Re: Reaching Salvation: Post-Acer Part 1

by Big Uri Sun Jan 08, 2012 9:40 pm

"You had five years to make yourself comfortable, don't you think it's about time you got around to checking that out?" Luke replied, his snark not apparently linked to his temper.

by MrMissMrs Random Sun Jan 08, 2012 9:44 pm

"Didn't know he was still in the area." Erika replied with a slight shrug of her shoulders. "Plus, most of the first foraging trips we did were in the opposite direction of his headquarters so... we avoided each other, until now." The woman looked directly at Luke. "There is also something that you said that's been bothering me... what gave you the idea that I would permit a possibly deadly man into my house?"

by Big Uri Sun Jan 08, 2012 9:47 pm

"Well that's pretty obvious, innit?" Luke asked, not believing that she didn't know.

by MrMissMrs Random Sun Jan 08, 2012 9:48 pm

"..." Erika raised an eyebrow.

by **Shadoe Mayari** Sun Jan 08, 2012 9:50 pm

Adeline sighed. She didn't have much to do, so she might as well train. She began to walk to the graveyard.

by Big Uri Sun Jan 08, 2012 9:53 pm

Luke assumed she did, in fact know what he meant, since no one corrected him. He went for some more food.

by MrMissMrs Random Sun Jan 08, 2012 9:55 pm

"...There has never been any sexual encounters between Nathan and myself." Erika replied, making sure to do so when Luke had a mouth full of food.

by Big Uri Sun Jan 08, 2012 10:12 pm

Luke held up his hand, allowing for a slightly awkward moment when he finished what he was eating.

"Well obviously not, I mean, not counting kissing, there were no sexual encounters between Kira and Nate before he left, and I don't count kissing," he said, keeping his voice quiet. "And I've never had a 'sexual encounter' with Kira, and a surprising amount of people think she's the romantic love of my life. So that's not really helpful."

"The fact remains that all I've seen is you being with Nathan for one time during the breakout, and when you came out of that room, you were all over the lad, even getting in front of me and Kira's way when we went to tend to him. Then, next day, you kept staring at the guy. Then, when we were fighting, you kept just staring at him when we were, and you wouldn't even let your boyfriend move you. The fact remains that, right before I passed into my coma, you decided that staring at that lying son of a bitch was more important than tending to me."

by MrMissMrs Random Sun Jan 08, 2012 10:26 pm

Erika heard all of this, before letting out a long sigh. "On the day of the breakout, I was running downstairs with Elena, a young girl who snuck into the Acer tournament and lives in the village as well now. On the stairway we met a teen named Ven, who had escaped. Not want to cause trouble we started to move downstairs, until he used his Flow to make me trip and I fell down the stairs with Elena. I pushed Elena through the door and locked it, telling her to go get help. For a couple of minutes I fought with Ven... until Nathan came in." The woman tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. "I had been thrown against the wall, so wasn't in the best shape to fight, but Nathan kept doing so, until... I made Ven angry by hitting him with this." Our of her pocket came a beautiful, if slightly chipped Crescent stone that Joey had given her.

by Big Uri Sun Jan 08, 2012 10:29 pm

Luke eyed the stone.

"That's a cool story," he said nonchalantly. "Nice stone though. Where'd you get it?"

by MrMissMrs Random Sun Jan 08, 2012 10:36 pm

"Joey made it for me during the first week of the Acer Tourament." The woman said, gazing at it with a soft expression. "It's supposed to be diamond, so I thought it would be hard enough to knock Ven out... but I was wrong." The woman's expression faded back. "There was another boy, who came, he had Telekinesis for his Flow, only somehow... he also got thrown against the wall, only this time it was harder... and broke his neck." Erika took another breath. "After that, Ven was going to kill Nathan... but somehow it ended with Ven being decapitated." Erika gave a high pitch laugh that sounded more like a scream. "When you two came in, I guess you could say I was in shock."

by Big Uri Sun Jan 08, 2012 10:40 pm

"Fair enough, I was wrong there," Luke said, surprisingly reasonable. He held up his fingers in a '2-1' gesture.

"That's one."

by MrMissMrs Random Sun Jan 08, 2012 10:48 pm

"The day after I was... concerned." Erika confessed. "During the fight with Ven is when he absorbed Darkness, which had made Ven go insane. I didn't want the same thing to happen, so I let him absorb my own Flow. That's how he got Illusions."

