Post by angelofmusic1992 on Sept 19, 2017 15:29:26 GMT
Thrax had never felt lower in his life. Every minute passing by was a reminder of how much he had failed, how everything he’d done had been for nothing. Never in his wildest dreams would he have thought he’d lose this fight. First, he lost Adeline. Then, he’d lost Weiss.
He shuddered at the thought of the witch doctor, which made him groan in pain. Any kind of movement was painful now. Broken bones could be healed pretty quickly in Bellerouge, but they’d left a few that way so Thrax couldn’t make an escape. Word was, Weiss had just been released from the hospital she had been staying at. Thrax still couldn’t believe what a monster she’d turned out to be. He’d known the girl had a darkness in her, but seeing that darkness turned against him had scared him in ways he hadn’t thought possible. He’d been completely at her mercy, and she’d nearly killed him. He still hadn’t mentioned that part to anyone. Who would believe him, and what was the point? It wouldn’t help his situation. It couldn’t get any worse than this. Unfortunately for Thrax, he would be very wrong at this point.
The first thing that made him tense up was the sounds of a struggle outside the door. He tried moving from the hospital bed the tiniest bit so he could see better. Instead, he hissed in pain and lied still again. Suddenly, the door swung open, and his eyes widened. Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury stood in the doorway. And Thrax could instantly read the malicious intent in their eyes.
“Hello Thrax,” Cinder greeted. The words were polite, but the tone was dripping with hate. And it didn’t help that Cinder had a smile on her face as she said them. She turned to Emerald. “Emerald, the door please.”
Emerald nodded. She let out a breath before raising up her hands. Using all the water she could find in the air, she turned it into ice, freezing the door shut. It’d be a while before anyone could make their way inside. And by the time they did, it would be too late.
Thrax’s eyes widened, realizing what Cinder was here to do. He tried to move, fear making him desperate to make an escape. Instead, he just felt the familiar pain of his body refusing to respond to him.
“Oh no Thrax, you’re not going anywhere,” Cinder said, her voice still cold. “Mercury…”
Mercuy nodded as well. He stamped his foot on the ground. Instantly, a rock sprung out from under Thrax’s bed, sending the demon flying into the air before he landed on the floor. He cried out this time, his body aching with pain. He couldn’t even move by this point. It hurt too much.
“Oh Thrax, just look at you,” Cinder said as she paced around him. “You were once so powerful. Citizens feared you. The police were infuriated by you. And criminals respected you. Even I respected you. Now, look at you. You’re nothing but a pathetic piece of trash. And even worse…” She bent down and lifted Thrax’s head up so she could look him in the eye. “You led my famliy to ruin. You promised us power, riches, the city as our playground. Now, most of us are in jail. The Elemental Gang will never be what it once was. We’re destroyed. And it’s all your fault.”
Thrax desperately thought for a way out of this. “I’ll make good on my promises,” he said. “If we can get out of here, I can still take over. You’ll get what you want. Just-”
“No.” The word came out of Cinder’s mouth like a wasp sting. “I’m done listening to your delusional promises. You’re responsible for our downfall.”
She stood up and looked at Emerald. Without saying a word, Emerald focused her power and created four long, sharp icicles. She swung her hands downward, and the icicles plunged into Thrax’s hands and feet, pinning him in place. He cried out again, fear making his whole body desperate to move. But he couldn’t now, even if he wanted to. Blood leaked from his hands and feet, staining the ground.
Cinder took a few steps, her eyes on Thrax’s back. She held out her hand, which quickly became covered in flames. “And I’m going to make you suffer in every way possible,” she promised.
Thrax turned his head as much as he could. He saw Cinder lean down, the flames getting closer and closer to his back. Then, he felt the fire against his skin, the burning worse than any pain he felt from his broken bones. Cinder didn’t relent. She kept the flames on his back. She wanted Thrax’s death to leave a message. Nothing else mattered now, except exacting her revenge. And she smiled as Thrax started to scream.
It was 8:00 a.m.
Yang groaned as her cell phone buzzed. She’d never been great at getting up in the morning. Who was calling her so early? After her cell phone refused to stay quiet, she groaned and reached over to answer it.
“Hello?” she asked groggily.
“Yang, it’s Sunshine.” Yang sat up a little more at the sound of her friend’s voice. But, instead of continuing, Sunshine paused for a long moment.
“What is it?” Yang asked.
“It’s…Thrax. Something happened.”
Yang’s heart skipped a beat for a moment. “Don’t tell me he’s escaped.”
“No, no, nothing like that,” Sunshine quickly reassured. “He’s still here in the prison hospital. It’s just…well…”
“Well what?” Yang asked impatiently. Why was Sunshine dancing around the subject?
She heard her friend sigh. “Maybe I shouldn’t say it over the phone. You should get down here and see it for yourself.”
Yang bit her lip. What the hell was going on? But, if Sunshine felt like she should see whatever happened in person, then she trusted her judgement. “Alright. I’ll be there soon.”
She hung up her phone and sighed. She had a feeling this was going to be the start of a very long day.
By the time Yang got to the prison hospital, there was a sizable crowd gathered outside. Yang tuned out what they were saying and headed in after showing off her badge. The inside of the building seemed just as chaotic as the outside. Guards were running about, doctors were talking rapidly on their phones, and officers were scribbling down answers to any questions they asked. After asking around, Yang headed to the second floor, where Thrax was being kept. She spotted Sunshine first, standing outside the room.
“Sunshine!” Yang hurried over. “What’s going on? What happened to Thrax? Everyone seems panicked.”
“It’s okay,” Sunshine said, trying not to get Yang anyore worried than she already was. “People are just trying to get the facts after…” She gave a sigh, as if unsure of how to continue.
“Sunshine, what happened?” Yang asked.
Sunshine was quiet for a moment, then answered “Thrax is dead.”
