A/N: I hope the length of this chapter makes up for the time it took me to write this.
So Darkar's attitude in that prologue was actually influenced by a scene from Vampire Diaries in the twelfth episode of season 2 'The Descent' where Damon kills a girl called Jessica. And the idea of a villain that isn't a moustache twirler like quite a lot of bad guys tend to be, but knows that he's doing bad things and admits he likes doing them is always interesting to me.
A quick note for this entire story, I've done some research on the symbolism of fire, which has had a major impact on my idea. One of the sites that I found said this:
'If there ever was a dichotomous element it would be Fire. Fire, the bringer of destruction, the symbolism of chaos and war. Fire burns everything, bringing nothing but ruin. And yet, Prometheus risked the wrath of the Titans to bring fire to man. Fire banishes the darkness. Fire cleanses and purifies. Lastly, sometimes Love is spoken of as an eternal flame. Fire can be shown as an agent of destruction. Fire is also usually used for strong emotional feelings (such as love, hate, desire, and determination). Fire can also be used to express determination or a strong desire as well. Characters that have a 'fire-esq' quality to them are also more likely to be violent (in this case violent meaning extreme and chaotic) in their response and more likely to rush into a situation without completely thinking the consequences through.'
One of the key words in that paragraph for me is dichotomous. The witch thing is a reference to season 1, episode 14 (the 4Kids version because it was more relevant, in the Rai one she's told that she's a reincarnation of the Ancestral Witches). In one episode, Darkar claims that Bloom has become dark for good yet it's never revisited in the series so that doesn't make sense (hope they do revisit it because that of my reason above). And just give you some imagery about the festival in this chapter:
www. hornsealakes wp-content/ uploads/2010/10/
. wordpress 2010/12/hull-fair .jpg
wikipedia/commons /9/91/Hull_Fair _14-10-09_
So I have two questions for you guys, just quickly, if you could make a live action movie; who would you cast? And who are your least favourite characters? I have an idea who I would but I'm just curious. Lastly, I'm not sure how accurate my representations of the characters are though, so bare with me until I get everything planned out.
'Everybody's looking for something,
Some of them want to use you.
Some of them want to get used by you,
Some of them want to abuse you.
Some of them want to be abused,
Sweet dreams are made of this.
Who am I to disagree?'
Sweet Dreams (are made of this) by Emily Browning (cover)
Fear gathered in Bloom's stomach as she walked across the dark hall. Large windows let in dark, slanting light from the crystals outside the castle. It looks like a church, even though the room only contained an ancient, black piano shoved into a corner. The dark floor was a smoothly-shined marble and obsidian pillars cast imposing silhouettes across the door.
Standing in front of one of the huge windows, the male figure cast a huge shadow. He'd changed his clothes since the last time she'd seen him, his arms were crossed over his chest; his long sleeves were rolled up to his elbows. They weren't decorated with blood anymore but they were still black, he looked like he could be going to a funeral in his shirt and pants. He spun around as she approached.
"Bloom." He said and, even though he'd cleaned up, the image of him all bloody and dangerous had burned itself into her head.
I loved it. You know we did. A voice at the back of her head purred. Let me out. It's been a month. You know I need to come out! You can't keep me locked up in here.
I can and I am. Leave me alone!
What part of the word 'we' don't you understand? I'm a part of you, I am you – you're me. We're the same! The voice growled.
Suddenly she felt nauseous. "It's been a while."
"A month."
"Oh? That long?" He asked politely, but that was something he rarely did. Doubt nagged at the back of her mind; was this the same person? He was acting so different. Darkar took a step towards her yet he still stood in the centre of the beam of light that the window let through. Imposing.
"You can't be real." She whispered; her voice shallow. "You're dead!"
"Ah, sweet denial. It's generally amusing but for you, it doesn't suit you. Remember what I told you? I told you that you know about your internal struggle, I told you how I would kill everyone who stood in my way. How I would watch the light leave their eyes, how I would see their blood spilled." He told her, the calm in his voice sent a shiver up her spine. Her mouth still felt dry. Darkar looked at her, and pulling out a switch blade, he made a large cut on his arm.
