What A Long Hard Life: Bless' Story
Chapter 12
Sorry for the huge delay. I had some writers block, then it was Christmas followed by more writers block but now I'm writing again!
So now it was four of them again. Bless, Shade, Shadow and baby Darkness. Bless tended to be left at home alone with Darkness so Shade could go out getting supplies with his son. They were a good team when working together. But Bless hated being left with the baby, because it was like the baby was aware of who she was and hated her.
It was sick over her, pulled her hair, only seemed to mess up it's nappies when she was looking after it and threw food at her. But it only did this when Shade and Shadow were out, Bless swore the baby was smarter than it should have been. But she knew better than to hurt or upset it, or take any kind of revenge on it, that would be heartless and probably make her hated by the others.
One night Shade and Shadow didn't come back as early as they said they would, so Bless had to sleep with the baby, which was a shame since she was tired that day. Sleeping in the same room as a one year old was not easy. It was way past midnight, hours after Bless would usually be asleep and she was still being kept awake by a hyperactive baby. "I shouldn't have let you nap earlier!" Bless said in frustration. "Maybe a warm bottle of milk will help…" she yawned and went to make one.
Even after the bottle, Darkness was still wide awake, although Bless was so tired she fell asleep anyway, only to fall into her horrible nightmares again. "How pathetic… stuck at home with the baby are you? Now you know how I felt…" her father sneered at her, showing his fangs with an evil smirk.
"Yes, and how you made mum feet when you left us!" Bless said, fighting back. Shadow hissed at her and pushed her to the ground.
"It's you who misbehaved and made things harder for her." Shadow sneered. "The same as you did for me… you stupid girl…" he said, grabbing her wrist and pulling her up again, hissing in her face and kicking her in the abdomen. Bless gave out a little scream, then bent over in pain. "Here you are, asleep… in a room where a baby could be doing anything… did you even close it's cot?"
Bless hadn't, the baby could fall out and onto the hard floor. "How do I wake up! Please!" she said urgently.
"You don't…" Shadow said in an evil and chilling tone, wrapping his large fingers around Bless' small neck and closing her airways. Bless decided to try and fight back this time, she couldn't be pulled into unconsciousness again. She kicked Shadow between the legs and he broke away from her, holding himself where he'd been kicked, very tightly. "You brat!" Shadow cried out, falling to his knees.
Bless smirked, now she was on top, finally able to enjoy her dreams, but that's when it all started to disappear. She had now woken up. He gasped, jolting upright. "Darkness!" She yelped, looking over to the cot frantically, it was open and Darkness was gone, "Darkness!" she called, she got up and ran out of the room, only to be stopped by her nephew Shadow, who was holding Darkness in his arms.
"Thanks for looking after her again Bless, we'll try and be home early next time." he said smiling and walked off with the baby in his arms.
Bless was confused, she had done a good job after all and she could sleep in peace, a part from the demon father in her dreams trouble of course. But she was getting better at fighting him off now, so maybe she wouldn't suffer as much. Suddenly the world around her started to warp and she started to feel dizzy, her surroundings turned into the ones she would see in her dreams, just darkness.
She had no idea of what was happening. "Does this mean… what I just saw never happened and that Darkness isn't okay?" she screamed in a panic. She looked over to Shadow who had his eyes narrowed at her in hatred.
"Yes, and I think you deserved it too…" he said. "Now, you should wake up for real or the baby could be hurt…" he teased again. Bless screamed at the malevolent Shadow as he charged at her and shot a chaos spear at her head, but before it hit her she woke up with a jolt.
Now sitting upright, she was awake for good, at least she hoped she was. She looked over to the cot, Darkness wasn't there again. She ran out of the room hoping to see her nephew again with Darkness but he was no where to be seen. She looked down the hallway to the exit, the door was open by ajar. She heard the scream of a baby, Darkness had escaped.
She ran down the hall and flung the door open to see that Darkness was in the hands of a GUN soldier. Bless lost her breath and strength in her legs and fell to her knees in fear. She tried to get back into the shelter and shut the door but the soldier grabbed her by the arm while holding the baby in the other. "I've got two black arms hedgehogs right here!" he called over to his right, then a couple of other soldiers ran over with their guns out, ready to shoot.
Bless screamed out as loud and she could but Shade and Shadow didn't come running home like she hoped they would. "I think it's a mother and her kid…" said one of the newcomers, taking the baby.
"She's my great nice you idiot!" Bless snapped.
