The Storm

Script © Calli128. Steal and Die.

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Harsh wind whipped around in violent circles, pulling with it heavy rain and the occasional hailstone. Thunder cracked overhead, but only an experienced ear could hear it over the roar of the wind. Flashes of lightning briefly lit up the night sky. Through the onslaught of heavy rain and hail a spinning mass snaked its way to the ground.

A tornado was forming.

The danger was great to the inexperienced. He was not. He had seen many storms such as this. He could read them by now. From his small house he could easily tell the storm had passed over him. He was safe.

Safe.

A chuckle.

He was never safe anymore. Such a word meant nothing to him now. He always thought himself as safe...Until he discovered just how much danger he was constantly in. Safe was just a word he used for the deceased now. In his mind, only the dead were safe. They could not feel emotions, nor pain. They could no longer be hurt by any outside force. They were safe.

He never told anyone they were safe when around him. No one. They were never safe even near him anymore. He quickly learned that years ago. No one was safe. They were merely...

Targets.

His head shook a violent no. Green dreaded spines swayed with the movement. Not targets. They didn't know of the danger they were in around him.

But you did. Therefore...

They still weren't targets. He gave another shake of the head. DL was toying with him again. Trying to bend him. Break him. Control him.

Blue eyes flicked to the spinning column outside. So full of grace and beauty. Such a wonder could not be comprehended fully by the living. Yet, despite the elegance it held, it had a dark side. The destruction cause by the violent winds was just short of a nuclear explosion.

Sound familiar?

A growl.

You know it's true.

Silence. An opening.

You...calm and...somewhat elegant...

He chuckled a little before he could catch himself.

Me...The storm within. The raging wind. The darker side of all that is good.

A brow furrowed. The other followed shortly. He hated agreeing with DL, but he knew it to be true regardless of what he said. DL...the storm within, the dark side everything feared. Born from the experiment he endured years back, caused from a mix of chemicals injected into his system. They had caused part of his mind to split and create the thing that now shared his body.

It hadn't taken him long to discover the new being that occupied his mind. It had taken even less time for him to discover that the being was quite insane. The love it had for pain and killing sent shivers down his spine when he first spoke with it. He first 'met' DL four years ago in a cell. No one, to this day, had met the being and lived to tell of it.

He sometimes wondered to himself what would have happened if he hadn't decided to play hero on that fateful experiment day. He wondered what things would have been like if he didn't evacuate every one of the captives. If he had just left to get the antidote without saving the others, the echidna wouldn't have destroyed it. Then he wouldn't be living like he did: In secret and away from society to save others from himself. He sighed. Sometimes he wondered if this was the right choice.

A cough racked his body suddenly. Soon followed by another and another. A hand fell to the glass window to try and steady himself from the fit of coughs. His frame shook from the violent fit that attacked his body relentlessly. He kneeled to the ground. The coughing had yet to let up, only growing more violent with each passing second. His throat was torn several times by the fit. With every cough more of his throat was torn, and the pain in his throat increased. His air was starting to run out now. His lungs needed relief. He nearly fell to the floor, but caught himself on his hands. Only a minute had passed from beginning to end, though it felt like an eternity for him. The spasm left slowly, leaving in its wake the sensation that his lungs were burning.

Breathing was painful for him now. He had a coppery taste in the back of his throat that meant one thing. He was bleeding. His lungs were still burning. He knew they would for hours on end until he fell asleep. He sat up on his knees. Small beads of sweat had formed on his head during the fit. He breathed deeply, ignoring the pain in his throat and his screaming lungs, and swore a curse under his breath.

They're getting worse aren't they?

A nod. Ever since the virus had been introduced into his system he'd been having larger coughing spells. He knew he was running a fever by now. One would always follow the coughing spasms. He knew what would follow the fever once it broke too. It was a continuous cycle. First the coughing fit that started his burning lungs, then the fever. After the fever came chills and pain. Finally, temporary blindness that would consume him to the point it felt like his eyes would fall out.

A sigh.

You know...

A grunt. Here it came.

I could get rid of the pain for you...

"No."

His voice was firm. DL had tried this scheme many times before. He was always trying to get him to break. It got old after awhile. He was tempted to just let his dark side take over sometimes just so he could be left in peace. Though, he reminded himself, letting DL take over was like unleashing an F5 on the entire planet. With this in mind, all he could do was sit and take DL's attempts and complaints.

