Chapter 4 : Of Two Opposing Worlds, Though They Remain The Same

Tessa's POV

"STOP JUST SITTING THERE GRINNING TO YOURSELF AND TELL ME! DID YOU DO IT!" I yelled.

He looked up with a face like he was surprised about all the yelling. It was as if he wasn't even there till then and had just walked in on me yelling.

Then he smiled... almost like...

Almost like that... that thing we saw when we got here. The thing that called itself a God.

"Of course not, from the sound of it, the shit done to the girl was super messed up," he paused for a second and gave me a silly look, "Do you really think that *I* could kill someone like that...? Me, of all people?" He sighed, "Also, sorry for making you yell, I was just psyching myself up for the storm to come."

"What do you mean storm?" I asked.

"This isn't gonna be easy... that's what I meant. There's a deranged lunatic out there or a deranged demon... I wanna find it," he said grinning, only he looked pissed at the same time, "Whoever the guy is, he pisses me off and I'm not gonna have a random innocent person taken for this," he continued speaking calmly

When did he get so terrifying?

I know we hadn't talked in ages but still, he's changed... way too much.

He used to be a lot less serious, more carefree, even a bit childlike at times.

It wasn't that I couldn't see that side of his personality anymore, more like another side of him showed up, not a completely different person altogether, but it wasn't him either. I knew that I didn't know him all that well, we hadn't seen each other in a long time after all, but what I saw before those arms took us here, what I saw wasn't this person.

Whatever happened to him happened after we got here.

After we got to this forsaken world.

All I knew was that something was wrong.

He just walked out of the room as if nothing had happened.

No, not as if nothing happened, he was pissed. Instead of terror, he felt rage in response to what had happened.

I don't even know anymore.

I just needed to know.

Was it even him anymore?

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Helen's POV

Papa and Mama came home very agitated. They didn't even get angry at me.

'Did they find something? Why are they so worried?'

*We can get rid of them anytime, you know. Preferably before they start beating the crap out of you. The guy isn't coming to save you, you know that more than me,* it said, *You should run before anything serious happens.*

I kept silent, trying my best to ignore them.

My parents were yelling at each other. That was new. Usually, they yell at me when they get agitated. I wanted to ask them what had happened.

"You think we can stay here anymore!" Papa yelled, "That girl was probably the start of it! That was the work of a demon or something! We need to get out of here... or at least something to protect ourselves!"

Someone was dead?

'What happened?' I asked myself.

*Oooh, who do you think it was?* They asked immediately as they returned, sounding more like an excited kid now.

'Leave me alone.'

*It was a dangerous creature,* They continued, *I don't know if it was a human or a demon, but it was dangerous!*

It took a second to pause after that.

Then They continued, more cautious this time, *You need to stay here. You should make sure to avoid contact with anyone*

'I don't have to listen to you,' I replied, 'Just leave me-'

I was facing the window at the time.

That's when I saw the man again.

I let out a stifled scream.

My parents looked at me angrily but left it to just yelling at me, not laying a finger at me.

He was just walking by the window of the house I lived in. He wasn't coming to give me anything, not that I expected anything yet.

What I was worried about, what made me want to scream, were the arms.

I didn't know what they were if they weren't arms, but they were translucent. Could no one else see it?

"Wha- what was that?" I whispered to myself.

*He's a demon.*

'What? No!' I retorted, 'Of course he isn't a demon! You're making me see things.' But I still, something was wrong.

"They said she died around midnight, right?" Papa confirmed with Mama, giving an odd emphasis on midnight, "If that's the case, maybe the thing just attacks at night."

'Midnight?' I asked myself.

"We'll have to board up the house before going to sleep now," Mama replied.

My eyes returned to the ghostly arms.

Demon or not, did he do it?

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??? POV

"PLEASE! LET US GO!" They screamed in a cacophony of voices.

There were people staring at me standing among my people. They stared at me with looks filled with a feeling of betrayal or one pleading for my help...

