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You know in the movies when you can tell something bad is going to happen cause everything starts to slow down? The camera zooms in and people are laughing, smiling, feeling safe and alive...but you know. You can see the whole world just crawling and silent around them and your heart starts to sink cause those smiles are almost sickening in their ignorance. When it finally does happen, even though you knew from the start, you still jump. Unconsciously you slowed down with them and when the world is suddenly thrown into brutal motion, screams and screeches filling the air, it drags you with it.
This was that moment. This was the silence before the storm, that quiet unnerving sense of foreboding that only the very few ever pay attention to.
The train crash in question was probably the biggest sword I had ever seen. It was about the size and width of an average man. Without its hilt. The blade was pure black; curved at the tip and jagged along the edge. I probably would have admired it, if it hadn't just completely ******** up the world in one precise throw.
There was a moment of heavy silence, as we all tried to process just what had taken place.
We had been standing in a group, for once just talking about nothing in particular. I had my hands in the pockets of my sweater and was listening to Sora who stood across from me joking about something her kids had done that morning. T.k kept playing with one of the charms hanging from my bracelet, making them jingle softly.
Then there was blood on my face.
I knew it was blood cause the smell practically punched me in the gut.
A weird sound seemed to rip over our conversation like it wasn't there, and for a moment I was in that place between realization and confusion. My head turned; a smile from laughing still on my face.
I looked but didn't really see what had happened, though my brain was a mile ahead of me and with sickening realization put an image to the strange sound.
A sword cutting through flesh. Something I should have recognized, but had no reason to expect right then, not when things were so...peaceful.
The sight that greeted my eyes is forever burned into my memory. A giant sword was embedded in the grass, a foot of it buried in the earth. Moving my eyes up I followed the trail of blood leaking down its edge to the body impaled on it. He was still alive of course, that was the worse part. Riptor seemed about as confused at finding a giant sword going through his body as we did. His eyes were wide as they took in the alien blade sticking out of his torso. He only needed a minute to really register what was happening. (Though he started spewing blood from his mouth long before then.)
With a sputtering gasp his eyes rolled up, and his hands slid loose from where they were gripping the top edge. His whole body went slack and seemed to sink a little closer to the ground, the sword sliding through him with an awful wet sound.
By then the smile was utterly gone from my face. Realization dawned like an atomic bomb going off in my head and I turned to my side. T.k's eyes met mine for a moment and he made a wheezy, moaning sound that told me all I needed to know. My hands went up and I caught him as he fell, golden blood pouring out of him and onto my clothes. It flowed free and in staggering amounts. It's smell poured around me and through me, making my stomach twist.
"T.k. T.k. No...please, no."
Remember when I said that it caused the end of the world? Well I lied, it ended more than one world. Mine was bleeding out in my arms, the blue in his eyes fading to gray, but my world was internal. My world was memories and feelings.
The other world that ended was a lot more physical than that.
Behind Riptor's body, standing perfectly still even though her body was caked in blood, was my guardian. Her eyes were wide, and before even she could comprehend what was happening, it was over. Riptor was dead. For once, the mighty and unstoppable Galexy was frozen in her tracks, too late to rescue the only one that even half mattered.
Her eyes took in his vacant expression, blood drying on his chin, and for the briefest second there was a vulnerability in those eyes that was almost child like. Slowly, her body began to tremble, coming to life like a car starting up. Galexy had never been one for grief. Anger was her first and most prevalent emotion in times like this. Today was no exception.
I guess everyone felt it but me.
Before I knew it Juliet was yelling at everyone to back up, to run. Her voice was really far away though, and I wasn't entirely sure they were listening. I had my face buried in T.k's shoulder so I guess as far as I was concerned the earth could fall out from under my feet and I wouldn't have noticed.
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"Everyone get back! Get back now!"
"Kari! T.k!"
"No! Sora forget them. RUN." Juliet put her arm in front of her charge and shook her head, fear in her eyes. "Sora do as I say now or I swear to God I will throw you over my shoulder."
"I am not ******** leaving them there!"
Grabbing Sora's arm, she twisted her around so fast that they both screamed. "Look at her Sora. ********. Look." She growled. "Galexy isn't human. You all seemed to forget that. That's what she really is."
It burned to look at her. The power, it seared into Sora's eyes. She couldn't even recognize who she was looking at. Where Galexy had been standing there was just power. It had the shape of a woman, Galexy's silhouette, but made of stars. Her white hair had grown black and long; a shroud the color of total darkness that billowed behind her with its own private wind. Her eyes were two suns, and her skin her skin was alive and in constant motion...stars being born, stars dying, stars and solar systems shifting and rotating. She was the sky, living and ending all at once. Blackened and charred around her neck were the remains of the Galaxy crystal, the hold it had on her power...removed completely.
Wrenching her face away Sora felt nauseous and starved all at once. She'd never felt so much pure energy before. It hurt just being near it.
"Oh Goddess..."
WHO DARES.
It wasn't a voice. It didn't speak in sound, no but everyone and everything could hear it. It bounced off and through all of creation. It was a wave that dissiintegrated the sword and let Riptor fall to the grass. It washed over Kari's half limp body, till she was engulfed in flames. When its weight moved towards Sora, Juliet tried to intervene but it struck her down and shattered the illusion that kept her human.
When the power of creation itself fell over Sora she could feel Water rush to the surface with a force that drowned her out. Her body became a living wave, moving and shifting. And oh god, screaming. Screaming in the worse pain imaginable.
"Don't you like my present dear one? One down and so many more to go..." The voice that answered the call came from the trees. It's owner jumping down and grinning.
YOU, YOU WILL DIE FOR THIS.
"Oh don't be so dramatic..." The power struck him and his body shifted briefly, showing his true form. A vortex, a swirling tunnel of pathways that went on forever through all that ever was, would be, and is. The sound of time ticking away flowed deafeningly from behind his laughter, as he shook the power off and reverted back to the handsome man with the clockwork eyes.
In a surge she was on him, her hand around his neck, and just briefly there was fear in his eyes.
I AM OLDER THAN YOU. I AM BEFORE TIME...DID YOU THINK I WOULDN'T KILL YOU?
"Darling after what we had? Of course not...but you always did look beautiful in this form. Much prettier than that appearance you borrowed from your brother."
YOU ARE A FOOL
"Am I? Killing me won't bring him back...and" His hand seemed to slide into her, through the stars and planets, through the space. "I have my own tricks to get what I want." Inside of her the movements were slowing down, and the power around her seemed to fluctuate like the energy was being disrupted. She didn't say or do anything though, she was beyond rationality and he was testing her patience.
Reaching up she touched her palm to his arm and he screamed, loud and inhuman, his image flickering briefly.
YOUR TRICKS ARE NOTHING.
She was almost spitting at him.
I WILL DRINK YOU, EVERY LAST DROP. YOU'LL CEASE TO EXIST.
The screaming grew only louder, until it was just a sound.
 Rapta · Sun Aug 12, 2012 @ 07:15am · 0 Comments |
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