After Darkness II

by J. F. Johns

  For the entirety of her life she had felt weak. She had found her home in the Pits because fighting had made her feel somehow less... Terra shook her head, tears trickling down her cheeks.

  Wiping her nose, she focused on the girl in the mirror. It was hard recognising herself, and it wasn't because of her physique. She wasn't the same girl that had sat beneath the holographic tree in her school with her two best friends, eating and laughing. She was no longer the girl that would sneak out of her bedroom window or the girl that thought she could fix everything with her fists.

  That girl was dead and what was left...

  What was left were broken pieces she would have to find a way of putting back together.

  'Teeeeeerrrrrraaaaaaa.'

  Her face melted away in the mirror, replaced by Petra's nasty grin and cold eyes.

  Shrieking, Terra fell back. Fear rushed through her body, paralysing her limbs. She didn't want to move. She never wanted to see that face ever again! And yet, a part of her wanted to get back up and confront the monster that had hurt her so deeply.

  'Terra?' It was Scarlet's voice, but it sounded distant and far away as Terra stood up and glanced into the mirror. She expected to find her own reflection in it, Petra's face long gone, just her imagination playing tricks on her.

  'Did you miss me?' Petra snarled, those cold eyes gleaming with the desire to hurt. 'I miss the smell of your blood, Terra.'

  'No!' Terra cried out as she smashed her fist into the mirror, the glass shattering against her flesh, pain exploding all the way up her arm. The door to the bathroom opened and someone grabbed Terra as she gripped the broken shards of glass on the ground, slamming them against the tiles, screaming at the top of her lungs.

  'Terra!' Scarlet's hands were on her, and at first she tried pushing the Prototype away, but the fear and anger quickly led to sadness. She fell to the ground, sobbing. 'What happened?' Scarlet asked, trying to brush the locks of hair away from her face which were getting stuck due to the tears.

  'Petra...' Terra pointed at the empty mirror, her hands shaking. 'She talks to me. She's followed me. I thought I was safe here.'

  'You are safe.'

  Terra shook her head. 'She's still torturing me but from afar.'

  'You mustn't be afraid. She can't actually hurt you here.'

  Terra managed to calm down a little, but kept her attention on the shards of glass, wondering if she'd see Petra appear again. Nothing happened, and after a few minutes her shaking ceased. Wiping her nose and eyes, she turned towards Scarlet. The Prototype had given her some space and remained silent, waiting for Terra to take the first step. She was thankful for the gesture, but now the silence was overpowering and she needed a distraction. 'What was it like for you being trapped in the Destroyer?' she asked. Scarlet settled herself against the bathtub, her legs crossed and her hands in her lap.

  'It felt like drowning. I kept screaming but no one could hear me.' Scarlet looked at something on the wall, but Terra could tell she was somewhere else, remembering. 'Sometimes I could see what was happening through my eyes but I couldn't control my body. Other times it was like falling asleep and then waking up days later to find something new had happened.'

  'It must've been terrible.'

  Scarlet nodded. 'Each day I weakened... But when you were hurt I could feel your pain and... It brought me closer to the edge. Thanks to you, I am here.' Leaning forward, she went to touch Terra but thought better of it. 'I know Petra hurt you deeply. If you ever need to talk about it...'

  'No.' Terra looked away, ashamed at the harshness in her voice. She would never talk to anyone about what had happened. Thinking about all the things Petra had done to her body and soul made tears swell up behind her eyelids and she rubbed them away, wishing she could forget.

  'Shouldn't you be downstairs at the party?' Terra asked, wanting to change the subject.

  'Everyone's drunk.' Scarlet smiled and it brightened the small bathroom. Terra could tell why Eric and everyone else loved her so much. When she smiled like that, so easily and freely, it made the darkness of the world go away. Terra wished she had the ability to do that with just a smile.

  'So now I have...' She coughed, unsure of how to continue. Glancing down at her arm, she moved it around inspecting the black veins. 'Superpowers?'