She wanted to run and scream bloody murder but there was some small part of her, buried deep, which wanted to stand and fight him, prove herself to him... That she was worthy of her status at the school and Bloom hated that part of herself. Something about this situation seemed very familiar but she couldn't place why.
Blood began to gather at the wound he had created. The blood smelled sweet, hypnotic and it was drawing her towards him. Bloom found herself stood directly in front of him. She must be going delusional because she swore that his eyes looked like a mix of care and pride.
"Drink." He ordered, his voice was soft. He wanted her to drink his blood?! Part of her felt disgusted but that part was shrinking and shrinking. She wanted to; she was starving… She needed it.
Acting immediately on instinct, she grabbed his arm and drank from the wound on his arm. The grossest thing? She liked it and it felt right. Darkar let out a moan but then, it rapidly turned into an appreciated-sounding sigh. She felt Darkar's hand run through her hair, wrapping her curls around his finger.
"Drink as much as you need." He cooed gently. Hot blood, like copper, warmed up her throat as she swallowed. Every time she paused, she was gasping for more.
BEEP! BEEP!
Her eyes snapped open. How long had she been asleep? It was dark outside, must have been a long time.
"Hey, you're up. I thought you were never going to wake up unless we called Sky.' Flora joked. Bloom looked at her. She was all dressed up. She pulled back her covers and haphazardly got up. "You feeling any better? Headache all gone?"
Sitting down on her bed, she nodded. "Why you all dressed up?"
"You've forgotten?!"
She shrugged, obviously.
"It's the Lumen festival, remember. All of those fair rides, cotton candy…" Layla said, appearing at the door in a blue dress that Bloom knew she herself could never afford. No, she didn't remember. She didn't remember a lot of things lately it seemed, not that anyone cared to tell her.
"Right." She replied, smiling uncertainly. "I'll just get changed."
"It's cool." Musa told her, also seemingly just appearing at the dorm door. "I'm not dressing up either. It's gunna be jam-packed with people and messy; these guys don't see my logic."
Bloom raised an eyebrow. "Are you guys evasdropping?"
"What? No." Layla replied. Not very convincing… They didn't trust her or they just wanted to keep an eye on her?
"What were you dreaming about?" Flora asked. Bloom shrugged.
"Nothing really."
"You sure?" Musa questioned with a bright beam on her face. "Because it sounded like fun."
She grabbed a pillow and chucked at the Asian girl. Musa backed up, laughing.
"You throw like a girl." She said in-between laughs.
"News flash, we are girls." Layla countered.
"Where's Stella and Techna?" Flora asked.
"Stella's still getting ready, like you even need to ask. Techna's… I think she's researching it so get ready for a lecture on the way there." Musa warned. Bloom giggled as she pulled her sneakers on.
Musa was right, the festival was jam-packed and messy but it was also incredibly loud and bright. Everything had lights, bright multicolored lights were everywhere and laser lights and spotlights lit up the narrow pavements. Chart music playing so loud it felt like the concrete was vibrating with it. Bloom cheered as she watched Stella and Flora run through the fun-house. Why Stella choose to wear high-heels to this sort of thing she'll never understand. A large clown popped out of them. Stella's shriek could be heard above even the music.
"You going on the ghost train?" Sky said, okay yelled, in her ear.
"No. I think I've had enough scares to last me a life time." She yelled back, taking a bite of her burger.
"Are you sure?" He shouted. "We can always cuddle if you feel scared."
Bloom rolled her eyes. "That's a cliché right there." She screamed over the pounding bass of the current song. "I'll go in the hall of mirrors or most other rides. Just not the ghost train."
"I heard they put some senior witches in charge of that this year." Techna yelled.
"Seriously? Who's idea was that?" Brandon looked at her. He looked awfully girly holding Stella's bag.
"No idea." She replied. Stella and Flora ran towards them, red in the face and giggling.
"That was fun!" Stella shrieked. "Bloom, you're coming on the next one!"
