Chapter 28
Twenty-Eight
Isabella
One bad. One missing. Three down.
“Two to go,” I chanted as I let go of the female’s arm. Her power surged through me like lightning. I had only a taste of each, yet my body was brimming with unrestrained power.
Touch and take. Touch, take.
That was all the darkness wanted. And that was what it was getting.
I knew nothing. I was nothing. Nothing but the gloom within me.
It sought power, a stealer of life. My body moved to its will, but the beating organ in my chest felt heavier and heavier as it did, and my mind tugged at something—something forgotten, maybe? But the darkness wouldn’t hand it over.
The bad one chased me while I chased the others.
He was oddly warm, even when his eyes were angry as he stalked me, over and over.
I ran—I was a good runner. I didn’t think the bad one liked that though.
I thought he must hate it because the blond-haired bad one transformed into something else entirely.
A skeleton. A monster. Like me, but unlike me.
Because dark was good while the bad one had to be bad.
Something was wrong. The darkness was confused. Inside, something cried while another fought harder to run. There were two other skeletons as well, but unlike the turquoise-colored one, I was free to chase and move after them. They weren’t scary. I needed their power still.
But the bad one chased after me, and my chest spasmed with the worst kind of pain. Only when I tried to recall what that pain was, I couldn’t. The dark shadow rolled around inside me restless—afraid. Of the bad apple. The one that wasn’t supposed to touch me. Yet, he continued coming.
So unrelenting. He wasn’t going to give up—just like the blackness inside me.
I tossed a ball of magic, but the skeleton bobbed and weaved my attempts. He got too close, leaving me no choice but to use the portal chip again. I landed in another part of the room. Looking up, I saw him coming down on me. I jumped back. He came forth.
The darkness sang an angry tune. He kept wasting my time, and yet, I felt another part of the shadow, something that I didn’t even think it noticed within itself: encouragement. I didn’t understand it. Did a small part of it want to be caught?
When my body continued its flight, I knew the answer had to be no.
The skeleton spoke to me, but all I heard was static. The more he tried talking to me, the worse it got. Who didn’t want me to hear his words—the darkness or Julius? And why?
“Izzie…” I paused, stopped to blink. That word was familiar.
I heard the skeleton. It had been his word.
Why had he given it to me? The sound of his voice was…
I stepped forward. I thought it wouldn’t hurt to hear that voice once more.
“To me.” I got more words from him before the static grew worse again.
Beneath the hiss, the darkness had a moment of quietness. It too, seemed taken in by the skeleton’s soothing voice.
I think we should touch him, too.
It felt like a good idea.
The darkness thought about it. It moved and eyed him until the thought became an action, and the darkness forced my foot forward.
We shouldn’t.
I could almost feel the unspoken words from the darkness. Although it had no true voice, I felt its emotions—every bit of its turmoil each time the bad one came for me.
It was afraid, of what, I didn’t know.
But, for a fraction of a second, I felt it want him more than the others—a million times more.
Then, the image of Julius flooded my mind, and the darkness screamed, then sighed, and remembered.
And I didn’t get to find what was forgotten because I was never given the chance to remember.
Maybe nothing is all I’ve ever been.
The darkness went silent, and somehow, I knew that was a lie.
But when Julius stepped between the bad one and me, my thoughts dulled, and once more, all that mattered was the last two sins.