Yang didn’t respond for a long moment. She just blinked, looking at Sunshine with incredulity. Was her friend serious? Thrax, the Thrax that had haunted her dreams and changed her life forever, was dead? Without a word, she pushed past her friend and headed into the room behind her.
“Yang, wait!” Sunshine called after her.
Yang only took a few steps in the room before stopping in her tracks. A number of people were in the room, either giving info to the hospital staff or examining the crime scene. Pitch and Shadow were there as well, providing assistance to others. Her eyes went to the ground, and she gasped.
Thrax lay on the floor, his hands and feet pinned to the ground with icicles. A huge burn mark was on his back. She could still catch the uncomfortable scent of charred skin. Upon looking at it closer, she saw that the burns actually formed letters. And the message they formed was “LIAR.”
“Yang?”
Yang looked up at the sound of her name. Shadow had addressed her, and Yang realized that everyone in the room was looking at her. She glanced back at Sunshine, whose eyes were filled with worry.
“We thought it would be better if we told you first, rather than here it from somebody else,” the blonde said. “We thought this could give you some closure.”
Yang looked back at Thrax. She was quiet as she walked up a bit closer. Blood stained the tiled floor. Thrax’s face was still twisted in pain. It almost made Yang afraid. He’d suffered a lot before finally dying.
“Do you have any leads?” Yang asked.
“Better than that: We have the culprits,” Shadow replied. “It was Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury. As soon as we got here, they confessed to everything.”
“Wait, what?” Yang looked up, eyes puzzled. “Why?”
“Cinder wanted revenge,” Pitch answered as he looked down at Thrax. “She felt that Thrax ruined her family, that he was the one responsible for her criminal empire being torn down. She knew she’d have no hope of escaping a life sentence, not when we charged her with kidnapping Weiss and everything else she’d done. So, with nothing left to lose, she, Mercury, and Emerald came here and killed him.”
Yang glanced around the room. She could see how the three had done it. Merucury had made the rock under the nearby bed that kicked Thrax onto the floor. Emerald had made the icicles that had pinned him down. And Cinder had burned him to death.
It was almost too much to take in. Yang felt relief, she was sure of that much. Thrax was gone. He wouldn’t hurt anyone anymore. But, at the same time, it was almost cruel, the way he’d died. Pitch had driven him to insanity, Weiss had broken him beyond repair, and Cinder had finished him off. His karma had bitten him back, full force. But, maybe that was what someone like him deserved. He’d done nothing but cause pain and hurt others ever since he’d come to this town. Maybe it was fitting, that one of the few allies he’d had had come to kill him.
“Does anyone else know?” she asked, feeling like all she could do was ask question after question.
“We have a few more details to get,” Sunshine replied. “We’re hoping to give a statement pretty soon though. That’s why there’s a crowd gathered outside the front door. And more will probably come within the hour.”
Yang nodded. So that was how Thrax’s legacy would end. His death would be given as a statement to the city and the press, and then that would be that. There would be no glory for him, no triumph in seeing his plans come to fruition. He had died broken and alone.
“Yang, you okay?” Shadow asked.
“Yeah.” Yang nodded again. “Just…” She gave a sigh. “It’s a lot to take in. For the longest time, I was so scared of him. He’d hurt me in a way nobody else had. And now he’s just…gone. I guess it’s just…odd, to see someone you viewed as almost invincible to be taken down like this.”
“Nobody is ever truly invincible,” Pitch said. “That’s an important thing all of us in the Others Unit need to remember.”
Yang understood what he meant. Even if a criminal seemed all-powerful and untouchable, the Others Unit had to find a way to bring them down. Everyone had a weakness, even murderers and psychopaths. And it would be their job to figure out what that weakness was.
“You mind if I…hang around a bit?” she asked, looking up at Sunshine, Pitch, and Shadow. “I don’t know if I want to…” Her voice trailed off. She wasn’t sure how to voice what she was feeling. There wasn’t much for her to do. Most of the information people needed had already been gathered. Maybe she just wanted to see this though to the end, to see it all wrapped up so she could put this behind her.
“Of course you can,” Sunshine replied, giving a smile. Shadow and Pitch seemed to agree on that as well, despite their history. They knew Yang needed closure on this. Yang smiled a little in return. She knew they’d understand.
It was 10 a.m.
Adeline flipped through the TV channels, lounging on the couch. Nothing was really catching her eye. She passed by the usual programs: a cooking show, a kids’ cartoon, a sports game. It was more to distract herself than anything else. Ever since it’d been made public that Thrax had been responsible for kidnapping Weiss, Adeline had been doing her best to fight the guilt that was threatening to overwhelm her. Every time she heard Weiss’s name mentioned, every time someone commented on the injuries she’d received, she felt like locking herself away and never coming out. Thrax had wanted to do the same thing to Weiss that he’d wanted to do to her, and she couldn’t help but feel like it was her fault, even though she knew it wasn’t. Just because she was feeling guilty didn’t mean she actually was. That was a lesson that she’d been taught by Pitch, her parents, her friends. She wasn’t responsible for Thrax’s actions. He made these choices himself. That was the thought she tried to keep in her head every time she felt like shutting herself away.. Adeline’s thoughts were interrupted though,when she heard something that made her do a double-take.
“-details on the murder of Thrax-”
Adeline hurriedly flipped back to the news channel, sitting upright. A female news reporter was talking in front of a big building with several floors. Adeline recognized it as the prison hospital where Thrax had been taken.
“It was confirmed that Thrax had indeed been murdered early this morning, around 3 am. The culprits have been discovered to be Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury of the Elemental Gang, who had previously worked with Thrax in the kidnapping of Weiss LaFayette. They have fully admitted to the crime, and no further word has been given on how this murder will affect their future trial.”
Adeline’s heart stopped as her brain processed the words she had just heard. Thrax was dead? Truly dead? Could it really be believed? It seemed almost impossible that Thrax could be killed just like that. He seemed untouchable. She pulled out her cellphone and started dialing a number. There was only one person she could fall to confirm this, to make sure it was really true.
