29: Serenity

The blade felt heavy in my hand as I just held it. I felt the shadows around it nipping at my fingers as if angry they had been left forgotten for so long. Kelsie was starting to walk towards the door in front of me. I tried reaching out only to feel the sharp pain of denial as my powers rejected me connecting to them.

When I passed through the doorway, all the shadows in the building seemed to assault my mind at once, drowning out my own thoughts. I put my hands to my ears, hoping to gain myself some minor relief from the onslaught.

Silence hit me like a freight train. I looked up at Kelsie to see her holding a small orb of light in her hand.

"We do this together or not at all, Serenity."

I gave her a small smile and a nod as she turned to lead us towards the Demon Lord. I still didn't completely trust her, but I was still unsure if I should stab her now or wait. She had made it clear that she was the one in control, but I was the one who could hold absolute power if I played my cards right.

Then again, she was willing to help me kill the Demon Lord, so it couldn't hurt to trust her just for a little while, right?

The halls were twisting and I could see someone getting lost if they didn't know where they were going.

She stopped us in front of a large door. Kelsie turned around to warn me to be quiet before pushing the doors open. Inside, the office was empty. The desk had papers scattered around and the chair was spinning. The computer had a soft glow, showing that the office was just recently vacated.

I stepped around Kelsie to look at the computer and on it, I saw a video call to Amy Akiyama. I froze in realization, that was our mother's name.

"Kelsie-" I started, but stopped after realizing the office was cold and quiet around me. The doors slammed shut just as I got her name out of my lips.

I ran and tried to open the door, only for it to be locked.

"No, no no no," I said, my mind flashing back to memories of an empty room. A room where all that my mind provided me was the memory of pain. Extreme pain. "Kelsie!" I screamed, hoping to get some kind of response, but received nothing.

I screamed for my sister until my voice was hoarse and my hands were blistered and red. I let my body fall to the floor as memories of myself being locked in that dark room came back, it was as if I was living someone else's story though.

Out of the corner of my eye was a single strand of silver interwoven into my hair. The darkness seemed to be suffocating but I couldn't find it in me to understand why the dark made me feel so scared.

I was back to myself when I heard footsteps coming up behind me.

"Hello, little shadow. It's been a long time, don't you think?"

I jumped away as far as I could and pulled the already formed dagger up. I slammed my back into the door as I faced the man who took everything away from me.

"Look at you, all grown up," He said, daring to come closer. His throat pressed against my blade as he grabbed a strand of my hair. I pressed my blade closer to his throat. "You remind me so much of your mother, all bark and no bite."

I went to injure him further, but he disappeared and reappeared behind his desk this time.

"Why, I remember the very day we left you on the side of the road," he started. "The Alacritas named you Serenity, how ironic."

He disappeared again and reappeared next to me. "By then, you were anything but."

I spun to hit him, only for my blade to get buried into the wood of the door.

"You've grown from a pretty little mouse up into a beauty beyond compare," he whispered into my other ear. I spun again only for him to appear right behind his desk. "If only you were loyal to me, little shadow. Then, I could make you a queen."

He disappeared and reappeared next to me, only for us both to blink away. We were standing right in front of a cliff with me facing the valley below us. It was beautiful and serene with animals and trees and a small stream with a waterfall.

"You could be the queen over the new world I would create for you, I would make you a world where no one would ever look down on you again," as he said those words, my mind flashed back to the day in the store with the cashier. Then to the fire.

"You would be the one most revered."

I spun back and teetered dangerously close to the edge of the cliff as I faced him. "You mean the most feared." He clicked his tongue as he grabbed me and transported us to another place.

"You would be feared, yes," he paused as he took a step away from me. The office was back and I was back next to my blade, stuck in the wood. "But you would get to shape the world into anything you desired. All you have to do is take my hand."

He reappeared in front of me with an outstretched hand and part of me wanted to reach out and take that hand. I reached forward and stopped with only mere inches between our hands. Then I looked at his desk. On it sat a picture of him and a mini Kelsie who looked so excited to be on his shoulders, but beside it was a broken framed picture of my birth mother.

'Take his hand,' the voices in my head begged. They echoed throughout my head, telling me to take his hand, but I froze just before I could grab his hand.

My father and mother came into mind, their once glowing happy faces painted behind my eyes and in my head.

I stabbed through his hand in the next motion, only to gain a small scream as I jumped away.

"You little bitch!"

I felt a hand grab me faster than I could blink and I felt my body being lifted off the ground as Richard appeared in my field of vision.

"But this isn't the first time you've stabbed me, is it, little shadow?"

Suddenly, we were in an empty room. Kelsie was there too, looking tired as she panted heavily. She moved to break my fall as the Demon Lord threw me across the room.

I felt Kelsie's panic as I searched the room. It was a literal box with a mattress. I then noticed how strong the shadows were in here. Then it hit me.

The lights were off, there was absolutely no light in here. Kelsie's powers depended on light. She was having a panic attack. I stepped over to her and grabbed her hands. She flinched as I touched her.

"I need you to trust me, okay?" I asked. I felt her tense up as she nodded once at me. I quickly put her into a bubble of my own power and hoped she would come to understand why I had to do this. I felt her hands beating against it in her panic. "I'm sorry, Kelsie, but I need to do this."

"How sweet." I heard and immediately jumped around to face the Demon Lord on the other side of my bubble. "The little shadow girl protecting the one who betrayed her the most."

I saw him disappear and felt a breath against my neck before I could react. "How unfortunate. A tiny mouse protecting the tigress."

I turned to face him as he blinked to be further away from me. I felt the shadows of the room swell up to me and they began to form soldiers around me. I saw his smirk and felt Kelsie freeze inside the shadow shield behind me.