  Scarlet's smile deepened and she quickly stood up, wiping away the creases in the black baggy trousers Eric had given her. 'Come with me.' She extended her hand out and Terra glanced up at it, suddenly unsure. As soon as she peered up into those soft mismatched eyes, all doubt vanished.

  They made their way up the staircase towards the attic, climbing out the window to the roof. The smell of baked goods made Terra's stomach growl even though she wasn't hungry. Her nostrils took in the orange and chocolate scent and her mouth immediately watered.

  'I want you to see the city,' Scarlet said.

  Frowning, Terra replied, 'I've already seen this city plenty of times.'

  Scarlet chuckled. 'Not from up there.' She pointed towards the sky and Terra stepped back, uncertain. Scarlet's body began to slowly disintegrate into black shadows and mist and Terra -even though she had seen it happen before- cried out in shock at the sight in front of her.

  'Don't be afraid,' Scarlet said as her legs and arms vanished into the night sky.

  Terra had always dealt with everything in life with conflict. She hid her fear by fighting. But after everything that had happened in her life she felt as though she was no longer able to hide her fear by physically attacking her enemies.

  She needed to learn to be brave again.

  Differently this time.

  Lifting her hand up, she let the power consume her. Her fingers imploded into particles that rushed up her arm across her chest and downwards. She went to scream but by then her mouth had vanished and Terra dissolved into shadows that contracted and expanded in on themselves.

  Terra followed Scarlet across the city, two dark circles created from nightmares, fear and shadows.

  ...

  Malcolm, Camille and Eric were laughing very loudly within the kitchen about something not very funny at all. Morgana couldn't help but roll her eyes at the three idiots that had drunk so much she wasn't sure how they hadn't passed out yet.

  Ten sat next to her at the kitchen table and Rife was comfortably in her lap. A part of her wanted to bark at the three airheads standing by the kitchen counter, rolling over in fits, but at the sight of their red cheeks and glossed over eyes, she decided against it. They were happy. At least she assumed their ridiculous behaviour meant so.

  'Can I show Scarlet my rabbit now?' Ten asked, wiggling anxiously in the chair. She'd been asking the same thing for the past hour.

  'There's a lot of people that want a bit of Scarlet's attention,' Morgana explained. 'We need to wait a little bit, okay?' Ten's eyes sharpened angrily. Morgana couldn't help but notice the way the black eye seemed to swirl; shadows within it. It scared her. She didn't understand what had happened out there or how the Destroyer had somehow been suctioned into their bodies, trapped and locked into four parts of itself. She didn't like the idea that the twins possessed a little part of it. Scarlet seemed pretty damn sure the monster could no longer harm them. Morgana wasn't so worried about that. What worried her was what the twins were now capable of doing with such powers.

  They'd have to keep an even closer eye on them from now.

  One of the many cyborgs that lived in the house marched into the kitchen as the cheers and the singing grew. Morgana had seen the pretty cyborg sometimes, but didn't know her name. She was petite with curly dark hair and a face full of freckles.

  The cyborg didn't smile or acknowledge the noisy group of three that had their arms around each other, now screaming at the top of their lungs, spilling an orange liquid all over the floor. Ten patted her legs rhythmically against the legs of her chair, giggling at the ridiculousness in front of her.

  Morgana eyed the petite cybo
rg, frowning. Something was off. It was hard to tell exactly what, but Morgana's body was suddenly on alert. The cyborg didn't even glance towards the three clowns- something quite unnatural- and continued forward, rummaging through a cupboard. She grabbed something, but it was quickly hidden behind her back. Turning, she stood facing everyone without speaking. Morgana noticed the girl's eyes; completely unfocused.

  'You're all going down!' the cyborg yelled, silencing the room.

  The petite cyborg laughed hysterically and slashed her throat open with the knife she'd been hiding. Blood spluttered across the floor. Malcolm -being the closest to her from where he stood- rushed to her side, trying to stop the blood. Rivers of crimson crawled through his fingers as he tried putting pressure on the wound. Morgana saw the moment the cyborg's eyes returned to normal, focusing on the room. Confusion took over as she convulsed within Malcolm's arms.

  Eric moved to fetch Curtis, but Morgana stopped him. The girl wasn't shaking anymore.