She grabbed her hand and pulled her along, forcing her to drop her burger, as they ran up the steps of a nearby ride. The neon red lights exclaimed that it was 'The Cyclone'.
"Do I get a choice in this?" She yelled.
"No." Musa screamed in reply, laughing.
We don't get a choice about anything, do we? The voice in the back of her head snarled. Images of Stella and Musa with their throats cut open and bleeding flashed beneath her lids.
Stop it! She replied.
The lights were so bright, it looked like it was on fire. Four three seated 'carriages', for a lack of a better word, were attached to one of the four large mechanical arms. Stella dragged her and Musa into a neon pink seat, shoving herself into the end and dragged Bloom next to her. Musa brought the safety bar down and the over-head lights turned off.
The arms began to spin each carriage around, wind buffeting at their faces as the ride picked up speed. The entire ride began to move in a circle and got faster and faster until the two of them were crushing Stella into the side as the ride hit full speed, the bright lights a dizzying blur all around.
"SCREAM IF YOU WANT TO FASTER!" The DJ screamed into his mike before changing the song, probably blasting out Stella's eardrums as their carriage neared one of the huge speakers. Bloom laughed as Stella and Musa screamed. The ride picked up even more speed as the bright strobe light began to pulse.
Their carriage neared the others. Techna and Layla must be on the ride but that wasn't what caught her attention. It was the man stood behind a laughing Sky, illuminated by the strobe light. He looked early twenties. His skin pale with olive undertones, well-built and three inches shorter than the six foot Sky. A handsome face; strong bone structure with high cheekbones and a solid jaw line. His black hair styled in a casual disarray, not much shorter than Sky's blonde locks. Intense blue eyes stared through dark lashes. A smirk on his face. Fuck.
Did they not see or feel him hovering behind them?
As the carriage pulled away from the railing, he vanished and Bloom was brought back to her senses as the ride jolted to a sudden stop. She climbed out as Stella groaned in pain.
"I think you guys crushed my ribs." She moaned.
"Sorry." Bloom apologized distantly as they headed down the ride's exit. She approached Sky.
"You enjoy that?" He asked.
"Huh? Oh, er yeah, totally." She replied. "Did anyone happen to see a guy stood right behind you guys? Leather jacket, army boots?"
Unsynced variants of a 'no', yelled above the pounding music, met her ears. She nodded, seething in frustration. She was the only one who could see him?
"You feeling alright?" Flora asked, concern written all over her face.
"Yeah." She inwardly cringed, she sounding unconvincing even to herself. "L-let's go to the hall of mirrors." She suggested, gesturing towards the scintilling hall across the path.
It wasn't the best idea that she'd ever had. She quickly became separated from everyone apart from the snarling voice of her dark side, yelling at her. She sighed and pressed herself against the wall, staring at her reflection and slid down. She clutched her knees to her chest.
"Why do you trust him? He never told you the truth in the beginning." Her mirror image asked. She ignored it. Her reflection got up and pressed her hands against the mirror. "I mean if he was really serious, don't you think he would have told you some version of the truth when you started dating? Some form of 'I'm engaged but I don't want to be and I'm trying to convince my parents, the girl's a total bitch as well'? But no. You were basically his mistress and he neglected to tell you!"
The reflection was yelling now, beating her hands against the mirror violently; the glass inside rippling.
"Who's to say that he won't do the same to you?"
"Shut up." She replied in a dull voice, curling her hands into fists.
"I'm just telling you what's going on in your subconscious. After all that's where you're fucking keeping me! Aren't you? Little bitch!"
"Shut up."
"Fucking little bitch! You going to tell yourself to shut up? Right now, I'm stuck as your stupid subconscious again." Bloom's snarling reflection tried to shatter the glass.
"Shut up." She repeated once more, her head beginning to pound violently.
"What are you going to do? Go back to that fucking psychologist?! No, there was a reason you never went back and convinced Vanessa that the treatments had worked, there's a reason you believed the Trix when they told you were a witch."