They won't get it.

They won't get the help of a person they left to die. It's been an endless night for years... or was it decades. It doesn't matter. I won't let them control us and hunt us down like animals...

Then the cacophony of their voices got drowned out by a second cacophony.

"There's a settlement starting a few hundred kilometers away from this one," Jamie said, the sound of his teeth gnashing easily heard over the conversations and bustle of the market place.

You could still hear it over the flapping as I turned around to see him land folding his wings reminiscent of a pterosaur.

He stared at me with his eyeless face and took a few leaps away and unfurled his wings, going airborne.

They used to say that the blind see more back in our world. I guess that's even more true when it comes to us... The people of opposites as we consider ourselves... Homo contrariam. Contrary to the people who had abandoned us.

*Never really liked the name,* they said.

'It's the best we got with our sloppy Latin,' I replied, 'so I suppose we shall move forward? Or should we call for a council meeting?'

*I shall call the rest of them then.*

'Yeah, you do that. I don't mind a meeting, just make sure it's after some time... maybe after lunch.'

*Sure... Also, I recommend you duck*

"Wha-?"

"DA~MI~EN!!!" I heard her voice. My pupils narrowing, knowing what came next.

'Well fuck.'

In the next moment, I was pinned down on the ground. The form that pinned me down was that of an acquaintance, someone I barely knew, that had become one of my closest friends over the years in this dark world.

My head had hit the ground when I fell, "Calm down, and what did I tell you about using that name?"

My eyes were drawn to the huge scar cutting across her face. A line crossing from the left side of her forehead over her left eye and across her cheek, ending there.

I was the only one she felt fine with showing her scar to. She was insecure about it, so she usually covers the left side of her face using her bangs to hide the scar.

Now her hair was a bit of a mess, revealing her scar.

"Come o~o~n!" she sighed, "I'm the only one who calls you by that name anymore! You use a normal name for pretty much everyone outside the seven of us!"

I point to her hair.

She noticed and fixed her hair.

"We aren't the people we were back then, Kath-," I said as she did that, pausing and then after a second, I continued calmly "Lust. Lust. Yeah, you know more than anyone that we've already forsaken any hope to go back to our old lives. And for the people outside our group, those aren't their real names. You would know if you paid attention."

"Oh, come on! It's just-," she tried to articulate something into words, as she got off of me, "Well, I was thinking that-." She stops talking, looking depressed, her eyes focused on the ground.

I sigh, this wasn't the first time we had this conversation, "What did you want me to do? I'll make it up to you, that ok?"

"Promise?" she asked, still looking to the floor.

"Yeah, promise."

'And now, this is where she-'

Immediately, her eyes dart up, looking right into mine, each as bright as a star.

'Why do I let her keep doing this kinda stuff?' I thought to myself.

"Call me by my name," she said, bouncing around me.

'Wait, that's it?'

"That's all?" I asked.

"What?" she asked, "Were you expecting," she leaned towards me. I felt her breath hit my shirt collar, some of it getting to my neck, "something else?"

She turned her face upwards, staring into my eyes as I looked down, staring into her eyes in return

There was a moment where all the bustle of the market place faded out, both of us just gazing at each other in silence.

"Fine... Katherine," I said plainly, at least as close to saying it plainly that I could say it, stepping back and pushing her away simultaneously, "Happy now?"

She looked disappointed.

"It's not my fault you didn't pick something better," I remarked, but she just began pouting.

"It's not that, I-," she paused, "You could've at least put a bit of emotion into it," and she stormed off, yelling without turning around, "I'll see you at the meeting, Wrath!"

"What did I do wrong now?"

She sprinted away.

...

*You dense little shit.*

'What?' I asked them.

*Can't you see- forget it... even if I say it you'll just deny it.*

For some reason, it felt like they were pouting too...

*Let's just got to the meeting.*

'Can you just say it?'

*Find out yourself... it isn't that hard to do,* They kept quiet after.