by Lola StVil
The video starts playing. The focus is blurry at first, and all I can see is a dark cave. The focus clears, and I see Remy. She’s hanging suspended from the ceiling by vines. Quinn stands beside her.
Remy’s body is covered in hundreds of fire ants, and I can see where they’ve eaten away chunks of her skin and flesh. She’s screaming at the pain as they’ve reached her internal organs. We’re going to have to move fast if we want to get to her while there’s still time to save her life, but there’s no clue in the video as to where the cave is. It could be anywhere in the world.
I look at the evil grin on Quinn’s face as she stands beside Remy. How is this the same girl who was so intent on helping to get the first object? The same girl who taught Atlas how to use her powers?
Quinn looks directly into the camera.
“Atlas, this one’s for you,” she says with a catlike grin.
She turns back to Remy and waves her hands. The vines holding Remy’s limbs pull apart, straining away from each other.
I’ve seen and done some terrible things in my life, and I thought I was immune to the effects of pain, but even I look away as Remy’s body is literally torn into pieces. I know her scream will haunt me forever.
Her head and torso fall to the floor, but each of her limbs remain hanging in the vines. Blood and chunks of flesh splatter the ground and walls of the cave. The video shows Quinn’s smiling face one more time, Remy’s blood covering her from head to foot, as it cuts off.
For a second, no one speaks. Everyone wears matching expressions of utter horror. A single tear runs down Langston’s cheek, and for a second, I focus on it. I don’t know where else to look or what to say to make things right. Nothing can make that right.
Atlas’s face is frozen, her jaw clenched, her eyes dazed looking. Perry’s mouth opens and closes as though he wants to say something, but nothing comes out. Regal stares straight ahead, still holding the cell phone.
“What did we just see?” Saudia whispers.
Her words break the spell of paralysis that holds us, and Regal jumps to his feet. His hands fly to his head and grab at his hair. He pulls it, hard enough that I think it will rip out of his scalp. An unearthly keening sound comes from his mouth. It’s like nothing I’ve ever heard, and it makes every hair on my body stand on end.
He doubles over, still tearing at his hair and screaming out his pain. I look up, waiting for one of the team to step forward and comfort him. They’re all stumbling around, trying to keep their footing, and I realize I’m doing the same.
The ground beneath us is shaking. Regal’s anger and grief are manifesting through his powers, and he’s causing the ground to move in waves.
Regal drops to his knees and throws his head back. His screams of anger have manifested into waves of pure power; the deeper the screams get, the harder and faster the waves get. I am thrown to the floor. I roll to the side to avoid being hit by a falling chair.
As I roll, I look up. All above us, furniture slams through the air, hitting the walls and smashing to the ground. Debris rains down everywhere.
“Regal, stop,” Langston shouts.
She has managed to crawl to his side. She puts her hand on his arm.
“Regal, listen to me,” she shouts.
She might as well be talking to a wall for all the effect she’s having. It’s like Regal is trapped in his own mind. With us, but not with us.
The team makes their way to Regal’s side, trying desperately to reach him. Nothing they say works. Suddenly, an idea pops into my mind. I crawl across the shaking floor to Regal.
I take his arms tightly in my hands and force him to look at me.
“Listen to me. Those humans you and your sister care about so much? You’re killing them,” I shout.
The way the loft is shaking, I know I’m speaking the truth. The shock waves from Regal will be causing an earthquake that will be shaking all of Manhattan. At least they’ll say it was an earthquake.
My words seem to reach a place in Regal that is still responsive. Maybe he was telling the truth earlier. Maybe it really is in the team’s blood to save humans at all costs. He stops screaming and lowers his hands from his head.
The world stops shaking, and everyone breathes a sigh of relief. I look around at the others. Perry has a cut above his right eye where some falling shrapnel caught him, but no one else appears to be injured. They just look shaken.
“She killed my sister,” Regal whispers to no one in particular.