"You won't get away with the same trick twice, little shadow," he said and suddenly the room lit up with some of the brightest lights I had ever encountered. It made me flash back to the laboratory and tests as the shadows melted. I felt my skin burning as they melted and felt my shield collapsing along with my power and the burns forming on my skin.

"Serenity!" echoed through the room. I felt hands touch me and I hissed away from the probing. "Oh, I'm sorry!"

"Burns," I said as she jumped away. "It burns me back, I'm down unless the lights go back out."

I was losing focus in my eyes as I heard the battle wage on around me. I was getting tired, but I knew that I needed to fight down the pain and exhaustion and stay alive. Stay awake.

I never knew what it meant to have your life flash before your own eyes. It was something my mother would say after I jumped out of the shadows to scare her as a little girl. She would scoop me up in her arms and tell me about the colors and the feelings of the memories.

It felt warm, like a hand was caressing me, and when I looked up the faces of my mother and father were before me with proud smiles on their faces. They held their arms open for me and I went to stand, only to stumble. They flickered and disappeared into the smoke. I felt the sensation of a kiss to my forehead before I was back in the room.

"No," I whispered, "please come back, I'm not ready to be alone again." A small sob bubbled up.

"You little bitch!" I heard before the cracking of bones. I snapped my head up to see the body hit the ground. Kelsie was then kicked towards me, her body limp and her eyes open wide when she reached me.

"Kelsie?" I asked, crawling a bit closer to her. "Kelsie, stop playing around."

I shook her, hoping that maybe she was just asleep with her eyes wide open. I pulled her head into my lap and patted her cheek, only to watch the light fade completely from her eyes. I didn't even realize I was screaming until I heard the laugh from across the room.

"Good riddance to the girl that I no longer need," he said. I felt anger wash over me.

"You did this," I said, staring at Kelsie's ever fading eyes.

"Of course I did, she betrayed me." He was smiling as he spoke, and the anger turned icy in my veins. "She was to die either way."

I felt my blood boiling and an inky coldness running down my cheeks. I gently put Kelsie's head down and closed her eyes as I stood up. "You hurt her."

A set of lights behind me went out and I saw a hint of surprise hit the Demon Lord's face before he quickly masked it.

"You killed her. Your daughter." Another set blew just above me. I could feel the cold touching my skin as I stared at him. His face was kept blank.

"You're a murderer." The set separating us blew leaving only the lights above him on. I could feel the inky black creatures around me reaching for me. Their voices told me to kill him, to break him.

For that split second when I started walking towards him, my creatures following close behind me, I could see the fear in his eyes. I could taste it as a few of my creatures wrapped themselves around him, holding him in one place.

"I will never forgive you." The last set blew as he disappeared from my grasp. I yelled in anger at the loss of my prey.

Then the actual tears came as the lights slowly came back on. I felt tired as I turned to Kelsie's corpse that was left in the room with me. I felt a gentle tug as I set my eyes on her, a golden string connecting us. It was slowly fading from her side, it was something that was familiar to me at that moment, but something so foreign. The voices once surrounding me, telling me to do horrible things were replaced with the voices telling me to move to her. To save her.

I let the string pull me towards her and I kneeled down next to her, hearing the chanting of the voices for instructions. I put my hands against her heart and felt tingling traveling down my arms and towards my hands.

I could hear myself speaking in a language I could barely understand. I could feel my mind start fading as I heard the creaking of bones as they knitted themselves back together. As the tingling stopped, I felt my body getting heavier.

"Serenity?" Kelsie asked as she sat up. I looked at her with a small smile. "Serenity, you're so cold. What's happening?"

I laid my head against her shoulder as she began to ask me more questions. I could feel the creatures slowly surrounding us and noticed Kelsie ignoring them, fear for me in her eyes.

"Take us to them," I said and I felt a bit sick as we reappeared in my living room. Both Axton and Raziel were there. I could hear them moving towards us and I could feel Naya's wet tongue on my cheek, but my vision was getting blurry.

"Serenity, please," Kelsie cried, I could feel her moving me to lay on her lap. As she did, she was the only face that my vision would pick up, the rest were just blurry images.

"Hi," I said, straining my voice. My whole body was slowly getting heavier and it was getting harder to breathe.

"Serenity, what's happening?" she asked, her hand coming up to wipe away my cheeks, when she pulled her hand away, I saw inky black liquid staining her skin.

"I think I'm dying," I said, a small laugh in my voice.

"This isn't the time to joke around!" she said, tears filling her eyes. "Serenity, please."

"I think I used a power I didn't know I had," I started, not really sure what happened myself. "You were dead, and somehow I think I traded myself for you."

"No, you're so stupid," she said, tears starting to fall down her cheeks. "Why would you do that?"

"Don't cry," I said, reaching up to wipe away her tears. "No more tears, I did it because I love you even through every evil thing you've done. There's still a chance for you."

"No there isn't," she said, sobs bubbling up.

"Of course there is," I said, cupping her cheek. "There's redemption for anyone, but you have to be willing to seek it."

My body felt like stones were weighing it down, but I was starting to feel lighter.

"I...love...you," I pushed out before I felt my eyes start closing. Then, the sound was gone and I was lost to the inky depths. Again, each of my memories began to blink awake and play for me like a movie. Through it, I relived my happiest moments and my darkest.

I heard a humming from behind me and turned to the face of my mother, rocking in her old chair. Her eyes were closed as she slowly moved back and forth. My father stood next to her, smiling as he looked up to me with tears in his eyes. The tune of my old lullaby made me move closer. When she opened her eyes, she smiled at me before opening her arms wide for me. I felt the tears again as I ran to her.