27: Serenity

I held my phone in my hands and realized she really hasn't tried texting me. Kelsie had been radio silent since my capture. I couldn't see any messages going out from my phone to her either, so Axton hadn't looked like he tried reaching out.

I moved my thumbs to hover over the keyboard of my phone but froze. I didn't know what to say. How does one say "hey, sorry, I was abducted the day we last saw each other, sorry I haven't reached out since I got deathly sick after I got saved" without causing concern?

Oops…

I hit send on accident after typing out my thoughts.

I dropped my phone on my bed and curled up into a ball, my magic reaching out to grab and store shadows inside me as the small light of my phone broke through the pitch black room.

I knew that Axton wasn't home and Naya was off doing whatever it was she did during the day while I sat in the darkness and comforts of the house. Axton had been saying we needed to move houses due to someone finding out where we were.

A ping broke the silence.

'I'm sorry to hear that. Do you remember anything about who did it?'

I smiled lightly as I read her words. She didn't forget about me and want me to just be gone.

'No, after we split up, my memories faded and jumbled up until I got away. I barely even remember what I ate for breakfast that morning :/'

Silence again before the ping sounded again.

'I'm sorry, Serenity. I hate that you had to go through that. I hope everything gets better :)'

I smiled at the messages. I really had missed her from the time we were apart.

I paused for a second and felt the shadows in my room getting irritated about something. I tried reaching out only for them to settle.

I sighed as I looked back at my phone only to feel the irritation fill the room again. I chose to ignore it as I texted Kelsie again.

'Wanna meet up tomorrow? Same coffee place as last time?'

I paused and waited for a while for a response, but received none at first. I quietly got up and walked towards my office as I waited, feeling some shadows slithering behind me to follow.

I went to close the door behind me only to feel sorrow from the shadows in the room. My body creates them when I'm in complete darkness for certain periods of time, and it's like a piece of myself being born in each one. They could be created out of emotion, unused power, or even memories. I wasn't surprised that they would most likely be created from memories from my abduction, but for them to feel emotion this intensely meant I was close to whatever was the cause of it.

But what?

I shrugged as I made my way to my office. I flicked on the light and hissed a bit, only to turn it back off. I wasn't feeling up to the bright light of my office yet. I turned on my small desk lamp instead, which gave off a very light glow, just enough to see. I turned back to my board. Each image was of each person who I had met this far.

The only people left without a loop were Axton, Raziel, Kelsie, and Dagger. Another sticky note had a question mark on it and was attached to the picture of the Demon Lord. I stared at the picture of Dagger and remembered that she had only appeared after I had attacked that strange girl. I looped the two of them together and then looped Axton and Raziel together. I was still very unsure of how the two were connected other than a supposed alliance. Last left out was Kelsie. As I tried to form connections in my mind with her, I felt the shadows shift between sorrow, anger and fear. When I stopped focusing on Kelsie, they calmed down.

I faced my picture again and felt the fear and anger rise again.

"Is she connected to what happened to me?"

I felt the waves hit me stronger this time. "So she is."

I stared. She had to somehow be connected. I had already known that I couldn't remember past a certain point with her of that day. The fear meant she had played a bigger role than I had initially thought.

Could she be connected to the Underground?

Suddenly, things were starting to come together. I strung her to our birth mother's picture, then to me, then to the strange girl, then Dagger, then back to the Demon Lord. Then I realized that Raziel had to be connected to this too, seeing how fast he made it to me. It meant that somehow, every single person was connected to the Underground in some way.

Could my abduction have been trying to serve a greater purpose than I can even understand yet? I let myself fall back into my chair as I stared at the madness of my board. No matter where I looked, everything connected back to the Underground. The initial abduction of Kelsie and I, the distance between us as we grew up, my parents hiding me, their own murders, meeting Axton the first time, finding Kelsie in the center of the city where I knew the Underground was centered, her being so close to me, my abduction after being with her. Each and every event connected, but I still didn't understand how they connected so well.