Far away, at the prison hospital, Pitch felt his phone ring as the people around him cleaned up the last of the crime scene. He saw that it was Adeline’s number. He wasn’t too surprised by that. He figured she’d call him eventually about this.
“Excuse me, I have to take this,” he said as he stepped out of the room. As soon as he was in the hallway outside, he pressed a button and said coolly into the phone “Adeline.”
“Pitch, I saw it on the news,” Adeline said, her voice almost shaking. “I have to know the truth. Is…Is Thrax really…”
“He’s dead,” Pitch replied. “I saw the body myself. He’s gone.”
Adeline was quiet for a long moment. A tension she hadn’t realized that was sitting in her gut had released, a tension that she realized she’d been holding since she’d first summoned Thrax. He was really gone. He wouldn’t hurt her anymore. It was unbelievable.
“How…I mean, why…” She paused for a second, trying to get a grip before continuing. “Why did Cinder do it? Wasn’t she working with him?”
“She wanted revenge,” Pitch answered. “Thrax’s schemes resulted in her getting captured and her criminal empire getting torn down. She knew she was getting a life sentence. She felt like she had nothing else left to lose. So, she got Emerald and Mercury to help her kill him.”
Adeline let out a breath. Betrayed by the very same people he’d worked in tandem with. That couldn’t have been a happy way to go. But, Thrax had been so cruel to everyone around him. Maybe it was fitting, that he’d gone out in a cruel way in return.
“Are you okay?” Pitch’s voice on the other end was quiet, but it brought Adeline out of her thoughts.
“Yeah. I just…I can hardly believe it,” she said. “The knowledge that…someone you’ve been scared of for so long is just gone…it’s almost unreal.” She wrapped her free arm around her knees. “It’s weird though. I never imagined him going out like this. I always thought that maybe…you’d take him out. Or maybe I’d find a way how. Like, I brought him into this world, I should take him out, you know? I never thought that…Cinder would be the one to do it.”
“A lot of people seem to think that,” Pitch said, remembering Yang expressing a similar sentiment. “But, that’s just how life works. People come in and come out in unexpected ways.”
Adeline could see the truth in that. Life rarely worked out how it did in movies, where the good guy was the one to take out the bad guy he had beef with. In real life, anyone could off the bad guy. It could be his friend, his enemy, or a complete stranger. He could die by a stupid accident, like getting hit with a car or falling off a roof. You could get snuffed out at any moment. And it was this thought that made Adeline realize that maybe she and Pitch should do something she’d been putting off for a long time, while they still had the chance.
“Hey do you…mind if I come over later?” she asked. “This whole thing is just…making me think of…maybe it's time we talked it over, how to tell my parents about us. You were right. We can't avoid it forever. And now...just seems like a good time.”
She only heard silence on the other end for a moment. Pitch was probably confused on what exactly she was alluding to. Or maybe he knew exactly what she was talking about. He had a knack for that.
“Of course,” he finally replied. “They’ll probably want me to process some of the paper work for this. I’ll let you know when my shift is over.”
“Okay. I’ll see you later,” Adeline said. Then she quickly added “Take care, alright?”
There was only the briefest of pauses before Pitch replied “You do the same.”
“I will,” Adeline promised. They hung up after that. Adeline leaned back against the couch, feeling lighter than she had in a long time. Thrax would never hurt her or anyone else again. One of the biggest mistakes of her life was gone. The feeling of relief hit her hard, and she felt tears spring in her eyes. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d cried about something happy. She pulled out her phone, this time to call her parents. They had to know about this too, and she knew they would feel just as happy and relieved as she did.
It was 12 p.m.
Weiss let out a slow breath, gathering her magic power. Everything that had happened ever since the Others Unit had showed up to rescue her had passed by in a blur. Some things she had trouble remembering. Others stood out with so much vivid clarity that it almost hurt. The hospital had taken care of any physical injuries she had. Really, the most they could do now was let her rest at home and wait for the marks on her body to heal. The mental injuries though, were far worse. As soon as Weiss had gotten home, her parents had started making frantic phone calls, trying to find the best therapists in the city. They wanted to put this whole mess behind them as quickly as possible. And behind all the talk of getting better and resting and recuperating lay the weight of all the secrets they were keeping.
Weiss, Jacques, and Ciri were still the only ones who knew about the shadow spirits. Weiss’s parents wanted to keep that secret buried under the ground, so deep that nobody would ever find it. It was less about how Weiss would be affected them and more about not wanting their family to be involved in such a scandal. And Weiss still hadn’t told anyone about how she had nearly killed Thrax. As far as anyone knew, she’d just tossed him around using a voodoo doll, and that was it. But the secret was eating Weiss up from the inside and out. She’d almost done something horrible, something truly monstrous. Thrax was an evil person, but he’d been helpless when she’d tried to kill him. He couldn’t even defend himself. And it almost seemed to confirm what Weiss had been thinking about herself for months: that she was a monster, that she had darkness inside her, that she didn’t deserve the faith and love that her friends gave her. She knew her shadow spirits would understand though. They always got what she was feeling, even if she didn’t say anything at all. And right now, she was trying to bring them back.
She’d found one of the wards on the borders of the property. Each one was square-shaped, made out of metal, and stuck into the ground so that only their surface showed. They were dotted all along the grounds’ edges, and were pumped up on every protective voodoo spell her mother could think of. But, there was one fatal flaw with them. If one ward was taken out, then none of the others would work, and an opening could be made. It was like an electric circuit. Cut one wire and none of the light bulbs would turn on. Weiss was kneeling in front of the ward, gathering up as much magic as she could. Then, she placed her hand on top of it.
A yellow glow surrounded her hand, and she could feel her magic throwing itself against the wards’, like a battering ram pounding against a mighty gate. It almost seemed impossible. Her mother had packed a lot of power into these. She was that desperate to keep the shadow spirits away. But, she had no idea how truly powerful Weiss had become. She had never thought that her daughter could take down one of these wards herself. And it would prove to be her undoing.
