Part 19
The screen was dark with shapes moving around and sounds of labored breathing and leaves rustling coming through the speakers. It seemed that they were watching Vi's memories through her own eyes. The only question, or at least the biggest one, was what she was remembering. Then she started speaking and the first problem arose. It was in English.
"Wait a minute, there should be a subtitles button somewhere- ah! Here we go!" Lamia pressed a button on the device and subtitles popped up on the screen.
"-no way I don't got this," she was saying seemingly to herself. "Ah, dammit, where's the right hand go? Fuck, can't leave that behind, now can we?"
Suddenly, lights shone through the bushes, illuminating the area and temporarily blinding Vi.
"Fuck… this is most definitely a problem," she muttered. "Ugh, fucking sleazeball, homwrecking fuckwad, get back in the bag!"
Thanks to the lights, they were finally able to see what she had been lugging around the forest in the dead of night. It was a dead body.
"I can help you with that, you know," a new voice said.
"Who's there!?" Vi cried out startled.
From behind a tree stepped a man with an impish face and frosted hair styled into spikes. One of his ears had enough piercings to make any airport metal detector go haywire. But despite his appearance, the man spoke in a lilting, kind voice.
"I believe this belongs to you," he said tossing Vi the missing hand.
"Who-who are you?" Vi asked cautiously.
"My name is Marius, and I am here to offer you a deal," he informed her.
So this was Lilly's former manny. The one swallowed whole by Sodom. In Natsume's lap, Lilly cried out and held her hands out to the screen as if she could reach through and pull Marius out into the present but Natsume squeezed her gently and told her it was going to be alright.
"What kind of deal are we talking about?" Vi questioned glancing over her shoulder at the lights moving steadily closer to her location.
"Simple… raise the daughter of the Great Demon Lord… develop her powers and help her destroy humanity," he replied with a smile. With the smile, they saw that his canines had been sharpened and now resembled a shark's tooth. Another light passed over his face and they were able to see joyous curiosity dancing in his eyes which were the color of golden honey.
"And if I refuse?"
Marius chuckled. "Then, my dear, you are caught for the crimes you have committed and sentenced to death in a few months' time. It seems your list of misdemeanors has significantly grown in the past week, has it not?"
Vi made a choking sound in her throat.
"Setting fire to your mother's house. That would be arson in this world, correct? Stealing a car and kidnapping your mother's ex-boyfriend, abduction and grand theft auto. Then of course there was the torture and murder of such ex-boyfriend… they'll hang you for sure, girlie," the man went on to say.
"They don't hang people, anymore, stupid," she snapped. "They inject you with some sort of drug…." Vi stopped and thought to herself.
"You'd better make your decision fast, Invidia Wells; the search party is growing quite near. I estimate you have about… oh… forty seconds until we're discovered…," Marius informed her.
"Fine, fine, alright, I'll do it…," she blurted. "So what… what happens, now?"
Marius reached behind the tree he had appeared from and extracted a basket. "Give me your arm."
From the basket reached a tiny hand which pressed itself to the inside of Vi's wrist. Vi spasmed and spots danced in front of her vision. When her eyesight cleared, she saw a baby girl with green pigtails sucking on a silver pacifier sitting on the ground before her and a black crescent with a cross attached to the bottom burned on the inside of her wrist.
/
The scene suddenly shifted to a hotel bathroom. Vi was standing in front of the mirror examining a box of blue hair dye. Her gaze flitted up to her reflection and nearly everyone was shocked to see that Vi's natural hair color was in fact a bright shade of red. Even more shocking was how different her face looked without th Glasgow smile. Her hair was draped over her shoulders as she held the box up to it and thought for a moment. When the dye job was finished, she stepped out of the bathroom to see Marius feeding Lilly on the bed.
"Well? What do you think?" she asked.
"Cuuuuute," he sang. "C'mere and let me braid it."
He handed her the baby and picked up a hairbrush to section it into two twisting braids.
"Do you like it, Lilly?" she asked the girl.
Lilly laughed and pulled the completed braid making Vi yelp in pain. "You're just lucky you're so damn adorable, girlie," she growled playfully.
/
"Get up, mortal," Jabberwock sneered. "You're supposed to be the contractor for the daughter of the Great Demon Lord. A little scratch on your face shouldn't even faze you."
Vi was panting on the ground while Lilly howled with rage. In a puddle left over from the previous night's rain, Vi saw the cuts he had made along her face.
/
"Invidia, go… take Lilly and go," Marius ordered.
"No!" Vi shouted but then winced in pain at the stitches still fresh in her cheeks. "I can't leave you. Lilly and me need you, Mars."
Marius smiled at her gently and pressed a book into her hands. "This should help you along the way. Now go…."
Suddenly he was gone. She was a hundred miles away on an airplane. Below her the Great Salt Lake was boiling like a pot on the stove. Suddenly, a hideous beast burst through the surface. A dragon. Vi covered Lilly's eyes as she watched it open its mouth wide and swallow Marius who was watching the plane fly overhead with tears running from his golden, honey eyes.
/
The blade in her hand was singing for more blood. The screams of the victim on the table sent shivers of pleasure down her spine. She needed more, though. More blood. More screams. More pain. Vi grunted as the Blood Lust grew. It bubbled inside her like a volcano ready to erupt but she tapped it down. They were the only ones in the area for miles around. There would be no one to unleash her rage upon should she let it loose. No enemies to smite. No opponents to conquer-.
Vi suddenly jerked awake with her eyes wide and sweat gleaming on her brow.
"I GET IT NOW!" she screamed scaring the living daylights out of everyone in the room. "Oh… uhh… hey guys… how long was I out?"