  'Vladimir!' Morgana cried out, standing with Rife in her arms. The young Prototype materialised out of thin air, clearly having heard the screams. Persephone was next to him. 'Take the twins to their room, please.' Vladimir nodded without questioning the sight in front of him.

  'What the actual fu-' Eric began to say, his drunken face quickly sobering up.

  'This is Petra and Viktor's work.' Morgana brushed through her curly blonde locks. 'Viktor must've commanded her to do this...' Morgana shut up, suddenly fearful at what this meant.

  Camille wrapped her arms around her body. 'Oh. Oh. What does this mean?' She bit her pierced lips, her eyes wide. 'She could basically...' Her eyes bulged and suddenly she was running out of the kitchen, searching for Kalem, fearful Petra had done something to him too.

  'This isn't good.' Eric rubbed the stubble on his face from not shaving in the past few days. His eyes were wide with worry, his shoulders tense, his other hand on his hip.

  'Of course it isn't good, Thorn!' Morgana snapped, then waved her aggressiveness away and said, 'I think Scarlet, Tristan and I should go and pay our dear sister a visit.'

  'Are you mad?' Malcolm said, glancing up from where he was crouching on the floor by the dead cyborg.

  'Well, she's clearly calling for our attention.'

  'Precisely. If you go to her, you're just doing what she wants.'

  'So what you're saying is...' Morgana cocked her head. 'Don't do anything and just let the damn witch keep killing our people?'

  'We don't know if she'll continue.'

  Morgana barked out a short laugh. 'It's Petra, Malcolm. Why would she stop?'

  'Do you think she knows Scarlet is back?' Eric asked.

  Morgana licked her lips. 'It could be. She has eyes everywhere and we weren't exactly subtle.'

  'So she's pissed off.'

  'Petra lives pissed off, it's her high.' Sighing, Morgana added, 'We can't just not do something about this. She'll just keep playing with us until we cave in. So, I'm going to go and get Tristan and Scarlet and then we're off.' She could tell Eric was about to object, and she understood why. He had just gotten Scarlet back and now someone else was pulling her away from him.

  Instead, he turned towards the dead cyborg and motioned at Malcolm to help him. 'Come on. Help me with the body. I'll give Miss Wang a call.'

  'Miss Wang?' Morgana asked curious.

  'She's this old woman that lives across the street,' Eric explained as he rolled his sleeves up. 'Turns out she runs an underground business in the basement of her house. Guess why she's always cooking such delicious smelling meals?'

  Morgana scrunched her face up. 'Do I want to know?'

  Eric shrugged. 'Probably not.'

  The two cyborgs carried the body out of the kitchen, vanishing up the stairs. Morgana wondered who was going to clean up the mess on the floor. She walked away, unbothered. She had seen so much death throughout her life that it was hard to feel anything. Seeing a girl slit her throat should've brought Morgana to a crumbling mess. But she'd been made to be as thick as nails. Such things couldn't affect her.

  It didn't really bother any of them much anymore, and she wondered what that meant.

  Probably nothing good.

  Morgana knew where to find Tristan because it was the only place where he spent his time; the training room. It was located on the same floor as the kitchen and it took her a matter of seconds to make her way down the dark hallway. The door was slightly opened and Morgana almost walked in, but froze at the sight of Tristan and...

  Charlotte.

  They weren't doing anything inappropriate. They were training together in silence. Tristan lifted the small cyborg up in his arms and threw her down against the mats. Charlotte laughed. Morgana had never seen Charlotte do such a thing. It was beyond disturbing.

  Morgana couldn't help but notice the way Tristan hovered over Charlotte as he pinned her against the ground, the way his blue eyes lusted for the girl beneath him. And then Charlotte was caressing his face.

  'I missed you,' she whispered, her hand stroking his face. 'All these years...'

  'You know I needed to go.'

  Charlotte's face wrinkled in hurt. 'You could've found a way to stay in contact with me.'

  Morgana backed up, suddenly realising that she was intruding on something very personal. She was surprised Tristan hadn't heard her approach, but he seemed too deeply lost in Charlotte to focus on anything else.