Weiss gave one final push, and then there was a small flash of light. The ward didn’t look any different, but she could feel its loss of power. The defenses for the mansion had been eroded away. And now, she just had to wait.
She looked out, keeping her eyes and ears open for any signs of her shadow spirits. She also kept her mind open, searching for any sign of their mental touch. For about a minute, there was nothing, and Weiss started to get worried. Had they not found their way back yet? Ciri had said that her light magic had just pushed them away for a while. Were they still recuperating from the attack? Weiss’s heart sank for a second. Then, she felt something brush against her mind. It was soft, like a small feather, but she recognized it. She smiled.
“Hello,” she said.
The shadow spirits swarmed up, and for a moment, Weiss couldn’t say anything. Everything was a rush as she and the shadow spirits were reunited. They curled on her shoulders, settled against her lap, leaned up against her side, like they wanted to touch every inch of her. Their familiar voices whispered to her, saying how they had missed their mistress. The greatest thing of all though, was the mental link between them. They could feel each other’s thoughts and emotions and it was almost like they were one being instead of separate entities. It was a closeness that Weiss hadn’t really experienced before, and it gave her great comfort.
“I missed you,” she said, her voice choked up. “I tried so hard to get back to you. Thrax had me and he wanted to make me his and I couldn’t get away for a long time-”
“It’s alright.” The shadow spirits’ voices were soft. “We heard about what happened. While we were recuperating from your mothers’ magic, we felt the unrest of the city. It didn’t take much effort to figure out what was going on.”
Weiss let out a breath, relieved that she wouldn’t have to retell everything, verbally or mentally. Her shadow spirits already knew.
“We heard about how you broke Thrax like a child breaks a toy,” they continued. “Why didn’t you finish him off?”
“Huh?” Weiss looked up at that. The question had almost sounded accusatory. “Wh…what do you mean?”
“We’ve been bonding with you and teaching you dark voodoo magic so you could defend yourself against those who would hurt you,” said the shadow spirits. “You had Thrax at your mercy. Why didn’t you kill him?”
“I…I couldn’t,” Weiss replied, her voice feeble. “I was just…it wasn’t…I just couldn’t.” She found it hard to articulate what she had been feeling at the time. And she didn’t understand why her shadow spirits sounded angry about this. However, from their mental link, they could see flashes of what had happened, and how Weiss had been torn between doing what she wanted and doing what was right. The shadow spirits gave a sigh.
“I guess it doesn’t matter,” they said. “Thrax is dead anyway. We don’t need to worry about him anymore.”
“Wait, what?” Those words hit Weiss like a bucket of ice cold water. “He’s…dead? How?”
“The whole city’s been buzzing about it,” the shadow spirits answered. “Haven’t you heard?”
Weiss didn’t reply. She just pulled out her cell phone and pulled out her news app. She’d avoided anything related to the press, afraid that anything about her or Thrax would upset her. Her eyes widened and her hand covered her mouth in shock as she scrolled through her news feed. Article after article talked about how Thrax had been murdered early this morning, how Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury had been responsible for it, how the words “LIAR” had been branded into his back.
“I…I can’t believe it.” Weiss was flabbergasted. Thrax was dead, murdered by Cinder and her cronies. Cinder had had no qualms about killing the demon, and she hadn’t even been hurt by him as much as Weiss had. What did this say about her?
“It seems we must give you more practice,” the shadow spirits said. “The next time someone threatens you, you have to take them out.”
Weiss looked up. “N-next time?” she asked.
“Weiss, do you really think Thrax will be the last person who wants to hurt you?” the shadow spirits asked. “There will be more. Just look at your father, your mother. They could hurt you. Anyone could. You have to be ready. We can help you.”
“How?” Weiss tried to keep her voice from shaking.
“By mentally linking with us at all times,” the shadow spirits replied. “We will always be in touch with each other that way. You will never be alone again, and you will be stronger than ever.”
Those words caught Weiss’s attention. Never being truly alone…being stronger…the idea of that pushed away any doubt she felt over this and was replaced with longing. That was what she wanted, more than anything. Her shadow spirits would always be with her, and she could fight back against anyone who wanted to cause her pain. Flashes of all the times Thrax hurt her played in her mind. Her hand reached up to lightly brush against the scar over her eye, the first mark he’d ever given her. She looked up at her shadow spirits.
“Okay. I want to do it.”
“Then close your eyes and open your mind.”
Weiss did as instructed. She focused on her breathing, trying to put away her feelings. She felt the shadow spirits’ minds against hers, brushing lightly at first. Then, they dived in, and she gasped at the power she felt coming from them. She doubled over, her palms pressed against the ground as she struggled to withstand it. She had never seen the shadow spirits like this before. It was as if she’d only scratched the surface of what they were like, and now, she was seeing everything that was below. They were vast and dark. They could do awe-inspiring, horrible things with her if they chose to. Linked together, they could take on scores of people at once, defend themselves from anyone that was powerful. The power was almost too much. Weiss could feel it spreading through her body, affecting her, changing her. For a brief moment, purple, glowing lines extended from her wrists up her arm, like veins. Her eyes went black, looking more like coal.
Then, as quickly as it had started, it stopped. The storm raging inside Weiss stopped. She let out a breath, then stood up. Her eyes were blue once again, and the purple vein-like marks on her arms had disappeared. But she could still feel the power inside her. She could call on it in an instant, if she chose to, if her shadow spirits chose to. She felt them in her mind, like they were nesting inside her brain.
Very good, they said through their mental link. But this is only the beginning. We can teach you more dark voodoo, and it will make you the most powerful voodoo queen of all. Are you ready?
Weiss nodded. I’m ready. And with that, she headed back to the house, the shadow spirits at her side. They would be safe in her room. Even if they couldn’t go with her everywhere, they would be mentally linked at all times. And if she ever needed help, they’d be by her side at an instant. The thought made Weiss give a satisfied, almost evil, smile.