You nearly passed out last time. I could take the pain easily.

"No."

DL gave a slight grunt. The green echidna was getting harder and harder to break now. It wouldn't be long before he would be able to block DL out completely. If the dark entity could just break him and take over once he would stand a chance. He had to take him over tonight. It was his best bet to ever gain some strength.

Blue eyes turned to the window again. He shakily stood to get a better view, placing a hand on the window to help steady himself. Lightning laced across the sky, showing briefly the swirling vortex making its way along the east side of his house. An eyebrow quirked up curiously. Last time he checked the storm was heading south away from him, not east parallel to him.

A gloved hand went to wipe the sweat away from his forehead. His fever was rising. Blue eyes fell from the raging storm outside to his hand, which was now damp from how hard he was sweating. He sighed. He knew it would only be a matter of minutes before the next stage came.

I won't be able to go anywhere in the storm.

The same eyebrow rose again in question.

"What do you mean?"

DL grinned to himself. He had a chance.

If you let me take over, I'll have to stay here unless I want killed in that storm.

"No."

But-

"No."

I wou-

"No"

Come on...

"Stop the mind games and the whining. It'll get you nowhere."

That shut DL up. He smiled, but it soon faded as another wave of heat washed over him. The fever was still growing. His body was yelling for relief from the heat plaguing him. Blue eyes fell to the shirt he was wearing. The fabric wasn't thin, so he saw little relief if he took it off. He sighed. Needless to say, he was desperate. Pulling off the red clothing, he tossed it in a heap onto the couch behind him. Another sigh escaped his throat, this time in relief. The breeze from the storm blowing under his door was cooling him down considerably.

Again his eyes strayed to the storm outside of his house. The tornado was still traveling parallel with the house, but something felt off. Terribly off. He studied the sky carefully, brows lowered. Thunder rattled his windows and lightning raced across the sky. From the brief flashes he could see the tornado had moved some distance away from him now. He squinted at it, his vision blurred slightly from the fever. The tornado was leaving. He was out of danger completely for the moment. He was okay.

You mean safe, right?

His head shook no. He knew DL was just trying to annoy him now. The dark entity had tried it before. DL knew that if he could get his host mad enough he'd stand a better chance of taking control. He also knew this. More than once he had been driven to anger by DL, and thus, he had been taken over. It had taken time for him to realize DL's way of thinking. When he first met his other half he thought all DL did was tear out someone's intestines then strangle the person with them. Now, he had come to realize, the entity could feel all emotions. Just in a different, more sadistic way. It had made him think when he found that out. DL was just another person, albeit a little insane, but still a person nonetheless.

His neck gave a sudden twitch that sent a shudder down his spine. He gave a slight sigh. The fur on the back of his neck prickled from a sudden cold that gripped at his very heart. A groan escaped his throat. It wouldn't be long before he would be shivering on the ground in pain and cold. He kneeled to reduce the risk of injury once it started.

Thunder shook the house once more. His gaze went to the window again. The storm should have been over by now, or at least less severe. A lightning flash lit up the sky, along with the shape of the tornado steadily making its way back towards him.

Blue eyes went wide, pupils shrinking. The tornado had shifted its course in a full one-eighty! A loud 'shit' escaped his throat.

He tried to climb to his feet, but a wave of pain swept over him, bringing him back down. A groan escaped. He had to get to a safer place in the middle of the house. Chills ran down his spine, making all his fur prickle. A hand pushed him into a sitting position slowly. His breathing was shaky from the cold gripping his body, and from the cuts in his throat. Another wave of pain sent him back to the ground with a groan. He struggled to stand, though with every movement he had to stop and clench his teeth in agony.

Let me take over!!

DL sounded panicked. He had all right to be, too. Without a host he was nothing. Dead. That was the only thing DL feared in the world. Death. He gave a pain filled laugh. The irony of it all. DL feared the one thing he loved to cause. His laughter died to a constant chuckle despite the anguish that ripped through his body with each breath.

"Why...should I trust you?"

He wanted DL to admit that he wouldn't do anything. He wanted him to admit he wouldn't hurt anyone. He wanted him to admit he was scared. To admit that he had a weakness. To admit that he was normal. That wouldn't happen. DL knew how he thought, he could read his mind after all. The entity knew that he wanted to make sure that no one would be harmed again.