“Regal,” Atlas says, her voice breaking as she reaches out to him.
Regal jumps to his feet and backs away from her touch.
“She killed my sister. To get to you,” he says to Atlas.
Before anyone can react, he turns and sprints away from us, out of the loft. We all get to our feet and run for the door, but we’re too late. He’s gone.
We spread out and tried to find him, but none of us could. Atlas got a call an hour later to say he’d been picked up by healers and delivered to the Tamlo. Which is how we found ourselves here.
It’s funny because a couple of weeks ago, I’d have been happy to see Remy dead and Regal so broken. Now I feel so angry at Quinn for what she’s done. And not just because of the way it’s affecting Atlas.
I would hardly say Regal and I are best friends, but something changed between us on the quest for the first object. Something changed between all of us. We might not have liked each other, but we gained a grudging respect for each other, and I don’t like seeing him in this state any more than the rest of the team do.
Somehow, without meaning to, I’ve come to not hate the team at all. And when I went to Regal’s side at the loft and helped to stop him from killing humans, it wasn’t just because I knew that’s what Atlas would want me to do. It was because it felt right somehow. And it didn’t suck anywhere near as much as I expected it to.
Have I turned soft? Maybe a little, but I know deep down that I’d still kill humans and not feel a morsel of regret if they stood in my way. So much for turning good. I still haven’t worked out if helping the team is a good idea or not, but here I am all the same.
Where else would I be right now other than by Atlas’s side?
She needs me. She needs me to tell her it’ll all be okay, even if I don’t really believe that myself. And she needs all of us to tell her it’s not her fault. Because it’s not. Not really.
I can see the guilt oozing off her in waves. After Quinn’s message in the video, it’s hard for her not to blame herself for all of this. And I know she blames the kiss she and Regal shared. I get why Quinn was mad. Hell, I wanted to storm in and kill Regal when I saw him kissing Atlas, but that doesn’t excuse what she’s done.
Remy didn’t kiss her stupid boyfriend. She had no right to treat her like that. She did it because she knew it would cause the team the maximum pain. Killing Regal would have been too quick, too neat. She’s messed up. Bad. It makes it easy to see that Quinn and I are related.
I still can’t believe that we are related, that Sadie is my mother. Like what the fuck? I’m a long way from ready to deal with that hot mess. I’ve started calling Sadie “mother,” but we both know from the bitter way I say it that it’s an ironic term, not a term of endearment.
I see the hurt on her face every time I spit the word at her like an insult, but what does she expect after the way she abandoned me?
I have found myself wondering recently if things could have been different if we’d all been together while I was growing up, but I refuse to play the “what if” game.
And would it really have made any difference? I mean, Quinn grew up with Sadie and look at the way she turned out. No, I think it’s fair to say that Sadie is a bit of a fuck up as a mother. Why else would both of her kids have turned out so evil?
I can feel my thoughts turning down a dark path. A path I don’t want to travel, but I can’t seem to stop. I’m grateful when my cell phone starts ringing. The shrill noise breaks the silence in the room
and makes everyone jump.
“Sorry,” I mumble as I pull my cell phone out.
It’s Pest. He isn’t one for social calls, so I know it must be important.
“I have to take this,” I say.
Atlas nods without looking up at me. I leave the room and take the call in the corridor.
“Yeah,” I say into the cell phone.
“Kane, you need to get here. Now,” Pest says.
“Screw that. You know what’s going on here. Atlas needs me. I’m not going to just drop everything and come to New Orleans,” I say.
Pest’s voice is steady and firm as he responds.
“I wasn’t aware it was a request. You have to see this.”
He hangs up without waiting for my response. I lean back against the wall and sigh. I rub my hands over my face. I really don’t want to leave Atlas, but Pest would never summon me like that if it weren’t important. I push myself up off the wall and go back into the room.
“Guys, I have to leave for a while, but I’ll be right back,” I say.