((Alright, this finally wraps things up! With Thrax at least. XD I'll be doing stuff with Weiss's shadow spirits later down the road.))
He shuddered at the thought of the witch doctor, which made him groan in pain. Any kind of movement was painful now. Broken bones could be healed pretty quickly in Bellerouge, but they’d left a few that way so Thrax couldn’t make an escape. Word was, Weiss had just been released from the hospital she had been staying at. Thrax still couldn’t believe what a monster she’d turned out to be. He’d known the girl had a darkness in her, but seeing that darkness turned against him had scared him in ways he hadn’t thought possible. He’d been completely at her mercy, and she’d nearly killed him. He still hadn’t mentioned that part to anyone. Who would believe him, and what was the point? It wouldn’t help his situation. It couldn’t get any worse than this. Unfortunately for Thrax, he would be very wrong at this point.
The first thing that made him tense up was the sounds of a struggle outside the door. He tried moving from the hospital bed the tiniest bit so he could see better. Instead, he hissed in pain and lied still again. Suddenly, the door swung open, and his eyes widened. Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury stood in the doorway. And Thrax could instantly read the malicious intent in their eyes.
“Hello Thrax,” Cinder greeted. The words were polite, but the tone was dripping with hate. And it didn’t help that Cinder had a smile on her face as she said them. She turned to Emerald. “Emerald, the door please.”
Emerald nodded. She let out a breath before raising up her hands. Using all the water she could find in the air, she turned it into ice, freezing the door shut. It’d be a while before anyone could make their way inside. And by the time they did, it would be too late.
Thrax’s eyes widened, realizing what Cinder was here to do. He tried to move, fear making him desperate to make an escape. Instead, he just felt the familiar pain of his body refusing to respond to him.
“Oh no Thrax, you’re not going anywhere,” Cinder said, her voice still cold. “Mercury…”
Mercuy nodded as well. He stamped his foot on the ground. Instantly, a rock sprung out from under Thrax’s bed, sending the demon flying into the air before he landed on the floor. He cried out this time, his body aching with pain. He couldn’t even move by this point. It hurt too much.
“Oh Thrax, just look at you,” Cinder said as she paced around him. “You were once so powerful. Citizens feared you. The police were infuriated by you. And criminals respected you. Even I respected you. Now, look at you. You’re nothing but a pathetic piece of trash. And even worse…” She bent down and lifted Thrax’s head up so she could look him in the eye. “You led my famliy to ruin. You promised us power, riches, the city as our playground. Now, most of us are in jail. The Elemental Gang will never be what it once was. We’re destroyed. And it’s all your fault.”
Thrax desperately thought for a way out of this. “I’ll make good on my promises,” he said. “If we can get out of here, I can still take over. You’ll get what you want. Just-”
“No.” The word came out of Cinder’s mouth like a wasp sting. “I’m done listening to your delusional promises. You’re responsible for our downfall.”
She stood up and looked at Emerald. Without saying a word, Emerald focused her power and created four long, sharp icicles. She swung her hands downward, and the icicles plunged into Thrax’s hands and feet, pinning him in place. He cried out again, fear making his whole body desperate to move. But he couldn’t now, even if he wanted to. Blood leaked from his hands and feet, staining the ground.
Cinder took a few steps, her eyes on Thrax’s back. She held out her hand, which quickly became covered in flames. “And I’m going to make you suffer in every way possible,” she promised.
Thrax turned his head as much as he could. He saw Cinder lean down, the flames getting closer and closer to his back. Then, he felt the fire against his skin, the burning worse than any pain he felt from his broken bones. Cinder didn’t relent. She kept the flames on his back. She wanted Thrax’s death to leave a message. Nothing else mattered now, except exacting her revenge. And she smiled as Thrax started to scream.
It was 8:00 a.m.
Yang groaned as her cell phone buzzed. She’d never been great at getting up in the morning. Who was calling her so early? After her cell phone refused to stay quiet, she groaned and reached over to answer it.
“Hello?” she asked groggily.
“Yang, it’s Sunshine.” Yang sat up a little more at the sound of her friend’s voice. But, instead of continuing, Sunshine paused for a long moment.
“What is it?” Yang asked.
“It’s…Thrax. Something happened.”
Yang’s heart skipped a beat for a moment. “Don’t tell me he’s escaped.”
“No, no, nothing like that,” Sunshine quickly reassured. “He’s still here in the prison hospital. It’s just…well…”
“Well what?” Yang asked impatiently. Why was Sunshine dancing around the subject?
She heard her friend sigh. “Maybe I shouldn’t say it over the phone. You should get down here and see it for yourself.”
Yang bit her lip. What the hell was going on? But, if Sunshine felt like she should see whatever happened in person, then she trusted her judgement. “Alright. I’ll be there soon.”
She hung up her phone and sighed. She had a feeling this was going to be the start of a very long day.
By the time Yang got to the prison hospital, there was a sizable crowd gathered outside. Yang tuned out what they were saying and headed in after showing off her badge. The inside of the building seemed just as chaotic as the outside. Guards were running about, doctors were talking rapidly on their phones, and officers were scribbling down answers to any questions they asked. After asking around, Yang headed to the second floor, where Thrax was being kept. She spotted Sunshine first, standing outside the room.
“Sunshine!” Yang hurried over. “What’s going on? What happened to Thrax? Everyone seems panicked.”
“It’s okay,” Sunshine said, trying not to get Yang anyore worried than she already was. “People are just trying to get the facts after…” She gave a sigh, as if unsure of how to continue.
“Sunshine, what happened?” Yang asked.
Sunshine was quiet for a moment, then answered “Thrax is dead.”
Yang didn’t respond for a long moment. She just blinked, looking at Sunshine with incredulity. Was her friend serious? Thrax, the Thrax that had haunted her dreams and changed her life forever, was dead? Without a word, she pushed past her friend and headed into the room behind her.
“Yang, wait!” Sunshine called after her.