All I had gotten so far was that Kelsie was definitely working for the Underground in some way, but how she was is the only non constant in the situation.

I heard the door open and Axton's voice as he called out to me.

His footsteps grew closer to me and I could reach out with my shadows and feel him in the doorway. "Serenity, little warrior, what's wrong?"

"It's all connected," I said, trying not to let myself cry.

"What is?" he asked, coming to my side and crouching down next to me.

"Each thing that's happened since I've been born, Axton," I said, feeling the whimper bubble up my throat as I curled my body into a tight ball. "It's all connected back to the Underground somehow."

I heard silence before I felt arms wrap around my body. Sobs hit me fast and I finally let out all the anger and sadness I'd been holding.

We sat like this for what felt like an hour before he sent me to shower and get ready for the rest of the day. As the water warmed up, I peeled off my pajamas and put my hand under the water, feeling for the water.

I stepped in and just stood under the water with a small sigh. I wanted to get out of my own head for a bit, and focus on something else. I didn't want to think about Kelsie's possible involvement in the Underground.

I washed my hair and body before rinsing off and turning off the water, standing there for a second and staring at my feet. I wasn't sure at that moment that I was ready to get out. I didn't want to face the facts that had laid themselves out at my feet.

I opened the glass door and stepped onto the grey fluffy mat outside and grabbed a black towel from the floor next to me. I walked over to the toilet where my leggings and oversized sweater for the day were setting. I dried my body just a bit more before I wrapped the semi-dry towel around my hair and then put on the warm clothes.

I started humming a quiet lullaby to myself that randomly came into my mind. I couldn't recall it as anything my parents or grandparents had sung for me.

I stopped in front of the vanity mirror and took one of my sleeves to wipe away the layer of moisture only to barely manage to stop myself from screaming.

In the mirror was a girl who shared my face, but she was strange. Her left eye was completely white, as if her iris and pupil just didn't exist anymore. It had black veins spidering through the white. I slowly reached up to mess with the towel on my head only for the being to do the same.

As I pulled the towel off, I noticed she had a strip of silver in her hair. Just a single streak. The length matched the new shoulder length I had from when Axton cut it after I got really sick. I reached up and the being copied not only the movement, but the look of horror on my face as well. I swallowed my scream when I realized I was staring at some kind of nightmare version of myself. Curiosity bloomed on my reflection as I reached out to touch my hand to the mirror and it was like a small electric shock.

I yelped as the hand slid through the mirror and laced its fingers through my own. Another hand quickly followed to wrap around my throat so I couldn't scream as the being made its way out of the mirror and slammed me back into the wall. She took her hand from mine as I reached up to try to pry her hand from my throat and made a shushing motion and gave me a demonic type of smile.

I felt the fear rise in me as I tried to reach out to the shadows, only to be pushed back. She got closer to me and opened her mouth to release a shadow of her own. I tried to wiggle free as it assaulted me and started trying to get inside of me. It entered through my nose and mouth and I felt myself choking on the black mass. I felt my eyes rolling to the back of my head as I bit down. The being squeaked and dropped me as the shadow retreated. I fell into a heap on the floor, stuck in a coughing fit. I heard it hiss as it bent back down and hovered over me. It growled at me as the door flew open. Like a shadow or illusion, she was gone.

"Serenity, what happened?" Axton asked, bending down to check me over. I tried to talk, but only coughed even harder. He stayed by my side as I coughed up a bit of blood the next time. "Alright, time to get you to bed," he said and I whimpered as he picked me up and tried to carry me past the mirror.

"Not the mirror, she came from the mirror!" I said.

"Who did?" he asked.

"Didn't you see her? She's right-"

I paused as I looked at the mirror. It was cracked, but I was back to normal.

"Yeah, I think you need more sleep, little warrior," he said as he carried me out.