Bloom almost punched the wall, so glad that Sky had never actually read that book although the image of him backing up, his expression terrified (because he didn't like the fact that he had fallen for a 'witch' or because he was scared of her?) as he tried to put as much distance between them as possible. "Shut up! Shut up the fuck up! Just shut the fuck up! It's your fault we got sent to that fucking psychologist's in the first place!"
The bitter memory rose to the surface; tiny eight year old Bloom sitting on a cold plastic chair in the principal's office, scared and confused as the over-weight man glowered at her over his desk like she was a delinquent in juvie. The looks on Mike and Vanessa's faces as they came into the room, the shame and sadness had cut her deeply. The disbelief on the principal's face as she explained that she had no memory of destroying the toilets, no memory of ever asking to go to the toilet; never mind actually leaving the classroom.
How Mike's calculated look had haunted her as she explained blacking out in the language of a scared eight year old. The moment they had gotten home, Vanessa had rang up the local psychologist. The look on their faces the moment the words 'I think Bloom may have multiple personality disorder' left the doctor's mouth. All of the pills that made her feel weak, sick or both until it got to the point when she was nine and a half, when she only pretended to take the pills and flush them. Slowly learning to suppress the other side of her, and it had worked. Taken about four or five years but it has worked, then the other side was just a voice in her head making snide comments and trying to convince her of things, most of which she had managed to ignore. Until Darkar.
"You know the reason I stopped going there. She wanted to bring you out, make us one whole. I don't want you be a part of me, I don't want to be a part of you." She sighed.
Her reflection smirked at her. "I'm surprised Mike and Vanessa never got tired of us and threw us out on the street."
"You come from a long line of blood-thirsty witches and the source of your powers is the coven of darkness. You were created to spread misery throughout the universe; this is the purpose for which you were born."
"Hmmm. Interesting. Even senior witches don't summon magic that dark."
The words echoed around in her head, over and over. It didn't matter that that book had been a lie, it still haunted her. Maybe it was true and the Trix didn't even know that, with everything that's happened and all the stress and pain she caused Mike and Vanessa, she wouldn't be surprised. Her exchange trip to Cloud-tower… She'd had to suppress all of her negative feelings, but it didn't matter. The darkness had begun to seep into the walls when she had been there, calling out to her; crying and begging. Ignoring it had been painful, unbelievably painful.
The fact that her dark magic had been darker than a senior witch's still scared her. Was that something to do with Darkar? Had it been the effects of the fake Professor Avalon? Had he been slowly training her body for the transformation, slowly dipping her in darkness so she would be ready?
Lord Darkar. The voice in her head corrected her.
Yeah, whatever like I give a shit.
You know we do.
Fuck off! She screamed in her head.
Or was she just being stupid? Suppressing how good it felt, how right everything had felt? She swallowed. Who could she talk to about it? Not Faragonda.
I still think Faragonda knew everything and allowed it. She has to have! How could she not? She saw the rituals, she used to be a witch so how could she not recognize them?!
I don't think she did.
What you don't see my logic there?
No, I do it's just… I don't know. It doesn't seem like her.
Why because she seems sweet and kind? We seem sweet and kind! At least, when you're in control… Which is nearly all of the time!
No way in hell could she talk to Saladin. Griffin? Yeah, Griffin seemed to be her best option. She knew what happened, she was there and she knew dark magic. Bloom got up off of her bed and turned to Flora, who was busy on some doing some homework.
"Hey, I'm just going out for a while. I won't be long, okay?" She asked.
"Sure thing. Just text me if you need anything or if you don't feel very well, okay? Because, sweetie, you don't look so good." Flora answered. She waved it off.
"I'm fine."
Cloud-tower was still dark and imposing as ever. Bloom walked through the darkly-painted corridor's with a sense of dignity (although she felt as though that was her dark side, radiating darkness and power), but tried to hide from the students yet still trying to remember where Griffin's office was. Unfortunately, she wasn't that lucky as she bumped into a year of witches. She didn't like the looks they gave her, it made her feel self-conscious. The whispers made her ears feel irritated and she felt itchy.
Let them look. They're dark, remember? They're the type of people who wishes Lord Darkar would even consider them!
Shut up.
"Hey, bitch what do they think of you over there?!" One of them called, cackling.