Yang only took a few steps in the room before stopping in her tracks. A number of people were in the room, either giving info to the hospital staff or examining the crime scene. Pitch and Shadow were there as well, providing assistance to others. Her eyes went to the ground, and she gasped.
Thrax lay on the floor, his hands and feet pinned to the ground with icicles. A huge burn mark was on his back. She could still catch the uncomfortable scent of charred skin. Upon looking at it closer, she saw that the burns actually formed letters. And the message they formed was “LIAR.”
“Yang?”
Yang looked up at the sound of her name. Shadow had addressed her, and Yang realized that everyone in the room was looking at her. She glanced back at Sunshine, whose eyes were filled with worry.
“We thought it would be better if we told you first, rather than here it from somebody else,” the blonde said. “We thought this could give you some closure.”
Yang looked back at Thrax. She was quiet as she walked up a bit closer. Blood stained the tiled floor. Thrax’s face was still twisted in pain. It almost made Yang afraid. He’d suffered a lot before finally dying.
“Do you have any leads?” Yang asked.
“Better than that: We have the culprits,” Shadow replied. “It was Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury. As soon as we got here, they confessed to everything.”
“Wait, what?” Yang looked up, eyes puzzled. “Why?”
“Cinder wanted revenge,” Pitch answered as he looked down at Thrax. “She felt that Thrax ruined her family, that he was the one responsible for her criminal empire being torn down. She knew she’d have no hope of escaping a life sentence, not when we charged her with kidnapping Weiss and everything else she’d done. So, with nothing left to lose, she, Mercury, and Emerald came here and killed him.”
Yang glanced around the room. She could see how the three had done it. Merucury had made the rock under the nearby bed that kicked Thrax onto the floor. Emerald had made the icicles that had pinned him down. And Cinder had burned him to death.
It was almost too much to take in. Yang felt relief, she was sure of that much. Thrax was gone. He wouldn’t hurt anyone anymore. But, at the same time, it was almost cruel, the way he’d died. Pitch had driven him to insanity, Weiss had broken him beyond repair, and Cinder had finished him off. His karma had bitten him back, full force. But, maybe that was what someone like him deserved. He’d done nothing but cause pain and hurt others ever since he’d come to this town. Maybe it was fitting, that one of the few allies he’d had had come to kill him.
“Does anyone else know?” she asked, feeling like all she could do was ask question after question.
“We have a few more details to get,” Sunshine replied. “We’re hoping to give a statement pretty soon though. That’s why there’s a crowd gathered outside the front door. And more will probably come within the hour.”
Yang nodded. So that was how Thrax’s legacy would end. His death would be given as a statement to the city and the press, and then that would be that. There would be no glory for him, no triumph in seeing his plans come to fruition. He had died broken and alone.
“Yang, you okay?” Shadow asked.
“Yeah.” Yang nodded again. “Just…” She gave a sigh. “It’s a lot to take in. For the longest time, I was so scared of him. He’d hurt me in a way nobody else had. And now he’s just…gone. I guess it’s just…odd, to see someone you viewed as almost invincible to be taken down like this.”
“Nobody is ever truly invincible,” Pitch said. “That’s an important thing all of us in the Others Unit need to remember.”
Yang understood what he meant. Even if a criminal seemed all-powerful and untouchable, the Others Unit had to find a way to bring them down. Everyone had a weakness, even murderers and psychopaths. And it would be their job to figure out what that weakness was.
“You mind if I…hang around a bit?” she asked, looking up at Sunshine, Pitch, and Shadow. “I don’t know if I want to…” Her voice trailed off. She wasn’t sure how to voice what she was feeling. There wasn’t much for her to do. Most of the information people needed had already been gathered. Maybe she just wanted to see this though to the end, to see it all wrapped up so she could put this behind her.
“Of course you can,” Sunshine replied, giving a smile. Shadow and Pitch seemed to agree on that as well, despite their history. They knew Yang needed closure on this. Yang smiled a little in return. She knew they’d understand.
It was 10 a.m.
Adeline flipped through the TV channels, lounging on the couch. Nothing was really catching her eye. She passed by the usual programs: a cooking show, a kids’ cartoon, a sports game. It was more to distract herself than anything else. Ever since it’d been made public that Thrax had been responsible for kidnapping Weiss, Adeline had been doing her best to fight the guilt that was threatening to overwhelm her. Every time she heard Weiss’s name mentioned, every time someone commented on the injuries she’d received, she felt like locking herself away and never coming out. Thrax had wanted to do the same thing to Weiss that he’d wanted to do to her, and she couldn’t help but feel like it was her fault, even though she knew it wasn’t. Just because she was feeling guilty didn’t mean she actually was. That was a lesson that she’d been taught by Pitch, her parents, her friends. She wasn’t responsible for Thrax’s actions. He made these choices himself. That was the thought she tried to keep in her head every time she felt like shutting herself away.. Adeline’s thoughts were interrupted though,when she heard something that made her do a double-take.
“-details on the murder of Thrax-”
Adeline hurriedly flipped back to the news channel, sitting upright. A female news reporter was talking in front of a big building with several floors. Adeline recognized it as the prison hospital where Thrax had been taken.
“It was confirmed that Thrax had indeed been murdered early this morning, around 3 am. The culprits have been discovered to be Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury of the Elemental Gang, who had previously worked with Thrax in the kidnapping of Weiss LaFayette. They have fully admitted to the crime, and no further word has been given on how this murder will affect their future trial.”
Adeline’s heart stopped as her brain processed the words she had just heard. Thrax was dead? Truly dead? Could it really be believed? It seemed almost impossible that Thrax could be killed just like that. He seemed untouchable. She pulled out her cellphone and started dialing a number. There was only one person she could fall to confirm this, to make sure it was really true.
Far away, at the prison hospital, Pitch felt his phone ring as the people around him cleaned up the last of the crime scene. He saw that it was Adeline’s number. He wasn’t too surprised by that. He figured she’d call him eventually about this.
