Endeca (The Escapism Series) (14 page)

“Someone please help me…please…I need help,” I cried, feeling every shred of my being break down until I could no longer stand on my own two feet. I dropped to my knees by the river where the passing stream washed away all that I had left of Marla. Behind me, someone…
something
spoke.

“You seek vengeance,” hummed a little girl. Her face was pale and somber. Her ghastly eyes gave me the shivers. They were omniscient yet hollow, black glowing sockets.

“Yes,” I replied, coughing from a strange odor that accompanied her. I dried my hands across my thighs, standing up immediately thereafter.

“I see him,” she said, her hollow eyes flickered with black light. “I can lead you to him.”

“Yes. Please, show me,” I begged.

She smiled eerily. “Come,” she uttered before vanishing. I followed her foul trail of an essence through the darkness; it was hard not to miss. We travelled down a dark alleyway where the killer lurked with Marla’s belongings. I nodded in gratitude to the little girl, thing, or whatever it was. She smelled of death and her appearance only backed her assault on my olfactory senses.

“
You
…you shot her. Those are her things,” I exclaimed. “Give them to me.”

He scoffed at me, drawing his gun. “You’re one crazy bitch, you know that?”

“You’ve done this before, haven’t you? Taken another’s life for a wallet or purse?” I shouted, struck by disbelief of the very moment. I was conversing with a murderer, and deep down inside, my unwanted traveler was whispering to me, telling me to end him.

“Too bad you won’t live to tell anyone about it,” he said, snidely. He raised his arm, and I looked down the barrel. My brain registered a primal feeling but it wasn’t fear.

Then he shot me,
us
, in the shoulder. I screamed in fury from the very depths of my source, reaching for the sky with my right hand. Styx and I fused into one entity as she relished in my fury, feeding it, nurturing it with every second that passed. I looked at my shoulder as the bullet dislodged through my healing tissue, falling to the ground.

The murderer stood, confused. He gazed in disbelief of the sound that emanated from within me. “What the hell is going on, man?” he asked, his hand trembled uncontrollably.

I stuck my arm out straight ahead, pointing it directly toward him with a cataclysm of wind.

He dropped the gun and looked in horror.

“Please, stop. You can take whatever I have,” he pleaded. He seemed to be in excruciating pain. He threw Marla’s belongings to the ground before him and his skin started to change color. First, from its natural pale peach to a deep blood red, and then bluish white. His eyes started to bleed and the next thing I noticed was uncanny. A swirl of brown but in this case, it was intermixed with blood.

“You took her from me…you killed my best friend!
We’ve reached our decision
,” Styx replied, pushing through me with all her might. We flashed before him in an instant, brusquely pulling out a warm, sticky pumping vital organ.

“You won’t need
this,” Styx’s words echoed through me and I allowed it. She smiled vehemently for us. I became more compliant with her style of retribution. It seemed…
fitted
at the time.

His body dropped to the ground and I stood, watching his warm heart in my hand, dripping with a dark red, syrupy fluid. A part of me thought it was a dream and then reality hit—it was blood. I had to bring this somewhere far away, where no human being would see it. Only one place came to mind. I couldn’t leave it lying around and I most definitely couldn’t put it back in its place either.
That’d just be weird.

I instantly transitioned to Styx, to the darker side once again. The winds stirred about, infuriated by my presence. Styx tore at my insides, tormenting me for some unknown reason. She willed me away unexpectedly, but I overpowered her this time—the wonders of a guilty conscience.

“You only needed a few drops, Xenia,” Orion whispered, impervious to my state of being.

“I wanted to make sure I got enough, a few chambers full in the event some spilled along the way,” I snapped. Those were Styx’s words but the scathing way in which I said it was all me; she sensed I loathed him. He knew I’d never kill a human being on my own.

The fear of incrimination took over and I placed the heart in the river. As I retracted my arm, I felt stuck. The water encased my arm, drawing me into its depths. What happened next scared us both. I screamed as Styx was hauled from within me. She clung to my source but the rivers powerful hand succeeded. I gasped in horror, falling back.

“Is she really gone?” I asked, awaiting Orion’s reply. Instead, he was eerily silent and then I realized he was long gone just like the first time, whereby he sacrificed me. After shaking the feeling of extraction, the stench of death returned. Behind me stood the little girl, catching me off guard.

“You scared me.”

“She’s forbidden to kill on earth,” she hummed, unaffected by my reaction.

I sighed in relief. I was rid of Styx, but
we
killed a man; a bad man but who was I to enforce justice?

“What are you?” I asked, gagging from the God-awful stench that encircled her.

“You made us and now you’ll fix us,” she said, forcing her mystical hand through my abdomen. I gasped in pain as she pulled her arm back and with it, baring a ball of light before vanishing
.

“You’re headed down the wrong path, sister,” she moaned, displeased. Corlissa stood before me. “Bargaining with the
Lifters,
killing a mortal. What’s next?”

“I know who you are,” I said, although a few pieces of the puzzle were still missing; I had a gist of who she…
it
was.

“Do you now,” she mocked. Her eyes glistened solid black, and she possessed an air to her that was unlike anyone of this era. The child embodiment was an illusion fit for it to masquerade about, in a less threatening way. We shared in something similar it seemed—a divine plan that only we knew about. Just how similar our plans were, I was bordering on finding out.

“Why don’t you vacate Corlissa’s body and take mine?” I offered, bothered. “There’s a vacancy, mind you, check in is at noon but I can make an exception this time around.”

“Corlissa and I, we share a common interest. I’m not quite done yet,” she explained.

“The longer you stay, the worse her chance at survival is. You’re slowly killing her, if she’s even still alive that is,” I exclaimed.

