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Silence met her statement. She peeked at her side, a careful tilt so as not to disturb the energy flow. Yano was standing just outside the runes, body still and careful.
“Yano, shall we? I don’t want to lose this while it’s this powerful—”
“I want to punch your body until you are a thousand pieces before me.”
The words didn’t match the face, which was as pleasant as they came. But Yano’s eyes were a different matter, glittering black…growing blacker as the seconds passed. None of it lasted as his face crumbled within seconds, pain hitting him so hard but his body arching as if to accept it. Tears streamed down his cheeks, his mouth torn between a wordless scream and a gleeful smile.
The dark hiss continued, words falling from his lips in a stream of darkness.
“I want to cut you up. I want to smash you to the ground and turn you into dust. Come here. My fist can do it.”
“Yano, what’s…?”
And then it hit her like a freight truck and yanked the nightmare into full view, blending into reality in the most sordid of ways: the evil was coming from her, pouring out in black, smoky spades and seeping into Yano’s skin…just like it had with Sona. Malifeskos.
Charlie.
Panic singed. Her body moved on instinct, jerking the energy back in haste to tuck it in. But it shoved her back until she stumbled, a force that had stars exploding before her eyes. The pure goodness she had felt earlier dropped like a shield until she felt that darkness circling her like a predator, its words slithering in her ringing ears.
Kill him. Tear him apart. Eat his flesh and blood.
Horror squeezed her belly when her fingers lifted and more black smoke danced from them. They shook the runes until they found spaces to creep out of. Desperation pushed away the horror as she kept trying to yank again and again, each bounce back hitting her like a punch until she was curled on the ground. Agony blazed, her insides eating her up. Her mind fell apart, brimming with the thirst for flesh.
One more. One more and we will be free.
One more, and she would risk ruining the world.
Come on. You know you want it.
She tried to cling to sanity, scrambling against the tidal waves that roared around her. She heard another voice, melancholic and firm.
“I told you not to let it out.”
The bald man flickered in and out of view, face as solemn as always but providing a sense of reprieve. She clung to it but couldn’t hold on for long. She drowned seconds later, dunked under so much darkness and blind to the way out. But she still heard his voice, the promise that had been imprinted in her brain when he had first uttered it.
I will not allow your evil to stain my gift.
Fight it.
The words screamed at her. She kept kicking in the dark and searching for air, but none came. Her body moved out of her control, bones creaking and pain slicing as she stood back up. Her fingers spread, poised to follow the evil’s demands and take away the pain. Her strength waned, a burning that seared her inside out and asked her to just give in—
Daria, fight it. Please.
Her eyes snapped open and locked in on a figure ahead, toeing the line of the runes. Not the bald man but someone else, dark brown spheres pinning her in place. Beside him was Yano, held down by more figures…Marx. Bianca. Her family. She called out his name but couldn’t hear her voice, the whispers taking over. But so did his voice, a small point of light that flickered.
“Daria. I’m here. Push it towards me if you need help. Hurt me if you want. Don’t hurt others.”
I’m not going to kill you, she mouthed.I can’t. I won’t.She fought the drowning to repeat it, but understanding already shone in his gaze.
“You are stronger than this. I have faith in you.”
An unbearable squeezing tightened her chest at the tremble she heard, providing a hush. A still moment. And then his voice lowered, a tenderness that made her soul ache.
“Daria, I love you. Come back to me.”
The beaming light flickered some more. Then it thickened, brightened…gushed to the point of no return just as the darkness took her under once more. The burning intensified, too, firing every inch of her up, and she screamed and screamed in the silence. When the light burst through the invisible water, her hand snapped out, smoke battling it and molding into one. She heaved one last time, putting her heart and soul into it.
Then everything shattered, and so did she.