“Excuse me, I have to take this,” he said as he stepped out of the room. As soon as he was in the hallway outside, he pressed a button and said coolly into the phone “Adeline.”
“Pitch, I saw it on the news,” Adeline said, her voice almost shaking. “I have to know the truth. Is…Is Thrax really…”
“He’s dead,” Pitch replied. “I saw the body myself. He’s gone.”
Adeline was quiet for a long moment. A tension she hadn’t realized that was sitting in her gut had released, a tension that she realized she’d been holding since she’d first summoned Thrax. He was really gone. He wouldn’t hurt her anymore. It was unbelievable.
“How…I mean, why…” She paused for a second, trying to get a grip before continuing. “Why did Cinder do it? Wasn’t she working with him?”
“She wanted revenge,” Pitch answered. “Thrax’s schemes resulted in her getting captured and her criminal empire getting torn down. She knew she was getting a life sentence. She felt like she had nothing else left to lose. So, she got Emerald and Mercury to help her kill him.”
Adeline let out a breath. Betrayed by the very same people he’d worked in tandem with. That couldn’t have been a happy way to go. But, Thrax had been so cruel to everyone around him. Maybe it was fitting, that he’d gone out in a cruel way in return.
“Are you okay?” Pitch’s voice on the other end was quiet, but it brought Adeline out of her thoughts.
“Yeah. I just…I can hardly believe it,” she said. “The knowledge that…someone you’ve been scared of for so long is just gone…it’s almost unreal.” She wrapped her free arm around her knees. “It’s weird though. I never imagined him going out like this. I always thought that maybe…you’d take him out. Or maybe I’d find a way how. Like, I brought him into this world, I should take him out, you know? I never thought that…Cinder would be the one to do it.”
“A lot of people seem to think that,” Pitch said, remembering Yang expressing a similar sentiment. “But, that’s just how life works. People come in and come out in unexpected ways.”
Adeline could see the truth in that. Life rarely worked out how it did in movies, where the good guy was the one to take out the bad guy he had beef with. In real life, anyone could off the bad guy. It could be his friend, his enemy, or a complete stranger. He could die by a stupid accident, like getting hit with a car or falling off a roof. You could get snuffed out at any moment. And it was this thought that made Adeline realize that maybe she and Pitch should do something she’d been putting off for a long time, while they still had the chance.
“Hey do you…mind if I come over later?” she asked. “This whole thing is just…making me think of…maybe it's time we talked it over, how to tell my parents about us. You were right. We can't avoid it forever. And now...just seems like a good time.”
She only heard silence on the other end for a moment. Pitch was probably confused on what exactly she was alluding to. Or maybe he knew exactly what she was talking about. He had a knack for that.
“Of course,” he finally replied. “They’ll probably want me to process some of the paper work for this. I’ll let you know when my shift is over.”
“Okay. I’ll see you later,” Adeline said. Then she quickly added “Take care, alright?”
There was only the briefest of pauses before Pitch replied “You do the same.”
“I will,” Adeline promised. They hung up after that. Adeline leaned back against the couch, feeling lighter than she had in a long time. Thrax would never hurt her or anyone else again. One of the biggest mistakes of her life was gone. The feeling of relief hit her hard, and she felt tears spring in her eyes. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d cried about something happy. She pulled out her phone, this time to call her parents. They had to know about this too, and she knew they would feel just as happy and relieved as she did.
It was 12 p.m.
Weiss let out a slow breath, gathering her magic power. Everything that had happened ever since the Others Unit had showed up to rescue her had passed by in a blur. Some things she had trouble remembering. Others stood out with so much vivid clarity that it almost hurt. The hospital had taken care of any physical injuries she had. Really, the most they could do now was let her rest at home and wait for the marks on her body to heal. The mental injuries though, were far worse. As soon as Weiss had gotten home, her parents had started making frantic phone calls, trying to find the best therapists in the city. They wanted to put this whole mess behind them as quickly as possible. And behind all the talk of getting better and resting and recuperating lay the weight of all the secrets they were keeping.
Weiss, Jacques, and Ciri were still the only ones who knew about the shadow spirits. Weiss’s parents wanted to keep that secret buried under the ground, so deep that nobody would ever find it. It was less about how Weiss would be affected them and more about not wanting their family to be involved in such a scandal. And Weiss still hadn’t told anyone about how she had nearly killed Thrax. As far as anyone knew, she’d just tossed him around using a voodoo doll, and that was it. But the secret was eating Weiss up from the inside and out. She’d almost done something horrible, something truly monstrous. Thrax was an evil person, but he’d been helpless when she’d tried to kill him. He couldn’t even defend himself. And it almost seemed to confirm what Weiss had been thinking about herself for months: that she was a monster, that she had darkness inside her, that she didn’t deserve the faith and love that her friends gave her. She knew her shadow spirits would understand though. They always got what she was feeling, even if she didn’t say anything at all. And right now, she was trying to bring them back.
She’d found one of the wards on the borders of the property. Each one was square-shaped, made out of metal, and stuck into the ground so that only their surface showed. They were dotted all along the grounds’ edges, and were pumped up on every protective voodoo spell her mother could think of. But, there was one fatal flaw with them. If one ward was taken out, then none of the others would work, and an opening could be made. It was like an electric circuit. Cut one wire and none of the light bulbs would turn on. Weiss was kneeling in front of the ward, gathering up as much magic as she could. Then, she placed her hand on top of it.
A yellow glow surrounded her hand, and she could feel her magic throwing itself against the wards’, like a battering ram pounding against a mighty gate. It almost seemed impossible. Her mother had packed a lot of power into these. She was that desperate to keep the shadow spirits away. But, she had no idea how truly powerful Weiss had become. She had never thought that her daughter could take down one of these wards herself. And it would prove to be her undoing.
Weiss gave one final push, and then there was a small flash of light. The ward didn’t look any different, but she could feel its loss of power. The defenses for the mansion had been eroded away. And now, she just had to wait.