"That fight between you and him before Nathan left the tower... felt like I was back on the stairwell with Ven, hundreds of his darkness needles about to pierce through me... only it was worse." The woman showed anger. "He used my Flow to make you hallucinate, didn't he?"

by Big Uri Sun Jan 08, 2012 10:51 pm

"If that's how it felt for you, 'magine how it felt for me," Luke replied.

by MrMissMrs Random Sun Jan 08, 2012 10:55 pm

Erika gave a Luke a humorless smile. "Joey got me and Elena out of there, but I used a clone in order to get back downstairs. After using so much of my energy during the challenge... I wasn't exactly in top physical form. But I was determined to do..." The woman sighed. "I don't know exactly what I wanted to do, scream at him, telling him how betrayed I felt, before killing him... though I remember the guilt. The guilt of letting him have my Flow to-" The woman's fists began to shake.

by Big Uri Sun Jan 08, 2012 11:01 pm

Luke chuckled bitterly.

"If that's how it felt for you, 'magine how it felt for me," Luke repeated. "He made me feel like I was in that illusion world for weeks. He started cutting me up using blades of darkness, slowly slashing me to ribbons. He made me feel lik I was being set on fire from the inside, only worse. Believe me, I'd know. He stabbed me thousands of times over. He showed me images of me killing Kira and standing over her dead body. The way she... The way she screamed, you see, as I slowly cooked her, is a sound I can't get out of my head. Over and over, with the hallucinations for five years, it's unbearable, never-ending."

"Finally, when I started to show him how much power I held, he put me out of my misery. He cut every inch of me, for real this time, with a coffin of darkness, while I slowly burnt myself alive. Then he stabbed me through the chest," he told her, shaking, and pulled down the top of his battered shirt to reveal the gruesome blade scar, along with many other small scars and burn marks.

by MrMissMrs Random Sun Jan 08, 2012 11:08 pm

Erika stared at the scars, not looking away as tears started to form in her eyes, but she continued. "Kira... was waiting by the door, and when we thought it was alright to go back in after the explosion, I said I would back her up. That's when she ran to you and while Nathan was standing there, she looked at him with so much... anger," The woman said. "until then, I don't think I really knew what betrayal could be. Any emotion I could express at that moment would've been meaningless compared to what Kira felt. When he turned away I wanted to go after him still, but..." The woman shook her head. "I couldn't.

by Big Uri Sun Jan 08, 2012 11:13 pm

"And then I ran," Luke said, but no tears formed in his eyes. He had long since become hardened to this, the guilt he felt, though he didn't go back.

"Five years, you know what the first thing I asked her? Was she a hallucination, her and Nate. Oh, and the first thing I felt when I realised it was real? Betrayed. Alone. That's how selfish I am. One great person in my life and it's still me I think about, when it's all my fault."

by MrMissMrs Random Sun Jan 08, 2012 11:15 pm

Erika leaned forward while Luke continued to talk, at the end giving the man a good smack across the cheek.

by Big Uri Sun Jan 08, 2012 11:18 pm

"Sonuva-" Luke started as she hit the burnt flesh.

by MrMissMrs Random Sun Jan 08, 2012 11:20 pm

"That's the biggest pile of selfloathing crap I've ever heard." Erika responded bluntly. "And its just as bad as selfpity, if not worse."

The woman leaned back with her arms crossed over her chest.

by Book the Hero Sun Jan 08, 2012 11:21 pm

Joey sighed, as he left the village, having completed the day's work.

It was now time to meet up with Erika by the lake.

by Big Uri Sun Jan 08, 2012 11:23 pm

"Is that not a bit hypocritical, no?" Luke asked, quietly angry. "Cos' that seemed to be the general tone of your interesting anecdote."

by MrMissMrs Random Sun Jan 08, 2012 11:33 pm

"Yeah, but you haven't heard the end of it," Erika replied. "After all that happened... I decided to move on. It wasn't easy, and probably a majority of it had to with because of the people I still had... even if I personally thought I was worse than scum, they didn't. So, you try to put on a happy face everyday, you try to look at every failure as another chance to succeed. You keep trying. Little by little, each smile isn't as forced, each failure isn't as much of a blow..."

The woman took a small piece of fruit and bit into it, chewing and swallowing before she continued. "Another thing, you said I did nothing to help you after Nathan left you on the ground... do you think Kira is strong enough to carry a person of your size and stature all the way to Infirmary alone?"

by Big Uri Sun Jan 08, 2012 11:37 pm

"I dunno, I was preoccupied. Tom and Heidi were there, I guess," Luke replied, sticking out his worse leg. He got what Erika was saying, he just didn't want to satisfy the rhetorical question.

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