Chapter 21 Sweet Revenge

The shadow King raised his hand into the air in an attempt to absorb the power of light. Iris closed her eyes shut, bracing for her demise. A small part of her still struggled to rebel against the decision but she ignored it. All of a sudden, the ground began to tremble. She glanced up with a gasp as debris fell from the sky. Her arms went up to shield her head. Giant rocks crashed to the ground with a loud bang, dust rolling over in her face.

With his arms still in the air, the king paused to look up. Concern washed his face.

"It's happening… he's in battle," he was saying, "He will die…" He whispered the words to himself with dread. And then quickly lowered his hand towards Iris's head.

"Die?" Iris repeated in a hard voice. Was it too late? "Wait," she was saying, taking a step forward when suddenly the ground gave way. Her tiny body floated up into the air, glowing as the light emitted from her. It was happening… but she wasn't ready!

The previously small voice inside her head now screamed at her, trying to pull her back. Iris felt a tug at her heart, followed by a falling sensation. It was like the ground had disappeared from sight as her body lunged downwards into the darkness. A strong mass of wind swooped at her from below.

'I loathe…' she heard the words.

Everywhere she looked, darkness unfolded. She was no longer in the shadow realm.

Someone screamed.

.

A piercing scream tore me out of my sleep. My eyes flipped open to a blurry floor with a pillar of red, overshadowing me. Bits of my body shrieked in pain. My shadow had long since retreated as I'd lost count of the hits my body took. Towards the end, I might have lost consciousness.

It was a miracle I was still alive… but how? She stood there, frozen in place. What was she waiting for?

I blinked hard, trying to focus my eyes, only to realize she wasn't looking at me. Something else had caught her attention. I focused my eyes at a spot far off into the distance near the front of the prison cell. All of a sudden, the metal door flew right off, hitting the ground next to me with a loud thud.

I flinched for a second. My eyes wandered back towards the empty doorway. A glowing white silhouette stepped out, long silver hair flowing behind her gracefully.

"Iris…?" I murmured.

There was something else attached to her that she dragged behind her over the floor. From the distance, I could make out lines of white, similar to strings, dropping down from her hands, her back, her entire body. She held a firm gaze over Scarlet who had gone surprisingly silent for some reason.

All of a sudden, the strings extended onto the floor into straight lines. I tried to shift as they slithered from underneath me, disregarding me completely. The lines went up and around in a cube. More white lines dropped down from the ceiling, dividing the space into very tiny cubes. I noticed many of the lines passed through me, uninterrupted by my movements.

It was like a giant three dimensional grid spread out into just enough space where Scarlet and I ended up inside it. With carefree steps, Iris stepped inside the cube.

"You seem to enjoy using my powers… Let me show you how they work," I heard her say.

Suddenly the ground disappeared from underneath, revealing an endless sky below. I found myself floating in the air. The walls peeled away like paper, crumbling to ashes that dissipated into the atmosphere.

"But… before I begin… you have something of mine that I must take back," Iris said, taking slow steady steps towards Scarlet.

"Stay back… no…" she was saying, backing away, only to find her feet stuck to the threads. I watched her struggle. The threads gave out a faint glow whenever she tried to pull away.

"Did you forget? Your parents threw you away. I raised you like my own child!" Scarlet was yelling out, in between tears.

Iris, for some reason, remained unreactive.

"Give it back," she just said, ignoring everything else. One of the threads passing through Scarlet's chest began to glow. She shrieked in pain, tilting her head backwards with as much movement as she could muster. I winced as I watched another white thread emerge out of the same spot, like a worm wiggling out. More threads glowed passing through her as several more sprouted out of her.

It was like an infestation. All the extra threads wiggled out and flew up to join the cube, making it twice the size it already was. Scarlet breathed out heavily, still alive despite everything that happened.

"This is for all the suffering you caused her…" Iris said. I wasn't sure who exactly she was talking about.

All of a sudden, the cube began to shrink in size, deforming as it did, white threads flying about. It took the shape of Scarlet, wrapping around her like a skin tight dress made of wires. She screamed out of fear as her arms and legs stretched out against her will. The threads tightened their hold over her. Few of the loose ends flew over to stick to Iris. I watched her eyebrow twitch.

