I'll admit, I'm not too fond of the past few chapters. But I'll be honest, I've just been going with the flow and because of that, some stuff may not make much sense. I don't know. But anyways, lovelies, I sincerely hope you enjoy and continue to read this story. I love you all!
Oh, and LingLing says hi.
Chapter Twenty Four
I'll admit it. I expected the laughter to be from Ren.
As I turned around, my blades showing, I was brought face to face with yet another girl. She looked like she was about the same age as Syn. But she looked the exact opposite of Syn. This girl had black hair that drifted around her shoulders like snakes. Her eyes were black as well but with a red ring around what I assumed was her pupil.
"Who?" She spoke, pointing at me.
"Um...Evelyn. Who are you?"
"Me?" She pointed to herself and I nodded. "Fio."
"Hi, Fio. What part of me are you?" I asked.
"Part? What is a part of who? Who is a part of what?" Fio laughed hysterically while I stood there.
"Are you my madness?" I tried again.
Fio continued laughing but eventually answered me. Well, sort of. "Madness is but a gift! Gifts are good. Good is bad. Bad is...different. Different is not good! But good is bad. And bad is good...?" She grabbed a handful of sand sat down. "One...Two...Eleven...Ten...Forty Six...Three..." Was she trying to count each grain of sand she had picked up?
"Listen, Fio. I need your help!"
She roared, dropping the sand to jump at me, pinning my body to the ground. "HELP!? HELP IS FOR THE WEAK! WE ARE NOT WEAK!" Her features contorted and turned her expression into a manical grin.
"I'm supposed to over come you!" I yelled back, trying to push her off of me. But it was no use. This girl...my madness...was so much stronger than me.
"There is no overcoming that which gives you strength. A paradox...you seek a paradox, Evelyn. And I will not allow that..." Fio opened her mouth, revealing sharp teeth and a long, black tongue; it snaked up and down my cheek as I continued struggling.
"Fio! Please! I have to defeat Ren!" I pleaded now, shaking under her cold stare and only making her laugh again.
"Don't you understand, stupid girl?!" She lowered her lips next to my ear as she whispered the next part. "I. Am. Your. Strength. Without me, you would have NO chance of defeating that creature called Ren! So WHY do you wish to over power me?!" Fio bit into my throat with her sharp teeth, ripping out flesh and blood spraying every where.
I would have screamed if she hadn't ripped out my vocal cords. Fio. Was. Eating. Me.
Consuming me.
Devouring me.
I could feel her teeth ripping each inch of my skin, my blood dripping and spraying. Eyes wide, I looked into her own black depths. There was no evil. There was no fear. There was no pity. There was only...strength. She continued digging and digging into my body, pulling my rib cage apart. How I wished I could scream. It would give me at least some sort of release, some sort of ditraction from this blinding pain.
Then Fio reached my heart. My still beating heart that was desperately trying to pump blood through out my torn body. Having my insides feel the cold air was a strange sensation. With each beat of my heart, it was like the wind blew bits of ice into my veins.
She pulled. Fio grabbed my heart in her clawed hands and tore the flesh and muscle right out of my chest cavity. What was I thinking? she was going to consume me...there is no mastering madness...!
Fio paused in taking the first bite of my heart, grinning manically at me. "But there is...accepting it." And she bit into my heart, chewing and savoring as if she were eating a large and juicy apple.
And she was right. I could do nothing about my madness but accept it. Was that what Stein wanted me to learn from this whole experience? Was I even going to survive this? It was all just inside my head wasn't it? Maybe it was a dream...a nightmare...a night terror...
...
"Do you have any threes?"
"Go fish."
"Damn!"
"Do you have a jack?"
"How did you know?!"
"Lucky guess."
From what I could hear, it sounded like Spirit and Stein were playing Go Fish. Stretching as I sat up, my muscles feeling like liquid, I looked over at the two former partners. Spirit was going insane, almost tearing out his hair because he was obviously losing. And Stein was calm as usual.
"Okay! You have to have this one! Do you have any...fives?" There was determination in Spirit's voice, like he knew he would win from one simple question.
Looking over the cards in his hand, Stein responded, "Why yes I do." And he picked a random card slowly.
"Really? YAHOO!"
"Oops, my mistake. I thought it was a five," Stein continued keeping his voice calm while Spirit went into another fit.
I couldn't hold my laughter anymore. As my laughter filled the room, Stein and Spirit looked over at me. Both of them smiled when they saw I was awake and smiling.
"How are you feeling, Evy?" Stein asked, putting his cards down and walking over to me. Spirit peeked at his cards as he walked away.
"I feel...good." I said. It was true. My heart felt so light. My mind felt like it had been cleansed, enlightened.
There was no controlling that which gives you strength. Doing so would only weaken you. I had to accept and embrace the insanity within me. Looking down at my wrist at the mark Ren had given me, I felt for the first time happy to see it.
"Did you learn anything?" He asked, sitting on the edge of the couch with me.
My mouth opened to answer, but Spirit interrupted me, saying, "You did have a five!" He pointed an accusing finger at Stein.
"Oh did I now? Silly me."
"And you have a three like I asked! And a king!"
"You know, it's against the rules to look at other people's cards in this game."
"And it's against the rules to lie about what cards you do and don't have!"
I continued flicking my head back and forth between the two arguing men, entertained. They kept this up for a few more minutes before I coughed to get their attention.
"As funny as this is, I think we have more important matters at hand. For example, I'm hungry. Someone fix something. Cereal. Bread. I don't care!" I yelled the last part, my sharp teeth showing and threatening. Spirit scampered away to the area that was my kitchen and quickly grabbed the bowl of fruit I always kept on the counter. He knew how I could get when I was hungry.
While I devoured the fruit, I asked, "So how long have I been out this time?"
"Just a few hours," Stein answered. "Spirit arrived about an hour ago."
"Oh yeah!" Spirit's face lit up as he searched his pockets. "I came here to pass on a message!" He pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to me. "Well, more of a message I want you to pass on."
"Which is?" I prompted.
"Give it to Maka! It has some news in it for her."
"You can't tell her yourself?"
Tears came to his eyes. "She's refused to talk to me since I nicely congradulated her and Soul on their little relationship." Now he was bawling into the floor, face down.
I laughed. "By congradulate, do you mean when you attempted to strangle the poor boy?"
"All I did was give him a manly hug!"
"I never knew that meant to strangle someone," Stein commented as he lit a cigarette. And so the two began another bit of arguing, while I just sat on my couch, watching and eating fruit.
...
"Why haven't you killed her yet?!" She slapped Ren, a thin trail of blood leaking down his face.
"She is fun to play with," he answered, not even batting an eye at her strikes.
"You have a mission! Get it done or so help me, I will finish it for you!" She threatened, eyes glowing the color of starlight, much like her little brother's.
"Sister, why must we kill her? What threat does she pose to us? And why have you asked me to fill her head with all these ideas?" Ren was confused, he would admit it. He had done nothing but follow his big sister's orders and now, he wanted to know her reason behind her orders.
"Little brother, do not question me. I know what I'm doing. Now I am giving you one more week to kill that girl. No more toying with her. Do you understand me?" She raised her hand as if to slap him again.
"Yes, sister. I understand." His usual grin was gone, replaced by a bloody frown.
Ren turned to leave, to go anywhere else, when her voice stopped him. "And don't think I don't know about your little crush on her, Ren. Don't for one second think you can keep anything from me."
Her words froze him. He honestly had know idea that she knew. Big sister kept a lot of things from Ren.
"I shall keep that in mind, Big sister Auna," he said, before disappearing.