"Bet they're all terrified of her. Knowing she might go all dark and witchy at any moment. Who knows what he actually did to her?"
"You don't know what you're talking about so shut the fuck up." Bloom replied, her hands curling into fists.
"Oh yeah, and what you going to do about it?" A witch with green hair shrieked.
"She'll use her fiery powers to hurt you." Another one, a blonde girl with what appeared to be a permanent sneer (she still had it during the exchange thing a few months back), said as she pretended to be scared.
"Those powers can't be used for evil though! Imagine the tragedy!" A black-haired one yelled.
"Shut the fuck up." She replied. Anger gripped at her. Her dark side pleading to be let out.
Let me rip apart one of these bitches! We need to! They need to know who the boss is around here!
Stop it.
She felt power begin to pulse in her hands and fear tore its way through the crowd of witches. The power radiating through her lifted the green one up into the air. Some of the skin on her face started to peel off, blood dripping down onto the floor. She began to scream has some of her nails were forcibly ripped off, scarlet blood pouring out. The witch shrieked out as her shoulder was bent at an impossible angle and the bone snapped cleanly in two.
"BLOOM!" A voice near her ear yelled and she jumped a mile high, letting all the power go. The violent pounding in her head started up again.
"Miss Griffin?" She asked dazed as she put a hand to her head. "W-what?"
"To my office." Griffin told her sternly, leading her away. She could still feel all of the eyes burning holes into her back.
Bitch, let me at that little fucker!
No... Can't… Won't let… you…
Griffin led her into her office. It hadn't changed, it was gothic with the large crystal ball, ancient books that Bloom would love to read and spider-webs painted all over the room. She placed her too-light body into one of the seats before heading around the gothic desk to place herself in the high-back chair. This room always reminded Bloom of a church with the two large windows that poured slanted light in. Griffin waved her hands and the office doors swung shut.
"What was that?" Her tone was soft and concerned. She wasn't running away or avoiding anything like anyone at Alfea would.
"I don't know." Bloom replied, squeezing her eyes shut as black and white spots danced in her vision. "That hasn't happened before. I was just so mad."
"It's okay. I- I won't tell anyone."
"Are you sure?"
Griffin sighed. "Yes, I'm being perfectly honest. Now, what did you want to talk to me about?"
Bloom swallowed and opened her eyes; a cold sweat began to settle over her. "I was wondering if you could tell me about what you meant we were students here for a day, when you said that, that dark magic I created was darker than the senior witches."
"What I meant? It was exactly that. Your magic was darker than any of the senior witches."
"I mean, how could it be so powerful? Do you have a theory?" Bloom made vague gestures in the air.
"No. Unless you happen to have an affinity for dark magic, it's possible that the fake Avalon did something to you, or more than you thought, to make you able to use dark magic so easily." Griffin tried to explain, her purple-gloved hands folded over each other on her desk.
We know that it's none of them.
She nodded. "He did these practice ritual things and it turned out that it was they were mock versions of what Darkar was doing. Is it possible that had something to do with it?"
The green-skinned woman shrugged. "It's entirely possibly, but despite being a witch I'm not very educated in the dark magic used by these enemies. Dark magic has two levels; witch level and then beyond that. I'm sorry." Griffin moved her hand, resting it on top of Bloom's. "Is there anything else you want to talk about it?"
Bloom drew in a deep breath and then let it out. "When we rescued Layla at the beginning of the year, I saw Darkar. Nobody else saw him, just me, and he was about to attack… Then he looked at me and-and he didn't. He sent in the fake Avalon. He saw me and the way he looked at me… I-I don't know."
Her eyes burned with tears and she let out a ragged sob as she began to cry.
Griffin couldn't believe what she was doing but the crimson-haired fairy's words had left curious and saddened; she wasn't heartless after all. But seeing him? Probably not the best idea.
"Miss Griffin, he's ready for you." One of the prison guard's called gruffly.
She nodded, standing up and brushing down her dress. "Right."