Blood splattered all over the threads, tightening, slicing, cutting open Scarlet's flesh. Scarlet let out a weak sound that was something of a dying scream.

"Isn't this the kind of thing you're into?" It was hard to believe the words as they came out of Iris's mouth, followed by a sly smile. Something was very off. "But I won't kill you…" she paused and the smile faded from her face, "I'll drive you mad." She spoke in a low, eerie tone that sent goosebumps up my arms.

Just as she said that, the threads around Scarlet began to vibrate as they tore away from her. Almost instantly, they converged again around her skull this time, sinking into her skin. Scarlet grinded her teeth as her head began to shake ferociously as if possessed by a demon.

"This should be enough…" Iris made a motion with her fingers. The threads sprouted out of Scarlet's head, swiftly making their way towards her. They swirled around Iris, and then sank into her back, vanishing from sight. Scarlet's body went limp as it fell, only to hit the ground in the hallway of prison once again. I blinked, as if making sure I was really seeing this. In an instant, we were back at exactly the same spot, as if we had never left.

Iris sank down to the floor, breathless. She looked around in bewilderment till her eyes caught sight of me. She opened her mouth to call out.

"Dixon!" Cheryl's voice rang in my ears as she rushed over to me. I groaned as I craned my head upwards to look at her. Covered in blood and tattered clothes, I could tell she'd been in hell. She grabbed my arm and pulled me up with all the strength she could muster. I bit my own tongue to keep from screaming out as I sat up straight.

"Breathe," she told me as if I were giving birth. Then I realized, I was holding my breath. I exhaled in pain. The side of my face stung badly.

"It's okay. It's over now," Cheryl was telling me.

From the corner of my eye, I caught sight of Ricky and Meryl rushing over. They all surrounded me, throwing around concerned gazes, asking me if I was alright.

"What did they do to you?" Ricky was saying, reaching out to grab Cheryl's shoulders as he looked her over.

"I did them worse…" she grinned back proudly.

Meryl crouched down beside me, staring intensely at my face.

"What?" I groaned.

"That's going to leave a scar…" she murmured.

"This is nothing," I breathed out. "What happened to Edward? I bet Jon passed out too."

"I'm surprised you have such little faith in me." I craned my head to the side to see Jon limping his way over to me. He had Edward's arm around his shoulder, pulling half of his weight as he walked. I could already detect bruises all over his arms and could only wonder how much damage the rest of his body sustained. Edward, on the other hand, didn't seem to have any external injuries, except that he needed help just to walk.

"I called for backup," Ricky was saying. "The night force is on alert now that they know about this place. They'll be sending people over pretty soon."

"We really need to get you guys to a hospital," Meryl added.

Never had I ever been so injured or had that many people worry over me. I peered out from between them at the little girl sitting alone against the opposite wall. Her gaze fixed on Scarlet's body.

Cheryl noticed me looking over and as if just realizing, her brows went up with recognition. She hurried over to Iris with apologetic eyes for having forgotten that she was there.

"Hey, you okay?" she asked, holding out a hand.

Iris looked up at her, partially in a daze.

"I can't remember what happened," she said, "Did I…?" then turned her head towards Scarlet.

"Yeah you were pretty scary… but without your help, none of us would be alive right now," Cheryl explained, crouching down on one knee to meet her eye level.

"But… I thought I died…" she murmured to herself, then finally looked up at me. I nodded back, trying to manage a smile with my cracked up lips, but it stung bad.

"Wait, what happened to Damon?" I turned towards Meryl.

"Well, it was weird. All of a sudden he just froze, and then disappeared without a word." She sighed.

'Where the hell did you go?' I wondered.

.

I would always remember that night to be the most terrifying experience of my life where my own powers failed me. Although the king warned me beforehand that this would happen, I always believed I would overcome it. But that night brought back all the fears to life. If this were to happen a second time, I would be dead. Apart from that, the one shadow I trusted most, just up and vanished that night. I was unable to call him since.