She looked out, keeping her eyes and ears open for any signs of her shadow spirits. She also kept her mind open, searching for any sign of their mental touch. For about a minute, there was nothing, and Weiss started to get worried. Had they not found their way back yet? Ciri had said that her light magic had just pushed them away for a while. Were they still recuperating from the attack? Weiss’s heart sank for a second. Then, she felt something brush against her mind. It was soft, like a small feather, but she recognized it. She smiled.
“Hello,” she said.
The shadow spirits swarmed up, and for a moment, Weiss couldn’t say anything. Everything was a rush as she and the shadow spirits were reunited. They curled on her shoulders, settled against her lap, leaned up against her side, like they wanted to touch every inch of her. Their familiar voices whispered to her, saying how they had missed their mistress. The greatest thing of all though, was the mental link between them. They could feel each other’s thoughts and emotions and it was almost like they were one being instead of separate entities. It was a closeness that Weiss hadn’t really experienced before, and it gave her great comfort.
“I missed you,” she said, her voice choked up. “I tried so hard to get back to you. Thrax had me and he wanted to make me his and I couldn’t get away for a long time-”
“It’s alright.” The shadow spirits’ voices were soft. “We heard about what happened. While we were recuperating from your mothers’ magic, we felt the unrest of the city. It didn’t take much effort to figure out what was going on.”
Weiss let out a breath, relieved that she wouldn’t have to retell everything, verbally or mentally. Her shadow spirits already knew.
“We heard about how you broke Thrax like a child breaks a toy,” they continued. “Why didn’t you finish him off?”
“Huh?” Weiss looked up at that. The question had almost sounded accusatory. “Wh…what do you mean?”
“We’ve been bonding with you and teaching you dark voodoo magic so you could defend yourself against those who would hurt you,” said the shadow spirits. “You had Thrax at your mercy. Why didn’t you kill him?”
“I…I couldn’t,” Weiss replied, her voice feeble. “I was just…it wasn’t…I just couldn’t.” She found it hard to articulate what she had been feeling at the time. And she didn’t understand why her shadow spirits sounded angry about this. However, from their mental link, they could see flashes of what had happened, and how Weiss had been torn between doing what she wanted and doing what was right. The shadow spirits gave a sigh.
“I guess it doesn’t matter,” they said. “Thrax is dead anyway. We don’t need to worry about him anymore.”
“Wait, what?” Those words hit Weiss like a bucket of ice cold water. “He’s…dead? How?”
“The whole city’s been buzzing about it,” the shadow spirits answered. “Haven’t you heard?”
Weiss didn’t reply. She just pulled out her cell phone and pulled out her news app. She’d avoided anything related to the press, afraid that anything about her or Thrax would upset her. Her eyes widened and her hand covered her mouth in shock as she scrolled through her news feed. Article after article talked about how Thrax had been murdered early this morning, how Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury had been responsible for it, how the words “LIAR” had been branded into his back.
“I…I can’t believe it.” Weiss was flabbergasted. Thrax was dead, murdered by Cinder and her cronies. Cinder had had no qualms about killing the demon, and she hadn’t even been hurt by him as much as Weiss had. What did this say about her?
“It seems we must give you more practice,” the shadow spirits said. “The next time someone threatens you, you have to take them out.”
Weiss looked up. “N-next time?” she asked.
“Weiss, do you really think Thrax will be the last person who wants to hurt you?” the shadow spirits asked. “There will be more. Just look at your father, your mother. They could hurt you. Anyone could. You have to be ready. We can help you.”
“How?” Weiss tried to keep her voice from shaking.
“By mentally linking with us at all times,” the shadow spirits replied. “We will always be in touch with each other that way. You will never be alone again, and you will be stronger than ever.”
Those words caught Weiss’s attention. Never being truly alone…being stronger…the idea of that pushed away any doubt she felt over this and was replaced with longing. That was what she wanted, more than anything. Her shadow spirits would always be with her, and she could fight back against anyone who wanted to cause her pain. Flashes of all the times Thrax hurt her played in her mind. Her hand reached up to lightly brush against the scar over her eye, the first mark he’d ever given her. She looked up at her shadow spirits.
“Okay. I want to do it.”
“Then close your eyes and open your mind.”
Weiss did as instructed. She focused on her breathing, trying to put away her feelings. She felt the shadow spirits’ minds against hers, brushing lightly at first. Then, they dived in, and she gasped at the power she felt coming from them. She doubled over, her palms pressed against the ground as she struggled to withstand it. She had never seen the shadow spirits like this before. It was as if she’d only scratched the surface of what they were like, and now, she was seeing everything that was below. They were vast and dark. They could do awe-inspiring, horrible things with her if they chose to. Linked together, they could take on scores of people at once, defend themselves from anyone that was powerful. The power was almost too much. Weiss could feel it spreading through her body, affecting her, changing her. For a brief moment, purple, glowing lines extended from her wrists up her arm, like veins. Her eyes went black, looking more like coal.
Then, as quickly as it had started, it stopped. The storm raging inside Weiss stopped. She let out a breath, then stood up. Her eyes were blue once again, and the purple vein-like marks on her arms had disappeared. But she could still feel the power inside her. She could call on it in an instant, if she chose to, if her shadow spirits chose to. She felt them in her mind, like they were nesting inside her brain.
Very good, they said through their mental link. But this is only the beginning. We can teach you more dark voodoo, and it will make you the most powerful voodoo queen of all. Are you ready?
Weiss nodded. I’m ready. And with that, she headed back to the house, the shadow spirits at her side. They would be safe in her room. Even if they couldn’t go with her everywhere, they would be mentally linked at all times. And if she ever needed help, they’d be by her side at an instant. The thought made Weiss give a satisfied, almost evil, smile.
((Alright, this finally wraps things up! With Thrax at least. XD I'll be doing stuff with Weiss's shadow spirits later down the road.))