"Oh… so there is more of you… a lot more by the sound of it…" the leading soldier who had a hold of her arm said. He got out a pair of handcuffs from his belt and put Bless into them as she struggled as hard as she could. She felt like such an idiot, it was her fault that she had blown their cover and there was no doubt the soldiers would be after Shadow and Shade too.
She tried her best to get out of their grasp and back into the shelter but they dragged her away from the door and to their vehicle. "You stay here and look out for any other black arms hedgehogs." the leading soldier said to one of the other soldiers. He did as he was asked and stayed while Bless and Darkness were driven away with the other GUN soldiers.
For hours and hours they were riding in the open vehicle, Bless was holding baby Darkness and worrying about the others. She also had her legs crossed, wishing she could have used the toilet before they had left, the bumpy ride not making it any easier for her to wait.
The vehicle stopped outside of a tall thick building with high security and GUN logos on various walls and pieces of equipment. With the baby back in GUN's hands and Bless' hands stuck behind her back in the cuffs, they slowly walked into the building.
After yet another hour of going through security and getting teased and mocked she finally reached her cell, where she saw Shade and Shadow sulking inside it. Her eyes widened, their lateness made a lot of sense now. "We're so sorry Bless… we gave in and told them where you were…" Shade said sounding ashamed as Bless was shoved into the cell and the baby gently thrown over to Shadow.
"Why did you give in?" Bless said, worried that they may have been tortured for answers. They were both silent, avoiding eye contact with her. Bless began to cry silently, they had been captured and it was all over.
"He he, so this is why we were sent south… HQ knew you were there… I guess I should call back our last troop, this all of you right?" said the soldier who had lead them to their doom, he started to walk away. Bless ran to the bars and called him back.
"Come back! You can't just leave me here!" she cried out to him.
"Why?" he said arrogantly turning back to her.
"I need to use the toilet… please…" She pleaded. The soldier shook his head, smirking. "Please… I'll only be two minutes… it's urgent!" she said in frustration, giving the bars and angry shake.
"No way… you're not leaving the cell… why would I let you out? It's against my orders… you can ask The Commander when he comes to see our new catch…" he teased and left.
"Oh…" Bless groaned, sitting down in between her nephew and brother. "How long do you think he'll be?" she asked them anxiously.
"Well… we've been here for about half a day now… so he could be a while, if he hasn't come in that long time, then why would he come n-"
"Well well, well… look at who it is…" they heard the voice of The Commander and looked up to see him. "It's been a long time since I saw you two…" he said, referring to Shade and Bless. He looked a lot older now, no longer a young and new Commander. Shade charged at the bars aggressively,
"You're going to pay for what you've done to us you creep!" he roared at him, kicking at the bars like a ferocious dog. He stopped as The Commander had got his gun out and was pointing it at Shade.
"Stop that or I'll shoot… that's not the kind of behaviour for a grown man like you…" he said, Shade stepped back and sat down again, a livid look still on his face. He wanted to kill this man for what he had done to them. This Commander was responsible for their mother's death.
"You're all going to stay here for the rest of your lives… I can't risk you spawning and reproducing… just the one of you was enough… but Shadow just had to forget his protection in bed… idiot…"
"D-do you have to talk about him like that?" Bless said, a horrible image appearing in her head. An image no person wants to have of their parents. But her mind was taken off that as she was reminded of her need. "Commander… please… can you just let me use the toilet… please?" she begged him.
"Well, that was all of a sudden, wasn't it?" The Commander said.
"No, she's been complaining about that a while now…" Shade said. "Well, are you going to let her go or what?"
"No, but I will be separating you all, once we get to prison island." The Commander said sinisterly.
"Oh no… please…" Bless continued to plead.
"Just let her go! How hard can it be!" Shade said in a threatening tone.
"When your in your cell on Prison Island, you'll be able to go." The Commander teased and walked away from the cell, out of sight. Bless' eyes widened, she couldn't wait that long, she had to try something. "But it's that time of the month!" she yelled all of a sudden. Shadow and Shade both leapt out of their seats away from her and Bless blushed. The Commander stepped back a few times to get back to the cell, he was speechless. With a shaky hand he unlocked the cell and led her down the hallway.
About ten minutes later Shade and Shadow heard Bless and The Commanders footsteps, they were making their way back to the cell. Bless was looking relived and smug while The Commander looked traumatised. "Never say anything like that… again…" he said, opened the cell, pushed her and locked it again. "We'll be leaving soon." he said and left.
"It's not really your time-" Shadow asked timidly, Bless narrowed her eyes at him so he would stop, she shook her head. "I wish something like that would work for us…" Shadow said nervously.
"Sadly there's not pity for us men…" Shade sighed while Bless was still looking smug, she now had a new trick.