I get a few grunts, but that’s it. Atlas doesn’t even look at me. I walk across to her and crouch down in front of her.
“Hey,” I say, reaching up and caressing her cheek. “That was Pest. He needs me to see something, and you know he wouldn’t call if it weren’t important.”
She nods, but she barely makes eye contact with me. She’s so lost in her own thoughts, drowning in the guilt that’s eating at her. I don’t want to leave her, but I force myself to focus on Pest.
I straighten up.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” I say, squeezing Atlas’s shoulder as I leave.
I teleport to the stairwell in Pest’s apartment and make my way up. I step into the lounge area, surprised to see it empty. Where the hell is he?
I hear voices coming from his bedroom. One of them belongs to Pest. I cross the lounge in big strides.
“This has better be good, Pest,” I say as I push open his bedroom door and step in.
As I step into the room, I see Pest pacing the floor, but my attention is drawn to the intoxicated woman who peers out from beneath Pest’s blankets. Her eyes are glassy.
“Oh, hello, Kane. What are you doing here?” she slurs, giving me a lopsided smile.
I ignore her and turn to Pest as anger surges within me. I reach out and grab Pest by the throat and slam him up against the bedroom wall. My teeth are clenched, and I can feel a vein pulsing in my throat.
“Pest, what the fuck is my mother doing in your bed?”
“Kane, please, let go. I can explain,” Pest wheezes around my fist.
His hands pull at mine, but he’s not strong enough to get me to loosen my grip. His feet are off the floor, and his face is turning an angry purple as I squeeze his throat tighter.
What can he possibly say that will make this okay? I don’t know. But I hope there’s something because as angry as I am, there’s a little voice in the back of my mind telling me that I don’t want to kill Pest, one of the only people who stood by me, even when I didn’t deserve it.
With a roar of anger, I open my fist and step back. Pest falls into a heap on the floor, rubbing his throat with both hands.
“You have ten seconds to convince me I shouldn’t just kill you now,” I say.
Pest drags himself to his feet.
“Nine seconds,” I say.
“I was trying to call you. I tried for a couple of days, but your cell phone was off—”
“Eight seconds,” I interrupt.
“I was worried about you after you helped Atlas and her team. I thought maybe Arken had found you and killed you—”
“Seven seconds.”
“I came to the loft, but you weren’t there. None of you were there. So I—”
“Six seconds.”
Pest sighs and pushes himself away from the wall.
“If you’re going to do that, Kane, just kill me now. You know I don’t tell stories quickly. So either finish what you started or sit down and listen to me,” Pest snaps.
I feel myself do a double take. Pest has never feared me, but he’s never snapped at me like that before either. If anyone else spoke to me that way, they’d be in half now, but Pest is different. I owe him.
I sit down and nod for him to carry on. I’m still pissed off, but I’ll hear him out before I decide what to do next.
“Where was I?” Pest says. “Oh yes. I went to the loft, and none of you were there. When everyone was missing, I relaxed a little. I figured you were off somewhere with the team. I walked along, thinking about where you could have gone. I checked the bookstore, but it was closed, and no amount of banging on the door brought anyone to open it, so I figured you all weren’t there.
“As I walked, thinking about where to look next, a bar across the street caught my attention, and I thought maybe you had all decided to go for a drink. Or more likely, the team was off doing something for the quest, and you were in there trying to drink away your dilemma. Anyway, I went in, and Sadie was there.
“I went over to ask her if she’d seen any of you, but one look at her told me something was wrong. She was spiraling out of control, Kane. I sat down beside her and asked her what was going on. She was angry because she just wanted to drink her problems away, just for one night, but she couldn’t. Her power was too strong for the alcohol to affect her.
“I felt sorry for her. We’ve all been there, right? Where you just want to get shit-faced and forget your problems for a few hours. So I gave her a leaf from an Obo plant. It acts as an inhibitor. It pushed her powers down and lowered her resistance to the alcohol.