“Now you’re one to talk about killing, Xenia,” she hummed, righteously pointing to my blood stained shirt. I took it off quickly, throwing it to the side. I felt ashamed, guilty and scared for myself. What was to become of my psyche? I’d never forget what I’d done and a part of me, deep down inside where Styx had resided not too long ago, warned me that I didn’t deserve to go unpunished. The horrid images replayed and each time I could hear, feel and even smell what I had done to Marla’s murderer. It was savage and cruel but so fitted at the time—so just. How could I feel so different after the fact when it felt so right at the time? It wasn’t only my decision, I assured myself over and over.

“I didn’t mean to…it was the influence of Styx,” I explained in desperation.

“Styx was vengeful but your rage further magnified it. Your best friend was murdered and you used your sacred powers for retribution.”

“I’m going to be wanted for murder!” I cried.

“That’s the least of your worries. The Queen will be furious once she learns of your reckless behavior—and summoning the powers of Lifters for personal gain. Tisk, tisk.”

“What the hell do we have these powers for anyway?” I shouted, continuing, “The girl appeared out of nowhere. I didn’t summon her.”

“We’re a part of a bigger plan. I’m all for fun, trust me, but these penalties are grave ones. Become immorta and I’ll keep them from the Queen.”

“You’re blackmailing me?”

“Technically, but you know it’s important now. You’ve experienced it yourself. Innocent people are dying because the natural balance of energy has been disturbed. Look for yourself,” she said, searing me not with her eyes but with a wave of her tiny hand.

I saw the bank, Marla and Calliope, but we all walked past it. We’d met Zack, Jazz and Artie but the outcome was different. A person bumped into Marla, and skillfully lifted her gold watch. And the one who was shot…it was Jazz.

“See how tampering with a seal has disturbed the fate of those closest to you?”

“You’re lying,” I shouted in protest. “And I’m evolving a lot faster these days. I can be useful as is.”

“Show me…what do you have to offer in your current state?” She glared at me with her blackened eyes, turning her head to the side, and with it, whipping a gust of wind. My legs struggled to remain planted. I reached for her, squeezing my hand into a tight fist, crushing her insides. Blood dripped from her eyes, ears and mouth as she coughed, taken aback.

She crouched forward in turmoil. “Stop…Stop!” she shouted and I released my gripped hand. “How can this be?”

“Beats me. All I know is deep down, something was triggered inside me when Marla…”

“When exactly?”

“I felt this heat and then a light from my hand.”

“WHEN did you first notice?” she shouted.

“After the summoning…”

“You have control. There’s hope for you yet.” Corlissa recuperated very quickly. Before I knew it, the rosy color returned to her porcelain face. The corners of her lips formed into a sharp, sinister grin. Oddly enough, she seemed impressed.

“What was I doing to you?”

“You were trying to turn me, just as you turned the human. Instead, your effect on me was entirely different. He was changing…evolving at a faster rate because you willed it so. Don’t feel bad about pulling out his heart, you did him a favor. Had he continued the process, he would’ve combusted…I would think so.”

“You’re lying.”

“I wish I was,” she scowled, continuing, “You’ll be the end of us all, Xenia.”

“No, I won’t let that happen.”

“Don’t you see? It already has.”

“I don’t believe you. And what are your plans for Corlissa?” I asked, nervously changing the topic.

“It’s not what you think,” she said, curtly. “I inhabited her to travel to the dome.”

“Why her and more importantly, why’re you still here?” I asked.

“She offered herself…her body in exchange for retribution.” As it spoke, Corlissa’s body shifted in the slightest of ways that no human would be the wiser. I myself was only starting to clue in on the subtleties of our bodies. The slightest fluctuations in eye color, face shape and even skin color. Except in this circumstance, Corlissa had a traveler in her for whom she summoned. I on the other hand had no choice, thanks to Orion’s grand plan to seal the portal at all costs.

I searched through my reservoir of memories of the dome, and as I looked at every bed, some remained a blur. I searched and searched until experiencing a moment of clarity.

“It’s not that you won’t go…you can’t.” I was quickly learning that summoning deities was problematic.

She nodded. “Until we release our little friend, I shall remain,” she said, looking down at her doll in tow. At times, the immorta shifted to acclimate to Corlissa’s source, but I wondered how often it attempted to break free and return to whatever darkness it arose from. I couldn’t believe I was in the presence of the first of our kind but I wasn’t sure if it really was who it alluded to being.

“Daisy?” I asked, beguiled.

“Yes. Daisy is trapped in here and we need to free her.”

“In the doll? How?” I asked, astounded.

Corlissa…or the deity rather, seared me in a more pleasant way unlike Viola. She transferred Corlissa’s memory of Daisy in the dome; the only other conscious Diplozoe at the time. The first image was of Daisy’s beautiful blonde hair, ivory complexion, and bright red lips smiling up at her.

“Corlissa, it’s your turn,” she said, giggling.

“Okay, I’m ready.” She pressed her eyelids together and then opened them wide with excitement. She fell over in a fit of giggles. “The bird pooped on you mommy’s back. She must’ve been real mad.”

Both Corlissa and Daisy giggled uncontrollably, telepathically sharing memories until the sound of a heavy door shut and a familiar clanking of heels against the marble floor grew louder and louder.

They gasped in unison.

“She’s coming! Sleep, Daisy.”

They both feigned sleep but she was on to them from the get-go.

“Take Daisy to the white room first,” she barked an order to the guards.

“No! Leave her alone,” yelled Corlissa. “Take me first, please.” Another guard held her back, while Daisy was about to be transferred. Corlissa couldn’t bear the thought of losing her only friend. She quickly handed her doll to Daisy and once she got a hold, after wiping a tear from her cheek, she pressed her eyelids tightly together. Just as they had practiced before, a light passed through them into the doll. The guards were electrically shocked, letting go.