The prison guard, his name-tag read 'John', led her down a depressing corrugated iron hall-way. There was no windows what so ever, the harsh light came from the florescent lights above. John motioned to one of the visiting desks. Cubicles for two people to sit at, one visitor and one prisoner, separated by a wall of clear plastic. Guards lining both sides of visiting area.
The man before her surprised her. He wasn't smug or snarky, in fact he looked depressed and like he had given up on the world. His black hair was messy and unwashed, his eyes looked desolate. The prison uniform and handcuffs didn't help him any.
Griffin sat down and tapped on the plastic window. He looked, surprised to see her.
"Miss Griffin, I'm surprised to see you. I didn't think I'd get any visitors." He admitted, clicking one of his fingers which let out a faint pop.
"Didn't think or didn't want?" She raised an eyebrow.
He shrugged. "Same difference."
"So what do I call you?" Griffin asked.
The fake Professor Avalon grimaced. "Cloud spirits don't have names. But I'm trapped like this; I suppose I should have a name. Ben seems nice and generic, doesn't have any bad stigma attached to it."
"Okay, Ben. I was wondering what you knew about Darkar's plan for Bloom." She said hesitantly, afraid it might set him off.
"I'm sorry but he didn't tell me all that much. He told me to keep an eye on her and to do some mock rituals but they were just instructions on a piece of paper, I didn't know anything about them. I'm sorry if that's the information you came for."
"So is that the reason you spent so much time with Bloom? Before your, for lack of a better word, reveal, some of the professors were worried about that."
Ben actually cracked a faint smile. He leaned forward. "I'm not interested in any girls, Miss Griffin, never mind under-age ones and one of my students at that."
"Oh. Sorry if I offended you anyway."
He waved her off. "It's fine. Some of the staff asked me to an eye on her as well. They were worried about her, after all of the events last year – seemingly losing and regaining her powers, finding out her birth parents and the destruction of Sparx. I understood their concern and excuse me for dispelling one of your belief's but just because I was forcibly turned dark didn't mean that I didn't care for my students."
Griffin was shocked, definitely, obviously but she hid it well. "Did you know that Bloom saw Darkar before he sent you to save them at the beginning of the year?"
"No, I didn't. I was under the impression that he had been going to attack and then changed his mind – wait! She saw him? Like she properly saw him?"
"That's what she told me. Why?"
Ben glanced around and leaned forward even more, centimeters from the plastic that separated them. "What me and you see as Darkar is what most people see. The skeletal figure, the glowing armor… That's an illusion that everyone see's due to his title but it's not what he actually looks like. Very few people can and it looks like Bloom is one of them. Did she tell you what he looks like?"
The was definitely interesting news to her! Information that she never dreamed about, that the horrific figure she had seen in Realix wasn't actually him. "No." she replied, feeling shocked. "She didn't… Did he tell you anything else?"
"Only one thing. He told me a story of a Duchess. Her name was Rosario Candelaria, she was a very sweet person. The youngest in her court as well, many men tried to claim her as their wife but she was an independent and strong-willed woman, she refused all of the men. Being a resident in Shadowhaunt allows women freedoms that they don't have in the 'light' world. She accepted one man, he was an engineer, not a hero or a prince or anything.
"He wasn't a shallow man like all of the others had been, he was intelligent and he didn't parade her around like she was a trinket. They fell in love, they married and they had a baby girl. Then one day, the rulers of all the magical planets learned of the child's existence, she was a powerful child and they couldn't allow her to have such power being a resident of Shadowhaunt, despite her parents' neutral political and magic background. The child was less than a year old when the soldiers turned up at their door. Rosario and her husband were brutally murdered for trying to protect their child. The child? The same happened to her, just as cruelly butchered and wiped from existence.
"The only reason they feared that child's power is because it wasn't light and because there was a possibility that the child may turn out dark but being born in Shadowhaunt doesn't mean that that person is evil. No child can be born evil, Miss Griffin."
"Time's up." John's sudden approach made the witch jump. Some other guards were leading Ben away.
"I hope that you think on that." He called back.
'Different denotes neither good nor bad but it certainly means not the same.'
The Cheshire Cat in Alice: Madness Returns.