“I don’t think she knew how potent it would be because she started throwing back shots like no one’s business. I felt like I should stick around, make sure she didn’t get herself into any trouble. She got horribly drunk quickly. I told her it was time to go home and she agreed, but she was so far gone she didn’t know where home was anymore. So I brought her here.
“I figured I’d put her in my bed and let her sleep it off while I called you to take her home. I managed to get her here and into bed, but she pulled me in with her. She was laughing and saying one kiss and she’d let me go. It seemed easier to play along than fight her. So I kissed her.”
Pest trails off, a faraway look in his eyes and a goofy smile playing across his lips. I feel a shudder of revulsion run through me. He’s recalling the kiss he shared with my mother. He liked it. Way too much.
“Okay. That’s enough. I don’t want to hear any more,” I say.
Pest blinks and the look disappears from his face.
“This is all very entertaining, but what’s any of it got to do with me?” I ask.
“You don’t get it, do you?” Pest says quietly.
“No. I thought I’d made that clear,” I say.
“Sadie’s issues, the ones she wanted to drink away, where about you, Kane. She’s going to keep behaving this way unless you let her off the hook. She’s suffering.”
I shake my head bitterly.
“Are you fucking kidding me? I’m not just going to let her off the hook because she’s suffering. Do you think I haven’t suffered because of her? My whole life was one big nightmare, and it was her fault. If she hadn’t given me up, then things would have been different.
“And don’t even get me started on how she failed Quinn. If she’d been anything like a decent mother to her, she wouldn’t be where she is now.”
“Pest,” Sadie slurs. “Come back to bed.”
She gives him what she thinks is a seductive smile. It turns my stomach.
“Everything will be fine if we just stay in bed,” she says.
She reaches for Pest. He backs up a little so he’s out of her reach. She giggles and stretches to reach him. She topples forward, and Pest steps back to her and stops her from falling from the bed.
“Not now, Sadie, okay?” Pest says.
He sounds irritated, but beneath that is something else. He sounds tend
er. Like he really does care about her.
She pouts a little, but she sits back against the pillows, no longer grabbing for him.
“Spoilsport,” she mutters.
“I’m not saying everything she did was for the best, Kane. I’m just saying you need to give her a chance to explain things. Like Atlas did for you,” Pest says.
I feel my temper surge again.
“Don’t you fucking dare bring Atlas into this,” I shout.
“Why not? Because you know I’m right? Because…”
He’s still talking, but I don’t hear him. Movement outside the window catches my attention, and I turn towards it. Two bright red orbs head for the glass. At the second they touch it and the window implodes, showering the room with glass, I scream at Pest.
“Get down!”
He responds automatically, throwing himself to the floor. The orbs fly into the room and instantly burst outwards, revealing two warlocks.
I fire at them, but they see it coming and whirl away from it, going in two opposite directions.
“I told you the rumors were true. Look at her. She’s weak. We can take her powers,” one of them says. “You take care of the demon while I take care of her.”
The second warlock advances on me, his hands drawing symbols in the air, while the other steps towards Sadie on the bed. I’m torn. What do I do?
As angry as I am at Sadie, I’m not just going to stand back and let these warlocks take her powers.
I can see her hands moving in the air. Okay, maybe she isn’t totally lost. She can take him. I turn my focus to the one advancing on me. The symbol in the air in front of him turns into a green laser that comes straight towards my chest.
I duck and roll towards him, coming back up onto my feet in touching distance of him. As I reach out for him, he vanishes. A whoosh of air behind me tells me he’s teleported, and I spin to face him again.
I dart my eyes quickly to Sadie and the other warlock. She’s finished her spell, a spell intended to bring forth a swarm of creatures that will fight the warlocks for us. She’s succeeded in bringing forth six chocolate brown colored puppies. They clamber over her, licking her face. She laughs in delight and strokes them.