  No matter how intriguing this new discovery was, she couldn't just stand outside forever. It was painfully obvious why neither Tristan nor Charlotte had come running at the noise in the kitchen. They'd probably assumed the three idiots -Camille, Malcolm and Eric- were up to no good and hadn't wanted to separate from whatever it was they'd been doing.

  Training! Morgana thought, slapping herself.

  Coughing, she slammed the door open. For the first time ever, Tristan was startled. He moved away from Charlotte almost as if she'd thrown him off. Charlotte sniffed the air, recognising Morgana's scent immediately, her tense shoulders relaxing at the familiar smell. Morgana was curious to know what she smelt like. Prototypes didn't have basic necessities, so they didn't sweat. Scarlet always smelt like strawberries because she loved bathing and using strawberry shampoo. They didn't technically need baths, but some Prototypes like Scarlet loved them.

  'We have a problem,' Morgana said, scratching behind her ear awkwardly.

  'What is it?' Tristan's tone could've cut through ice. Charlotte pulled her shoes on and left the training room without even saying goodbye.

  'Didn't know you two we're friends,' Morgana commented as soon as the pretty cyborg had vanished from sight. 'Didn't know you had a thing for Asians.'

  A vein in Tristan's throat twitched and Morgana couldn't help but smile teasingly.

  'What's the matter?' he grunted.

  'We need to get Scarlet,' Morgana explained. 'And then we need to go and speak to Petra.'

  'Why? What has she done this time?'

  Morgana wanted to point out that while he had been flirting with Charlotte a cyborg had slit her own throat just down the hallway. But she kept her mouth tightly shut. He was always in a shitty mood, she wasn't about to get him riled up even more.

  'I'll explain on the way.' They made their way up the stairs towards the roof. It was easier to travel across the rooftops than the pavement because it was harder to be spotted from above. 'Where is Scarlet?' Morgana grunted, calling out for her sister.

  'I'm here,' Scarlet said, climbing in from the attic window, followed by Terra.

  'Where were you?' Morgana asked.

  'We went for a...' Scarlet glanced over her shoulder at the human girl and smiled. 'A walk.'

  'A walk?' Morgana rolled her eyes at their conspiratorial smiles and waved them back outside. 'We need to go.'

  'Where are you going?' Terra asked.

  Morgana ushered Scarlet and Tristan out the window and then stopped as she was half-way out,
one leg on the roof as she held on. Terra looked up at her, curious from where she stood on the landing.

  'We're going to talk to our sister,' Morgana said before vanishing outside.

  Chapter twenty-five

  Terra felt relentless after Scarlet, Morgana and Tristan had run off to confront Petra. The mere thought of them coming face to face with that vile girl brought all the memories rushing back; all the torment, the pain, the sound of Petra's laugh...

  The house had become very silent. It was making Terra's nerves worse. The walls seemed to narrow, choking her as she marched down the hallways. Rushing into the kitchen, she found the space surprisingly empty. It was a small comfort, but a comfort nonetheless. She slumped into a chair, shaking.

  It wasn't long before she smelt something strong and metallic. What could it be? She'd smelt such a thing before...Many times. Standing from her seat, she searched for the source of the wrench. A horrible feeling began to brood as her mind realised what the smell was. And there it was. At the other end of the kitchen lay a pool of blood as dark as the night itself.

  The kitchen suddenly vanished, replaced by a world composed of shadows and darkness. Every cabinet, counter and cupboard was made from different shades of greys and blacks. There were people too, their skin made from nightmares. One of them-a girl or a boy, Terra couldn't quite be sure- held something hidden behind their back, but it was impossible to tell what it was.

  Terra stood frozen to the spot as the shadow person lifted the hidden object behind their back and in one clean movement slashed it against their own neck. He or she fell to the ground and another shadow person rushed to help. Terra could tell that the remaining shadows were arguing, their colours changing depending on their emotions. Two shadow people lifted the fallen one and carried the dead body outside. They moved in slow motion, giving her enough time to step aside, allowing them to pass.