinkling Sikari’s body. Thick, choking silence held the room. Undine sank to her knees, her senshi uniform fading as she sobbed over Sikari’s prostrate form. Xin pulled Sikari, who was now cold with death, into his arms, stroking the fragments of crystal out of his hair. The numbing shock of the sudden act prevented all but Sailorknight from speaking.
“What are you all so upset about? You should be happy that he had enough of a conscience to deliver his own retribution.” She jeered, turning away from them. “How disgusting.”
“Shut up…” Xin whispered, holding Sikari tightly. Sailorknight paused.
“What was that?”
“Shut up!” he cried, a burst of energy exploding from his palm. The blast threw Sailorknight roughly against the stage’s stone wall and caused Sylphid to suddenly snap back to reality.
“N…Nikolas?” she whispered. Breathing shallowly, Xin stood up, his eyes wide with shock and anger. Undine reached out to touch his arm, but he skittered away.
“I won’t let any of you touch me…or…or Sikari..” he whispered, crying as he began to fade out.
“Wait!” Mana suddenly cried, dashing onto the stage a few minutes too late. “What’s he going to do…” she bit her lip.
“Who cares. Next time I see him, I’m going to kill him.” Sailorknight said, starting to fade out as well. “Make sure you don’t get in my way.”
Etienne quietly wrapped his arms around Azura, leading her off the stage and then coming back and doing the same for Kaitlyn. Everyone had reverted back to their civilian clothing. They stood, gazing into each other’s faces, until the final bell rang. The students, jarred by the noise, awoke in their seats, and the auditorium was soon filled with the buzz of gossip and scuffling feet.
“Let’s go home,” Kaitlyn whispered.
“Or at least for a drink,” Etienne muttered.
*
Xin set Sikari’s body into the crude grave he had dug, smearing dirt on Sikari’s pallid skin as he did so.
“I failed you…” he said, starting to refill the grave. “I should have tried to help you and I didn’t…I just pretended it wasn’t happening because I was too weak to face up to it…a-and.. I..was afraid..that if I spoke up…it would happen to me, too. Sikari… I’m more terrible than you’ll ever be.”
He found two sticks and proceeded to make a crude cross by tying them together with a piece of wire. Azura stood, some distance away, watching as he drove the cross into the ground at the head of Sikari’s grave. She waited until Xin at last disappeared before moving forward. She gently set a forget-me-not on top of the fresh soil, trying to think of something to say. Various cheesy speeches came to mind, but she dismissed these, instead pressing her fingers into the black earth. She stared at the ground for a few minutes, and then, quietly, she began to cry.
“What happened?!” Umi said frantically. Kaitlyn curled up on her bed and murmured numbly. *
“Sikari’s dead. He killed himself.”
“Well, that’s a good thing, right? I mean, aren’t villains supposed to die?” Umi asked, feeling relieved, if not somewhat confused.
“He wasn’t a villain. He was a person.” Kaitlyn said, narrowing her eyes at Umi.
“Ahem? What sort of drug did you ingest this morning? He kills people. He’s a villain.”
Kaitlyn squirmed.
“Umi…you…you can’t.. how can you take this so calmly!?”
“Because he deserved to die! Who knows, maybe he’ll be reincarnated as a fish mentor to some over-emotional bleeding-heart teenager, but let’s hope he wasn’t that awful.” Umi snapped.
“But he could have changed…he could have gotten better… he deserved a second chance!”
“Please, Kaitlyn. All he got was what was coming to him,” Umi said.
“I wish everyone would stop saying that! What makes you think that everything is so black and white?! You can’t just divide people up into ‘evil’ and ‘good,’ Umi. That’s not how being human works.” She said, squeezing her pillow.
“Whatever, Kaitlyn. Talk to me again when you grow a spine, okay?” Umi grumbled. Kaitlyn made a face at him and got up, striding out the door.
“Fine. I’m going to Etienne’s.”
“Hmph..” Umi muttered. “Good riddance.”
Jada wandered around the school’s perimeter, waiting for her mother to arrive. *
“It’s almost four…” she grumbled. “I bet she’s working late again…mmm?”
Jada blinked, stopping in front of the school’s circuit box.
“The wiring is all sliced up…” she muttered, glancing around. Her foot squelched mud, and she looked down, noticing a black ribbon poking out of the filth. She picked it up, coating her fingers in mud.
“Jada! Jada, what are you doing?!” her mother’s voice called, and Jada turned to see her mother, leaning out of the window of her car.
“N..Nothing, mom!” Jada answered, running to the car and climbing in.
“Jada, what’s that wretched ribbon you’ve got there,” her mother frowned. “It’s all covered in mud…”
“O-oh..” Jada looked at the ribbon, clutching it tightly. “I..I’ll throw it away when we get home, mom.”
...end
next?
Umm, aside from that being one of THE WORST pieces of tripe I've ever written...^^;; Some notes...
Yes, that was Claris making another cameo...and Umi's comment about 'it feels like years' refers to the fact that it has been. Clarity began somewhere in November of 1998. ^^;; Yes, Sikari's dead. No, he's not coming back. You may all rejoice. =P Annd..this is Clarity's longest chapter so far, coming in at approximately 5200 words. ^^;;
Okay, now you can email me and tell me how much I suck at writing death scenes. =P