Dammit man! You want to die?! Just because I nearly murdered some woman?!

He gave a painful smile. Outside the twister has almost to his home. Debris slammed against the walls, making them shake violently. The windows were rattling to the point they would shatter if the wind didn't die down.

DL had enough.

That's it! You are not letting me die!

He didn't bother a fight this time. He was in too much pain to care. His mind clouded and went blank for a second. He looked around once he had entered his mind. All pain had left him, he felt relieved for that. All he could do now though, was wait until DL let him back in control, and to hope that no one was killed in the process.

DL instantly leapt up to his feet the second he had taken control. The pain his host had felt was numb to him. DL did not feel pain. The dark entity knew what to do in cases like this. He had been through many of them before, watching his host. His gaze fell briefly to the trench coat next to him that had once been the red shirt his host wore. That was the only obvious indication that he had taken over.

Feet hammered against the floor as DL ran to the hall. Light, icy blue eyes scanned for the safest place for him to be once the storm hit. The roar of high winds was on top of him almost. No time to get into a safe spot now. DL threw himself against the floor in the hallway with his gloved hands protecting his neck. The spikes that adorned his wrists lightly poked against his neck slightly. He didn't feel them there.

The high winds were deafening. The twister was almost upon him. The windows in the house shattered instantly from the low pressure. Debris flew in all directions, coming in from the open holes that were once the windows. Bits of grass and leaves lodged themselves into the boards of the house almost an inch in. The winds were unbelievably high. A tree branch worked its way into the house where it instantly slammed into DL's fallen form. The dark entity felt it hit, but once more felt no pain. He knew his host would feel it when he took over again though. For a brief moment he smiled at the thought.

Then the house collapsed on top of him.

The storm took out the left wall when it passed by only fifty feet from the house. The rest of the house soon followed with DL under it all.

----

An hour later the storm died out fully. No towns were hit, but a good portion of the forest had been destroyed in its wrath. Many people merely were glad that Station Square was built along the coast. The storm had just barely missed the city; thankfully nothing was damaged as well. No one knew that in the forest west of the city a house had been destroyed.

Within the rubble of what remained of a house something moved. Slowly, a green figure pulled himself from the rubble. His body was covered in scratches and marks from the many planks he that had him buried. Black shoes stumbled on the uneven surfaces as he painfully made his way away from the remains of his home. Blue eyes gleamed back with tears threatening to fall. His home was gone. Destroyed in the storm. Just like last time. But, this time, the storm was natural.

You owe me.

An eyebrow rose slightly.

I saved your ass back there. You owe me big.

A grunt. He knew. It went against his code not to repay someone who helped him. DL knew that too, and he took advantage of it. He wanted to make an acceptation to this, but he knew if he did DL would do worse than what he had in mind. So, he had to let the entity do as he wished this time.

Heh...damn right I will. Better not go back on your word.

Same old DL. Only hearing what he wanted to.

A sigh. He didn't really care about what DL was planning to do once he took over. All he cared about was that he survived the storm with minimal injuries except for the one on his side. He lived, his home did not. Another sigh. He was actually hoping that the storm would have killed him. All attempts to end his life had been thwarted by DL time and again. The entity feared dying. He wasn't about to let his host kill himself no matter how much he wanted to die. The entity almost regretted nearly killing his host's only love those years back. Because of this she had left him in fear, but she had made it a point to tell him she still loved him. His host didn't take well to that. DL had to stop him several times before a knife found it's way to his wrist or his heart.

He looked back down the path of destruction slowly. Maybe he should just move on, despite how much his heart constantly hurt now. He missed Andrea with a passion, he wanted her back badly. Maybe he would find something that would get rid of DL completely someday.

Don't even think on it.

He chuckled slightly. He knew that the chances of it were slim to none, but he still hoped that someday he'd be rid of the curses that plagued him. Until then though, he'd have to live with them. With this in mind, he reminded himself that he needed somewhere to live. A cough escaped his aching throat, reminding him that he would have to keep the virus in mind while he searched.

Slowly, with a limp, Luigi Espadachin walked away from his destroyed home in hopes of finding a new one.

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Luigi © Luigi

DL © Luigi
Script © Calli128